Chapter 23

Kaylin

I’d been free from Stacy and her father for about three weeks now. They only agreed to let me go if I’d give them the money. I thought about saying no, but then dude came in there saying he was going to hurt one of my kids and I couldn’t let that happen. This was my kids’ lives on the line. I agreed to pay them and let the shit be. Beside 350 Gs wasn’t going to hurt my pockets at all. I had way more money than that. That little chump change wasn’t even going to break my pockets, but I only had one problem. The money was back in Atlanta, and I was the only one who was going to be able to get it.

At first, dude wasn’t going for it, but after a while he finally gave in, giving me exactly three weeks to hand over the money to him or else he would hurt my kids. I spent three weeks in Atlanta, because I had one of my homeboys place a tracking device on his car so that after I got my kids, I’d be able to go back and serve up some much-needed justice.

I’d been staying in a hotel in Atlanta, trying to stay off the police’s radar. I needed a bit of fresh air, so I decided that I was going to go for a drive when I bumped into this fine-ass shawty getting on the elevator. I had a thing for dark-skinned chicks and shawty was a cute chocolate little thing, but still she, as well as every other female I’d come in contact with, couldn’t hold a candle to Mimi. Yeah, I knew that I shouldn’t, but I found myself comparing chicks to Mimi all the time. I’d been doing that since we were young.

As I stood in the elevator, I couldn’t help but to look at her. She had a cute face and a nice ass, which made my dick jump inside my pants. I hadn’t had sex in I didn’t know how long and all I knew was that I had to have her. When she walked out of the elevator, I went after her. At first, I thought she was going to shut me down, but she didn’t. She agreed to go out with me. I took her this nice place that served soul food. The whole time we were there, my phone was blowing up with messages from Stacy and her dumb-ass father. I didn’t want to be bothered with them and those idle threats they were dishing out, so I powered my phone off. I knew that they weren’t going to lay a hand on my kids, because I had what they wanted. If they were stupid enough to fuck with my kids, not only would they not get the money, they’d also lose their lives in the process, so I wasn’t worried about them.

I decided to turn my attention to Shelly. At first, I thought she was going to be gullible and whatnot, but she actually turned out to be a cool-ass chick. I hated when the night ended, but I loved that she invited me back to her room. Shawty surprised the shit out of me when she started kissing all over me. Shit, I thought we were just coming here to chill. Well, I surely thought wrong, because the minute the door closed, shawty was all on me. I wanted to make sure that she was sure about this, so I stopped her. When she said that she wanted to, I went all in.

I fucked her so good that I put shawty in a deep, deep slumber. She didn’t even hear or move when I got out of the bed last night. I had to search for my clothes in the dark, trying my hardest not to wake her up. When I did find my clothes, I hurried up and threw them on, then headed to my room down the hall.

Once I got into my room, I plopped down on the bed, burying my face into my hands. I sat there, thinking about everything that was going on in my life at the moment. I wanted so badly for things to just go back to the way they were, when I didn’t have any worries or anything. I just wanted the peace that I once had in my life, even though Mimi was no longer here. The way I saw it, the faster I got Stacy and her father out of my life, the better chance I had at getting my life back on track.

Not wasting any time, I grabbed my suitcase from underneath the bed and started packing my shit. I needed to get back to New Orleans like yesterday, get my kids, and get the fuck away from all this bullshit. Before I knew it, I was through packing my shit. I called down to the hotel room and told them to send someone upstairs to help me with my bags. While I waited for whoever it was to come, I made sure that I had the bag that contained the money. A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door.

“Sir, I’m here to help you with your bags,” he said, once I had opened the door.

“Oh, yeah, right this way,” I said, leading him inside the room, where the bags were sitting in the middle of the floor. He picked up as many bags as he could, then stood by the door and waited for me. Once I made sure that I had gotten everything, I picked up the rest of the bags, and we headed out the door, hopping straight onto the elevator.

Once we made it to the first floor, I told dude to wait for me in front of the hotel, while I ran to go and get my truck. My truck wasn’t parked that far, so it didn’t take long before I was pulling to the front of the hotel. I got out, opened the back of the truck, and began loading the bags into it. Once I was finished, I gave the dude a tip, hopped in the truck, and was on my way. I was heading back to New Orleans today, but before I did that, I needed to drop by and check on an old friend.

I knew I was probably going to regret this, but I needed her right now, so I threw my feelings to the side. When I pulled up to Jade’s building, her parking spot was empty. Maybe her car’s broken, I thought as I got out of the car. Her apartment was in the front, and it didn’t take me long at all to get there. When I got to the door, I knocked a few times and waited for her to answer. A few minutes went by, and she hadn’t answered, so I knocked again.

“She not home. She hasn’t been for a while now,” a voice said from behind me. I turned to see her neighbor, Mr. Johnson, standing in his doorway.

“Do you know where she went?” I asked, walking over to him.

“No. I didn’t know she was even gone until Selena came by a few weeks ago for the rent and she didn’t answer,” he said, pulling from a cigarette.

“Well, if she comes back, tell her that I came looking for her,” I told him.

“Okay,” he said and then went back inside of his house. I looked at Jade’s door once more before I walked back over to my truck, got in, and pulled off. I couldn’t worry about where she was. I had other things to worry about. My kids needed me, and it was time that I go and get them.