White Lines III (31 page)

Jada noticed and made eye contact with him. “Maybe it's important,” she said, assuming that Anisa was the persistent caller. “You should answer it.”

Born felt bad, aware that Anisa was still a point of contention for Jada. Reluctantly, he hit the green button on his phone and was immediately met with the sound of Anisa crying and yelling hysterically.

“Ethan is missing!”
she yelled. “Somebody came in here and took him!”

Born shot to his feet. “Calm down! What happened?” His heart was galloping in his chest.

Jada and Ava looked on, confused, as Born was clearly agitated.

Anisa could barely catch her breath. “Oh my God, Born!” Anisa fought to get the words out. “He was downstairs playing his video game. I finished working out, and I went to get in the shower. I was just about to get out of the shower when I heard the doorbell ring. So I shut off the water and wrapped a towel around me. When I got out, I called down to Ethan, but he didn't answer me. I came down here to look for him and the front door is wide open. One of his sneakers is on the front porch, and he's gone! Oh my God!” Anisa was crying uncontrollably. “Somebody has my son!”

Born felt like he was going to have a heart attack. “Anisa, I called you after I left Maury's office yesterday. I told you not to leave Ethan alone—”

“Don't act like this shit is my fault, Born!” Anisa was hysterical. “I just took a fucking shower!” She felt lightheaded. She sat down on the chaise and took a deep breath. “If this shit has anything to do with Jada, I'm going to kill her myself.” Anisa's voice was steady. She meant every word.

“Okay, okay.” Born took a deep breath, willing himself to calm down. He paced the floor. “Listen,” he said. “I'm on my way. Don't call the police.”

Anisa unleashed a fury of curse words so powerful that Born held the phone away from his ear.

“If you call the cops, he's gonna hurt him!” The thought of that made Born's hands tremble involuntarily. “Just wait until I get there!”

Jada was on her feet now. Ava was looking like she'd seen a ghost.

“I'm on my way,” Born said again. He clicked off the phone and looked at Jada with fear in his eyes. “Somebody took Ethan,” he said.

Ava gasped and jumped to her feet. Jada and Born exchanged knowing glances. “You think it's him?” Jada asked, referring to the stranger who had been tormenting them.

Before he could respond, Born's phone vibrated loudly. The caller ID read “private.” He answered, and collapsed on the couch at the sound of Ethan's scared voice.

“Dad?” Ethan sounded petrified. “Dad, can you come and get me?”

“Where are you?” Born asked breathlessly.

But he was met by the voice of his son's captor. The same voice of the man he had encountered in the McDonald's bathroom. “I warned you, Born,” the man said. “No cops. You didn't keep your end of the bargain.”

“What are you talking about? Nobody went to the cops. Bring my son back home.” Born couldn't get his words out fast enough.

“I'm smarter than you give me credit for,” the man said. “I told you the rules, and you didn't listen.”

Born frowned. “You got your information wrong. We were at a funeral all day. We just got back. For the last time, nobody spoke to the cops.”

“There are police outside of Jada's house right now,” the man said. “Just because they aren't sitting in a squad car doesn't mean that I can't recognize police when I see them. And I specifically said ‘no cops'.”

Born shot a look at Ava, who was sitting across from him with a strange look on her face. “Cops at Jada's house?” he repeated.

Ava hung her head in her hands.

“Now the game is going to be played differently,” the man said. “I do not want to hurt your son. But if I don't have the money you owe me by tomorrow, you will never see this kid again. I promise you that.”

“I'll get you your money,” Born said anxiously “Just bring my son back safe.”

“I will call you back with instructions.”

The line went dead. Born roared with frustration. He barreled down on Ava, demanding answers.

“Why is this muthafucka telling me there's cops outside?” he demanded.

Ava was crying. “I thought I was helping,” she said. “I just called a friend of mine who's a detective. I thought he could put some undercovers outside to look out for anyone suspicious.”

Ava's tears did little to quell Born's fury. He took off his sling and threw it across the room in frustration.

