“Jay, I need for you to calm down before you have a panic attack or something,” Marco told her.
He had just gotten to the house ten minutes ago after receiving a 911 call from his brother. He didn’t know what was going on and it didn’t matter, anytime someone in the family needed him he was going to be there without a doubt. Now he was sitting here trying to figure out what had Jayliah so messed up that it caused her to pass out.
“I can’t; where the hell is Jacole?” she said as she jumped off the couch and started pacing.
“She and your dad said they were a few minutes away. Baby, calm down, please,” Tariq told her.
He was worried as hell about Jayliah. When he looked up to realize that she had passed out, he didn’t know what the hell was going on. He didn’t even check to see who had called her because none of that mattered at the time but now he was worried because that phone call really had her fucked up but she wasn’t saying who it was or what it was about.
“Jay! We’re here; what’s wrong?” Coco asked as she walked in the door with their dad hot on her heels.
When she heard the panic in Tariq’s voice when he told her to get to the house and said that Jayliah had passed out, she wasted no time getting over there.
“I got a phone call from the man who did a DNA test on the arm. He said there was a mix-up and that wasn’t Quaid’s arm. Our DNA’s didn’t match; my baby is still alive,” she said in one big breath.
“What?” everyone yelled simultaneously.
“Hold up, Jay. Some shit is not adding up. Why is he just now calling with that shit when it’s been almost a month?” Coco asked, unsure.
It wasn’t that she wasn’t happy to hear that there was a possibility that her nephew may still be alive. It was just that she didn’t want her sister to get her hopes up only to be hurt all over again in the end. She knew Jayliah had been on an emotional rollercoaster lately and she was just starting to pick the pieces up. She didn’t want this throwing a wrench into the progress she had made.
“He said he ran some extensive tests just to make sure and he thought he had initially called me but when he realized he hadn’t, he rushed to call me. I don’t even know what to think right now,” she sighed.
“This is some crazy shit and that nigga foul as fuck if he had a hand in this sick bullshit,” Marco spat.
“I swear I’m having mixed emotions right now; is that a bad thing?” Jayliah questioned.
“No, it’s not. Simply because we don’t know for sure and the fact still remains that my grandson is missing. I think we should call the police,” her dad said.
“I would agree with you but we can’t really trust them with this family right now, daddy,” Jayliah told him.
“Oh that reminds me, please don’t let me leave this house without talking to you two,” Coco told Tariq and Marco.
“What happened?” the brothers asked at the same time.
“Oh, it can wait until after we handle this situation but just know I had a very interesting visit from our little friend on the force and you two need to answer your phones more often,” she told them.
“No, Jacole. I think you need to tell them now before he tries something,” her dad said.
“Try what? Who are we talking about?” Jayliah asked, confused.
Coco sighed deeply before she told them about how Elias had been blowing up her phone and how she had been staying at her parents’ house out of fear of him popping up at her house and doing only God knows what. She made sure she told them his exact words when he popped up at her job and tried to blackmail her.
“Coco, why didn’t you tell me this? I had no idea.” Jayliah shook her head.
“What could you possibly have done, Jayliah? Besides, you had your own issues that you were dealing with and I wasn’t trying to add more onto your plate,” Coco told her.
“That’s bullshit, you know you can always come to me when you have a problem, no matter what. This nigga has gone too far. How the hell is he going to try to pin a murder on you with no evidence?”
“That’s why I really want to call his bluff but he wants Zeek so bad there’s no telling what he’ll do. He swears up and down that I know where he’s at even though I don’t but I know somebody in here does,” Coco said as she cut her eyes at Tariq.
“Don’t even trip about that shit, Coco. Even if he did take you in, the most he could do is question you because like Jay said, there’s no evidence linking you to his murder,” Tariq told her, ignoring her implication that he knew where Zeek was.
“Really?” Jayliah asked with an attitude.
“What?” Tariq asked, confused.
“This nigga is trying to take my sister down for a murder that she obviously didn’t commit, even though the shit would have been justified and the only thing you tell her is don’t trip? No, what you need to do is tell Ezekiel to bring his ass home and fix this shit.”
Before Tariq could open his mouth with a rebuttal, Coco’s phone was ringing. Taking it out of her purse, she noticed it was Elias calling from one of the many numbers he used to contact her. Rolling her eyes, she held her phone up.
“Speaking of the devil himself.”
“You gonna answer it?” Marco asked.
“I didn’t plan on it but I guess.” Coco shrugged as she hit the answer button. “Hel—”
“Time’s up; where is he?” Elias asked before Coco could even answer the phone good.
“I already told you once, I’m not going to tell you again. I do not know where Zeek is,” Coco said before hanging up the phone. “I guess I’m just gonna have to deal with the consequences.”
“This is some bullshit, that nigga needs to go,” Marco stated.
“Coco, I’m telling you, you’re good. I wouldn’t dare let shit happen to you. Trust me. When he comes for you, you’re going to be ready for him. Don’t answer shit without a lawyer present. You just let me handle the rest,” Tariq told her.
