Sitting in the living room of the home she shared with her parents, January was waiting for her father’s friend Davis to contact them back. All along, he’d been pulling favors. She wasn’t technically in witness protection. She had nothing to offer the government for information since she knew nothing about the fact the man she’d thought she’d
married was a criminal.
Her father was pacing circles in the hardwood, and her mother was sitting in an overstuffed armchair with her legs folded up, her arms wrapped around her shins and her chin on her knees. It was her mother’s expression
which had her sad.
“I’m sorry Mom.”
“For what?” Her mother gave a half laugh, “it’s not like any of this is your fault. It’s not. I just,” her mother looked to the ceiling, “I like it here. I love it here. As much as I loved New York and believed wholeheartedly I was a city slicker, I found my heart in this little town, and I don’t want to move.”
Maybe you won’t have to.”
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“You said he doesn’t know about Kaylee. We need to protect her and keep her safe. That means moving.” Her mother insisted.
“I don’t think he’d hurt his own kid. Me? I hid her for
seven years. My ass might be grass before dawn once he finds out. If he gets rid of me, takes Kaylee, you and Dad will still be able to stay here.”
“Do not get so morbid!”
“You heard Davis more than once about how dangerous this guy is. He told Dad his nickname is Prince of Pain, and they think he is responsible for at least twenty different hits all over the world.” She took a breath, “if I talk to him rationally, maybe he’ll spare you, Dad and Kaylee. I mean, I know he won’t hurt his own flesh and blood, but I might be able to save you.”
“Moe pulled a fucking shotgun on him! Moe is going to end up swimming with the fishes. Do you really think a handful of townies and a couple guys from the motorcycle club, which I will tell you, I’ve had beers with them in the pub and have worked on a few of their bikes, are all as old as Moe. They’re no match for a man who 2/6
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probably has an army of thousands. He’s not going to come back and be rational after he got chased out of town.” Her father was furious with her.
She twisted the card in her hand and then slowly reached for her cell phone.
“What are you doing? We’re waiting for Davis.”
“Dad, now that I’m home and I’m calm and I’m thinking with my head instead of my stomach, because earlier it was all I could do not to puke, but I need to try.”
“No. You absolutely do not need to try.” Her mother piped up. “You made a valid point, January. He’s going to take Kaylee. He’s going to take his daughter.”
“Maybe not though.” She was grasping at straws as her mind ran in a million different directions. She was all
over the place and she knew it, but she took a breath, “I mean, he said back then if I had a kid with him it wouldn’t be an heir so maybe he wouldn’t want her. Or” she held up a finger, “what if I lie? What if I say it’s not his kid? I could tell him that the reason I don’t want to get back with him is because I met someone else and now Bhave a family, and I want to be with them. I have a kid 40
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now. I bet Davis could find someone …” she let her
voice trail off as her mother buried her forehead in her
knees and her father stopped pacing to stand in front of January with his arms crossed over his chest and his face one of exasperation.
“This,” he waved at her, “is why your kid has the imagination she has. The only difference between you and Kaylee is that where you had a wild imagination which allowed you to play quietly by yourself and your imaginary friends for hours because you were so damn introverted, she is an extravert, and it makes her unhinged, which you’re mimicking right now.”
“She’s not unhinged,” she defended her daughter.
“The child is unhinged. She is crazy and insane and over the top and I adore her. She is wonderful and I love her to pieces. We will protect her and keep her safe but lying to a mob boss nicknamed the Prince of Pain is not the
way to go. We need to wait for Davis to call us back. He’ll know what to do.”
“I don’t like the waiting part,” she whispered more to herself than anyone else.
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Her phone rang in her hand, and she jumped and looked at the caller display flashing the words “unknown number.” There was nothing unknown about it. She knew intuitively who was on the other line and it meant he already knew where they were.
She let it ring and didn’t answer it, instead looking at her parents. “What do I do?”
“Don’t answer it.”
“Answer it.”
As her parents contradicted one another, she sighed dramatically and tossed the unanswered phone on the sofa and watched it ringing like it contained a contagious virus which was going to kill her in seconds. It stopped ringing and she was about to exhale a loud breath of relief when it started ringing again and she began to choke on her breath.
“Answer it. It might be Davis calling from a different line.”
“He always calls Dad, Mom, not me. He never calls me directly. He calls Dad and he gets Dad worked up and 2:40
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then Dad goes into overprotective mode. Last time Dad installed a security system which cost more than I make in a month.”
“Fat lot of good that thing is going to do for us now,” he muttered as he resumed his pacing.
When it stopped and then started again for the third time. she reached with trembling fingers and slid the answer icon sideways.
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Spiraling Part II
“Hello?”
