Winter

by Michelle Love

  “Water, yes,” she says as I sit on the bed beside her and open the bottle for her, holding it up to give her a drink as her hands are all tied up with feeding the baby.

  “Consuela is here, making us breakfast. So is Patsy. I told them both to go, that I wasn’t sure if or when I could pay them for their work.”

  “Let me guess, they both said they’d work anyway,” she says with a smile. “Both of those women are so good. When we do get things straight, they’re getting new cars!”

  “And then some,” I say as I agree, their loyalty should be greatly rewarded.

  “He’s eating better than I thought he would. Even though there’s not much coming out. Margie said it would be like that for up to three days. I think I have enough cash in my purse for us to take him to the pediatrician today. I think if you call and tell them what happened, they’ll get us in.”

  With a nod, I go and get her purse off the dresser. “I found a whopping sixty bucks in my wallet. Damn my habit of carrying so little cash.” I open her purse and find three hundred in it. “Good, you have enough for the visit, I bet. I’ll make the call.”

  “Once he’s through eating, I’ll put him down and you can watch him while I take a much-needed shower and get ready to go,” she says as she gazes at Noah. “He’s just so adorable!”

  With a laugh, I say, “That he is, baby. Just like you.”

  Taking the card from the pediatrician we picked out, I make the call. “It’s a Child’s World Pediatrics,” a young-sounding woman answers the phone.

  “Hi, my name is Ryker Crawford. My wife and I came in for a visit a few weeks ago. We picked Doctor Wang to be our baby’s pediatrician. We’d like to make an appointment for him as quickly as possible. He was born yesterday evening.”

  “Sure. What hospital are you in and I’ll send him over?”

  “We weren’t allowed to have him where we had planned. We’ll come to you. Just give us a couple of hours to get there. And what’s the cost for the appointment? We have limited cash.”

  “I’m looking at your file and money doesn’t seem to be an issue. Would you care to explain what’s happening, to me? Perhaps I can help you in some way.”

  “Our accounts have been frozen. I have my lawyers working on it and I’m sure they’ll clear things up. But for now, we have a little over three hundred dollars to our names. And I’m not sure how long we’ll need to make that stretch. But our son comes first. So, whatever the payment is, we’ll make it.”

  “Can I call you back? I need to ask the doctor some things.”

  “Sure. Talk to you soon.” I end the call and find Gia smiling as she looks at our baby.

  I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders, so I walk over and sit down next to her and run my hand over our son’s head as he sucks away at his mother’s breast.

  “Don’t worry, Ryker. Everything will work out.”

  As I touch our son and my wife leans her head on my arm, I feel the weight lift, like magic. “I hope so. Never, in my wildest dreams, did I see this coming. I thought I’d never have money issues. And for them to occur at the same time we bring our kid into the world, is insane.”

  “You know, it’s teaching me things, though, Ryker. I was afraid to give birth anywhere but a hospital with all the capable doctors and nurses. Painkillers and all that stuff. But I did it. With a bit of help, mind you, but I did it.”

  “You did do it.” I kiss the side of her head. “I’m so damn proud of you, Gia. You have no idea.”

  “And I’m proud of you. Ryker, you were right there every step of the way. Helping me and helping our son to get out into this world.” She sighs as our son falls asleep at her breast. His mouth opens and his head lolls back a bit.

  “So, here we are, a couple of people who are proud of one another. I suppose things could be worse,” I say then feel my phone vibrating in my pocket. “It’s the pediatrician’s office.”

  “Answer it,” she says. “Hopefully they can give us a couple of hours to get ready and get there.”

  “Hello.”

  “Mr. Crawford, this is Angie, the nurse you just spoke to.”

  “Hello, Angie. Did you get us an appointment?”

  “No, sir. I have the doctor coming to you. He’s bringing a nurse with him and everything he needs to make sure the baby is in good condition. If, for any reason, he feels the hospital is the best place for his patient, he will bring you all in and place you in the hospital.”

