MOTY (The Lady Kingpin Series Book 1)

by J Hoffman

  “Well, what’s on the agenda for today?” Judah glanced at Svetlana.

  “I will need to go make some arrangements for my assistant, but I figured for a few days we will take our time adjusting to this time zone.”

  Judah finagled his way to a sitting position and put Natalee next to him but draped her legs over his. “How was your flight in?”

  “It was good. The steak was tough.”

  “Yeah, it usually is,” Judah laughed.

  “Do you work tonight, Judah? We can celebrate my arrival.”

  Judah frowned. “I do, but I’ll take a rain check for next time I’m off if you’re still in town.”

  Natalee scoffed. “Yeah right, you got one day off in two months. It’d be a cold day in Hell if it happened again.”

  “Whoa, your negativity is really invading my happy space, babe. What if I do get a day off? What are you gonna do about it?”

  She giggled. “Well, if it really happened, I’d be elated. I’m just not holding my breath.”

  “You work too much, Judah. You should find a career that lets you stay home.”

  He shrugged, “It pays the bills, and sometimes I enjoy it.”

  Svetlana raised an eyebrow. “Does it really pay them, or does it just make them manageable?”

  Judah scrunched his eyebrows together and looked at Natalee curiously. He briefly wondered if Svetlana had heard their discussion earlier. “I would say it’s um, a pretty…” He searched for the words. “Lucrative career,” Judah stammered.

  “Let me know if you need a more lucrative career, I am sure I can find you something.”

  “Yeah sure, I’ll let you know as soon as I do!” He joked.

  They lounged around, talked and swapped stories to catch up on fifteen years of only sporadic internet connection. Svetlana explained to Natalee how her mother died, just a few months before. Natalee told Svetlana all about the explosion at the parent teacher-association meeting, which shocked Judah at the same time.

  Svetlana continued to sip from her flask even when no mixer was available. It seemed like the vodka was infinite. No one ever noticed her refill it, but it was always pouring out when she tipped it.

  As the hours waned on, the three of them enjoyed each other’s company. Lunch was ordered and delivered which caused all five of them to convene in the living room. They felt too lazy to even move to the dining room and kept the television on a music channel just to drown the silence in between conversations.

  Natalee took this time to apologize profusely for sleeping through both airport pick-ups. Judah knew this was unlike her, as she picked him up on time every single time she needed to. He racked his brain to remember a time she was late. He was concerned when she didn’t show up, but even then, he assumed something happened before he assumed she purposely left him there.

  He tried to back Natalee in this discussion, so Svetlana didn’t feel singled out, but she responded positively and apologized for seeming so mad when they spoke that morning. She explained the flight, while it was good in general, there had been a handful of things that built up. Once she realized she needed an emergency taxi ride, she was very flustered which only complicated things because most of the people she attempted to speak to at the airport seemed to be terrified of her. However, if she spoke to them the way she spoke about Yana, Natalee could see why no one wanted to help her. She said her sleep on the plane was frequently interrupted, and she doesn’t handle sleepiness near as well as the average human.

  Once everyone felt they had everything off their chests, they sunk into the furniture to enjoy some quiet for a while. Judah flipped through more channels until he found a game show he knew they could either pay attention to and enjoy or continue talking and enjoy that just the same.

  Ten

  Judah took a cab to work and Natalee insisted on Yana staying in the house. She pulled out a small cot for her and placed a foam mattress on it. She put the cot in the office, where she could have her own peace and quiet. Jonah seemed put off by her, but he never said so. He just acknowledged her existence and left her alone. He seemed to act the same way with Svetlana, but Natalee figured it was because of her strong demeanor when she first arrived.

  Svetlana and Yana were asleep before Jonah and Natalee. The two of them spread out on the couch together and watched that week’s episode of a group of paranormal investigators from their hometown on their local television channel. Although Natalee and Jonah didn’t necessarily believe in the afterlife, they were willing to get bone-chilling goosebumps when driving past a place that was featured on the show.

