Page 34 of Collateral Love
He exhaled, something like relief passing through him.
“For the restie, YaYa.”
The sun was too damnquiet.
I stood outside YaYa’s dance studio, keys still swinging in my hand. No music. No perfume trail. No voice calling from the back.
Just emptiness.
She wasn’t at the school. Wasn’t at the corner store. Not her mama’s. Not the library.
My chest tightened.
Something was wrong.
I jumped in the Charger and pulled off so fast the tires screamed like they knew too. My phone buzzed as I hit seventy down South Lenox.
Unknown Caller.
I didn’t hesitate.
“Hello?”
A voice slid through the line like grease and gunmetal.
“Bitch-ass Nigga. You lookin’ for your wife?”
My whole body froze.
“Who is this?” I already knew.
“Don’t play dumb, King. You know who this is.”
A pause.
“Word is the King brothers run this city. Unfuckwithable. But I already had Xavier’s bitch. So I figured... why not take yours?”
His voice smiled. Sick and delighted.
“You want her? Come find me.”
In the background, I heard screaming. It was muffled but real.
“Zay, Zay—PLEASE!”
“I’m here, baby, I’m?—”
The phone rustled. Silence. A broken sob.
I saw red.
“If you touch her, you die, motherfucka.”
“I own her now. Just like I owned Channy once. You think y’all got power? Nah. I got receipts. I got files. I got blood.”
“You’re a dead man.”
“Yeah, yeah. Save it. You wanna see her again? Find me. But hurry... I ain’t patient.”
