Chapter 4

4

Ahmad

S wallowing the last bite of my turkey burger, I doused my hands with sanitizer then tossed my trash in the bag. I guzzled down my water and tossed that in the bag too as I sat outside of Lila Peterson's home. I had been sitting on her for two days. Nothing really seemed out of the ordinary with her. I noticed that she always went straight home from work. She always entered the house through the back door and never came out. An unfamiliar car pulled into her backyard at 3:00 p.m. every Monday through Friday.

My guess was that she was a house sitter. I didn't need anyone else involved in me snatching her up, so I knew the only way to get her was either leaving her job or while she was sleeping—which she seemed to never fucking do. The light to what I assumed was her bedroom stayed on into the wee hours of the morning. They would shut off around four or five in the morning. The same car would pull in and leave out fifteen minutes later, then she would leave out for work an hour later.

After bumping into her at the hospital, I now had a clear visual of the woman that I was trying so desperately not to be attracted to. Her picture didn't do her a lick of justice because I felt like I had just been blessed by an angel. I couldn't let this distract me from my mission, so my gangsta had to always stay on with her.

Like clockwork, Lila's SUV pulled into the back of the house as I watched her go in through the back. Ten minutes passed before the house sitter walked out of the house and that was my cue to get prepared. The name of the game was patience. Even though she kept her light on all night, I knew at some point she had to fall asleep. There was no way she could do twelve straight hours and not go to bed. I decided to wait until around midnight before I made my move.

At 11:59 p.m., I entered Lila's home through the back door that led me into an open kitchen. It was quiet, so I assumed she was finally asleep. I opened the refrigerator because my ass got hungry after sitting outside waiting on her ass to pass out from the heavy dose of melatonin I put inside of her juice earlier. As I browsed the fridge for some lunch meat, I saw little Danimal yogurts, Lunchables, and jellos.

I frowned because I just knew her grown ass wasn't 'round here eating like a five-year-old. Moving some stuff around, I spotted the hard salami and opened the pack. I was tempted to throw some bread and mayo with it, but I was pressed for time. I slid a couple pieces from the package, grabbed a yogurt and a bottled water, then placed everything back how it was before—facing everything forward.

Closing the refrigerator door, I stuffed the meat in my mouth and went browsing. I checked the doors on the first level, coming up empty. I went inside the living room and was impressed with how nice and clean it was. She had nice teal and white furniture with splashes of gold. There were photos on the mantle of the fake fireplace. I looked at the photos and smirked a little at how cute her ass was.

When my eyes landed on a photo of her holding a baby in her arms, that smirk left my face. My eyes went from photo to photo of her and the same little baby displaying each milestone from birth to now. I immediately pulled out my burner phone and sent a text alert to my brother. I knew his ass was up because I had just talked to him about wiring my money before I even came inside.

Me: Bruh, she has a kid??? Why the fuck didn't you tell me that?

Ash: I wasn't aware of a kid. He never said anything about that.

Me: Fuck, Ash. What the fuck have you gotten me into?

Ash: I swear I didn't know, Ahmad, I would never blindside you like that.

Me: How the hell am I supposed to haul both of their asses out of here? Tell that nigga the fucking price just went up! I need ten more on top of that 100k! Now I gotta work extra hard to get them up outta here. Fuck he think this is? Sesame Street?

Ash: I honestly don't think he knows.

Me: You know him or sumn?

Ash: Not personally, no.

Me: Then how the fuck would you know what he knows? Never mind, just get my money from that nigga. He could have done this shit himself.

I turned the burner off then proceeded up the stairs—being sure to walk light. The first door I came upon was lavender with a big gold M on it. It had little pictures of things she drew. I had to admit that I was impressed. For what I assumed was a six-year-old, she had nice skills. Deciding to grab the big fish first, I walked to the next door that was cracked and had a light shining from it. I pushed it open slowly, seeing the thick ass beauty queen sprawled across the bed in nothing but some boy shorts and a bra.

The way her ass sat up so round and perfect. I knew I had to sweep through my contact list and find an old ho to slide in when this shit was over. Noticing a waste basket next to the bed, I tossed my trash inside then pulled the duct tape from my pocket. I hated this shit. I didn't want to fuck with this lady, but my stupid ass brother just had to come fucking up my peace.

The melatonin I gave her was just a sedative, so I knew once I touched her, she was going to wake up. Quickly and swiftly, I straddled her back and grabbed her wrists. Almost immediately she jumped out of her sleep. She started bucking and tried to scream but I put my hand over her mouth.

"Shhh. I'm going to ask you real nicely to not make this shit hard for either of us. If you comply, no one will get hurt," I whispered in her ear as she cried. "Now I'm going to remove my hand from your mouth. Can you promise not to scream?"

She didn't say anything.

"I would hate for your baby girl to see this, and if you care about her like I know you do, then you need to comply."

She continued to cry.

"Nod your head if you hear me, Bunny."

She nodded quickly and I removed my hand. I didn't know where that nickname came from. I guess her hopping around the bed like a bunny was the precursor to me calling her that. Besides, she had a cute little button nose like one.

