Chapter 10
I walked and walked, my six inch heels sinking into loose dirt with every step, my feet screaming at me worse than anything I’d felt in years, and I still didn’t have the first idea where I was or which direction was even taking me closer to home.
My mind kept drifting back to my boys. Was Kaseem alive?
Was Zaire? Namier? Had they made it out that warehouse, or was I about to find out I’d lost three sons in the same night that I finally found my fourth?
That thought alone kept my feet moving even when every part of my body wanted to just collapse right there on that dirt road until somebody found me.
In my mind, I kept telling myself to suck this shit up.
I wasn’t no weak ass bitch. But the day I’ve had, that was enough to break even the strongest woman in the world.
Almost forty minutes passed before I saw headlights coming down that road behind me.
I stood there for a second, weighing it, every instinct in me screaming caution, but my feet were damn near bleeding through the bottom of my heels at that point, and I didn’t have a single other option sitting in front of me.
So I stepped out into the road and flagged that car down, waving my arms, praying whoever was behind that wheel had some decency in them.
It was a red Dodge Charger. The man who pulled it over looked to be somewhere around thirty, thirty five, not too much older than my own boys. He rolled his window down slow, looking me up and down, looking around at the empty road on both sides of us before he finally spoke.
“Hey Miss Lady. You good? You need some help?”
“I lost my phone,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady, trying not to let him see just how shook up I actually was. “I don’t know exactly where I’m at, or how I’m supposed to get home from here.”
“You in Denton, where exactly are you trying to get to!” he said.
“Dallas, past the garden district.” I responded.
“Oh. You stay on the side where the money at. That’s over an hour from where you are right now.
I don’t know how you got way over here, but you far from home sweetheart.
” He kept looking around, that same suspicious energy sitting behind his eyes the whole time he talked.
“Get in. Don’t no woman need to be out here walking alone like this, especially when it’s about to be night. ”
I stood there for a second longer, thinking through every thought in my head, every reason this could go wrong. Next to those thoughts, it was the simple fact that I couldn’t walk another hour in these shoes with already bleeding feet. I decided to get in.
I climbed into that passenger seat and told him immediately that I didn’t have no cash on me, because I didn’t have my purse, but once I made it home, my husband would pay him whatever he wanted for the trouble.
He smirked at that, pulling back out onto the road.
“Husband, huh?” he said. “What’s a woman like yourself doing out here walking in the middle of nowhere?
Almost dark out too, especially if you say you have a husband.
Sweet as you look, something in them woods would’ve ate you alive tonight.
You a good thirty minutes from the nearest gas station driving.
That’s an hour or two hours on foot in them heels. ”
“I’m glad I didn’t have to find that out the hard way,” I said, keeping my tone calm, keeping myself composed even though everything in me wanted to scream.
Something wasn’t right with this nigga, and I could feel it now that I was sitting beside him.
“Can you just take me to the nearest gas station? You don’t have to worry about taking me all that way home.
Before I get out the car, I’ll call my husband myself, have him send the money straight to you for your time and help.
That’s if you don’t mind.” I said, trying to remain calm although something was feeling off.
“Nah,” he said, shaking his head slow. “That ain’t cool with me. I think I might have other plans for you tonight.”
“And what kind of plans is that?” I asked, keeping my voice even, curious despite the alarm bells going off in my chest.
“You’ll see,” he said. “But it damn sure don’t involve you going home right now. I always did love me a cougar. And from what you saying, your husband got a little bread behind him. You can still have him send that money my way, after we finish doing our thing.”
I let out a laugh, thinking for half a second he had to be playing, testing me somehow. But looking at his face, dead serious, I realized this nigga meant every word coming out his mouth.
“You can pull over right here,” I said. “I’ll take my chances walking. I think you got the wrong idea about what this is. After the day I’ve had, I need to get home to my family and find out what’s going on with them. I’m not going anywhere with you or nobody else tonight.”
He just laughed and kept driving, speeding up if anything.
This could not be real life. How does a day already this fucked up turn into something even worse.
I asked him again, nicer this time, to just pull the car over. He told me to sit back and enjoy the ride, said once he got where he was going, he’d let me out then.
“Imma tell you the same thing I tell all my girls,” he said, glancing over at me with something cold behind his eyes. “Ain’t nothing in this life free. I don’t care if it’s just a ride down the road. You gotta work for that.”
That’s when I looked down at his hands on that steering wheel, all them rings stacked up across his fingers, gaudy and deliberate, and it clicked into place exactly what kind of man I was sitting next to.
