Chapter 10 #3
“I don’t think so. Pyro has talked to a friend he knows who’s trying to find Colvin.
Apparently, he’s uber rich—Colvin, that is—which I didn’t know, and he has a ton of aliases.
He left Gabon at the same time I did, but so far he’s in the wind.
No one can find him. I have no idea why he’d come after me though. ”
“Wait, wait, wait. Go back,” Mandy ordered.
“I knew about this guy too, because Buck told me as well. But why can’t he be found?
I’m assuming the infamous Tex is the one looking for him, since he’s amazing and apparently can find a specific grain of sand on a beach.
But if he doesn’t have any idea where Colvin might be… that’s concerning.”
“And if he’s got a pile of money, why does he want yours?” Laryn asked, obviously also in the know about Penny’s troubles with Colvin.
“I have no idea what you guys are talking about, but I can’t believe anyone would want to hurt Penny. Or Bowie, for that matter. You’re, like…the sweetest people ever,” Jen added.
Penny was overwhelmed by their support. Unfortunately, she didn’t have any answers for them. She turned to Jen to explain.
“My husband borrowed money from this Colvin guy. And when John died, Colvin didn’t release the debt.
He came after me for it. I wasn’t able to pay much, so he took most of my monthly salary, leaving Bowie and me to scrape by as best we could the last couple of years.
It wasn’t anywhere near paid off before we were evacuated, and Pyro thinks there’s a possibility he could come find me to get the rest.”
“That’s stupid.”
“What a dick!”
“Again, why does he need your money if he has his own?”
Penny appreciated their support more than she could say.
“Wait, how much are we talking here? Like, hundreds of thousands?” Jen asked, looking confused.
“No way. More like forty thousand. According to Colvin, anyway. Which, of course, I don’t have. I’m not trying to get out of my husband’s debt, but Colvin didn’t care that taking money from me in Gabon was leaving me and Bowie almost completely destitute,” Penny said.
“As a said, what a dick. So…what can we do to help?” Laryn asked.
“Yeah, we need a plan if he ever shows up,” Mandy agreed.
“We need a code word. Or phrase. Something Penny can say when she calls us so we know she’s in danger,” Zita said.
“But why would this Colvin guy give her a chance to call anyone?” Laryn asked.
“I don’t know. She could say she needs to call her bank to preauthorize a withdrawal or something,” Zita said, a little defensively.
Before anyone could get irritated with each other, Penny said, “I appreciate you guys more than you know. Zita and I already know not to let anyone into the building who might buzz the apartment, and Bowie knows she’s not allowed to open the door or to let anyone in.
I’ll call Pyro if anyone comes asking about me who I don’t know.
He said he’d get his friend to look at the building’s security cameras and see if it was Colvin or not. ”
“Bowie, Penny, and I have already practiced getting out of the apartment via the emergency exits, if necessary. Mostly because of fire, and with Bowie not being able to see, she needs to be familiar with where to go in an emergency. But also if someone manages to make it through security downstairs and tries to get into our apartment.”
“But what if he finds you when you aren’t here?” Laryn asked. “I mean, yes, you work from home and you can hole up here, but you walk Bowie to and from school, so there’s a chance someone could confront you then,” Mandy said.
“Then I’ll give him the money he wants, and Pyro will help me figure out what to do next. I’m not going to antagonize him. I won’t be confrontational. I’ll tell him I have no intention of skipping out on the debt,” Penny said.
“Will that work?” Laryn asked, sounding a little doubtful.
“I hope so. He once threatened to take Bowie from me if I didn’t pay. As long as I was giving him money, he didn’t seem inclined to have anything to do with me. So if he shows up, I’ll give him whatever he asks for. I’d rob a damn bank if that’s what it took to keep my daughter safe.”
“Asshole,” Laryn mumbled.
The others agreed—but Jen was the one who got up and walked over to where she’d left her purse on the counter when she’d arrived. Fred lifted his head to see where she was going, but when she came back to the living area with her wallet, he put his head down and closed his eyes again.
“It’s not a lot, but I’ve got eighty bucks here.
I can get you more tomorrow. You need an emergency stash, so you can give it to this jerkoff if he ever finds you.
So you can buy time to get Bowie to safety, and let your man and his friend have a chance to figure out how to neutralize him,” Jen said, holding out some cash.
“Oh! That’s an awesome idea!” Mandy exclaimed, and she too popped up and headed for her purse.
