Chapter 14 Zo
Zo
Ibarely got the truck in park when I was out and walking through the ranch with my AR thrown over my shoulder and a gun on each hip.
Kids were screaming, parents were grabbing and shielding their children.
And they had every reason to do so, because I was about to turn the carnival into the cemetery.
“Nigga, slow the fuck down, what’s going on?” Judah asked as he jogged to catch up to me. I didn’t know that he had been following me from the office, but I wasn’t in the right mindset to address him. So, I didn’t.
I approached the group of security huddling around, screaming at each other. These niggas had no sense of urgency, and it only pissed me off more. The fact that my wife was missing and the perimeter hadn’t been shut down and secured was about to make me flip the fuck out.
One guard watched me with wide eyes, making the other niggas turn around. I just warned the others that mistakes involving our wives and children wouldn’t be tolerated.
I pulled my gun from my hip and held it at my side.
“Why the fuck are motherfuckers around here still on fucking ferris wheels and eating cotton candy, and my wife is missing?” I gritted.
I swung the butt of the gun towards the closest guard to me, and he went out like a light. They all jumped back.
“SHUT THIS SHIT DOWN AND FIND MY FUCKING WIFE!” I never yelled. Never. I had never felt like I had to scream at grown ass men. But this shit? Remy missing had me feeling like blowing some shit up.
They scattered like roaches, pulling their guns out and ordering all the families to get off the rides and the vendors to close down. I could hear Judah mumble damn. But he jumped into action.
“What ride was she on?” I approached one of the other guards, and he jumped back, not knowing if I was going to give him the same treatment as I had given the first nigga.
“That one.” He said as he pointed, and I walked through the crowd with Judah on my heels. The gate slammed shut behind us, making the guy look at us in surprise. He threw his hands up immediately.
“Where the fuck is my wife?” I asked him.
“Sir, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I just got here, man. I don’t know anyone’s wife.” He said, throwing his hands up in surrender.
“You have cameras inside that ride?” I asked.
“Y-yeah.” He stammered.
“Let me look at them.” He hesitated, but he walked me over to the control booth that operated the ride.
On it was a very small monitor used to take pictures of people.
Judah held him at gunpoint while I went through the security footage.
Rolling it back to when she first got on the ride.
It shows her being strapped in and the ride starting, but when it slows, the spot she was in was empty.
The footage had clearly been edited.
“Judah, the footage is deleted,” I called over my shoulder, and we switched positions. I pointed the gun at the attendant, and he stood at the computer.
He typed in some codes and then took out his phone.
Then he brought his phone over to me, and we watched as the attendant walked over to Remy and strapped her to a standing position.
But what he also did was inject her with something.
The other people were asked to get off the ride while he got her medical attention, but she never walked out.
There was a compartment built inside the ride that opened, and he took her through it.
My wife was still back there, but if she wasn’t, and someone had made it off this ranch with my wife, about thirty new JMF positions would be open immediately.
“Walk bitch,” I said through clenched teeth as I pushed the attendant into the ride and found the number of the spot that Rem had been in.
“I’m sorry, man, I couldn’t say no. He told me that he would kill me if I didn’t help him take her.”
“Open it,” I said calmly.
Tears rolled down his cheeks as he fumbled with the keys until he found the one for that seat, and he put it into the hole with shaky hands.
The seat snapped out of place. As soon as he did it, Judah let off two shots to his head.
I should have known he wasn’t coming without getting in on the action.
The attendant fell instantly, and once he hit the floor, a stack labelled five thousand dollars fell from his jacket pocket. I fired another shot into his chest. If I could kill him again, I would. That nigga traded my wife for the cost of a night at the steakhouse.
We walked inside the ride and ducked through all the wires, dust, and cobwebs.
The ride was shaped like a diamond, and we had almost gone completely around in a circle.
Until Judah stepped on a hollow point of the ground.
When we kicked the dirt back, there was a door there.
I pulled it open, and we went down a tunnel.
We wound up at some kind of underground bunker. There was a code on the door to enter.
