Page 39 of A Million Boss Kisses

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Yaseer Haynes

I n my line of work, I’ve fixed thousands of problems, from laundering cartel money through shell companies to negotiating peace between siblings who would rather burn their family’s assets to the ground than compromise.

But sitting in the middle of Marissa’s bed, her wrapped up in my arms and her tears soaking into my bare chest, I had never felt the need to fix something like the way I did right now.

Marissa checked out after an hour of pacing and hadn’t uttered a word.

I was holding onto her, but she was not reciprocating.

Her eyes were blank, and her body was limp, her arms dangling at my sides.

I knew she was experiencing the kind of pain I had always feared.

The kind that fueled my nightmares and fueled my strict parenting style with Amill.

All I wanted was to make sure she felt me there, holding her up during her most vulnerable time.

Since the day we met, I saw nothing but blissful tears on Marissa’s face. Up until this point, I was always able to make her smile, but not this time. I didn’t have the magic fix for this problem but I was working on it. We all were.

About an hour ago, the banks opened and Quinten took off to start gathering the money.

Whoever kidnapped Quincy and Lil Q was incompetent as fuck.

It was unfathomable to demand someone gather ten million dollars in under twenty-four hours.

A request that large would be heavily scrutinized and would take about ten days from submission to the armored delivery.

I didn’t like or trust Quinten, so I damn sure wasn’t playing the back field and letting him call all of the shots right now.

He hadn’t done right by Marissa and the boys after all this time, we would be idiots to trust him now.

Therefore, I sent Wayne to do the same while we waited for anything from the kidnappers.

On top of the four million in cash that Quinten had, I was able to get my hands on close to a million between bank withdrawals and what I had stashed for a rainy day.

At best, Quinten could pull together another three hundred grand from the banks within that window, but we were still looking at a shortfall of about four and a half million.

And to make matters worse, nobody could get a hold of Vincent.

He was on vacation in Switzerland, six hours ahead and probably knocked the fuck out.

Amill appeared in the doorway with two bottles of water in her hands. “I brought you guys some water. I’m sure you are probably thirsty.”

“Thank you, Amill.” I offered her a comforting smile.

She silently placed the bottles on the nightstand before turning back towards the door.

Amill had no idea what was going on, but she could tell that something was up.

With all the men posted around the house with guns, and the fact that I had Wayne grab her from Zay in the middle of the night, it was obvious.

For the first time, I had to give Amill credit for her maturity.

She was not badgering me with questions.

She was cooling and even trying to check on Marissa.

“Bae, I’m about to go downstairs and see if anybody found something new.”

She silently nodded her head, tears still slipping down her cheeks. I leaned in and kissed her forehead, then gently guided her back against the pillows, and eased out of the bed. She just stared off into space while I tucked the blanket around her.

I paused just before exiting the room and looked back at her curled up underneath the plush purple covers, crying quietly, her eyes bloodshot red.

“Amill,” I called down the hall.

She spun around and came back in my direction.

“Yes, Daddy?”

“Can you sit with Marissa until I come back in here? You don’t have to say or do anything. Just… be there.”

Amill nodded without hesitation and entered the room. My heart was heavy watching her climb into bed with Marissa and wrap her arms around her. Marissa showed signs of life for the first time since she stopped pacing, gripping Amill’s hand and pulling her closer.

“I’m sorry for giving you a hard time for being strict on Amill. If I would have been more strict with my boys, maybe they wouldn’t be in this situation,” Marissa wept.

I rushed back to the bed, kneeling down in front of her so we were eye to eye as I brushed her braids out of her face.

“Don’t do that. This shit isn’t your fault.

Don’t blame yourself,” I reassured her, my thumb and index finger slowly caressing her chin.

“You are an amazing mother. I’ve watched you be selfless and handle business when it comes to those boys all by yourself.

Even though you’ve been checked out for the last few hours, you found it in yourself to give Amill your energy.

Even in your worst moment, you made sure she knew you were here for her,” I teared up and allowed the tear to fall.

I loved Marissa and the way she cared for Amill in ways that I never thought imaginable.

Taking a deep breath to tuck my feelings because this wasn’t about me, I cleared my throat before continuing.

“Everybody can see that you love those boys with everything in you and we are going to get them back. I don’t care what I have to do or who I have to go up against. I got you. ”

Marissa nodded, her eyes confirming that she understood. I leaned down and planted a kiss on her lips before exiting the room.

“Where they at?” I questioned the men scattered around the living room.

One of them pointed towards the dining room and I marched in that direction.

