June- Chapter Fourteen
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I grabbed my headphones and left the house.
I decided to go on a nightly run. A part of me was feeling good since all my kids were home.
I turned on the music, did some light stretching, and took off.
The cool breeze smacked my bare chest as I ran, creating a rhythm.
My leg muscles began to tighten as I reached a small incline while turning the corner.
Running for me had become something that allowed me to think without my thoughts being interrupted by my sons’ cries.
It was my way to pursue good health. It was what kept me strong, kept me focused, and kept the very thing that scared me from festering.
With every mile I ran, it was as if I were racing myself to the invisible finish line.
I challenged myself during each run to go further and further, but tonight was different.
What did reaching the finish line actually mean?
What was on the other side? Was it my happiness?
Was it a new obstacle I had to face, or was it my truth?
Then I thought about Clark being at the end of that line.
It was him I was trying to reach. It was he who held the other half of my happiness in his hands, and from the distance I was at, I could see him trying to crush it.
Clark was like a stinking-ass hyena. They were a lion's worst enemy. He stalked spaces like he was waiting for his prey. However, he didn’t want to chase it.
He wanted it to come to him. That finish line was Peace and Savior’s future and a new start at TSU for Samara in the fall.
It was Zaria’s happy place, her solace, and for me, it was the end of a fucked-up family lineage that was toxic and unloving.
It was my truth that I’d been holding hostage, and I needed to get to that fucking finish line.
I had run so long I hadn’t realized how far from the house I was. By the time I reached my final corner, I stopped to catch my breath. Sweat trickled down the sides of my face as I placed my hands behind my head. To add to my workout, I did a few push-ups, caught my breath, and did it again.
“Nigga, you got this. You always have,” I muttered to myself.
As I began to make my way back home, my gut was telling me something was off, or maybe I was feeling what Z was. My speed picked up as I grew closer to my crib. That was when Z chimed in.
June! Where are you? My babies, they’re taking—
“The fuck!” I shouted.
My feet moved faster as they barely touched the ground. The moment I hit the corner, police cars began zooming past me. Is that Zeus in the back of the cop car? When I turned onto my block, I could see the police coming down my driveway with Z hogged tied.
“Let her go!” I barked as I hauled ass. By the time I reached them, they had her in the back seat, knocked out cold.
“Fuck wrong with you, nigga!” I roared, sending my fist right through the glass window.
I reached in to open the door before I felt hands on me. I tried to tussle my way back to the police car.
“Get the fuck off me! Z!” I shouted.
My elbow drove into one of their faces, and I tugged my arm from the other person, then turned to headbutt his ass. The moment I ran back up to the cop’s car, it took off.
“June!” someone shouted my name.
When I turned, I saw Tania holding one of my sons. “They-they took them all. I didn’t want to leave the babies.”
Panic set in, and I tried my best to calm the fuck down, but a nigga was losing his mind.
In this moment, I knew my sons needed me.
Hell, Love needed me, but my wife was hauled off, and I didn’t know why.
I paced the driveway, spewing every insult I could think of at the officers who were trying to get out of there.
“Bitch! Pussy-ass nigga! I’m going to slit yo’ fucking throat,” I roared. “I’m killing all you pig-ass, Wonder Bread-ass muhfuckas!”
I rushed over to Tania. “What the fuck happened? And don’t leave out a fucking detail.”
Her eyes were scared, but I didn’t care. With all the shit she talked, I needed her mouth to move as quickly as it did when she aired out Indigo. Her mouth opened, then closed. I moved closer, now grilling her.
“I don’t have time for the third-act, dramatized crying scene. Open your fucking mouth and speak, sweetheart.”
She looked over my shoulder, then back at me as she held Peace.
“All I know is when I pulled up to check on the house. The cars were coming down the block. There were so many of them. I-I saw them pull your friends and their girls out of the house one at a time. I thought you were in there, but when they were pulling Zaria out of the house with the baby in her hand, I knew you weren’t here.
They snatched the baby out of her arms—” she paused, “—she was fighting back until one of them hit her. I got to the house as quickly as I could. I went to school with one of them, and he was the one who let me take the kids, including Yana’s daughter, who’s inside. I couldn’t just let them take her.”
I clapped my hands together and placed them to my lips. “I need to go get them out. Fuck!” I shouted, sending my voice through the dark streets. “Why didn’t they arrest you then? Huh? They got everybody fucking else.”
She shrank then swallowed deeply. “I-I don’t know, but what I do know is that Grandpa has a lot of pull with them. Maybe you can ask him. He’ll get them out.”
Clark had finally made his move. Initially, I thought it would be toward me after the threat, but his goal was probably to get us all locked up. I pinched the bridge of my nose.
“Are you dumb? Why would I ask a muhfucka I want dead? He did this shit. I know it, and if you don’t open those fucking eyes and see it, then you're part of the fucking problem. Did you not hear anything the nigga said at dinner? Huh!” I shouted at her, causing her to jump.
I let out a sharp breath as I took my son out of her hands and went inside to Love and Savior, who were in their baby seats. I could hear Tania behind me.
“What are you going to do?”
I felt like I had failed Zaria. I promised to protect her, and yet I wasn’t here to be her protector.
The thought of our child being ripped from her arms sent fire through me.
If Clark wanted me to come to that fucking finish line, I was coming, but what he thought would be him winning at the end was only going to be his final ending.
I turned to Tania because in this moment, I needed her. She and I weren’t like Indigo and me, but I had no one else to turn to.
“I need you to watch them. I don’t ask for shit like this, but I need you to do that for me until Indigo gets here.”
Her head flew back as if I had insulted her. “You don’t trust me?”
“I don’t trust anybody, sweetheart, but I know how you feel about me, and honestly, the feeling is mutual,” I finished.
She gave me a slow nod as she slowly sat on the couch.
I picked up my phone to call Indigo, but before I stepped out of the room, I turned to Tania.
“You get one warning. Watch my fucking kids. If anything—and I mean anything—happens to them, Hope won’t have a momma. Even lions turn on their own blood.”
For the first time in my life, I had to do something I didn’t want to do: depend on family. After all my requests and prayers from God to end this cycle, I knew this was the final test.