Deidre slowly got up, grimacing at the pain in her back, and walked over to the window again.
“Oh. Oh, damn. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean you…”
“It’s all right. I’ve come to terms with my failure as a mother.”
“I don’t know about that, but you certainly get the grandmother of the year award for how Kenny turned out,” Chelsey exclaimed.
Deidre turned to her, a smile on her lips. “Thank you for that,” she replied with twinkling eyes. “Oh, but wait. You said you went to the prison in Newport?”
“Yes, we followed your clue and found your letters which led us to the prison.”
“Oh, dear. That wasn’t the clue I was hoping she’d find. She’s looking in the wrong place.”
***
Kenny careened her car around the street corner and up the driveway, screeching to a stop inside the garage. Hitting the remote to close the garage door, she jumped out of her car and ran into the house. She nodded at Tobias’s bodyguard as she ran past her and down the stairs to the game room.
“What have you got?” she asked breathlessly.
“It’s on the printer,” he said, pointing at the printer standing at the end of the row of computers. Although he could have hung the picture on the evidence wall, it felt funny to him, like he was encroaching on something the leader would want to do.
Kenny picked up the paper and began reading out loud. “Harold Otter, forty-five, Caucasian, male, brown hair, hazel eyes, height 72 inches, weight 172 pounds, date of birth, 8/11/1978, initial receipt date, custody classification - class A misdemeanor.”
“What’s a class A misdemeanor?” Tobias asked
“Possession with intent to deliver,” Kenny replied, studying Harold Otter’s picture. “He’s got a scar on his chin. Ted had mentioned that the guy who paid him to put a tracker on my car had a scar on his chin.”
“I’ll bet that’s the same guy.”
“That’s a safe bet,” Kenny agreed and walked over to the evidence wall. “His initials also match what Grandma was signing in this photo. But who is this guy and what’s his connection to my mother?”
“Well, he was in a few years ago for possession with intent to deliver. He’s been out for a year, so maybe he was delivering the drugs to her.”
“I agree,” she said, looking back at the piece of paper. “And the timing would match up with when Jaylen was in prison, so he might have been trying to sneak them in to her.” She pulled off a piece of tape and taped the paper to the wall. Picking up the magic marker, she hesitated for a moment as a thought came to mind. “Jaylen’s cellmate said that she had a boyfriend in the men’s prison not far from where they were. Maybe Harold was that boyfriend. Maybe because he was caught is the reason Jaylen was clean and sober when she was released from prison.”
“That’s kind of ironic in a weird sort of way,” Tobias speculated. “I mean, what would be the odds that her drug mule got caught, allowing her to sober up in time to meet the requirements to be released?”
Kenny chuckled. “Yeah, I don’t believe it either.”
“Hell, for all we know, this guy might be your father, and that’s why he’s keeping Jaylen supplied with drugs.”
“God, I hope not. This guys an idiot.”
“You said you’ve never met him. How would you know?”
“Because he’s working with Jaylen.”
“Oh, of course,” Tobias said with a chuckle.
The doorbell rang and Kenny looked at the monitor for the front door camera. She frowned at the gall her mother had, standing indignantly at her door. What more does that bitch want?
“The camera’s off, right?” she asked.
“Yes. Do you want me to point it back to your grandmother’s cell phone?”
An idea suddenly popped into her head. “Yes, but only for as long as it takes for me to send them a message.”
“What are you going to do?” he asked.
Kenny walked behind the bar and pulled out her gun. “I’m going to kidnap the kidnapper.”
Chapter Nineteen
There was a feral look in Kenny’s eyes. Savage, but in control, with every instinct razor sharp and ready to pounce.
“Seriously? Isn’t that sort of against the law?” Tobias asked.
She looked at him and frowned. “Yeah, but at this point, I don’t give a shit.”
He shook his head. “Yes, you do give a shit. You know the spiel, if you stoop to their level…”
“Yeah, but this time, if I stoop that low, I will hold the winning card. The bitch who instigated all of this.”
