**Unedited**

KAREEM'S POV

I was woken up from a wonderful blissful dream of Diana in the bathtub by an annoying clanging of wood against metal. I sat up quickly disoriented for a few seconds as I tried to gather my bearings. I looked around and memories of the previous day flooded my mind reminding me where I was. The cell was still cold and my back hurt from sleeping on the cold slab all night. Light streaming in from the single tiny window in the cell let me know that it was morning.

"Acha kunwagia cell yangu mate, amka unaachiliwa."A very grumpy officer yelled from the door.

Stop drooling all over my cell, get up you're being released.

Those words woke me straight up. I got up and walked towards the officer letting him open the cell. He didn't even handcuff me as he led me to the reception.

I had no idea what magic Diana had worked but if I was being released it meant that Kyle had dropped the charges? How had she managed that?

"Sijawahi ona mtu amedrop kesi mbio hivo, kwani mlimpea pesa ngapi?"The officer asked as I signed my release form for the second time in one week.

I've never seen anyone drop charges so fast, how much did you pay him?

I didn't have a reply to that so I just shrugged in response.

He handed me all my stuff after I was done signing everything.

"Na nisikuone hapa tena kijana. Keep out of trouble."The officer demanded.

Don't let me see you in here again young man.

"You won't."I assured him walking out of the station.

Just like the first time I had been arrested and released, Diana was there waiting for me with a smile on her face.

"We've got to stop meeting like this cupcake."I teased as I walked towards her.

She looked beautiful in brown long sleeved sweater wrap dress that reached mid thigh and black high heels.

"I know but then you'd have to give up your bad boy reputation and that just won't do."She replied wrapping her hands around my neck when I got to her.

I put my hands on her hips and pulled her flush against me swooping down to capture her lips in a short kiss.

"You love my bad boy reputation."I rasped out.

"More than I care to admit."She grinned.

Diana then pulled away, took my hand and led me to the car. I wasn't as tired as the last time I'd been arrested so she let me drive us home.

"How did you manage to get Kyle to drop the charges? How much did you have to pay him?"I asked Diana as we cruised down the highway heading home.

"I didn't pay him, money wouldn't have worked but I did threaten him."She replied.

"With what? How?"I insisted wanting to know the details.

Thoughts of Diana and Kyle in one place did not sit well with me. Diana took a deep breath before telling me all about her meeting with Kyle. I listened carefully and by the end of it I was in awe of my girl. She really had outdone herself and all for me.

"You're one scary lady, even I would have been frightened of you after all that."I expressed when she was done.

"I couldn't leave you in there to rot. Kyle was just being stupid and needed someone to put him in his place."Diana replied.

"Thank you for coming through for me."I appreciated.

"You would do the same for me."She replied smiling at me.

I smiled back in awe of her. Diana continued to prove herself to me over and over again by always being there for me. Facing Kyle must not have been easy but she had for done it for me anyway. I'd find a way to make it up to her somehow.

When we got home I parked the car and we both got out.

"No tub shenanigans today?"I asked Diana.

"Nope, I'm beat, didn't get much sleep last night so I'm going to take a nap but you should definitely take a shower."She suggested.

"Yeah I really should."I said the unpleasant smell on my coveralls making me scrunch my nose in disgust.

Diana went on her tiptoes to kiss me before she patted my back and went up to to the bedroom. I turned around headed to the bathroom for some much needed cleaning.

Half an hour later I joined Diana who was sleeping soundly in bed dressed in one of my t-shirts. I was only in a pair of boxers so I made sure my hair was dry before I joined her. I pulled her in my arms and she moaned softly as she lay her head on my chest tangling her legs with mine. I smiled to myself feeling like the luckiest man alive to have such a woman in my life. I kissed Diana's hair affectionately loving the feel of her in my arms and her weight on me. Within minutes I was asleep with a smile on my lips.

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"Kareem wake up, there's someone at the door."Diana mumbled as she shook me awake.

"Mhh."I moaned sleepily trying to gather my bearings.

"Door."She replied her face still buried in my chest.

My eyes fluttered open to reveal the room bathed in darkness. What time was it?

I looked at the bedside alarm and it was seven o'clock in the evening meaning we had been slept away the whole day.

