Chapter 13
When we got back to the compound, I asked him for my phone.
He looked at me for a second like he was deciding whether that was a good idea. Then he nodded.
"You can have it in your room," he said. "But remember, somebody's listening."
I didn't care who was listening. I needed to make those calls. I’d been held up for days like a damn criminal with no electronics. I was thankful master trusted me enough to even watch tv. Damn.
He went into his office and I went to my room. A guard followed me, stood in the doorway while I made calls. I already knew the drill.
I called my aunt first.
"How is everything?" I asked, keeping my voice light even though my stomach was in knots.
"Everything is good," she said. "But I was told to tell you that you need to send more money. The cost of everything is going up. Clothes, food, everything."
My heart dropped. I'd just sent money three days ago.
"I'm not in a position where I can access my money right now," I said quietly. "I sent what I could the other day, but I'll have to go to the bank and get cash and then bring the cash when I can get there. I have a lot going on right now."
"You have til Friday," she said. "You need to have it in hand by Friday, baby girl and this isn’t a game. They said they've been protecting her for too long and you don't want to burn a bridge with them."
The threat was clear even though it wasn't said out loud.
I hung up feeling like the walls were closing in.
Friday. Three days from now. Yes I had the money, but like I said, I couldn’t just access it right now.
Being threatened really made my blood boil.
While being held up here, I had shit that could break me going on outside of this.
People blackmailing and extorting the fuck out of me, while this nigga Kaseem snatched my ass, only adding to my problems. That’s why I’m a firm believer and what they say.
You never know what a person has going on behind closed doors.
Then I called Nyla and River on three-way. The second they heard my voice they started screaming.
"Where the HELL are you?" Nyla was yelling. "We've been to your house three times. Your pops told us you went on a trip but we were about to file a police report. Damn you went M.I.A. What’s tea?”
"We were scared as hell thinking something was really wrong," River added. "Girl, you just vanished."
I looked at the guard standing in the doorway and lowered my voice. "A lot has happened. I need you guys to calm down for a second. Soon, I’ll be able to tell you everything."
"Calm down?" River said. "You disappear for days and you want us to calm down?"
"I'm getting married," I said it fast, like ripping off a band-aid.
The silence on the other end was loud.
"You're WHAT?" Nyla practically screamed it.
"In less than thirty days. I need you both to clear your schedules so we can do dress shopping next week. I'll call you soon with more details."
"Married?" River was going OFF. "Tatti, who the hell are you marrying? You barely know Savion. What has it been? Five or six months? You don’t know that nigga like that. I didn’t even think it was that damn serious.”
"It's not him," I said.
More silence.
"Oh, hell nah! What the fuck is going on?Married to who? You don’t have no hoes. Are you okay Tattiana?” Nyla said. "We're your best friends and we're finding out like this?"
"It wasn't my choice," I said, and that was the most honest thing I could say without saying everything. "I just have to go with the flow right now."
"Tatti, what is going on?" River's voice had shifted. She was scared now. "Are you OK, like seriously. Are you safe?"
"I'm safe. I promise I'm safe. I'll explain everything when I can, but right now I can't. Just know that I'm OK and I'm handling it."
We talked for a few more minutes, them asking a million questions I couldn't answer, me promising to call them back later. When I finally hung up, they were still yelling questions into the phone.
I took the phone back to his office with the guard on my heels until I walked into the office with Kaseem.
He was sitting at his desk looking at numbers on his computer. I sat down in the chair across from him.
He looked up at me and his face shifted.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Just family business," I said.
He nodded like he understood that some things didn't need explanation.
"Your driver can take me anywhere I need to go and I won’t put up a fuss,” I said carefully.
"But on Friday I need to go to the bank, and then I need to visit some family.
Before you, I had obligations. People I helped.
I don't want to go into details, but after helping you identify your threat, that's all I'm asking. "
He looked at me for a long moment.
"That's cool," he said. Short. Dry. But not angry.
We sat in silence after that. I watched him work, entering numbers and being very thorough walk going through different files. At least an hour had passed of me just watching him, then his radio went off.
