Chapter 20
Chapter
Twenty
KENDRIX
“You are going to come out of this a little bruised, but yuh won't be broken gyal, ya hear me?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Phoenix squeezed Lucy one more time before walking out to the door to get in the awaiting car. Lucy turned to me, holding her arms out.
“Give me a hug.” I wrapped Lucy’s small but firm body in my arms.
“Please watch your back; sometimes, even the innocent ones are guilty. You all have to go on this journey yourselves, but call me when you need me, and we will handle it as a family.” I kissed her forehead and squeezed her a little bit tighter, and then we left.
“Baby, wake up. We landed; it's time to go home.” I didn’t think twice about calling my house her home. She had made it her home since she’d been there.
Phoenix fluttered those beautiful eyes my way, and again, I was struck by the love she reserved for me. I kissed her lips and saw Travis frown up his face across from us.
“One day, you’ll find the person you want to give all of your love to. Even when you do stupid stuff or your best isn't good enough, they will still be there for you,” I said, looking him straight in the eyes. I didn’t want him to grow up like me and feel undeserving of love. We were cut from the same cloth, but I wanted to weave a new pattern for him.
“I don’t know about that, man, but we will see. I’m not worried about no girls right now.” Judge Treegoob's trial was coming up soon, and Travis was our witness along with a few other girls he’d been in contact with from the facility.
“Everything will work out. Don’t worry. We will protect you, Travis.” He nodded and looked out the window.
Everyone else was sitting all over the private jet. There were perks to having a best friend as a millionaire; Brian made a great living for himself.
The flight attendant opened the doors, and we headed to our respective homes. Before I let anyone out of the car, I watched my security cameras, but nothing was out of place .
We had a plan for Michael; I knew I should have shot him when I had the chance. But we had our team plant cameras around his home and job and a GPS tracker in his car. The IT tech finally got an I.P. Address from the email that sent the video of Phoenix and me that night. It showed up at the address that we had on file for Michael. Everything pointed back to him, but we still had to figure out who the woman was that we overheard on the video.
“Hey baby, you two go inside and get settled. I want to make a quick phone call; I’ll be in there shortly.” Phoenix looked concerned, but she didn’t ask questions.
“Yo B, I could have asked you, but I didn’t want to do it in front of Travis. Can he stay with you until we get to the bottom of this? I have a feeling that things are going to shift soon.” Brian wanted to protect everyone, so I knew what his answer would be.
“Of course he can. I’ll be over to pick him up in twenty minutes.” I called my mom next and talked to her for a few minutes. We planned to ambush Michael tomorrow, and it couldn’t come fast enough.
“I love you, baby, and please be safe,” Phoenix called from the front door. I asked her to stay with Brian until I returned home, but she refused. The guys and I were on our way to get Michael and whoever else he had playing this game with him.
“I love you too, Jewel. Everything will be fine. Don’t leave this house until I come back.” I added a please to that statement when she gave me a fierce side-eye.
Johnathan was pressing on the horn. She went inside, and we went over the plan in the car again.
His house was about thirty minutes outside Slatesville; we arrived in twenty. The neighborhood was dark and quiet. We had three vans filled with agents; the tinted windows didn’t give anything away. I knew it looked like we were in an action movie if anyone was watching from their window.
Our intel told us that he would be home at this time. Everyone came suited up in vest and their weapons ready to fire. We surrounded the house and borrowed a ram from the swat team to bust the door open. People were shouting and yelling from all different directions. I came in behind Johnathan to see one person that I didn’t expect to find here.
Judge Amanda was laid in a pool of her blood, and Michael had a gun pointed to his head with a bomb strapped to his body. The stress of the situation weighed heavy on him; his brown skin was ashy and riddled with specks of blood.
“Oh, the man of the hour has finally arrived, Kendrix; I can’t thank you enough for coming… all of this is because of you! Had you left well enough alone, we wouldn’t be in this situation. My wife—” He ferociously wiped the tears away with the hand not holding the gun. Michael reeked of desperation, and it stank up the entire place.
I didn’t know Amanda was married; she never acted like it the many times she tried to come on to me. They don’t even share the same last name.
We discussed how I would be the one to handle the negotiations for tonight, especially if Michael wanted to get my attention the way he claimed in the notes.
“Michael, can you tell me what happened here?” My voice came out strong and sympathizing; the object of the game was to calm him down.
His eyes snapped from her body to me in a millisecond, and the look I saw there reminded me of the emptiness in my father’s eyes.
“What the fuck happened here, is you. You will never understand that she is too good, too pure for you. Phoenix being with you has brought her nothing but pain and turmoil. I didn’t want to do it, but they made me. A few bad decisions and a lot of gambling debts put my fate into the hands of monsters. Once Amanda found out, she started creeping out on me, so I did the same. Madison wasn’t supposed to get hurt, but when they found out about her, they wanted us to lure Phoenix here. When I didn’t comply, she became another victim in their games.
“And it seems as though my wife fell to the same fate. I didn’t do this to her, but she was waiting for me like this; she, too, got swept up in a man and his charming looks. I suggest you get out of here before this bomb goes off; the countdown started the minute you walked through the doors. There should be about two more minutes to go.” Agents immediately started filing out of the room, but I wasn’t leaving until he told me who the players on the board were.
I kicked the gun out of his hand and got him his face. “Tell me who Amanda got swept up in; who is it?!” I pulled out my gun and tucked it under his chin.
“Tell me!” Yelling in his face did nothing but make him smile.
“Kendrix, we have to get out of here now. We will figure it out!” Levi’s voice lifted me out of my haze, and he dragged me out the door.
“Thirty seconds, and you’ll be joining me in hell, Kendrix. Are you sure you don’t want to stay? I—” The loudest boom droned his voice out, and the impact from the explosion catapulted my body into the air. Then everything went black .
PHOENIX
The doorbell ringing distracted me from my Facetime call with Asha; she was complaining about missing us when we left her a couple of days ago.
“Who is that at your door? I thought you said you were going to cook tonight.” Exiting our call to check the cameras, I saw Brian at the door.
“It’s Brian girl, see get off my case!” Brian must have gotten tired of waiting for me to answer the door; I heard his key letting himself in.
“Phoenix, come on, we have to get to the hospital. There’s been an accident.” His voice was steady, but the fear edged in his irises scared me.