“Well, I’m not going to visit you in prison, and if she is the kidnapper, you could end up as cellmates.”
“Damn, you’re full of good ones today, aren’t you?” she quipped, not expecting an answer. She walked around to the front of the bar where the laptop sat. Opening a blank Word doc she typed her note in large, bold font. There would be no mistaking what she was saying. Sending it to print, she started to get up when another idea hit her so hard she sat back down. “Okay, Tobias,” she mumbled to herself. “I’ve got it covered.” She did a quick search on the Internet and found what she was looking for. She hit print and stood up.
“Did you say something?” he asked.
“Nope,” Kenny said as she walked behind the bar and retrieved her pistol. Tucking it in her belt where she could get to it easily, she walked over to the printer. The doorbell rang again. “Okay, I’m ready. I need you to record this as proof.”
“Proof of what?” Tobias asked, staring at the gun in Kenny’s belt.
“Proof that she wasn’t coerced when I make her sign a contract.”
Tobias was thoroughly confused but figured she’d explain it to him later. “Yeah, well, the camera will see that gun, you know?”
“Damn it. You’re just ruining all my fun,” Kenny wisecracked and walked back around the bar. Putting her gun back on the shelf underneath, she stood up and said, “Okay, now I’m ready, again.”
“Give me a second,” Tobias said, leaning over his keyboard. A few moments later, he leaned back. “Go.”
Kenny ran up the stairs and through the vestibule to the front door. “I’ve got this,” she told the guard, waving him away. She flung the door open and growled at Jaylen. “Here hold this,” she demanded, shoving the sign at Jaylen. Shocked, Jaylen did as she was asked. Kenny waved at the camera mounted above the door. “Show your friends what it says.”
Jaylen read the sign out loud, “Kidnapping the kidnapper.” She looked at Kenny disbelievingly. “I don’t know what you’re trying to prove. I am not a kidnapper,” she said as she held up the sign. “I came here to help.”
“Holding the sign up is helping me a lot,” Kenny said sarcastically.
Jaylen turned her head to look at Kenny, who motioned for her to hold the sign up higher. “Look, if Mom is in trouble then I want to help you.”
“You want to help, then sign this release form,” Kenny said, taking the sign from her and handing her a form and an ink pen.
“What the hell is this?”
“It’s a standard release form that says I’m not holding you against your will.”
“Makenna, what are you talking about?”
“You will be a guest in my home until your partner returns Grandma and Chelsey. You will not be allowed to leave, to use your cell phone, or talk to anyone until they return.”
“You can’t be serious?”
Kenny glared at Jaylen. “You either come willing or by force. Personally, I’d prefer force but it’s your call.”
“Why do you hate me so much?”
Why did you abandon me? She shook the thought from her head. “No. We’re not doing that now.”
“Fine. I’ll sign your damn release form just to prove to you that I want to help,” Jaylen stated tersely, signing the paper and handing it back to Kenny.
Kenny was shocked that she actually signed it. What are you playing at? She showed the fo
rm to the camera and held it there for a moment. Then she turned back to Jaylen. There was something different about her. Yesterday she was belligerent and erratic, and today she seemed very calm and focused. She had on long sleeves yesterday, as she did now, but she had made a show of baring only her left arm to prove that she was clean.
“And most importantly,” Kenny said. “You will not be allowed to do drugs in my house.”
“I showed you yesterday that I’m clean, and I’ve been clean for six years.”
“Uh-huh. Prove it. Let me see both arms at the same time.”
“You really have trust issues, don’t you?”
“Only when it comes to fucking ex-con drug addicts showing up on my doorstep after I won the lottery, claiming to be my mother,” Kenny shot back.
“Does Mom know you talk like a sailor?”
“You’re just stalling. Show me your arms. Both of them,” Kenny demanded.
Jaylen glared at her but bit back her retort. She rolled up the sleeve on her right arm and held it out for inspection.
Kenny looked at it closely and could see the scars where the skin had grown over the holes in her arm. She could not understand why someone would do that to themselves just to get high for a couple of hours.