  “Will they accept us?” I ask as I doubt they will.

  “Yes, he said he’ll use his personal money to make sure his patient is well taken care of. Not to worry, sir. He’ll take excellent care of him. He’ll be there in an hour and a half. We have your address on file. Thanks for choosing us to take care of your baby, Mr. Crawford.”

  “No, thank you! Bye now.”

  “What?” Gia asks as she looks at me.

  “He’s coming here. He’s helping us. Gia, this is more than I could’ve ever asked for.”

  “Seems, with this little bundle of joy, came a bunch of miracles too.”

  We kiss our son’s little head at the same time then each other. Seems, miracles can happen!

  GIA

  The sun is shining brightly as I sit in the backseat with Noah, who’s resting comfortably in his car seat. Ryker’s driving us into town for the meeting between him, his lawyers, and some government officials who think they have enough evidence on someone in the company to prove Apollo Engineering was part of the scam about the Mars mission. A preposterous accusation, in my opinion.

  Ryker told me that I should stay home. The baby’s only a week old. But I wasn’t about to let him face this without me by his side. As he pulls into the parking lot of the law office the meeting has been scheduled at, I find myself getting a little nervous about things.

  I brought a bottle of breastmilk, I pumped earlier. Just in case the baby wakes up hungry while we’re here. Ryker parks and gets out of the car, coming around to my door, he helps me out first, then reaches in and gets the baby’s car seat out and grabs the diaper bag.

  “Hold on to me, Gia. I know you haven’t regained all your strength yet.”

  I take hold of his arm and lean on him a little. He’s right, I do feel a bit weak. “Thank you, Ryker. You’re so thoughtful.”

  “You and Noah are my world, Gia.” He opens the door and lets me go in first then comes in and nods for me to take his arm again. The smile that covers my face goes clear to my soul. It was no mistake that I met this man. It was no mistake that he found me.

  When we step off the elevator on the third floor of his lawyers’ offices, I find a couple of men in dark glasses and black suits, standing in front of the main door to the suite of offices. When we walk between them to go inside, I can’t stop myself and say, “You look proud to be working for such a corrupt agency that would pull down hardships on innocent people. Bravo, boys.”

  Ryker snickers as he opens the door for me. “Don’t worry fellas. I got the door. No need to offer any help here,” his words are heavily laced with sarcasm.

  “Being gentlemen must not be part of their training,” I say as I step inside as Ryker balances the bulky car seat in one hand and opens the door with the other.

  Neither move a muscle as Ryker kicks the door closed. The receptionist hurries to us. “Oh, my! Can I see him?”

  Ryker pulls back the blanket, showing off our handsome son. “This is Noah Ryker Crawford.”

  “What a little cutie,” she gushes. “Follow me. They’re all waiting on you.”

  She pauses at a small fridge in the hallway. “Anything to drink before I take you in? We have a little bit of everything.”

  “I’d love a soda,” I say.

  Ryker shakes his head. “A couple of waters, please. No caffeine for Momma.”

  “I forgot.” I kiss his cheek. “Thank you for remembering.”

  “It’s my job as Dad.” He smiles at me and kisses the tip of my nose.

&n
bsp; The receptionist smiles as she gets the waters then leads us to the meeting room. “You two are adorable.”

  “Thank you,” I say as I love it when people say things like that about us. I too think we’re adorable.

  When she opens the door, we find three men obviously, lawyers as they’re all wearing expensive suits. And two men obviously, government agents who have on suits that look as if they came from JC Penney’s.

  She places the bottles of water on the table where we’re supposed to take seats at, then excuses herself and leaves.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Crawford,” one of the lawyers says with a nod. “I’ve never met you, Mrs. Crawford. It’s a pleasure.” He leans over to shake my hand. “Call me Pat.”

  “Hello, Pat. Nice to meet you.”

  He shakes Ryker’s hand and greets him as the other two lawyers introduce themselves to me. Harvey and Leon are the other two. The government officials have yet to speak. They’re looking down at their files.

