Sample of Faith Through the Fire
Copyright © 2017 Taretha Jones
All rights reserved. No part of the work may be reproduced without the expression written permission of the author. This book is a work of fiction. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All characters, events, and incidents in this book are a product of the author's imagination.
“Why you always on that computer, Lexi Bullock? I swear, every time I come over to your house you’re at that ‘You Broadcast You’ website.”
Twenty-nine year old Lexianna Bullock smiled over at her sister-in-law, Monica. Then she said, “Boo, please. You know that's not the truth...well, it’s not exactly the truth. I know I like being on YouBroadcastYou.com, but I'm not up there all of the time.” Then she giggled. “I do have a real life you know.”
Monica picked up her purse from beside herself on Lexi’s sofa. Then she stood up.” Well, since you got most of your attention focused on that computer, I guess I might as well go ahead and take myself back home. My darling husband should be pulling into our driveway any minute now.” A sexy little smile made its way onto Monica's pretty face.” I made him a special dinner for tonight.” She skimmed her hand over her voluptuous body. “And then I'm serving him all of this right here for dessert.”
Lexi chuckled again. “I would say ewwww...disgusting, but I honestly think you and my brother are so danggone cute together. You guys make a beautiful couple, Monica.” She winked her eye. “But keep all that sexiness up, and you’re gonna be serving him more than just dessert.” She pointed at her sister-in-law’s flat belly. “You’re gonna be serving him up a baby in the oven.”
Monica grinned. She wasn't the tiniest bit averse to the idea of having a baby with her husband of a little over a year. “See you later, Lexi. By the way—,” she winked her eye, “—I know you’d be secretly thrilled to see me pop out another little Bullock. I know you want to have a new baby niece or nephew to spoil.” Her smile broadened. “After all, Paul and Jasmine’s little bundle of joy just turned two. Before we know it, our cute little nephew is gonna be a big boy.” Then she shook her head. “But who knows, if you’d stop spending so much of your time on YouBroadcastYou.com, maybe you'd find yourself a husband and have some cute little Bullock kids of your very own. Then I'll have a new niece or nephew to spoil...compliments of you.”
Lexi shook her head. “Girl, now you sound just like my mama. It's starting to seem like instead of you being Eleanor Bullock's daughter by marriage, you’re her daughter by birth...just like me.”
Monica laughed. Then pretending to be deep in thought, she tapped a well-manicured finger against her temple. “I always wanted a blood sister. I guess the Lord done answered my prayer…in a roundabout way of course.”
Lexi finally pulled her hands all the way off of her keyboard. Still smiling, she shook her head. “Blood or not, you’re my best friend, Monica, which automatically makes us sisters at heart. And now that you’ve married that knuckleheaded, handsome brother of mine, we’re sisters for sure. Now lock my front door on your way out.” She chuckled and jokingly tagged on, “You know I can’t afford to disconnect myself from my social life here on this computer...not even for one second. My online friends need me.”
Monica made her way over to Lexi’s front door. She smiled again. “Alright, boo. See you later. Okay?”
In the short amount of time that it had taken Monica to make to the doorknob, Lexi had started back to fiddling around on her computer. Monica shook her head and grinned. Almost everybody has their vices in some form or another. I guess my bestie could’ve chosen something worse than social media to get herself addicted to. “Have fun, Lexi.”
Lexi absentmindedly replied, “Okay, Monica. See you later.”
* * *
An hour after her sister-in-law had left, Lexi was still online. She knew that some of her family members though that she had an addiction to her laptop. But in Lexi’s opinion, her presence on social media was just one of her guilty pleasures. As the owner of a wildly successful online store that sold personal and home security products, Lexi worked hard. She felt like she deserved having private time to herself on social media to unwind.
Sometimes things got a little heated on the online discussion sites that she frequented. But Lexi generally managed to stay out of and above all the drama. Despite that, she frowned as she read AtlantaStarGirl666’s response to one of her posts on YouBroadcastYou.
Lexi brought her eyebrows together in disbelief. “Wait a second, did this fool just say she hopes I kill over and die?”
She read AtlantaStarGirl666's response a second time. She nodded her head. “Yeah, that's exactly what this chick done wrote.”
When her computer pinged again, indicating that she’d received yet another response, Lexi’s frown got even deeper. The threats that this specific poster was shooting her way had gotten downright vitriolic. The language was so bad and the threats so vile that Lexi didn’t even want to repeat it out loud. Deciding not to participate in the heated debate on animal rights any longer, she exited out of that particular computer screen.
