by Linda Verji
“Tasha, are you okay?” Chryssa put an arm around Tasha’s waist as if to console her but Tasha shrugged it off as she continued to pace the white linoleum floor.
The hospital room was crowded with them; Chryssa, Zain, Eli, Kian, Dr. Marsden and the police – everyone but Asia. She didn’t want them here. She wanted them searching for Asia.
“Mrs. Nelson have you ever met this Jenifer?” Officer Jim asked.
“Tasha,” she corrected curtly. Just thinking of Polo’s name attached to hers was liable to make her break something or shoot someone. She added, “No.”
How the hell was she supposed to have met her? They all needed to stop asking her stupid questions and get her baby back.
“We don’t have any nurse Jenifer in the surgical unit,” Dr. Marsden added unnecessarily.
Tasha almost guffawed aloud at that one. Of course there was no Nurse Jenifer. Hadn’t they been listening to Kian? She was one of Polo’s whores.
Tasha asked, “Have you tracked him down yet?”
“We’re not even sure that it’s him,” Officer’s Jim’s kindly face was scrunched up in worry.
“It’s him!” She was unequivocal in her certainty.
Ooh! Polo was going to have to go into outer space to hide from her when they found him. Tasha paced the room in shorter strides as she mulled over all the ways she was going to carve that pretty face of his with a turkey knife. The police were going to need an x-ray machine to identify him.
“A few people say they saw a female nurse wheel her out of the room but after that no one remembers seeing anything.” Detective Carl looked up from the notepad he was jotting in.
Jim had been sent in because he already had knowledge of the Nelson’s case but this time he was accompanied by the detective. The tall brown haired detective turned to Kian. “Mr. Harper do you remember anything else about her? Some identifying marker?”
“I just…just remember the… the blonde hair and that I saw her…” Kian had one elbow on his knees as the other hand held an ice-pack to the back of his neck as he answered. He hadn’t completely recovered from his encounter with ‘Jenifer’ so his speech was still slow and slurred.
Tasha didn’t feel bad for him. All she could see when she looked at him was that Asia was probably in worse condition than he was. If he’d taken better care of her like he’d promised she wouldn’t be gone. Was she being unfair? Maybe.
Who gives a crap?
Polo had taken Asia on his watch, so it was his fault.
“I think…I think she’s ca..called Becky.” Kian stumbled over his words.
“Becky?” the detective asked as he scrawled on his notepad. “How do you know this?”
“Tha…that’s what Po..Polo called h..her at…at the club.”
“Okay, that’s a lead. At least we now know her name,” the detective said. “If she’s his mistress, we should be able to track her down soon. Hopefully she still has your daughter with her. Unfortunately there’s no evidence that Mr. Nelson was in the hospital-”
“He hit Dean,” Tasha interrupted.
“There’s no evidence of that.” The detective answered. The only thing Dean remembered was talking to Becky and then being knocked out from the back. “But if he is we’ll catch him. At the very least we can charge him with child endangerment.”
Child endangerment? Considering who Polo’s lawyer was it probably wouldn’t even stick. A fresh spurt of anger built up at the pit of Tasha’s belly. She kept pacing the floor even as the detective wrapped up with Kian. Once they were done getting everyone’s statements, Jim and the detective left. While Eli checked up on Kian to make sure he was doing okay, Chryssa and Zain shuffled Tasha out of the door.
Chryssa’s expression was a storm of emotion. “I should’ve taken him out.”
“He won’t hurt her,” Zain said. “She’s his daughter.”
Tasha didn’t say anything because she knew better. Polo cared about only Polo.
“That nigga’s sick!” Chryssa spat. “Who the hell kidnaps a child when she’s still in recovery?”
All three women were silent for a moment. Zain edged closer to Tasha and wrapped her arm around her waist. This time Tasha let her but kept her arms crossed over her chest. As much as she wanted to lean on Zain’s shoulder for emotional support, she knew that if she let the anger go and instead focused on the pain of her daughter’s kidnapping, she’d break. And she couldn’t break – not now.
