Asia was sweating profusely from all the alcohol and felt like she was about to pass out when all of a sudden she caught a glimpse of a suspicious looking man with a black hooded sweatshirt on walking across the courtyard. Asia watched as he made his way across the grass and into a door on the other side of the hotel. Catching a second wind, she took off running after him thinking he might have something to do with SJ’s disappearance. But after reaching the other side of the hotel, the man was no longer in sight. Irritated that she’d lost him, Asia’s body froze when she heard a baby crying. She immediately started banging on all the hotel doors that were nearby.
“That’s my baby! He took my baby!” she screamed.
No one came out of the first two doors she banged on, but by the time she reached the third, the hooded man opened with ease. Asia went crazy and started fighting him, trying to push her way inside his room.
“Where’s my baby?”
He took off his hood and pushed Asia back trying to calm her down. “Miss, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I just came back in my room from working out at the gym. There’s no baby in here,” he tried to explain.
“I don’t believe you. I need to see inside your room, now!” Asia demanded.
Suddenly, a security guard walked up while Asia was trying to force her way inside the man’s room once again. The guard immediately grabbed her arm, pulling her away.
“I’m so sorry for the disturbance, Mr. Brewington. Everything is under control now,” the guard assured.
“Thanks, Steve. I really hope you can help this young lady find her baby,” he said before closing his door.
“Get your hands off me! You need to check inside his room!” Asia yelled, pulling away from the guard.
“Look, Miss, your baby isn’t in his room. Let’s go!”
“I’m not going any damn where!”
The guard backed away and fanned his nose after smelling the vodka on her breath. He was really becoming impatient. “We can either do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way. I can’t have you disturbing the other guests in this hotel,” he stated with a stern look.
“Ain’t nobody scared of your fake rent-a-cop ass. Somebody took my baby and you’re treating me like I’m the criminal.”
Instead of responding, the guard shook his head in disbelief, escorting her down the hall. When Asia passed a woman standing in her room’s doorway with a crying baby in her arms, she realized that it wasn’t her son she heard after all.
“Why are you holding me so tight? I made an honest mistake. I thought that man had my baby. Who was he anyway? You act like he was the President of the United States,” Asia said, trying to pull away from his tight grip.
The security guard continued to forcefully hold Asia as he escorted her to the lobby.
“He’s one of the contractor’s working on the renovations for the hotel, if you must know.”
“Look, this is getting out of hand. I just wanna find my baby, that’s all.”
When they reached the lobby, Asia saw the front desk clerk talking to two Spanish looking police officers. At that moment, she pulled away from the guard and ran over to them.
“Thank God, you finally got here. Somebody kidnapped my son. I only left him for a few minutes to get something out my truck and when I came back to my room the door was open and he was gone. I tried to tell that stupid ass security guard the same thing, but all he wants to do is fucking harass me. We need to lock down the hotel and go door to door!” Asia ranted.
One of police officers reached for his handcuffs and grabbed Asia pulling her hands behind her back.
“You have the right to remain silent. If you choose to give up your right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law…”
Asia’s eyes widened. “What the hell are you talking about? Get the hell off me! Why are arresting me? You should be out there looking for the person who kidnapped my son!”
“Your son wasn’t kidnapped, Ms. Jones. He’s been placed in the custody of Child Protective Services, and you’re being arrested for child abandonment.”
“What? I only left him for a second to go to my truck!” Asia fired back.
“We saw you leave on the hotel surveillance camera hours ago, Ms. Jones. Meanwhile, a guest called the front desk after hearing your son crying at the top of his little lungs for hours. When the desk clerk sent security to your room, the baby was all alone.”
“That’s a lie!” Asia wailed.
The officer shook his head. “I seriously doubt that. From what I can smell, it seems like you might’ve been out drinking.”
“We’ve been waiting for you to return,” the other officer chimed in.
Asia looked at the clerk realizing that she knew all along. The police even knew her name which meant, the clerk had already given them her information. “Why didn’t you tell me you knew where my baby was, bitch! You set me up!”
“Come on, Ms. Jones,” one officer said.
“Get off me! I have a son by a famous football player. You’re going to be sorry for this shit once his lawyer finishes with you. I’m going to sue you and this hotel!” Asia blasted. As the officers proceeded to escort her out of the lobby, Asia’s dress was now pulled up around her waist exposing her panties. “Can you at least pull my fucking dress down?”
The woman who’d called security after hearing the baby crying was standing outside smoking a cigarette when Asia and the police walked past her. She started shaking her head.
“That poor little baby, he didn’t ask to be brought in this world. You should be ashamed at yourself!” the lady preached.
Asia looked over at her with an evil stare. “Shut the hell up old lady,” she responded as they placed her into the waiting police car.
CHAPTER 20
After a nap, Kareem awoke to find the afternoon sun filtering through the wood blinds in Felicia’s family room. He stretched and sat on the couch irritated that he hadn’t heard from his mother in days. He knew she was probably still upset about his decision not to move back to Miami with them, but living with his father again was out of the question. His father was dead. Regardless of the fact that he’d survived a gunshot wound, in Kareem’s mind Sandino no longer existed and he had every intention on keeping it that way.
I guess me and my mother don’t understand each other, he thought. I don’t understand how she could go back and live with the nigga who beat her ass every day and she doesn’t understand why I want to be with Le Le.
Skye had made it absolutely clear that she would never accept his girl as part of their family so now Kareem considered Georgia to be his home. Besides, Le Le got me so open I’m even thinking about asking her to marry me after I find a job. Kareem smiled. Le Le’s ass so high maintenance though the ring would probably set a nigga back big time.
At that moment, Kareem wondered where she was. Just before he’d fallen asleep he remembered her telling him she was going to clean up, but since he didn’t hear the Frankie Beverly and Maze greatest hits CD she normally played while cleaning, Kareem didn’t know what was going on.
“Le Le!” he called out. “Le Le!”
When she didn’t answer, Kareem jumped up and ran over to the window. After seeing her car in the driveway, he figured she could only be one or two places. He’d only lived with her for a little over a month and already knew her routine. When Felicia was at home, all she wanted Kareem to do was keep the house clean and fuck her on a regular basis which she was pretty boisterous about. When she was quiet, Le Le was normally in her spa-like bathroom or her precious walk-in closet, and Kareem wasn’t allowed to disturb her.