Chapter Nineteen
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Almost twenty-four hours into the search for Mina and Lelah, Victor finally broke down and told Mina’s parents what happened. He dreaded telling them that their only daughter was kidnapped and could possibly be dead. No parent wants to hear anything like that so Victor put off telling them as long as possible. In less than an hour, Victor’s home was filled with members of Mina’s family.
Rita and Ed sat on the couch holding each other. Bernice paced the floor smoking her second pack of Virginia Slims Menthol. Uncle Chester and Nana Marie sat and watched the news while Nay cleaned up after her three kids. Smokey was on his way down from school. He attended Mizzou which was only an hour and a half drive away.
Mo, Delicious, Janiya, Tiffany and Neosha sat on the floor, hoping for the best. Jodie, on the other hand, was sitting alone in the corner of the room reading her Bible, praying for Mina’s safe return. Since Dro only had minor surgery, he would be released from the hospital any day. Victor didn’t want to cooperate with the police, so they left and told him when they had any more news, they would contact him.
Ring . . .
Everyone in the room froze. No one moved a muscle. It was exactly nine o ‘clock. Picking up his cell phone, he saw that the kidnappers were calling from Mina’s phone again.
“Hello?” Victor said.
“I see you take directions well,” the kidnapper laughed.
“Just tell me what the fuck you want!” Victor snapped.
“You know patience is a virtue my friend.”
“Fuck all the pleasantries and tell me what’s up!”
“Since you insist, I want a million dollars in cash.”
“I can’t come with that kind of money just like that.”
“Come on, Victor, you and I both know you’re caked up. You got money coming out your ass. I guess your fiancé and child don’t mean that much to you after all.”
“How do I even know Mina and Lelah are still alive? Put them on the phone!”
“Say hi.”
“Daddy!” Lelah screamed. Hearing his daughter’s voice started a steady stream of tears that ran down his face. These were tears of joy, just knowing his daughter was alive.
“You happy now.”
“I didn’t hear, Mina! Where is Mina?”
“You know, Victor, your fiancé is quite beautiful. You must be a very happy man. Tell me how many times a week do you wax that ass,” the kidnapper teased.
“If you lay one hand on her, I swear to God-”
“Now, now Victor calm down. I’m simply stating that Mina is a nice piece of ass and I would like very much if you let me get a taste.”
“Fuck you, you sick bastard! You’ll have your money,” Victor barked.
“You know my man here likes her ass but I like her mouth. Yo’, Mina, let me put my dick in yo’ mouth!” The kidnapper laughed in a maniacal tone.
“You better not touch me!” Mina yelled.
“You better tell her to calm down Vic ’cause in a minute yo’ bitch is about to get a pearl necklace.”
“Nigga, yo’ dick wouldn’t go past her two front teeth.”
“Oh, this nigga got jokes! This nigga a jokester! Let’s see how funny you are when I fuck yo’ daughter in the ass! Now make a joke about that nigga!”
“Fuck you!” Victor yelled.
Click.
“Hello? Hello?” Victor said into the phone. Nothing. The kidnapper hung up.
“What happened?” Rita asked.
“They want a million dollars in cash.”
“Did you talk to Mina?”
“No, they only put Lelah on the phone this time.”
“Oh, my God, what if she’s dead! Oh, Ed, what I’m gon’ do without my baby!” Rita cried.
“I’m so sorry, Mrs. Matthews. This is all my fault,” Victor apologized.
“You damn right this is your fault! I don’t know why my niece got involved wit you in the first place! You ain’t no good you just like that old pompous ass nigga Andrew,” Bernice shouted.
“Now that’s enough Bernice,” Uncle Chester warned.
“No it’s not! My niece has been kidnapped because of him and his family! Yeah I know all about yo’ drug dealing family! Your uncle was killed because of what you do and now Mina is suffering, too! He ain’t no good, Rita! He ain’t no good!”
“I ain’t got time for this,” Victor said as he left and went outside. Mo and Delicious followed behind him.
“Victor, wait up,” Mo yelled after him.
“What, you wanna go off on me too?”
“No we have something we need to tell you.”
