by Susan Stoker
He held his breath as his father considered his words. Tommy thought he’d convinced him, but his hopes were dashed when he said, “Naw. If nothing else, I’ll just sell ’em. They’ll be worth some good money for sure. I gotta get the hell out of this town. There was some mishap at the jail and they let me out on a work detail. Dumb assholes. My stupid lawyer told me the names of your foster parents when I signed the papers saying I didn’t want you anymore and it was easy enough to track ‘em down. I took off and didn’t look back, but I’m sure the guards will be looking for me by now.”
Tommy thought fast and tried one more time to get his father to release Brinique and Davisa. “But the cops’ll be looking for them. And their dad is one of those special soldier people.”
“What do you mean?” his dad barked.
He tried to remember what they were called but couldn’t. Just when he started to panic, Boba said, “SEALs, Tommy. They’re SEALs.”
“SEALs,” he blurted out quickly. “In the Navy.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” He swore. “Dammit. That’s all I need.”
“Look, we can let them out here on the corner,” Tommy suggested as they slowed to turn.
“No. No way. I need a hit. I can sell them tonight and leave town. No one will find me, it’s fine. No one knows where I am, I’ll just go into hiding. I can get some good shit with the money they’ll bring in.”
Tommy sat back in defeat. Tears welled up in his eyes. He’d failed his sisters the first time they’d needed him. He didn’t want his dad to sell the girls. Bad things would happen to them. He remembered the story about Fiona and how she was sold. A tear fell from his eye before he could stop it.
“Be strong,” Fatty said softly so the girls couldn’t hear him. “Wait for the right time. It’ll come. You just have to have faith.”
Tommy looked down at the three cats. They were sitting on the floor behind the passenger seat. They looked like one big fur ball, all squished together like they were.
“I’m scared for them,” he mouthed.
“Of course you are. They’re your sisters. But right this second, Alabama is on the phone with Abe. They’ll be here before you know it. In the meantime, you just have to stay calm and don’t do anything rash.”
Tommy nodded. He had no clue if what the cats were saying was true or not, but he had to believe it. Even if Alabama and Abe didn’t care about him, they cared about Brinique and Davisa. He wiped the tears off his face and took a deep breath. The black blob of goo was still there, but at least it wasn’t choking him anymore.
“You’ll stay with me?” Tommy asked the cats quietly.
“Of course.”
“Yes.”
“Without a doubt.”
He nodded again then looked over at his sisters. Brinique was looking right at him. She had tears in her own eyes and her lip was quivering.
“It’s okay,” he mouthed to her. There was so much Tommy wanted to tell her, but now wasn’t the time. He’d have to let his actions speak for him. His dad had hurt him, but there was no way he was going to let him hurt his sisters if he could help it.
“Alabama, calm down,” Abe tried to soothe his wife. “Brinique and Davisa are wearing their necklaces.”
“They haven’t taken them off since they got them,” Alabama agreed, as if he’d asked a question rather than simply stated a fact, breathless in her panic. “Have you called Tex yet? Is he tracking them?”
“Wolf is on the phone with him right now, and yes, he’s got them. We’re headed out the door. I’ve called Caroline and Fiona, they’re on their way to you. The others have their kids, so for the moment we haven’t told them what’s going on. Let’s keep it that way for now…okay? You can tell them all about it when our kids are safe at home.”
“Okay. We need to figure out something to give Tommy that can be tracked. I don’t think he’s gonna wanna wear a necklace.”
“We will. I’m sure Tex is up to the challenge.”
“How in the hell did Tommy’s father get out of jail?” Alabama asked, now sounding pissed.
“I don’t know, but right this second, it doesn’t matter.”
“You’re right, sorry. I know you need to go, but, Christopher…be careful.”
“Sweet, I got this. I know you’re freaked, but there is no way an asshole tweaker deadbeat of a father to our son is gonna get away with whatever the fuck he thinks he’s trying to do. All right?”
