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“I don’t know how it happened, but they snatched her last night. We tracked the location, and no one was there, so we had to reach out to our family’s old contacts for help. Jett was able to break through a firewall, and we finally know who is behind this, but we have to get moving before it’s too late.”

Too late. The words didn’t even sound right coming from his mouth, but I tried my best not to panic.

“What the fuck are we waiting for? Let’s go.”

There was nothing else we needed to talk about. My baby needed me, and I was about to come out of retirement and show these mothafuckas that they messed with the wrong one.

* * *

I finished off my blunt and tossed the remnants into an empty can in the burner car's cupholder. Dreaux, Messiah, Freedom, and I were sitting in a McDonald’s parking lot, around the corner from the house we believed Honesty was in.

The only thing on my mind was murder as my gun sat on my lap. We were waiting for Jett to give us the green light to head inside. A few of Dreaux’s goons were already in position, but Jett was in the process of temporarily deactivating all of the cameras on their street and the surrounding houses, and businesses too.”

“Jett said we’re ready,” Messiah said in a low tone. Dreaux cranked up the car and peeled off. We powered off our phones, even though Jett had already blocked them from being tracked. We wanted to make this as clean as possible, but with the way I felt inside, I didn’t give a fuck about going to prison as long as my heart was safe.

Messiah and Dreaux went over the instructions on a back street behind the house.

“My niggas are on standby, but I already know y’all want to get at this nigga on your own. From what they’ve observed, there are two people in there. One of them is an older cat, so I don’t think we’ll need much backup.” Dreaux explained.

They filled me in on the details on the ride over, and I couldn’t contain the rage inside of me. I should have put two and two together, but when I looked into Rondell’s family, it said he had a half-brother who was locked up. I never thought to look into it any further. Now, I was beating myself up for missing the signs.

I got out of the car, pulled down my ski mask and tucked my gun in the waistband of my pants. Once we were all out of the car and had gone over the game plan again, we headed towards the house. My baby was in there somewhere and I didn’t care if it cost me my life, I was gonna get her out of there.

THIRTY-TWO

honesty graham

When I woke up, I looked around and realized I was tied to a chair in an unfinished basement. The drugs had worn off, but I tried to keep my head down in hopes that Antonio would still think I was out of it. My plan backfired because he had been watching me the whole time. I worried about whether I would make it back to my family in one piece because the sinister glare Antonio frightened me.

I dozed off for a second time and when I woke up, I heard people arguing and I recognized both of the voices. I originally thought I heard three voices, but when I came to, there were only two people standing there.

“What’s taking you so long? She should be dead by now.” Rondell’s father, Grant fumed.

I still couldn’t believe that he was one of the people behind my kidnapping, but it all started to make sense. Rondell often talked about his father and how he taught him everything he knew so I shouldn’t have been surprised that he held resentment in his heart towards me.

“Listen here, old man. I’ve allowed you to run the show for years and now it’s my turn. For all the hassle she’s caused I should at least be able to get some pussy out of the deal,” Antonio argued.

The two of them stood in the middle of the room Antonio paced the floor.

“ This is not the time to be thinking with your dick. The longer we leave this girl alive, the greater the chances are that her family could come after us. I want her body to be a cold corpse by the time they find out where she is.”

My breathing hitched and my legs trembled, as he talked about me as if I wasn’t in the room.

“I don’t give a fuck. They haven’t been able to figure out who it was behind all this and I doubt they are any closer to finding the answers. I made sure to cover my tracks as best as I could, and I also used your connects to throw them off my trail. I guess it’s a good thing that you and I didn’t have the same last name.”

Rondell had mentioned having a brother, but for some reason, he never told me his name or spoke much about him.

“Yeah, I guess your mom’s bitterness paid off in the end. She knew I wanted my first born to have my last name, but because I refuse to leave my wife, she decided to be petty. Look, I’m ready to get this over with. I have waited years for this moment and I don’t want to wait another second longer.” Grant persisted.

“Oh, look. Sleeping beauty has finally risen from her sleep. You must feel stupid don’t you? I was right under your nose the entire time and you never picked up on anything. I thought for sure when you asked me about my siblings that you would catch on, but my father was right about you. All beauty and no brains.” Antonio laughed as he walked around the chair I was in.

“Why are you doing this? I understand you being upset about your brother dying, but I didn’t kill him.”

Antonio laughed as he placed his gun in my face.

“Do you think I give a fuck? You may not have been the one to pull the trigger, but you are the one who drove him to do what he did. You fucked up his head. He thought that you were in love, but it turns out that you were nothing more than a lying cheating slut.”

“My father wanted to kill you right after it happened, but we decided to wait until I was released from prison. I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt because I thought that maybe you were remorseful. Imagine my surprise when I see photos of you, kissing and laughing with the very man who humiliated my brother in front of the world.”