Shayla walked around the mall with her brother while Evan and Larielle were in the Victoria's Secret Pink store, and one of Shawn's few trusted men- Tate-accompanied Abrielle.
"You wanna tell me what you're up to?" Shawn asked casually, picking up a bracelet Abrielle might like.
She looked outside at the men that had passed this jewelry store ten times already. She knew they were waiting until she separated from her brother.
Shayla smirked and looked up at her brother. "Not particularly, no."
"Eh, that sucks, don't it, big sis. I'm smarter than you gave me credit for. Spill."
Shayla took the bracelet and tried it on. "I knew it was only a matter of time before you found me out."
"I knew you were never crazy. And I know you don't still have those big episodes. I'm not Evan, Shayla. Keep in mind, I know your every move. I'll admit, you had me fooled awhile."
Shayla gasped sarcastically. "Did I? What gave me away?" she teased, tossing the bracelet back to him. "Wifey will like it."
"Shayla, you're joking and I'm not. Do you see a problem here?"
"Nope. Your nephew's coming."
Evan came in with Larielle, and Shawn gave his sister a look. She was being cute right now, and he didn't like it one bit.
"Hey, do you guys know where Bri is? I'm trying to ditch Evan for a little while."
"Ouch," he told her, joking. He knew why she wanted to separate. He could see her every move and she wanted to buy him a gift.
"There she is. I suggest you catch up," Shawn told her, watching Tate follow behind Abrielle at a far enough distance that let her feel like she didn't have a bodyguard but at a close enough distance to be able to protect her.
"Thanks. See you later," she told Evan, kissing him and running off. "Abrielle! Wait up!"
Abrielle slowed for her friend and the girls linked arms. "I can't buy Evan a gift without him knowing what it is. He sees everything!"
"Ya don't say?"
"Remember when mi madre said she has eyes behind her head? Do boyfriends get those too?"
"Oooh, boyfriend?" Bri joked, bumping shoulders.
"Yeah. He gave me this." Larielle pulled her sweater sleeve up and showed Abrielle the bracelet with the gemstones in it. It looked ancient. "It's hideous. But I like it. He said he got it from his mom. She got it from her dad or something."
"It is pretty ugly," Abrielle agreed.
"I like it anyway." Larielle shrugged and smiled as they continued on.
"They're watching us," Abrielle told her, pulling her off.
Larielle looked over her shoulder and waved to Evan as her pregnant best friend pulled her along.
"Is she wearing my dad's bracelet?" Shayla asked.
"What if she is?"
Shayla raised her hands in surrender and chuckled. "Just wondering. I'm surprised she accepted that ugly thing."
Evan rolled his eyes. "I'm going to go to Foot Locker. Don't start a fire while I'm away."
"We'll try," Shawn humored him in a dry tone.
Evan left and Shawn looked at his sister, waiting until Evan was a store over before resuming conversation.
"Shayla, when we get home, I want my answers."
She just smiled and moved on to looking at other trinkets. Shawn looked at her suspiciously.
"Shayla-"
"Okay, Shawn."
She smiled, leaving the jewelry store, starting for the book store. Shawn turned back.
Shayla looked at her brother and changed her course of direction. As soon as she started out of the doors, exactly what she knew would happen, did.
She was tossed into the back of a van, kicking and clawing. But as soon as the doors were closed, she texted her brother.
Get the girls and Evan home. And use your phone to track mine.
He texted back with a quick OK.
She sat in the back of the van completely calm. She could hear the men in the front talking about how happy their boss would be and laughed to herself. She wondered how happy their boss would be when he found them dead.
***
Khadija sat on the fountain watching Shawn pull a now obviously pregnant Abrielle to him, and she wiped tears, watching him kissing her.
Her heart broke into so many pieces just watching them be happy together. Just watching that child in her place. Watching Shawn love someone when he hadn't loved her at all. When they were nothing more than an employee and employer with the benefit of fucking in the office.
And when Khadija was the one Shawn left in charge, when she was the one he was wanting to be alone with, when she was the one in that private jet to be his arm candy in negotiations, when she was the one receiving gifts, she'd been on top of the world. But he had never shown her public affection like he was doing that teeny bopper over there.
"Excuse me, hey, what's a pretty girl like you doing crying?" a handsome Mexican man asked, slowing his walk before he stopped and sat beside her with his bags.
"It's my boyfr- ex-boyfriend," she corrected herself. "We were together for four years. But he went and married some little girl. She's pregnant. I wanted his baby for so long."
He followed her gaze to Shawn saying goodbye to his wife. Then he turned back to Khadija smiling inside. This was going to be too easy.
"You were obviously too good for him. He must not be a very bright man.- I'm sorry, I haven't properly introduced myself. I'm Daryl."
"I'm Khadija."
He took her small hand in his and kissed it, smiling, looking into her pretty brown eyes. She managed a smile, wiping her eyes.
"I'm sorry. I must seem so damaged."
She looked down. She was used to being made to feel stupid. She waited for a put down that didn't come.
"I understand. My girlfriend of five years just did the same to me. Just ran off, eloped and got pregnant. She was supposed to wait for me to marry her. But by the time she was of age..."
Daryl really was saddened, so it wasn't hard to appear that way.
"The saddest part is that I know he's no good for her. But what can you do but move on."
"Oh, that's horrible," Khadija said in sympathy, rubbing his hand.
He smiled at her. He was going to play the two commiserating broken hearts card to get back at Shawn for taking his love. If she had been his girlfriend, then she knew something about him.
"Why don't you let me buy you lunch," he suggested. "And we can talk."
She smiled and nodded, following him into the food court. He put a hand on her lower back, leading her towards The Pretzel Shop, ordering two cinnamon pretzels and lemonades.
