The officer’s voice shook as Maasai glared at him with a tight jaw. I could tell he wanted to act out, but I was silently praying he didn’t. “Baby, please just do it,” I pleaded in a voice that was damn near a whisper. All it took was him hearing and seeing how scared I was for him to angrily do what the man wanted. As soon as he stepped out with his arms raised though, that asshole slammed him against the truck hard enough to make it rock. “Hey!”
“Ma’am, stay in your seat!” he ordered, pointing the gun at me, and I threw my hands up as a trickle of pee slipped out of me. He held me in his aim for a few seconds until my door came flying open.
“On my pops’s grave, y’all niggas gone regret this shit! Wait till I call my fuckin’ lawyer, I’m gone sue the dog shit out whatever department y’all from!” Maasai threatened as he was ushered away, but I only knew that because of the way his voice faded since the officer at my side had my full attention. It was a woman with a nasty scowl on her face, and while she hadn’t pulled her gun, she did have her hand on it, prepared to shoot my black ass. She took her eyes off me for a half second to look back at their car before turning back to me.
“You’re free to go, ma’am,” she said, already walking off, and it took me a minute to realize what was happening.
“Wait! Where are you taking him?” I screamed at her back, too scared to even climb all the way out of the truck. Ignoring me, she continued to their car and disappeared inside. The lights shut off, and they pulled away, leaving me stunned before Isnapped out of it and climbed over into the driver’s seat, trying to trail them. I tried to swipe my tear-filled face and keep up with their speed as they maneuvered through the streets. I had never been in a situation like this and didn’t know what to do, but they were already getting farther away from me, like they were intentionally trying to lose me. “Hey Siri, call Ms. Eva!” I shouted, getting frustrated when it wouldn’t recognize my voice. It took six tries to get my tone right and the call to finally go through, but of course, when I actually needed her, she didn’t answer. Next, I tried Armand. With him and AJ being in the same kind of work, they would definitely know what to do. Thankfully, he answered on the second ring as some asshole in a drop top cut me off like I wouldn’t crush them with this big ass truck. “Get yo’ stupid ass out my way!”
“Hello? Avery?”
“Dad—Armand! The police-the police have M-Maasai! I—they won’t tell me where, so I’m following them and—” I could barely formulate the words to explain what was going on, but the alarm in my voice instantly had him on high alert.
“Baby girl, I need you to calm down and tell me what happened, okay. Try to take deep breaths.” He demonstrated what he wanted me to do, and I copied him, feeling my breathing beginning to return to normal. When I was finally able to speak, I repeated everything that had happened when we got pulled over through tears. “Shit, where are you right now?” he asked, and I could hear him moving around.
“I-I don’t know…I’m on the expressway.”
“Okay, look, I need you to get off on the next exit and send me your location so I can come get you, baby girl. You don’t need to be driving on the E-way in this condition. Maasai would have a fit if anything happened to you and the baby ’cause of this shit.” Continuing to breathe deeply, I did what he said and got off on the next exit I saw, which was still downtown. Since the parkingwas so limited, it took me a few minutes of driving to actually find somewhere on the street to stop, and when I did, I let him know where I was. Armand stayed on the phone with me until he pulled up, double-parking right next to my truck. “Get all of your important stuff and ride with me,” he said, pulling me into a hug once he opened my door.
“What about the truck?”
“I’ll have Asuel take the truck. He’ll deliver it to your house while we find Maasai.” He helped me down, and I was suddenly embarrassed as I remembered that I’d peed on myself.
“Do you have something to put over the seat… I was scared.” Tears welled up in my eyes again, and Armand’s jaw ticked.
“Don’t worry about that nigga. You need some new pants though.” He snapped his fingers, and another one of his workers came around the car. “Give her your pants,” he demanded, and the man didn’t even hesitate to reach for the waistband of his jeans.
“No! No, can he just go grab me some from…” I looked around and spotted an Old Navy at the corner. “Can he go there?” Armand looked like he wanted to object, but I’d just go my damn self before I allowed him to take a man’s pants off himself in downtown Chicago! Besides, I wasn’t putting on anybody else’s clothes, especially some random man. He finally nodded for the man to go, and he took off like lightning as Armand helped me into his car. It took about fifteen minutes for him to return, and I breathed a sigh of relief when I pulled out a gray sweat suit and some type of shoes. I didn’t know how he knew, but I was grateful as hell.
