Chapter 25
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“Did I understand that right? The triplets’ father actually …” Pamela couldn’t even get the words out.
“I know,” Leland replied, and she heard the fury in his tone of voice.
Leland turned and looked around at the room.
“Anderson’s on his way back here, just in case, but now we are on full alert, both here and at the hospital.
We’re not sure if, who, why, or when. So we do need to be ready for anything. ”
“Damn,” she murmured.
“Yeah, that’s a good word for it,” he murmured.
“How could Tim put his family in jeopardy like that?”
“Because he doesn’t give a shit about them, and clearly the babies were too much for him.”
She shook her head. “Doesn’t matter if they were too much or not,” she declared, as a viciousness rose inside her that she hadn’t known existed. “They’re still family.”
He smiled and nodded. “That’s true, and, for the moment, Talia is still in the hospital, under Burton’s guard, and we must protect these babies.” He looked at her and noted, “And you for that matter.”
She shook her head. “I shouldn’t even be a part of this.”
“Nope, you shouldn’t,” he said, with a casual look. “And the fact that you’re here even now says a lot about who you are.”
“No, it doesn’t,” she argued. “I just … came to help get the babies settled a little, when Anderson and Burton were, in their words, exhausted and drowning in a tsunami of shit.”
When Leland burst out laughing, she started to giggle.
“Oh my gosh, you should have seen them. It was so cute. They had barely slept a wink, and the abrupt change in diet had caused diarrhea for the triplets. Anderson and Burton were both terrified of doing something wrong, while still getting their baby-handling skills down. So just imagine them with slick poopy babies over and over again.”
Leland enjoyed the description and was nearly in tears as he laughed so hard.
She scrubbed her face. “Gosh, I needed that. I really didn’t expect the danger side of all this.”
“Of course not,” he said. “Nobody expects this crap. I mean, this is what happens when you get assholes out there who just don’t get how life works. If you want to leave, nobody would judge you for it.”
“Oh no, I’m staying. And I think Tim gets how life works just fine,” she murmured. “He just doesn’t give a shit about anybody but himself.”
He smiled as he looked at her, hearing the vehemence in her tone.
“I know. I know.” She raised both hands. “I sound a little bit crazed.”
“No,” he countered, “you sound like any tiger would when trying to protect her young.”
She turned and looked in the direction of the babies. “I can’t believe Tim would be so callous as to do that. His own children …”
“No, I can’t really either, but I have seen an awful lot of ugliness in this world.”
She nodded. “Unfortunately so have I. You would think that I would be a little more prepared for it.”
“No, you can never really be prepared for this,” he stated, staring at her. “And you’re doing exactly what we’re doing, which is all we can do. But you probably don’t have much in the way of self-defense here, do you?”
She frowned at him, surprised, then shook her head. “I brought extra diapers and baby food. Self-defense wasn’t exactly something I even thought I needed.”
“Every woman needs it,” he noted absentmindedly, as he looked around.
“And we can’t be sure we have an attack coming either,” she pointed out.
“No, we can’t be sure, but we have to go on the presumption that it’s a strong likelihood.”
“That’s not what I want to hear,” she shared.
He smiled. “The good news is, you won’t be alone, and Anderson is on his way back too.”
“That’s also good news,” she agreed, “and I hate to say it, but I would also feel better somehow if the cops were involved.”
He laughed, yet shook his head. “That’s a typical response from most people. They want the cops involved so that they feel safe,” he muttered, patting her hand, “but I’ve got to tell you—”
“I know,” she interrupted him. “I already know what you’ll say. The cops won’t necessarily make a difference, and they have certainly been underwhelming so far. Still, I can’t really blame them for that either.”
“That’s good,” he replied, a smile on his face, “because you know they’re doing their job within the confines of what they can do.”
“And that’s the problem,” she pointed out. “There’s always so much going on, and their resources are limited, and they are hampered by systems and policies that they are required to work within.”
“Exactly.”
She realized that he was walking around the kitchen with intent, clearly looking for something specific, but she didn’t know what. “You want to tell me what you’re looking for?”
He turned to her and replied, “Weapons, escapes, materials, … just thinking of potential plans.”
She shook her head. “I don’t like the sound of that,” she admitted, throwing up her hands, “but can I help with … anything?”
