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“How did you find me?” I ask Zaire.

Last night, I was so tired and hurting from the injuries that I sustained that the only thing I wanted was to shower and go to bed.

Zaire insisted I stay awake long enough to allow Dr. Kimbrough to check me out and prescribe me something for the pain. After that, I’d fallen into a fitful sleep, but thankfully, Zaire was here throughout the night to ward off the nightmares.

When I woke up this morning, I found that my three sons had worked together with oversight from my sister to prepare breakfast for Zaire and me.

While I ate, they all sat around in the bedroom, chatting happily.

I’m still resting in bed. Zaire removes the bed tray with the remainder of our breakfast from the bed and onto the dresser. He returns and sits beside me with his arm around my shoulders and a thousand pillows plumped behind our backs.

My boys are all gathered; Zayn and Zaccai sit at the foot of our bed with worried expressions on their faces.

Our oldest, Zechariah, has come home, and he stands just beyond the bed bench wearing a scowl that matches his father’s.

With his arms crossed and taking up that wide stance, he looks just like Zaire.

Riley stands beside Zechariah, and I hate the look of guilt that she wears. None of this is her fault, but I know deep within she’s blaming herself.

“I had men out all over the city searching for you. When they couldn’t find you or if people said they hadn’t seen anything, they would move on to the next spot, except for Malik.

He went to Stage 21 and remained there. He said that he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary when I first sent him there.

But eventually he heard cars pulling up and some men chatting it up. ”

“That’s probably when I was brought there.”

“Yeah, but he couldn’t see anything from where he was hidden.

He waited for a while before he started scouting the place out again.

Malik said that he was around back trying to pick a lock when all hell broke loose.

He didn’t want to give away his position or the advantage that he had, and he wasn’t sure who was shooting or who was taking fire.

By the time he made it around from the second building back to where you were, that’s when he spotted you running in his direction. ”

“Yeah, I never saw Malik, I must have passed him up.”

Nodding, Zaire explains. “Yeah, he had to hide you so that they couldn’t see you if they ran by. From there, he ran back out and instantly saw the other two men coming after you. He took one of them down, but not Terran.”

“Why you didn’t take his punk ass out, Daddy? ‘Scuse me, Ma,” Zechariah apologizes.

“Terran and I need to talk,” Zaire professes, looking at his watch before he heads into our dressing room.

“Ain’t shi—”

“Zech,” I warn.

“Sorry, Ma, but anyone coming after you deserves to be unalived!” he declares in a thick, emotional voice with no apologies.

“Yeah,” Zayn chimes in.

Zaccai looks quizzically at all of us and then crawls onto the bed. He throws himself into my arms, and I hold him close to me, kissing the top of his head.

“I missed you, Mommy.”

“I missed you, too, baby.”

“Zech’s right,” Zaire admits, returning from the dressing room with a pair of shoes and a suit coat on. “His ass will be decimated.”

“And he will be at some point, I’m sure,” I say, giving my man a pointed look.

We don’t discuss with the boys what Zaire does, but Zechariah knows. Zayn might be aware as well, but we prefer to shield Zaccai from that life as much as possible. He’s still too young and way too sensitive to deal with those types of topics.

He had overheard someone talking about me being kidnapped, and apparently, he hadn’t stopped crying until he’d laid eyes on me to see that I was safe from harm. Zayn is holding a lot of guilt too.

Since I came home, he has been apologizing profusely for not showing up for our appointment. He has it in his mind that if he’d been there, things would have gone down differently. He’s certain that I wouldn’t have been kidnapped, but I fear that my poor child wouldn’t be here with us this morning.

“I have a meeting with him this morning, son. I’m sure after our conversation, he’ll never think about your mother again,” Zaire declares.

“And Kenny?” Riley finally speaks up after clearing her throat. “How did he become involved with them? Do you think that he was behind all of this?”

