by J. Haney
“So? Where are we heading to?” Caleb asks while he sits.
“Montana,” I say then go back to finishing my food.
“Why Montana?”
“It’s somewhere we’ve never been and somewhere we can fall off the grid.”
“Okay, I’ll follow you there. Then I’ll hire some guys to keep an eye on you.”
“Thank you, but honestly, I can handle this.” I notice the kids are finished eating. “Okay, we need to get out of here. You have my number if you need me.” I look over at Caleb and see him watching me closely.
“Let me help carry your stuff the truck,” he insists, and we start grabbing bags. We don’t talk anymore until the kids are loaded into the truck and I’m getting ready to get in.
“I’m following you,” he says. “I have to know you are okay.” I just give him a quick nod and get in.
***
We’ve been on the road a while now and every time I look in the rearview mirror; I see Caleb behind us. That alone makes me smile a little. I haven’t had someone actually care enough to follow and make sure we’re okay.
“Mom, can you hand me a water out of the cooler?” Ava asks, tiredly.
I nod as I reach for her water. Sitting back up, I hand it to her then look into the review mirror. I don’t see Caleb. Instead, I see an unmarked black van. Checking to make sure both kids have their seat belts on, I speed up to get away from the van. We’re coming up on a red light. Shit! I stop for the light and hope I’m wrong.
Nope! We’re hit in the ass and bounce just a little. I hit the gas and blow through the light. My phone begins to ring and I pick it up when I see Caleb’s number.
“Yeah,” I snap.
“Kyler, where the fuck are you?” Caleb shouts.
“We just got hit in the ass. The van is stuck in the wreck. I’m getting off at the next exit I’ll text you when we stop.” I’m trying to keep calm for the kids’ sake.
“I’ll meet you ASAP.”
“Okay, see you soon.” I hang up and look back at the kids. I see scared looks on their faces. “It’s okay, guys.” I reach back and pat their legs tenderly, pulling into the first gas station I see. I throw the truck into park and shut it off. I turn around and run my hands over the kids’ faces. Letting out a sigh of relief, I frown at them. “I’m so sorry. We will talk soon about this, I promise. Just give me time.” I sit back in my seat and text Caleb.
Twenty-five minutes later he pulls in and parks behind me. “I’ll be right back, kids. Stay here.”
I get out and walk to Caleb. He looks me up and down before saying anything.
“Follow me,” Caleb says. “Liam is bringing us my truck. There’s a country inn right up the road. Nell has already got us set up for the night.”
Once we get to the inn, we all share one room. Knowing I can’t keep the kids locked up, we take them outside and walk them around.
“Caleb, I need help,” I say quickly, hoping he heard me. I take a seat on a swing while the kids are taking turns on the big tire swing.
“Okay?”
“What I mean is I need you to help us. I don’t know how to keep them safe.” I feel the tears stinging my eyes.
“I know where we can go; as soon as Liam gets here, we’ll head out. We won’t stay the night.” He places his hand on my knee.
“Thank you.”
Liam and Nell show up a couple of hours later, and we get everything moved from my truck to Caleb’s. Nell takes Caleb’s car and Liam takes my truck, which they are going to ditch somewhere. Ten minutes after Liam and Nell leave, we get back on the road.
Chapter Sixteen ~ Caleb
After a very long drive through upstate Washington, filled with a lot more bathroom breaks than I am used to, we finally pull up outside the family vacation house. It’s very quiet here. After being in the city, it always takes a while to get used to the silence, but it’s becoming more like home to me. I walk around the truck to help Kyler with the bags.
“Well, here we are. What do you think?” I watch the kids pile out of the truck.
“Ava, look how pretty everything is.” Kyler is trying to make the best of a hard situation.
“Mr. Hudson, thank you for bringing us here,” Ava says and points to Kyler, Jax, and herself. “Mommy, can we move somewhere around here?” She looks back at me.
As Kyler beings to laugh, I can’t help but smile while watching them.
