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“Wait! Please. Just let us go! Help! Somebody help us!”
I hurried and slammed the door then pulled out my phone to call my brother. This shit was ridiculous, and I had no idea how I was going to ride through multiple states just to get them to Georgia. This shit wasn’t going to work.
“Hello, Play? You there?”
“Gas up the fucking jet. There’s no way I can get them all the way south with them screaming and crying and shit. On Mama and nem, if you ever call me on this type of bullshit again, I’ma put a hot one right in ya ass!”
“I respect that. I promise I won’t bother you about any of this again. I’ll get Carl on the line and have it ready for you.”
“You do that. And I’m taxing another ten on just for this bullshit. Got me out here kidnapping and babysitting at the same damn time!”
“I’m sorry about this shit, bro. You can have the whole take.”
“Nigga, that was already established when I walked in that house and noticed it was an extra body. I’m taking that plus another twenty. And I’m knocking that nigga the fuck out as soon as I hand them over.”
“Just calm down, Play. I forgot how crazy you are.”
“Yeah, you did. Get the shit set up. I’ma take ’em to my hideout and wait for that call. I’m tired as shit.”
“I got you. Just stay calm, Xavier,” he said, calling me by my middle name.
“Aye, fuck you, for real,” I told him, hanging up.
I sighed heavily, pissed that I had to drive three hours back just to get them on a jet instead of driving. If I had to be honest, I was more pissed at myself for agreeing to this dumb shit. Driving instead of flying was insane. Now I had this beautiful woman and little girl who were scared shitless. I mean, I was about to deliver them to a fuck nigga who could possibly kill them.
As much I didn’t want to care, I did. However, in this business. Caring got you killed, and I’d be damned if I got taken out behind a beautiful woman that I didn’t know shit about. I needed to meditate and recenter or else we weren’t going to make it to Georgia at all.
5
Lila (Nala)
Isat in the back of the van trying desperately to keep my eyes open.
I was tired, but I needed to stay awake. I had to protect my baby from this crazy man. It wasn’t until our last stop did I realize who he was. My house had been dark, so I couldn’t see him. The moment he opened the back door of the van and the light came on, I saw he was the fine ass man I ran into at the hospital.
When he said maybe we would run into each other again sometime, this wasn’t what I had in mind. Fucking Slim. My mind had been racing for hours trying to figure out just how he found me. I’d been careful and meticulous. I didn’t have social media, and there weren’t any credit cards in my name, so there was no paper trail. He couldn’t trace my phone calls.
I was on the other side of the fucking country and every trace of Nala Stanton was gone. How did he find me after six years? I thought about my parents. What if he had them? What if he’d tortured them into giving up my location? What if he’d killed them? The thought of that being the outcome sent me into prayer mode. I prayed harder than I ever had before. If something happened to either of them because of me, I’d never forgive myself.
I looked down at Makari sleeping softly with her head resting in my lap. My poor, sweet baby. She was innocent in all of this. Slim didn’t even know about her. I refused to leave her in this world with him. She wouldn’t suffer the same fate I did with her father. I thought back to the day I found out I was pregnant.
It was about a month before I left Slim. I’d been cleaning the bathroom one morning and had moved to declutter the cabinet under the sink. When I stumbled upon a box of tampons, I stopped. It hit me that I hadn’t had my period that month.
“When was the last time I had a period?” I asked myself aloud.
For a moment, I stood there doing the math. Slim and I hadn’t been intimate in at least three months. He told me he wasn’t touching me again until I lost at least twenty pounds. He had no idea that was a blessing rather than a punishment. I’d long since stopped being sexually attracted to him.
In fact, I had to think about other men to even get in the mood to be with him. I’d been faking for so long that it had become second nature at this point. As I stood there with the box in my hand, I realized I didn’t remember my last period.
“Shit!”
Tossing the box back under the cabinet, I left the bathroom. Kicking off my house slippers, I shoved my feet into my slides, grabbed my purse, and sprinted from the room. Just as I got to the front door, Slim appeared, scaring the shit out of me.
“Where the hell are you running off to?” he asked.
I composed myself as I turned to face him. “Walmart.”
“With what money?”
