Side Chick Catching Main Chick Feelings 2

by B. M. Hardin

  I busted one of the small windows out of the back door and stuck my hand inside to turn the lock.

  “Legacy? Lee Lee are you in here?”

  I made my way through the kitchen.

  Everything looked normal there so I headed to her bedroom.

  She wasn’t there and everything was in place.

  It didn’t look like she’d gone out of town or anything or left in a hurry.

  Where was she then?

  I tried calling her again.

  At the sound of hearing her phone ringing inside of the house I followed the noise to the living room.

  There her phone was, on a table by the couch, plugged in to a charger.

  But looking around me, I immediately became concerned.

  The living room was an absolute mess!

  It definitely looked as though there had been a scuffle of some sort or a struggle.

  Curtains were torn down.

  Pictures were knocked off of the walls.

  There wasn’t any blood, but something was definitely wrong.

  Something was very wrong.

  I picked up her phone.

  After guessing her password, I went through her phone to see that she had over two hundred missed calls and text messages.

  Some were from me, some were from my other siblings and Daddy. Some were from men and even some were from Vicki.

  So she wasn’t with Vicki?

  I checked the dates on the days that she’d actually responded to my texts.

  That had been a while ago and she’d responded to everyone else’s that same day too but nothing had been answered or texted since then.

  Something wasn’t right.

  I could feel it.

  I knew that we’d waited far too long and there was no telling what real trouble she was in by now or if she was even alive and I started to cry.

  I called my family and then I called the police.

  I should have listened to my gut a long time ago.

  And now what if it was too late?

  They all started to arrive around the same time.

  “Where is she?”

  “I don’t know,” I said to Daddy as the police started in with their questions.

  Though Lee Lee had texted most of us on that same day, none of us had physically seen her or heard her voice in weeks.

  Something was very wrong with this picture.

  I told the police about the last time I’d talked to her and mentioned Vicki.

  No one had heard from or seen her either.

  Had not it been for Lee Lee texting her too according to the phone logs, I would have thought that she had something to do with her disappearance.

  And maybe she did.

  Or maybe it was that new man that she had been seeing.

  I never got a chance for her to tell me his name.

  Lee Lee had always been so wild and careless that it was hard for someone to even really notice that something could have really been wrong.

  But I noticed, and I stayed on it.

  Thankfully.

  We filed the report and we were hoping that Legacy showed up soon.

  Hopefully she was alive, but if for some reason she wasn’t, I just needed her to resurface.

  Now that I knew something was wrong, I just didn’t think that I would be able to sleep at night until we found her.

  In an emotional wreck, I left Lee Lee’s house in a hurry once the police left and I headed to see my husband.

  I was sure that he was busy at work, but I needed him to hold me and tell me that everything was going to be okay.

  “Hey, is he busy?” I asked the receptionist.

  “He didn’t come in today.”

  What?

  I could have sworn that he’d said that he was on his way to work.

  I called him but he didn’t answer.

  Where was he?

  I called him again but he still didn’t answer so I sent him a text.

  He had better be calling me back within minutes or all hell was going to break loose and the way that I was feeling at the moment, he didn’t want these problems.

  And now that I was his wife, I was allowed to show my ass on a whole new level.

  Instead of waiting there for his call, I decided to head back home.

  I tried not to think too much about my sister but I was beyond worried.

  I’d just gotten her back and I couldn’t lose her now.

  Driving in silence, I headed home but just as I was about to turn on our street, I saw Dray.

  Where the hell is he going?

  Instead of going home, I turned off to follow him.

  I kept my distance, but I made sure that I didn’t lose him.

  He had better not be up to no good.

  I just couldn’t handle that on top of everything else.

  That little side chick comment that he’d made a while ago had better been just a joke.

  And I wasn’t playing.

  After following him for a while, my stomach started to form knots as I got a feeling where we were headed.

  My mouth opened wide as I saw him turn on a street that I was more than familiar with and then he came to a stop.

  At his ex-wife’s Naomi’s house.

  The house looked different from when I lived there.

  She’d painted it or something and maybe even had some landscaping done.

  Parking across the street, I watched Dray get out of his car and knock on the door.

  Shortly after that, Naomi and her stomach answered it and he walked in and closed the door behind him.

  In a hurry, I called him, but he didn’t bother to pick up.

  Furious, I reached for the door handle and just as I was about to get out and go all the way off, the front door opened and out walked Dray, carrying a diaper bag…and the little girl that turned out to be Kane’s.

  Huh?

  I sat there as he got her situated in the car and then he too got into the car and proceeded to back out of the driveway.

  Naomi closed the door and I prepared myself to follow Drake only he didn’t turn in the direction of the stop sign.

  Instead he reversed and came to a complete stop.