I aimed the gun at the knob. Judah stopped me with his arm, “Fuck no, nigga. What if that shit ricochets and hits me? Step back.”
At first, he turned the knob as if it would open and be waiting for us to come in. Then he put his head to the door and tapped three different spots lightly. He pushed me back a little and then kicked the door in. It flew off the hinges in seconds.
“Work smarter, not harder.” He said as he motioned for me to go through the door and took his gun from his waistband. Now in an open space, I aimed the AR as I walked through the door. I wasn’t worried about this being a setup, about Rem, I’d walk into the line of fire with my chest out.
We made it to a small staircase as we went to the lower level. The closer that we got to the bottom, the clearer I could hear groaning. It was muffled, but there was no mistaking what it was. My breathing sped up, and so did my feet as I got closer to the hallway. The light at the end of it was on.
I stalked the concrete until I closed the distance on the light. I turned the corner, ready to shoot, but what I saw changed my plans.
Slowly, I lowered it when I saw Remy casually leaning against the sink with her arms folded across her chest, holding a gun. On the floor, Karlos was bleeding from both his neck and his knee.
When she saw me, her face lit up as she ran over to me and grabbed me. She kissed me in a way that told me more than she could.
I pulled back from her, “You okay, this nigga touch you?” I asked her.
She shook her head.
“I’m fine, baby.” She said, looking down at Karlos, who was still groaning.
“Karlos, you’ve met my real husband, right? I could have finished what I started, but I wouldn’t be the wonderful wife that I am if I didn’t let my husband do the honors.” She giggled as she wrapped her arms around my waist.
Blood was rushing through my body, but it was settling in my dick. I knew that Remy could hold her own, but this was another level. Shit turned me on.
“That’s my wife.” He said as he grabbed his neck and struggled to sit up.
He wanted this moment, so I was going to give him exactly what he was asking for.
“Oh, yeah?” I chuckled.
I pushed her behind me and walked over to where he lay on the ground.
I kicked him in his ribs so hard that he started coughing up blood.
He rolled onto his side and started shaking.
From my expertise, I knew that once that happened, it wouldn’t be long before niggas checked out.
But I wanted him to remember this moment when he got to hell, so I wasn’t going to let him get off that easily.
I stood back up and shot him in the chest. He gasped, eyes wide and screamed in agony.
I wanted to choke the life out of that nigga. I wanted to make sure that when his life drained from his body, the last thing he saw was me. But I didn’t come prepared. So, I had a slight pivot. I stood over him and placed my foot on his neck with all the force I had.
I heard something snap as soon as I did it. His screams were muffled, and his eyes bulged as he clawed at my leg through the material of my pants.
“What. The. Fuck?” Judah questioned, half-shocked and half-amused, as I put down the force of all two hundred and twenty-five pounds that I had on his neck.
I held it until I felt the life slip from his body. Then I shot him twice more, making sure this time, they couldn’t put his head back together.
“This nigga needs a fucking evaluation,” Judah said out loud, but more to himself than either of us.
I turned to Remy, forgetting in the moment that she was nearby. My only focus was making that nigga pay for ever thinking he could touch a Richardson. She had her head turned like she hadn’t just shot this nigga up and laughed about it.
“Let’s go, baby, you sure you good?” I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her to my side.
“I’m fine. But those bones cracking made my skin crawl.” She admitted.
“Remy, did you shoot that nigga?” Judah asked before I could. I was waiting until we got in the truck to ask her.
“In the kneecap, but I stabbed him with this,” she said as she held up the bracelet that she wears every day. Judah and I shot confused glances.
As if she read our minds, she opened it to reveal a full blade.
“Where the hell you get that from?” I asked. I saw Remy put that bracelet on day in and day out, but I never questioned it.
“Ivy. She gave all the girls one. Storm and Kennedy have one too.” She laughed as she put it in her back pocket.
“Oh, hell nah. I keep telling her about that Cartel shit. You telling me my wife is walking around with a bangle blade?” He asked, causing us both to burst into laughter.
“Judah, not right now,” Rem said as she pulled me closer and held on to my shirt.