“I can tell you for sure the cops are going to drag their feet on this one. When a parent kidnaps their own child it doesn’t rank very high on their to-do list,” Chryssa said. “We’ll need to do some legwork ourselves.”
“What can I do?” Tasha was willing to do the legwork, handwork …anything if it meant getting her child back.
“Do you have Polo’s number?”
Tasha scribbled Polo’s number on a piece of paper and handed it to Chryssa. Remembering that he’d called her on a strange number the night of Asia’s surgery, she handed Chryssa that one too.
“Okay, I’ll give this to a techy techy friend to see if he can track Polo’s signal. And if he calls you with a different number let me know immediately,” Chryssa said as she tucked the numbers into her bag. “Scott has enough clout within the force so I’ll talk to him to push them into faster action. As soon as I hear something about that dick I’ll let you know.”
Hope began to flower in Tasha. She had no doubt that Polo would call. He wasn’t the type to silently slink away into the darkness. He’d make sure he gloated and proclaimed his victory over her. She said, “Thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me. That’s my goddaughter’s life he’s playing with,” Chryssa said. “I don’t care that you’re a Martin Luther King, when we find that nigga you better let me stomp his black ass into ash.”
“Not if I get to him first.”
Chryssa looked at Tasha contemplatively as if she couldn’t quite believe that Tasha, who’d always espoused peace and talking things out, was willing to do violence. But this was her daughter. Even Jesus would have gone postal in this situation.
Eli came out of the room soon after Chryssa left. “Are you okay?”
“I will be once they find Asia,” Tasha said.
“If I can do anything to help…” His words trailed off because like her, he knew there was really nothing he could do except give his support at this point in time. “Harper’s in there. The effects of the tranquillizer have worn off a bit, but I doubt he’ll be able to drive himself home. He refusing to stay in the hospital but he needs someone to check up on him and make sure he’s okay overnight.”
As much as he wasn’t her main priority, Tasha felt a bit sorry for him especially when she found him still seated on the bed with his elbows on his knees and his head slightly drooping forward. She took his keys and handed them to Mark who was standing at the corner of the room. “Please take Mr. Harper’s car back to the hotel.”
“Of course, Ma’am.” He took the keys.
“Thank you.”To Kian, she said curtly, “Let’s go.”
“I’m…I’m sorry.” His slurring was harsh in the silence of the car. Tasha didn’t say anything, just backed up the car then drove out of the hospital parking lot. “I’m so…sorry.”
He should be. He’d let Polo take Asia.
“Tasha, I….I’m sorry?” His head was against the passenger seat with his eyes closed as if he was in pain. What did he expect her to say? That she accepted his apology. She didn’t. His voice was tired as he said, “I sh…should’ve b..been m…m…more c..careful.”
She drove them home in stony silence. Once there she parked the car, unlocked the doors and then exited leaving him seated in there. She just wanted to get to the house and away from him.
The house was so silent. Lucky had picked up Jaslene and Ash and taken them to his house while Tasha and Kian dealt with the cops. It was the silence that got to her. All the pain that had been covered up by anger until now came
rushing in.
Everything in the apartment reminded Tasha of her daughter. From the pictures of her smiling on the wall, to the jacket she’d meant to take to the hospital for her but forgotten about. Tasha picked the jacket up, pressing it to her nose as she walked to her bedroom. A tear drop fell as she inhaled Asia’s sweet clean scent but she immediately wiped it away. This was not the time to start crying. She needed to figure out how to find Asia.
She sat down on the bed and reached for her phone inside her bag. Though she’d already tried calling Polo several times, she tried again. Only the sad sound of the disconnect tone met her ear.
Kian came into the room some moments later. Tasha ignored him as he sat beside her on the bed with his head on his hands. He looked so tired and defeated but Tasha shoved off her twinges of pity. Keeping her eyes away from him, she dialed Polo’s number again.
