by Lee Wardlow
No fourteen-year-old boy should be sharing a room with the two youngest but he didn’t seem to mind. He never complained at least. Jamie should have done something when he made his first million over a year ago.
He ran down the steps and determined that the screaming was coming from the kitchen. He turned at the bottom of the steps and headed that way. He was too late. Whatever was going on had gone from screaming to fists flying. Kaylee wouldn’t fight back. It was his mother’s fists that were hitting his little sister.
He dodged her flying arms and grabbed her around the waist pulling her back against him. Jamie locked her arms to her sides with his big arms. “What the hell?”
“That little shit thinks she can do whatever she wants. I told her no.”
“No about what?”
“She’s not going to that afterschool art program she’s so hell bent on going to. I need her to watch the boys.”
“So you can get drunk,” Kaylee shouted.
His mother started fighting him. He struggled to hold onto her. “Kaylee, you aren’t helping.”
He watched the hurt cover her face like a mask. Her big, green eyes, Cami’s eyes were staring at him. She rubbed the side of her face where their mother had hit her. It most likely would bruise too. He wanted to release Cami and comfort Kaylee but right now he was concerned what Cami would do if he turned her loose.
“Cami, stop.” His voice was stern and commanding. She stopped struggling. The scent of alcohol was strong coming from her. He could tell she had already been drinking. He shook his head. “How much have you had?” He asked her.
She stopped struggling completely so he let her go. Cami Stone turned and gazed at her son. A man. Thirty-one years old. Wealthy. Success beyond her wildest imagination. She had aged in the eight years that Karl had been gone.
Her occasional drinking through the years had become a full blown problem. She was slender for having fourteen children. Her long black hair hung over her shoulder in stringy strands. Her eyes were surrounded by dark circles. From lack of quality sleep and too much alcohol. She was going to die before her time but that is what she wanted. She missed Karl.
“Jamie, you don’t need to worry about me.” She tilted her head up defiantly.
“I think I do.” He maneuvered his body between his mother and his sister. He rubbed his hand across his face not wanting this confrontation at all. “You’ll get no more money from me.”
She gasped. The blood drained from her face. “How will I feed my children. I don’t get enough from Social Security.”
“I’ll feed the kids. I’ll setup a special account for them. Mark will pay for their groceries out of that. No alcohol will be purchased any longer with my money. Do you understand?”
“I don’t know what you think I’m doing here Jamie. Why is everyone against me all the time,” she whined.
“Because you’re a drunken, whore,” Kaylee smarted off.
Jamie sighed quickly before his mother started trying to tear into her again. He was holding her back and talking to Kaylee over his shoulder.
“Please go to your room sweetheart. I’ll come to your room in a minute and talk to you.”
She glared at her brother. She wasn’t really angry at him. She was mad at the world right now. Her home life sucked. She had to take care of Wyatt and Bradley all the time. It wasn’t fair. “I should get to be a kid every once in a while,” Kaylee snapped at Jamie. “I want to do this art program after school.”
He understood her better than she realized. He had practically raised all of his brothers with his dad because something was always wrong with his mother that they tried to relate to her health but he knew and so did Kaylee. She was a drunk.
Kaylee stomped past Jamie and their mother. She slammed the bedroom door, down the hall. He grabbed his mother by the wrists to keep her from whacking him. “That is enough.”
“Who do you think you are?” She sneered.
“I’m the one who is going to take these kids from you if you don’t get your shit together.”
His mother gasped. Horror. Fear. Anger. All these emotions showed in her pretty face. Damn, all the years of drinking and she was still pretty at forty-nine beneath the tiredness and lack of a shower. “Why do you want to hurt me?”
The tears started flowing down her cheeks. Jamie felt guilt for a second then he had to remind himself that she had caused this. He still pulled her to him and kissed her forehead. “Cami, you gotta get it together. You’re hitting Kaylee now?”
“She’s got a smart mouth on her.”
“She’s hurting.”
“So am I,” she complained.
“You’re forty-nine. She’s twelve. She needs an adult.”
She shoved away from Jamie and wiped her face on her shirt sleeve. “Of course, you’d take her side.”
He groaned in frustration. How could she have so many damn kids and never grow up herself? He was done talking. “I’m going to talk to Kaylee. If you don’t get your act together I’m taking the kids with me to Atlanta.”
Jamie started to walk out of the kitchen. “I’ll fight you Jamie with everything I have. You haven’t lived here in twelve years. Right before your daddy died you left us. What judge would give you my kids?”
“A judge who is told that you’re not feeding them so you can drink away the money I send to you. A judge who is told that you are hitting Kaylee. I can start asking questions of the others,” he added.
He glanced over his shoulder at her. She was biting on her lip, thinking which meant she had hit the others as well. He sighed. “I’m done Momma. You get your act together before I leave here or the kids are going with me.”
“I am your mother,” she screamed at him.
He had taken two steps. He turned and looked at her. “Then act like it.” He silenced her with his hard glare. She didn’t dare say anything else to him.
Jamie went down the hall to his sister’s room. He started to reach for the doorknob, then he hesitated. He knocked first.
“Come in.”
