CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
A few days passed and my Infiniti was still in the shop. Apparently, whatever was wrong with it wasn't a quick fix, and Jokah had spent the last two days using that as evidence that I needed a new car. I disagreed, but he didn't care.
That morning, I stood in the kitchen eating a piece of toast while he scrolled through his phone.
"Baby, can I take the Wraith."
His head lifted.
"The Wraith?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
I frowned. "To drive it."
"You know how much that car costs?"
I slowly lowered my toast.
"Did this man just ask me if I know how much one of his cars costs?"
Jokah smiled. "I'm asking because your ass better not curb my rims."
"Bae, please."
"Baby, don't fuck my car up."
"Give me the keys."
“You better be lucky I love your ass. Cause I don’t let people drive my shit.”
“I’m your woman baby, not people.”
He reached into his pocket and tossed them across the island. I caught them.
"Thank you."
"And Kaior."
"Yessss."
"Don't fuck my car up."
"Now I'm doing a donut in the parking lot."
"Do that shit and see what happens."
I laughed and grabbed my purse.
"Bye, baby. I love you."
Jokah cut his eyes at me. I knew exactly what he was waiting for. I walked around the island.
"There."
I kissed him.
When I tried to pull away, his hand went around my waist. "That little shit ain't what I was waiting for."
I smiled against his mouth. "Oh, now you have requirements?"
"After that bullshit you pulled the other morning? Fuck yeah."
I kissed him again. This time longer and with some tongue action.
"Better?"
"Almost."
"Boy, bye."
I pushed away from him. He smacked my ass as I walked toward the elevator.
"I love you."
I turned around.
"I love you too."
The elevator doors closed with him still smiling at me.
For the first time in days, everything between us felt almost normal again.
This bitch was still pregnant or at least she said she was.
There was still a chance the baby belonged to Jokah, and until there was a DNA test, that wasn't going anywhere.
But neither were we. At least, that's what I believed.
Work was busy enough that I barely had time to think about anything else. By the time our last patient left, my feet hurt and I was starving. I grabbed my purse and walked toward the front.
"I'm gone, y'all."
"Bye, Kaior," Jasmine called.
"See you Monday," Will said.
"Have a good weekend."
"You too."
I pushed through the door and walked toward Jokah's Wraith. I still couldn't believe he'd actually let me drive it. I got inside and ran my hand across the steering wheel.
"Yeah. I could get used to this."
My phone buzzed inside my purse. I took it out and looked at the screen.
Jokah: You off?
Me: Just left.
Jokah: Come home.
Me: I need to stop at Target.
Jokah: For what?
Me: Target stuff.
Jokah: Wtf is Target stuff?
Me: Stuff you get from Target.
Jokah: Kaior.
Me: Joaquin.
Jokah: Don't start.
Me: ??I'll be home soon.
Jokah: A’ight. Love you.
Me: Love you too
I snapped a picture of myself, showing the car, and posted it on Instagram.
Then I sat the phone in the cupholder and pulled out of the parking lot.
Target was only a few minutes away. I went inside needing three things.
Some toothpaste, body wash and lashes. Forty-five minutes later, I was standing at self-checkout looking at a total that had absolutely nothing to do with toothpaste, body wash or lashes.
"Every fucking time."
I paid, grabbed my bags and headed outside.
It was starting to get dark. I walked through the parking lot toward the Wraith with my phone tucked into my back pocket and bags hanging from both hands.
My mind was already on home, a shower, something to eat and probably listening to Jokah talking shit about how long I'd been inside Target.
I reached the car and put one of the bags down so I could get the keys from my purse.
"Excuse me."
I glanced over my shoulder just as a man was walking toward me.
"Yeah?"
"You dropped something."
I looked down automatically.
"I did?"
That was all it took. An arm wrapped around me from behind and I screamed. The bags dropped from my hands.
"What the fuck!"
I started fighting immediately. I’m talking about kicking, swinging and trying to twist out of the arms of whoever had me.
"LET ME GO!"
Another man rushed toward us and I screamed louder.
"HELP!"
A hand covered my mouth. I bit down as hard as I could.
"Fuck!"
He snatched his hand away.
"BITCH!"
I kicked backward and heard somebody grunt. My heart was beating so hard I could barely breathe. I didn't know these men. I never saw them before.
"GET THE FUCK OFF ME!"
I reached into my back pocket for my phone and one of them grabbed my wrist. The phone slipped from my hand and hit the pavement.
"Get her in the fucking truck!"
"No!"