"Please, you don't have to do this. Whatever he's paying you, I can dou—"

I slipped a piece of tape over her mouth, wrapped some around her wrists tightly, then did the same to her ankles.

"Sorry, Bunny, no negotiations." I slid her off the bed and tossed her over my shoulder. She continued to buck and cry as I took her out to the van, tossing her in the back.

"Now the fucking hard part."

I slammed the back door closed then headed back inside. Surprisingly, getting her daughter wasn't hard at all. I was hoping I didn't overdose her with the melatonin, but by the way her chest rose and fell, I could tell she was just a deep sleeper. Taking her outside, I put her next to her mother and wrapped her wrists and legs too, closed the doors, then wiped the sweat from my forehead. I promise I was going to kick my brother in his baby dick for putting me through this shit. Hopping inside the van, I started the engine and pulled out of the driveway—headed on this long ass journey to Georgia.

It was 3:00 a.m. when I finally pulled over to rest from driving for hours. We were only in Blakesville, Arizona and I was tired as shit. It was going to take me at least a day and a half to get them to their destination, which was pure bullshit. I didn't even know why I agreed to do this as my anxiety was starting to flare.

Shorty and her daughter cried the whole damn three hours, and I was tired of hearing the shit honestly. I was tempted to let their ass go because wasn't no amount of money worth my fucking peace. Hearing her kicking and banging on shit in the back, I decided I couldn't play nice with her any more. Either she was gon' shut the fuck up or I was going to have to result to extreme measures.

Getting out, I hurried around the back of the van and climbed inside. They both backed up as Lila tossed her legs over her daughter protectively. I swear I hated this shit.

"Listen, I'm not in the best of moods right now. I'm going to need you to cooperate, so I won't have to do anything stupid to you and your kid. It's bad enough that I'm doing this shit anyway, but for the sake of keeping you and your daughter unharmed, I need you to be cool. A'ight?"

She didn't speak, only gave me a death stare that would have dropped my ass if it could kill. I removed the tape from her mouth, and she instantly went in.

"What is this about? Why are you doing this?"

"I think you know why, Bunny."

"Stop calling me that shit, it's not my name!"

"Neither is Lila, but you seem to like that name to want to change it from a gift to something that resembles darkness, but still beautiful, nonetheless."

She looked at me and her frown grew deeper. "What?"

"Your real name, Nala, means gift in Swahili. Lila means night, purple, beauty. I don't know about you, but I like Nala better."

She sighed deeply and rolled her eyes. "Listen, please, I can't go back to him. He's not a good person."

"I don't want to hear your sob stories. There is nothing I can do about that. What's done is done."

"You can let me go. Y-you can just tell him you lost me. I can't go back to him! Please! My daughter… I can't let her be around that environment. He might kill me! Please. You have to understand!"

"He was abusing you?"

"Never physical. It was always mentally, emotionally, or verbally. He's controlling."

"It was that bad that you robbed him and created a whole new life, thinking he wouldn't try to find you? You do know that if a nigga got money, nine times out of ten, you won't get away with it."

"I had to do what was best for me and my baby. He may not have harmed me physically, but the emotional and mental damage it caused… Look, just please let us go. Can't you see you're scaring my daughter?"

I looked over at the precious little girl who held so much fear in her eyes and wanted to kill Ashton and whoever the hell he took the job from.

"I'm sorry, baby girl. You want some candy?"

She shook her head and sunk deeper into her mother's side. I sighed as I opened the doors and hopped out.

"Wait! Please. Just let us go! Help! Somebody help us!"

I hurried and slammed the door then pulled out my phone to call my brother. This shit was ridiculous, and I had no idea how I was going to ride through multiple states just to get them to Georgia. This shit wasn't going to work.

"Hello, Play? You there?"

"Gas up the fucking jet. There's no way I can get them all the way south with them screaming and crying and shit. On Mama and nem, if you ever call me on this type of bullshit again, I'ma put a hot one right in ya ass!"

"I respect that. I promise I won't bother you about any of this again. I'll get Carl on the line and have it ready for you."

"You do that. And I'm taxing another ten on just for this bullshit. Got me out here kidnapping and babysitting at the same damn time!"

"I'm sorry about this shit, bro. You can have the whole take."

"Nigga, that was already established when I walked in that house and noticed it was an extra body. I'm taking that plus another twenty. And I'm knocking that nigga the fuck out as soon as I hand them over."

"Just calm down, Play. I forgot how crazy you are."

"Yeah, you did. Get the shit set up. I'ma take 'em to my hideout and wait for that call. I'm tired as shit."

"I got you. Just stay calm, Xavier," he said, calling me by my middle name.

"Aye, fuck you, for real," I told him, hanging up.

I sighed heavily, pissed that I had to drive three hours back just to get them on a jet instead of driving. If I had to be honest, I was more pissed at myself for agreeing to this dumb shit. Driving instead of flying was insane. Now I had this beautiful woman and little girl who were scared shitless. I mean, I was about to deliver them to a fuck nigga who could possibly kill them.

As much I didn't want to care, I did. However, in this business. Caring got you killed, and I'd be damned if I got taken out behind a beautiful woman that I didn't know shit about. I needed to meditate and recenter or else we weren't going to make it to Georgia at all.