“And now the other one.” In her psych class, she had learned that a long-time user wouldn’t hesitate to use any part of their body they could to inject the drugs, but the upper inside arm, where all the veins were at, was the easiest to get to. And of course, without a blood test, there was no way to tell if Jaylen was popping pills short of dilated eyes and erratic behavior, which she suspected was the case yesterday.
Jaylen rolled up her other sleeve and presented both arms to Kenny. “Satisfied?”
“No, but it will do, for now.”
“How long will I be your guest?”
“Why, have big plans on Monday?”
“Monday? No. I have to report in to my parole officer next week.”
Kenny looked at her and laughed. “You’ll be out of here by then.”
Sophie’s car pulled up the driveway with Miguel driving and Sophie sitting beside him. Kenny had a twinge of guilt when she saw them drive by. Miguel must have said something because Sophie was laughing.
As Kenny watched them pull into the garage, she wondered if she was doing the right thing, bringing Jaylen into their lives. What else can I do? She had the weight of two lives hanging in the balance. Kenny pulled out her cell phone and checked for a text. There wasn’t one. “Funny, they usually respond immediately. It’s almost as if they knew you would be here.”
“Who are they, and why would they know I was here?” Jaylen asked.
“Because if it wasn’t a setup, then they’d have texted me by now.”
“Oh, you think I set this whole thing up? You’re the one kidnapping me, remember?”
Kenny shivered inside. Like mother, like daughter. “It’s not kidnapping if you sign a waiver and come willingly, remember?” She turned and waved toward the door. As Jaylen walked by her and into the house, Kenny said, “Is ceann de’s na h-óinseacha diabhail thú.”
“I am not the devil, and I’m certainly nobody’s fool,” Jaylen shot back. “I speak Gaelic, too. Cé hé an amadán anois?”
Who’s the fool now? I am. Kenny was sure her mother wouldn’t remember and the test only served to baffle her more. She knew her mother was playing a game, but she didn’t know to what end, other than taking all her money. Why go to such extremes if she already held all the cards? Why agree to be held hostage like her grandmother was being held? What was she really after… if she was the one who kidnapped Grandma?
“Téigh taobh leatsa féin.” The realization that she just told her mother to go fuck herself sideways made Kenny laugh. She’d wanted to say that to Jaylen since she was a teenager and learned that she loved drugs more than she loved her own daughter. Unfortunately, Jaylen didn’t hear her. “Empty your pockets and give me your phone.”
“What do you want my phone for?”
Kenny looked at her patronizingly. “I don’t want you making calls while you’re here.”
“You really are paranoid, aren’t you?” Jaylen replied, handing her phone, wallet, and unopened roll of breath mints over to Kenny.
She handed the mints back to Jaylen. “No, I’m just not stupid enough to trust a whore like you.” Kenny knew calling her a whore would piss her off.
Jaylen held up her hand, pointing at Kenny. Her face red with anger, she shouted, “Listen, bitch—”
Sophie and Miguel walked in from the garage, and Miguel immediately pushed Sophie behind him when he heard Jaylen yell. He slipped his hand inside his jacket where his pistol was.
Tobias heard the yelling and came running up the stairs, but his bodyguard, Carla Shaw, stopped him. The third bodyguard, Lester Henderson, an African American, who was a linebacker in college, came running in from the library, ready to tackle someone.
Jaylen was surprised at the threatening way they looked at her, and she held up her hands and took a step back. “Whoa, settle down now. I was just talking with my daughter.”
“The daughter part remains to be proven, but she’s right, let’s all just relax,” Kenny said, stepping to the side of Jaylen. “You can let Tobias in now,” she said to Carla.
Carla stepped to the side and Tobias came running in, standing beside his mother. Carla and Miguel took up a position to the side of their respective protectees.
“Everyone, this woman is Jaylen Whitt, my supposed mother. She is a hostile guest until such time as my grandmother and Chelsey are returned to me.”
“What do you mean by hostile guest?” Sophie asked.
“Don’t worry, she signed a waiver so it’s nothing illegal… well, unless she tries to leave.”
