by Amaya Black
Almost.
His finger went to his lips that were already creased in frustration. I obeyed, even though I didn’t want to in the slightly. With a painstakingly slow flick of his wrist, Darien turned on the speaker phone to his iPhone. We both waited with baited breath for her to speak, for her to say something about Alex. For pretty much anything to happen. I needed this crazy ass woman to tell me what to do in order to get my child back and out of her clutches. The fact that she had ever touched my child.
I swore on the cloak of Jesus that the Hellenic Police had better find her first because when I finally caught up to her monkey ass, it was on and poppin. I was going to be wearing Timbs…because New York bitches could rock Timbs in any weather, on any continent and I was going to turn my foot sideways and shove it up her ass.
“Is that bitch with you?” Cassie voice came out of the speaker sounding irritated.
I controlled my tongue and said nothing. Finding Alex hung on every move we made. I would not fail him. I closed my eyes and bit the insides of my cheeks.
“No, Cass. She’s not. Cass…you gotta bring him home to us.”
She let out some inhuman wail. “Alex was supposed to be ours.”
“Whose, Cass?” Darien focused his eyes on mine. I immediately rolled my own and his finger went to his lips to remind me of what was at stake and to stay quiet.
“Mikos and I. He looks like his father so much.” Cassie gave a little bit of a sniffle.
“He’s gone, Cass. Is Alex okay?”
“Of course. I would never hurt the baby, Darien. You have to believe me. I would die first.”
Bitch, that can be arranged, I thought. Cassie has truly slid into some sort of psychosis and she was in desperate need of a clinical psychologist. There also need to be a padded white room for her to bounce her nutty self all over.
“Then where are you Cassie? Tell me, I’ll come to you. No police or anything like that. We’ll figure this out…together.”
Darien offered me a shrug and I gave him a look that said he new better. But I needed this to work so I continued keeping my cool. It was killing me, but I gritted my teeth together and bared it. For Alex, I thought.
“I don’t think I can do that, Darien. This child should…” Darien had played nice long enough.
“Cassandra, you need to return Alex. This has gone on long enough and its spiraling out of control. The police are looking for you. They know that you took him. That you assaulted Helena. That’s multiple charges. I understand that you’re hurting…but you are making things worse for yourself.”
“I…I have to go, Darien.”
The phone call ended.
“No, no, no. Get her back on the line. Please, please, please!” I reached for the phone and began rapidly redialing Cassie over and over again. She never answered.
Calmly, Darien took the phone from my hands and slipped onto the side of the bed. I was on my haunches looking crazed. Slowly, he pushed some of my hair away from my face.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “And you did great by keeping your calm.”
“What do you mean don’t fucking worry. That crazy bitch has our kid…”
“I know, Allanah. And I told you I was taking care of it.”
A knock came on the door and Darien got up to answer it right away. His long legs took him across the room quickly. I figured it was someone bringing us breakfast. I glanced at the clock on the nightstand and it read twenty minutes after 11 o’clock. Around this time Alex was usually enjoying his applesauce. I hadn’t even heard him whimpering in the background or any signs that he was nearby.
“Hey, come on in,” I head Darien say and I gave a sigh.
“Hey, Lana,” came a familiar voice and it caused me to look up.
Instantly, I found the comfort of Cindy’s face. I had completely forgotten, in all the chaos that she was even supposed to be here for Alex’s birthday. Instantly, I got off the bed and went to her. Her embrace felt like home for some reason and she smelled like warm cinnamon.
Stepping apart, I could see the concern all over her beautiful face, her thick golden curls had been tied back and into place. It felts so damn good to see her; I was about to start crying all over again.
“I asked Cindy to come here. She arrived yesterday but with all the things that happened she had went back to her hotel.”
“I’m sorry, about this whole mess,” she said her voice was sincere.
“Not your fault. Thank you for being here anyway.”
“Well, I’m here for another reason.” She patted her side and I noticed for the first time that she had a bag on her side that contained a laptop. “Darien remembered that I’m basically a hacker. With Cassie still using the company cellphone and service is still viable… I was able to track her location. I’ve already sent the information to the cops. I traced her signal to a boat…”
Alex was on a boat. He was going to be found. I wanted to kiss the ground that Cindy walked on. I wanted to hug her so tight and never let her go. I made my way to the edge of the bed and took a few deep breaths.
“Cindy, is the best hacker I’ve ever seen work,” Darien said and came and sat down beside me. “She was up all night. I didn’t want to say anything to worry you and get your hopes up.”
He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and wrapped an arm protectively around me.
“Honestly, Cassie made it pretty easy. Even if she’d hadn’t called she hadn’t turned off her company phone. Doesn’t seem like she thought this whole plan through,” Cindy smiled in our directions.
“I can’t believe any of this has happened. I can’t wait to have Alex…” I trailed off and looked at Darien. “I guess home is here now, huh?”
“I have another house, Allanah. A place I keep in the city. We’ll go there once, Alex is back with us.”