  Right in front of me.

  “Go home Moe. I’ll be there in a minute.”

  Damn it!

  He spotted me.

  Before I could even open my mouth, he drove away.

  Like really?

  What kind of stunt was he trying to pull on me?

  Did he think I was stupid or something.

  I debated as to whether or not I should get out and go knock on Naomi’s door and ask her what was going on.

  But I knew that maybe I shouldn’t.

  There were so many things going through my head all at once.

  I was definitely thinking a few things that I wasn’t proud of but I was also thinking about how strange things had been lately.

  Kane only remembered me after that accident.

  Jinx wanted my help and was denying my attack.

  Drake was sneaking over Naomi’s and riding around with her daughter.

  And my sister was missing.

  What was next?

  My head started to hurt, so I took Drake’s advice and headed home.

  He knew that he had some explaining to do and he had better had a damn good explanation for lying to me.

  I waited for almost an hour for Drake to walk through the front door.

  I was coaching myself not to overact but he had better come with a hell of a good explanation.

  “You lied to me about going to work.”

  “No I didn’t. You assumed I was going to work. I never told you that that’s where I was going.”

  Oh, so he was trying to play mind games now?

  “Don’t get smacked Dray! You damn sure didn’t tell me that you weren’t going in today.”

  “Is this what you want to talk about? Really?”

  “What was that about? You being over Naom
i’s?”

  He removed his shoes and headed over towards me.

  “There’s nothing going on between Naomi and I. Just business. I swear its nothing for you to worry about. Trust me. I got you. You got me. What Naomi and I have is just business. And oh yeah, stop snooping.”

  That’s it.

  That was all that he said.

  The look on his face told me that the conversation was pretty much over.

  It also told me that he was telling the truth.

  There was nothing sexual happening between Naomi and Drake, I was sure of it.

  But what kind of business was in between the two of them?

  And how did it involve her daughter?

  It just didn’t make sense.

  And no snooping my ass!

  I just didn’t see them having any need for any kind of business unless it was related to real estate and I wasn’t even sure if she was still involved in that.

  So what other business was between the two of them?

  I was going to continue with the questions and maybe even start an argument, or catch an attitude but I knew that he would definitely shut down even more if I did that and I knew that the easiest way to handle it at the moment was to simply take it for what he said that it was.

  I didn’t like it, but I knew that it was the smartest thing to do for the time being.

  At the end of the day, he was my husband and I knew in my heart that now that he had me, he would never let me go.

  I just didn’t see him cheating on me or doing something that could potentially cause him to lose me.

  And of course the feeling was mutual.

  But it was still something that I was missing.

  I still could find out just what business there was between the two of them.

  After all, I felt like I had a right to know.

  I followed him into the bedroom and filled him in on the situation with Lee Lee.

  “I went by Legacy’s house today. From the looks of it, she really is missing.”

  Drake looked at me and came closer to me.

  He held out his arms.

  I was still in my feelings about the whole Naomi thing, but I definitely needed a hug.

  “The living room looked as though there had been some type of scuffle or something. I don’t know. I just feel like Vicki had something to do with it. Or maybe that new guy she had told me about.”

  “What new guy?”

  “I never got his name.”

  “Everything will be fine.”

  “What if we don’t find her Dray?”

  Drake said that he had worked with a few folks in the past that knew or even dabbled in investigation, so he would make a call or two.

  He told me not to worry but that was easier said than done.

  Legacy was in trouble.

  I could feel it.

  And I just knew in the back of my mind that Vicki was responsible for it.

  I just knew that I was right on this one.

  ~***~

  “I love you.”

  I smiled at Drake as he woke me up with kisses.

  He had been so supportive through everything and I couldn’t be more thankful for him.

  It had been another month since we’d filed the missing police report on Lee Lee and so far, nothing.

  There was nothing on her or on Vicki; which Naomi had gone to file a report on her too shortly after.

  Where were they?

  I couldn’t help but wonder if Legacy was still alive.

  I drove by her house every day, hoping that one day her car would be there.

  But it never was.

  “So, you know we haven’t gone anywhere in a while. We didn’t make it to our honeymoon because well, you know. But I was wondering, what if we got away for a while once I got back from this business trip.”

  Drake was leaving for Vegas for a few days.

  He had missed a lot of business lately from dealing with me and he had a few properties that he needed to travel to show.

  But he never complained.

  Not even once.

  But with me all better and things around us being a neutral zone, he needed to get back to doing what he loved to do.

  I smiled as I thought of going to somewhere exotic.

  Chilling on a beach with the man of my dreams beside of me sounds nice.

  Maybe getting away was what I needed.

  I was so consumed with figuring out what was going on with my sister that I was sure that I had been an awful wife lately.

