Chapter 15
?
Naomi woke to an odd sound. She listened again.
Heard a key jabbing into the lock. Someone was trying to enter the apartment.
She deadbolted the front door at night, and she had double-checked it last night after the trouble they’d had with the gunman.
Four penthouses were on this floor. The elevator came up into a small lobby, and then split off into the four apartments.
She immediately gripped Trent’s arm, but he was already awake, whispering for her to be quiet.
She slid out of bed, grabbing the pants she had there and also a sweater to pull over her too. Trent was dressed in his jeans by the time she turned around and already at the open bedroom door. She immediately headed over to Ricky’s bedroom to confirm he was okay.
As she slid down the hallway, Trent headed to the front door. She quickly checked on Ricky, but he was fine, sleeping heavily. She made it out to the living room, finding him standing there, holding his weapon up and pointed at a woman who was frozen in the kitchen.
Naomi turned on the light and stared at the woman in shock. “Oh my God.”
Trent glanced at her and asked, “Do you know her?”
“I think she’s his mother.”
When the woman nodded, Trent immediately lowered his gun, frowning.
The woman was obviously in a great deal of pain. In a pleading tone, she asked, “Is Ricky okay?”
Immediately Naomi walked over to her and helped her to sit down on a kitchen chair. “He’s fine, but he’s sound asleep, and I would like to keep him that way.”
“I do too,” she whispered, trying to straighten herself. “I just … needed to know he was okay.” She turned to Naomi and rambled on, “You won’t leave him, will you?”
“No, of course not,” she stated. “What’s going on?”
“We were taken while trying to get to a safe house. Ricky’s father is dead.
” Tears sat in her eyes, tears just unable to drop.
“We knew this day would come, so we had to keep him safe. We couldn’t involve him in this.
Everything had gone too far, too long ago.
There was no way out for us, but we didn’t want him hurt. ” Her hands were bloody and shaking.
Trent frowned at her and asked, “What’s wrong with you? Are you hurt?” He immediately stepped closer to give her first aid.
Linda just shook her head and raised her free hand. “It’s also too late for me,” she whispered. “I just needed to know. I needed to come and ensure that somebody would look after Ricky.” She clutched bloody paperwork in her hand. “I couldn’t think of what else to do.” She handed it to Naomi.
“What is this?” Naomi asked, as she unrolled the papers.
“It’s guardianship until Ricky’s eighteen,” Linda muttered, as her breath hitched. “I have checked in on you several times, and he always seems to be so happy. So this was the only thing I could think of to do, but I must hear you tell me that you will honor it.”
“Of course,” Naomi declared. “I’ve never wanted to let him go but always knew someday I might have to. If you were checking on him, why didn’t you come see him? He would have been so thrilled to see you.”
She gave a half smile and replied, “I did try to see him, but every time you two seemed like you were very happy. And we’ve never really been parents to him.
” She sighed, tried to take a deep breath but couldn’t.
“We couldn’t be. I don’t want to say he was an accident because he’s the only part of us who will survive.
And something so precious could never be an accident.
I don’t even know who he really is as his own person, but I know that I couldn’t leave without putting something in place. I’ve already signed the paperwork.”
She swallowed. “I just need you to sign, and he can witness it,” she added, her tone pleading, as if afraid Naomi would decline the offer. “This will give you custody of Ricky until he is of legal age. It’s all I could do for him,” she whispered, closing her eyes, her voice getting fainter.
Naomi looked over in alarm as Trent tried to check over the woman again, looking to see what was wrong. “Where is the blood coming from? Have you been shot or stabbed?” he asked Linda.
She waved her hand. “Don’t worry.” She closed her eyes and then slowly opened them. “I’ve been shot—”
“Got shot how?” Trent asked.
“That’s a long story. It was days ago now.
I tried to get help, but … I got picked up,” she said, with a note of irony.
“I knew I wouldn’t survive anyway.” She waved off the hand that Naomi had put on her shoulder.
“I already have cancer. Of all the things that I thought would take me out, cancer wasn’t the one.
I would take a bullet any day over that,” she shared, “but I just had to know that Ricky will be okay.” She stared back-and-forth between the two of them, tired and worn out.
“Let him know that his family loved him, will you?”
“Were these papers legally drawn up?” Trent asked Linda.
