Debt

46: Blood

When Evan got home from work, he expected to find his wife. He spotted CoCo in the kitchen making dinner and went to greet her, kissing her cheek.

"Hey, is Lari upstairs?" he asked, looking as confused as CoCo felt. She thought Lari was with him. When he came into the house, she thought Larielle must've been in the car and this was a quick stop in for something.

When she had come home, it was completely empty and dark. She had found the dishes all done but the water still in the sink, which she thought was unusual for Larielle but attributed it to Larielle's short attention span. It wouldn't be the first time she stopped doing something before completely finishing it. CoCo was just glad she had finished the dishes.

Finding no traces of either teen in the house, CoCo assumed they had just left for their honeymoon already. She had nothing else to think.

"She's not with you?" she wondered. "I thought you kids left for the islands already."

Evan's face paled and he felt cold, shaking his head. "No, no, no," he mumbled to himself, running up the stairs two at a time.

"Evan, what's wrong?" CoCo asked as Evan burst through the door in Larielle's room.

He breathed and tried to calm down. He could find his wife. He just needed to have a clear head in order to do that.

"CoCo, right now, I don't have a lot of time to explain, so I'm going to give you the condensed version, and I'm going to speak as quickly as I possibly can," he told her, turning on his laptop and sitting at the desk, pulling something up and typing into it. "My uncle is a criminal. Trina and Daryl must have some criminal backgrounds as well, and Pablo. Pablo still wants Larielle-"

"I know that, he's always stopping by and asking for her, but I don't let him in."

Evan stopped talking and turned around looking at his mother-in-law. "CoCo, he came here?" he asked, frantic.

"Yes."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Well, it seemed trivial- Oh my God, that little cabron has my child," she realized, her breathing hitching. "I'm going to kill him," she muttered, growing hysterical. "My daughter."

Evan got up and sat CoCo down. "I am going to get my wife back. I told you what I had time to tell you. But now I have to go and get Lari. I promise I won't walk back through that door without Larielle."

"How are you going to find her?"

"I gave her jewelry with a purpose, CoCo," he told her, picking up his car keys and practically running out of the house, his breathing heavy.

He kept her location in his head as he made his way to her. If they so much as harmed a hair on his wife's head, there was going to be nothing but blood everywhere. He gunned the engine, pushing his car as fast as it would go, swerving around cars until he got to a deserted road.

The whole time he just kept praying for Larielle and their unborn to be safe. He just kept hoping that nothing had happened. He couldn't stop saying this was his fault. It was his fault. He should have known better than to leave her alone at home. He should have done everything differently.

He tried to keep himself calm. Becoming frantic wasn't going to do him a bit of good. He pressed a button on the steering wheel and immediately heard ringing.

"Hello?" Shayla asked.

"Ma," he said, trying to keep the panic out of his voice. But his mother knew him.

"What happened, Evan?"

"They took Larielle," he told her. "I'm going to get her. But when I come back with her, I want her to be at the house with you. It's not safe for her or my child while she's here," he told her.