Thug-ish (Book 1)

34:The boat

Leticia

My head is pounding. I rub my temples as I sit up and glance around the unfamiliar room. I feel as if the entire room is moving. Where the fuck am I?

I rub my stomach and panic quickly runs through my body. "My baby! Where is my baby?!" I scream and I try to run, but my legs give out and I collapse onto the floor.

The door is busted open and Calvin runs in and puts me back in bed. "You need to stay in bed. You're weak." He says.

"Where the hell is my baby?" I demand.

"Leti!" P.J. screams as he runs into the room. He is about to jump on me when Calvin stops him and swings him around. "Stop it papa!" P.J. Squeals.

Papa?

"Remember your mama needs her rest." Calvin tells him as he sets him down.

Mama?

"What's going on?" I wonder. "Where is my baby?"

"Sissy is sleeping." P.J. tells me. I sigh in relief because that means he's seen her and she is alright.

Mina, Reina, and Yaya walk inside the room next. Mina is carrying a little bundle and Reina is carrying baby West.

Mina hands me the bundle and smile down at my daughter. "She doesn't look like me." I cry.

"She'll grow into it." Mina smiles.

Reina hands baby West to Yaya and smiles at me. "Get some rest, hun." She says sweetly before leaving the room. What the fuck is going on?

"C'mon, P.J. Let mama get some rest." Mina says.

"Okay nanna!" P.J. shouts and runs out the room. Mina and Calvin follow behind him, but not without turning around and smiling at me once last time first.

My daughter starts fussing and I gently bounce her until she falls back to sleep. "You're a natural." Yaya says as she climbs in the bed with baby West in her arms.

"They kidnapped our kids." I say in disbelief. "Malo must be worried out of her mind and West...I don't even know if she's alive." The tears start to fall from my eyes and I hold my baby just a little closer.

"I told them that this was wrong, but they just ignored me. It's like they're in denial or something because Mama keeps calling herself granny and Mina keeps saying nanna." Yaya explains.

"I heard Calvin say papa. The fucked up part about all of this is that this what I wanted. I wanted a family that was close, but this is just insane. I don't even know where the fuck we're at."

Yaya lays baby West down and gets out of the bed. She walks over to the window and pulls the curtains back. "All I see is water." I tell her.

"We're on a boat headed to Honduras right now."

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Jamiyah

Leti is asleep with all three of the kids in the bed next to her. My new niece is asleep in one of those baby lounge things, my son is asleep on the other side of the lounge, and P.J. is sleep on the edge. I pull the blanket further over Leti and head out of the room.

This doesn't feel okay. None of this feels okay. My parents have lost their minds and I feel like a prisoner.

"Why are you up so late?" David wonders as he walks out of his room.

"I'm the big sister. Why are you up?"

"I can't sleep." He shrugs.

"Why? Wassup?"

"Mama and dad are going to prison, aren't they?"

"I honestly don't think so." I sigh.

"I'm sorry they did this to you guys. I've never seen you happy until you met Malo and now you can't even remember who she is."

I pull him into a hug. "It's not your job to be sorry. You had no control over any of this."

"I could have told the police what they were planning. I overheard it all, but they're my parents. I didn't think it would be like this. We can't even talk about back home because they get so angry." He begins to cry.

"What do you mean they get angry?" I wonder.

He steps back and pulls up his pajama bottom to show his leg. I bend down and put my hand on a newly formed scar right above his knee.

"When I told mama I wanted to go home she did this. She even slapped Sean for saying how much he missed Helena."

"This is going to end. I promise you that we will make it back home."