He opened the door and went in, shutting the door firmly behind him. “Hi sweetheart. So, I guess that isn’t the first time she’s hit you?”
“Nope,” Kaylee responded. She was working on something. Refusing to look at him. He stepped closer to her and sat on the edge of the bed. He watched his sister make a bracelet out of material then Jamie touched Kaylee’s chin so he could turn her face to look at him. She was already developing a bruise beneath her eye. “Does she hit the others?”
“Not if Branch, Bobby or Seth is here. She’s afraid of them. Mikey still backs down to her rages. Crazy assed woman.”
“Kaylee.”
“Jamie, you haven’t been here. You haven’t seen the days where she’s drunk all the time.” His sister was hurting and Jamie was beginning to blame himself for letting this go on for so long when he could have helped the younger kids not live through what he and the older kids had.
“I have Kaylee. She’s been drinking for a very long time. I’m sorry I didn’t know things were so bad.”
Kaylee rolled her eyes. “She’s worse in the last two years since Wyatt’s dad broke it off with her.”
“You know who Wyatt’s dad is?”
“Of course I do. Walter Lightfoot.”
“Seriously?”
Kaylee laughed at her brother’s expression. “I know. He’s like eighty.”
Jamie burst out laughing. “He’s not that old Kaylee.”
“He looks it.” She shivered up her spine. “How old is he then?”
“He’s sixty or sixty-one.” Jamie didn’t know which. He worked in town at the local gas station as the manager. He had been there for as long as Jamie could remember and Walter had been single for just as long. He was definitely a weathered man. “Does he see Wyatt?”
“Are you kidding me?” Kaylee asked.
He chuckled. Sometimes, Kaylee sounded like a grown up. A product of a home where there was no father an
d a mother who could care less. She was four when Bradley was born. Eight when Wyatt was born. Their mother gave her the responsibility for caring for her siblings just like she had him.
“Paying child support?”
“Hell no. If he was she would be using it for alcohol money.”
He put his arm around his sister. He needed to get her out of here. “How would you feel about living with me?”
“I heard you,” she said softly.
He didn’t know what that meant. He had been home over the years but never for long. Did she even feel comfortable with him?
“So what do you think?”
A part of him wanted his mother to straighten her act out and grow up. Be a mother that her daughter needed but he didn’t think that was ever going to happen. He was thirty-one. She hadn’t done such a bang up job as a mother before their father died; he didn’t expect her to change now because his younger sister needed her.
“Can we leave her alone? I mean I assume everyone would go?”
“Yes Kaylee, all six of you who are underage would go with me.”
“Honestly Jamie, I don’t want anything to happen to her but I can’t leave soon enough.”
He tilted his head to the side and looked at Kaylee. She had tears in her eyes. He wrapped her in his big arms and held her close. “We’ll talk about it when the time comes. I don’t know how the others feel.”
“The twins are the only ones who won’t want to go.”
Kaylee wrapped her arms around Jamie’s neck. She gave him a little squeeze. This is what it’s like to love a child. This is what it would be like to love his child. He patted her back. “I love you Kaylee,” he told her. Jamie was patting her back as he held her.
“I love you too Jamie.”
Chapter 15
The days turned into three weeks. Jamie hadn’t taken down the firewall yet. Not until he found out who was sending Nova the messages. Sly was still digging but he was coming up empty handed.
They couldn’t stay out in the woods for much longer. The temperatures during the day were in the sixties and seventies. At night the low was in the fifties. It was the week before Christmas. A few more weeks and the lows could be dropping into the forties.
Things at home weren’t going any better. Cami had started running around with Bradley’s father again. Charlie Hoss, a biker she met at a bar. Jamie had no problem with bikers just this one. He was a known criminal, drug dealer, an addict and an asshole.
He watched his mother leave on the back of Charlie’s bike nearly every night comfortable in the thought that he was there with the kids. He shook his head in disgust.
Apparently Charlie didn’t see his kid either. What man turned his back on his child? What woman kept going back to him?
Jamie walked into the living room. He was stumped by this whole situation. He wanted Nova home with him. She had missed her doctor’s appointment that he had to cancel for her. The appointment where he would have heard his child’s heartbeat. He was worried for her. Worried for his child.
He was reading with Bradley for a winter break assignment. His brother was struggling in that area. The teacher had sent home a note that requested Bradley read twenty minutes each night during break so either Jamie or Seth had sat with Bradley while he read to them. It was looking more and more like his mother wasn’t interested in changing her ways.
Jamie’s phone rang. “Hold up little man. Gotta get this.”
He went to his phone on the island between the kitchen and living room. He swiped his finger across the screen answering the phone right before it went to voicemail. He was surprised to find Dallas Danner on the other end of the line.
“Jamie.” Just his name, short and sweet.
“Senator, what can I do for you?”
“Jamie, you’re a very smart man.”
He waited to see what else he might say. When he said nothing more Jamie spoke; sarcasm dripping off every word. He regretted ever getting involved with Zach’s software firewall and Omega. “Thank you Senator. You called me to tell me this why?”
“You are playing a very dangerous game.”
