16. Kingsley
KINGSLEY
“Treasure! Fuck!”
She was out cold, and my dad was being arrested. That white bitch was staring at us, and his face was red as fuck. I laid Treasure on the couch, letting Karima see to her, and approached him just as Watchful Eyes pulled up. “You know her, don’t you?”
He wouldn’t answer me.
“Answer me, muthafucka! How the fuck does she know you? What would have her so scared that she would pass out?”
When I got in his face, a cop grabbed me. I pushed him away from me. I could see he was about to come back at me, but I didn’t give a fuck. “This the muthafucka y’all need to be arresting! His shady ass!”
“King, please calm down, baby,” my mama said.
I glanced back to see Treasure sitting on the couch, pulling her hair and crying. When I walked toward her, she ran to the corner. She was trembling uncontrollably.
“Somebody call Mythic! Get him over here now.”
“I’m already here!” he yelled from outside.
I went back to the door, and said, “Let him in!”
One of the cops glanced at Treasure, then went and got Mythic as they escorted my dad out of the house. Mythic went to her, and she fell in his arms. She saw me yelling and being combative. Fuck! I ran outside, and said, “I’m calling Mister Berotte and Missus Taylor.”
“We already called them,” Ali said with a frown on his face. “They arrested Marcus too.”
I slid my hand down my face as I watched them put my dad in the back of a cop car. I felt like Treasure right now. I wanted to pull my fucking hair. It was about to get worse, because Uncle Storm and Uncle Jasper pulled up.
“What the fuck he being arrested for?” Uncle Storm asked.
No one answered him. When Unc looked at Peyton Cochran, he frowned. “Yo’ ass shady, and I can see that shit. Whatever proof y’all got probably ain’t proof at all. Y’all remember all that money y’all already had to pay us? We finna run that shit back.”
The agent’s phone rang, and his face only got redder. I watched him as he answered, then walked away. Uncle Storm was pacing, and Uncle Jasper was at the cop car where my dad was. Dad was sitting there with his head held high. He looked extremely calm, like he knew something we didn’t.
Sure enough, that bastard came back, and said, “Let him go. Marcus Henderson is being released as well. Fuck!”
He was livid. It served him right. One of the cops opened the door and helped my dad out as Mr. Berotte turned in the driveway.
He got out of his car, looking pissed. While they took the cuffs off my dad, he walked to Peyton Cochran and said, “Yo’ ass is next.
I can’t wait until they slap cuffs on you. ”
He went to my dad and shook his hand, then we all continued standing outside and watched them leave.
Uncle WJ, Aunt Tiff, Aunt Jen, and Aunt Chrissy all pulled up.
My aunts went straight to my dad and hugged him as Uncle WJ slapped hands with Uncle Storm and Uncle Jasper.
When we all went back inside, I wanted to see about Treasure. She still looked traumatized.
As I headed to her, she said, “No, no, no! No! No!”
I backed away as my heart fell to my feet. I dropped to my knees and put my face in my hands. We’d come so far, only to be knocked back to square one.
“Treasure, it’s Kingsley. He won’t hurt you, baby,” Mythic said softly.
She started shaking her head fast. “I wanna go home. I need to go home. Pleeeeaaasssse, Mythiiiic! Take me home!”
Her voice was coming out in screams. I didn’t know how me yelling had resulted in this until she said, “He said he would kill y’all! Kenny, Seven, Mythic, PJ, Philly, and Marcus! He’s going to kill y’all!”
“Treasure, baby what are you saying? Who’s gonna kill us?” Mythic asked.
“Him!” she practically screamed out. “The man that was here!”
“Peyton Cochran?” my dad asked.
She went back to the corner and slid to the floor.
“That muthafucka!” Mr. Berotte yelled.
Treasure was screaming and crying while Mythic did his best to console her.
I was still on my knees, just staring at the floor until Kane came to me and helped me up.
I didn’t know what to do, so I walked out the back door and went to the barn.
I went to the stall with my horse. I hadn’t ridden his ass in a long time because fishing and hunting had taken precedence.
However, when I got to his stall, instead of saddling him, I collapsed in the hay.
Treasure and I couldn’t go through this again so soon.
That man . . . Peyton Cochran. I wondered when she heard him say that.
Was he there when she was kidnapped and tortured?
I didn’t know what was going on, but I was sure I would know soon enough.