“I’ll think about it. Let’s just enjoy our time for now, how about it?” She smiles over at me and I head to the back of the truck to grab some of her bags.
Kyler looks up at me. “This place is beautiful. Thank you.”
I grin and walk toward the house. I set everything on the porch so I can unlock and open the door. As soon as it’s open, Buddy comes running out and straight toward the kids. I can hear them giggling as I walk in; there’s a note on the table from Mrs. Harper, the neighbor who typically takes care of the place and looks after Buddy when we are not here. The note says she got a call, that everything is all set up for company and that Liam says I owe him one. I smile; she’s good people, not the type to ask questions. I lead Kyler toward the bedrooms.
“Here you go. You are in here and the kids are in the room next to yours.” I point to the room. “There’s an adjoining bathroom so you can check on the kids without coming into the hall.” I put their bags down on the bed and walk to the door to gesture across the hall “That’s my room. Any problems, you come get me. Now, can I get you anything?”
Kyler shakes her head. “We’re good.” She looks around the room and finally sets down the bags she had in her hands. “I’m going to get them settled here with the TV, then I’ll be down.”
I nod and shut the door leaving her to herself, so I can go and unpack my things.
Once my stuff’s put away and I’ve changed into a clean shirt, I head down to the living room and find Kyler already sitting on the sofa, lost in thought and staring at her laptop. I look over her shoulder to catch a glimpse of what she’s looking at: pictures.
“You want a coffee?”
The sudden sound of my voice makes her jump clean out of her skin as she twists around to look at me. Poor Kyler, I must have scared the piss out of her. I have to stop sneaking up on her or I’m gonna get one of us hurt.
She nods, with a relieved sigh. “Please. How long have you been standing there? I didn’t even hear you come in.” She starts clicking out of stuff on her laptop, then shuts it off and sets it on the coffee table. “Thanks again for letting us stay here; you really didn't have to.”
I grin and head for the kitchen to make the coffee. “It's not a problem,” I call back to her. “You need help and that’s what I do, as well as sneak into rooms and look at photos on people’s laptops right before they tell me what happened to their family.”
I bring over her coffee and take a seat at the other end of the couch. “You are going to have to tell me about it so we can try to figure this out, so you’re not running anymore, or worse.”
Kyler smiles at me. “Thanks for the coffee. I know I’ve got to tell you everything; well, at least everything I know.” She sips her coffee, thoughtfully. “I’ve told you pretty much everything that I know, really. I was sixteen and pregnant with the twins. I went to school and two cops picked me up and took me to the station and questioned me for something like five hours.”
She stops to take another drink of her coffee. “Finally, they made me see my family’s bodies to identify them. That was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. I ended up living with one of the cops that interviewed me because I have no other family. After the funeral, I was sent away and told not to come back. To this day, I’ve never gone home, but we have been found a couple of times, which is why I have the Glocks.”
She looks up at me, I guess to gauge my expression. I just nod for her to continue. “I have no idea who it is, and neither do the cops. I get e-mails from the one I lived with until they ship me off anytime they
get a lead. Other than that I have never seen them. I just get phone calls, letters, someone gets killed or, in this case, blown up. ‘Worried’ is an understatement for me right now.” She sighs and sets her coffee down and lifts her eyes to me.
I shuffle up the sofa to get a bit nearer to her just in case she cries again. I really hope she doesn’t, but I’m more relaxed here so I know I can deal with it better. I keep my eyes on her, watching the emotions pass over. I smile, reach out, give her hand a quick squeeze. then I get up, grab a pen and paper, and lean on the kitchen counter.
“So is Jefferson your real name? Can you remember if your parents were arguing or had any financial worries at all? I know you’re bound to have been asked this sort of question before, but I’m starting from the beginning here and, with a few more years of life experience, you tend to realize what you never understood when you were younger.”
I watch and wait for an answer. I can see the stress on her face right now and I know this must be difficult, but I have no clues to go on, and these people seem to always find them. It won’t be too long before they come here, and I don’t want that.
