Free Anybody's Daughter (Angela Evans Series No. 2) by Pamela Samuels Young Page B

alone?” he asked.
    “Yeah, man.” Deke pointed at Dre. “Who’s that?”
    “My cuz. We need to find The Shepherd. You know where he lives?”
    Deke raised both palms in the air. “Hey, man, don’t nobody know where Shep lives. He keeps it like that.”
    “I hear y’all running women now,” Apache said.
    Deke’s eyes darted from left to right. “Man, I don’t know nothing about that.”
    Apache snatched the Glock from the small of his back and pressed it to Deke’s head. “I need to know where I can find The Shepherd.”
    Deke froze, his hands at chest level. “C’mon, man. I thought we was cool.”
    “We are cool. But this is about my blood. My little cousin got snatched by The Shepherd. Since he rolls with Stoneside, I figured you might know something about it.”
    “Naw, man, I don’t know a thing.”
    “You need to tell me something or I might have to pull this trigger.”
    “Okay, okay. But you gotta get that gun away from my head first. I can’t think straight like this.”
    “Try.” Apache pressed the gun deeper into Deke’s temple.
    Dre refused to breathe. He knew his cousin was more than capable of blowing the dude’s brains out.
    “Okay, okay.” Deke started to stutter. “All I know is The Shepherd’s been snatchin’ girls and turnin’ ’em out. A few days ago a crack head named Leon was bragging about getting paid fifty dollars for grabbing a girl in Inglewood.”
    “Where can I find him?”
    “He usually gets high at a crack house near Hoover and Florence.”
    “Okay, we’re going over there now.”
    Apache began to push Deke toward the front door.
    “I can’t go! Shep’ll kill me if he finds out I helped y’all.”
    Apache cocked the gun and wrapped his free hand around Deke’s neck.
    To Dre’s nervous ears, the cocking of the gun was almost as loud as a gunshot.
    “Either The Shepherd can kill you later or I can kill you now,” Apache said with a sinister smile. “So how you want it to go down?”

Chapter 18
Day Two: 3:30 a.m.
    A s hard as she tried, Brianna couldn’t catch her breath. She was sitting on the mattress, her back against the wall, her palms pressed against her chest. She hadn’t had an asthma attack in over a year, but she was certain she was having one now.
    Kaylee crawled over to her. “Are you okay?”
    “I…can’t…breathe…Get help!”
    At first, Kaylee just sat there, frightened and immobile. Then she hopped up and started screaming and banging on the door.
    “Help, help! She can’t breathe! She can’t breathe! She’s gonna die!”
    Brianna’s chest hurt so bad. She’d never had an asthma attack like this before.
    The door opened and a woman wearing a nightgown stepped inside. She had a mean face and was probably her mother’s age. A colorful scarf was tied around her head and knotted in front. She wore no makeup, but had long glittery eyelashes that looked like butterfly wings.
    “What’s going on in here?”
    Kaylee pointed at Brianna. “She can’t breathe!”
    The woman walked over to Brianna and stared down into her face. Brianna’s hands were gripping her neck and her chest involuntarily heaved up and down in short, jerky bursts.
    “Oh my God!” The woman scurried out of the room. She returned seconds later with an inhaler and shoved it into Brianna’s mouth.
    Brianna sucked hard on the device and in a matter of seconds, was able to breathe normally again.
    “Clint don’ messed up again,” the woman spat. “We don’t have time for no sick ho’s. You lucky I had that inhaler. One of my babies got asthma too.”
    Brianna reached up and grabbed the woman by her forearm. “They kidnapped us! Please, please, help us get outta here!”
    The woman crouched down, stroked Brianna’s face and pulled her close. “Listen, baby, my name is Freda and I’m gonna help you. But you gotta calm down first.”
    Kaylee lay curled in the fetal position sucking her thumb while Brianna cried and hiccupped into Freda’s leg.
    Freda