4. Daylin #3
Dialing my father’s phone number that I only knew by heart because he’d had the same one since I was a sophomore in college, I put the old flip phone to my ear and did my best to stave off the tears, but it was useless.
As soon as my father’s skeptical greeting poured through, I broke down, causing Rakim to tug on my wrist in order to pull the phone from my face and press a button to publicize the call.
“Daylin?” My father shrieked somewhat, and I was surprised he recognized me just by the sound of my crying.
“Yes, hi, Daddy.” I pulled it together once I noticed Rakim watching me, unmoved by my sobbing.
“Day, what’s wrong? What happened?” His voice kept heightening the more he spoke, and I was so caught off guard by his concern for me that I didn’t speak right away.
I realized Rakim was right—my father didn’t respect me, but he did care.
Running my hand across my nose to stop it from running, I pulled it together as much as I could.
“Daddy, I’ve been taken—”
“Taken? Taken where?” He shouted, unable to let me finish my statement.
“I don’t even know.” I looked around the large room and out of one of the windows to see nothing but land and what appeared to be an abandoned shed in the distance.
Rakim caught my eyes, making me focus back on the task at hand.
“Day—”
“I’ve been kidnapped, and I need you to listen to whatever he says to be sure I live and can come home.” I got right to it, unsure of how to even hold a conversation such as this one.
I could feel Rakim’s eyes damn near penetrating my skin, and it brought about a queasiness in my stomach.
I felt like shit for having found entertainment in this happening to other people and it being turned into TV shows and documentaries.
Nothing about this right here felt like something someone should watch for enjoyment.
My father was quiet except for a few sighs and attempts at asking questions he obviously couldn’t form. Judging by the light rustling in the background, I could tell that he was moving around whatever hotel suite he and my mother had been staying in.
“I don’t understand, Daylin. If this is one of those pranks, I am demanding you end the shit right now.” His voice trembled, and I found solace in the fact that he was afraid.
As morbid as it was, it felt good to know my father loved me enough to be scared right now.
“It’s not a prank, Daddy.” I whimpered, sniffling heavily.
“Oh my gosh.” I heard the bed springs squeak as he plopped down onto the bed he’d gotten out of. Just then, I could faintly hear my mother awaken. “Are you okay?”
“I—”
Rakim snatched the phone from me before I could speak, making my mouth fall ajar. I watched him closely as he stood before me, looking eight feet tall while clutching the phone that looked comical in his big hands.
“You don’ got enough information, muthafucka.” He spoke, silencing my father as he repeatedly tried to get an answer from me.
“Who the fuck is this? Do you know what you’ve done?
I hope it was worth it because you are gonna regret every bit of this!
I can promise you!” My father ranted as soon as he heard Rakim’s voice.
“You bring my daughter back right this moment, and I will let it go. You keep her a second longer and you will pay!”
I could tell my dad was nervous. His voice was stern, and he meant business, but I could sense the slight terror underlying his tone.
Rakim’s light chuckling had both me and my dad holding our breath. I was trying to read Rakim for a moment, hoping to detect just how crazy he was.
“Fuck all that. What you ’bout to do is hop yo’ ass on a flight and put Talid Miles back on the operating schedule for an appointment in less than forty-eight hours.
You try to do anything other than fly yo’ ass back to the states and get to fucking work on Talid, not only will I murk ya baby girl right here—” His eyes honed in on me, making me swallow a lump that was all of a sudden in my throat—“but I’ll add ya other two kids and ya wife to the list. I’ll let you stir in ya grief for a bit before I put a fucking hole in a ya head last. I’m asking you not to try me, but it’s really up to you, Doc. ”
“You know I can easily find out who you are by digging into Mr. Miles’ background, right?” My dad let out a sort of wry chuckle in an attempt to mimic the one Rakim had delivered moments earlier.
“If I was worried about you finding out who the fuck I was, I would’ve gon’ about shit a lot differently, nigga.
Life ended for me a long ass time ago, and I have no issue killing yo’ whole fucking family over just one of mine.
This yo’ fucking job, nigga. The career you paid thousands of dollars and sat in several muthafuckin’ classes to achieve.
Yet I gotta threaten yo’ quack ass to save someone’s life instead hopping on jet skis with ya bitch. ”
“Sir—”
“Look into my background, call the police, investigate, have a muthafuckin’ Coke and a smile, or do anything other than what the fuck I just told you to, and yo’ people are as good as dead. Be sneaky if you want to, but I’m way more connected than you ever wished to be, Dr. Conrad.”
Silence hung in the air as I prayed my father let go of the machismo act and folded.
I would hate to lose my life behind a pissing contest when it was my father’s literal job to do what Rakim was asking.
And though I hated Rakim at this moment, and for good reason, at the end of the day, he was right.
My father had no business going on vacation while a patient’s life hung in the balance.
To keep it real, I didn’t want to believe he’d done such a thing, but noticing that he hadn’t denied anything confirmed everything, sadly.
Expelling a defeated breath that made me relax a bit, my father replied, “Fine. Fine. I will look for a flight—”
“No need. Start packing and I mean right this minute. My people are outside ya suite door ready to take you to the private jet and get you back here ASAP.”
I could tell by my father’s silence that he was shocked by this information. I was too. Rakim was playing no games.
“Uh, yeah, alright.”
Rakim hung up immediately, dialed someone else, and gave them a brief update, all while I watched him intently. I noticed he wore a frown that seemed to be permanent on his otherwise handsome face.
As soon as he hung up and began disassembling the phone, I croaked, “Would it be possible for me to call my man? He comes over often, and he’s gonna know something is wrong if I’m not there and not answering my phone. Plus, my car is in the parking lot of my warehouse still.”
Though I had sort of broken up with Shaun, he expected a conversation to be had as promised and would or should come looking for me.
At this moment, I kind of regretted telling him I needed a break.
I still didn’t wanna be with him, but when your life was hanging in the balance, certain things like having a boyfriend you weren’t feeling anymore didn’t seem so terrible.
Swallowing so hard it pained my throat, I waited silently for Rakim’s answer.
He just stared me down, bushy brows shoved together before his pink tongue glided across his full lips.
The moonlight shining through the windows only complemented his onyx complexion, causing me to try my hand at reading the tattoos snaking around his sexy, sculpted arms.
“Ya car is outside engineless,” was all he said before walking over to the desk in the bedroom. “And Shaun will be taken care of,” he added, surprising me for a second that he even knew my man’s name.
“Can you keep him out of this? He has nothing to do with this. My father doesn’t even like him, so he shouldn’t lose his life behind his actions,” I pleaded, hoping that Rakim would keep his wrath focused on me and my father, shit, preferably just my father, but that ship had sailed.
Rakim smirked as he pieced together a new phone before saying, “Oh, you love that nigga, huh?”
“I do,” I lied. Telling him the truth seemed foolish.
While I did love Shaun, my protection of him was just out of pure human decency. He wasn’t the Romeo to my Juliet, because I could surely live without his ass. However, Rakim didn’t need to know that.
“Well if you wanna get back to that bitch ass nigga, you better pray yo’ pops does everything he can to save my cousin.” Rakim continued working, having not once looked my way, but I kept my eyes pinned directly on him.
I opened my mouth to speak, but he left the room, clearly not caring about whatever it was I’d planned to say.
I could only close my eyes and pray before opening them to survey the room and contemplate on if I should or how I could escape.