by Mike Dagons
“What’s up, Rayce? I thought you were vacationing,” Ryan said when he came on the line.
“I’m here with Choc. His brother is in some serious trouble with Lincoln Scott, and he needs our help.”
“His brother, Choc has a brother?”
“Yeah, it’s a long story. His name is Trent Real. He’s that CPD detective who’s responsible for taking down Lincoln Scott. They’ve abducted his wife.”
“What you need, bodies, artillery…name it and he’s got it.”
“Ryan, Choc here. We need to locate her, and protect the guy that witnessed her abduction and his family. Can we get Bender on finding her?”
“Yeah, hold on. Let me round up the people you need.”
They were put on hold for five minutes, and then Melvin came back on the line. “You’re on conference with Bender, Roc, and D’Agon in house. Severe and Valow are on the road, brief us.”
“Severe, I thought you were on vacation with Ceylon,” Roc spoke before Choc could start talking.
“I am, but we’d be happy to cut it short, if I’m needed.”
“Damn girl, you got that muthafucka listening to Genesis business now?” he barked angrily.
“No Roc! He stepped out to give me privacy to do this. Now stop it with the bullshit questions, and let Choc brief us,” she snapped angrily.
Roc was like a brother to her, but the animosity he had for Ceylon Battle was putting a burden on her relationship with both of them.
Choc spoke up and filled them in on what he’d learned from Desmond. “If they know he saw them take her, then they’ll be coming for him. It’s why I’d like to have him protected.”
“I’ll pick him up, and then scoop them up on the way to the safe house,” Roc volunteered.
“I think we should split up to get them to save time,” Melvin said. “They’ve had the wife, Kenyah, for a couple of hours. Lincoln Scott is known for using families to make his enemies surrender to him quietly and apparently being locked down hasn’t stopped him from operating. The witness is there with you, so they won’t be able to find him. That means they’ve probably already put the plan in motion to take his family.”
“I don’t know this guy, and I don’t want to trust him with too much information about us,” Choc interjected. “Maybe we should just babysit him and his family here until they’ve been vetted.”
“Cool, Roc, you go to Choc’s loft, and babysit the witness. Severe, are you near Schaumburg?”
“I’m twenty minutes away. We’ll pick up the wife and kids,” she dropped the call on Roc’s warning against bringing Ceylon with her to Choc’s loft.
“My brother does not have money, so I’ll be paying for the service, Ryan. Bill me at the regular rate.”
“Fuck you, man!” he barked. “I don’t bill family, and I’m insulted that you think I would.”
“Thanks, man,” he said, and they heard genuine emotion in his voice.
“Choc, this is Bender. The address you gave us is a gold coast penthouse on Rush leased to Lincoln Scott.”
“Choc, I’ll meet you there,” Valow said.
“No, I want you to assist Rayce and Choc in retrieving the girl once Bender locates her,” Melvin commanded. “If they’re smart, they’ll have her secured in another location. The meet on Rush is to test Trent to see how much he’s willing to cooperate. We have to hang back and make sure they think he’s doing it alone like he was ordered.”
“I’m replaying the takedown on satellite. The witness was right. They snatched her right in front of him. Left her purse on the ground, and left him standing,” Bender reported. “It would have been smart to eliminate him right then, or take him with them. I guess they’re not smart, Ryan,” he chuckled.
“I’m in Oak Brook,” Valow reported. “You want me to hang tight until I hear from you, or you got a direction you want me to start moving in?”
Bender answered. “If I had to guess, and clearly I do, I’d say he’s holding her on the west side somewhere in the Austin area. It’s where he does most of his business. The locals fear him, so he wouldn’t have to worry about any Good Samaritan interfering.”
“Roger that, heading east and holding ‘til you hit me back,” he replied, and then dropped from the link.
“Choc, I’m putting D’Agon on background checks so you’ll know what kind of crew you’re going up against. His people are yahoos, but he may have hired some real talent given the scope of the job. Make contact with your brother and let him know we’re on the job.”
