AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Still, no harm.” Tony stands up and pulls out a card, dropping it onto the table in front of Liam. “Call when you’re ready.” Then he drops a fifty-dollar bill onto the table on top of the card. “Breakfast is on me. Take it easy, bug.” He salutes Frank and strolls out of the diner, the open door letting in the noise of the street outside before thunking shut behind him.
Liam finally picks up the card, turning it over and over between his fingers. He looks back at the door Tony disappeared through before slipping it into the inside pocket of his jacket.
Chapter Fourteen
Willow
Bright sunlight pricks her eyes and Willow groans as she rolls over and pulls a pillow over her face to block the light. The moment she registers just how bright the light is, is the same moment she realizes how quiet her apartment is. She flings off the pillow and stumbles to her feet, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. A check of the clock tells her it’s past 10 a.m. Frank. How could she forget about her little boy? Guilt pierces her heart as she shucks out of her work uniform and into a pair of jeans and a sweater. She kicks her revealing work outfit across the room before picking up the flimsy material and dropping it into the wastebasket near the door. Sliding her feet into a pair of shoes, she heads out the door and down the hall to Liam’s apartment.
It’s almost alarmingly quiet. Willow taps on the door with her knuckles. She can’t hear any movement or the sound of the TV. She presses her ear to the wooden door. Nothing. They can’t have gone to Liam’s apartment and gone back to sleep? She knocks again before wiggling at the doorknob, trying to see if it’s unlocked. It’s not. She pushes back the panic as she dials Liam’s number. When she hears his phone ringing from behind the locked door, her world almost goes black.
Terror is pounding through Willow’s chest as she runs down the stairs. Where is her kid? She can’t believe she left him with someone she’s only known a couple of weeks. What kind of mother did that? The desperate kind, that’s what kind. She slams through the double doors at the bottom of the stairwell and bursts out onto the sidewalk. A quick glance up and down the street comes up empty so she runs to the side of the building where a grassy strip grows between two parking areas. She’s hoping she’ll see Frank and Liam rolling a ball back and forth across the grass. Nothing.
Willow is frantic now, running across the street, cars honking at her as they slam on brakes to keep from plowing into her. She runs the few blocks to the local park, dashing around dog walkers on the sidewalk and almost knocking over an elderly man out for a walk with his nurse.
Shit, he must have heard me on the phone and he knows. He’s probably going to use Frank as bait!
All kinds of crazy shit is running through her mind as she skirts the perimeter of the park, looking for Frank’s bright hair on the swings or monkey bars. She doesn’t see them anywhere. They’re not in the park. Willow heads back around the block, passing the ice cream parlor and turning into the local library. A quick talk with the librarian lets Willow know Frank hasn’t been in with Liam that morning. She jogs down the library steps and looks up and down the street as tears start to pour down her face. She’s lost her baby. Liam took him. Why would Liam take her baby? What did she really know about this guy she let into her home and her bed? Nothing, that’s what. And now he has Frank.
Willow starts running down the block, trying to remember what Frank had on the last time she saw him. She’s calling the cops when she gets back to the apartment building. Liam is a felon anyhow, they’ll have all his info on file. Willow hasn’t set foot into church since she was a kid but she’s praying as she runs down the sidewalk for her baby to be okay, to be safe.
That’s when she seems them, Liam, leading Frank out of the diner ahead. Frank, bouncing by Liam’s side, a crumpled paper clutched in his sticky fist. Willow’s heart stops when she sees his golden curls and his syrupy smile. He’s okay. He’s okay. Then, he spots her. “Hi, Mommy!” he squeals across the parking lot. Liam turns around and gives her a wave.
Willow sees red. She storms across the gravelly asphalt, her terror at thinking Frank was missing still ringing in her head. When she reaches the boys, standing on the sidewalk and waiting on her, she snatches Frank up and pulls him into tight hug.
“Ugh, Mommy, you squishing me.” He wiggles in her arms.
Willow turns to face Liam. “You, you asshole!”
“Bad word, Mommy, bad word,” Frank warbles.
Liam has taken a step back from her anger, his eyes hooded as he watches her approach him. She can see the wall going back up between but she doesn’t care.
“How dare you take my son away from my apartment,” she spits at him, “You’re...” she’s about to say something, but then she figures that she needs to know if Liam does know the truth.
If he doesn’t then that buys her time. Not much, but enough for her to come up with a plan. A proper plan. One that doesn’t involve packing her bags in the middle of the night and leaving. The problem is that Frank has started to enjoy Liam’s company. It’s not going to be so easy for her to leave with him. Not like she did with Carlo. He’ll be crying and she needs to make him see Liam as a bad man before they leave for good. Which will need to be soon. Real soon.
She sees his jaw tighten, his teeth grind slightly. That doesn’t stop her from railing into him.
“I was so worried. Why didn’t you wake me up? You don’t take someone’s child out without their permission.”
“I was watching him,” Liam clips off his words.
“But you took him out without telling me. How could you? What were you thinking?”
“That you were sleeping! What’s got into you?”
Willow avoids looking at him as he continues to explain, “Damn it, girl. I thought I’d let you sleep, you worked late. We had pancakes. We were on our way back. Did you think I’d hurt him?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know you. You were in prison and chasing after your ex that you want to kill,” Willow whispers the last part, but that doesn’t stop Frank from looking at Liam askance.
She sees the exact moment the wall slams down. That’s it. She’s done it now. She doesn’t mean any of what she said. She really did trust Liam with Frank. It was just her terror making her say what she didn’t mean and Liam wasn’t clear about what he was going to do with Harriet.
The thought keeps entering her mind: he isn’t looking for Harriet to take her out for pancakes. He is a bad man. One that she needs to steer clear of, because she has a habit of being with bad men and the
n regretting it afterward.
“I…” she fumbles with her words.
