Page 119 of Pregnant By A Rich Demon 4

Amai stared at me, his breathing slowing, locking onto every word. “Why?”

“Because Truth ain’t built to live in a cage,” I said, pride and terror lacing my voice in equal measure. “She is my daughter. She survived Phillip, she survived that clinic, and she survived you. She will fight Kaisen tooth and nail for her survival and for Trumai’s. She is not going to roll over and let him play daddy to your child. And the longer it takes you to find them, the more that fairytale of his is going to crack. When a crazy man realizes the woman he stole doesn’t love him and never will… that’s when he turns lethal. That’s when the monster comes out.”

“I won’t let it get to that,” Amai rasped.

“Then use your head,” I told him, tapping his temple with my index finger hard enough to push his head back. “Truth is smart. She’s observant. She knows you’re looking for her. She is going to watch Kaisen, she is going to look for a weakness, and she will find a way to leave a breadcrumb or get word to you. Your job isn’t running around the streets like a rabid dog, killing corner boys who don’t know a damn thing. Your job is watching for her signal.”

Amai stood up slowly. The tremor in his hands was gone. The broken boy who had knocked on my door had vanished, replaced by the lethal, calculating kingpin who ruled the underbelly of this city.

“Until she gives me that signal,” Amai said, his voice dropping into a dark, resonant register that made the floorboards hum, “I’m going to tear New Orleans apart piece by piece. Every warehouse, every marina, every off-grid property tied to the Landry name or Kaisen’s money is getting burned to the ground.”

“Tear down the right walls, then,” I said, rising to meet him.

I stood right in front of him, looking up into that scarred, dangerous face. I reached up and placed my palm against his cheek. He didn’t pull away. For all his blood and sin, this man loved my daughter with a ferocity that matched my own. He was the father of my grandchild. He was family, whether the city liked it or not.

“You go get my girl,” I told him, my voice trembling with the full weight of a mother’s command. “You bring my daughter and my grandbaby back to this house alive. You hear me, Amai?”

Amai placed his large, blood-stained hand over mine on his cheek, pressing it tight for one brief, grounding second.

“On my life, Delphine,” he said. “I’m bringing them home.”

He turned on his heel and walked out the door, moving fast into the black New Orleans night with cold, deadly purpose in his stride.

I stood on the porch, watching his taillights disappear down the street. Folding my hands together, I began to pray.

I stepped back into the house, shut the heavy cypress door, and threw both deadbolts before sliding the brass chain into place. The click echoed in the hallway. The quiet of my house came rushing back in, but it wasn’t the peaceful quiet from before. It was thick. Suffocating. The kind of quiet that makes your ears ring because you’re listening for the cry of a baby that isn’t there.

My hands were shaking as I reached into my housecoat pocket and pulled out my cell phone.

I sat back down at the kitchen table, the cold coffee mug still where I’d left it, and started dialing. I linked the calls together, letting the line ring out across New Orleans until one by one, my girls picked up.

Honor was first, her voice raspy with sleep. “Mama? What’s wrong? Why you calling at three in the morning?”

“I’m here,” Saroya answered a second later, already sounding awake, like a mother who sleeps with one eye open. “Mama, what happened?”

“Wait,” Raven’s voice cut through the static, sharp and breathless. “Is everybody on? Mama, what is it?”

I gripped the edge of the kitchen table until my fingernails ached. I didn’t sugarcoat it. In my family, when bad news comes, you give it straight so nobody wastes time guessing. Straight, no chaser.

“Kaisen took Truth,” I said, my voice steady even while my heart battered against my ribs. “He took her, and he took the baby.”

The phone line went dead silent for two seconds. Then all hell broke loose.

“What?!” Saroya shrieked, the rustle of bedsheets loud through the speaker. “What do you mean he took them? Took them where?!”

“Oh, Jesus God,” Honor gasped, her voice cracking. “No. No, no, no—Mama, where is my sister?!”

“I’m going to kill him,” Raven hissed, and I could hear the pure venom in her tone, the sound of drawers opening, clothes being thrown. “I knew his crazy, smiling ass was going to try some shit! Where is Amai? Why the fuck wasn’t Amai protecting them?!”

“That’s what I want to know!” Honor yelled, panic making her voice shrill. “Truth was in that big-ass fortress of his! What the fuck good is all that money and all those guns if Amai Landry can’t keep his own damn woman and newborn safe? I knew his street shit was going to blow back on her! I knew it! His whole lifestyle is poison, and now my sister and my niece are paying for it!”

“Both of y’all shut your mouths,” I snapped. “Shut up and listen to me!”

The line quieted down, but I could hear them breathing—ragged, terrified, furious.

“Don’t you dare start talking down on Amai,” I said, putting every ounce of my authority into the phone. “Not in front of me. You knew who and what that man was the day Truth brought him around. You knew what he came with. And as long as he was pouring y’all that expensive wine, buying Truth whatever she wanted, and doing for this family, none of you had a damn thing to say about his lifestyle. You weren’t calling him poison when y’all needed something. Don’t you turn around and blame his lifestyle now because a tragedy walked through the door.”

“Mama—” Honor started, but I cut her right back off.