“Thanks fellas, I owe you, Ryan,” Choc said.
“Nah, you don’t,” he ended the call.
Choc turned to Rayce. “Let’s go get my brat ass brother.”
When they walked out the bedroom, Desmond stopped pacing and rushed over to them. “Are you going to help Trent find Kenyah?”
“Yes, and we’re sending somebody to pick up your family. You relax here. I have a man coming to sit with you.”
“I’m going with you, man!” Desmond barked.
“Nah you ain’t!” Choc barked back.
Rayce could see that this mission was too personal for him, and it was affecting him badly. “Listen, Desmond. The men who took Kenyah may kill her if too many of us show up on their doorstep. A friend of ours in law enforcement has agreed to guard you until we get back with Trent and Kenyah.”
“Do you even know where she is?”
“Not yet, but we will. We have everything under control. You just need to trust us,” she smiled warmly.
He wanted to believe her, but he couldn’t help wondering if he’d ever see Kenyah or his family alive again.
“So, you and Trent are good friends?” Choc asked.
“Not really, no. I’m Kenyah’s friend…we work at the same company,” he explained.
“I see,” Choc eyed him suspiciously. “You sit tight. We’ll be back in a few,” he walked over to the elevator control panel, and entered his access code.
They got on and left Desmond standing there nervously rubbing the back of his neck.
“He’s fucking my brother’s wife.”
The comment was so unexpected, Rayce did a double take. “Are you kidding? What makes you think something like that?”
“He’s critical of Trent. My guess is he doesn’t like him, yet he’s here risking his life to help him save his wife, because they’re co-workers. They’re definitely more than friends. It’s just like Trent to be chummy with a muthafucka who’s stabbing him in the back.”
“Choc, I know this shit has got you off your game, but to say the man is having an affair with Trent’s wife is way out there.”
“Why was he with her when she got snatched? If they were leaving work, why nobody saw her abduction but him? Where were the other employees?”
She smiled sheepishly, and he knew he’d flipped the switch on the little logic deduction bulb in her head. “Okay, you got my top-down. Desmond was the only one who saw it because they were someplace alone.”
“Exactly—don’t get me wrong, I’m not condemning her. I know what it’s like to live with Trent.”
Rayce took him by his shoulders and turned him to face her. “Listen, Choc, you haven’t see your brother in three years. He may be a different man from the one you remember, and apparently he’s going through some heavy shit, so cut him some slack…for your own sake,” she added, when worry lines formed in his forehead.
Chapter 9
The hood over Kenyah’s head made her feel like she was suffocating. She had been warned to keep quiet, and had been punched hard in her stomach when she attempted to ask another question after the warning.
Finally, the van came to a stop. The hood was removed roughly, snagging on her ponytail and jostling her head.
Kenyah shook her bangs out her eyes, and stared into the face of a bearded brotha with a gleaming bald head. “I see you learned to keep your mouth shut,” he showed her remarkably white teeth.
Kenyah turned her eyes down to the f
loor, and he grabbed her chin and lifted her face to his, forcing her to look him in his eyes. “I’m going to untie your hands and take you out of the van now, and you’re going to walk with me into that building.” He angled her face so she could see the building he was talking about.
It was an old brick warehouse with boarded up windows. She didn’t see any doors, and figured they were going to have to walk a few feet to get inside. She hoped it would give her a chance to run and scream for help.
“We’re going to be holding hands like lovers taking a stroll. If you say a word, I’ll break your fingers one by one before I shoot you in the head,” he said like he’d been reading her mind. “Do you understand?”
“Yes,” she answered in a trembling voice.
He released her face with a gentle pat on the cheek, and then he laced his fingers with hers. He opened the side door, and they climbed out the back hand in hand together.
Two other men got out the cab and followed them, and they all slowly walked to the corner of the building, and then around to the front entrance.