“Baby, I am…am sorry.” Kian clasped her thigh. She stood up and his hand dropped. Walking to her closet, she reached high to the top drawer and extracted a box. Inside the box, a small silver gun sat.
“Where…where…did you g…g…get that?” Kian tried to stand up. He swayed slightly with the effort then sat back down.
She’d bought it a few days before moving out of the Ford’s house but had never had need for it considering all the guards around her and the kids. Ignoring Kian’s question, Tasha inspected the gun and then loaded it.
This was the last time Polo was ever going to mess with her.
*
Kian was watching her.
Tasha had moved from the bedroom to the living room and was now seated on the couch directly opposite the door. Her phone was in one hand while in the other she held her gun – waiting for Polo.
Kian couldn’t get through to her. All of his apologies were met with silence and her acting like he’d stopped existing in her world the moment he’d let Polo take Asia. Kian didn’t blame her. He knew it was his fault. He’d promised to protect her and her family and he’d failed.
He wanted to stand up and do something to find Asia, but whatever that woman had forced into his system had rendered him practically helpless. Any anger he felt was shadowed by incessant urge to sleep.
“I’m sorry, Tasha,” he tried again before the drowsiness took over and he closed his eyes. When next he opened them he was stretched on the couch with blanket tucked around him. Tasha was in the exact same spot she was when he’d fallen asleep.
There was no accompanying dizziness as he sat up. Everything seemed much clearer now. A quick glance on the wall clock said it was eight in the evening. He’d been asleep for almost seven hours which meant Tasha had been sitting there for seven hours just tapping her feet and looking at the door.
When he swung his legs to the floor, she turned to look at him then quickly shifted her attention back to the door. Her eyes were red as if she’d been crying, which made him feel even worse. Instead of holding her and telling her everything was going to be all right, he’d been sleeping. It seemed today was his day to fuck up.
It was time to man up. He needed to find Asia and he knew exactly where to start.
“Baby, I know I messed up bad.” Kian crouched in front of Tasha’s seat with his palms on her thighs. There was sadness in her eyes as she stared at him in silence. Desperately he continued, “But I swear, I’ll find him.”
“He hasn’t called.” Her voice was hollow as she said the words. It was like in those seven hours she’d waited, she’d already started losing hope. “What if he’s gone with her somewhere or hurt her?”
“No, he hasn’t,” Kian said fervently. He didn’t even want to think of that happening. “I’m going to find him. I know where to start.”
“You do?” Her eyes lit up and she straightened in the seat.
“Yeah! I do.” He took her hands placing them on his shoulders as he pulled her body closer to the edge of the seat and edged his hands under her ass. He stood up with her in his arms. As he walked her to the bedroom, he said, “Hanna has to know a way to contact him. I’m going to go over to her place right now and all I can to get it out of her. But I want you to rest while I’m gone.”
“No.” She dropped her legs from his waist. “Do you really think I’m going to stay here while you’re out trying to find my daughter?”
“Baby, I know you’re tired and…”
“I’m going with you, Kian.” Her voice brooked no argument.
“Okay,” he surrendered. “Change into something warmer first.”
She came back to the living room and tucked her phone and gun into the pocket of the black jacket she’d thrown on before they headed out to the car. With one steady hand on the steering, Kian called Rafe. He updated the other man on the recent turn of events and then solicited his help in getting a top notch private investigator. There was no rock big enough for Polo to hide beneath now.
Kian was going to find him and when he did, he was going to kill him.
CHAPTER 25
Soft instrumental music played in the background, an inverse accompaniment to her frantic scribbling. Hanna bit the tip of her pen as she gave the documents in front of her one more cursory glance. These particular ones were for a court case for a woman who’d been accused of killing her much older husband.
Same shit. Different day. As long as they paid their bills, Hanna was willing to fake it like they were innocent. She jotted down a few more points on the notebook next to her before tucking the papers on top of a larger pile on the desk. Just as she was about to reach for another set, the house phone rattled alarmingly on the dark wood desk, almost startling her out of the leather swivel chair.
