Taboo 2:. Yoshe

closed the door and Sierra pulled off. It seemed as if everyone he loved left him. As he watched her truck disappear in the distance, he walked back to his own vehicle and cried like a baby.

      Not wanting to get all teary eyed thinking about that day, Rasheed knelt down on the carpeted floor and rounded up all the things that he would need for his move. As he looked around at the many bags he packed, he was beginning to think that driving to New York wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

      Rasheed got up and walked to the side of the bed that the woman was lying on. He shook her softly and she awakened almost immediately, dazed from sleep.

      “Hey, sweetheart,” he said with a smile on his face. The woman smiled back and reached for him. Suddenly, Rasheed turned serious. “Get up, put your clothes on, and get the hell out.”

      Chapter 2

      Sierra

      As the gates in the corridor of the Rikers Island correctional facility opened and slammed closed, they were a constant reminder to the inmates that their freedom was no more until the judge banged his gavel. Riker’s Island was known for housing some of the most violent criminals in the city, and at any given time, any one of the many facilities could be in an uproar. To the naked eye, the hallways of the facilities looked impeccable. Unfortunately, underneath the numerous paint jobs and heavy wax buildup on the floors, there had been much bloodshed.

      In the past, this ill-fated situation had occurred due to inattentiveness of staff. Most of the correction officers had become complacent and insensitive to the needs of the convicts during their time in jail. They made the job more about themselves, coming to work to socialize and fraternize with their fellow coworkers, as opposed to policing the jails. Female officers pursued the males in hopes of gaining a husband. If all else failed, they opted to become pregnant in order to obtain 17 percent of the male officer’s paycheck.

      For the some male COs, their goal was to have sex with as many women as they could. Obviously unaccustomed to the attention that they received from the women employed with DOC, they became caught up in getting themselves trapped with someone else’s leftovers. It was as if they compared themselves to a celebrity of Denzel Washington’s caliber. When these types of personalities meshed, it was never a happy medium. It was more like a soap opera inside of the department, as people gossiped about each other, committed adultery, and stabbed each other in the back for positions and sex partners. All of this caused nothing but strife in an already highly stressed work environment. On the outside looking in, it was completely different world; for the officers that worked there, it was their normalcy.

      The corridor was empty as Correction Officer Sierra Howell took the long walk to her post. The heavy Folgers keys dangled from her waist as her childbearing hips swayed from side to side, and a walkie-talkie protruded from the back pocket of her uniform pants.

      For some reason, she was feeling a little anxious but couldn’t figure out what her problem was. Although she was blessed to have a great family, a good man, and a career, Sierra had been feeling that there was some trouble looming in the distance. It was as if someone or something was going to try to throw a monkey wrench in her life. Sierra hoped that she was only being paranoid.

      Sierra grew up in a Brownsville housing project as the only daughter of Marjorie and Steven Howell. When she was nine years old, her father was killed in a car accident. Even with her father’s untimely death, she was still a model child growing up: very respectful, obedient, and not giving her mother one problem. But as Sierra came into her adolescent years, she began yearning for a father/protector figure.

      So at fifteen years old, Sierra began gravitating toward the “bad boys.” To her, they represented masculinity in the highest form. They were the alpha male to Sierra, ready and willing to go to war for the ones they loved. It comforted her to know that her man was there to make her feel safe and protect her from harm. Unfortunately, she continued to have those same beliefs when she became an adult.

      Sierra watched as the inmates filed in and out of the cell to retrieve their breakfast trays. She yawned as the monotony began to get to her. She looked at her watch and saw that it was 6:15 a.m. The inmates would eat their breakfast, watch some television, and lock in the cells in the next forty-five minutes. The time couldn’t go fast enough.

      It was almost 7:00 a.m. when the feeding was completed. Sierra instructed the inmates that it was time to lock in their cells. After closing the last cell, Sierra sat at the desk and proceeded to make her logbook entries. As she was doing this, she thought about Rasheed. Five North was the very place that their relationship had begun.

      Sierra first laid eyes on Inmate Rasheed Gordon in Five North. He was carrying on a conversation with the other inmates and looking like he did not belong there. His looks were what initially caught her attention, and she was immediately physically attracted to the fine specimen of a man. Of course, at that time, Sierra thought that he was just another pretty thug; the Department of Correction had plenty of handsome men being detained in their jails. But after watching him for some time, she noticed that there was a redeeming quality about Rasheed that she just could not place her finger on.

      Rasheed was so laid-back and charismatic, it seemed as if he was used to getting what he wanted whenever he wanted it. Most of the inmates gravitated toward him as if he was the most important person in the world, and Sierra couldn’t figure out why.

      The curious side of her wanted to know what made him tick, only that was impossible when she knew that she had taken an oath as an officer. Fraternizing with the likes of Rasheed Gordon, or anyone with a book and case number, was off limits.

      After a few months of Rasheed being housed in Five North, the sexual tension between them became too much to bear. Sierra held her composure as the charming prisoner persisted. It became increasingly hard for her to resist him. When it was time for his release, Sierra couldn’t resist the urge to feel his lips on hers. She gave him a passionate kiss right inside of his cell before he was released to go home. Rasheed was taken aback by the gesture, but little did she know she had opened Pandora’s Box. She had given him all rights to pursue her aggressively. Through a mutual friend, they linked up when he came home, and the rest was history.

      Sierra never thought that she would put her profession on the line for love. She didn’t think that she could possibly be “desperate” enough to deal with a former inmate. Not only did she have a rendezvous with Rasheed, but she had a baby with him as well, something that she hadn’t planned. Did she regret having her baby? No, she did not. But Sierra knew that it was no excuse for her unprofessional behavior. Never in a million years would she suggest that a correction officer, a man or a woman, have an affair with someone who was in DOC custody.

      At one time, Sierra wanted to believe that Rasheed was the best man for her. He was fiercely protective and that was something that she loved about him. She had tried to convince herself that everyone made mistakes, and even a thug like Rasheed could change with a good woman by his side. She was wrong.

      Rasheed painted a blissful picture of perfection and she believed in him. She believed all of it. Actually, he turned out to be a manipulative control freak when it came to her and stopped at nothing to get what he wanted. When things didn’t go his way, that temperamental, controlling Rasheed always managed to resurface. This was when Sierra noticed the disturbing similarities to the men she had to babysit every day. Rasheed would probably never be able to understand that the decision Sierra made to end their relationship was not about her; it was about Messiah.

      Messiah deserved to have a decent male role model in his life, and Lamont Simmons was that and more. He was an assistant deputy warden, had worked for the Department of Correction for almost twenty years and, of course, was a great provider for their family. Part of that equation was Trey, Lamont’s only son. Sierra smiled thinking about how much she loved her family, and she wasn’t going to allow anyone or anything to ruin it. Not even Rasheed.

      Later that day, during her meal break, Sierra decided to visit her fiancé in his office. Lamont was the tour commander for the facility, and the captains of the jail would report to him first whenever he was on duty. He would then give a report to the deputy warden and warden on what