___
Quaid sat in the cold attic shivering with his knees pulled up to his chest. He didn’t know how long he had been up there due to him losing count of the days. All he knew was he was ready to go home. He barely ate, barely had anything to drink, only had a little pallet to sleep on and it was dark up there.
He honestly didn’t know or understand what he did to deserve this treatment. All he remembered was being woke out of his sleep one night by his dad saying that they had to go somewhere then the next thing he knew, he was being locked up in an attic in an abandoned house with no explanation.
While he was up there, he had been talking to God and asking to give him strength to fight. Even though his mom wasn't big on going to church, one thing she was big on was her faith in God and Jayliah had taught Quaid how to pray at a young age.
Quaid heard footsteps coming and looked up just as Quadir was walking towards him with a plate of food and a glass of water. This was the first time he would be eating or drinking something all day and as soon as he smelled the aroma of the food, his stomach roared.
“When can I go home?” he asked.
“Stop asking me that shit!” Quadir snapped.
“My mom and Riq will come find me eventually. I hope you know that,” Quaid told him.
Quadir let the plate fall from his hands and food splattered all over the floor. He kneeled down in front of Quaid so they were face to face.
“Fuck that nigga! You think I give a fuck about him? I hope he do come this way looking for you just so I’ll have a reason to kill his punk ass,” Quadir laughed menacingly before he got up.
He continued to laugh as he left the attic, making sure he locked it back. Quaid quickly moved to the plate, scooping up food that didn’t get a chance to touch the floor with his hands. He knew it wasn’t the right thing to say or wish for but right about now he was hoping that Tariq would kick the door in and kill Quadir.
Tariq was more like a dad to him anyways. Everything in his and his mom’s lives was going great until he showed
up. She was the happiest Quaid had ever saw her since she had met Tariq and he loved him, too. Then all of a sudden, he comes out of nowhere, messing everything up for everybody. Quaid was wishing he would have stayed wherever he was at.
Chapter Eight
“Dad, breakfast is ready!” Coco yelled up the stairs to her dad.
As she was walking back to the kitchen to fix his plate, she bumped into her mother. Without acknowledging her or even sparing her another glance, Coco walked around her as if she wasn’t even there. That’s pretty much how things went between them these days. Coco really had no words for the woman who gave birth to her because her attitude was ugly and the way she went about things was shady.
Once upon a time, she used to try to be the voice of reason and get Jayliah to try to fix her relationship with her parents by now she realized it wasn’t Jayliah with the problem, it was their mother. Coco didn’t understand why she had so much animosity in her heart but after that stunt their mom pulled when they found out Quaid was missing, she washed her hands clean of her.
“If you’re going to be living in my house, you need to acknowledge me,” Sharon sneered.
“Correction, I’m not living nowhere, I’m just staying here. Besides, this is my daddy’s house, don’t get it twisted,” Coco told her.
Coco was never the type to disrespect her mother but ever since she had been staying here, she had been throwing slick little shots at her. Just for the sake of keeping peace, she had been ignoring her but today Coco wasn’t in the mood for that. She had been on edge ever since Elias popped up at her job and Sharon’s nasty attitude was irritating the hell out of her on top of her agitation that he had stirred up.
“I don’t care, as long as you’re laying your head in the home that we built together, you will respect me. That’s what’s wrong with you and your damn sister now. That’s why y’all always in some shit because your attitudes are fucked up.”
“Don’t speak on shit you don’t know about!” Coco snapped. “You should be the last one talking about somebody having a fucked up attitude when you make everyone that comes around you miserable.”
“Hey, what’s the problem?” Steve asked, looking from his wife to his daughter. He knew Sharon had to really push Coco’s buttons to have her cursing at her because that was something that she never did.
“Your daughter is disrespectful, that’s the problem.”
“You know what, dad? Out of respect for you and your house, I’m going to leave for a few hours before I end up saying or doing something I might not regret,” Coco said as she walked out of the kitchen.
“Jacole,” her dad called after her as he followed her.
“No, daddy, I’m good. Go eat your food before it gets cold. I’ll be back,” she said as she kissed his cheek.
Steve sighed in frustration as he watched his youngest daughter rush out of his house. He was just getting back in with both of his daughters and rebuilding his relationship with Jayliah and he refused to let anything get in the way of that, especially his meddling, miserable wife. As he made his way back into the kitchen where Sharon was standing at the counter fixing coffee, he marched right over to her.
“You leave her alone, alright? I don’t want you saying shit else out of line to her. Don’t even open your mouth to try to play the victim right now because I know that’s bullshit. Just leave her the fuck alone!” he yelled before snatching his plate off the counter.
Sharon was left standing there with her mouth wide open but she knew better than to say anything back to him.
___
“I’m telling you, Jay, I had to leave that house before I slapped her ass,” Coco huffed as she drove.
“I don’t even know how you do it. I told you that you could stay here because God forbid you catch a case over her ass,” Jayliah said.
“Nah, it’s cool; plus you need all the space you can to get to know your step daughter.” Coco smiled.
