Tennessee Heat

by Cami York

  His dad had filled his head with stories of two day labors, warning him that it could go either way. He didn’t know how many prayers he’d said over the months that she’d be spared that at least.

  And now they had this whole new person that was a part of them, the best parts. And just as it was the day they got married, it hit him like a ton of bricks that the little being that he’d spoken to for months while he rolled around in his mommy’s tummy, was real and he was here.

  It was going to take him a lifetime to get used to that he was sure. No one told him in all the months of classes and in all the books that he’d read, that it was an actual miracle happening right before your eyes, to watch a new human being come into the world. It was something Chase was sure he’d never forget, and hoped he never would.

  Now that his wife and child were safe, his mind had once again turned to the contents of that recording and what it was that had put that tremor in Tim’s voice. It couldn’t be anything good he was sure, knowing Ms. Scacci.

  “You ready baby?” She didn’t look like she’d just given birth. To him she looked more beautiful than she ever has before. Though she hadn’t added much weight to her tiny frame, there was a new ripeness to her body that he adored; and her face positively glowed with life.

  She looked around the hospital bed as she slipped her feet into her shoes and brushed her hair behind her ear with her fingers. “Yeah, I’m ready. Gimme!” She held out her arms for the baby, who Chase had only let go of the few times he needed to be fed.

  He kissed the baby’s head and passed him gently to his mother, already missing the sweet weight in his arms. He was giving serious thought to giving himself a longer paternity leave.

  The little stinker had already wrapped himself around his heart and he was already dreading the time when he’d have to leave the two of them and go back to work. Two weeks were not nearly enough.

  Back at home, once he got them settled he went into the kitchen to get something for her to eat since she’d hated the hospital food. It wasn’t long before his whole family showed up and he turned off the stove where he’d only gotten as far as boiling water for the pasta he was going to make her because his mom came laden down with food.

  While they were busy cooing over the baby and he was sure she was too preoccupied to miss him, Chase snuck away and listened to the recording. He sat for a solid five minutes after turning it off, not quite sure what his next move should be. He felt cold to his soul.

  He’d played around with the idea of letting her off the hook since she was Belle’s mother and his wife might one day want to mend that fence, but after this, no way in hell.

  The only thing he wasn’t sure about was letting his wife hear it, or know that it even existed. He wanted to get into his car and drive over there to confront her, but there was no way for him to do that without word getting back to Belle.

  39

  Annabelle could tell that something was bothering Chase. She hadn’t noticed it right away, but some time after his family showed up at the house, he’d gone quiet. The only times he showed any signs of life were when he was holding little Jr. or asking her if she was okay or if she needed anything.

  She kept her eyes on him, worried that maybe he’d found out what she was up to, but she soon nixed that idea. Had he known he would’ve called her out long ago, or locked her in their room and thrown away the key.

  So, she waited until their family were gone and the baby had had his last feeding of the night, and they were in bed, hugging each other close, to finally bring it up.

  “Chase, are you unhappy about the baby?” He sat up like a shot and then apologized profusely for jarring her so suddenly. “What are you talking about? Why would you say a thing like that?” Chase looked at her in with something approaching horror on his face.

  She shrugged nonchalantly because she knew that there was no way that was it. It’s amazing how far she’d come since they got married. It had been a while since she’d had any doubts about his love for her and the baby. But she knew very well how to get under his skin.

  She rolled onto her side away from him with her hands folded under her cheek, taking the act one step further. “I noticed you changed once we got home,” she bit her lip before going on with the rest of that statement, “I thought you were having second thoughts that’s all.” She closed her eyes tight and waited for the explosion.

  Chase all but jumped off the bed and came around to kneel next to her side of the bed. “That has nothing to do with me not wanting you and our son.” Chase found himself in a quandary. He didn’t want to tell her the truth, but he didn’t want her feeling the way she was right now.

  “Oh sweetie.” He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her cheek. In his mind he thought that she might be feeling overwhelmed and weepy because of the delivery and the stress of a new baby. The books had said this could happen.

  Sometimes he forgot that she’s so young and that this is all new to her. “Is it the company? Are we in trouble?” She was really worried he thought and it was all his fault. What could I possibly tell her to take that look off her face? He thought as he ran his hand up and down her back soothingly.

  It took him all of two minutes looking into her watery eyes and that pouty lip that gets him every time to start spilling his guts. He didn’t tell her all of it of course, just enough to give her some idea of what was going on.

  “How do you know all this?” He’d just told her that her mother was still mad at her, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell her that the woman had tried to talk Tim into killing her and the baby. He’d been sick to his stomach just hearing it, so he could only imagine what it would do to her.

  Annabelle knew that he was keeping something from her, but she didn’t push. She was never comfortable when talking about her mother and she certainly didn’t want to talk about her now, not on what was supposed to be one of the most memorable days of her life.