“What?”
“About two weeks ago me, Mina, Delicious and the girls set up Andrew.”
“What? I told Mina to stay away from him!”
“We know you did, but Mina thought that setting him up was the only way to get rid of him and to get her shop back.”
“What did y’all do?”
“We taped him having sex with another man and then we threatened to expose him with it.”
“We should have told you earlier but the thought didn’t even cross our minds until Bernice mentioned his name,” Delicious added.
“So you all think that Andrew had something to do with this?” Victor questioned.
“Yeah, his father is running for Governor of St. Louis. If this tape got out it would ruin Mayor Wellington’s career as well as Andrew’s.”
“We’re so sorry Victor. We should’ve talked Mina out of it,” Delicious cried.
“It’s cool. The most important thing right now to me is getting Mina and Lelah back.
* * *
“I’m hungry,” Lelah whined.
“Bitch, shut the fuck up!”
“Don’t talk to her like that! She’s just a child,” Mina yelled, taking up for Lelah.
“You shut up, too! I’m getting sick of both you bitches!” “I’ll be glad when this shit is over so I can off this bitch,” the other kidnapper replied.
“I promise, I won’t say another thing, just take the blindfold off of our eyes please. It’s starting to hurt.”
“Fine, anything to shut you the fuck up!”
It took Mina a couple of minutes to get her vision back but once she did, she focused all of her attention on the kidnappers. They were still dressed in all black and their faces were still covered with black masks. The room was sparse except for two chairs, a couch and a television. Mina couldn’t quite figure out where she was being held.
It looked like she was in an unfinished basement. Looking up at the ceiling, she noticed that a pipe was leaking, plaster was falling from the walls, the insulation was coming out the wall and an old piss-stained mattress sat in the corner of the room. In front of her sat a large brown couch. Feeling the baby move around in her stomach, Mina knew that the baby was hungry. She hadn’t eaten since the prior day at breakfast. Mina didn’t know how much more of this she could take.
* * *
Back at the house, Victor was on the Internet, feverishly trying to locate Mina’s whereabouts. He had totally forgotten that Mina’s Nextel cell phone had a tracking device in it. In less than five minutes, without the police’s help, Victor had Mina pin-pointed. The map indicated that she was at 4354 Thrush Street. Victor couldn’t have been happier. He had one up on the kidnappers. Stupid muthafucker, he thought. Plus, Dro knew the area well.
“Excuse me, Mr. Gonzalez. Dro has arrived.”
“Thank you, Julissa,” Victor said, quickly writing down the address. Running down the steps he greeted his cousin with a hug. “Everyone, this is my cousin, Dro.”
“Hello,” everyone said except for Bernice. She simply rolled her eyes and looked in the other direction.
“What’s her problem?” Dro asked.
“Don’t mind her. Come on, I need to talk to you.”
Sparking up a blunt Victor sat across from Dro. Inhaling slowly, he let the smoke fill his lungs before he released it through his nose. Victor thought carefully before he spoke. He didn’t know if he could trust Dro or not. At that moment he honestly couldn’t tell whether or not Dro was his ally or enemy. Victor wanted to divulge the information he learned with him but something in his soul was telling him to be careful and to trust no one, including Dro. Looking at Dro once again Victor knew he couldn’t let what happened to Samia happen to Mina. Going with his instincts he kept Mina and Lelah’s whereabouts to himself.
“So what’s up? What them muthafuckers say?” Dro asked.
“They said they want a mill or Mina and Lelah are dead.”
“That’s all? You got that in the safe downstairs.”
“Yo’, what you doing at seven?”
“Ain’t too much I can do with a fucked-up leg.”
“I need you take a ride wit me.”
“What’s up? You got something you need to tell me?”
“Nah, just ride wit me.”
“I got you. Whenever you’re ready, just let me know,” Dro replied getting up.
“Thanks, man.”
“No problem. I got you.”
Victor felt kind of bad lying to his cousin. The two were close their entire lives but there was no way he was going to jeopardize Mina and Lelah’s safe return home. He needed to keep the fact that he knew their whereabouts to himself. Dro was his cousin, but Mina was carrying his child and Lelah was his own flesh and blood. Living without them wasn’t a factor. He would do whatever he had to do to have them back in his arms where they belonged.
