Chapter One
Boo was laying on the floor playing with Andros when she remembered something.
She got up and went to the bedroom and knelt at the cedar chest then quickly opened the lid.
She smiled as she saw the stuffed elephant she’d had since she was a child.
It had been the last toy her mother had given her before that fateful day that Logan forced her off the road.
She will never know how she survived that accident but she had and when she woke up that day, she still held her only childhood toy.
Now she carried it out to her son. She picked him up from the floor and held him in her arms. “I’m trusting you with something your grandmother gave to me once upon a time, Andros.
She would have loved meeting you but she never got the chance,” Boo whispered as she gave the elephant to Andros. “His name is Mr. Peanuts.”
Andros grinned and grabbed the purple elephant then immediately pulled it to his mouth. A moment later he began to cry.
Boo pulled it away and saw red in Andros’s mouth. She gasped and checked his lips. He had a small cut there. She grabbed a wipe and took care of it.
After she got him to settle down, she looked over at the elephant and saw something hard peeking out of the tip of its trunk.
Puzzled, she laid her baby on the floor and reached over to pick at the elephant’s trunk.
She took a small SIM card from his trunk and looked at the plastic case then she saw a small piece of paper still in the trunk.
She pulled it out and found it was a small note.
She didn’t know the writing, but the words were barely legible anymore.
“My darling girl, if you survive what’s coming and I don’t, please keep this safe and when you find it give it to your dad. He’ll know what to do. I love you always. You are the best of me and him, remember that.”
Boo just sat there and stared at the note.
Andros was quiet now while sucking on his tiny fist. She reached for her phone and called Nash. When he answered, she whispered, “Dad, I need you here now. Can you come?”
“What’s going on, baby girl?”
“I just found something and I think it's from Mom.”
Nash gasped over the phone. “You mother? Are you sure?”
Boo sighed and said, “No, I’m not sure at all.
I gave Andros a toy mom had given me before we left New Orleans to find you.
Andros bit down in the trunk and he began to cry.
When I looked something soft plastic was sticking out of Mr. Peanut’s trunk and when I dug it out, it was a SIM card then I found a note too.
Nash was quiet on his end of the line and finally he said, “Lock your doors and windows, make sure no one can break in until we get there. Then call your husband home, me and the boys will be there as soon as possible. I’m on my way, baby girl.
” He paused, then said, “You keep yourself and that baby safe, you hear me?”
“I hear you dad,” she whispered. “Please hurry.”
She hung up and immediately tapped Kirill’s number. When he answered the call, she whispered, “I need you to come home now.”
“What’s wrong, Boo?”
“Please just come home. I found something and it scared the hell out of me.” She paused, then told him, “My dad and his boys are on their way.”
“Your father?” Kirill barked. “What does he have to do with this?”
“Just please come home,” Boo urged him.
Then the line went dead.
Kirill slowly moved the phone from his ear and just stared at it. Then he looked up at his brothers.
“What’s going on?” Kosta growled.
Kirill shook his head. “I’m not sure. That was Boo, she wants me to come home right now and she said she found something that scared her. She even called her father in and he’s on his way from Jackson’s Landing with his men.”
“What the hell is going on here?” Yuri snapped. “What did she find?”
Kirill shrugged. “I don’t know, but she sounded terrified. I have to go.” He got to his feet and the chair he was sitting on scraped the floor as he stood.
“We’ll all go,” Yuri stated. “Boo isn’t one to terrify easily and she needs us at the moment.” He looked over at Kosta, “Bring your laptop, we may need some help on this.” He looked back at Kirill. “You said she called her father in on this?”
Kirill nodded. “Da, he is on his way with his men.”
Yuri pursed his lips. “I don’t like this, not one bit. We can take care of our own. She didn’t need to call him in. Not yet.”
Kirill shrugged. “He’s her father and we don’t yet know what we’re dealing with, let’s just wait before we discourage their involvement. We might need them before this is done.”
Yuri nodded. “Let’s go then and see what’s going on.”
Ten minutes later...
When Kirill pulled up into his driveway the whole house looked quiet, too damn quiet. He parked.
The car doors opened as his brothers and Yuri stepped out.
