She stopped fighting and let her uncle lead her away. She wanted him as far away from Vicky as was possible. She said a silent prayer for the safety of her daughter.
I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD
Hosea 2:20
Chapter 28
Alicia was angry. Was this white woman the reason her brother, her hero, had stopped answering her calls? She was so upset that she forgot about the reasons she had come searching for her brother and called her mother.
“Mom, I'm okay, but Jerome has lost his mind.”
“Do you know how worried I've been? Where are you?”
“I'm sorry mama.”
“Where are you? Come home now.”
“Momma, I can't come home. I'm at Jerome's.”
“You are at WHERE?”
“Jerome’s?”
“Have you lost your mind?”
“No momma. I’m sorry momma. But this is more important. Do you know why he was ignoring us? You have to fix this momma.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Momma, he's dating a white girl.”
“Where is your brother?”
“I don't know, but I have to go.”
Vicky, tired of waiting for this new person to get out of the bathroom, decided, to open the door and see her. She had not decided yet if she liked her or not. “Who are you?”
Alicia was usually the one with the attitude. She knew how to use her tone of voice and her body language in her favor. She had learned that the angrier she sounded, the more she intimidated people. She loved the power, but she was not used to being on the receiving end.
She washed her hands and splashed some water into her face trying to figure out what to do with this child. She was tired. She had left her home at four in the morning and had only stopped for gas and bathroom breaks. Right now, she did not need a child with an attitude in front of her.
She needed a little nap, but first she wanted to know what to do with these two intruders.
As she walked out of the bathroom, ignoring the child, her nerves went on alert. She heard angry voices.
Within a second of Alicia hearing the people speak, she saw Vicky try to run past her. Alicia wanting to know who had come and hoping to get ammunition against this white woman, grabbed the child and pulled her face into her shoulder. She wanted to know who the man was. If this woman was living with her brother, she should not have male visitors.
Then Alicia heard the mother cry out in pain. Alicia was not so sure anymore that this was a welcomed visitor, but on instinct she kept holding onto the child. The little one tried to dislodge herself from the unwelcome hug and when Alicia continued to hold her tight against her shoulder, the child decided to go vampire on her. She bit with all her might and although Alicia would not normally pull a child against her body, willingly or not, she held on tightly to the little kid as if her life depended on it. Right now she knew they had to stay quiet and not call attention to themselves. As this small child was still attached to her shoulder, she decided to whisper in her ear.
“Listen kid. Your mamma is in trouble now, and we won't be able to help her if the bad guy catches us too.” Vicky let go at the same time they heard the front door close.
Maria Esperanza was parking her car in front of the building when she saw Josie being pushed into the car in front of hers. Josie turned her face towards her, and their eyes locked. It had been brief, but long enough for Maria to know her friend was in trouble. She grabbed the phone and dialed 911. She told them what she saw and where they were before she hung up, not giving the dispatcher a chance to say anything.
Then He touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you”
Matthew 9:29
Chapter 29
Jerome swiveled in his chair and looked around the office for anything that might enlighten him about what to do next. He was tired and frustrated. He had been sitting at his desk for a while looking at the pictures and reading all his notes, but the only thing he could think about was his conversation with Fernando. Was he making it a bigger deal than it was? Did it really matter what people thought?
He took a deep breath and put his personal thoughts away. He had finally received the file from Pennsylvania and needed to concentrate on the case first. There would be plenty of time later to analyze his feelings.
He put both files, the one he just got from Pennsylvania and the one he had been working on, side by side. The killer in Pennsylvania and the one from Josie's place were definitely the same, but the one from Ivonne's house did not fit the profile. There were similarities, but there were too many discrepancies. Was that a copycat or did the job get interrupted? Where did that file from Mississippi disappear to? Could Jones have taken it?
He swiveled one more time as a child would, but instead of making it all the way around he stopped half way through. As usual Jones’ desk was empty. He got up and walked there. He sat on Jones’ chair. There was no sign of anyone using this desk. He opened the drawers. They were all empty except for the occasional pen or paper clip. There was some paper in the bottom drawer, but nothing else. In frustration he slammed the desk drawer, and then he heard a thump. He opened the drawer one more time, and the file was there. Just as he went to pick it up, his phone beeped one more time. This time it was his sister. He would not speak with them right now. His mother had a weird mother's intuition and she would immediately know that he was falling in love with the wrong girl, and his sister was probably calling him for advice she was not going to heed. He knew the game and he refused to be part of it. He could not add any more drama to his life. He had enough of that already.
Ignoring the phone, he pulled the file out, and just as he did his hand bumped into something else. There was a small album attached to the roof of the drawer.
