by Ali Vali
"Oh, trust me, baby, I'm not going anywhere. I love you, Harry."
"I love you too, baby, now go to sleep."
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How Do You Mend A Broken Heart
Ali Vali
Chapter 4
Across the street from the now darkened house, Byron and Mike sat in the car biding their time waiting to go in and get Desi. Since his release from jail, Byron had been a model citizen awaiting trail, lulling Desi and whomever the woman she was staying with into thinking he'd given up and forgotten about his wife.
It was now time for Desi to come home and forget about the charges she'd filed and drop the divorce proceedings. There was no way he was going to give his wife her freedom without a fight. She belonged to him and it was time she started to realize that meant she wasn't going anywhere until he said so.
"Looks like everybody's finally down for the count," said Mike. He had a bad feeling about what they had planned but his father had sided with Byron on this issue and he had no choice but to help his brother collect his wife or start looking for a new place to live and a new job.
"Let's wait another hour and then they should all be asleep. I don't want that tall bitch calling the cops until we're back home and I've had a chance to talk to Desi. Once I'm done with her, I won't have any more legal problems, and she'll forget about whoever her new friend is.
"It'll take me awhile to forgive that stupid bitch wife of mine for the days I spent sitting in jail with all those animals, but I've got something special in mind for that." Byron had yet to see either Desi or the woman his brother had described coming or going from the house, but from the movement inside he knew they were there. It was a given Rachel was probably staying there too, but he hadn't seen her either and for the moment he wasn't interested in her.
"Okay, it should be all right to go in now. Just follow close behind me and get ready to carry Desi out once we find her. Don't stop to ask questions, just grab her and get moving before the cops get a chance to respond to any calls anyone in the house makes. Got me?" Mike nodded in understanding as the acid in his stomach increased. Even though he'd done some stupid shit in his life, none of them had landed him in jail, but this just might prove to be the one that did.
Cutting the main electric feed going into the house, Byron waited until he saw the green light on the alarm panel near the back door go out, signaling it was all right to enter. Breaking one of the old leaded panes of glass in one of the downstairs windows, he reached inside and unlocked it and slid it open. Listening for any signs of life coming from anyone in the house, Byron motioned for Mike to follow him once he crawled through the window.
Looking around he noticed they were in a study of some sort from the books lining the shelves in the room. I always wondered what the inside of all these big houses were like, thought Byron as he moved from one room to the next looking for the stairs.
Upstairs, one of the sleeping bodies rolled over hearing something out of place deep in her subconscious. "Was that the sound of breaking glass?" The woman was groggy from sleep so her question came out mumbled. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Honey, wake up. I think there's someone downstairs," the small woman said a little louder in an effort to rouse her sleeping companion.
"There isn't anyone downstairs, sweetheart, I set the alarm myself before we went to bed."
Before heading up the stairs, Mike made a quick detour into the kitchen to open the back door for a quick getaway once they found Desi, getting a thumbs up from his brother for his quick thinking. Stepping onto the first step he prayed the old staircase didn't creak and wake someone up before they found their prey.
Reaching the second floor, they paused to let their eyes adjust to the minimal light in the long darkened hallway, and tried to figure out what room Desi was in. The easiest way, they figured, was to start at the end and work their way back toward the stairs. The two brothers moved quietly to the door on the end and opened it as slowly and as quietly as they could.
Standing in the middle of the room, Byron looked down on the bed and let his anger wash over him. Any plan they'd talked about before breaking in flew from his mind as rage swept through him. From the outline under the blankets and the bare shoulders peaking out, he could tell there were two naked bodies lying there and it became quite clear why Desi wanted a divorce. She'd found some rich sugar daddy to keep her in style so she didn't need him anymore.
"You fucking bitch!" The scream caused a flurry of motion to come from the bed.
Without another thought to keeping quiet, the furious man stepped forward and threw the sheet over the small woman on the bed. He tried to ignore the obvious smell of sex that wafted up when he pulled it from the bed. There would be plenty of time to think about that later once he had his wife back under his heel.
Throwing her over his shoulder, Byron headed toward the door, shouting a threat as he crossed the threshold, "Stay the fuck away from my wife, asshole." The older man was right behind him so Byron gave into the urge he'd had since walking in. Without remorse, he cocked his fist back and punched the guy in the face. "I fucking mean it. Stay away from her."
"What in the hell are you talking about? Come back here you idiot. Do you know who you're dealing with?" The man shook his head as if to clear it of the blow before running naked after the two men screaming the whole way, but neither of them stopped.
None of the lights in the house would work as he flipped switches and he ran after the two down the stairs, desperately trying to reach them before they ran out of the house with his wife. Passing the tray where he put his wallet, keys and cell phone the man grabbed the phone as he ran out of the kitchen into the night. Not stopping to realize he was naked and shouting outside of his house, he switched the phone on and called 911.
"911 operator how can I help you?" asked the tired voice on the other end once the call went through.