There was a knock on the door alerting me as to why Diana had woken me up in the first place. I could hear mumbling at the door but they were too far away for me to hear what they were saying. It was definitely more than one person too seeing as they were arguing over something. They knocked again and I sat up in bed pushing Diana off me gently.

I turned on the bedside light bathing us in some dim light and got out of bed. I put on a pair of sweatpants and wandered downstairs switching on the lights k the process. The door was knocked again just as I got to it.

"Hold your horses."I scolded opening the door to reveal, everyone.

"Oh hey man, glad to see that you're actually home and alive."Silas commented slapping my back before letting himself into the apartment.

"Where's Diana?"Salome asked walking in next followed by Ashton who was carrying baby Oliver in his arms.

"You sleep like the dead."Walter grumbled letting himself in.

Fabian and Manuel walked in silently carrying boxes of pizza with them. The last person to walk in was my sister with Nuru by her side. Jamila looked at me apologetically mouthing sorry as she walked into the apartment.

"Uncle K."Nuru yelled launching herself at my legs.

I bent over to hug her feeling like I hadn't seen her for ages. It had only been a few days but it felt like forever to me seeing as we used each other daily.

"Hi munchkin, I've missed you. How are you?"I asked tugging playfully at her pigtails.

"I'm good, mommy said you felt sick again and we had to come see you. Your friends wanted to tag along too. You have a lot of friends."She commented looking around the room confused.

"That I do."I mumbled confused at what they were all doing in our home.

I closed the door before taking Nuru's hand and leading her to where her mom was.

"Not that its not nice to see you all, but what exactly are you doing here?"I asked the lot who were sitting comfortably in our living room.

Before any of them could reply I heard Diana's soft footsteps on the stairs. She was walking down rubbing sleep from her eyes as she mumbled to herself. She was still in my t-shirt and nothing else.

"Kareem who was at the door?"She asked.

"Hi siz."Ashton greeted.

Diana yelped jumping in surprise when she looked down and saw everyone looking up at her.

"What the hell?"She exclaimed before she saw the kids and clamped her hand over her mouth.

She didn't say anything else, just turned back around and ran back into the bedroom.

"I'll be back in a minute and when I do I expect one of you to tell me and what you're all doing here, unannounced."I declared walking up the stairs to join Diana in the bedroom.

I found her changing out of the t-shirt into on of her cute rompers.

"You could have at least warned me they were coming."Diana scolded reaching for a comb to tame her hair.

"I would have if I'd known they were coming. I thought you invited them."I whisper yelled.

"No I didn't."Diana replied glaring at me.

Our guests were very unexpected but we couldn't leave them downstairs all on their own. I put on the closest clean t-shirt I could find and waited for Diana to finish up looking presentable before we rejoined everyone else.

"We came because we heard you were sick and we wanted to check up on you."Ashton offered as soon as we sat down with them.

"I, sorry, we appreciate that you could have at least called."I replied still feeling that they had invaded our privacy big time.

"Sorry not sorry but we care about you and had to see you. We're friends so as long as we celebrate in good times we're also together in the bad times." Salome commented.

I really had good friends, the circle had grown when I met Diana and I was grateful for all of them but they had no idea what I was hiding. I looked at Jamila and Fabian who were the only ones who really knew what was happening.

"Thanks guys I appreciate that but call again next time."I replied.

It went silent after that with everyone who had arrived looking at each other as if they knew something that we didn't. Diana and I looked at each other confused when will we felt the weird vibe around us.

"Guys he's really going to keep us believing that he was sick."Ashton exclaimed looking at me with an accusing glare.

"They know."Diana whispered when she figured out what was going on.

"Fuck yeah we know."Silas shouted making me flinch.

"You told them."I gritted out looking at Jamila and Fabian wondering which of them had sold us out.

"No you're sister and bestfriend were actually very tight lipped and kept your secret."Walter said coming to their defense.

I looked at all of them confused wondering how they had found out if those two hadn't told on us.

"Have you forgotten man, I was there yesterday when you got arrested. I called Ashton hoping he'd help."Manuel said connecting the dots for me.

So that's how everyone had found out. If forgotten that Manuel had been present when I was taken away in handcuffs. That's a loose end I had forgotten to cover. Now everyone knew and they were all looking at me with angry faces.

"Yeah and when dear sister didn't call me I had to wait and see how long you'd play this out. Turns out you had been arrested again. So Kareem what do you have to say for yourself?"Ashton asked.