He thought about opening it, but felt he was intruding in the other man's life. Curiosity won, and he looked around. When he saw no one, he opened the book. The first page was a title: The life of Freddy Jones.
His phone beeped again and this time it was the phone tracker letting him know that Josie had left her current location. Couldn’t this woman just stay put? He needed a meek woman in his life, a woman who would actually follow directions. She had asked for her friend to come over, she said nothing about going to her friend’s house. He could not wait until this was all over. He tried calling her, but there was no answer. As he waited, he realized her avatar was moving toward the highway. He frantically tried to call her, but no one answered. Then, his phone rang.
“Where are you?” He shouted on the phone.
“Jerome.”
“Listen Alicia, I don't have time right now.”
“The woman, a man took her and her daughter is crying, and I don't know what to do.”
“What are you talking about? Where are you?
“We are in my car.”
“What woman are you talking about?”
“The one I found at your place.”
“Are you at my place or are you in your car?”
“Can you please listen? I am chasing them.”
“Chasing who?”
“Talking to you is so frustrating. Listen and shut up.”
“I came to your place. I met the woman and child, but then as I was in the bathroom, a man came and took her by force. We are chasing them.”
“One more question Alicia, who is we?”
“The child and me. She is a brat by the way. She took a chunk out of my shoulder. You'll pay for the emergency room when this is over, mister.”
“Okay, but I want you to listen to me. I want you to turn your car around and I want you to go back to my place and wait for me.”
“I don't think so. When I left there, I saw a bunch of cops driving in that direction. Sorry the phone is breaking up.”
Jerome could not believe it. She had dared to hang up on him. Sh
e had better not disobey a direct order. That's what was wrong in today's society. Women's independence had gotten to their heads and they stopped listening to common sense.
Jerome took enough time to look at Josie's avatar. He placed it on maps to see where she was going. Darn! She was already in the highway, moving away from the city. She was about twenty minutes away from him. He began to sweat. He grabbed his papers from the desk and ran to his car. He blue-lighted his way to the highway.
I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion.
Hosea 2:19
Chapter 30
Special Agent Jones was not very good at working with people. Growing up had been difficult. His mother, a middle class woman who ended up hooked on drugs, was not the best provider for two little kids. It had been tough, but they had survived, and both of them were productive members of society.
He became a cop to make sure children did not have to go through what he went through. His other career option had been social work, but social workers did not have the power cops did.
When he saw a single mother, he tried to stay near until he was sure she was a good mother. If she was not, he would make sure to give them the message and warn them that they could lose their children. The problem was that they never listened and sometimes they even complained about him to his superiors.
Josie was different. He had heard her mother complaining about how willful she was. She had heard her mother complain about her past boyfriends. Oh, it hadn't really been a complaint, but he knew how to read in-between the lines. Josie had a history of bad boyfriends, even if right now she was single. He knew it was only a matter of time before she would choose her selfish behavior over her kid’s safety. He had seen it too many times. It was his duty to protect the child and so he took a keen interest in Jerome’s case.
He had moved from New York to Florida, working in pretty much every state in between. His number one goal had been to protect the kids and in many cases he had succeeded. With the complaints to his supervisor, there was one thing he did not like. He did not like to be reprimanded for good work, so he had quit and moved on. This time he would be very careful to cross every ‘t’ and dot every ‘i’. He liked working here. He loved how uninvolved his office was. There was a secretary that right now was missing in action; there were two female agents that spent more time at the gym than they did in the office, and the supervisor came in late enough to take his lunch break after checking his emails. He then proceeded to do who knows what for five hours and walked in the door just in time to bump into everybody leaving at the end of the workday at five. This office was perfect for him. The only problem he had was his partner. He hated him.
Parker was good at one thing. He was very good at judging him. If Parker had gone through what he had gone through, he would understand. Parker’s mother was the total opposite of his own mother. Parker’s mother, although single, had put her children first. She had never brought a man into the house, and she had never traded her kids for drugs. Jerome Parker couldn’t understand his need to stay on top of this case in its entirety, and the fact that Parker was micromanaging his business while having so much trouble keeping up with a single woman and her daughter was infuriating.
Right now he needed to protect this child. She was a beautiful little girl who had been born in the wrong family. As he sat in front of Jerome's apartment, he was not surprised to see her leave. This young woman was a bad seed. She was of a type who could not help their selfish and irresponsible behavior at the destruction of their children through their actions.
He knew that she had left the child alone. He had seen Parker at the office, so he knew he was not here taking care of the child. There was something odd going on here though, some big burly man with huge biceps dragged Josie out of the house in a position that couldn’t help but to hurt. He felt conflicted emotions, should he go upstairs to make sure the child did not get hurt, or should he follow the woman?
And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.
