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“Where’s my son?”
Those trampoline jumping nerves skate up to the back of my neck, my instincts sharpen, and I start trying to remember where I set my phone. This is no longer about me. He’s not a good man when he’s being himself, and right now, Richard is unhinged. I can’t let him get anywhere near little Danny.
“He’s with Pauline.”
He stares into my eyes, narrowing them to slits while he tries to decide his next move. “I’ll wait.”
“I don’t think so. I want you to leave.”
He grabs my wrist. “Don’t make me do something neither of us want me to do. I want my son. I’m not leaving here without him. If you try to get in my way, I’ll stop you. Any way I have to.”
“You’re hurting me, Richard. Let go,” I tell him calmly, but my heart is beating too fast. He drops my wrist, but doesn’t back away. The last thing I need is for him to lose it. “You don’t look well, Richard. When was the last time you ate?” I ask, feigning concern.
He shakes his head. “I don’t know. Yesterday.”
“If you won’t leave, at least sit down. I’ll make you a sandwich.”
He sits on the couch, watching me warily. I’m not completely hidden from view in the kitchen, since it’s all open concept in the apartment, but I swipe my phone and dial 911 while gathering sandwich supplies.
I can’t talk to the operator, but I hope that keeping them on the line is the best solution. “How did you even find us, Richard?” I ask, hoping the phone is picking up my voice. “Pauline said she moved so you wouldn’t know where she lived? And the Terrace Court Apartment Complex is a secure building.”
I know they can’t hear him. But I hope they are at least trying. “She can’t keep my son from me.”
“But you’re a wanted criminal now. What will you do with a four-year-old boy?”
“He’s my son. She’s my wife. We belong together.”
Bastard. I bet he just needs the money back that he gave her before he left. He’s obviously lost the rest of it somehow. Still, the thought of him on the run with little Danny makes my hands shake. I try to control that when I hand him his plate.
“How did you even become friends?” he asks me, smelling the bread for poison. Damn. Why didn’t I think of poison?
“She found me. She wanted me to know she didn’t know about me, either. When you married me.”
Danny starts talking in his sleep, loud enough for his voice to carry into the living room and Richard stands up and starts for his bedroom door. “You lying bitch.”
I race in the same direction, getting in front of him and shoving as hard as I can. I hear Fifi growling on the other side of the door. I hope she doesn’t wake up Danny. I don’t want him to be scared, and his dad looks anything but safe right now. “You are not taking Danny.”
“What do you care, Tru?”
“I love that little boy. And I love Pauline. And you are done wrecking our lives.”
He smiles. How had I not noticed he was missing a tooth? A life on the run has not been a picnic for the flea. Good. “You’ve changed. Not enough. What a boring little twat you were.”
He tries to push past me, but I’m done being passive. I grab him and headbutt him, hearing a satisfying crack and hoping it wasn’t my skull, then I knee him in the balls. He drops instantly, moaning. “Pauline and I started a self-defense class at the gym once a week, asshole.” I kick him in the stomach. “Also, you have a tiny penis and don’t know what a clitoris is.”
I scrabble over him to get to the phone just as the door opens and Brandon and Pauline come in. Pauline’s eyes widen and Brandon strides across the room.
“Is that Richard?” she asks.
I nod. The police are at the door before I can tell her everything, and after, getting Brandon to leave would take an act of God, so we put him on the couch and I go to bed.
Not ten minutes later, Pauline knocks and comes in with two glasses and a box of wine. “I’m too wired to sleep.” She sets the box on my dresser and pours our glasses. “I’m so glad you made sure that ‘you have a tiny penis and don’t know what a clitoris is’ made it into the police report.”
I grin, welcoming her onto my bed where we sit cross-legged and drink our very classy vintage. “I’m hoping it gets read aloud at his hearing.”
“I can’t believe he found us...that he even looked for us. I thought he was long gone.”
“He looked terrible, didn’t he?”