She nodded.
“By Bugatti?”
“By another of our lawyers.” She paused, swallowed. “You’ll have power to change all that you need to. Again—” She coughed, and there was blood in her mouth.
Naomi quickly grabbed some napkins for her and asked, “Can’t we take you to a doctor, please?”
“No,” she said, gripping her hand. “No doctor. There’s no time anyway.
I’m—I’m almost done. Yet I won’t die here, I promise.
I’ll go someplace where they can find me.
But this is important. Ricky doesn’t even know who we are.
We haven’t been there for him, but you have.
I want you to know that everything will continue as it is. You’ll need a pay raise of course.”
Linda gave a cry of pain, then rambled on, “There’s money. There’s so much money, and you’ll need to spend it wisely on him. For the doctors, plus he’ll need more education.”
“He needs really special education,” Naomi clarified, kneeling in front of the dying woman. “And he’s doing much better now. I don’t know if you realize how special he is. He’s already doing algebra and trigonometry. He’s learning three languages. He’s just amazing.”
The woman stared at her in surprise, then smiled broadly. “Good,” she said, a gleam filling her eyes. “Help him to succeed. Make sure he doesn’t go down our pathway.”
“And what was your pathway?” Trent asked.
She turned to him and sighed. “We were drug runners for a very long time, not by choice, but we got into it many years ago when we got heavily in debt with the wrong people. It seemed to be the only way out. But, once you’re in, you can never get out.”
“And what was the point of the message to go down to the dock?” Trent asked her.
“It wasn’t intended for you.” Linda shook her head. “It was a mistake and never meant for you.”
Naomi frowned.
Linda continued. “When we realized what was going on, it was already too late, and you’d been picked up. So we called the Coast Guard tip line. They were closer but busy, so they sent Trent instead.”
Linda turned to Trent, gratitude in her expression. “You saved Ricky. You saved my son,” she whispered, her tone emotional. “You saved Naomi too. Ricky needs her.”
“My team did,” he pointed out. “We’re part of a special black-ops unit and were sent to rescue a woman and a boy tied to the front of a boat.”
“Yes,” Linda replied, with a dry gurgling cough.
“We tried so hard to bargain for them, but we couldn’t let them know how important it was that they survived.
Nobody knew who they were, or who we were, not until after you saved Naomi and Ricky.
Then it seemed everything was already in the process of going wrong, terribly wrong. ”
“How did they know where we lived?” Naomi asked Linda.
“I don’t know,” she replied, shaking her head, but the movement seemed too labored. “I imagine they just followed you. You’ve never really been in the business of trying to keep hidden,” she noted, eyeing her apologetically, “but that mess is over now.”
“How do you know?” Trent asked.
“They’ve got what they wanted now.”
“What was that? I understood they came here after a package.”
“No need to worry about that now. I gave it to them. You don’t ever need to worry about money.
It’s already in the bank, all taken care of,” she told them.
“And the money you have access to, it’s clean.
It’s legit. We made sure there would always be money for Ricky. You don’t have to worry about that.”
Linda stood up, her legs wobbly, and announced, “I need to leave. I just wanted to know that he was okay and that you will sign this paperwork.”
“Of course,” Naomi muttered, as she looked down at it.
“I need you to do it now,” Linda stated.
Naomi hesitated, looked over at Trent.
Trent immediately snatched up the papers and quickly read through them. Then he looked at Naomi and stated, “They’re pretty clear-cut, a standard contract of physical custody and legal guardianship, plus power of attorney.”
Naomi quickly picked up a pen and signed them, and then he witnessed her signature.
Linda turned to Naomi with relief and whispered, “Dear God, thank you.” She took several soft steps toward the front door, then looked back toward the hallway. A longing filled her gaze.
Naomi knew what was needed in that moment. “You can see him if you want. He’s asleep.”
Linda looked at her gratefully, and, together, the two of them helped Linda to Ricky’s bedroom, where she stood, staring down at him.
“I never expected to have a child, and he came so late in life that it was such a shock for both of us. We didn’t know what to do.
The only thing we could think to do to ensure his safety was to set him up with caretakers.
” Tears were openly coming now. “You’ve been with him, what, three years? ”
Naomi nodded. “Yeah, a little more.”