Cindy’s cellphone began to ring and she took a moment and excused herself from the room. I took another deep breath, pushing away negative thoughts. All I wanted was for Alex to be walking around the room and in my sight. I wanted to pick him up and hug him. I didn’t ever want to let him go again.
Darien let out a deep breath as well. “I just hope Cassie doesn’t try and fight the police or something crazy. I want this to end peacefully.”
“Same,” I replied even though truthfully, I was hoping they would kill her ass before I got to her.
“Let’s go get some food, maybe they’ve heard something,” Darien suggested and stood.
He extended his hand out to me and I took it. The night we met flashed in my head again briefly. I had sworn up and down that even if I some how managed to fall into bed with him…that I wouldn’t fall for him. Yet, I had fallen for him. Under that exterior of ice and steel lay the heart of someone who loved deeply. I knew that Darien would move heaven and earth for Alexander. He would have left no stone unturned until he had found our little ray of sunshine.
The steps that led down to the kitchen seemed to take forever. With every foot fall, all I could concentrate on was the thought that Alex might soon be home. By the time we had reached the kitchen, darkness seemed to have fallen over the entire house. Outside, had practically turned into night.
“A severe storm warning has been issued,” Cindy said.
She was sitting at the kitchen island with her laptop out. I came over and looked at her screen and saw that she was monitoring Cassie’s phone still. The little red dot was blinking away steadily. Cassie was probably blissfully unaware that the police were hot on her trail.
“I feel like we should be there when they get him,” I looked to Darien.
“It’s best we stay put, let them handle it.”
I nodded and bit my lip. The kitchen staff came and put food down with worried looks on their faces. The way the wind was whipping up outside, I could tell they wanted to go home for the day. Jocasta kept almost a full staff with a housekeeper on call twenty-four seven. As someone who had worked for way to long as a bartender I understood the need to want to
flee in the face of a storm.
They put meals in front of us. Eggs, bacon and some fruit juice had been prepared for us. I nibbled here and there. A sinking feeling, much like the wind outside, was whipping up over my being. I chewed and chewed, forcing the food down. Minutes ticked away into what seemed like eternity.
Finally Darien’s phone rang and it was Detective Menzel calling. He urged us to get to the police station as soon as possible. They had Alex in their custody. Joy erupted from every pore on my body.
“Thank you Jesus!” I cried out, my face becoming wet with emotion.
“We’ll be there as soon as possible,” I heard Darien say.
He hung up the phone.
Chapter 10
The buzzing of excitement at the police station was almost overwhelming. The lights in the place even seemed to bright as the storm of the century raged on outside. I sat in a chair nearby, holding Alexander as close as I could get him.
His little head bounced from this way and that, his blue eyes taking it all in. He had no clue that he had been kidnapped by a psychopath. He was waving hi and bye to uniformed officers that walked by and here and there. Darien was taking care of all the other details. I just wanted to be here with Alex.
A man with dark hair and Asian features sat down next to me. At first he said nothing and then turned to smile at me. I had no idea what was about to coast from his lips. He looked both scruffy and extremely dry to have just come from outside. Or maybe he had been waiting her all along. Did this man want something? My grip on Alex had intensified a bit and he wriggled as if trying to get down and get away from me. I relaxed but only slightly.
“How does it feel to have survived the kidnapping of the century?” he asked.
My head thrashed in his direction. “Excuse me?”
He whipped out a note pad and pen. “How does it feel to have Alexander returned to you? Are there any details on what happened to Cassandra Petrakas?”
Panic had started to set in. We had not gone to the media because we had wanted to handle this as privately as possible. Turning this into a media circus had never been a part of the plan.
“Get away from me!” I said through gritted teeth.
I stood up so fast I was sure I had given Alex a little bit of whiplash. “Bye-bye,” I heard him murmur slowly.
The reporter looked me over and smiled. “You think this is going to stop the story from going online. You and the boy’s uncle are going to be famous by the time the day is over. Think of the headlines, “Jealous ex-lover steals heir to Kiriakis fortune.” I’m going to win awards from this one.”
“Well you won’t be getting anything from me,” I stated and stormed off to find Darien.
How in the hell had a reporter found out about this? My eyes roamed all over the station. A few cops nodded her and there as Alex waved to just about all of them. No one in here could be trusted. Someone had leaked this story to reporters. Thankfully this hadn’t gone on any longer than it needed too.
Coming across Darien, I stood back and surveyed before approaching. He was in a conversation with Detective Menzel. The older gentleman was in yet another suit, brown in color and it looked like it was squeezing the life out of him. He looked exhausted like I felt.
The detective’s eyes landed on mine and Darien turned to see me. He gave half a smile and I came on over. Joining them in whatever conversation that seemed to have sucked all the energy out of the room.
“So where is Cassie?” I asked.
I wanted to hear what they planned on charging her with. I was hoping they would lock her up and throw away the key. I wanted her to die I a prison like Azkaban. I hoped nothing but horrible things happened to her for the pain she had just caused both me and Darien.
“We haven’t been able to recover a body,” Menzel stated.