Some people are obviously crazy, she thought to herself. All I said was that I believe pet owners should be held financially responsible when their animals attack people. They should pay for medical bills. For pain and suffering. I don’t understand why this girl is going off on me like she is because I believe that.
Lexi shook her head again. Then she proceeded to go fix herself a sandwich for dinner and get ready for bed. She didn’t feel like entertaining pettiness.
* * *
A Week Later:
“Hey, Lexi. I’m surprised that you were able to carve the time out of your busy online social life to join us for our monthly girl’s only luncheon.”
Lexi smiled sweetly at her sister-in-law, Jasmine, who’d just made the comment. She fixed her lips to respond, but before she could say anything, her other sister-in-law, Serenity, chimed in.
“Oh, leave her alone, Jasmine. We’re just happy for any of the time that Lexi is able to grace us with. You know her online shop has blown up something fierce and is eating up all her free time.” Serenity stood up from the restaurant’s dining table and gave Lexi a warm hug. “We love you, girl.” She winked her eye. “And we been missing you lately.”
“Humph,” Lexi’s best friend, Monica, snorted out then giggled. She motioned her hand around the table. “Yeah, we all love you, Lexi. But I’m kind of thinking that YouBroadcastYou.com has taken up a good chunk of your time. And that’s why you almost didn’t show up today. That website is almost just as bad as YouTube.”
Lexi frowned and flopped herself down in the chair that her four sisters-in-law had saved for her. “Ladies...you don’t know the half of it. One day last week, I had a fool start responding to one of my posts online. She started threatening me and everything. Now I ain’t scared or nothing, but the Lord put it in my spirit to cut back on the amount of time I was spending on social media.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I figured it was a sign of sorts from God. You know, a signal to cut back some and find a better — uh, I mean different — use of my valuable minutes.”
Jasmine shook her head and frowned. As a woman of faith, she refused to not believe that the Lord was sending Lexi a message to stop wasting hours on end each day online. But that still didn’t make her any less concerned. “What? Somebody's threatening you, Lexi?”
Lexi sighed. “Yeah. Kinda, sorta. I'm just glad that I didn't use my real name on the website. This girl — her screen name is AtlantaStarGirl666 — she’s a real nutcase.”
Jasmine whipped her MacBook out of her oversized purse. She flipped it open and pushed it towards Lexi. “Go ahead and show me what you’re talking about, honey.”
Lexi sighed again, but logged into her online account like her sister-in-law had requested her to do.
Less than five minutes later, all five of the women sitting at that table were wearing frowns on their beautiful brown faces. Faith, the quietest of the bunch, was the first to speak. “This AtlantaStarGirl person said you need to pay for what you said. She said she’s gonna look up your computer’s IP address and then find your physical address.” Her worried eyes met Lexi’s. “I think you should take this serious, boo.”
Grimacing, Lexi shook her head. “Yeah...I kinda thought so, too. Then I did some research on people issuing online threats and stuff. I even talked to Cameron...you know he’s my attorney friend.”
“Well, what did he say?” Jasmine asked. “I’m sure he told you to call the authorities.”
“Nope,” Lexi responded. “According to Cameron, in most cases like this, crazies like AtlantaStarGirl just end up saying that they weren’t issuing any type of threat — that they weren’t being serious at all. That they were just executing their First Amendment right to have the freedom of speech.” She shook her head. “There’s really nothing I can do about it.”
“You’re gonna at least let your brothers know what’s going on...right?”
Lexi responded to that with a quickness. “No. All four of y’all are the wives of my big brothers. So I’m sure y’all know how they’re gonna act if they find out about this. They’re over the top overprotective of me.” She shook her head. “I don’t want to deal with the fallout from them finding out about this.” Then she looked her girls dead in the eye. “Y’all gotta promise me that you’re not gonna say anything to your husbands about this. Not a peep.”
Seconds later, Lexi let out a sigh of relief. All four of her sisters-in-law had agreed to keep her secret. Jasmine — who had a tendency to be as fierce as a lioness where the people she loved was concerned — pointed a finger at Lexi. “I’ll keep your secret, Lexianna Bullock. But I need you to promise me that you’ll call me if anything fishy starts going on. Okay, honey?”