“Yes.”
“Ma’am, there’s a man here at the gate for you.” She recognized the voice of one of their security guards. He added, “His name’s Kian Harper?”
Keifer?
It took Hanna a while to respond. She hadn’t expected them to connect her to the situation this fast. Polo had only called her an hour or so ago to inform her of what he’d done. It would be a lie to say that he hadn’t surprised her. She’d seen a lot of sick people in her time but Polo had taken the crown.
He reminded her of the enforcers on her father’s crew; men who’d completely lost their ability to feel for other people. These last few weeks, he’d seemed even worse to the point where she thought he might have a screw or two – or fifteen – loose. However people’s sicknesses were none of her business. Hers was to make sure they didn’t go to jail for them and that she got paid.
She was tempted to tell the guard to tell Keifer she wasn’t in but Hanna knew Keifer. He’d always been doggedly determined. If she avoided him now, it would only make him angrier and the hounding would get worse. “Let him in.”
It was only a ten minute drive between the main gates and her house but it was enough time for her to handle her business. She shut the study door behind her before pacing quickly to the entertainment room.
R.J. was stretched out over the couch’s navy blue length. He had earphones atop his neatly combed hair running from one ear to the other while he held a thick book over his bespectacled face. Who used an entertainment room to read?
Sometimes Hanna worried about him. She wanted him to be intelligent like her, have all the good things in life that she’d had, and have friends that were with him not for who his father was but for the nice boy he was, unlike her. She would just have to settle for two out of three.
R.J. was the most important thing in her life.
Her father had one saying that he’d drummed into her. Never give a fuck about anyone but yourself, Hanna, because niggas will always screw you over. It’s in their DNA. His words had served her well through the years. By always looking out for number one she’d gotten when she was.
Then she had R.J.
She’d tried not to love the boy. She’d tried to keep him coolly at bay but he’d kept coming at her with his large gray eyes so like his fathers’ begging for her attention. At age two, he’d sit at the bott
om stair to the door waiting for her to come home from work. The moment she got in his little grubby hands would reach around her business skirts to hug her legs; holding her tight until she was forced to love him. He was the only person that didn’t see her as a bitch. Even being a teenager hadn’t changed him. He still loved her. And he was the only person she loved.
No one would ever, ever take him away from her.
“R.J.” She pulled the earphones from his ears drawing his attention. He turned towards her in surprise. “I’ve got some guests and I need you to go to your room.”
“Okay.” He slipped back his earphones before standing and leaving the room, book in hand. His leaving was just in time too because she heard the smooth purr of a car coming through their gates. Hanna flicked on the security light as she schooled her face into equanimity in readiness for Kiefer.
A black saloon car parked at the side of the house before the driver’s door opened to reveal Keifer. The passenger side opened and Tasha alighted.
What is she doing here? Hanna narrowed my eyes, inspecting them as they walked towards the door. Even in the waning front porch light, the agitation in both their eyes was obvious. Folding her arms over her chest, she asked, “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“Can we come in?” Keifer’s voice was cold, frostier than the evening chill that surrounded them.
“No!” She said. “We’re not supposed to even be talking, I’m an attorney for the other side, remember?”
“Actually that’s what we needed to talk to you about. Have you heard what Polo did?”
“What did he do?” Hanna adopted an innocent expression.
“He kidnapped Asia.” Tasha’s voice was strangled as she spoke for the first time.
“He did what?” Hanna opened her mouth slightly and widened her eyes, feigning shock.
“Kidnapped Asia,” Tasha snapped. Ooh, so the cat had claws? Lovely, just lovely.
With a bland expression Hanna asked, “But what does that have to do with me?”
“You’re the only one who has been in contact with him.” From Keifer’s narrowed eyes it was obvious he didn’t believe for her minute that she didn’t know anything about the kidnapping. Hanna didn’t care. He’d have to prove it first. In a hard tone he asked, “Do you know where he is?”