“Honestly, Co, I thought I would feel some type of way being around her but Tanae is so adorable. She’s so sweet and quiet whenever she’s over here and always wants to help out whenever I’m doing something. It’s hard to believe that her mother is really her mother,” Jayliah told her.
“That’s good, I’m happy to hear…shit,” Coco cursed as she looked in her rearview mirror at the blue and right lights.
“What’s wrong, Coco?” Jayliah asked.
Coco got quiet for a few as she saw the door to the patrol car open and Elias step out. Shaking her head, she silently cursed herself out. She should have known he would track her down eventually. How the fuck does he keep finding me but can’t find Zeek? she thought to herself.
“Coco, you don’t hear me talking to—”
“Jay, tell Riq to send that lawyer. It’s about to go down,” Coco cut her off before hanging up.
After tossing her phone in her purse, Coco said a quick silent prayer that her mouth and her attitude wouldn’t make this situation any worse than it already was. When Elias approached her car, he was wearing mischievous smirk that Coco wanted to slap off of his face.
“Jacole Tate, do you mind stepping out of the car for me, please? Don’t bother asking me what this is about because I think you already know,” Elias told her with cockiness in his voice.
Moving as slowly as possible just to piss him off, Coco go out of the car. Elias roughly turned her around and slapped his handcuffs on her as tight as he could.
“That shit isn’t necessary, I’m just going in for questioning, bastard,” she said through clenched teeth.
“Watch your mouth,” he said as he pushed her towards his car.
The whole ride to the police station, Elias was taunting her and saying little stuff about how he bet she wished she didn’t help her punk ass boyfriend get away. Then he had the nerve to ask her what kind of man would leave his girlfriend to take the fall for him, stating that if she was his girl, she wouldn’t be going through that. Coco let everything that he was saying go in one ear and out the other because she knew he was just trying to get to her.
When they got to the interrogation room, as soon as she sat down, she asked for her lawyer.
“I want my lawyer,” Coco said.
“We haven’t even started yet,” another officer said as he walked in the room.
“Doesn’t matter. I don’t talk without one, I know my rights,” Coco said told him.
“Well, well, well. Elias Santiago, long time no see. I would be lying if I said it was good to see you, though,” an older man dressed in a suit said as he was led into the room.
“Wolf Platowsky, what are you doing here?” Elias asked with an attitude.
“If I heard correctly, my client, Ms. Tate here, just asked for me, so here I am,” he said as he strutted to sit next to Coco.
The man who Coco now knew as her lawyer just looked as if he cost a lot of money to represent you. By the look of things, he must have been passed on to Zeek and Tariq from Chico because there was some serious tension between him and Elias and the tension was so thick in the room that you could cut it with a knife.
“Have a seat, gentlemen. Let’s talk business,” Platowsky said to the two police officers. “Now exactly what have you brought my client in here for today?” he asked.
Elias’ partner reached in a folder and pulled out some pictures, spreading them out along the table in front of Coco so they were facing her.
“Do you know what that is?” he asked her.
“A dead body,” Coco answered dryly.
“Don’t fucking get smart!” Elias snapped at her.
“I would appreciate it if you didn’t speak to my client in that manner, Officer Santiago. She was asked a question and she answered it,” Wolf said.
“Yes, Ms. Tate; it is indeed a body but do you know who it belongs to?”
“I can’t say that I do,” Coco said with a straight face.
“That is the body of Traevino Morales.”
“Your ex-boyfriend,” Elia
s threw in.
“I think I know who my ex-boyfriend is, but thank you for that bit of information,” she said sarcastically.
“So what are you two gentlemen trying to imply?” Wolf asked.
“We just want to know when was the last time your client had any contact with Mr. Morales,” Good Cop said.
“Months ago, when he showed up at my home unexpectedly and…” Coco almost had to catch herself. She didn’t want them to know about Trae raping her because she didn’t want them to think that would give have given her a motive to kill him.
“When he did what?” Elias asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Is my client under arrest?” Wolf asked.
“No, we just wanted to bring her in for questioning,” Good Cop said.
“Alright, I think you asked enough questions for today. If you have any more questions for Ms. Tate, feel free to contact me,” Wolf said as he laid his card on the table.
Coco had to contain herself from laughing at the look on Elias’ face as Wolf led her out of the interrogation room. He looked as if he was ready to spit bullets. Just as Tariq had promised, Coco walked out of there a free woman but something told her that was not going to be the last run in she had with Elias Santiago.
Chapter Nine
Buzzz
Zeek stirred in his sleep due to the buzzing sound but he couldn’t make out where it was coming from.
“Papi, answer your phone,” his companion whined.
Buzzz
“Chill out, I got it,” he grumbled as he sat up in the bed and snatched his phone off the dresser. Seeing that it was Tariq calling him, he figured that it had to be something important. “Yea?” he said, still half sleep.
“Wake the fuck up, nigga; they got Coco,” Tariq told him.
Hearing Coco’s name caused him to be fully alert.
“Who is they and why the fuck they got her?” Zeek asked as he got out of bed and walked out on his balcony.
The Wrong Side Of Love 2: A Hood Love Story Page 4