"We got a black BMW circling the main road," one of his guards said. "Not on the property yet but they're checking the perimeter."
Kaseem's whole body went tense. He pulled up the cameras on his computer.
I looked at the screen and my breath caught.
It was Nyla's car. They tracked my location because we all had been sharing locations for years.
"Oh my God," I said. "I promise I didn't tell them where you live. Those are my best friends. They tracked my GPS because I had been missing for days. They're looking for me."
My heart was racing. This was bad. This was really bad. The last thing I needed was for this man to think I’d set him up or brought problems to his home. In this short amount of time, I realize that him and his family valued their privacy.
"Call them. I need to hear that’s what it is. Don’t coach or coerce the conversation. Talk regular.” he said.
I did that and he watched the camera feed while I called Nyla back.
"What are you doing?" I asked, trying to keep the panic out of my voice.
"We tracked your location," Nyla said. "You were acting strange on the phone. We need to know you're OK. We're outside where your phone pinged, but I don’t see nothing but dirt roads.”
"Hang up the phone," Kaseem said through clenched teeth. "Power it off. Now."
I powered it off and he sat there scratching his head for a second. I was scared of what he was abut to do. I really did not tell them to show up here. I was pissed.
"Your friends must really love you," he said. This had taken me aback.
"They do, and we usually talk all day everyday. So this is different for them. It’s natural them to be worried.” I said.
He picked up his radio. "Go get them out that car. Take devices. Blindfold them. Bring them here.
My stomach flipped. "Wait—"
"Relax," he said, and his voice was calm.
"I'm not mad. I know you got snatched without notice.
People gonna look for you. That's normal.
" He leaned back in his chair. "GPS can't track past the outside of the compound anyway.
It'll just show them they're somewhere on the land.
They won't be able to find their way back here on their own. It’s good. "
I watched him move through this like it was nothing. Like having my friends show up at his gates was just another situation to handle.
And he wasn't angry at me for it. That was the thing that got me. He understood.
Fifteen minutes later, his guards came back with Nyla and River in the back of a black SUV, both of them blindfolded, both of them talking a million miles an hour as we stood in the door, waiting for them to get out.
"Where is she? Where are you taking us?”Nyla was saying. "Tatti? TATTI?"
"If you hurt her I swear to God—" River started.
"Chill," Kaseem said to his guards. "Take the blindfolds off."
They did. Nyla and River blinked and looked around, trying to figure out where they were. Then their eyes landed on me and they ran toward me without thinking about where they were or who was watching.
Nyla grabbed me first, pulling me into a hug so tight I could barely breathe. "Don't scare us like that again. We thought something happened to you and we were about to be next.”
River was right behind her, hugging me, then pulling back to look at my face. "Are you hurt? What happened?"
"I'm OK," I said. "I'm really OK."
They both looked at Kaseem standing across the porch, and I watched them process what they were seeing. A man. A fine man. In what was clearly a nice house. With me.
River's eyes went wide.
"Oh," Nyla said slowly.
"This is..." River trailed off, looking between me and him.
Kaseem stepped forward and extended his hand to Nyla first.
"Kaseem," he said. "Nice to meet you." He introduced himself like he had some sense and I was really taken aback. I guess we needed to put on a show.
Nyla shook his hand like she was in a daze.
He did the same to River, and I could see them both trying to figure out what the hell was happening.
"We got a lot to talk about," River said, her eyes not leaving Kaseem. "But first, who is this?"
Kaseem guided us into the house and into the sitting area. While they had a seat, he whispered in my ear.
“You know what and what not to saw. You want your privileges, show me now. Enjoy your girls. Get your sense of normalcy. Make arrangements for your wedding. DON’T mention my business, and we good.
I’ll send the staff to bring drinks and snacks.
You got an hour.” He whispered, gently touched my waist then kissed my forehead before going back into the next room, which was his office.
Immediately after, one of the guards came and stood off in the far corner.
—
I sat down with Nyla and River in the sitting area and before they could start asking a million questions, I held my hand up.