  Halfway through the episode, Natalee was asleep. Jonah soon followed suit but woke up immediately after the show ended. He nudged his mother awake and convinced her to go to bed, where she stumbled to, half-asleep.

  The next morning Natalee woke up, stretched, and felt nothing short of excellent. She spent a moment enjoying the lack of headache and light sensitivity she normally experienced every morning. She ran her hands through her hair and cringed at the greasiness between her fingers. She decided to take a shower, with no regard for who needed to be where at what time.

  Feeling refreshed, she dressed in her favorite mom jeans and cardigan. She knew it was going to be chilly, but she wasn’t going to go far enough to put her boots on, too. She met Jonah in the kitchen, who was already dressed and ready for school.

  “Did you talk to Dad?”

  “Talk to Dad about what?” She tilted his face to the side to examine his blackened eye. By now, it was mostly red and yellow and showed signs of healing quickly. “That looks so much better.”

  “About boxing,” Jonah insisted and pulled his face away from her hand.

  Natalee sighed. “We did, but we don’t have an answer yet.”

  “Well, if you talked about it, why wouldn’t you have an answer?”

  “Come on, Jonah, give us a chance here. Text me some links to places around here and we’ll talk about it some more when Dad gets home, okay?” She pulled him to her and kissed him on the forehead. “I hate seeing your face like this and you want to go fight people on purpose.” She snorted.

  He rolled his eyes and pulled away from her again. “It’s not gonna be like that, Mom.”

  She shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not.”

  He sat down at the breakfast bar and pulled out his phone. Immediately, he texted her the name of the gym he had told them about the day before when he presented the idea to his parents proudly. Then, he went to the internet and pulled up the names of every gym that specialized in boxing within a twenty-mile radius, not missing a single one in his texts to her.

  She pulled her phone out and put it on silent. “If I hear that tone one more time…”

  Jonah laughed, “Well you asked for it.”

  “Oh, you little shit, that was you?” She glanced at her notifications and noticed his name pop up several times.

  She slid him a bowl of his favorite cereal and he gobbled it up as quickly as he could. “I was going to try to talk to Tyler today before school, so I have to be early.”

  Natalee checked the clock. “Sounds good. Do you want me to take you?”

  He shook his head quickly. “I’ll ride my bike. Less traffic.”

  “Suit yourself,” Natalee shrugged. “More time for me to enjoy my nonexistent life.”

  Jonah rolled his eyes, “Fine, you can take me if it’ll give you meaning and purpose.”

  Natalee snorted, “You really are a little shit, aren’t you?”

  “What’s that thing Grandpa always used to say? When an apple falls from a tree…” he trailed, trying to remember the rest.

  “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, you little shit,” she overenunciated her last few words.

  Jonah laughed. “Yeah, I was really wrong.”

  “You sure were. Now get out of here or I really will have to take you and I already have plans to do absolutely nothing.”

  Jonah grabbed his bag and headed to the garage as the a
nxiety of confronting his friend washed over him. He paused in the doorway and looked back at his mother. “Hey, Mom?”

  She looked up from sink where she had just finished rinsing out his bowl. “Yeah?”

  “I really don’t want to do this.”

  Her shoulders fell with reluctance. “I know, but hopefully it’ll pay off. You got this, bud.”

  “Thanks, Mom.” He forced a small smile and tapped the button for the garage door.

  “Be careful and text me when you get to school!” She hollered after him but was unsure if he heard her.

  Natalee prepared her regular morning coffee and peered into the fridge. She prepared to make a grocery list. She lifted the lid of a container in the back of the fridge and gagged. She pulled the collar of her shirt over her nose and proceeded to dump all the old food into the trash.

  Svetlana popped into the kitchen, dressed in a full business suit with her hair and makeup done perfectly. Her eyeliner sharpened her dark eyes while her blush sharpened her already high cheekbones. “It smells like something is dead.” She turned her nose up toward the trash.