“Well, I’m not a little girl,” I said, my voice dropping cold and flat. “I’m a grown woman, and I’ve asked you nicely several times now to pull this car over.”
He just smirked again, didn’t even bother responding to me that time.
I didn’t wait for him to say nothing else. I had to make a quick decision, and wasn’t no way I was about to sit in this fuckin car and see what he had planned for me tonight. I was tired and stressed the fuck out already.
I lunged at him, both hands going straight for his face, my nails raking down hard across his cheek and catching the corner of his eye before he even had time to react to what was happening.
He yelled out loud, cursing, one hand flying off the wheel to grab at his own face, and that car swerved hard to the right, throwing both of us against the door.
He tried to backhand me with his free hand, catching me hard across the jaw hard enough my whole head snapped sideways, stars bursting behind my eyes for a second, but I didn’t let that slow me down.
I grabbed his wrist with both my hands and bit down into his forearm as hard as I could manage, feeling my teeth break through skin, tasting blood, and he screamed again, trying to shake me loose while that car kept swerving all over that dark road.
I hated that I didn’t have my gun on me, but one thing I knew how to do was to take a nigga down by any means.
“Bitch, get off me,” he yelled, his voice cracking higher now, panic replacing whatever confidence he’d been carrying a minute ago.
I didn’t let go.
He slammed on the brakes hard, and the sudden stop threw me forward into the dashboard, knocking the wind clean out my chest for a second.
But it gave me an opening too. Before he could grab at me again, I snatched one of my heels off my foot and swung it hard, that sharp point catching him straight across the side of his face, tearing into his cheek.
He howled, both hands flying up to cover the wound, blood already running down between his fingers, and that was all the opening I needed.
I grabbed the door handle and shoved it open, half falling out onto that pavement before catching myself, pure adrenaline the only thing keeping me upright at that point.
I scrambled around the front of that car fast, my bare foot slapping hard against the ground, still holding that bloody heel in my other hand, and I yanked his door open before he could recover enough to stop me.
He was still holding his face, cursing, trying to see straight through the blood running into his eye, when I grabbed a fistful of his shirt and pulled with everything I had left in me.
“Get the fuck out the car,” I said, my voice shaking but hard.
He tried to grab at me one more time, but I was already swinging that heel again, while throwing wild punches at the same time, catching him across the back of his hand hard enough that he yelped and finally let go, stumbling backward out that door and down onto the ground.
I didn’t waste a single second after that.
I climbed into that driver’s seat, slammed the door shut, and hit the locks before he could even get back up on his feet.
He was pounding on that window now, screaming something I couldn’t make out over my own heartbeat pounding in my ears, blood smeared all across his face and shirt, looking like a man who’d just found out exactly what kind of woman he’d picked up off the side of that road.
I threw that car in drive and stomped the gas, tires screeching against the pavement, watching him get smaller and smaller in that rearview mirror, still standing in the middle of that dark road as I pulled away.
My hands were shaking so bad against that wheel I could barely keep it straight, my whole body trembling from adrenaline and fear and rage all tangled together, my jaw throbbing where he’d hit me, blood in my mouth that wasn’t even mine.
But I was alive. I was in a car. And now all I needed was to find my way back home to whatever was left of my family.
—
I finally hit that highway sign and felt something loosen in my chest for the first time in what felt like hours.
I knew exactly where I was. I merged onto that highway and pushed that car as fast as it would go, weaving through traffic, my whole body running on nothing but adrenaline and the desperate need to get home.
When I finally pulled up to our gate, I realized I didn’t have my purse, didn’t have access to my own home, didn’t have nothing but a stolen car and a face full of dried blood that wasn’t mine.
Pulling in, I noticed there were men at each post and each entrance of the compound on guard.
I got out and pressed the call box, my voice shaking as I asked security to let me through.
They buzzed me in without a single question, and I climbed back in and drove that car through our gates.
Kadeem was standing in the middle of that road.
Blocking my path, arms crossed, his whole body radiating something I hadn’t seen from him in years.
I threw the car in park and jumped out, running straight for him, relief flooding through me so hard I could barely see straight.
“Where are the boys? Did they make it back? Are they okay? I need to get to them now. You’ll never believe the day I had,” I said, reaching for him. “I can’t even make this shit up. I was almost kidnapped, and had to damn near kill a nigga just to steal his car and get back here—”
“Zuri.” His voice cut through mine cold as ice, stopping me dead in my tracks before I could even get my arms around him.
“Who the fuck did you cheat on me with, and make that bastard of a son Demon? Cause right now, don’t nothing else you talking about matter to me.
And before you even think about lying, DON’T! ”