  “Don’t worry about my mother, she’s all talk.” Chase felt like a bastard for letting her think that way, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. Worse than her watery eyes is when they lose the light in them and he was sure that the truth would do just that.

  So he got back into bed and spent the rest of the night, until his son woke up at some undignified hour to be fed, staring at the ceiling and worrying. There had to be some way to take care of this without her knowing anything about it.

  The answer came to him a few days later. He’d foregone using anyone other than Tim to help with his little clean up campaign when he went after the filth in her old neighborhood. But Tessa? that’s right, that’s her name. The one who’d given him the video.

  He remembered her saying that her man was a cop. As an idea grew in his head Chase lost the stress from his shoulders as he walked back and forth burping his son after his midnight feeding.

  Some days he’d break out in a cold sweat thinking about the future and messing up where his son was concerned. Oh nothing major, just the fact that a baby is way more work than he’d ever expected.

  It boggles his mind that someone this tiny, who can’t even walk or talk, could be so demanding. His main concern these last few days has been making sure that his wife didn’t become overwhelmed. He already had interviews lined up with some of the best baby nurses in the city.

  Since Annabelle was going back to school in the fall, and he was going back to work even sooner, he wanted to hire someone now so they could see how well that worked out.

  Otherwise he’d have to take his mom up on her offer; something he didn’t want to do because he knew only too well his mom’s busy schedule. He didn’t want her putting her life on hold to take care of his son, that was his to do.

  “What are you smiling about?” Annabelle, who he’d sent back to bed after she fed the baby snuck up on him. Chase had no idea that coming up with a plan to deal with her mother had put a shit eating grin on his face.

  “I’m just happy holding my son. Look at him,
hasn’t he grown since we brought him home?” He was becoming way too good at sidestepping the truth, but no way was he going to put the light out of his wife’s eyes, not for someone as unworthy as that toxic womb that had given birth to her.

  And it was true anyway, Jr. was growing by leaps and bounds. He ought to, the greedy little shit. The damn boy lives on the tit. Seems like that’s all he does. Eat and sleep. Chase had overheard Belle jokingly tell Kimmy that she felt like a nursing cow.

  “Come here.” He pulled her under his free arm so they could both look down at their son in the moonlight that shone through the window of the nursery. “Isn’t he the most perfect thing you ever did see in your life?”

  Annabelle was always tickled pink when Chase went on and on about the baby. They were both still fascinated, and though she knew the feeling would one day pass, she hoped it wouldn’t for a long-long time.

  “Yes Chase, he’s the most perfect baby ever born.” He kissed her head, “No; I think you were the most perfect baby ever born but our son is a close second.”

  They stood in silence, swaying from side to side, both lost in their own thoughts of happiness until Jr. was laid back in his crib. Then taking her hand in his, he walked her back to their bed and laid with her in his arms the way he has been doing every night since she moved in.

  40

  Chase had to wait until he went back to work a few weeks later to set his plan in motion. He’d already made the call, but it was too risky to do anything more while under the watchful eye of his wife and his mother and sister who were always at his house.

  He’d hired a fifty something year old baby nurse who seemed to know what she was doing, and who he’d vetted damn near back to her nursery school days.

  His dad had done some digging of his own in the medical community and got great results, so Chase felt comfortable leaving his wife and child in her most capable hands.

  His mother on the other hand…well. She’s a southern grandma and Ms. Lucy’s just gonna have to deal with her on her own. So, with things moving along nicely on the home front, he put his mind to other things as soon as he got back to the office.

  It was a bit risky, but he had to try. It may seem like an idle threat on Ms. Scacci’s part, but the woman had gone to such lengths in the past to hurt her daughter that Chase wasn’t about to take any chances.

  The plan was to have the cop, detective Ambrose, somehow approach the woman and get her to ask him to kill her daughter. The recording he’d said, was good, but wasn’t enough.

  Chase still wasn’t sure how he was going to handle telling Annabelle the truth, but it was more important to him right now to get that evil woman off the streets. Even though in the back of his mind he knew she was no real threat, since she or anyone she could get to do her bidding would have to go through him first. It was payback plain and simple.

  Annabelle’s young body had bounced back very nicely after giving birth. She’d done the exercises that had been suggested and gone through all the necessary steps to rebuild her strength, which takes a lot as a nursing mother.

  She knew she should give herself some time, but she was burning to get revenge. Now that her son was born, each time she looked at his precious little face she remembered what Lisa had tried to do to him.

  She wasn’t worried about people saying that Lisa had kicked her ass, that’s not what this was about. This was about a mother protecting her child even if it was months after the fact.

  She’d known since the day of the fight that she was going after the girl at some point in the future, she just needed to bide her time and keep Chase off the scent. No doubt he’d lose his shit if he got wind of what she was up to.

  She’d engaged Lori’s help since the girl was the one to come to her and warn her. Annabelle put it as Lori repaying her for all the shit she’d put her through when she was Lisa’s lackey.