I fought harder when he said truck. I tried grabbing the Wraith's door handle. My fingers barely touched it before somebody yanked me backward.
"NO! HELP ME!"
I screamed until my throat hurt. Why the fuck no one heard me screaming? A vehicle door slid open somewhere behind me. That's when I realized what was happening. They weren't trying to rob me. They were taking me.
"Oh my God."
Panic took over.
"PLEASE!"
I dug my nails into the arm around me.
"Please! I don't know y'all!"
"Shut the fuck up."
"Take the car! Take my purse! You can have everything!"
Nobody answered. They just kept dragging me, and somehow, their silence terrified me even more.
They didn't want the car or my purse. They wanted me. I started screaming again, as they shoved me inside the vehicle. I tried scrambling back toward the open door, but somebody climbed in behind me and grabbed my legs.
"Get the fuck off me!"
The door slammed shut. I kicked at anything I could reach.
"Sit her ass down!"
"Fuck you!"
I swung blindly and felt my hand connect with somebody.
Before I could swing again, one of them slapped me hard across the face.
My head snapped to the side as pain spread across my cheek.
For a second, everything inside me stopped.
I'd never been hit like that before. Where I was from, I put hands and feet on bitches.
No man had ever put their hands on me like this, and the shock of it hurt almost as much as the slap itself. Tears immediately filled my eyes.
"Stop fucking fighting."
I pressed myself against the side of the vehicle, breathing hard.
"Where are y'all taking me?"
Nobody answered.
"Please."
I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and looked down. There was blood on it. My entire body started shaking. One of the men looked at me.
"Man, this shit better be worth it."
The other one shook his head. "We already got her. Ain't no turning back now."
"I'm just saying. This Jokah's bitch."
I froze when I heard his name. My heart started pounding even harder.
"You knew that before we grabbed her," the other man said.
"Knowing and actually doing the shit two different things."
"Then you should've stayed your ass home."
"Man, fuck you. I'm just saying, when that nigga find out—"
"Shut the fuck up."
Everyone stopped talking and I couldn't breathe. They knew exactly who I was. This wasn't random. They hadn't grabbed the wrong woman or seen me getting into an expensive car and decided I was an easy target. They took me because of Jokah. I pressed myself harder against the door.
"What do y'all want with him?"
Nobody answered.
"Please. If this is about Jokah, I don't know anything about what he does."
The man beside me looked away. That scared me even more. Whatever this was, they knew enough about Jokah to be nervous about what would happen when he found out they had me. But they had taken me anyway.
All I could think about was Jokah. He knew I was at Target, and he knew I was supposed to be on my way home.
But my phone was lying somewhere in that parking lot, and I had no idea where these men were taking me.
The vehicle moved through the parking lot with urgency.
I looked toward the dark window and watched the lights disappear behind us.
Before Jokah, all that street shit felt far away from me.
Even after we got together, it still felt like something that belonged to his world, not mine.
Until now. Now, I was right in the middle of it, and all I could do was pray Jokah found me before it was too late.
JOKAH
Kaior should've been home by now. I looked at the time again.
Then at my phone. There were no missed calls from her or text messages.
I called her. It rang until her voicemail picked up.
I hung up and called again. Same shit. At first, I wasn't worried.
Kaior went into Target for three things and came out an hour later with twenty.
That was normal. Not answering my calls wasn't. I opened the app for the Wraith.
It was still at Target. I stared at the screen.
The car hadn't moved, so I called her again and this time it went straight to voicemail. Something wasn't right.
I grabbed my keys and called Hulk on the way to the elevator. "Where you at?"
"Headed back."
"Meet me at Target by Kaior’s job."
"What happened?"
"She ain't answering her phone."
"You check the car?"
"Still there."
"A’ight."
I hung up.
The elevator couldn't move fast enough. By the time the doors opened downstairs, I was already calling Kaior again. Still no answer.
"Come on, baby."
I got in my truck and pulled off. Every red light pissed me off. Every slow motherfucker in front of me pissed me off. I kept checking the tracker. The Wraith still hadn't moved. Neither had Kaior. At least I hoped she hadn't. I called Armani. She answered almost immediately.
"Hello?"
"You talked to Kaior?"
"Earlier. Why?"
"What time?"
"I don't know. Maybe four-something. Why?"
"And you haven’t talked to her since she got off?"
"No. What's wrong?"
I gripped the steering wheel.
"I can't find her."
"What do you mean you can't find her?"
"She stopped at Target. My car is still there, but she ain't answering."
"What?"
"You got her location?"