“Hi sweetheart.”
“Don’t call me that?”
“You are my wife. What else should I call you? Love? Darling? Baby? How about, mother of my child?”
She looked to the ceiling as tears filled her eyes to the brink and spilled over in a cascade onto her cheeks. She let a sob out.
“Why are you crying, sweetheart? There is no need to cry. I mean, what could possibly be wrong about anything I said which would make you so sad you would cry? Perhaps because you hid my daughter from me for seven full years?”
At her silence he continued speaking.
“I imagine she is in school now. I am on my way to your home. I expect that she is there at some point this 1/6 afternoon so I can meet her. What time does school get
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outp
“Two–thirty.”
There was no point lying despite the way her mother was waving her hands in front of her face in crisscross motions to make her deny it. He knew.
“Then we will have a full ninety–minutes to discuss. everything which has transpired.”
She swallowed the lump in her throat, and it settled like. an eight ball in her stomach that he’d sunk with perfect precision. Silently she rubbed her belly as it ached with the agony of his pending arrival. Based on his words, it meant he was only ten minutes away. It wasn’t long enough for them to get Kaylee and run. He’d found out too quickly.
“How?” she croaked the word out.
“How did I find out you have my child? Well, Ford and Glenn were having their usual weekly lunch. Glenn’s son Mitsos had a doctor appointment this morning, so he opted to keep him out for the day. Apparently Ford kept Stabing at Mitsos and comparing him to the kid who 12:40
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brought in the skunk. Then he noticed the photo on Glenn’s phone taken of you on Sunday afternoon at a gas station which I’d sent to Glenn earlier in the week. He
pointed you out as the mother of the child who looks like Mitsos. Now, I’m quite confident you and Glenn never made a baby because you aren’t the cheating kind and my brother is not a dog. If your daughter who apparently can be my nephew’s twin, is truly yours, then it stands to reason, my darling, that she is also mine. I am not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. I have a daughter.”
“Gulliver.”
“There is no need to chat this all out now. I’ll be there in
less than six minutes.”
“You found everything so quickly.”
The comment from her father was not missed by Gulliver.
“The minute my IT fellow had January’s professional name, and I threw in a couple of thoughts of my own, he had it together in under five minutes. He simply hacked your friend Davis at the FBI. I should say, the reason you’re not hearing from him is because he’s being scolded aufte vigorously by his superiors over the fact he diverted
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assets to help a family friend. I got copy of a few of his emails to you, Terrance. He really liked to paint me as a super villain, huh? I mean the one where he said I was wanted in eighteen different countries for everything from extortion to rape and to murder, well, that was a bit Overkill.”
“You’re going to be the head of a mafia family.” Her father’s accusation hung heavy.
“You have declared my guilt and culpability and yet, neither I nor my grandfather have ever been arrested for anything in association with what your friend in the FBI alleges. I’m a businessman. Am I a bit ruthless in my business, perhaps, but the crimes they say I committed, well, they are the kind which would land a man in
prison for a very long time. I can promise you there is not a warrant out for me in even one country let alone eighteen. We will certain have a clear and open discussion about how you have been my judge, jury and executioner without me being able to stand a trial. This is not really the American way, is it?”
His English accent was heavily influenced with his Greek one in the moment and yet the underlying threat in his Words as he spoke eloquently made January give her h2:40
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father a very worried look.
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“If you want to talk about people who are guilty of crimes, let’s talk about your friend Davis who had a crew of his friends enter my home illegally and surreptitiously on the day my wife disappeared to plant unauthorized listening devices and to erase my home security footage. Interestingly enough, it took five days for my IT guy to figure out it was the feds who got into my system. They have a guy on their payroll who is damn good at covering their tracks. My guy was better at figuring out who was in my system, but it never dawned on me until today that they were part of her disappearance.”
“Is this where you make threats against him?”
“Why would I do such a thing? I have no need to threaten him. I have simply asked my barrister and my entire legal department to begin proceedings because not only were the listening devices he implanted eight years ago put in illegally and we have an ongoing case against him for the illegal wire taps, but now we’re going to be able to prove he did it for his own personal reasons.”
“He was protecting my daughter. For all we knew you Fargeted her because of my brother. You faked your 12:40
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marriage to her because you were hoping to find out what he was working on before he died.”
“Wow. That’s a stretch if I ever heard one. Analia, I imagine you’re sitting right there. The rosebushes look lovely. I cannot wait to see what you’ve done out back.”
The sound of tires crunching the gravel of the driveway made them freeze. His next statement had her father
moving fast to text Moe.
“Terrance, call your buddy Moe and make sure he knows to stand down because I have an entire crew coming my way and we’re not walking away from my daughter without a fight.”
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