“Son of a bitch. That asshole is beyond belief,” Ellis hissed, the sound of a door closing followed by an engine starting up coming from his end. “I’m heading over there now, and if he even tries to get through that door…”
Making a sharp turn in the road, Dave started driving back into town. “Don’t do anything stupid, man. Last we knew, he was lying low in a motel, dicking around thinking he wasn’t getting a court date when he totally is. He’s probably just doing it to scare her.”
“Yeah, well, he’s gonna get a scare himself. Serious as shit, Dave. He’s been fucking everything for years and we all wondered when she was gonna scrape him off. Now that she has, he can’t even be good to his own daughter?”
He had a point, and truth be told I was in agreement with him on this. I’d wanted to cancel tonight, but Jose had insisted I come, and had even added her details to the app that showed the video feed and system alerts from her house on my phone. I could switch between the properties whenever I wanted, and it helped that I’d know if there was a problem, but…
Almost like it was an omen even thinking about having my phone connected to her security, just then my phone started going crazy. It was still in Dave’s back pocket so he had to shuffle again to get access to it. Pulling it out in front of him, he swore loudly and started to drive faster.
“Ellis, get to Jose’s. Her front door and back window have just been breached. Tab’s phone got the alert.”
The sound of screeching wheels came from Ellis’s end. “Just pulled up. There are two cars parked across the bottom of the drive, and the front door’s open.”
“Tab, call it in and tell them you’re with me and it’s Jose,” he ordered. “Ellis, keep your phone on but stick it in your back pocket. Go in carefully, and I’ll be with you in about five minutes. Tab’s calling it in, so they’ll be there soon too.”
“Gotcha,” Ellis muttered, and the sound on his end became slightly muffled momentarily.
As I called 9-1-1, I half listened to what was going on as I laid it out for the woman who’d been passed the call from dispatch, Rory. Once I had her assurance that she was sending Raoul and Logan out, I hung up and gave my sister’s house my full attention pulling up the video feed and listening to the voices coming through the speakers in Dave’s car.
“Well, I’ve changed my damn mind. Me and Rita are gonna raise her, ain’t we baby?” Larry said, making both of us cringe at the thought.
“Sure are, Laz,” Rita Slutita replied. “She even looks like me.”
Lie! She looked nothing like either of them. That beautiful baby was a Harrison through and through.
“Yeah,” Ellis rumbled, interrupting whatever Slutita was going to say next. “I don’t think so. See, what I think is that we’ve got enough evidence to get both of y’all charged. Breaking and entering, trespassing, potential kidnap of a newborn, and wait…is that white powder under your nose, Larry? Tsk, tsk.”
“You can say that to the police, but I’ll just say you’re lying,” came Larry’s weak response. Jesus this guy was such a limp dick. “And what are you doing in my house?”
“Eyes open, fucker. Jose’s house is wired with cameras, so you wiping under your nose was just recorded. And yeah, it’s Jose’s house – it’s her name on the papers for it, her name on the mortgage, her account it gets paid from, and her job that puts the money in the account to make those payments.” There was some incoherent shouting, and then Ellis calmly said, “I wouldn’t advise you to do what you’re doing there. Your friends just ran out of here so it’s just the two of you, and given that you can hardly stand, I’d say that your chances of making it out of here with the baby are slim to none.”
I wasn’t aware that I’d lifted my hand, but when Dave’s closed around it and brought it down to his thigh, I gripped tightly onto his fingers. “He’s got Olivia,” I rasped, the panic starting to take over. “What if he tries to drive with her, Dave?”
“He won’t,” he replied firmly. “Ellis won’t allow it, and if he somehow makes it out of that house with her, Logan and Raoul should be pulling up any second so they’ll make sure he doesn’t make it to the car.”
The sound of Olivia crying her little baby wail almost broke my heart. “What if he’s hurting her? What if he drops her?”
Just then, Jose’s tear filled voice screamed out at him, “Don’t hold her like that. She can’t support her neck, Larry. Please!”