  “My dignity,” Natalee mumbled. “I can’t believe food spoils so fast.”

  “It does not spoil if you eat it.”

  Natalee nodded carefully so she wouldn’t expose herself to anymore smells, “Yeah I suppose you’re right.”

  Svetlana approached the sink and pulled two branches off the small bush and handed one to Natalee. They repeated the process they had done the day before, including the gag to swallow the putrid tasting mush.

  “I don’t know why you do this to me. This is nasty.”

  “It is not nasty all of the time, and that is why.”

  “I’m not sure that forty seconds of yum is worth the ten seconds of gagging.”

  “But is it worth not being sick?”

  Natalee shrugged. “I guess I don’t know, I’m not sick.”

  She beamed. “You keep this up, you will not be sick.”

  “Yeah, yeah. I’ll believe it when I see it.” She rolled her eyes and caught a glimpse of Svetlana’s outfit. “Wow! Look at you. It’s like Cosmo met Hillary Clinton.”

  Svetlana glanced down at herself, unimpressed. “I have business. And then I have sleep.”

  Natalee snorted, “I wish I could look that good in my sleep.”

  “You are not Russian, you will never look this good.”

  “How long will you be out? I was going to go grocery shopping today.”

  Svetlana nodded happily. “I was hoping so.”

  Natalee sniggered. “Shut up!”

  “Give me your phone number, I will call you when I have a phone. I will let you know when I will be home.”

  “Oh, you’re going to buy a phone today?”

  She nodded. “I need it. For business.”

  Natalee nodded slowly. “You sure talk about ‘business’ a lot for someone who just told me about this trip.”

  Svetlana shrugged, “I just wanted to surprise you. Did it work.?”

  Natalee held her hands palm side up, “Obviously.” Svetlana snorted and took a swig from her flask, then held it out to Natalee who politely declined. “No thank you, I need a break.”

  “A break? Vodka is good for the heart.”

  “Yeah, I don’t think that’s true.”

  “How do you know? Are you a doctor?”

  She gaped, clearly offended. “Of course I’m a doctor. And a maid and a taxi driver.”

  Svetlana’s lips curled into a small grin. “Of course, how could I forget?”

  Eleven

  Svetlana left with Yana to handle her business and Natalee took the alone time to make the office room more welcoming for Yana. She pushed the desk and other furniture up against the closet so that Yana could sleep near the window. She wasn’t sure why, but she loved the feel of the morning sun on her face when she woke up. She considered the idea that that could probably account for a lot of her headaches, but she wouldn’t give it up for anything.

  After the furniture was moved, she headed to the basement to pull up a real mattress. She was glad she saved it from Jonah’s old bed set. The frame was collapsible, and the mattress was foam which meant the entire set up was light and made it easy for her to maneuver back up to the office.

  She packed away the cot, set up the bed, and hoped Yana would feel more comfortable with a real bed to sleep in. Natalee then headed to the basement again and placed boxes of decorations on the stairs for Judah to carry up when he got home. She was proud of the steps she had taken the time to have everything organized.

  She headed back to the kitchen and noticed her phone screen lit up. She had an incoming call and two missed calls. She stared at the number and knew she recognized it but was unable to place it. She answered tentatively, “Hello?”

  “Is this Mrs. Denver?”

  “May I ask who’s calling?”

  “I’m Beverly Monteria, the school nurse. I have Jonah here with me. Do you have a minute to talk?”

  “Yes of course,” Natalee sat down, suddenly on alert. “Is he okay?”

  “He seems fine, but there was an incident.”

  “An incident? What kind of incident?” Natalee felt her chest begin to tighten.

  “Another student pushed him down a flight of stairs,” before she could continue, Natalee cut her off.

  “What student? Was it Tyler? Dillon? What happened? When did this happen? Is he okay?”

  “Please, Mrs. Denver, calm down. We don’t know all the details, but I do believe he may need stitches. There is some bleeding. Unfortunately, he will need picked up as I don’t have the proper paperwork to call an ambulance.”

