Page 19 of Amaze

Although he was the one who’d been kidnapped, he seemed to be the one doing all the comforting. It felt good to know that my son was strong enough to comfort his mom when she needed it.

“He’s good, Wesley,” I confirmed as I closed the space between us.

I wrapped my arms around both of them, wishing that I never had to let go. My heart was finally getting back to its normal pace. It wasn’t hard to see why I no longer wanted anything to do with this part of the life.

I kissed both of their heads, grateful that they were safe and secure in my arms. At least they were safe for now. To ensure that they stayed this way, I had to keep my promise to take care of Zach. I wanted to be strategic, but that luxury was removed when he forced my hand.

“Thank you so much for saving my baby, Maze. I love you so much.”

“I love you, too, both of you,” I vowed. “I told you. I got you.”

“Oh my God!” Wesley shrieked when she finally noticed Zachariah slumped on the ground. “That’s… my father.”

“He told that man to grab me, Ma,” Anthony stated. “Why would he do that?”

“Your granddad is a very sick and controlling man,” Wesley said, holding Anthony by his shoulders.

“Worse than Dad? I meant worse than Galvin?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“What you need from us, big dog? We gotta get out of here,” Lade questioned.

“Put this muthafucka in the trunk. I’ll drive my family home, then meet y’all at the club.”

Another loud thumpalmost made me jump out of my skin. For the last thirty minutes of our ride, my dad had been yelling and bumping like hell, trying to get out of the trunk. Tears sprang to my eyes as the terror of seeing my dad after all these years settled in to stay.

For so long, I thought I was safe from Zachariah, when he was manipulating the situation from afar. I had been a fool to think it was remotely safe to stay in a place where he could easily get to me. As long as I was under his command, he was satisfied. My only concern was trying not to upend Anthony’s current reality.

He had already lost the only father he ever knew and his home. I figured keeping him in his school and our church wasa small risk to take. I knew, eventually, I would have to move. Deep down, I knew that it was a matter of time before he would make his presence known. I just thought I had more time. It was stupid of me to underestimate him.

Tears streamed down my face as I sat in the passenger seat of the car and watched Amaze talking to his mom at her front door. He held Anthony against him and rubbed his head like he was five years old instead of fifteen. It warmed my heart every time I saw Maze interact with my baby boy. Amaze showed him the love I always dreamed he would give him.

After a couple of minutes, Maze kissed and hugged his mother before doing the same to Anthony. I wanted to talk to my son. I at least wanted to say something to explain what was going on, but I barely knew what was going on myself. As bad as I wanted to get out of the car, I was frozen by anxiety and fear. Zachariah thumping in the trunk didn’t do anything to settle my nerves.

I didn’t take my eyes off Maze as I strolled back to the car as if there wasn’t a mad man in the trunk. I hadn’t even begun to process the potential trauma Ant would face just driving this car. It was all too much to bear. All I could do was sit there in a ball of emotions and wait for Maze to make things right. The sympathy in his eyes as he joined me in the car finished breaking my heart.

“Don’t cry, Wes. This is almost over. The nightmare is almost over, my love. Don’t waste your tears on him.”

“Promise me, Maze. Promise that we will live happily ever after when this is all done.”

“I would have ended it back at the wreck if I didn’t know you needed closure. I figure you have some things to get off your chest or even some questions that I can’t answer for you. The only reason that he’s still alive is for you. Once this is over, you can cry all you want to. I’ll be right here to dry every one of your tears.”

“I’m ready to end this,” I said, shaking my head.

“Let’s get to a private location first, baby. We can put all of this to an end as soon as we get to the club.”

With that said, Amaze turned the radio up to the max and tore out of his mom’s driveway. The blasting of his radio didn’t do much to settle my nerves as we drove for hours trying to get to the club. I liked how secluded it was but didn’t care for the distance from everything, especially due to the circumstances of having someone in the trunk.

We had been living scattered out for far too long. Amaze’s place was even a long way from his mom’s. We were running each other ragged, trying to maintain relationships at such a long distance apart. After far too long, we finally made it to the club. There appeared to be no one else there as Maze pulled around to the back of the building. I was sure that he had made sure no one else was there.

I had been in such a daze that I hadn’t paid attention to a word he said on the couple of phone calls he made and answered on our way here. All I cared about was getting some level of justice.

I had been having mixed feelings about what I thought, about Amaze saying he was going to kill my dad. I knew he would become a huge problem if left unchecked, but part of me hoped that we could come to some kind of agreement.

Now I knew that was out of the question. We could run. We could even go into hiding for a while and hope he found some new project to obsess over to no end, but Zachariah was relentless. We would never know peace as long as he was in the picture. We would have to look over our shoulders as long as he knew we were together. That was no way to live.

We parked right in front of the back entrance to the club. To my surprise, AJ opened the door and walked out once we pulledup. Maze didn’t say a word as he got out of the car and followed his brother to the trunk.

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