Page 38 of Stand By You
As Jillian gotready for bed that night, she said a little prayer for Travis wherever he was and that he was safe. “Hang on my dear boy,” she whispered into the night and touched her fingertips to her lips, recalling how gently Nick had brushed his kiss there earlier that afternoon. She felt a smile form and her heart swelled at the thought of the man who was becoming dearer to her with each passing day. Never in a million years would she have dreamt that a tragedy like this would bring her joy in the form of Nick Bardou. It didn’t seem right, and she didn’t want to accept it while Travis was still missing. And yet…it was happening.
It was times like these that she wished she had a close friend to confide in, but other than Mrs. Hudson, she realized now she had focused on taking care of Travis and letting her connections with friends dwindle. Spending her free time finishing her master’s degree instead of going out and having fun. Did that make her boring or was she goal oriented? But what if she never got to teach? Would her degree be for nothing and all this efforta waste of time? Travis had said he never wanted her to leave, but that was now, he’d surely change his mind in a few years as he got older. When he no longer wanted a nanny hanging around caring for him. And then where would she be if she didn’t have her degree to fall back on? She wasn’t getting any younger.
She washed her face and brushed her teeth before turning out the bathroom light and hobbling to the bed so she could take off the boot and get into bed. She thought about Travis again as she lay down and a tear rolled down her cheek. Wherever he was she hoped he was safe.
“Dude, what time is it?”Slick asked, sitting up off the floor with one shoe on and the other off. His legs hit the small pile of discarded pizza boxes from the night before. He rubbed his face and yawned before his stomach growled.
“Late afternoon,” Wizard said through half closed eyelids, holding up his arm to see his watch then he grabbed his head. “Oh man, I have a killer headache.”
Slick crawled to the pizza boxes and sifted through them until he found a leftover piece. “Yes!”
“Sh-h-h! Wizard hissed. “Is there anymore?”
“Last one, dude, you lose,” Slick said.
Wizard flipped him off. “I know we were going to do something today, but I can’t remember what.”
“Get more weed,” Slick yawned. “And more pizza.”
“Sweet!”
They laughed until it hurt. Then after agreeing to try a new kind of pizza, they fell asleep.
Not far fromtheir location Carlton sat in his office watching the daily video feed of Travis to make sure everything wasgoing right. His other burner phone rang, and he answered. “Delvecchio.”
“How’s the kid,” a man’s voice said.
“He’s fine. He just ate and he’s getting back in bed to go to sleep again. How long do you plan on keeping this up? Keeping the kid drugged can’t be good for him.”
“You let me worry about that,” the man said. “Let’s meet tonight. Your place. I’ll be there at ten with the rest of your money. And then your part of this will be finished.”
“Why so late?” Carlton asked. “I do have a life.”
“You want to get paid or not?”
“Of course I do,” Carlton said. “I’ll leave the back door open. Park in the alley so no one will see you.”
He worked for a few more hours until the sun went down and the food trucks arrived then he took a dinner break and a walk to enjoy the neighborhood, mingling with the other business owners who worked late in the area. He had time to kill until the man arrived and paid him. Even if he didn’t like how they were treating the kid what could he do about it? They were paying him, and it was a job, plain and simple.
He returned to his office at half past nine and found the man dressed in an expensive suit sitting there, waiting for him and he didn’t look happy. “You’re early,” Carlton accused.
“I don’t like to be kept waiting,” the man said, getting to his feet. “Did anyone follow you?”
“You said ten. I only stepped out to take a walk around the square,” Carlton reported. “You should have called. I’d have come right away.”
“I didn’t bring my phone. Couldn’t chance being traced,” the man said. “That damn Amber Alert has everything all screwed up. Let’s get this business over with.”
“It was bound to have happened,” Carlton said, walking to his desk and motioning for the man to take his seat again. “Child abductions always triggers those alerts.”
“We didn’t account for that when we made our plans,” the man said. “Did you think of it?”
“Not really,” Carlton admitted, noticing for the first time that the man was wearing leather driving gloves. In the summer? The rich were eccentric, but he thought this was going a little too far.
“That’s why we need to limit the number of people who know about this,” the man said reaching into his suit breast pocket and pulled out a Smith & Wesson M&P 22 with a suppressor and pointed it at him. “I’m sorry our business arrangement has to end this way, but I can’t take the risk of you going to the police and identifying us for being behind Travis’ abduction.”
“Wait! You don’t have to kill me,” Carlton said, his voice cracking and sweat beaded across his brow. His dinner threating to come up as he stared at the gun. “I–I won’t say a word. Honest. If I talked about the people I did business with I wouldn’t be in my line of work very long.”
“That very well may be, but I can’t take that chance,” the man said, standing and taking a step toward the desk.