She chuckled weakly and for once didn’t reprimand him for his language. “Well, when you put it that way…”
“I’ll be home with our son and daughters before you know it. I really gotta go. The team’s ready to head out. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“Later.”
“Bye, Christopher.”
As soon as Abe hung up the phone, he turned to his teammates. “If he’s touched one hair on any of my kids’ heads, I’m gonna fuckin’ kill him.”
“And we’ll let you. Come on, Tex sent the feed to our phones. Let’s go get your kids back,” Wolf said somewhat calmly.
The only thing that kept Abe from losing it and going off on his friend for not treating the situation with the urgency he felt it deserved, was the ice-cold glint in the other man’s eyes. He might sound laid-back, but he was anything but. No one fucked with one of their own. No one.
11
Tommy paced the floor and tried to think about what he could do. His father had pulled up to a house Tommy had never seen before and hauled his sisters out of the car. He hadn’t given them time to do anything but stumble alongside him. He’d thrown them into a little bedroom and shoved Tommy in behind them. He’d then slammed and locked the door.
Not sure when he’d really started to think about Brinique and Davisa as his sisters, Tommy looked over at them. They had tracks on their brown cheeks where their tears had fallen and they looked extremely scared, but all in all they were okay. His dad hadn’t hurt them, which for the moment was the most important thing.
Their heads turned to the window when they heard a scratching sound. Tommy ran over, mad at himself that he hadn’t already thought about it. He pushed as hard as he could, but it would only open about six inches…not enough for either him or his sisters to get out. He was about to call Brinique over to help him push up on the glass when he saw the reason it wouldn’t go any higher. There were nails in the wood of the frame, keeping it from opening all the way. They were well and truly trapped.
Fatty stuck his head in the space in the window, scaring the crap out of Tommy. He stumbled away from the window and glared at the cat.
“It’ll be a tight fit, but I can make it,” Fatty told Boba. whose face popped up next to his.
“No way. There’s no way your stomach will squeeze through there,” the other cat scoffed.
“Will so.”
“Will not.”
“Will so.”
“Will not,” Boba declared stubbornly.
“Just watch!” Fatty said just as stubbornly, throwing his body under the window and grunting in effort. Other than a large fart as he exerted effort to try to get though the space, nothing else happened.
“Well isn’t this just a kick in the pants,” he murmured, pulling away from the window with a frown.
“Stop messing around,” Jango ordered from behind the kids. He was standing on the bed with an irritated look on his kitty face. “Get in here.”
Tommy looked from the bed, where Jango was, to the window again. The cats weren’t there. He turned back to Jango—and blinked. All three cats were now on the bed as if they’d been there the whole time.
“How’d you get in here?” he asked in confusion.
“Doesn’t matter,” Jango said. “What matters is getting you three out of here. Now, listen. Your dad has—”
“He’s not my dad,” Tommy declared forcefully. “He might’ve been at one time, but I don’t want anything to do with anyone who thinks it’s okay to kidnap children—inc
luding his own flesh and blood—with the intent to sell them to bad people.”
“Okay, then what do you want us to call him? What’s his name?” Fatty asked reasonably.
“I don’t want to use his real name. Not ever again. We’ll call him Herman. That sounds like a mean guy…right?” Tommy asked.
“Yup. That’ll do. Okay, so Herman has left to go bring some people back to the house. We don’t have a lot of time,” Jango said. “How’re we getting you guys out of here?”
“The window’s out,” Tommy said definitively. “They nailed it shut.” He went to the door to the room and pulled on the knob. It didn’t even turn in his hand. “Locked.”
“Is there anything we can use to knock it down?” Brinique asked, speaking up for the first time.
“Good idea,” Tommy told her. “Help me look.” He figured that if the girls were kept busy, maybe they wouldn’t be as scared. It seemed to be working for him.