Jamie looked across the room at Bradley waiting on him so he could continue reading. He covered the phone with his hand. “Bradley, could you see if Branch or Bobby could listen to you read for the rest of your twenty minutes?”
His little brother who looked very much like him except for the light green eyes he had which were staring at him with disgust right now. Bradley sighed dramatically. Jamie’s eyebrow raised over his eye as he watched him climb off the sofa and head up the stairs.
“What game do you think I’m playing?” He asked when Bradley was out of earshot.
“You’re hiding Nova Daughtry.” Jamie said nothing. “We want to question her. You have Sly Lee investigating some…text messages she received.”
“You wouldn’t know that unless you were responsible for sending them to her.”
“I need Omega, Jamie. I need them badly and you’re going to help me.”
“Senator, I’ll call you right back. Give me a number where I can reach you.”
The Senator rattled off his phone number. Jamie took the stairs two at a time and went to his bedroom. He called Dallas Danner back on his secure phone. “Senator, we’re on the same page. Stop sending threatening messages to Nova and I’ll help you get Omega.”
“How?” He could hear the interest in Dallas’s tone. He had piqued it. Now Jamie had to deliver.
“Top secret. Do you understand? I don’t want anyone to know that I’m going to deliver Omega to you. Nova is pregnant. She’s missed a doctor’s appointment already and I want her back home with me. I don’t want her or my child to ever be in danger because of Omega. Zach has been pretty adamant that they are dangerous.”
“I agree.”
“I need Sly’s help so whatever you are doing to track him. Stop it.”
“And you’ll deliver Omega.”
“I will.”
“How?”
He lied through his teeth. “I’ve found someone who can crack Zach’s code.”
“Before I came on board this committee my predecessor had teams of experts trying to bring down his firewall. They were unsuccessful. Zach is the only one who can break that code Jamie. He’s brilliant I have to admit. Who would have guessed that a sixteen-year-old kid created a firewall that is unbreakable to hackers?”
Yeah, who would have guessed?
“He’s in prison Senator. You put him there yourself.”
“Zach put himself there Jamie. I didn’t force him to do something that was illegal.” He sounded defensive to Jamie. Was the man struggling with what he had done. Getting Zach and Omega at any cost had hurt him. Jamie was sure of it.
“You were willing to do anything and use anyone to get what you wanted, weren’t you?” Jamie saw his hand trembling. He felt like he was making a deal with the devil himself and the end result could hurt the people he loved. He didn’t trust Senator Danner at all. He waited to see if he would respond.
“So what is your point?”
The air was very quiet between them.
“My point is Senator that I don’t trust you. If you want Omega you will have to trust me and back the hell off.”
“Or what?”
“You’ll never get them.”
“Jamie, I’ll give you seventy-two hours to bring down that firewall.”
“And then what?”
“We’ll take over Jamie,” he threatened. “We’ll force Zach’s hand using Nova. Do this and I promise you’ll never be exposed. You or Nova. Congratulations by the way.”
“I’ll be in touch Senator.” Jamie ignored the congratulations part. “If you need to speak with me, text me. I’ll call you from a secure phone.”
“Seventy-two hours Jamie.”
“Then what?” Jamie asked.
“We come after everyone with everything that we have until we have Nova. There is chatter.”
“Wha
t kind of chatter?” Jamie asked.
“Omega is planning something big. It is time to teach the government a lesson they will never forget. We have to stop them now before that can happen.”
“You don’t know what they are planning?”
“We don’t.”
“All right Senator. Seventy-two hours.”
Jamie disconnected his phone. He tried calling his mother from his regular phone but she wouldn’t answer. He called his Uncle Mark. He didn’t want to leave the kids alone even though Seth was eighteen and Bobby and Branch were sixteen. They didn’t need that responsibility. His uncle told him to pack up the kids and bring them to him and Mary. They were always happy to have them.
There was a lot of grumbling about leaving the house so suddenly. He explained as best he could without scaring anyone that he couldn’t leave them alone anymore. He had a critical job to take care of right now. They were going to Uncle Mark and Aunt Mary’s until he got back in hopefully no more than three or four days.
Four-year-old Wyatt was the hardest. Even though he knew his uncle and aunt well he was concerned about leaving home. Wyatt wanted to know if his mother would miss him?
“She will Wyatt, I promise. I don’t know when Momma is coming home so I have to leave you with someone who can take care of you.”
He nodded. Jamie ruffled his hair. Then he walked outside with his uncle. “What do you want me to do when she shows up?”
“Tell her to fuck off.”
“Jamie,” Mark scolded him.
“Mark, she’s been beating on the kids.” He was angry. Angry at her and angry at himself for not seeing it. For not being there for his siblings. “Drinking all the money I send to them. Seth has been struggling to feed the kids.”
“I’m sorry Jamie.” His uncle grabbed him around the shoulders and hugged him tight “I know how hard this is on you. You raised those children with your dad and she kept popping out more for you to take care of.”
“I told her to get clean or I was taking them.”
His uncle’s eyebrows were raised in surprise when he stepped back to see his nephew’s face. He shouldn’t have been surprised as Mark said, he had raised them all with his father’s help except for Kaylee, Bradley and Wyatt.