He helped Khadija to a seat and asked her to tell him about her last relationship. He could tell Shawn had broken this woman, made her feel stupid and unappreciated. Stupid move.
"Once, he pulled a gun on me and told me he would kill me. He didn't even tell me he wanted to break up. Until he brought her along."
"She at least pretty?"
Khadija sighed, breaking her pretzel apart. "Beautiful. Probably something Spanish. But she looks barely out of high school."
"That's a pity. He really is stupid. What does that little girl know about anything?"
Daryl would build up her confidence and use her much better than Shawn had. He would make her feel like the smartest woman in the world. She was going to be right at his side, and they could take their revenge together.
***
Shayla sat in the back, knitting an afghan for her future daughter-in-law. Her captors hadn't been smart enough to take her bag. There was nothing she despised more than a stupid criminal.
When the van opened, light flooded in, and Shayla lunged out of the van on the first man, kicking his gun out of his hand and stabbing him in the eyes with the needles, digging to his brain, killing him. She caught his gun before it could hit the floor and go off, and she aimed it at the second man. She recognized the first as her nurse, but not the second.
He stared at her, stunned at her catlike movements.
"Wanna tell me where we are?" she wondered.
The man's hands shook as his gun was aimed at her. She smirked. Poor child.
"Now. Who do you think you're going to shoot, shaking like a stripper on a pole? I feel like I should toss a few bills, baby boy. Don't look so surprised I'm not the mental bitch you tried pushing drugs into."
His face was coming to her. He was the one with the needle. He was the one who had tried injecting her when she was not eating. And she fought back like hell. Now he had to pay.
He let off a shot and missed. So she shot him in the knee and he fell to his knees before landing on his back, crying out in pain. Was he stupid? Yes, he was stupid.
"Bad move, asshole. Now, where the fuck are we?"
"No."
"Wrong answer, darling." She shot him again in his left hand. "Trying to get to my little brother, bad move. Trying to use me to get to him, worse move. I'll try this one more time," she cooed, leaning down, stroking his cheek. "Where are we?"
He glared at her with hatred. She shrugged and got up, wasting his brains on the concrete of the dark underground structure. "Should've been smarter."
She smiled as she heard tires squeal to a stop and a door open behind her. "Hello, Dr. Moore," she greeted, turning to him, her taunting smile looking almost sweet and innocent. "All better. You fixed me up."
He reached for his gun, and she aimed her stolen weapon. Did these people underestimate her that damn badly? Bad move. Never underestimate the enemy.
"I wouldn't," she warned. "Put the gun down, and I won't kill you slowly."
He tried to shoot anyway, and she shot his hand, making the gun fly out of it, and she caught that one as she kicked the doctor back and he fell to the ground.
"Who are you working for?" she asked, holding him down with her left foot, putting enough weight on him to keep him down, but not too much so that he could breathe. And speak.
He said nothing, and she put her toe in the open wound, causing him to scream out in pain as sweat began to pool down his face.
"Ahh!"
"I want a name!" she demanded.
The doctor breathed roughly. "Please," he begged.
She shot him the shoulder. She hated begging. It was so pathetic and weak. Weakness was a terrible thing to show in a life like this.
"You're not spilling your guts yet, Dr. I don't believe I like that," she sang. She shot him again in his other shoulder. "Are you ready to speak yet?"
He breathed harshly. "He likes to be called Güey. Mexican dude. Real suave guy. Bit of an anger issue. His office... It's upstairs. You'll find what you want there."
"Too bad I hate snitches. Nice catching up, Dr. Moore. But I gotta run."
Shayla shot the doctor in his lung and watched him begin to choke on blood as she heard the distinct purr of Shawn's car.
She moved to get her knitting needles out of the first guy's eyes, managing to pull an eye out of the socket.
"Great," she muttered, pulling the eyeball off and shoving it in his mouth, hoping to leave a message. Anyone after her and her brother would die.
Shawn stopped the car and got out, looking at the carnage his sister had managed.
"Aww, they got blood on my future daughter-in-law's gift," she complained, wrapping the afghan in a ball. "Where are we, Lokie?"
"A warehouse."
She nodded as he looked at the bodies and recognized the man from the airport with his eyeball in his mouth. He'd known this man was crossing him. And then he saw Shayla's doctor.
"You got some major explaining to do when we get home," he told his sister. She just smiled.
"Whatever, baby brother. See if you can find anything."
They searched the two cars and took anything they found that seemed worth something. And then Shawn put his sister in the driver's seat and told her to wait for him, but if something put her in danger to leave him. She rolled her eyes.
"I swiped two guns. We're good. Hurry up. I'm hungry."
"Oh, of course, Your Highness." He rolled his eyes and proceeded inside, staying close to the walls, gun at the ready.
He found an office and listened. He opened the door and closed it behind himself. Listening out, he went to root through the desk, finding papers about Shayla's time in the hospital. He took those with him along with a few file folders. He wanted to know who was heading this operation.
When he made it into the car, Shayla peeled off and sped home.
Upon entrance, they could smell Abrielle making chicken Alfredo. "Shawn?" she asked, sounding concerned, but mostly scared.
Shayla looked at her brother. "I'm gonna go shower. Go comfort her."
Shawn went into the kitchen while his sister went up the stairs, passing Evan's room and hearing Larielle giggling.
Shawn put his arms around Abrielle, resting them on her belly. "Are you all in one piece?" she asked, trying to hide how afraid she was.
"Hey, look at me."
He turned her around and lifted her chin. He could see she had been crying, and he stroked her face before kissing her lips. "Nothing is taking me away from you or our unborn. I mean it. I promise."