They looked under the bed, in the closet and in the couple of boxes that were strewn around the room. The only things they found were old stinky clothes, a nest with baby mice in it, and some old broken dishes.
“What now?” Davisa asked, her eyes tearing up again. “I’m scared. I wanna go home.”
Tommy bit his lip. He was scared too, but he was the oldest. He needed to protect his sisters. “We’ll have to make a run for it,” he declared. “There’s three of us—”
The cats cleared their throats loudly.
“Sorry, there’s three humans and three cats. We need a distraction.” Tommy swallowed hard, not liking what he was going to say, but he instinctively knew it was the only way. “I’ll bring up my mom. Hopefully that will take him by surprise, then you guys can run away.”
“But how will you escape?” Brinique asked in concern.
Tommy looked her in the eye. “You’ll get help and bring them back.”
“That’s not fair,” she protested weakly.
“He was my father,” he said gritting his teeth. “Not yours. Besides, you’re my sisters. It’s my job to look after you.”
Ignoring the look of disbelief that crossed her little face, Tommy turned to the cats. He didn’t want to know what she couldn’t believe…that he’d called them his sisters or because she’d misinterpreted his words about his father. “You guys need to get under his feet. Trip him if you can. I’ll jump on top of him and give Brinique and Davisa more time to get away.”
“What if he brings back lots of people?” Jango asked calmly. “What’s the plan then?”
Tommy felt the black blob growing in his belly. He had no idea. He’d only been thinking about dealing with the man who used to be his dad. More men meant more people to hold on to his sisters so they couldn’t get away.
He shook his head violently. “No. It doesn’t matter.” He turned to the girls. “As soon as the door opens, you two run. Your entire goal is to get outside. No matter what. Got it?”
“But what if you get hurt?”
“It doesn’t matter. You get out and get help. And don’t let go of Davisa’s hand,” he ordered Brinique. “I’ll do what I can to help you. But promise me you won’t stop.”
“We promise, Tommy,” Davisa said softly. She walked over to him and put her arms around him awkwardly. “We’ll get help. We won’t leave you here for long by yourself.”
The black blob inside him shriveled a bit at her actions. He put his arms around Davisa’s skinny body and hugged her back.
“Good. Now…cats.” Tommy turned back to the bed, but it was empty. “Where’d they go now?”
They once again searched the room, but didn’t find hide nor hair of the cats. Brinique even asked the mice if they’d seen the cats, but they didn’t answer her.
“Whatever,” Tommy said decisively, feeling sad that the cats had left them alone after everything that had happened. “They’re cats. It’s not like they could help us anyway. Here, Brinique, take a couple of plates. If you have to, throw them at the bad guys. Davisa, you don’t get any. Your only job is to hold on to Brinique. Okay?”
“Okay, Tommy.”
He picked up a plate and a bowl and stacked the rest of the dishes near the door, just in case.
“Now we wait.”
The girls nodded and they all sat on the edge of the bed and listened for the man Tommy had dubbed Herman to get back.
Wolf, Abe, Cookie, Mozart, Dude, and Benny silently surrounded the decrepit house. They’d called the police, but their hands were tied in a way that the SEALs’ weren’t. The house was in a not-very-nice part of downtown San Diego. A part no cruise-loving or sun-seeking tourist would ever be caught dead in. The houses were rundown and the grass in the yards had been dead for quite a while. The few cars that were around were at least ten years old and most everything on them of value had long since been stolen for drug money.
The house where two blips on the apps on their phones were stationary was one of the worst on the street. There were two rusted-out hulks of cars parked in the front yard, and the weeds were knee high. The concrete was cracked and broken in the driveway and sidewalk. The paint on the house had once been a nice yellow, but was peeling and broken now. The house was neglected and should’ve been condemned.
Abe gritted his teeth. His babies were inside that hellhole and he wanted to burst inside and get them out. Now.