It was late, but there were a few people moving about, none of which showed any interest in her or the big man holding her hand.
“Hey T-Bone, wait up, man!” a man called out just as they were about to enter the building.
Her abductor stopped, and tightened his grip on her hand. “What’s up, Slick?” he asked.
“I heard y’all might need some help, and that I could make a few bucks.”
His words killed any hope she had of getting some help from him.
“Yeah, come on up,” he answered.
To her surprise, the electrical was working, and the building had lights and industrial fans blowing. It smelled of old urine and dust, and the floor boards creaked underfoot.
They all got on the elevator, and Kenyah was sandwiched between T-Bone and one of the men who got out the van with them.
Kenyah was scared. Too scared to resist when the man they called Slick started grinding on her ass. “Are we going to get a chance to tap this ass?” he asked, and they all laughed.
The first thing she saw when the doors opened on three was a beautiful black woman sitting at an old battered metal desk in the center of the floor. When she saw Kenyah, she started smiling devilishly.
She had ebony skin, and a wild thicket of wiry light blonde curls capped her head. Her eyes were cold, her irises like glacial blue ice. She wore a soft green eye shadow smeared under sharply arched eyebrows that made her look mysteriously wicked. A sexy white open zipper tank top pushed up soft mounds of perky breasts.
The men pulled and shoved Kenyah off the elevator and into the cavernous brightly lit room. She glanced around fearfully as they walked her over to the desk.
The woman was not alone in the room. A nicely cut shirtless brotha was sitting in a chair beside the desk at her right hand. He had hazel eyes, and curly hair that was pulled back in a thick ponytail. Tattoos draped his chest and broad shoulders like a shawl. He was reading a magazine, and he did not look up or acknowledge their presence.
There was an examining table with leather restraints a few feet to the left of the elevator. There was also a camera mounted on a tripod that had a tablet PC attached to it. A big white man who looked like he belonged in a Soprano movie was standing behind it. It looked like they were getting ready to shoot a film.
Guessing that she would probably be starring in it, Kenyah fought the panic creeping up her spine by telling herself that Desmond had seen them take her. Trent would already have the entire police force looking for her. She just had to play it cool and wait for him to show up.
“This is her,” T-Bone announced.
He still had a tight grip on Kenyah’s arm, but the other men had move on and found chairs, presumably to watch the show.
The woman got up from the desk and walked around it and stood in front of Kenyah. “She doesn’t look that special,” she looked Kenyah up and down. Her voice was soft, and slightly accented.
Kenyah had learned not to ask questions, so she stood there while the woman inspected her like she was a side of beef. “So, you’re Trent’s other woman?” she sucked her teeth.
Kenyah was surprised to hear Trent’s name. The men who took her hadn’t told her anything. She had recently heard a report on the news about two women who were taken off the street and forced to star in porn vids. They had been used perversely, but they had been released in a few days. When she saw the camera, she assumed it was what was happening to her. She never imagined her abductors knew her husband, or her.
“How long have you been his side bitch?”
“I’m his wife, Kenyah,” she corrected, “and who are you?” she asked, momentarily forgetting about the threat of violence for asking questions.
“I’m Xena, the woman who is having his baby, bitch!”
“You’re a fucking liar!” she responded angrily.
Lightening fast, Xena struck her across the face. Kenyah automatically raised her hand to strike her back, and T-Bone snatched her back out of reach, and punched her in her stomach.
Kenyah doubled over and crumbled to the floor in pain. He grabbed her bicep hard enough to leave a bruise, and hauled her back up on her feet.
Xena grabbed hold of her hair, and pulled her head back until she thought her neck might break, and then shouted in her face. “He’s the liar, and you’re nothing but his fucking side chick!”
“What do you want?” she asked, risking another gut punch.
“Some respect,” she spat, and then released her hair with a hard shove that pushed her head into T-Bone’s shoulder. “You don’t know him at all!”