“No, no, no, I don’t want to take your money!” Penny said, feeling somehow ashamed her new friends were giving her cash.
“Tough shit,” Laryn said. She didn’t get up, instead leaning over on one butt cheek and pulling out a slender billfold from one of the pockets of her cargo pants. She held out some bills to Penny the same time Mandy returned with more money.
“I…don’t know what to say,” Penny said, staring at the cash through watery eyes.
Mandy took the money from Laryn and added it to her own, then picked up Penny’s hand and stuffed the bills into it.
“Say thank you,” she ordered a little sternly. “And when Tex and Pyro find this asshole, you can give it back. Or we’ll all go to Anchor Point and have a feast.”
Zita stood and went into the kitchen. She fumbled around in a cabinet for a moment before returning to the living room. She had one of those Stanley tumblers in her hand that were so popular a few years ago.
Penny knew firsthand there were about a dozen such tumblers in one of the cabinets in the kitchen. She’d helped Zita unpack the box they were all in one evening not too long ago. Zita had said she couldn’t bear to get rid of any of them, even though she certainly didn’t need twelve.
“My dad told me once to always have a backup stash of cash, just in case. I wanted to hide it somewhere that I wouldn’t see it every day and be tempted to spend it on stupid stuff—”
“Like another drinking cup you won’t use for more than a week?” Laryn asked with a grin.
“Shut it,” Zita said, grinning back. Then she turned to Penny as she removed the lid and tipped the tumbler forward, showing her roommate what was inside.
“And since I knew I wouldn’t throw away any of my cups, and no one would think of looking here for cash, I thought this was a good place to keep it.
I’ve got about five hundred saved up in here, and this, plus what the others have contributed, should hopefully be enough to buy you some time, in case that asshole does show up.
We’ll go to the bank and get it exchanged for big bills that you can keep on you at all times.
You can hand it over, then hightail it back here and call Pyro. ”
Penny was crying now for real. She had no idea what she’d done to deserve such good friends. All the memes and videos she’d seen online about best friends had been kind of a mystery to her. But no longer. She’d officially do anything for these women.
“I don’t know what to say,” she whispered.
“Say thank you!” Mandy repeated, smiling.
“Thank you,” Penny parroted. “Thank you so much. I swear when my debt is paid, I’ll pay you all back.”
“I’m guessing there probably is no debt,” Laryn said, sounding disgusted.
“Men like Colvin, they feed on fear. And why would he need forty thousand bucks if he’s already got millions?
He’s one of those people who’ll never have enough money.
He’ll always want more, and he won’t do one damn good thing with it either.
He’ll simply hoard it, use it to spread hate and do evil things instead of using it to feed the hungry, or make the lives of people who really need it better.
Mark my words, he’s up to his eyeballs in something criminal.
Something more than simply extorting money. I feel it in my bones.”
She probably wasn’t wrong. Every time she’d seen the man, Penny felt dirty afterward.
She agreed with everything Laryn said wholeheartedly.
But she didn’t want to waste energy thinking about what else Colvin might be involved in.
All she wanted was to raise Bowie to be a good human and keep her safe.
To make sure her little girl knew she was loved and wanted.
“Will you let us know if Pyro finds out anything? Like, if this Colvin guy has come to the US or what name he’s using?” Jen asked. “We can help you keep an eye out for him, if need be.”
“I will,” Penny agreed, feeling overwhelmed.
Zita crouched to give her a hug. Then, obviously realizing a change of subject was in order, she turned to Laryn as she stood. “When are you going to find out if you’re cooking one or two humans in your belly? And for the record, I vote for two. That way, we won’t all have to fight over one baby.”
“Right, so you can fight over two?” Laryn asked dryly.
Everyone laughed.
“Soon,” she continued. “We have an appointment with my OBGYN in the next couple of weeks. We’re supposed to find out then.”
“Do you want twins?” Jen asked.
Laryn shrugged. “I want what most mothers want. A healthy baby. But, truth be told, I kind of would love twins. Tate was one, as you all know, and listening to him talk about the relationship between him and his brother makes me want that for my own child.”
“His brother’s a Navy SEAL, right?” Penny asked.
She’d heard about Nate one night from Pyro, when he told her about the crazy flight he and Casper had endured—and the ensuing hike through a jungle—while rescuing his brother and a civilian woman, who was now his wife, after they’d escaped from an Iranian jail cell.