“I was just trying to help,” Ava pleaded. “I know that you can't go to the police, but this is crazy. The man detonated a bomb at your house. He attacked Jada at the hospital. He's sending threatening messages, approaching you in the street. I just wanted to do whatever I could to end this.”

Born wanted to strangle her. “I
told
you that all of us are being watched. And I specifically said that we can't involve the police. Why the fuck would you go behind my back and call some detective to do some half-assed stakeout?”

Ava shook her head. “I thought that whoever it is would be following you and Jada, instead of watching the house. I thought—”

“Fuck what you thought, Ava!” Born's voice thundered. “Now this man has my son!”

Ava wanted to die. “I'm so sorry, Born. I was just trying to help.”

Born blew out a heavy breath and dialed Maury's number, frantically. As soon as he answered, Born dove in, telling him that Ethan had been kidnapped after Ava had been foolish enough to think that she could outsmart the mystery man.

As he spoke with Maury, Jada's phone rang. She picked up the private call and was met by a sinister laugh. “Hello, my darling, Jada.” The voice was familiar. For a moment, Jada's heart seized in her chest. She thought it sounded like Jamari back from the dead. She was reminded of the nightmares she'd been having about Jamari taunting her from the grave. But as the caller continued speaking, she realized that it wasn't Jamari at all. Instead, it was another voice from her past.

“Are you ready to give me what you owe me?”

Instantly, she knew who the kidnapper was.

“Elliot!” she said, breathlessly. She looked at Born, everything suddenly making sense.

“Ah, you remember,” he said. “It's been a very long time.”

Jada clung to the phone, speechless.

“You cost me dearly,” Elliot sneered. “You stole my drugs, and then you sent the police after me.”

Jada shook her head. “No! No I didn't. That wasn't me who tipped them off.”

Elliot wasn't trying to hear her. “They killed my brother and two of my cousins in that raid.”

Jada squeezed her eyes shut in despair. This whole thing was a nightmare. Elliot was the Guyanese drug distributor who supplied Jamari and his cohorts with cocaine back in the day. Jada had double-crossed Elliot and Jamari when she stole the drugs that she was supposed to deliver to Jamari, and sold it herself instead. That money had given her the freedom to get away from Jamari once and for all. It was the money that Jamari had come for when he ambushed Jada in a parking lot, resulting in Sunny blowing his brain out in defense of her friend. The newspapers had said that Elliot, too, had been killed in a gun battle with the police all those years ago. As if reading her thoughts, Elliot spoke again.

“The newspapers claimed that I was dead. But it was my younger brother that they turned into Swiss cheese. He looked just like me, and for that he paid with his life. While he was shooting it out with them, I was lucky enough to escape with just a bullet in my back. But then I had to go underground. So far underground, in fact, that I had to leave the U.S. I never even got to bury my brother. Do you know how that feels, Jada? To lose somebody close to you and never get the chance to say good-bye?”

Jada held the phone in silence. She couldn't believe this was happening. Elliot was alive. He knew what she had done. And he had Ethan.

Elliot continued. “Years later, I snuck back into the country, and I went looking for Jamari. I believed that he crossed me. But he was already dead by the time I came back to the U.S.” Elliot chuckled at that. He had searched high and low for Jamari, only to find that someone else had beaten him to the punch. “I thought that was the end of it. But then I heard that you are a big-time author now. People told me that you wrote a book about your life as a hustler's wife. Imagine my surprise when I got my hands on your book.”

“Elliot, that story isn't true. It's just a book,” Jada interrupted.

Elliot laughed. “Your character double-crossed the distributor and sold the drugs to some dealers she knew from way back when. And it just so happened to be the exact same amount of drugs that you stole from me. That's when I realized that Jamari might not have been the guilty one. Did you give my drugs to Born to sell for you?”

“No!” Jada insisted. “I'm telling you that story is not true. Born has nothing to do with this.” Jada felt like she was going to self-destruct. It made perfect sense now. Aware that Born used to be a hustler and that Jada loved him, Elliot assumed that he had been in on her scheme all along. It explained why he targeted Born with the bomb at his house, why he approached him at McDonalds and kidnapped his son.