Lexi gave Jasmine a smile. She felt so fortunate that the Lord had allowed her to have such a circle of loving women in her life. “Okay, Jasmine. I’ll give you a call.”
Lexi’s sister-in-law and bestie, Monica, clapped her hands together three times in succession to get everybody’s attention. “Okay, ladies. Y’all know how we roll.” She reached her hands out along the table. “We’re women of faith. Let’s pray on this thing. Right here. Right now. Let’s ask the Lord to be a fence around Lexi. Straight from Matthew, Chapter 18, Verse 19...if two of us agree on Earth about a thing, all we have to do is ask our God in heaven and what we ask for shall be done.”
“Amen, to that, my sista,” Serenity said with a smile. Then she grabbed Monica’s right hand and Lexi’s left one. “Come on ladies, let’s pray.”
All five of the Bullock women knew that the other patrons in the restaurant were looking at them with curious expressions on their faces. But all five of them also knew that when it was time to pray, it was time to pray. There wasn’t any shame in their game.
By the time their impromptu prayer session was over with, Lexi was convinced that the Lord would have her back in the situation concerning AtlantaStarGirl666.
Faith smiled at Lexi. “Alright, boo. We done went to the Lord and put the situation in his hands. Now I want to tell you about an old friend of mine who just moved back to Greensboro. He’s signed on with the Greensboro Police Department...he’s a detective. I think you should meet him. Something in my spirit is telling me that he’d be perfect for you.”
Since she was looking to meet her Mr. Right, Lexi didn't have any problem whatsoever with her sister-in-law hooking her up. In fact, in her opinion, if a man had a vote of confidence from one of her sisters, it was a plus.
Lexi smiled at Faith. “What's his name, and do you have a picture?” She winked. “Preferably a color snap. Not a black-n-white.”
Faith reached to her left and grabbed Jasmine's MacBook that was still sitting on the table. “Let me go to the GPD website. I think they have a pic of him up there and a short little article welcoming him to the force. And yes...it’s a full color photo. So you’re going to get to see him in all his gorgeous glory.” She laughed.
Seconds later, Lexi smiled at the computer screen in front of her. Alonzo Kirby was a certified hottie. Brown skin, sexy bedroom eyes, and a smile that probably had women all over the place drooling over him.
Lexi chuckled and waved her hand in front of her face. “Boo, if looks could kill, he'd be an AK-47. I'm assuming he has the personality to match…else you wouldn't have shown him to me.”
Faith nodded her head. “Yep. He certainly does have the personality to match. Alonzo is a real sweetheart.”
”Well, what's his problem then, Faith?” Monica interjected. “Since he's definitely good-looking and eligible, some other sista would’ve been done snatched him up if he were such a terrific catch.”
Faith sighed. “A good woman had snatched him up. But she passed away a few years ago...uterine cancer.”
“Oh,” Monica immediately murmured under her breath. “That’s sad.”
Lexi hadn’t met the man, but she immediately felt sorry for him. She nodded her head. “Yeah...that is sad.” She looked back up at Faith. “It takes some people quite a while to recover from something like that...if ever. Are you sure he’s ready to move on? Has he said something about wanting to get back into the dating pool that you know of?”
Faith hadn't actually talked to Alonzo face-to-face or in person — not since his wife's funeral three years earlier — but she’d been in contact with him on Facebook. Based on the fact that his posts on the website had become less morbid and more hopeful in nature, she suspected that he was starting to recover. That he was ready to move on.
Jasmine, the most outspoken of the group of women, decided to add her two cents in.“Yeah, Faith. How do you know that he's ready to pursue a relationship? We don't want our girl Lexi here to meet this man, fall in love with him, and end up getting hurt.”
Serenity was not only Jasmine's sister-in-law, but also her lifelong friend. They’d known each other since kindergarten. Therefore, she felt comfortable saying, “Jasmine, boo, you don't have to take a Debbie–downer approach about it. I'm pretty much sure that Faith wouldn’t try to hook Lexi up with someone that she thought would end up hurting her.” Serenity turned to Faith for confirmation. “Isn't that right, Faith?”
Faith, of course, nodded her head. “Yep. Pretty much. I really do think Alonzo’s ready to move on. I invited him to church next Sunday. And I invited him to dinner at me and Raymond’s place afterwards. Y’all know it’s me and my husband’s turn to host the weekly Bullock family’s Sunday dinner gathering.” Faith smiled at Lexi. “I’ll be sure to introduce the two of you then.”