Mattew 13:58
Chapter 31
Josie was terrified, her uncle had never acted like this before. In the past, he had been arrogant and sometimes bossy, but never cruel. Somehow, she knew that if she needed something, she could always count on him. She really needed to check her instincts, because right now he was acting crazy, and that was scaring her.
“Uncle Ken, I want to go back to my daughter.”
“By now, the cops should be there. Your daughter is fine.
“But she's probably scared!”
“Sorry about that, but it was the only way.”
“Only way for what?”
“Your daughter will become ward of the state, then your mother and I will get custody.”
“I don't think so. They wouldn't take her away from me, I'm a good parent.”
“What kind of parent leaves her young child behind while she goes out?”
“I didn't leave her. You took me.”
“Look at your history. You are not a fit parent and I have enough witnesses to attest to that. Now look at mine, there is no one to say anything bad about me. My character is impeccable.”
“Why are you being so cruel? You know I changed my ways after Vicky.”
“People don't change one day to the next. How many times did the cops have to bring you home drunk?”
“That was a long time ago; besides, I was never charged with anything.”
“I wonder how many times did you get high?”
“I never used drugs.”
“Didn’t you tell us that you had been on drugs and that was why you don’t remember what happened the night Vicky was conceived.”
“I told my mother that I had been drugged.”
“Same difference.”
“No it’s not.”
“I have some papers here. You have to sign them and everything will be as it should.”
“What papers, what are you talking about?”
“The ones where you are giving your parental rights away.”
“Uncle Ken, what are you trying to accomplish with all of this?”
“Simple. Your mother wants her family back and I have a way to get it for her.”
“You don't know my mother at all. This is not how she does things.”
“She'll see it my way soon enough.”
“Well, I am not signing anything.”
“We’ll see. The cops should be calling me any time now.”
“They won't. Vicky was never alone.”
“What do you mean?”
“Simple, my friend was there.” She would not let him know that she had never met Jerome's sister at all. It was time to act smart and not give away everything.
“Who?”
“It doesn't matter, but tell me, why are you doing this?”
“You are an idiot. All I want is for your mother to marry me.”
“Do you really want a woman to marry you because she owes you?”
“I don't want to talk about this anymore. You'll do what you are told and everything will work out as it should.”
Josie felt frustrated. He was not listening and she did not know what to do. She wanted to get home to her daughter and to Jerome, and then another thought occurred to her. Her mother had gone several times on weekend getaways. She left on Fridays and came back on Sundays. She called them her mental days. Her mother never said where she went and Josie never asked.
“Where is mom?”
“I have a hunting place. She is there.”
“Is that where mom went when she needed to get away?”
“No.”
“Where did she go?”
“Mostly to the beach. She would stay at a cheap hotel.”
“Uncle, don't you think that she would have married you already if she loved you?”
“She will this time.” r />
“She won't.”
She did not understand why, but without any warning her uncle had lifted his hand and slapped her across the face. She had no idea what happened, as the pain did not register in her brain until a few seconds after the dizziness dissipated. She felt the sting on her lip. She licked it and the taste of blood registered before she could accept what had just happened. She touched the corner of her mouth where the sting was and then looked at her finger. She still could not believe it. Her uncle had hit her hard enough to bust her lip. Who was this man?
“She will marry me.” He said.
Kenneth was tired of the childish behavior. Josie was a brat that had needed a spanking long before today. From now on he was going to do a lot more of that. He was going to assume the responsibility he should have assumed before, this was his family. He was going to make sure his family was together, and he was willing to do whatever was necessary to accomplish that. The girls might get upset, but that would only be temporary. Eventually they would thank him. After all, he owed Chase. Taking care of the girls was a duty not a choice.
How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
Psalm 36:7
Chapter 32
Jerome was doing ninety on the highway and praying he would make it there on time. Her avatar showed her being about thirty minutes away from him. He started to call Jones for back up, but as usual there was no answer. He tried one more time.
“Jones here.”
“I need your help.”
“Sorry, I'm on my way out of town right now.”
“Where exactly are you going?”
“None of your business.”
The phone went dead. Jerome did not know if Jones had hung up on him, or if it had disconnected, and was relieved when immediately afterwards his phone wrung again. Thinking that it was his temperamental partner, he decided not to give him a chance to say no.
“Jones I need you to go west on highway 10.”
“I don't know who Jones is, but you and I need to talk young man.”
“Mother?”
“I sure hope so, as I gave birth to you almost thirty years ago.”
“Mom, I'm busy.”
“You'll make time or I will go there and give you the beating you deserve.”
“I am a little old for that, don't you think?”
“You are never too old to learn your manners.”
“Mother, I'm going ninety on the highway. I need to hung up.”