“I thought you were so sweet, Jada,” Elliot continued. “You were so young and soft-spoken. I'll admit that I never thought you had it in you. I thought Jamari put you up to it. But the more I dug into your background, the more I learned who you really are. You are a crackhead. And everybody knows a crackhead can't be trusted. You stole my drugs and sold them so that you could get high. And now look at you, Jada.” Elliot chuckled sinisterly. “Jamari is dead, and you got away scot-free. You and your boyfriend are living on top of the world at my expense.”

Her hands trembled from the shock of all of this.

“I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt. I thought to myself,
No one is stupid enough to try and cross me.
But you surprised me, Jada. You took my kindness for weakness. So now it's time to pay up. I called you now because I want you to know who you're dealing with. Do not play with me. I want my fucking money. And if I don't get it, I'm going to kill this kid. And then I'm coming for you, bitch.”

Elliot hung up. Jada stared at Born in silence, with tears of terror streaming down her face.

“Oh my God,” she said. “This is all my fault.”

 

18

RESURRECTION

Born felt powerless. He stood in the living room at Anisa's place, watching her fall apart, and there was nothing he could say or do to make it better. Ethan had been gone for three hours, and with every minute that ticked by Born and Anisa became more anxious. He walked over to where Anisa sat on the sofa and sat down beside her. He pulled her close to him, and held her, comfortingly. Anisa held onto Born for dear life and cried into his chest, her sobs rocking her.

“I'm gonna find him,” Born said. “I'm gonna bring him back.”

Anisa wanted to trust him. God, she did. But the longer he was gone, the harder it was for her to believe that the outcome would be positive. She pulled away and looked at Born.

“How can you be so calm?” she asked. “That bitch is the reason our son is missing. If anything happens to Ethan, I will kill Jada myself.”

Born shook his head. “It's not her fault.” Before he could say another word, Anisa lunged at him, scratching, kicking, and punching at him wildly. He held his good arm up to fend off her blows, but it did little to shield him from her vicious attack. Hearing the melee, Miss Ingrid rushed into the room and pulled Anisa off of her son.

“Calm down!” Miss Ingrid demanded. “What the hell are you hitting him for?”

Born stood up and put some distance between him and Anisa. She had hit him hard in the face, busting open his lip. He touched it gingerly, the metallic taste of blood on his tongue.

“It's okay,” he said to his mother. “She's upset.”

Anisa was far more than upset. She had had enough of Jada. “How fucking
dare
you sit here and defend her after she got our son into this mess? This man is after
her
! He has a problem with Jada, and he's taking it out on your child. And all you can say is this ain't her fault? This
IS
her fault, Born! She owes him money, and she got his brother killed. Why didn't he kidnap her crazy-ass son?”

“Anisa—” Born tried to reason with her.

She wasn't having it. “If anything happens to Ethan, I am going to—”

“Listen!”
Miss Ingrid interrupted Anisa's tirade. “That's not gonna bring Ethan home. Now just calm down and let's figure out what we can do to get him back.”

Anisa sucked her teeth and walked off to sulk in a corner. She was distraught over Ethan's abduction. Hearing that Jada was the reason for all of this, and having Born defend her was just too much for her to accept.

“Anisa,” Born said, softly. “I'm not defending anybody. I'm just as pissed off as you are. All I want to do now is make sure that he doesn't hurt Ethan. I just want to get him back home safe and sound. I need your help, though. Please.”

Anisa stared out the window.

“Don't go to the police,” he pleaded. “Just let me get the money together and I will go and get Ethan back.”

Anisa shook her head in dismay. She cried softly. “I keep thinking about how scared he must be,” she said. “He's just a kid. He doesn't deserve this.”

Born closed his eyes, trying not to imagine that. He hadn't let himself think of what Ethan must be going through. The thought of it was enough to drive him insane.

Anisa turned and glared at Born. “You've put him through so much,” she hissed. “Exposing him to that crazy bastard Sheldon.”