Page 75 of Rayzor: Tell Me It’s Mine II

“Nothing at all?”

“The most people saw was Levi in the yard, or being loaded into Rhea’s car to go places like IHOP, D & B, and the mall with him over the last couple days. Nobody in the neighborhood saw nothing.”

“City, I don’t like this. This shit has me spooked. I’ve seen a lot of things but never been this close to a kidnapping.”

“I can’t even process all this shit. I mean, we just saw Levi before hopping on the p.j.’s.”

“That’s Eris’s son, but that’s my baby. I wouldn’t know what to do if he doesn’t make it back home.”

“He’s coming back, though, so don’t even think like that.”

He laid on his chest, letting my tears slowly drip onto his shirt. “Who would take a child like that? Levi doesn’t deserve this. Eris is pregnant. Do you know what kinda stress this’ll do to her body?”

He brushed soft strokes against my upper arm; his words seemed faded as we both were in our own thoughts. “You know what? With all this shit going on, I haven’t even thought about that. Damn, we gotta get Levi back home to save both her and him.”

“Thank you for being there for my friend in her time of need.”

“You ain’t gotta thank me. Like I said, they’re family too.”

“Rayzor. I know he’s losing his mind right now, but the way he’s keeping his composure is… something.”

“He’s been that way since we were young. He has a temper, but he knows if he loses it, that won’t help Eris. He’s always been the carrier, the strong one. That’s how he is.”

“I know he’ll find Levi before the police will.”

One minute we’re in New York celebrating my boy’s W, the next we’re back home sitting in the middle of a missing-person investigation for Levi. Life was constantly changing, but fuck, not like this. This was a lil’ too heavy.

All I could think about was the last time I’d seen Levi, which was the day we all left for New York. We played with a few of his toy trucks and dinosaurs. He had random conversations, jumping all over the place. Normal kid shit. That was it.

We dropped him off at Rhea’s, and Erin’s to her friends and got on the P.J. Everything was good. Now, he was missing. Some shit wasn’t adding up. It could just be me, but kids don’t just go missing like that.

After leaving Rhea’s, I was in the streets. The police weren’t saying shit I liked to hear, and I could cover more ground than them because they had protocols. They weren’t making Levi a priority fast enough.

I searched the neighborhood and talked with some people while the police went in and out of Rhea’s house. They all said the same thing. He was playing with a kickball in the front yard. A few of the mothers let their kids play with Levi and Erin over the years, so they weren’t strangers. They knew Eris because of Rhea and spoke highly of her and how she was with the kids.

That’s one thing Eris kept saying: Levi knew not to talk to strangers.

While she was trying not to fall apart, Rayzor held it together. My boy was hurting. You could see it in his eyes. I knew he wasn’t all the way there. He checked out and went into beast mode. I’ve seen that look before. He was making moves while the police were there. They didn’t know it. That was a good thing too, because if they knew how much blood was about to be shed, they would’ve needed to save their resources and energy. After all, we were about to give the city something to do until Levi was home.

It was after midnight when I paused for the night. I went by Rhea’s, grabbed Suki and brought her back to my spot. With everything going on, I didn’t want her by herself. She wasn’t moving without me. She liked that independent shit, but we were all about to depend on each other until this is sorted out.

I’ve seen her cry more than I had before. She loved Levi. She loved Eris. That’s why it hurt her that this was happening because, like everyone else, she thought everyone was safe. I can’t lie, thinking about what happened to Levi made me realize that it could happen to her too.

In New York, I booked us a ferry ride to the Statue of Liberty to spend some time together after being there for Rayzor and Eris the last couple of days. We hit up Hudson Yards too. She loved that shit, knocking down LV and Dior in one swipe. She said she didn’t wanna do too much damage to my pockets, but I had to show her I had unlimited bread. We did a couple spots to eat, laughed, talked, and kicked it.

Somewhere in the middle of the night, I got up to take a shower because we had fallen asleep. I didn’t want to fuck her sleep up, so I let her stay.

“Morning. You hungry?”

“No,” she answered, checking her phone that she slept with.

“You gotta eat.”

“I just wanna get over there to E.”

“I know, but you gotta eat if you’re trying to be there for her. Ain’t no telling what we’re about to walk in on over there.”

Last night, I put her bags on her side of the bed, so it’d be easy when she woke up.