“Yes, my last name is Jefferson. I keep it in case some family somewhere decides they want to meet me.”
A tear falls down her face, and she swats it away to keep me from seeing.
“Like I said, the only family I knew was my mother, father, and brother. Mom’s name was Tammy Jefferson. Dad’s name was Mark Jefferson, and my little brother was Tim Jefferson. That may help you a little too.” She wipes her face before looking at me again. “No, there weren’t any money problems. Hell, we are set for life. I don’t even have to work, but I can’t just sit around and do nothing. It would drive me insane. One of the bags in the bedroom is half full of money, and that’s not counting what I have set up in different banks just in case we need it.”
She stops mid-thought like she is thinking of something. “Mom was a doctor, but truthfully, I have no idea what my father did.” She finally makes eye contact with me again. “Mom and Dad barely bickered at all. They did get mad at us from time to time. Dad would take my side and Mom would take Mark’s, but those were the only fights in the house that I ever saw.”
She looks back to her hands and whispers, “I know you have to ask these questions, I get it.”
Wiping her face one more time, she looks at the clock. I jotted down a few notes as Kyler was talking. I begin to run things over in my head; she doesn’t know what her dad did for a living, which seems odd. I gaze at the floor while thinking about that and tap the counter with my pen until I click back as she is still talking.
“The kids will be hungry soon. Would you like me to cook something for dinner for all of us?”
“Dinner? I forgot you cook.… That would make a change from takeout and diners for me. I’m not used to home-cooked meals anymore.”
She gives a small laugh. “Of course I cook. How do you think we’ve made it so long? You name it and I can more than likely make it.”
I smile, then walk over and grab her cup. “You want some more coffee? Or perhaps a scotch or a berry wine?”
“I think a little scotch would be nice.” She gets up from the couch and crosses by me to the kitchen. “Okay, so let’s see what you have in here to make a full meal.” She looks around the space and in a couple of cabinets. “I assume you would like some home-cooked meals while we’re here. I don’t expect to stay here for nothing.” On her tiptoes to peer in a cabinet, she glances back at me over her shoulder. “You can bring the scotch in here and ask any other questions you have. The tears are gone. You’re safe,” she says with a curt smile.
I laugh at her last comment, bring in the scotch, and put it on the counter. I pause for a moment, look at her, and smile. There is a voice in my head that is saying don’t get involved, don’t like her like that, but then the other part of me is devouring her. The brave smile, strength and her personality are just what I crave.
Realizing I might have stared a little too long, I grab a couple of glasses and fill them halfway up. “Okay, so I’m not really sure what is here, food-wise. We might get lucky and manage to find something. I just hope you’re a better cook than my old man; it was always some sort of flavorless beef mince with boiled veggies. I can make a pasta meal and a good full breakfast, but that’s about it.”
I put the scotch back where it belongs and come back to lean on the counter. I grab the paper that I jotted notes on and study it for a minute while trying to think about other angles. Maybe this isn’t about her family; maybe it is just a jealous ex, but then surely he would have come himself? Plus, a high school kid with that many resources would stick out too much or have money behind him so people would cover it up. My mind continues to think over lots of different scenarios as I stare at the paper lost in thought.
“Is everything okay?” she asks. “You’ve been staring at the paper for far too long.”
Feeling her eyes on me and hearing the question wakes me from my thoughts. “I'm okay, just thinking.”
I turn with an awkward smile, then notice she’s got the food on the go, pans already heating on the stove. I’m impressed.
“Wow, you found all of this in here? Check you out, homemaker.” I chuckle and then realize that she was saying something beforehand which I nodded along at, yet have no idea what she said.
“I will run into town tomorrow and get supplies,” I say. “You might want to write me a list, as I will never remember all of it.” I take a sip of my scotch and grin at her like a damned fool. I’m not too sure what to say now. I want to ask her about the kids’ father, but she finally looks more relaxed, so I don’t want to ruin that.