He went to the front door and tried to open it but the door knob didn’t turn. He dug his keys out and when he turned the lock the door opened. He shot a look over his shoulder and saw both his brothers’ frowns.
Kirill pushed the door open. The whole house looked empty, so he called out his wife’s name as everyone came into the house. The kitchen and living room were both quiet and the further he walked in, the more his nervousness grew. “Boo, where are you?” he called out.
The bedroom door cracked open and she came out, carrying their son. She hurried over to him. He held the both of them for a moment then he tipped her face up to his. “What’s going on little one?”
Boo looked around the room and when she saw Yuri and the others she released a breath and said, “Just before my mother was going to take me to meet my dad for the first time she was very nervous for some reason. But three days before we left, she gave me a new toy. It was a stuffed elephant that we named Mr. Peanuts. She told me to make sure I hung onto him. That he was like a friend I couldn’t lose.
I always told her that I would never lose him and she even asked me the day we got into the car to take our trip if I still had him.
I told her I did and she told me again to never let him go.
That he was very important and I should always keep him close to me.
Then the accident happened and I managed to get away.
The only thing I had left was that elephant.
I kept him all this time but today I remembered him and was going to pass him down to Andros.
He was happy to see it, then he started crying after he chewed on it and when I looked I found something in the elephant’s trunk.
It was a small SIM card and then I found the note. ”
“What did this note say?” Yuri asked.
Boo shook her head then reached into her pocket.
She took both the card and the note out and handed both to him.
Then she looked back over at Kirill. “I called my dad. He told me he would get here as soon as he could. I don’t know what this is all about really.
I mean whatever is on that card has to be twenty years old, right? ”
Yuri looked down at the SIM card and the note in his hand. He passed the card over to Kosta and then he read the note. It really didn’t tell him much, just that Pride would know what to do with the information on the card.
He looked up at Kirill and then over at Boo. “What did your father say about this?”
Boo shook her head. “I think he had no idea what it was about. I only just found him. We haven’t had a whole lot of time to talk about my mother.” She glanced at Kirill. “I mean Kirill and I have been busy with the baby, you know?”
Yuri nodded. “Da, I know but this must have meant something to your mother, something she felt strongly about if she was going to take you back to your father.” Shaking his head he admitted, “There must have been something going on back then and she wanted to make sure you were safe and she knew her best safety net was your father.”
Boo shivered. “I was all of four years old back then. I really didn’t understand much about the world.
But I knew she wasn’t safe, not with Lionel.
He was bat shit crazy. That’s what she called him when he wasn’t around.
I mean from what I can remember, he was mean and it didn’t take much to set him off.
He enjoyed hurting me. He would always grab me up and carry me into the bedroom and lock the door before he would hurt me.
I could hear my mom banging on the other side of the door then he would take his belt off and I would start screaming.
When he was done, he always unlocked the door and he would just leave.
She would come running in but by that time I was in so much pain I didn’t know anything. ” Boo’s voice faded into silence.
Kirill took her in his arms and just held her.
“Do you remember the day you left Lionel’s compound?” Yuri asked.
Boo nodded. “She got us into the car and she already packed our stuff in there too. I remember she was scaring me as she acted so nervous. She was afraid of something and kept looking at the mirrors. I remember asking her where we were going so early and she said she was taking me to my dad and she only prayed he would take me. I didn’t understand what she was talking about, not back then.
That was when she saw another car coming up behind us and she swore.
Then she told me to hang on because the car wasn’t stopping.
When it hit us, I remember screaming, then we went over the side of the road and I was so scared I couldn’t even scream.
When we hit, I was thrown from the car. I tried to look up but then the car exploded and I heard my mom’s scream.
Then I just laid there, but I held onto Mr. Peanuts.
I woke up a little while later to find the car destroyed so I began walking.
That’s when I found Grandpa Joe. When he asked my name I think I was in shock then I got scared because I couldn’t remember anything, not even my own name or what happened to me.
He cleaned me up and let me stay with him.
I never did remember what really happened until years later but I kept that damn elephant.
I didn’t know why but I did.” She looked up at Kirill.
“Then today, I gave it to Andros and he found out the secret she gave me.”