  “Can I talk to him?”

  “I would prefer if you just came in, Mrs. Denver.”

  Natalee hung up and stared at the phone as her heart pounded against her chest. Why can’t I speak to my son? Why don’t they know any of the details? What could have possibly gone so wrong that Jonah could’ve gotten hurt so badly? Her mind was swirling with worry.

  She texted Judah to give him the little information she had. She jumped in the car and drove directly to the school in a haze. The stop signs and lights were a blur with the only thing on her mind being Jonah. She ran into the school and ignored the secretary yelling at her to show her ID. She bolted straight into the nurse’s office.

  Jonah, my son, my sweet boy, was covered in blood. His shirt was soaked at the collar and started to form a large spot on his back. He looked pale, but she couldn’t tell if it was from the wound or the fear.

  “Mom!” He hollered.

  “Oh, baby!” She sat next to him and wrapped her arms around him with no regard for the stains on her own clothes.

  “Hello, Mrs. Denver. I’m sorry about this,” the nurse spoke from her desk.

  Natalee glanced at her, “What the fuck kind of paperwork do you need for an ambulance? If it’s that much of an emergency, he should be in the hospital!”

  “I-I… We,” she stammered. “It’s our policy, ma-ma’am!”

  Natalee rolled her eyes. “What if this was worse than you thought it was and he was dead before I got here but he ‘seemed’ fine a minute ago? What would have happened then? Would you have been sorry then, too?”

  “Ma’am, I just…”

  “I don’t care. Change your fucking policy.”

  Natalee took Jonah’s hand and snatched the paperwork off the nurse’s desk with Jonah’s name on it. She led him to the car and helped him lower himself into the backseat. She jumped in and sped off to the hospital.

  “What happened, Jonah?” She glanced at him and tried to avoid the heaviest traffic by taking the back roads.

  “I don’t know, Mom.”

  “You don’t know? How do you not know?”

  “They pushed me from behind, I didn’t see who it was.”

  “Well, who were you talking to?”

  “No one!” He yelled then winced.

  She huffed, then tried to calm hersel
f by taking a slow, deep breath. “Okay. Let’s start from the beginning. You rode your bike to school. Did you talk to Tyler this morning like you wanted to?”

  “No, I couldn’t find him or his sister.”

  “Okay, did you talk to anyone?”

  “Just Mr. Davis.”

  “Okay, did you do anything in homeroom?”

  “I finished my homework from Friday.”

  “What does that have to-” She stopped herself, “never mind, that’s not important right now. So, you didn’t talk to anyone there?”

  “Nope.”

  She sighed and already felt like she wasn’t getting anywhere this way. “First period?”

  “Just my lab partner.”

  She held her hand out and felt irritation creeping up on her. “Okay, who is your lab partner?”

  “Brendan Dras.”

  She paused and hoped he would give her more insight on this, but he didn’t. “Does your head hurt?” She adjusted her rearview mirror to get a good glimpse of him. The sight of fresh blood dripping from behind his ear made her stomach turn.

  “Yeah.”

  “Are you dizzy?”

  “Not really.”

  “Does your belly hurt?”

  “Yeah, a little bit.”

  “Are you hungry?” She glanced in the mirror again.

  “No, my stomach hurts, I just told you that.”

  She shrugged, “Maybe you’re hungry.”

  “I’m not, Mom. I have a head injury. It hurts.” He set his arm on the edge of the door and tried to lay his head on it but cringed and sucked in air quickly. He sat himself back up.

  She nodded slowly, “Okay.”

  As they pulled into the hospital, Judah called. She put it on speaker, and before she could even greet him, he was in panic mode. “Holy shit Nat, what is happening?”

  “I’m okay, Dad,” Jonah spoke up.

  “Jonah? What happened? Are you okay?”

  “I’m okay, I just got hurt.”

  “He says he doesn’t know who pushed him, Judah.” Natalee could feel her eyes beginning to burn and she wanted nothing more than for her husband to be there with her.