Hope This Makes You Love Me (The Henderson Family Saga #31)

Prologue

TREASURE

THREE YEARS AGO . . .

“Treasure Semien. Girl, it was easy as fuck snatching you up. Damn, you pretty. I see why they named you Treasure. Pretty and fine as fuck. I bet your insides feel tight and juicy too. You look well moisturized.”

“Y’all need to let me go. Whatever y’all got going on with my brother, I ain’t a part of that shit. Let me go!”

They had me tied up and seated in a small chair.

The ropes were so tight they felt like they were cutting into my skin.

Small movements only made it worse. When they took me from the craft store’s parking lot, I knew exactly why.

There was no other reason anyone would come for me, other than for the bullshit Mythic used to be involved in.

The man who was speaking to me laughed and turned to his friend. “She say she ain’t got shit to do with it. Maybe we should let her go.”

They all laughed, taunting me.

“Anybody associated with that nigga is very much involved. You were the easiest target though. I guess he don’t give a fuck about you, huh?”

My face twitched in anger. “When my brother finds me, it’s gon’ be hell to pay. Simply because he decided to not be involved with you low-life muthafuckas anymore, you want to pull him down.”

He slapped me across the face. “He killed first. He don’t know the shit storm he stepped into when he took out Adrian.

Yeah, I bet he don’t think we know that shit.

” He scanned my body, making me cringe in disgust. “By the time we get through fucking you up . . .” He laughed.

“They gon’ have to change your name from Treasure to Trash. ”

I closed my eyes, doing my best to keep my mouth closed, so I could survive this.

Within my spirit, I cried out to God with everything in me.

Why didn’t Mythic have someone watching out for me like he had for Mama and Maui?

Whatever the reason, I knew he would be the only one who would be able to find me.

They had me in an area of Liberty I’d never seen before, and I’d lived here all my life.

It didn’t help for me to look around because I didn’t recognize a thing.

When the door opened and I heard a familiar voice, I frowned and opened my eyes.

The woman that appeared before me couldn’t be in on this.

She’d sat in our family room and was the mother of my nephew.

There was no way Vanessa was in on this.

She chuckled. “If only you could see the shocked expression on your face. I hate this had to happen to you, but your brother is like Hou-fucking-dini. He keeps escaping every trap we set for his ass. So, since we can’t get to him, I suppose we have to take you to teach him a lesson.

Muthafucka didn’t want to claim our son .

. . acting like I was reckless in these streets, when he knew I wasn’t. Yeah . . . he gon’ pay for that shit.”

“He’s in Caleb’s life now though! All of us are! We love Caleb. Please don’t do this.”

“Aww. I’m sorry, Treasure, but someone has to pay for his past crimes.

Unfortunately, it has to be you. You’re about to feel every emotion I felt from childbirth to now.

All the difficulties I had during labor .

. . the aftermath of that shit . . . all of it!

He didn’t bother to show up! Muthafucka! ”

She screamed and cried, then threw up all over me, causing me to scream too.

After wiping her mouth and somewhat composing herself, she said, “This is only the beginning, little miss perfect. All these niggas finna gut your fucking insides. I can no longer have children because of internal bleeding, and now you won’t be able to have them either.”

The guy next to her ripped my shirt and bra right off me and another grabbed me by the neck as someone untied my wrists and ankles.

I tried to fight, but there were too many of them.

Someone was holding my arms and neck as the man in front of me took off my jeans.

I cried, prayed aloud for God to rescue me.

I screamed out for my brother repeatedly while they laughed.

When he shoved his dick inside of me, it felt like it tore me in two. They laughed as he shivered, like this was an enjoyable moment. He dropped spit on me, and I closed my eyes tight, trying to teleport anywhere else but here. Hell had to be a step up from this place.

He fucked me hard, then pulled out and nutted all over my face. Before he could finish, another nigga was fucking me in the ass. I could smell the blood and hear the laughter of bystanders. They found joy in my torture. I wasn’t sure how human beings could be so damn evil.

“Open your fucking eyes, girl!”

He smacked me hard across the face. I opened my eyes, silently begging him to stop. I could feel my lip swelling. My ear was ringing, and my vision was blurry. Another man doused us with baby oil as everyone laughed. Vanessa stood there and recorded the assault, laughing at my pain.

This shit went on for nearly an hour. I had lost count of how many men had entered my sanctuary. When they were done with me for the day, they tied me back up and threw me in a corner.

“Yeah, you pretty fucked up, lil mama,” one of them said.

He pulled a blade from his pocket, and said, “I can’t wait for what tomorrow has in store for you. Get some sleep, because we got a full day planned for you, baby.”

My soul trembled in fear. When I saw a white man watching us and smiling, I knew this was much deeper than I thought. I didn’t know who he was, but I could surely tell that he wasn’t from around these parts.

“Wake up, bitch!”

I opened my eyes in time to see a naked ass in my face and shit dropping on me.

I wanted to scream so bad, but I didn’t want to open my mouth.

That didn’t matter though, because he turned around and with the help of someone else, pried my mouth open.

Another nigga waiting in the wings, came and pissed all over my face as I cried.

