Chapter 11
ELEVEN
Tank parkedin front of the house, noting the cheery glow of lights through the front windows. The sun had already dipped below the horizon, and the brisk winter air was an unwelcome contrast to the warmth of his SUV. But knowing that someone was inside, even maybe… waiting for him? That feeling might be enough to keep him warm in a desert foxhole overnight. Not that he had any plans to relive that experience again. At least Miranda took better care of them than that.
He opened the front door and pushed inside, dropping his work bag by the door.
“Kaylie? It’s just me,” he called while listening for signs of where in the house the girls might be.
“Mr. Anthony!” Cecelia came careening down the hallway toward him and all but leaped into his arms. He caught her, unable to fight the grin that stole over his face. No one brought out as much emotion in him as this little girl.
“Hey there, princessa.”
Lia was holding a stuffed animal, and she wore purple pants with a long-sleeve shirt that had some sort of sparkly design on it.
“I’m hungry, Mr. Anthony,” she stated.
Tank lowered her to the floor and grabbed her hand, looking down the hallway for any sign of Kaylie. “Well, let’s get you a snack then, okay? Where’s your mom?”
Lia shrugged. “She’s sleeping.”
Tank frowned. That was certainly unlike Kaylie. He grabbed some crackers and a cheese stick for Lia and set her at a barstool before following the sound of the television into the family room.
His heart caught at the sight of Kaylie curled up on his sofa. Crumpled tissues littered the floor around her, her nose a pitiful shade of red as she snored. Loudly. She moaned lightly, and he quickened his steps until he was standing at her side.
“Kaylie?” He leaned down, kneeling next to the couch.
She moaned again and shifted in her sleep. Fatigue was etched into her features, and a cough punctuated the otherwise still air. Her skin was flushed, and strings of hair clung to her forehead. Kaylie shivered slightly, and he pulled the blanket around her.
With a gentle touch, he placed a hand on her forehead, gauging the extent of her fever, and immediately winced at the heat radiating from her. The furrowed worry on his brow was replaced by determination as he considered the best way to care for her. She’d hate that she was in this vulnerable position. She would hate that she’d fallen asleep at his house and that Lia was basically unattended.
Grabbing his phone, Tank ordered some flu and cold medicine to be delivered. Then he flipped off the television and lowered the lights on his way out of the room. He might not be able to make Kaylie feel better, but he would take care of Lia.
Kaylie wouldn’t admit it–not that she could fight him with the fever roaring through her body–but she needed him right now. She’d view it as a sign of weakness to need someone, anyone. But Black Tower had taught him that it wasn’t weak to rely on people close to you. It required vulnerability to let people get close enough, and strength to admit when you couldn’t do it on your own.
Back in the kitchen with Lia, Tank figured he’d better fix the little girl something more substantial than crackers and cheese for dinner. He didn’t know how long Kaylie had been asleep, but it was definitely dinnertime now.
There were groceries on the counter, but no prepped meals in the fridge. Which meant Kaylie must have intended to cook but hadn’t gotten to it before her sickness became too much.
“Do you like peanut butter and jelly, Lia?”
Lia’s face lit up. “Yeah!”
“Sounds like a plan then.” He prepped the sandwiches, one for Lia and two for him, as she chattered in the background.
“This is Elphie, and he’s my best friend. Well, other than my mommy. I never go anywhere without him,” she said. “Mommy says that even if we have to leave again, I always get to take Elphie with me.”
Tank perked up at her statement. “That’s neat. Do you have to leave a lot?”
Lia shrugged. “Sometimes. Mommy says we always have to be ready, just in case.” The little girl met his eyes. Hers were wide and innocent. “My daddy is a bad man,” she whispered, then hid her face behind Elphie.
Tank had suspected as much, based on the timing of Kaylie’s escape from the Moreno family. But it was another thing to hear it confirmed by the four-year-old. She seemed so ashamed to admit it, which also broke his heart a little bit.
Tank put the sandwich in front of her on a paper towel and waited until Lia looked back up at him. “Want to know a secret, princess?” Lia nodded shyly. “So is my daddy,” he admitted.
Her eyes widened in surprise. “Really?”
“Yep,” he confirmed. “But who your daddy is doesn’t say anything about who you are, okay?”
She nodded. “Mommy says that God is a really good daddy.” She said it with a hint of a questioning tone, as though she wanted to know if Tank agreed.
Tank felt his throat tighten, and he nodded. “He is,” he confirmed. “He loves you very much, Lia.”
In a way that only kids could, she accepted his statement with a happy nod and focused on the sandwich in front of her.