I looked to Darien immediately. “Huh? Come again…”
“When we arrived on the scene, the water had already become extremely difficult. We were able to recover Alex but Ms. Petrakas fell into the water. We think she hit her head on something…in any case, we were unable to recover her body,” Darien cut the detective off.
“Allanah, it’s over. I was telling the detective that she probably drowned. I finished the paperwork. Let’s take our son and go home.”
Detective Menzel looked like he wanted to say something further but just nodded. “Yes, the two of you have been through much. Take the child home and rest. It’s over.”
On the way out of the station, I didn’t see the reporter. She had probably grabbed and empty room somewhere and already began to type of a sinister tale of lies and deception that would hit the Athens Times online in a few hours. I would not bring that sort of madness into Alex’s life. He wouldn’t ever know this had happened to him.
I clicked the straps into place, rain pelting away at my back half sticking out of the car. I gently kissed his head and positioned a bottle of milk in his hands. As he sucked down the milk on his own I thought about how I had wanted nothing more in this world than to be this kid’s mother. Alex had been given two but I had been chosen specifically for him.
The car glided along, with the windshield wipers wooshing. Darien was deep in thought as some lite jazz played through the car speakers. The rain seemed to pick up and get rapid; the car seemed to sense this and we slowly down a bit as traffic began to ease up.
“Penny for your thought…”
I looked over at him and took in that he had not shaved. He looked scruffy and worn out. We both could have used a shower. Maybe we would take one together.
“Don’t be mad but I’m thinking of Cassie.”
Of course you are, my inner dialogue flaired. He caught me as I rolled my eyes and turned to look out the window.
“Not in that way,” he said. “You forget Cassie and I grew up together. She had all the potential that me and my brothers had.”
“Shame she couldn’t stop fucking yall long enough to do her goddamn job. Right?”
He thumped the steering wheel. “That was a long time ago.”
I examined my nails. Feeling sorry for a crazy bitch that had snapped and took my child was not going to happen. Cassie was not going to get an inch of sympathy from me. I hoped the sea was dragging her ass all over the sea bottom.
“Can’t you feel anything past anger?”
Taking my eyes away from my nails that were in need of being done, “I think, Darien, you have me fucked up. In fact…I think you’ve had me fucked up for the absolute longest time. If you think I feel even an ounce of pity for the bitch…”
Alex made some sounds in the back of the car and I stopped. Biting the inside of my cheeks until I felt the sting and the taste of iron hit my tongue. Deep breaths came over me and tried to relax.
“I will never feel sorry for the Cassie’s of the world. She couldn’t have your brother and she could have you. Andrew was the only one with enough sense to never even involve himself with the dramatics.”
Darien’s eyes had returned to the slickened road. Clouds continued to roll on and on in the sky. It was as Zeus himself was angry with the mortals down here on Earth. Nothing could appease the appetite of this storm and I was glad when we finally turned onto the road that would get us back to the main house.
The white of the house seemed to turn shadowy due to the storm. I lay back against the seat of the car and tried to get a handle on my emotions while Darien had already exited and started getting Alexander out of the car.
“Grad the diaper bag,” he said and slammed the car door.
I took another deep breath. And then I took another. Reaching into the back of the car, I found what I was looking for and pulled it to the front then got out myself. Hugging the diaper bag to my chest I ran through the rain, avoiding a swampy puddle and made it to the porch of the house.
By the time I got inside, Jocasta and Cindy were cooing over Alex. I watched from the doorway as crawled around on the circular patterned carpet. Darien appeared with two cups
of hot tea. He sat them down in front of them and then came over to me.
“Let’s go talk a little more calmly, please,” he took the diaper bag from me and sat it down beside the doorway.
We stepped into one of what had to be a thousand rooms. Light flickered on and I saw we were in a small version of a house library. In defense, my arms crossed themselves over my chest. Darien’s damp hair was hanging just over his eyebrows.
“What is there to talk about?” I asked.
“I just don’t want this hanging between us, Lana.”
The way he said my name was the same way he said it when he was on top of me, whispering his naughty thoughts into my ears. I would not be swayed.
“Cassie is always going to be hanging between us. You let her get away with a lot of shit for a long time. All in the name of grief. I get it…she loved your brother. But she stole my goddamn nephew.”
Muscles flexed and corded under the shirt he wore as he scrubbed his hands over his face. “I don’t believe that’s true. I love you, Allanah. I don’t love Cassie. I never did. If we want to get really honest…”
I cut him off with a laugh and it made him pause. “Honest. Is that what we’re doing now. Being honest with each other. You mean the way you were honest with me before about Alex and the guardianship.”
Darien through up his hands at that one and backed away. He braced himself on a desk that was in the middle of the room. I could hear the roar of thunder outside; the weather was beginning to match my mood.
He took a long breath. “I was in the wrong about that. I should have never approached you that way. I should have been a better man than to make you my mistress.”
“Yup,” I replied.
“Will you forgive me?” He turned around hopeful.
“I know we just got Alex back, I know this. But…I need some time away from you. I can take him with me.”