“I’m just gonna step out for a second and make some calls while you change. There’s wipes in the console there if you feel you need them,” he said, ducking his head out of the car and closing the door. I didn’t waste any time stripping out of the semi-damp leggings and putting them down inside the Old Navybag before searching for the wipes. My nose immediately turned up when I pulled out the Summer’s Eve feminine wipes. I held them between two fingers and looked out at Armand in disbelief. I didn’t even want to know why he had those particular types of wipes because the thought of my old ass daddy fucking his car was sure to upset my stomach.
After I cleaned up and tied my old clothes up in the bag, I knocked to let Armand know I was finished. He shoved the bag to the man who’d gotten the clothes and sent him with Asuel before climbing inside with me. “Were you able to find him?” I asked as the car crawled away from the curb with Maasai’s truck right behind us.
“Yes, I had to pull a few strings, but I know which department he’s at, and I already have a lawyer on the way. Hopefully, he’ll beat us there though, and we won’t have to waste too much time in there.” His nose wrinkled in disgust, but I was just glad he’d come through in the clutch. “You know, I talked to your sister yesterday,” he mused after some time had gone by.
“I don’t wanna talk about Gabby’s thieving ass.”
Rolling my eyes, I turned away from him, not wanting to engage. If he thought I was just going to forgive and forget, he had me fucked up. It was still fuck Gabby until I felt otherwise, and that wasn’t going to be anytime soon.
“You say that now, but I know you know just how short life is. No sense in holding on to grudges and shortening them even more,” he tried to reason, but I wasn’t trying to hear that shit. He was basically excusing her behavior when she was the one who fucked up, and she damn sure knew better. I had a mind to let her ass go to jail for identity theft and all that, but I wasn’t trying to throw her to the wolves. Gabby wouldn’t last a couple of hours in jail, and I could just about imagine her asking for some ridiculous skincare product, thinking she was above everyone else. I understood that mistakes happened, but what she’d donewas more than a mistake. It was a bad decision that was going to cost her our relationship if she didn’t get her shit together.
“I’m not ready to talk about it yet, but what I will say is Gabby knew better, and more than that, she didn’tneedto steal anything, but she did, trying to be greedy. I won’t hold my grudge forever, but I’m also not up for talking to her just yet.”
“I respect your position.” Armand nodded. “Just don’t let it be too long.”
Sucking my teeth, I put my attention back out the window, watching as the outside whipped by in a blur. Just when I was really feeling close to him, he had to go and fuck up with vibe. I didn’t know why he thought he had the type of pull to make me do something before I was ready, but he would learn soon that I wasn’t moving on anybody’s time but my own. I was glad when we finally came to a stop at the police station and were greeted on the sidewalk by a man in a tailored suit.
Armand introduced him as his lawyer friend Daniel, and he immediately started speaking in big ass legal terms that I didn’t understand. “Umm, can you repeat that but in English?” I finally spoke up, and he turned his steely gray eyes to me.
“My apologies. I was just saying that everything that happened today was unlawful, and you can both sue if you’d like?—”
“Where is my husband?” I stressed, waving away all the other shit he’d said. I only cared about Maasai being released.
“Oh, he’s being released now, I just left from inside with him. He’s free to go, but he wanted to stop in and talk to the captain since they’re old friends,” he explained, seeming confused about that but not speaking on it. And as if on cue, Maasai appeared at the door with a man who looked just like Karl Winslow. I could tell that he’d given that man hell, judging from how uncomfortable he looked. Maasai’s jaw was tight as he stopped to say one last thing before heading down the front steps. I racedover to him without even waiting until he reached the bottom, and he hugged me tightly.
“Are you okay? Did they hurt you?” I pulled away and looked him over, even though he didn’t have a scuff on him.
“I’m good, baby.” He tried unsuccessfully to smile, but the second he took in my clothes, his expression went hard again. “You changed clothes?” I’d forgotten all about Maasai’s keen attention to detail. My cheeks burned, not wanting to tell him about my “accident,” especially while he was looking at me so intently.