Knowing he was on the edge, but wouldn’t agree to be anywhere than on the front entry team, Wolf had paired him with Dude. They all knew that Dude was the most deadly when it came to a child’s life on the line. Almost losing his own child, then wife, had made him extra protective, and pissed off, when a woman or child was in danger.
Abe and Dude would make entry through the front door. At the same time, Benny and Mozart would enter through the back. Wolf and Cookie would take the front corners of the house to make sure no one busted out any of the windows, and to cover Abe and Dude’s backs.
There had been three cars parked haphazardly around the house when they’d arrived. The same car Alabama had seen Tommy’s shithead birth father peeling away from her front yard in before she’d called in the cavalry—otherwise known as her husband and his team of badass SEALs. Tommy’s father’s car was closest to the house with the two others parked behind it.
Abe refused to think about what whoever was in the house could do to three small, vulnerable kids or how long they’d been in there. He signaled to Wolf, who nodded back. It was time. Time to get his children back. God help anyone who got in his way.
12
Tommy, Brinique, and Davisa stood up when they heard the front door slam shut.
“This is it. You remember what to do, right?” Tommy asked in a voice he hoped was stronger than it sounded to his own ears.
“Yeah. Throw stuff and get out. Then get help and come back to get you,” Brinique said in a shaky voice.
“That’s right. Good. This’ll work.” Tommy tried to sound positive. “I know it will.”
As soon as he finished talking, the door opened and a man they’d never seen before stood there. He was wearing a pair of filthy jeans, sneakers, and a gray T-shirt with stains all over it. His face looked disgusting, covered in pockmarks, his hair was stringy and badly in need of washing, and his teeth were dark brown.
“Fuck yeah. Now this is worth paying two Benjamins for.” The man grabbed his crotch and adjusted himself lewdly. He turned back to the other room. “I want both girls.”
“No fucking way!” another voice complained. “You can’t have ’em both. Fuck that shit. I get first crack at one.”
“I don’t give a shit what you guys do. I want the boy,” a third voice drawled.
The man who’d opened the door backed into the main room, leaving the bedroom door open.
“Let’s g-go,” Tommy whispered. He knew exactly what the first two men were arguing about, and no way was he gonna let them get their filthy hands on Brinique or Davisa.
The three creeped to the doorway and looked out. Two men we
re arguing with each other about who would get “first dibs” on the girls and the third stranger was watching the argument while picking his teeth with a large knife. They were all tall and skinny, and even though they looked pale and sick, they were still bigger than Tommy was…and stronger.
Tommy’s father was ignoring the men and fiddling with a piece of rubber and trying to tie it around his arm. He’d seen his dad do that before, then give himself a shot in the arm with stuff he’d melted on a spoon.
The kids edged toward the door slowly, but as soon as they neared it, the guy with the knife said nonchalantly, “Your sweet pussy’s about to get away.”
The other two men whipped their heads around and stared right at them.
“Fuck. Get ’em!” one of them yelled.
Tommy pushed Brinique and Davisa toward the door at the same time, yelling, “Go!” He threw the bowl he’d been holding at the man closest to his sisters, somehow making a direct hit to his head. The man stopped and threw a hand up to his now-bleeding forehead. “Fucker. That hurt!”
The second man who’d been arguing with the first almost grabbed Davisa’s arm, but Brinique took the partial plate she’d been holding and thrust it into his chest as hard as she could.
Surprised that the young girl had fought back, he looked down at his bleeding chest in consternation, giving the girls just enough time to wrench open the door and bolt out.
“Don’t let them get away!”
The two men ran out the door after Brinique and Davisa, but Tommy didn’t have time to worry about them, as the man with the knife and his father were both coming toward him. Tommy threw the last two pieces of cheap china he had in his hands, but both men merely ducked. The plates broke harmlessly against the other wall of the small room.
“I knew you were lying about the whole partner thing, you little shit,” his dad snarled. “Never were good for anything.”