* * *
Seven o’clock and the sun was sitting high upon the St. Louis skyline. Bumping 50 Cent’s “I’m Supposed to Die Tonight” Victor navigated his all black ’05 Hummer through the streets while smoking a blunt. Never in a million years did he expect to be in the same position of having to save the woman he loved and his daughter again. Checking his rearview mirror he saw that Dro was right behind him.
Concentrating back on the road he knew that a blood bath was about to go down. Victor was prepared to kill everyone that was involved with the kidnapping. He knew that there was a chance that he might not make it out alive but that was a risk he was willing to take as long as Mina and Lelah were unharmed. Seeing the street, Victor made a quick left onto Thrush. Parking on the corner, he placed his burner into the waist of his pants and got out.
“Yo’, why we stop?” Dro asked, getting out.
“You see that house right there?” Victor questioned, pointing down the street.
“Yeah.”
“That’s where Mina and Lelah are being held.”
“I thought you ain’t have nothing to tell me?”
Ignoring him, Victor turned his back to him, and headed down the street. He took the clip out of his pocket, then loaded it into the .380. When he reached the house, he looked behind him to find Dro lagging behind.
“Come on, nigga. We ain’t got all day,” Victor snapped.
“Here I come.”
Shaking his head, Victor continued up the steps. The all white house was fairly large. Two huge windows sat on each side of the front door. The screen door was bent and barely hanging onto the hinges. A condemned notice was placed on the front of the door and the smell of urine mixed with spoiled milk caused Victor to almost throw up. Placing his hand on the knob, Victor checked to see if it was unlocked; it was.
“Ay it’s unlocked.” Victor signaled to Dro.
With the door unlocked they both crept throughout the house with their guns out, ready to shoot anything moving. As they checked each room for Mina and Lelah, they found nothing. Suddenly they saw that there was a door that led to the basement. Victor signaled to Dro to come on. Hearing someone coming up the steps, Victor stood silently on the other side of the door, ready to shoot.
The guy never knew what was coming. As soon as he hit the top step and opened the door, the barrel of Victor’s .380 was pointed at his face. Smiling, Victor grabbed him by the neck and pointed the gun into his back. The kidnapper couldn’t even put up a fight. He was caught. Creeping down the steps with the man in front of him, and Dro behind him, Victor found the other guy sitting in front of a television while Mina and Lelah sat back-to-back tied to a chair, behind a couch.
“Wake up, nigga, I got yo’ bitch!”
Startled, the other guy went to reach for his gun, but it was too late. Victor already had his gun pointed at his head.
“Baby!” Mina screamed happy to see her man.
“Give me a minute baby. Now which one of y’all niggas was talkin’ that gangsta shit over the phone?” Victor questioned the two men.
“Fuck you, nigga! Either kill me or shut the fuck up!” the guy that Victor was holding yelled.
“It must have been you ’cause you still talkin’ shit! Nigga, I’m Victor Gonzalez! Did you really think that you were going to get away with kidnapping my girl and my daughter?”
“We did get away with it,” Dro laughed.
“What did you say?” Victor asked, stepping to the side to get a good view of Dro and the guy sitting down.
“It was me. I did it. I put this all together,” he continued to laugh with his gun pointed at Victor’s head.
“Dro?” Mina said confused.
“Bitch, shut up!” Dro yelled. Turning his attention back to Victor, he said, “I didn’t expect it to go down this way but just to see the look on your face is priceless.”
“You kidnapped my girl and my daughter?” Victor said in disbelief.
“This whole thing was a set up and yo’ dumb ass fell for it! I took a bullet in the leg that’s how bad I want you dead! Nigga, I’ve been in yo’ shadow for years and I’m sick of it!” Dro snapped, getting serious. “I should have been the one running the family business not you! But, nah, Father never saw it that way! It was always Victor this, Victor that! He never loved me!”
“Don’t tell me you were the one that killed Uncle Emilio, Dro.”