Somewhat reassured that her sister-in-law wasn’t gonna be unnecessarily hurt, Jasmine finally smiled. “Oranges and reds are your colors, Lexi. Wear that satiny pretty red dress next Sunday...you know the one I’m talking about. It’s that flirty little knee-length number that you wore to the Christmas party. That’ll get his attention for sure.”
Lexi proceeded to shake her head at Jasmine. She intended to look fly as ever for church the following Sunday — like she always did — but she wasn't gonna go out of her way just to impress some man that she’d never met.
“Jasmine, I'm gonna look as cute as usual at church next Sunday. But I'm not going out of my way to lure in this Alonzo dude. I want a man who likes me for my brain first and foremost. I've tried the looking sexy route on several different occasions.” She pointed her finger around the table. “All of you have seen how that worked out for me.” She frowned. “Every single guy I’ve dated, for as far back as I can remember, always commented on how sexy they thought I was. How fat of a tha-dunk-a-dunk I got. How they like all the junk in my trunk.” She frowned. “But relationships based on the physical just don’t last. It’s gotta be based on more than that.”
All four of the other Bullock women around the table were convinced of the truth in Lexi's words. They all knew that if a man wasn't attracted to a woman's mind, as well as her body, then that relationship was most likely than not doomed to eventually fail.
Jasmine patted Lexi's hand. “Okay, honey. I completely understand.” Then she smiled. “Just don't show up wearing that muumuu that you tried to rock at our last pool party and you should be fine. Okay?” She shook her head. “Even my grandma gave you the side eye when you strutted out on the deck wearing that.”
All five of the women giggled.
“All right, Jasmine,” Lexi said after pasting a tiny smile on her face. “I hear you. I promise, no muumuus.”
Jasmine nodded her head. “Good.” Then she laughed. “At least you have that internal barometer thingie that’ll let you know exactly when you find your Mr. Right.” Her eye’s met Lexi’s. “How did you say it worked again, honey?”
Lexi smiled. “Just like I told you the other week...I prayed over my love life — or rather my lack thereof — and God put it on my heart that when my soulmate walks into my world...the yin to my yang...I’ll know it right away. I’ll feel it in my spirit.”
Being women of faith, none of the ladies around the table doubted Lexi’s claim. However, they were curious about the details of it all.
“Okay, okay,” Monica said, “I remember you told us about all of that. But I’d like to have some details.”
Lexi shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t have details about it. All I know is that when my Mr. Right sashays himself into my life, God said I’d definitely know it. Like I said, I’ll feel it all the way down to my bones.”
Jasmine chuckled. “Well alrighty then. You said that God said it, so I believe it. You’re one blessed chick, Lexi my sista.”
“Yeah,” the other women murmured, almost in unison.
CHAPTER 2
Five days later, Lexi had all but forgotten about Faith saying that she was going to introduce her to her friend at church the upcoming Sunday. Seeing that she wanted to eventually find a husband for herself and start a family, she of course was interested in meeting Faith’s childhood buddy. But finding her soulmate wasn't the main focus of her life at the present moment. Keeping her successful online business booming and thriving was her primary concern. That’s where the majority of her efforts lay.
Having recently converted her huge double garage into a warehouse of sorts for her online business, she frowned as she stood smack dab in the middle of a mountain of inventory getting an order ready for shipment. She’d frowned because someone was banging on her front door, while alternating their persistent knocking with ringing her doorbell.
She furrowed her eyebrows together and clicked the remote on her keychain fob, causing a small television mounted in the corner of her garage to come on. The TV was part of the security monitoring package that she had personally installed on her premises using her own two very capable hands. She was shocked to see a couple of police officers on the screen. They were standing at her front door.
Of course her heart lurched in her chest. She immediately assumed that something was wrong. She couldn't think of any other reason why the officers would be there, without there being some type of problem.
Lexi shook her head. Then she quickly wiped her hands down the front of the pretty, dark pink smock that she wore while working. She pressed the intercom button on her keychain fob and told the officers that she was on her way to the front door.
“Are you Lexianna Bullock?”
Now physically standing on her front porch, Lexi nodded at the officer who’d just asked her that question. “Yes I am, officer. I’m Lexianna Bullock. What’s wrong? Is it someone in my family? What’s happened?”
