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THE SUN WAS JUST PAST setting. Ghost had a plethora of emotions going on inside him. He was nervous, angry, and frustrated. The emotions were written all over him. He felt guilty for getting Kia involved in this. He had to get her back.
He looked at the clock on the radio, which read 7:53. He’d shown up early to the abandoned warehouse. Anxiously awaiting the phone call, Ghost constantly kept looking down at his phone. The ten minutes he had been waiting seemed like forever.
Finally, the phone rang, and he nearly jumped out of his own skin from the sound of its ringer. It was dark. He was strapless, alone, and worried half to death about his fiancée’s safety. Relax. He took a deep breath.
“Yeah,” he answered calmly.
“Are you in place?”
“Come on, man. What do you think? Let’s get this over with.” Ghost was tired of the games and small talk. “I got your money. Now, let me speak to my wife to make sure she’s okay.”
Ghost could hear the phone being fumbled with before Kia’s voice came into the receiver. “Kevin, please get me outta this,” she begged. She sounded weak and tired.
Ghost’s eyes flooded with tears, but he stayed strong. “I will, baby. I promise. This is almost over. Stay strong,” he told his fiancée. The phone was snatched away from her before she could respond.
“All right. Listen. Drive to the back of the warehouse. There, you will see a dumpster. I want you to put the bag of money in it and leave. Don’t come back. If you do, she’s dead,” he instructed.
“Hold up! Where is she? Let’s do the exchange at the same time. How do I know you won’t kill her once I pay you?” Ghost asked.
“You don’t,” he answered sharply. “Relax. If I wanted to hurt this bitch, she’d be dead. This has nothing to do with her. This is between you and me. Now, do as I said. Put the money in the dumpster. As long as the money is right, we’re good. The next call will be from your bitch.”
“But—”
Ghost banged on the steering wheel in frustration when Reese hung up on him once again. He let out a sigh before grabbing the bag of money and getting out the car.
Special Agents Boselli and Graham had had no luck finding Schemes for questioning. They checked the address on record for him, but came up short. However, they were able to speak to his grandmother, who told them that Schemes hadn’t resided at the address for several years now. Besides that, she refused to answer any further questions and claimed that she had no clue about the whereabouts of her grandson. She insisted her baby wasn’t into any criminal activity whatsoever, but the agents didn’t believe that for one second.
Surprisingly, though, the agents received a call from an attorney asking questions and informing the agents he was representing Donald Hawkins, the man they were looking for. Apparently, the card they’d left the suspect’s grandmother with their contact information on it had made its way into the hands of an attorney. That definitely confirmed their man-of-interest’s involvement.
“Let’s cross reference this guy’s call data and investigate some of these guys who are in the address book,” Vito told his partner John.
John nodded and got right at it. Schemes had left a trail big enough for a truck to drive through. The phone not only had his entire team’s phone numbers stored in it, but there were hundreds of pictures in the phone of women and, even worse, all of his friends. The feds knew chances were that there were pictures and phone numbers of the others responsible for the Beneficial Bank job and possibly other robberies. A lot of phone numbers stored in the phone even had the pictures attached to them, making it easier for the feds to identify the owners of the numbers. It was only a matter of time before they narrowed it down.
At a little after ten o’clock, Ghost finally received the call he was waiting for. Hearing Kia’s voice untied the knots in his stomach. Kia was let go by the abductors after they made sure the money was all there. Ghost picked her up from where they had let her go. She was given two quarters and told to call Ghost from a pay phone.
Guilt was eating Ghost up inside. Kia was distraught and had been quiet since she was back home. All she could think about was Khashan’s dad and what he’d gone through when he was kidnapped. He was not as fortunate to be let loose.
They decided to let Kha stay with his uncle Bird. They didn’t let him know what was going on. Ghost and Kia both weren’t in any shape to take care of him now.
When Ghost picked Kia up, she was covered in what looked like dried-up vomit. Her hair was all over the place, and she smelled like she hadn’t showered in days. She was only gone a little over twenty-four hours, but it looked and seemed like it had been much longer.
Though Kia was acting distant, she did allow Ghost to bathe her, and now the two of them were lying in the bed as one. Ghost cupped her in his arms and held her like he never wanted to lose her again. He was convinced, now more than ever, that he needed to leave the streets alone. But first he had to find and kill Reese.
“I love you, baby,” he whispered in her ear.
Kia just nodded. Ghost started to tell her how he was going to kill the men responsible for her abduction, but he knew she wanted to forget about what had taken place, so he silently promised himself instead. He could only imagine what she was going through.