  Harvey gestures to them as he takes his seat. “Allow me to introduce you both to Agents, Booth and Danner. They’re from the CIA.”

  The man he pointed to when he said, Booth, stands up. “Let’s get these proceedings under way. I’m not a man who dallies about with things.”

  “Great. Time is pretty critical to us too,” Ryker says.

  Danner stands up too. I suppose this is a tactic used to dominate the room. He adds, “Good, then here’s the first question we have for you, Mr. Crawford. When you took over the CEO position of Apollo Engineering, is it true you ousted a man who was your grandfather’s right-hand man for the last ten years of his life?”

  “Frank Holiday?” Ryker asks. “Is that who you’re talking about?”

  Danner jots down his response as he nods. “Frank Holiday was the man your grandfather had told many people would be taking the CEO position when he was no longer viable to do the work. You swooped in when your grandfather became ill and took that over. No formal vote was ever made by the board. Is, that right?”

  “Not a written vote. The vote was spoken and the secretary has the notes from that meeting, stating everyone’s oral vote,” he says.

  “And how does this pertain to you freezing our accounts?” I ask.

  Ryker places his hand on my leg and looks at the men too. “Yes, how in the world does that justify such an action?”

  “The money you’ve made by being the CEO of that company should’ve been Frank Holiday’s. He’s given us information on you that had us justified in freezing those accounts,” Booth says. “You see, he told us about overhearing you and Damien Markov talking one late night at your office. He told us about you and Damien meeting at a hotel while he was in town. He told us about the booster agreement.”

  “I have no idea what he thinks he heard. Markov and I are not into anything unethical,” Ryker says as he sits up straighter. “He and I had a few conversations that might have seemed odd but that was because he and I were fighting over this woman, right here.” His thumb hooks at me. “Not that it’s anyone’s damn business.”

  “Mr. Holiday has written a statement that says he overheard you and Markov talking about setting up the whole scam and finding others who wanted the same thing to happen,” Booth says. “And it’s odd that only you two had the implants removed. His story is that you and Markov did that to ensure you two would be left here and the others would get on that shuttle and blow up, leaving you two the top space industry leaders. Making it so you two could get to Mars first. Something you both craved.”

  “You couldn’t be more wrong about any of that,” Ryker says. “We were going to die, if we had to, to stop the whole thing. You can ask anyone.”

  “We did ask them all. The other men in your team,” Danner says as he tosses out four pieces of paper. “These are your team members’ statements. All had ideas that you and Markov were in on something together. All had distrust for you two.”

  “There was no reason to,” Ryker says. “Markov and I have a history, is all. That may have been why they thought the things they did.”

  Booth takes a seat as he says, “Holiday thinks you’ve always had a plan to win the race to Mars. He’s told us, in his statement, that you’ve had the plan to be on the first mission since before your grandfather passed away.”

  “That’s not a crime,” Ryker says.

  “Stealing the CEO position is,” Danner says.

  One of the lawyers clears his throat and I look to see Pat holding up one finger. “The position wasn’t stolen. I’m sure we can get the notes from that meeting to prove that.”

  “The files have been confiscated,” Danner says as he looks at the file in his hand then he takes a seat too. “And here’s what we found, no file that says anything about the meeting your client is claiming took place. We didn’t find one shred of evidence that any type of vote was taken. And that too makes Crawford seem suspect of being one part of the mastermind behind this murder plot to kill off the competition. With Markov’s help, he nearly killed those men. We’ve been instructed to strip him of his office as CEO of Apollo Engineering.”

  “By what authority?” Pat asks.

  “The United States President,” Booth tells him and tosses another piece of paper, he takes out of the file that’s on the table in front of him, to Leon who’s sitting closest to him.

  I can see the presidential seal from here and I cringe. “That aside,” I say, quickly. “You’ve frozen everything. My money is in those accounts too. All the deposits are not his.”

  Booth smiles as he looks at me. “Your small amount will be unfrozen and you can take that and open another account. I wouldn’t put his name on it, though.”

