Free One You Never Leave by Lexy Timms Page B

Miss Ryan. She picked up his backpack which sat on a chair in the corner. “I have all your things from the school room right here.”
    “Don’t make me leave, Miss Ryan. I want to stay here with you. Mama’ll come to get me after school. She always does.”
    “I’m sorry, Ray,” she said with sadness in her voice. “There’s nothing I can do. But I put my address in the backpack, so you write me, okay?”
    “That won’t be necessary,” said the man gruffly. He stepped forward and took the backpack, and grabbed for Ray’s hand. “He won’t be allowed contact with anyone from his past.”
    “Agent,” warned Mrs. Cooper, “you’re scaring the boy.”
    “Good,” growled Harkness, “because he should be afraid.”
    “Agent!” protested Mrs. Cooper.
    Ray shrieked and ran out of the principal’s office. He didn’t want to go with this man. He’d find a place to hide. There was a place in the basement, behind the big old boiler, where he could scoot into but an adult could not. He’d stay there until the man went away. Mama and Papa would come. They wouldn’t let this man take him away.
    His feet slapped down the hallway, but the man was faster.
    “Fuckin’ A!” the man exclaimed as he reached around Ray’s waist and lifted him off his feet. “Settle the fuck down, kid,” he spit as Ray struggled. “There ain’t nothing you can do, kid. You’re coming with me.”
    “Mama! Papa!” Ray screamed as the man carried him out of the school and to his car. He practically threw Ray into the back of it, along with his backpack.
    “Shut up, kid,” said the man as he strapped Ray in with the seatbelt, roughly. “You ain’t seeing your old man or mama ever again, so you might as well close your pie-hole.”
    The man climbed behind the wheel and his car rumbled to life.
    “Why!” screamed Ray. “Why can’t I see Mama and Papa?”
    The agent turned in his seat and glared at Ray.
    “Because they’re dead, kid. Now shut the fuck up.”
     
     
    Luke scrubbed his face with his hands and then reached over to pull Emily to him. Only Emily wasn’t there, and he panicked a minute before he remembered that his wife was in the hospital overnight.
    Shit. Just that thought caused his gut to clench.
    The smell of the burnt dinner permeated the apartment. He checked to find that it was off, and he breathed a sigh of relief that the words “with automatic shut-off” were printed under the brand name on the crockpot. He left it, too tired to clean it, and hit the bed.
    For all the good it did him.
    He turned on the light by the bed and sat up, and then realized the room was very cold. He shivered. It shouldn’t be this frosty here. Luke pulled on the jeans that he’d left in a heap on the floor and went looking for the cause of the lack of heat. He found it. His front door was wide open.
    “What the fuck?” he thought. He looked over the door jamb but didn’t see any signs of forced entry. Maybe he forgot to shut the door completely when he came in? He certainly was exhausted when he arrived home from the hospital.
    The click of a light switch caught his attention and he whirled to the sound. The light in the kitchen was blazing. Luke tensed. He definitely did not leave on the light there.
    Luke looked around and found no one. He remembered the .45 in the gun safe in the closet to his right, but it would take longer to get it out than he had time for. It was ironic that the gun was sealed away for safety’s sake when Luke had such a desperate need for it now.
    With no weapons in hand, he decided to go for bravado.
    “Who’s there?” he called out as his heart hammered.
    “You need better security,” said a deep, gravelly voice with a Hispanic accent. The refrigerator door closed with a rattle of beer bottles on the door.
    Luke shut the front door, though he wanted to flee. He had no idea who was in his apartment. Some Rojos or Hombre? Why would one venture into his apartment? Fury built in his heart.