He smiled. “It’s not so much for me as it is for you. And, no worries, I’m working on it.”
“I really don’t like the sound of that,” she said, staring at him in shock.
He laughed. “I get it, but it’s quite possible for something to happen here. So, the question is, do we leave you here because it’ll be a better place to defend, or do we remove you from here entirely, and hope the bad guys don’t know?”
“And hope they don’t know?” she repeated, her voice getting faint. “Are you thinking they’ll know?”
“I think they’re already in the know, and, if not listening to us, they’re watching us,” he shared, turning to her. “If they were listening to us, that would be better.”
She shook her head. “How could that possibly be better?”
“It’s better because then they would know no money or drugs are here.”
“Why would they have not come in already?” she asked in confusion.
“Because they’re leaving that as a last resort,” he explained, “because most of these guys, as much as I’ll say they’re assholes, most of them have some sort of … honor system, a kind of code.”
“How can you have an honor system and then attack a woman who’s looking after her triplets?”
“That’s what I mean by some kind of an honor system, but they’re still led by bosses, and the bosses still have requirements,” he shared, “and we won’t like any of those.”
“Oh Lord,” she muttered, tucking back her hair.
“Is there any place where you can go and be safe?”
She turned to face him, an expression of horror on her face.
“I don’t know. I don’t know what safe looks like against men like this.
I don’t have any skills that you’re talking about, so, if they do corner me, what the hell can I do?
I have triplets to look after,” she stated, staring at him.
“It’s not something I can just turn around and put down gently.
I mean, I’ve basically got them on the floor, and I’ll be trying to stand over them, and they’ll just shoot me dead. ”
“Yeah, they probably will,” he agreed.
“Don’t say that,” she spat, glaring at him. He smiled, but she could tell that the smile didn’t reach his eyes. He looked around, and she asked, “How are they likely to come in, and what will they likely do if they’re inside?”
“If you have money to give them, and it’s the stash and the amount that they’re looking for, they will take that and then probably kill us both.”
She just blinked and then threw a fit. “You’re telling me that they can’t leave us alive, even if we give them the money, which we don’t even have?”
“Nope, they surely can’t let us live,” he stated, still calm. “On the other hand, if they don’t know for sure about the money or the drugs, they’ll turn to torture in order to find out.”
“But they already tortured Talia,” she pointed out, “and broke her pelvis in the process.”
He winced at that and nodded.
Pamela frowned. “Which means she didn’t have anything to give them because she didn’t know, and, if she didn’t have anything to give them, why would they bother coming back for her?”
“That’s a good point,” he noted, “unless this Tim asshole gave them a reason to think maybe Talia wasn’t telling them something.
However, most people, given the level of damage that was done to Talia, would have given up that info already.
… And, if she was protecting the triplets, and Tim was throwing the triplets under the bus, then—”
“I know,” she interjected. “Talia would have done anything to protect her babies, and that would include giving them false information or anything else, telling them to go look, to search the house or whatever they wanted, but she had nothing to do with it, and you can’t get blood from a stone,” she replied.
“And I think that’s where they’re at. Now the issue is whether this Dingo asshole has gotten out the message, or they think that you guys, being here in this house, know anything.”
“And when do they just give up and walk away?”
“They will walk away at some point, but it’s also possible that the people who have been handling Tim might also have their own lives on the line,” he explained. “That’s something else we need to consider. In that case, they won’t hold off much longer.”
“Meaning, they’ll need answers just to keep themselves safe? Jesus, it’s a really sick world we live in,” she declared, staring at him.
“It is, and I can’t argue with you on that. The problem is, there will always be somebody trying to take what somebody else has, and we just can’t allow any of that to happen.” Just then, his phone buzzed. He looked down, smiled. “Anderson is outside.”
“Oh good.” As she hurried to the front door, he shouted, “Wait, wait!” but her hand was already on the knob. She looked back at him in confusion, and the door popped open in front of her. There she stood, staring at Tim and a stranger. Leland had disappeared somewhere behind her.
Tim gave his friend a nervous smile.
“I presume you’re the worthless addicted father,” Pamela stated, with such scorn in her tone that he glared at her.
“Yeah, those are my triplets.”