She was shocked as all get out to see the officer reach behind himself and grab a pair of handcuffs.
The officer frowned. “Ma'am, you're under arrest.”
Lexi shook her head. She didn't understand. She was a law-abiding citizen. She knew she hadn't committed any type of crime. “There must be some type of mistake, officer. There has to be.”
”No mistake at all, ma'am. You’re under arrest for the criminal possession of a controlled substance. And for the possession of a stolen firearm.” He pointed towards her backup vehicle in the driveway and the four additional officers who were surrounding it. “Using a called in tip, we just searched that Volkswagen right there that is registered to you. The stolen firearm and the drugs were found exactly where the tipster said they’d be.”
The other officer briefly waved a piece of paper in the air. “And before you protest, yes we had a search warrant.”
The officer’s voice suddenly took a hard edge to it. “Now we can do this the easy way, or the hard way.” He jangled the handcuffs. “The choice is yours.”
At that point, Lexi realized that the officer was dead serious. She felt a quiver of fear deep in her soul and she knew that she had somehow been framed. However, she also realized that if she in any way resisted arrest, there’d be a high likelihood that she’d become an unfortunate statistic of police brutality.
She was numb, but she did exactly what the officer told her to do. She kept both her hands at her sides and turned around so that the officer could cuff her.
At that moment, Lexi knew she'd never forget the sensation of the metal shackles closing around her wrists. And she also knew she'd never forget hearing the blonde-haired officer say, “Lexianna Bullock, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney before speaking to the police. If you can't afford one…”
* * *
A Half Hour Later:
As the handcuffed woman with the red-rimmed eyes walked past him in the booking station at the local police department, Alonzo couldn’t imagine what the beautiful, humble-looking girl had done to get herself arrested. He was only getting a cursory glance of her, but she didn’t come off as being a criminal to him. He’d been working in the crime field a long time and he knew the look of a criminal. His innate ability to perceive who was a criminal and who wasn’t had made him the excellent detective that he was.
Lexi was distraught, but her eyes connected with the good-looking brotha’s eyes — the one who was wearing the dark gray khakis and button down shirt. She immediately felt an odd sense of peace. She knew she’d seen him somewhere before. However, seeing that she’d only gotten the briefest glance of him, she couldn’t exactly figure out where.
A few seconds after the girl had been ushered past him, the guy in the grey khakis turned around and said to the desk officer on duty, “The girl who McAlister just walked in....you know what she’s being booked for?”
The desk officer frowned. “Yeah. Felonious drug possession...and possession of a stolen firearm. Damn shame, too. If she was so pressed for cash, she shoulda just asked one of her big brothers.”
“Asked one of her big brothers? They rich or something?”
The officer shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know about them being rich, but if they’re not, they’re well-to-do or damn near rich.” He let out a mirthless little chuckle. “I know they got way more money than me, and I think I make pretty good bank as a veteran officer of the law.”
“Well who’s her brothers?”
“One of her them’s the pro football player, Jason Bullock. The other one’s the ex-basketball star, Paul Bullock. The one that’s closest to her in age is the professional boxer...the ex-heavyweight champion of the world, Raymond Bullock.” The man shook his head. “But you know how some young people with cash are. They’re spoiled and have to somehow find some type of trouble to get themselves into. I guess she was trying to be a bad girl or something. Damn shame though, Detective Kirby. From what Conner told me before they went to swoop her up, she’s gonna spend a considerable amount of time behind bars if these charges stick.” He shook his head again. “And I don’t see why they won’t stick. They found the drugs and firearms in her possession.”
The detective frowned. He felt sorry for the lovely woman...especially since he sensed that she was innocent. “I don’t think she did what their accusing her of, Officer Dawson. It’s something about the look in her eyes.”
Now it was the officer’s turn to grimace. “Well, in that case, I hope somebody gets to the bottom of what actually happened. I hope someone finds out why she had narcotics and stolen weapons in her possession. If nobody does, that pretty little thing who they just took to the booking room is going down.”
They had their chain of command there at the police precinct, and the Bullock woman’s case hadn’t been assigned to him. But the detective still wanted to help. A little over five minutes later, as he was going over her file at his desk, it finally occurred to him that she was the sister-in-law of his childhood friend, Faith.
His frown got even deeper. I’m pretty much sure Faith is tore up over this. When she invited me to her church and dinner afterwards a couple of weeks ago, she’d said that her new husband’s siblings were the brothers and sister that she’d never had.