"This is Judge Jude Rose, I need the police sent to my residence immediately. Two men just broke in and kidnapped my wife. Their license number is NIC 224. It's a late model blue Buick I think and they are driving away now. Tell them to step on it, they're headed toward St. Charles Avenue!" He could still hear his feet slapping along the pavement as he yelled into the phone. The car he'd described was getting further away with no traffic to slow it down because of the late hour.
"Judge, what is your address?"
"4534 State Street."
"Okay, sir, there are units heading toward you now and the units cruising the area have been dispatched toward St. Charles in search of the vehicle you described. Do you have any idea who the two men were?"
"I have no idea, but one of them sounded vaguely familiar." Realizing he was now about a block and a half from his house, Jude turned around and headed back to get dressed.
Every fiber in his body wanted to jump in his car and go after the two morons who dared to come into his home and do this, but would wait by the phone for the officers dispatched to his house. Allowing the police to do their jobs would assure a successful prosecution, and in that arena, he felt he had some say in what happened to them.
"Can you send someone out from the utility and phone company as well, I think the two idiots cut through some of the wires outside. I don't have any power or phone but my neighbors lights are on." Jude watched as the lights in more than one home popped on as he made it back. Figuring they must have heard him screaming as he ran down the street he rushed to make it back and get dressed.
"Sure thing, Judge Rose, there are two units just a block from your house but I'd like for you to stay on the line with me until they arrive."
"I'd be happy to since you're going to give me an update if any of the units call in with a progress report. What's your name?"
"Lee Smith, sir."
"Thank you for your help, Lee, I'll make sure to call your supervisor once this is all over." He remembered the manners his mother had pounded into him as a child even in the face of a crisis.
&
nbsp; "Thank you, sir, that's not necessary, I'll let you go since the police are in your driveway. Good luck and I hope Mrs. Rose is all right."
"Thank you and good night."
************************************************************************
Byron turned the wheel and skidded on to St. Charles Avenue, but only for a block before he turned off onto one of the smaller side streets. "I said shut up or I'll pull over and make you shut up," he screamed. He still had the image of Desi in bed with that old creep and it was making him madder by the moment.
"What in the fuck were you thinking, Desi? Did you think I wouldn't find out you found some old geezer to shack up with uptown? Start praying now that I don't kill you when we get home." Byron gripped the steering wheel of Mike's car and tried to fight the urge to pull over and pummel the crying woman, still covered in a sheet, sitting in the back with his brother. A couple of his knuckles were already swollen and bruised from the punch he'd delivered earlier. "What, he offered to buy you a new dress so you spread your legs for him?"
"Who's Desi?" asked the muffled tear-wracked voice from the back seat. Victoria Rose was trying to figure out who these two men were and what in the world they wanted with her. After agreeing to marry Jude after clerking for him out of law school five years prior, she was afraid the day would come when one of the nuts he sentenced would come after them, but she wasn't prepared for the actual event.
"Don't play stupid, you're coming home and there ain't nothing you can do about it now. We're going to have a little talk about the charges you filed against me and the divorce papers they hit me with before leaving jail." With some effort he pulled his foot back off the accelerator and slowed down. The last thing they needed now was to be pulled over for speeding.
"Sir, I'm sorry you're having trouble with your spouse, but I can assure you I'm not her. My name is Victoria Rose and I'd appreciate if you were to stop and let me out of this car before this situation gets any worse for you than it already is." She was trying to sound calm and confident hoping this guy would listen to reason and not just kill her once he figured out the extent of his screw up.
"Holy shit, Byron, we grabbed the wrong woman! We're going down for this I just know it. Pull over and let her out. We need time to about what we need to do next. I'm sorry, lady, we didn't mean any harm," said Mike. I should've listened to that voice in my head that said this was a bad idea, he thought as his brother made no attempt to pull over.
"Get a grip, brother, before I shove you out of the car too. Let me just think." Byron made a quick decision and headed back to St. Charles so it would be a clear shot to the interstate. "I know there's some fancy hotel up here on the left, we'll leave her there and head home. She doesn't have any idea of who we are and Pop will be our alibi we were home all night," Byron concluded, as he made a U-turn and pulled up in front of the Ponchatrain Hotel yelling for her to get out. Looking in the rearview mirror he noticed no one was following them, and slumped in his seat with relief.
"Sir, there's a call for you from your wife," said the police officer standing in the judge's den. He handed the man the phone and stepped back to give him some privacy.
"Sweetheart, is that you?" Relief washed over Jude when he heard her sweet voice answering him. She was all right and she was coming home.
"I'm okay, honey, just hang on there and one of these nice officers will give me a ride home. Seems this was all a big misunderstanding on the part of our two kidnappers."
When Jude finished talking to her, the police captain standing in his den started explaining what they had found out so far. "The license you reported to the emergency operator is registered to a Michael Simoneaux residing in the Ninth Ward. We tried to ascertain why Mr. Simoneaux would want to break into your house and kidnap your wife, the only connection we could find, sir, is his brother."
"His brother? Who is his brother, captain?"