  I wasn’t handling my wifely duties as often as Drake probably expected me to, but he said that he understood.

  But he was only going to be understanding for so long.

  I mean I was giving up the booty.

  But it wasn’t because I really wanted to.

  It was only because I felt like I had to.

  I just wanted my sister back.

  “Sounds like a plan baby,” I said to him and he smiled and then kiss me.

  “One time for the road?”

  I shook my head no and he immediately frowned.

  “Let’s make it two,” I giggled and he lit up like a Christmas tree.

  An hour or so later, he headed out the door, whistling and singing and I finally got out of the bed to shower.

  I should probably try to do a little housework while he was gone since I had been slacking on that too.

  And I reminded myself to go to the grocery store so that I could have a hot meal waiting for him on the day that he returned.

  As the warm water hit my face and once thoughts of Lee Lee left my mind, I thought about sneaking to the hospital to see Kane while Drake was gone.

  To be honest, I wasn’t sure why it was still crossing my mind every once in a while, but I wished that it wouldn’t.

  I just needed to let it all go.

  Besides, who was to say that he was still alive or that he was even still in the hospital and suffering from memory loss.

  Jinx hadn’t tried to call me or contact me again, so maybe he got his memory back after all.

  Or even better, maybe he’d croaked over already or something.

  I was even forcing myself to stay away from that side of town that the car lot was on just so my curiosity didn’t somehow get the best of me.

  Life without the crazy couple was good and my only concern was my life and finding my sister.

  After cleaning and with nothing to do for the day, I figured that I would spend some of Dray’s money and treat myself to some retail therapy.

  I figured that it would help keep my mind busy and off of Lee Lee momentarily.

  I called my other sisters just to see if they were available.

  But they weren’t.

  As far as I knew, Velvet, my baby sister, had put her wedding plans on hold because of the whole Legacy situation.

  I was in charge of all of the decorating, since that was my thing, but I definitely couldn’t focus on something like that at the moment.

  And I was sure that everyone else felt the same way.

  We were all beyond worried and it was just hard for us to pretend as though it wasn’t happening.

  Everywhere I went I looked around for her.

  Every time I parked somewhere, I checked the parking lot just to make sure that I didn’t see her car.

  If we never found her, I just didn’t know what we were going to do.

  Dead or alive, we at least needed closure.

  I pulled up at a boutique and I headed inside.

  It was spring time and I needed a few light-colored, airy dresses.

  I hated shopping alone and I envied the women that had someone with them to talk to.

  But not wasting time, I got in, found a few pieces and I was out of the store within an hour.

  I smiled as the small breeze blew my hair into my face.

  After getting my bags in the car and just as I buckled my seatbelt, my phone chimed.

  It was Dray that had sent a text that
said:

  “Stop spending my money, lol.”

  I’d swiped his card so he must have gotten an alert on his phone or something.

  He hadn’t been gone long at all but I missed him already.

  I just felt safer when he was close to me.

  I should have suggested that I’d gone on the trip with him.

  Though it was business, he could have done what he had to do and then we could have enjoyed ourselves afterwards.

  I’d never been to Vegas and I would surely like to go.

  Of course he left all the information I would need if for some reason I couldn’t reach him on his cell phone so maybe I could just pop up.

  Maybe I should do just that.

  The question was how was I going to surprise him if I had to swipe his card to get a plane ticket?

  I was sure that the merchant information from that would come to his phone as an alert too.

  Or I could take money out of the ATM and just pay for it with cash.

  Feeling a little excited about my sudden idea, I prepared to drive home so that I could rush to pack.

  Maybe I would only get there a couple of hours after he did and I was sure that he would be happy to see me.

  I rushed home, got all of my things together and waited for Drake to tell me that he was there.

  Once he’d told me that he’d arrived safely, I told him that I was going to get money out of the ATM to buy a few things for the house.

  Of course he didn’t mind and with that, I headed to the airport to catch the next flight to Vegas.

  I made sure that I had all of Dray’s room information and before I knew it, I was waiting to board the plane.

  I hadn’t been on a plane in years.

  My parents used to take us on a vacation every year.

  Sometimes we would drive, but most of the time we flew.

  I’d been to so many different places and I appreciated them for expanding our horizons and allowing us to see the world outside of home.

  But no matter how often we flew, I’d always been scared of heights so I couldn’t believe that I was going to fly alone.

  But I was going to do it just to put a smile on my husband’s face.

  They finally called for us to board and I got my bags and headed to get in line.

  I was glad that I was dressed comfortably because I was planning to really relax and even try to nap a little on the plane.

  That solely depended on the turbulence and if I could manage to convince myself that nothing terrible was going to happen.

  I smiled at a few people while in line and looked around me.