  Lori, who had no idea that Tim was helping Chase was only too glad to help. She hadn’t told Annabelle about her and Tim’s relationship as yet, it’s not like the two girls were friends per se.

  But the real reason she didn’t is because she knew that Tim had once had a thing for the beautiful Annabelle and she wasn’t quite there yet. She guessed she’d always feel a tad bit inferior to the other girl, but thankfully it was nowhere near the crazy that was Lisa.

  So, she when Annabelle asked for her help, nothing major or even illegal, just keeping tabs on Lisa, which wasn’t so hard to do since they still kept in touch, she’d seen no problem with it.

  Lisa hadn’t been doing too well lately, not since her life had been spiraling out of control. It turns out that she wasn’t crazy so much as she as high on the shit she got out of her mother’s medicine cabinet. And that was before she graduated to hard drugs.

  Annabelle, wasn’t interested in the girl’s life, she just wanted her pound of flesh and she was about to get it. The baby was asleep in his room with the nurse keeping watch, and Chase was at the office.

  She knew he had a lot of catching up to do, so she called him so that he wouldn’t call her later. As soon as she hung up the phone she was out the door after telling the nurse that she was just going out for some air.

  School was still out, in fact summer hadn’t even started yet, not officially, though it was eighty degrees in the shade in Tennessee. Annabelle wasn’t planning to be gone long. She knew where Lisa was, and this would only take ten minutes. She wasn’t planning to hang around.

  Chase hung up the phone and clasped his hands. One down, one to go. In the past months he’d got Tim to tell him who the people in the video were. He wasn’t interested in all of them, just a few key players. Dirk had already been taken care of, and quite a few of the others, but there was one more he needed to destroy and he already knew how he was going to do it.

  He’d had this game in play for a while now, and with just a little tweaking here and there it was only a matter of days before things came to a head. It wasn’t hard what he’d done.

  He’d taken the fact that Lisa and her mother were practically broke, and the fact that they’d proven that they’d do anything to hang onto the lifestyle they’d grown accustomed to.

  Add that to the fact that one of the better known pushers from his wife’s old neighborhood was feeling the heat since most of his compatriots had been hauled off to prison, and that the cops were a staple on those streets these days, and he’d come up with the perfect plan.

  The hardest part had been getting those two to meet, and once again he’d used Tim for that. It had gone off easier than even he had expected, and the little arrangement the two of them had, this dealer and Lisa, has been going on for a couple of months now. Long enough for everyone involved to feel safe in their new enterprise.

  After all, who would expect one of the once wealthiest women in town to rent out her home for the use of meth cooking. It was the perfect set up all around, especially for Chase, who had come up with the idea.

  And though Lisa’s mother hadn’t touched Annabelle, she had in fact tried to claim to the courts that Chase had been having an unlawful relationship with Annabelle, namely that he’d been fucking her while she was underage.

  If not for his parents and a few others who’d stood up for him and his character, who knows how that would’ve turned out. But it was all behind them now; except for these last few details.

  Detective Ambrose had just called with the news that he had his fish on the hook, which meant that Ms. Scacci had taken the bait and solicited an undercover cop to murder her daughter, and as a side bonus, for an extra twenty, her kid too; his child.

  In her drunken stupor she never stopped to wonder why anyone would take a lousy hundred bucks to take a life, and an extra twenty to take two.

  Then again, the way Ambrose approached her, as a member of the derelict society, why wouldn’t she believe that he was as desperate as she for his next fix? It was probably all the money she had, well that and he was sure a little left over for her next pint, since she
was barely eking out a living with the few housecleaning jobs she was still able to hang onto. Bless her heart!

  She should be in handcuffs sometime today after she turns over the money. Chase had no doubt that she’d go through with it. If there was one thing that woman had more than her love for booze, it was her hate for her only child. He still doesn’t get it!

  Annabelle tapped her fingers on the steering wheel as she sat across the street from the beautiful park where Chase and she had had that moonlight picnic with the others almost a year ago. Any minute now her prey should be coming along.

  She looked around again at the few passersby and was pleased that the park was even emptier than it had been that night. People were at work, and the younger ones had better places to hang out this time of day. The place wouldn’t liven up until later in the evening when the sun went down.

  She still didn’t know why it was that Lisa liked to hang out here at the same time every day. Maybe the idiot was reliving the last time she’d seen Chase before he knocked her on her ass, who knows. She wasn’t interested anyway, she was here for one thing and one thing only; to get some of her own back.

  “This fool better hurry up before my breasts start to leak.” She grumbled to herself as she passed her eyes over the park once again. “There you are.”

  Annabelle smiled as she pulled the hoody of her velour track suit over her head and stepped down from her truck and started walking across the lot onto the grass that led to the park benches.

  Lisa was focused on her iPod as she changed the playlist that had just ended. She could still smell that shit in her nose and she’d walked here in the fresh air from her house.