Free Deliver Me From Evil by Mary Monroe

room, frowning.
    â€œListen, baby, and listen good. This is the thing, see. I know this shit is getting crazy, but I might need for you to talk to our boy again,” Wade said, sounding tired and disappointed. “I’m getting real aggravated with your old man.” He sounded angry and even more impatient now.
    â€œWhat did he say? What’s the problem?”
    â€œHe ain’t saying what I want him to say. That’s the problem.” Wade let out a groan and started cussing under his breath. “That’s why I can’t stand niggers with money! They ride on such high horses, they done rode clean out of reality. Them stingy motherfuckers!”
    â€œIs he not going to pay the ransom?” I gasped.
    â€œHe’d better! I didn’t go out on this goddamn limb for my motherfucking health!”
    â€œWell, did he say he would, or did he say he would not?” I demanded, my heart beating. Now I was angry and impatient. Not just at Jesse Ray, but at Wade, too. I wanted him to get to the point. “Talk to me, Wade. Is Jesse Ray going to pay you the money or not?”
    Wade took his time responding. “Well, I think so, but not without a little more encouragement.”
    â€œWade, please tell me what my husband said. I’ve talked with him. So … so doesn’t he believe I’ve been kidnapped?”
    â€œHe said he didn’t know if he could pull together half a mil by Friday.” There was a lot of uncertainty in Wade’s voice.
    â€œPull it together? Is he trying to tell you that he doesn’t have the money? He’s got the money in the bank!”
    â€œI believe you, baby. And I’m just as frustrated as you are with that … that scalawagging cocksucker myself! Now I wish I had snatched up Mick Jagger’s half-black daughter. You know where she live?” Wade snorted and cussed some more under his breath. “Never mind. Knowing that uptown heifer, she won’t be that easy to grab, no how. We’ll just have to make this here thing with you work. You just might have to chat with your old man again. Sound real bad; cry; beg; do whatever.”
    â€œIf I have to, I will. I just hoped that we’d be able to get this over with as soon as possible with just a couple of phone calls,” I said, with a heavy sigh.
    It was a good thing that this was not a real kidnapping. A real kidnapper would not have put up with the shit from Jesse Ray that Wade was putting up with. I would have been dead by now.
    â€œBaby, I don’t know what he’s up to. That’s why I think you might have to put another bug in his ear,” Wade told me in a gruff voice.
    â€œI just spoke to him yesterday. You told him he had until Friday to get the money to you.” I sniffed. If this plan failed, my life was over. I had run out of options. “I’m … uh, in a world of trouble. What is it going to take to get him to realize that?” I didn’t even try to hide the desperation in my voice.
    â€œCalm down, baby,” Wade hollered. “You just hold on there and calm yourself down. We can’t afford to have you falling apart when we so close to the prize.”
    â€œLook, I just want this to be over with so I can get up out of this dump,” I said, with a heavy sigh, looking around the gloomy room. “I’m nervous and … and I’m scared.”
    â€œI can understand you being nervous, but you ain’t got nothing to be scared about. I got your back.”
    â€œThen what do we do now?” I asked, rubbing my nose. “I … shit! Somebody’s at the door!” I whispered, gripping the telephone with both hands.
    â€œDon’t you open that door!” Wade ordered, shouting so loud, it sounded like he was in the same room with me.
    I held my breath and stood stock-still, covering my naked body with the thin bedspread.
    â€œHousekeeping,” the person on the other side of the