When they released my mouth, I screamed, “Mythiiiiiic!”

Their laughter drowned out my screams as they shoved shit in my mouth.

When they had trouble getting me to keep it open, a nigga started cutting me.

After he slid his knife over my body a few times, someone else pissed on me again.

The cuts were on fire. I was screaming and spitting, trying my best to get all the shit out of my mouth.

I felt like I wanted to pass out. I was in so much pain.

I threw up all over myself as they yanked me from the floor and had their way with me.

Doing my best, I tried to imagine I was somewhere else .

. . heaven. Lord, please just take me. I would much rather them just kill me than to have to be tortured in this manner.

I would never be the same after this. How could I be?

The entire day had been filled with beatings, little cuts with that fucking pocketknife, and gruesome sex.

Whatever object they could find had made its way inside of me.

They’d penetrated all three holes at some point, sometimes all three at once.

I’d thrown up more times than I could count, and I was in and out of consciousness due to the level of pain I was in and the blood loss.

When they felt they’d done enough, they threw me in the back of a van and took me somewhere else.

When we got there, I tried to fight for my life.

I realized we were by the bridge, way in the back though.

That wasn’t too far from Mythic’s house.

I started screaming, hoping someone would hear me.

I probably wasn’t fighting as hard as I thought I was because I was so weak.

I knew I had to be dehydrated. The only thing I’d drunk was piss.

As I fought, the nigga with the pocketknife shoved it in my side. “I bet that shit keep yo’ ass still,” he said, then laughed.

They pulled me to a shack near the water.

The stench was so bad. I wasn’t sure if it was me or something else I was smelling, until I saw two dead bodies decomposing right there on the floor of it.

When I saw the maggots crawling all over the corpses, I threw up again.

Throwing me to the floor, they laughed like they were watching a comedy show.

I had nothing left.

“Mythic . . .”

“That nigga ain’t coming. He next. The minute he even steps foot in Liberty, we taking him out. You’ll be dead too before anyone finds you,” a female voice said.

I looked up to see Vanessa. I could see three of her, along with that same white man.

“Since he didn’t want to take care of Caleb, I fucked up his woman’s medicine.

Imagine the joy I felt when she lost her baby.

” She laughed hysterically. “This man right here is going to make sure the Semiens and the Hendersons go down for good. Mythic wanted to skip town and link up with their family, and their asses are going down too. Kenny, WJ, Jasper, and even that fucking mayor. Marcus is the main target. We won’t stop until they are all six feet deep. ”

She laughed more, then slid her finger down her throat and threw up all over me again. After clearing her throat and wiping her mouth, she continued.

“I bet you’re dying to know who this man is, huh?

He’s the man that’s going to make sure Mythic goes down, no matter who he has to take out to make sure it happens.

Say hello to Special Agent Peyton Cochran.

You wanna know why he’s so significant? His family has been one step behind the Hendersons for over thirty years.

Everything his family has tried to do to get ahead has failed, including botching up Seven’s trial.

He’s going to make that a thing of the past, starting with that fool, Seven Henderson Junior. He’s on borrowed time.”

My blinks were getting slower as I listened to her talk about all the ways they would take down the Hendersons.

The blood was oozing from my wound, and I knew it would only be a matter of time before I met the Lord.

I lay on the floor as they tied my ankles, then I laid my hand on my wound, hoping they would tie my hands to the side. They did.

One guy dragged me on the floor, bumping me into the bodies on the floor.

I knew maggots had to have gotten on me.

He shoved me in the closet and slammed the door.

I heard laughter, then I heard, “Good work, Vanessa. This should draw Mythic to us . . . both him and PJ. Then we’ll get Philly and Marcus.

They think they’ve gotten away with all the lives they’ve taken, but they will be in for a rude awakening, including Kenny Henderson for killing Reggie. ”

I did my best to listen carefully before drifting off.

“Reggie was a plant, but we were best friends. Wesley Henderson was a fucking thorn in my family’s flesh, and finally, I feel like, with this intel, I can avenge that shit.

They even fucked up the Andersons. We should have known those weak motherfuckers didn’t stand a chance against them, especially after they finally took out Wesley Henderson.

The FBI is on our side, especially with knowing the money that could benefit them.

This is going to be over soon. We can leave here together and start a new life elsewhere when it is. Thank you, Vanessa.”

When everything got quiet and I heard doors closing and engines starting, I screamed at the top of my lungs, hoping someone . . . anybody would hear me.

“Mythiiiiic! Help meeeeee! Heeeeellllllp! Mythiiiiic!”

I knew my brother was out there. I kept screaming his name, until I no longer had a voice.

My soul was tired. My spirit was broken.

My body was done. Hours had to have gone by.

No one was coming to save me. I would become one of these bodies on the floor .

. . a random, missing dead person, who the maggots had a field day with.

Allowing my eyes to close everything went black.

“Treasuuure . . .”

It sounded like someone was saying my name in a megaphone. I thought I was dead, and the Lord was calling me, but the voice sounded too panicked.

“Treasuuure!”

“Mythic,” I whispered.

I could barely open my eyes, but there he was, pulling me from the mouth of hell to live through this horror movie that would now be my life . . .