Chatter was coming from the sliding glass door, and that’s where I found Tech and Vez passing a blunt back and forth.

As soon as I stepped outside the sun warmed my face and head.

Tech had his laptop in front of him with wires plugged into Quinten and Marissa’s phones.

When I got halfway to them, Quinten’s phone rang.

I sprinted the rest of the way as Tech and Vez both lunged for the ringing phone.

“It’s Quincy’s phone calling,” Tech announced, answering the phone and placing it on speaker. “Hello,” he greeted, clicking around on his laptop.

The altered voice coming through the phone instantly made my blood boil. “We decided an in person exchange would be dumb as fuck. I will email information for an offshore account to Quinten. The ten million dollars needs to be wired there before the eleven p.m. deadline.”

“Let us hear them say they are okay. Proof of life,” I gritted, fighting to keep my answer in check.

“You motha fuckas can send it or don’t. That’s up to you,” he spat, ending the call.

“Fuck!” Tech exploded, slapping his computer clear across the patio. It smacked the wall and landed on the floor sitting up with a cracked screen. “They used a voice distorter, so I can’t use that to try to identify them, and the call wasn’t long enough for me to trace it.”

“Shit ain’t making sense. Who the fuck in their right minds would kidnap Vincent Marucci’s nephews and be this incompetent? First they wanted to meet in person for the exchange but now they changed their minds.”

“I’m thinking the same thing,” Vez commented.

“We don’t have shit on these niggas after twelve hours so they ain’t too incompetent. Then Quinten hollin’ ‘bout he not beefing with nobody that would do some shit like this.”

“Lil Q told me that his dad and his uncles been into it about who was going to be in control of their business when Quinten retires. You think they would do something like this?” He questioned Tech.

Tech deadpanned, his facial expression blank. “You asking me that shit like I know them niggas,” he shrugged. “But with the way Quinten is, I wouldn’t put shit past none of them niggas.”

Tech stood from the patio and disappeared into the house.

“You smoke?” Vez offered the blunt.

“On vacation or when I’m stressed,” I commented, accepting the blunt from Vez, and took a long hard pull.

We passed it back and forth in silence, allowing the weed to take the edge off.

When Tech returned about ten minutes later, he had another laptop in his possession, holding it up with one arm while clicking around with his free hand.

“It was Hotwheels!” Tech shouted fervently, pointing his fingers at Vez.

Vez jolted upright in his seat, eyes wide in disbelief, with a slight smirk curling at the corner of his lips. “Let me motha fuckin’ see,” he demanded, shooting over to Tech.

“Well, who the fuck is Hotwheels?” I sputtered.

“Quinten’s half dead daddy,” Tech clarified.

“He kidnapped his own grandson?”

“Yep,” Tech nodded.

I walked around Tech so I could look over his shoulder at the computer. “See, he is still using an Android, which makes it much easier to remotely access. I didn’t even have to get him to do anything to see all of this.”

The laptop screen looked like he was on an Android as he scrolled through texts in his deleted folder.

There was a picture of Quincy blindfolded and laying on a bed in a room that was clear of any distinguishing features.

The next text said Money sent . He clicked out of the deleted folder and skimmed through the text threads with the rest of his family members.

“It doesn’t look like anybody else knew what he was up to. They just been texting him asking where the fuck is Quinten, and he hasn’t been replying.”

Tech’s phone rang and he answered it on speaker. “You saw what I sent you?”

“You sure that shit is legit?” Quinten questioned.

“Don’t ask me no dumb ass shit like that. Do you think I would play around with my brother’s life? You might fuck around when it comes to your people, but I don’t!” He spat.

“Don’t pay them shit. I’m going to handle this.” Quinten ordered before ending the call.

“Fuck that bitch ass nigga. We gone pay the ransom. Ion put shit past none of them motha fuckas,” Tech grumbled, taking the blunt from Vez.

“Damn, ain’t that your pops?” I inquired.

“Only by blood.”

“Dad!” Amill shrieked, rushing down the stairs.

“What’s up, baby girl. You good?”

“Jameera just called me. She said Lil Q is in the hospital. He was shot last night. Marissa is putting on a shirt, and she told me to tell you.”

I quickly shook off the confusion because we had just assumed both of them were snatched up and headed inside.

“Y’all stay here in case they call again. I’m going to call some of my people in Miami to get eyes on Quinten’s father. Come hell or high waters, I’ll have answers,” I advised them.

“Fuck man. Call me as soon as y’all know something!” Tech called at my back.