Page 42 of Rich Forever: Zo & Remy

“Douglas Black, fifty-two. He’s listed on quite a few businesses and charities. Some are real, and some look fake as hell. No criminal background, just a victim of some big accident.” He said as he scanned the computer screen and then rotated it for me to see.

I nodded.

“There are some pictures from before the accident. He was an ugly ass nigga back then, and even worse now,” He snorted as he clicked on an icon that brought a gallery of Douglas up.

“Go back to that one,” I said as Judah scrolled through them way too fast.

I slapped the desk. “Nigga! Back!”

“This nigga at the beach?” He muttered, confused.

When he scrolled back to it as soon as the image appeared on the screen, I jumped out of my seat and went to my office to grab my phone.

“Zo?” Judah called out, confused.

By the time I was jogging back by, he was leaning out of his doorway.

“Nigga what thefuckis wrong with you?” He asked.

“I gotta get to Rem,” I said, putting the phone to my ear and calling her twice. Once she didn’t answer, I called the nigga who I had assigned as her primary security. He didn’t answer the phone either.

“Shit!” I said as I jumped into the truck and gripped the leather, making it creak. As soon as the engine started, I headed toward the ranch she had given me the address for.

I called someone else from the team who I knew was on duty.

“What’s up, boss?” He answered. I could hear the loud background noise of talking and music.

“Where is my wife?” I gritted.

“She’s on some kind of ride, boss. She’s good.” He said. As soon as the words left his mouth, I exhaled.

“Listen to me, G, get her now. And she needs to get the fuck outta there. I’m on my way, but I’m still about twenty minutes out.”

“Everything good?” He asked.

“No,” I answered honestly. “But it will be,” I assured him.

My stomach was in knots as I pushed the truck to its limits, trying to make it to her. On the way, the words Remy said to me kept replaying in my head when she finally opened up to me and talked to me about Karlos.

“Karlos was obsessed with me. He had been pursuing me for years, and I never gave him a chance. After I agreed to the arrangement, I hadn’t been there a full three weeks, and he walked in the house and showed me a tattoo of an ‘RW’ on his chest.”

That beach photo of Douglas Black? Same initials, same place, and the same ink style she had described. The scars on his face were the perfect way for him to come back from the dead with a new identity and be unrecognizable.

Yeah, Judah may have been the best at what he does, but that’s my wife. That was my heartbeat, and if my gut tells me that some shit ain’t right with her, I have to listen.

I called Rem’s phone again as I continued to race down the road, and I didn’t get her. I checked her location. Her phone was still powered on, and it seemed to be moving from place to place. I pressed her contact and called again.

But as soon as I heard the voice on the other end, my pulse spiked again. “Boss!” I heard one of the guards yell into the phone.

“Where the fuck is my wife?” My voice went cold.

“I don’t know, Boss, she went on a ride with two children, and she didn’t come out,” The words seemed to echo as they flowed through the speakers. I gripped the steering wheel tighter. So tight that my knuckles cracked.

“If you don’t have my wife safe and in a truck by the time I make it, all you muhfuckas are dead,” I said before I hung up and ran a red light.

I made it to the Ranch and down a long path before reaching the back gate. They opened, slowly but not fast enough. I floored the truck through the gates, and all I could hear was the sound of metal scratching against the iron gates. People walking to the entrance jumped onto the sidewalks as I rode by on a mission.

I didn’t give a fuck who was in the way. I was getting to my wife. And anybody standing between us was already dead.