  I look at him and smile. “Great. I expect that to be done by tomorrow. It shouldn’t be hard to see what deposits are for me and what are for him.” I look at Pat who’s across the table from me. “Can you handle that for us?”

  “Well, um, there is the matter of our attorney fees,” he says as he threads his fingers together. “With this presidential order, I’m afraid those assets are gone. Ryker Crawford is no longer the billionaire he once was. I don’t know how we can represent him any further.”

  “What does this all mean for me?” Ryker asks Booth. “Exactly what’s going to happen to me?”

  “We don’t have enough evidence to charge you with a crime. You’ve managed to cover your tracks there, Crawford. Being that other countries have threatened not to do business with one of America’s top space companies, the President is within his rights to take that company away from you and place it in more trustworthy hands.”

  Danner takes over as he pulls a paper out of his file and pushes it toward Ryker. “This paper states that you can no longer serve in any capacity at Apollo Engineering. It states that all of your cash assets will revert to the company. And no criminal charges can be made at this time with the evidence we have.”

  “Essentially, I’m broke and jobless,” Ryker says.

  I pat his leg. “Don’t let that worry you, baby.”

  “You’re taking all I’ve done and flushed it down the drain. You know there’s every chance that Frank Holiday got rid of the minutes from that meeting. He took advantage of the scam that happened. A scam that I too was a victim of. He took advantage to gain control of something he has no business having control of. And our president gave it to him.”

  “Look at it any way you want to. You’re no longer the CEO of Apollo Engineering. You can’t step foot back into the place. Your personal effects have been packed up and are in the trunk of our car,” Danner tells him. “You should feel grateful that you’re not being charged with a crime.”

  Ryker’s hand moves over my leg. “The only thing I’m truly grateful for is this lady at my side and this child. All the rest if this Earthly shit can go to hell. So, I am free to go on about my life then, right?”

  With a nod, Danner says, “Yes. Just stay out of Apollo and all will be okay.”

  “Not a problem,” I say. “Sin
ce I have no legal team, how long do I have to wait for my part of the bank accounts to be freed?”

  “It’s our policy to have them freed within twenty-four hours, ma’am,” Booth says.

  “Good.” I look at the attorneys and give them all nods. I won’t be employing them. “And what about the smaller affiliate companies that were working with Apollo?”

  Pat looks at Danner who says, “Their accounts have had the holds taken off them. It’ll be up to Holiday to decide to keep any contracts with them or not.”

  “Good,” I say. “We’re done here, then.” I get up and Ryker does too, picking up the car seat.

  “I want a file of all that you have,” he tells them all. “I want a copy of everything in both of those files.”

  “You’ll have to wait for that,” Pat says. “Let Stephanie, in the front, make copies. We can no longer do business with you, Crawford. You understand, I’m sure.”

  My husband’s head drops and so does my heart. He’s never been treated this way. It’s humiliating to him, I can feel it radiating off him. I turn back and push all the papers together and hold out my hands for the files the CIA agents have. “Let me get these to her. We don’t have time to fuck around. Our son will be waking up to eat in half an hour. You all seem like time-bandits. Time, we don’t have.”

  They let me take the papers and files and I follow Ryker out. “Thanks, baby.”

  “You really don’t have to worry, Ryker.”

  “I know. I know you have money. I just feel terrible. I feel deflated.”

  Dropping the stack of papers on the receptionist’s desk, I say, “Can you make copies of these really quick for us before Noah wakes up and wants to eat?”

  “Of course,” she says as she hops up and gets busy doing that.

  “Frank Holiday?” I ask Ryker as we take seats to wait for the copies. “Who the hell is he? I’ve never even heard anyone talk about him.”

  “An old as shit man who knows so little about modern technology, it’s not even funny. But, apparently, he’s quite a good bull shitter and an excellent man with paperwork.” Ryker rubs his temples, telling me he has a massive headache. And who wouldn’t with this news?