“I’m not going to leave. I told you, I’m here to help get my mother back.”
“Oh? I thought it was to make amends for abandoning me when I was a baby?”
“Makenna, give it a rest already,” Jaylen chastised. “You’ve already made up your mind about me, so there’s nothing I can say to change it.”
“Fine, whatever,” Kenny fretted, rolling her eyes. She looked at Sophie and Tobias, both with confused, concerned looks on their faces. She squared her shoulders and calmed her temper. “Okay, now for the rules. Under no circumstances is Jaylen to be left alone with either Sophie or Tobias. Understood?” All three guards nodded. “She has a record of violence and drug abuse so be on alert for sudden outbursts, like the one you just witnessed.”
“Oh, please. So overdramatic,” Jaylen ridiculed.
Ignoring her, Kenny continued, “At night, she will be locked in her room, the guest room with the bathroom at the end of the hall and let out in the morning.”
“What if I want breakfast in bed?” Jaylen quipped.
“There is no one here who will serve you, Jaylen. You can fix your own damn meals after everyone else has been fed.”
Sophie gave Kenny a disapproving look.
“What? You trust me not burn down the house?” Jaylen asked mockingly.
“I don’t trust you to do jack shit,” Kenny lambasted. “You can have bread and water for all I care.”
“Kenny, may I speak with you for a minute?” Sophie asked, walking into the library. Miguel followed her and took up a position to the side of the library entrance.
“Watch her,” Kenny said to Lester, pointing at Jaylen. Then she followed Sophie. “I know what you’re going to say,” she declared, shutting the door behind her.
“She’s not an animal, cariño. You can’t treat her like one and expect her help.”
“I don’t expect her to help, Soph. But with her under my surveillance, I won’t have to worry about her kidnapping you or Tobias.”
“I thought that’s why we have bodyguards.”
“It is, most definitely. But as my… guest, she can’t call the shots with her partner. She won’t be able to run the show from in here.”
“Are you so sure that’s what she’s doing? Maybe she really does want to help because maybe she really does love her mother.”
“Maybe she does in some animalistic way, but she doesn’t love Chelsey. No, she has an ulterior motive for being here and I can’t take any chances with her.”
“Well, then, let me take a different approach with this.” Sophie stepped in front of Kenny and said, “I don’t want her messing up my kitchen!”
Kenny burst out laughing and then pulled her into a hug. “I promise, no one will touch your kitchen, Sophie.”
“Does that include you, Kenny?”
Laughing again, Kenny nodded. “Except for the refrigerator and my sodas, I have no use for the kitchen. But under no circumstances do you let people treat you as a servant. You will be the boss of this house once we get Grandma and Chelsey back.”
“Funny, I thought I already was the boss now,” Sophie chirped, walking toward the door.
Kenny grinned and then wiped her face of all expression as she followed Sophie back into the foyer. Jaylen was nowhere to be seen.
“Where is she?” Kenny asked, annoyed.
“In here,” Lester said from the living room.
Kenny marched over to the living room followed by Sophie, Tobias, and their bodyguards.
“Does your little illegal immigrant have a problem with my being here?” Jaylen asked with a grating voice.
“She is not illegal, you bitch!” Tobias shouted, stepping toward Jaylen.
Kenny stepped in front of him to block his way. She was as angry as he was. But it was Sophie who spoke first.
“Hello. My name is Sofía Sánchez. I am an American with Mexican heritage, and I am damn proud of it. My parents were persecuted by the cartel in Mexico, so they came here and went through the naturalization process and became U.S. citizens before I was born in Texas. My father, a decorated soldier, fought for this country during the Vietnam War. My mother taught college in Fayetteville. My brother was a baseball coach for the Arkansas Razorbacks until he was picked up by the St. Louis Cardinals. And my son, Tobías,” Sophie wrapped her arm across his shoulders, “Is about to graduate college, summa cum laude. Now, why am I telling you all this? Well, no one in my family has ever been arrested or put in prison for anything, including drugs and robbery. Can you say the same?”
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