“I doubt he was the one behind this, Riley. No disrespect to you, but your husband wasn’t smart enough to be a mastermind of anything, especially not a coup against my family. I will say whoever is after me knows about the rift in your marriage and saw him as a way to get to us.

“I think they’re the ones who freed him too. I don’t know who it is, but I’ll find out. And you’d better believe that person will suffer for all the hell that they’ve brought on my family, including you, Riley, and they will pay the deadliest price.”

There’s something sexy about the way that his voice deepens when he speaks those final two words.

“I know. Thank you,” Riley replies softly.

“I have someone who can assist you with making the funeral arrangements,” Zaire states.

My sister buckles just a bit as she reaches out to grab hold of the bottom of the bedpost. Zechariah reaches an arm around her to comfort her, but she shakes her head.

She smiles at Zechariah. “I’m fine, Zech. Thanks.”

“You sure, auntie?” he asks, rubbing her back.

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“All right, boys. You all have somewhere to be. School isn’t giving out holidays just because your mother was kidnapped,” I try teasing.

Based on the look Zaire shoots my way, it wasn’t successful.

“I’m taking Zayn to find a suit after I handle some business, so you don’t have to worry about that, baby,” Zaire remarks.

“Thanks, Dad,” Zayn replies, heading out of the room behind his brothers.

I look at Zaire and as006B, “Can you give Riley and me a minute, babe?”

“Sure,” he answers, bending closer and kissing my lips. “I’m about to head out and handle some things. Call me if you need anything.”

“Okay. Baby?”

“Yeah?”

“The boys have their security detail on them?”

“They do. Your little ass will keep your team on you at all times now. I don’t care what you feel about it,” Zaire orders the moment that I open my mouth.

“I was just going to say that I do feel safer with them around,” I pout.

“Good.”

He kisses me again, says bye to Riley, and leaves.

“Hey, honey. Come sit next to me,” I say, getting out of bed and heading into my separate sitting room.

We take chairs by the large bay window that overlooks the lake behind our home.

“I know this is hard for you, Rye.”

“No. You’re mistaking my sadness for grief, Leigh, and it’s not that.”

“What is it?” I ask as my heart swells with compassion for her.

“Thinking of all the years I wasted on his sorry ass. And honestly, I was so hurt that I let my self-esteem take such a dip screwing around with him. If it weren’t for Zaire handling him, I’d probably be going right back to him.”

“Even knowing that he had it out for you? I mean, if you went back after all this shit he’d done to you and what Zaire did to him, you do realize he would have killed you, don’t you?”

Riley pulls her fingers through her hair and closes her eyes.

“What am I going to do?”

“You’re free, Riley. I know that it doesn’t feel like it, but you’re finally free.

You’d talked about selling the place and finding something new.

You can do that now. Something smaller and that’s perfect for you.

Take this time to get to know yourself, to heal, and then one day someone will come along who deserves you. ”

“He’s all I’ve ever known, Leigh. I know that I deserve better than him, but it’s hard to accept that he’s gone.”

“Well, according to the news reports this morning, his body was found in a scrupulous part of town, and he’d died of a drug overdose. You have to accept it. They’ll identify him by his dental records. Are you going down there?”

“I’m not. I left that to his mother.”

“How is she holding up?”

“Girl, she’s hurting, but she wasn’t a fan of his either. The way that he used to talk to that woman was shameful. Did I ever tell you that he slapped her one time? Years ago.”

“No, but they say that you can tell what sort of man you have based on the way that he treats his mama.”

Riley sits back in the chair. We’re both quiet for a while until I notice the tears falling from her eyes.

“Honey, I know you loved that man. But you’re better off now.”

“A part of me knows that, but I don’t know how I’m going to do this alone.”

“You’re going to live your life and enjoy—”

“No. I never imagined that I’d be a single parent, Leigh.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m pregnant, Bayleigh. I’m four months pregnant with Kenny’s daughter,” Riley sobs.