"It really is none of your business."I grumbled feeling attacked.

"The he'll it isn't. You got arrested Kareem."Silas yelled.

Diana was seated silently next to me assessing the whole situation as she drew random patterns on my thigh.

"Yeah so? I'm out now and I'm okay."I retorted.

"Guys let's just eat."Jamila requested reaching for a box of pizza but Salome pulled it out of her reach.

"No food for now till we resolve this."Salome declared.

"Why were you arrested?"Walter asked.

"Drug smuggling."I blurted out without thinking.

"Wait? What?!"Four different voices yelled at once.

"It's a joke calm down."I chuckled looking at all their panicked faces.

They sagged looking relieved that I was not a wanted criminal.

"Not funny Kareem, don't mess with us like that. Now tell us, why were you arrested?"Ashton insisted.

I didn't really want to talk about it but Diana's next worded pushed me to be honest with them.

"Babe just tell them, believe me they won't let it go."

"Yeah tell us."Silas added.

"Okay fine."I groaned taking a deep breath.

Diana took my hand in hers intertwining our hands together giving me the strength I needed to talk about the ordeal I would rather have been forgetting.

I told them everything from the argument with Kyle when I went to get the car, getting arrested, spending the weekend in jail, getting released, getting arrested again, spending another night in jail before finally getting out.

When I was done the whole room went silent before they all started speaking at once. It was mostly profanities directed at Kyle.

"Kids in the room so watch your language guys."Diana yelled loudly silencing them.

"Sorry but you should have told us Kareem, we'd have gotten you out sooner and made that idiot pay."Ashton pointed out.

"Diana and I were able to handle it on our own. I also didn't want to risk the news reaching your father or mother. I'll need these blessing to marry Diana one day and I don't want anything ruining my chances."I replied.

Diana blushed when I mentioned marrying her but she didn't comment.

"We understand that but we don't tell our parents everything. We're adult enough to deal with our own problems without involving them."Silas pointed out.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys but I'm grateful to see that you all care so much."I smiled feeling lucky to have them all.

"We need to teach him a lesson. He didn't learn it the first time we put him in jail but I'm sure a year or two behind bars will remind him not to mess with our family."Ashton exclaimed.

"Nope not happening."Diana declared speaking up.

"Why? Are you defending him now?"Silas asked.

"No definitely not, I couldn't care about him but he has a wife and two kids. We're not going to make them suffer because Kyle was an idiot. Let it go guys."Diana explained.

"Diana is right, I don't like it either but I'm choosing to be the bigger man and letting this go."I added.

Diana's brothers didn't like what we were saying but they had no option but to respect our decision.

"Fine we are letting it go but if you ever get in trouble again, call us, we're family now and family looks out for each other."Ashton demanded.

"Thank you, I appreciate that."I replied.

He had no idea but his words meant a lot to me. Jamila and I had been looking out for each other for so long but our family had grown since meeting Diana. I was very grateful to all of them for having our back.

"Now that we have settled everything, let's eat."Jamila declared reaching for a box of pizza.

No one stopped her this time. Diana grabbed plates for everyone, napkins and some cups for the soda. We shared a meal talking about our wild days and I learnt a lot about the rebellious side of Diana's brothers that I didn't know existed. It was a pretty laid back evening with no alcohol involved and it reminded me of how a huge loving family was really like.

"I love you."I whispered in Diana's ear as we listened to Silas tell us about the one time he was arrested by the police when they mistook him for a terrorist.

Well that's what he got for going to the mall in militia costume, complete with a gun.

"I love you more."Diana replied snuggling into my side.

I kissed her hair relaxing feeling at home with my girl, family and friends. Yeah I was definitely a very lucky man.

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😂 I'm laughing cuz I thought I had writers block.. Kinda freaked me out since I really need to be finishing this book but it turns out, I was just hungry 😂😂..... The countdown to 2022 has already began. Have you written your resolutions yet? I'll start you guys off with one of mine.

1. In 2022 I want to complete "Queen Of The Plains"

2. In 2022 I want to publish a total of six new books on Wattpad.

3. In 2022 I want to find some form of employment so I can be self sufficient.

4. In 2022 I want to move out of home.

Those are just a few.. What are yours?