“I can make a list. No worries,” she says before finishing her scotch and going back to cooking.
While she is keeping busy in the kitchen I sit on the couch with my laptop and my scribbled notes to the side. From time to time, I look up at Kyler. It’s kind of nice to hear someone else clinking and chatting. I’m used to it being just me and Buddy.
Chapter Seventeen ~ Kyler
Sitting down at the table, I look over at Caleb, thinking it’s nice to sit down to a dinner with someone other than just the kids.
“Dinner tastes good, Mommy, thank you,” Ava chirps.
“You’re welcome, Ava. Maybe after dinner we can go for a walk and check out the house?” I smile at her. Looking over at Jax, I notice he’s scowling at his sister like never before. “Jaxson, what in the world has gotten into you?” I scold him. He looks up at me and I notice him trying to change his facial expressions. Before he can say a word, I say, “We will talk after dinner. Understood?” Jax gives me a tight nod, then goes back to his plate.
“So, is that better than your dad’s cooking?" I ask. As Caleb takes another bite, I look over and see him watching me again. I look down quickly so maybe he won’t realize I’ve seen him looking.
He chuckles. “Oh yes, a hell of a lot better than Pops.”
Ava and Caleb talk back and forth while we eat. I just sit in silence and take in how different everything seems right now, especially Jaxson’s behavior. After everyone is finished with dinner, I stand to clear the dishes and get them ready to wash up. Just as I go to turn the water on, Caleb pipes up.
“One cooks, the others clean up. Those are the Hudson rules.” He winks at me and scoots up behind me to call out for Ava; his hand gently rests on my hip as he asks Ava to help. Ava is more than fine with helping.
“Right, little lady. Me and you are going to clean up and then we can take Buddy for a walk and Mommy can sit down and take a rest.” He’s sweet, and it makes me smile.
“C’mon Jax, let’s go sit and talk.”
Jaxson follows me out the door. As we sit on the porch, I can hear Caleb and Ava inside cleaning the dishes. I’m not sure what he is doing, but he has Ava giggling like crazy.
“What’s going on with my little man?” Jax looks at me and with a roll of his eyes looks away. “Jaxson Mishon! You turn around h
ere right now and tell me what in the world is going on with you. I won’t know how to help you until you fill me in.”
Jax looks at his hands and whispers something I can’t hear.
“What was that?” I ask quietly.
“I don’t like being here with Mr. Hudson,” Jax blurts, and I immediately understand: He’s jealous. Well, of course he is; he’s always been the man of the house. I guess I shouldn’t have expected anything less, considering everything they have been through. Damn! Here I thought I was doing better at keeping stuff hidden.
“Mom, why do we have to be here? Why can’t we just do what we usually do and run?” Jax asks and I just stare at him with my mouth open. I have no idea what to say.
I place my hand on his, which is resting on his lap, without words. Finally, I sigh as he looks to me for answers.
“Jaxson, I’m so sorry I put you and your sister through all of this.” I look down as a tear rolls down my cheek because of everything my babies have been through. Wiping the tear away with my other hand, I look back at Jax. “I should have just moved across the country or taken the two of you to a different country once you were old enough.” I hear Caleb and Ava hollering for Buddy so I know they are heading this way. “Jax, how ‘bout we make a deal, huh?”
He gives me a look as if to say, So, bargaining now, are you? Well, let’s hear it. That face on my nine-year-old makes me laugh. “How about we give it a couple of days and see how everything plays out? If you still don’t like it, then we will figure something else out,” I promise him.
“Okay, Mom, but I’m not making any promises,” Jax grumbles.
I give him a hug before sitting back in my chair while waiting for Caleb and Avaline.
Ava bounces out the door with Buddy hot on her heels. When Caleb walks out, I can’t help but look at him a bit more closely after the conversation with Jax. He seems so nice, but I guess that’s normal, right? I’ve read many books where they seem nice but end up being complete dirtbags. So the question I need to figure out is… is Caleb a good guy or a dirt bag?