We walked out of the basement to go back through the tunnel to what once was the carnival.
My AR was across my shoulder, and my wife was underneath my arm.
When we stepped out of the ride, the entire event had been cleared.
The only men there were the security team, who should be kissing the ground right now. Being thankful that they could still walk amongst the living. I didn’t even address them niggas, because I was still pissed off. Instead, Judah started to tell them where they needed to go to get the bodies.
“Baby, what happened to the truck?” She asked me as she noticed the marks on its side.
“Nothing, get in, Ma,” I said as she climbed in.
Before she could close the door, I heard Judah on the phone with Jaxon.
“Don’t you everrrrr, leave me with your friends. Let me tell you about the day I fucking had. But before I do, do you know your wife has a bangle blade in her possession?” He said all in one breath.
We laughed as she closed the door, and I made sure the nigga got into his truck and pulled away too.
“I just want to go home and hug my kids. I want to take a long, hot shower and wash today off me. Could you believe I got set up by some gah damn children?” She laughed, frustrated.
I opened my mouth but chose not to say what I was about to. Cause my first thought was for me to run the cameras back and find those lil muhfuckas too. So, I didn’t speak on that.
“I’m glad you’re good. I would’ve turned this bitch into a mortuary.” I said with my eyes on the rearview mirror as I reversed out of the gate.
“I’m just glad this is over. Our lives have been so peaceful.
After all this time, who knew it would come back like this?
The last piece of the puzzle is going to Louisiana and handling this marriage issue, and this will be done for good,” She said lowly, with her eyes closed and her head against the headrest.
“Jax already handled it. The marriage is over, and all traces of it that exist have been erased.” I informed her. She smiled at me and grabbed my hand.
This morning, I talked to Jax to fill him in on business.
When we spoke, he told me that he had sent some niggas to Louisiana to see the Judge, and by the time they left, the record of the marriage ever existing was gone.
I didn’t question it. But once I went back to the database to search for it, I found nothing.
“He told me to tell you that you got him out of a marriage, and he got you out of one, now y’all even.” I chuckled. She rolled her eyes, knowing that we never counted favors, and he was just talking.
Then she yawned and looked out the window quietly.
“Now that you’re a widow, let’s get married again,” I said and glanced toward her.
I took my eyes off the road for a second.
Rem and I had never had a wedding. We got married in a helicopter, and a month later, we let a mafia officiant perform a ceremony at our house.
We were nearing our seventh year of marriage, and she kept putting off the wedding.
The first time we talked about it, she was pregnant, and then we dropped the idea altogether.
She told me it never mattered to her, and she didn’t want the mafia in her marriage.
But I wanted to give her the wedding of her dreams.
“I would marry you a thousand times.”
“Good, let’s do a wedding in Barbados so my parents can be there,” I suggested. The smile spread on her face as soon as I said it. Had I known that was all it took, I would’ve suggested it years ago.
“Let’s do it, baby. We can do it during the time that we planned to go for Christmas.” I nodded. It was the first time she hadn’t put up a fight, so I wasn’t going to push my luck by keeping the conversation going because she’d change her mind in a second.
She shifted in her seat to face me, but she didn’t speak for a while.
“You want to know something?” she asked. I didn’t respond, just waited for her to finish.
“I knew you were coming to get me. I was so confident, I didn’t even go check to see if the door upstairs was unlocked so I could let myself out,” She laughed loudly.
I shook my head at her. But that did something to me. I wanted to be the nigga she knew would always show up for the rest of her life.
“For sure. That’s mine. I got it in blood.”
“I love you, Zohan.” She sighed as she turned back toward the window.
“I love you too, Mrs. Richardson.”
“And that’s the only name I want to be addressed as. Remy Rich.”
We rode back to the house in silence. My heart still hadn’t stopped racing.
Being in situations like this was like riding a bike.
Even if you didn't do it in a while, you never forgot it.
But the thought of Remy not being okay at the end of it?
That shit turned me into a different person.
I would flip the world for Remy Richardson.
And truth be told? I don’t mind proving it.