“I know that we’ve been married a year, and he’s a detective with the CPD,” she snapped defiantly. She couldn’t stand this woman presuming to know more about her husband than she did.
“You only know his name, not the man,” she hissed. “He’s been with me almost two years, and we moved into a new apartment together three months ago. When I told him we were expecting a baby. He was so happy. He asked me to marry him. We were in love, and our life together was perfect. Then my brother, Lincoln, got arrested, and I couldn’t reach Geo on his cell. When he didn’t come home that night, I was worried sick. I thought the cops had got him too. I went down to the precinct with our lawyer and bitched about it. All they would tell me was Lincoln had been taken into federal custody, and they weren’t holding Geo. I didn’t believe them, and I wouldn’t let it rest. I made my lawyer grease some palms to locate him.
Then I put the word out that I was paying for information about my man. Everybody knows I pay good, so I got this video real fast,” she picked up her tablet and held it so Kenyah could see it. “This is Trent Real scrapping with some dude over you. All I had to do was follow the yellow brick road back to Geo.” She walked back around the desk and sat down.
“So you brought me here because Trent is responsible for your brother and your man’s arrest?”
“You are a stupid bitch. You know that? Didn’t you hear what I just told you? Geo Gardner is Trent Real! I didn’t want to believe it at first, but then they showed me this evidence. It meant that Geo was the one who set Lincoln up and got him busted. Lincoln trusted him because of me. He let Geo get close to him because of me. He wasn’t just fucking me. He was fucking my whole family. You have any idea how that made me feel? The man I love. The father of my baby was using me, and then I learn he is married to some stupid bitch that is okay with her man not coming home at night.”
For a moment, Kenyah was speechless. “You’re telling me that you’ve been living with my husband, Trent, and you’re pregnant by him, and he knows it?”
“That’s right, and now we’re going to learn how much he cares about his side chick. If he cooperates, maybe I’ll let you live because you too fucking dumb to kill. It’ll be like killing a fucking retarded bitch,” she cackled, and the men laughed.
Kenyah didn’t know what to think. If she believed the woman, it meant Trent
had been lying to her since the day they met, and he had never honored his marriage to her. “You’re calling me his side chick?”
“That’s what you are. Tie the bitch to the table.”
“What are you going to do?” she pulled against T-Bone until he picked her up and slammed her down on the table hard enough to knock the air out of her lungs. They strapped her arms and legs to the table without a fight.
Kenyah wanted to cry, but she wouldn’t give this bitch the satisfaction. She just stared up at the ceiling and waited to learn what horror she’d have to face next.
Chapter 10
Trent walked into the steel and glass apartment building, and up to the person manning the desk. The text didn’t give him an apartment number, so he figured they would be expecting him. “I’m Trent Real,” he said.
“You’re expected in the penthouse, Mr. Real. Take the elevator to your left, and use this card to access the floor,” he handed Trent a keycard.
“Who is expecting me?” he asked.
The man looked confused. “Why, Mr. Nettles, of course.”
“Of course,” he backed away from the desk and went to the elevator.
Josh Nettles was Lincoln Scott’s attorney, as well as his good friend. Trent knew that if he was conducting the meet in a place this nice, there was no way they were holding Kenyah here.
Trent took the express elevator up, and stepped off inside the ultra modern luxury apartment. Marble floors glistened, and deco art hung on the walls.
He didn’t see anyone, but he heard the soothing sound of classical music, and he followed it into the library where Josh was sitting comfortably on a blood red leather sofa; legs crossed and brandy in hand. “Trent Real,” he acted surprised to see him. “That’s your real name, right? Please come in and have a seat,” he slapped a hand on the full grain leather cushion next to him.
Trent didn’t bother to answer. He clearly knew everything there was to know about him already. He moved into the room cautiously, and then took a seat on the sofa beside him.
There was only one other person in the room with them, a big, tatted brotha with dreads, known as Snoop. He was a pretty nice guy compared to the other men that worked for Lincoln, and Trent had actually liked him.