His realization made Detective Alonzo Kirby want to help Lexianna Bullock even more. Any friend of Faith’s is a friend of mine.
* * *
Four Hours Later:
Dabbing at the tears in her eyes, Lexi allowed her oldest brother, Jason, to give her a hug. He’d been the person she’d contacted using the one phone call the officer had said she was allowed to make. Jason and the rest of her family had showed up at the precinct with a quickness. Of course they had an attorney for her in tow...a darn good one.
Jason was hot as fire that his little sister had been arrested. “I don’t know who framed you for this crime, Lexi, but with God as my witness, I’m gonna find out. And when I do, whoever did this to you is gonna wish they hadn’t done it. They’re going to pay for this.”
“They’re gonna pay even more once I get to the bottom of whatever went down.”
By this time, all four of Lexi’s big brothers had made their way down to the police station. Each of the Bullock wives were in attendance as well. None of the nine adults standing in the room knew the man who’d just vowed his commitment to find out who had framed Lexi...no one but Faith that is.
Faith smiled and immediately gave her old friend a warm hug. “Alonzo. Thank God you’re gonna be involved in all of this.” Then her lips turned down in a frown. “I know Lexi’s gonna be alright now that we have you on the case.”
Despite the seriousness of the situation that their family was now up against, Faith pulled back from embracing her friend, and with a worried expression still in her eyes, she gave her siblings a tiny smile. “You guys, this is Alonzo Kirby. He’s my detective friend...the one that I was telling y’all about last week. He just moved back here to Greensboro from New York. He’s one of the best in the business. If he says he’s gonna get to the bottom of a situation, it’s gonna happen. Lexi is gonna be just fine.”
At that second, Lexi’s eyes met Alonzo Kirby’s. She instantly recognized him as the man she’d momentarily locked gazes with as she was being led into the interrogation room earlier. Just like then, she now felt a sense of calm from being in his presence. She didn’t understand the logic behind her feeling that way. She just knew that that was the way things were for her.
They were in the room with eight other people, but for some reason, to Alonzo, it seemed as if he and Lexi Bullock were in the room alone. “I’m gonna get you off the hook for this, Ms. Bullock. I know you’re innocent.”
It had been a couple of hours since she’d first been walked into the police station, and the shock of being arrested was finally starting to wear off for Lexi, allowing the rational-thinking side of her brain to kick in. She was a smart girl and had a good head on her shoulders. Therefore, she’d come up with a plan for proving her own innocence. She hadn’t said a word about her plan to anyone. Since she hadn’t wanted to give her family false hope, she’d kept her ideas to herself. However, she was almost certain that once she got back to her house, she’d be able to prove her innocence beyond a shadow of a doubt. She frowned. I just need you to be on my side on this, Lord. I need you to walk with me through this.
Alonzo stuck his palm out towards Lexi. He was requesting a handshake. “Like my friend, Faith, said...I’m Alonzo Kirby. I would’ve preferred meeting you all under very different circumstances, but I fully intend to offer you my help and assistance.”
Jason spoke up for all of them. He patted Alonzo on the back. “We could use all the help we can get, my brotha. Thank you for your offer.”
When Alonzo’s much larger hand enveloped Lexi’s for their handshake, she was completely unprepared for the sensation of awareness that seemed to course through her body from his touch. She couldn’t stop the confused expression from settling in her eyes. She’d never felt anything like that particular sensation before. Then it hit her. She didn’t know this man from Adam, but something in her spirit was telling her that he was her Mr. Right.
Her mind immediately went back to the conversation she’d had with her sisters-in-law five days earlier. The conversation in which she’d once again told them about how she’d prayed over her love life and God had consequently put it on my heart that she’d know her soulmate when she met him. It’s you, she thought to herself as her eyes remained locked with Alonzo Kirby’s. You’re him. Then she finally smiled. Welcome to my life.
Lexianna Bullock’s smile was one of the most beautiful things Alonzo had seen in a long time...a very, very long time. With his hand still holding Lexi’s, he gave her a look that conveyed all the sympathy he felt for the situation she was in. “I’m sorry you’re having to go through all of this, Ms. Bullock. Like I said...I’m gonna do everything in my power to help prove your innocence. I’m gonna make this right.”
Based on the look on his face, Lexi knew that he sincerely meant every word he’d just uttered to her. She liked that.