The medicine arrived about twenty minutes later, and Tank cajoled a sleepy and confused Kaylie into drinking it, along with some water, before she fell back into an exhausted sleep. He took her temperature and shook his head at the 103 staring back at him. After a quick search on his phone, he decided that if it didn’t go down he’d take her to Urgent Care. She’d hate that, for sure. But if she needed more than some over-the-counter fever reducer, then he didn’t mind being the bad guy who made her get checked out.
After dinner, he talked to Lia about how they would watch a movie and then go to sleep. Her eyes widened. “But I don’t have my blankie,” she whined.
Tank attempted to reassure her, but it was clear that the four-year-old always slept with this particular blanket. Tears swam in her eyes as she begged him. “Please, Mr. Anthony. Can’t Mommy and me just go home?”
“Your mommy isn’t feeling very good, princess. But tell you what: I’ll have my friend come watch a movie with you. And I’ll go get your blanket, okay?”
Lia sniffled and eventually nodded, apparently deeming the plan was acceptable. Tank was going to insist that Kaylie and Lia stay here for at least another day while Kaylie rested up, so it’d be good to have some of their things anyway.
He called Miranda first, and although she was a little confused, she sounded more than happy to come babysit for an hour. Twenty minutes later, he opened the door to her and let her inside.
“Thanks for coming,” he said. “I’m sure you have other stuff to do.”
“You’d be incorrect, Tank. Besides, I’m pretty excited to get a look at the little princess who’s got my big, bad soldier friend wrapped around her finger.”
Tank grunted, realizing that he couldn’t necessarily argue the accusation. He would do just about anything the little girl wanted. As for her mom? Well, the same was probably true–for entirely different reasons.
He led Miranda to the master bedroom, where he’d set Lia up with a mountain of pillows and a Disney movie on the television.
“Lia? This is my friend, Miranda. She’s going to hang out with you while I go get your blankie, okay?”
“Hi,” Lia replied, mostly distracted by the dancing donkeys on the screen. Were they in ballerina outfits?
Tank shook his head at the strange show, then turned back to Miranda. “I should be back in less than an hour. Her mom is in the family room, but she’s pretty out of it.”
Miranda nodded. “Go. We’ll be fine.”
Tank had Kaylie’s exact address from Joey and plugged it into the GPS, although he knew roughly where it was from the night he’d trailed the bus to make sure they got there safely.
In fifteen minutes, his phone chirped that he had arrived. Just down the street, the neon lights of a bar were the only sign of life. The door opened and three men poured out, shoving and yelling.
Tank pulled into the unpaved drive next to the house his phone indicated. The number on the house matched the one he had from Joey, but the letter A was displayed next to the numbers. Tank looked around, trying to figure out where unit 414B could be.
He got out of the car and tucked his hands into his pockets. He walked a bit farther down the gravel drive and spotted the small trailer parked among the trees in the surprisingly large city backyard.
414B.
The yard was dark and shadowy, with none of the front house’s light reaching to the far corners of the space. The sound of the idiots from the bar was growing closer. There was a single strand of Christmas lights hung across the front of the trailer, and a snowman painted on a scrap of plywood leaning next to the door.
Tank exhaled his frustration that Lia and Kaylie were living here, where he couldn’t be sure they were safe. It took him less than thirty seconds to bypass the flimsy lock on the trailer door, and then he was inside.
Despite the visible wear and tear inside the trailer, a determined effort to infuse a sense of warmth and homey comfort was evident. Tattered but clean curtains hung haphazardly over the windows, covering the bent blinds. A threadbare rug, strategically placed in the center of the cramped living space, seemed Kaylie’s feeble attempt at covering the scuffed linoleum floor.
The walls and small fridge were adorned with crayon-drawn artwork. Every inch of this trailer bore witness to the love and effort Kaylie had poured into creating a nurturing environment, despite the limitations. Tank couldn’t help but realize that, despite the relative wealth and physical comfort of his own upbringing, Lia was growing up far richer than he had. And while the dangers of the neighborhood weren’t inconsequential, when compared with the certain evils of the Moreno family, it was nothing Kaylie couldn’t handle.
Respect and admiration for the choices Kaylie had made out of sacrifice for her daughter flooded him as he gingerly walked through the space. He quickly found Lia’s blanket on the bed they obviously shared, then grabbed a few things from the bathroom and a change of clothes for each of them from the drawers below the bed.
With one final glance at the home Kaylie had built for her and Lia, he tugged the door closed behind him. He didn’t want to be away from them a minute longer than necessary.