“Kingsley! Where are you?”
I recognized my mama’s voice, but I couldn’t respond to her. I felt weak. What if Treasure didn’t come out of it this time? I would lose her, and in losing her, I would lose myself. I didn’t even have words to pray. My soul was weary. God please . . .
“Listen up, family,” Uncle WJ said. “Shy and Missus Taylor have some info for us.”
He sat in the front row with Uncle Storm, Dad, Uncle Jasper, and Uncle Marcus.
My aunts were in the kitchen, because they didn’t want to be too far away from the food that was cooking.
I was seated next to my brother and my boys.
It felt like I’d been just barely existing.
I slept in that fucking stall the other night, then ended up stepping in horse shit on my way out early that morning.
No one knew where I’d gone. My phone was in the house, so they couldn’t get ahold of me.
Mythic had to take Treasure home, and I hadn’t heard from her since, despite how many times I’d called her.
That was three days ago. Mythic said he hadn’t seen her that bad since right after her attack.
Peyton Cochran was the culprit, but if Treasure wouldn’t talk, no one would ever know.
“So, they had a recording with Kenny’s and Marcus’s voices on it from the same night Reggie was killed. They couldn’t prove that the recording was taken in the act of Reggie being killed. Y’all could have been talking about an animal for all they knew. It proves nothing.”
I released a sigh of relief. My dad and Uncle Marcus were off the hook.
As he was about to continue, we heard the door open.
I didn’t know who had walked in, being that the doors were supposed to be locked.
My eyes were trained on the entrance until Mythic walked through it.
He was flipping that damn blade. PJ was with him.
Shy frowned slightly as they made their way to him. When Mythic started talking to him, I could see his eyebrows lift. PJ handed him something. Shy’s face was turning redder by the second.
“What you think they talking about?” Kane asked.
I shrugged. I hadn’t been talking much. My energy had all been focused on trying to get Treasure to talk to me.
I felt like I was dying. Sunday should have been perfect like Friday and Saturday had been.
Saturday, we made a trip to Liberty, and she got more clothes.
She planned to spend the week with me. The very next day, she was triggered beyond belief.
I was still wondering what that man had to do with anything.
When Shy went back to the mic, he said, “Y’all ain’t gon’ believe this shit.”
Mrs. Taylor was looking over paperwork with a frown on her face.
“Peyton Cochran is dirty as fuck. He and Reggie were friends, so he knew about Reggie’s vendetta he had out for y’all.
His family also had an illegitimate beef with Mister Henderson, mainly because they couldn’t believe a Black man was as successful as he was.
He was out for Mythic like the original plan stated when they hired Seven.
However, this rogue muthafucka was there when they tortured Mythic’s sister. ”
My eyes widened, and I stood from my seat. Everyone turned to me. “He was what?”
“He was there. Ali was able to finally track cameras and license plates. That bitch was driving the same car he’d driven three years ago when they tortured your lady, man. I’m sorry. That was what her break was about. She recognized him.”
Apparently, he’d said some things to her too.
She was terrified. No wonder she’d reverted back to how she was back then.
Her mind had gone back three years at the sight of him.
I closed my eyes for a moment, then opened them and walked to the back of the room.
I pulled my phone from my pocket and sent Treasure a text message.
Baby, please call me. I know what happened.
That was all I could even say right now.
She was already traumatized, then her waking up to hear me yelling and looking like I wanted to kill somebody made it worse.
I should have been the one she was able to look to for protection.
I only added to her trauma. I leaned against the wall and slid to the floor, lowering my forehead to my knees.
My life was all fucked up. What was I supposed to do without her? Before I was even able to restrain my tears, they were rolling down my cheeks. There weren’t many things that happened in my life that caused me to drop tears, but I’d already cried more than the man-laws allowed for this woman.
I just wished all those people that were involved in her kidnapping and torture would have been caught when it happened.
Of course, the FBI was going to protect their own.
Had it not been for Watchful Eyes, we still wouldn’t know who he was or how he was connected.
Had Treasure not been with me at my parents’ house, we would still be in the dark about his involvement in all that shit.
I supposed things happened for a reason, but I was so tired of the stress, depression, and trauma.
Treasure and I just wanted to live in peace.
Had this not happened, she probably would have been ready to move in with me before long.
Things were on the right track. After three fucking years, things were finally on the right track. I felt like I was losing it.