"That would be Byron Simoneaux who was recently before you in a domestic abuse case. After speaking with the officer who took a brief statement from your wife, the only thing I can figure is that he somehow got the idea that his wife was staying with you, so he decided to break in here to get her back. I have units waiting to apprehend him and his brother when they get home and they're also under orders to look for his brother's car along any route back to either his or his brother's house. The brother, Michael, still lives with his parents so it's my guess that's where they'd be headed," explained Captain Simmons.
When he heard over the scanner who was calling in a kidnapping he had headed out to the scene immediately. The mayor would have his head on the chopping block in a minute if the police department didn't appear to be doing all it could to get Mrs. Rose back. To top it all off, they'd also had reports of a crazed streaker in the neighborhood, he just knew it had to be a full moon.
"Thank you, captain, now if you would excuse me, I see my wife is back." Jude walked out of the back door to greet Victoria, pulling her into a hug while trying to keep the sheet in place. The officers at the house tried not to notice how beautiful she was and that there was nothing under the designer sheet except skin. If Judge Rose was a legend in the law enforcement circles before because of his tough sentences, this would only add to the mystique.
"They didn't touch you did they, sweetheart?"
"Don't worry, love, they just took me for a little ride then dropped me off at the Ponchatrain Hotel down the street. The one named Byron kept calling me Desi, and thought I was having an affair with you."
Now that Victoria was home the reality of what happen hit her and she broke down into choking sobs when Jude explained who Desi was. He tried to remember all the facts as Serena had relayed them to him in court, and the passionate way she had presented them.
If Serena was that involved in this case considering her workload, and this idiot thought his wife was staying with him, taking into consideration where their house was, he came up with a plausible explanation. After getting Victoria calmed down, Jude picked up the phone in their room and dialed the number without having to look it up.
"Hello," the sleep rough voice answered. "This had better be good because I'm looking at my clock and it says four thirty in the morning." Harry's gruff voice was a little more coherent after she rolled over to her side and scrubbed her face with her other hand.
"Good morning, sunshine. I have only one question for you," said Jude. Even though he was furious, his voice sounded deceptively calm and sweet.
"Uncle Jude, is everything all right? Are you or Victoria hurt?"
"Funny you should ask me that, Harry, because no, I'm not all right, and I have a sinking feeling I have you to thank for that. Is there someone there with you, Harry?"
Not realizing the consequences of her answer Harry just responded honestly. "Actually I do have someone staying with me. My houseguest's sister is staying with me too if that's important. Is there a crime against that I don't know about?"
"No, honey, there isn't, but I do have some news for you. Tonight Byron and Michael Simoneaux broke into my house and kidnapped Victoria…" Jude started, only to be interrupted by a now wide awake Harry.
"Oh my God, Uncle Jude, is she all right?" Ready to go their house if Victoria needed medical attention, Harry sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. That woke Desi making her roll over and rub Harry's back in a soothing motion.
"Calm down, Harry, she's all right and she's back home. Vicki's just a little shaken up, but they were smart enough to let her go and not harm her in anyway. There'd have been no escape for them if they had. For some strange reason though, Harry, they thought Desi was living in this house. Care to enlighten me?"
It took a minute for her to figure out the answer, but Harry remembered the afternoon of their lunch and explained why the brothers might have mistaken his house for hers after she had pulled into his driveway when trying to get away from Michael.
She apologized, thinking Byron might only go over and scream at them from the fron
t yard. She assumed that the idiot would figure out Harry had tricked him, and it was the judge who had arraigned him who lived there, he would have just left them alone. She had no way of knowing he would try something so stupid.
For a brief second she felt ashamed from the relief of the ordeal happening to someone else and knowing Desi was safe. Her parents would never forgive her for putting their dearest friend's spouse in danger. Jude and Raul had known each other since college and he was godfather to both of the Basantes children.
Jude couldn't stay mad at Harry long. He never could look into her mischievous blue eyes and hold any animosity toward the girl he had cradled as a baby and watched grow into one of the most respected surgeons in the country. Hell, she had even done his knee replacement surgery, which let him enjoy his golf game every Tuesday afternoon with his wife.
"Harry, don't worry about it, I understand why you did it. You might just have to take Victoria to lunch and introduce her to this wonderful girl you're so eager to protect. I might come along so I can tell Maria I had the pleasure of meeting the one who finally managed to capture New Orleans' most eligible bachelor and take her out of circulation. Tell Desi I'll take care of this in the morning and she won't have to worry about the Simoneaux brothers for long while. Good night."
Harry had to take a to think of the best way to tell Desi of Byron's latest stunt. Desi was awake and rubbing circles on her back. It was so comforting it made Harry very aware of how hard it would be to live without Desi in her life now. The mere idea of someone like Byron harming Desi made her nauseous. She turned to face Desi and figured blunt honesty might be the best course of action given the circumstances.
She lay down again and gathered Desi into her arms and started explaining in a low tone. Desi winced when she got to the part about Byron and Mike actually taking Victoria out of the house. Desi could only imagine what Byron would have done if he had walked in and found her naked in bed with Harry. Knowing his bigoted views, she was certain he'd have killed both of them for engaging in what he considered perverted acts against nature.