“How else was I going to lead this family if you two were still alive? I overheard your little conversation in Miami! Y’all muthafuckers was gonna let Rico run the business! What about me?”
“What about you? Uncle Emilio was right! You have no business running the cartel!”
“Fuck you, you half breed muthafucker!” Dro inched closer to Victor.
“Oh God, please no,” Mina cried.
“Daddy!” Lelah shrieked.
“Nineteen ninety-nine ring a bell to you?” Dro questioned Victor.
“What the fuck you talkin’ about does Nineteen ninety-nine ring a bell to me? That was the year Samia and Lelah were kidnapped.” Out of the corner of his eye, Victor sensed the other kidnapper reaching for his gun. “Don’t even try it,” he snapped pointing the gun in his direction.
“Guess what, nigga? I was the one that killed yo’ bitch,” Dro sneered with a sinister look in his eyes.
“You killed Samia?”
“Yeah, right after I fucked her one good time.”
“You crazy son of a bitch! You know you’re not leaving out of here alive,” Victor barked, enraged.
“Yeah, a’ight. We’ll see about that.” Pulling the trigger back Dro let two tears fall from his eyes. “Say goodnight, cousin, but first I want you to see firsthand what real pain feels like.” Turning the gun from Victor to Mina, Dro aimed at her head, ready to shoot.
“NO!” Mina screamed, closing her eyes preparing to die.
POW! POW! POW! POW! Shots flew everywhere. Dro fired off a shot trying to shoot Mina in the head but missed. Aiming his gun at Dro, Victor fired his gun, only to miss. Falling down on the ground, Dro ducked for cover. Seeing his opportunity to get away, the kidnapper that Victor was holding elbowed him in the stomach, but Victor was still too fast for him.
In a quick move, Victor put the gun to the back of the kidnapper’s head, pulled the trigger and killed him instantly. The man’s blood and membranes splattered all over Victor’s face. Using him as a human shield, Victor pointed his gun at the other kidnapper who was already aiming his gun at him. Shooting twice, Victor hit the kidnapper in the head and in the heart. Not needing the kidnapper’s body as a shield anymore Victor threw him to the ground.
“Mina, baby, you all right?” he asked, seeing that she was behind the couch and he couldn’t get to her.
“Yes,” she trembled, frightened out of her mind.
“I told you you weren’t leaving here alive, didn’t I?” Victor barked at Dro. Both men had their guns out, aimed at one another.
“One of us gon’ die tonight and it ain’t gon’ be me, partna!” Dro barked back.
“DAMN, Dro?” Victor began to cry. “I can’t believe you put me in this position dog? I knew you was a snake muthafucker, but damn! How am I going to explain to Alita that I killed her son?We blood, man. It didn’t have to end this way?”
“Fuck you, nigga, we ain’t family! Never have been never will be!”
“What the hell is going on here?” Andrew yelled, coming down the steps.
“Andrew?” Mina yelled surprised. Seeing the two men with their guns out, Andrew pulled his out too, aiming it at Victor. “So we finally meet in person. It’s a shame we had to meet under these circumstances,” Andrew said to Victor.
“Muthafucker, you better shoot me because in a minute you about to be dead, too!” Victor snapped.
“Andrew, you were in on this?” Mina asked.
“You tried to ruin my life with that sex tape! I wasn’t gonna let you get away with that!”
“Fuck all this bullshit, somebody about to die!” Dro yelled pulling back on the trigger.
Just as he was about to shoot Victor, Lelah hopped out of the chair and ran around the couch. She had gotten loose. Running over to her father, she shouted, “DADDY!” Looking back and forth between Andrew, Dro and Lelah, he knew he had no choice but to keep his daughter safe. Taking his daughter into his arms, Victor fell to the ground shielding his daughter from any harm. A shot was fired, hitting Victor in the back. Right then and there he knew that his life was over. Hearing two more shots Victor knew that they were meant for him. A minute passed and he didn’t feel or hear anything. Then suddenly a hand touched his shoulder.
“Mr. Gonzalez, are you all right?” Armando asked, turning him over.
“Bout time you got here,” Victor smiled.