“A child! I’ve been sitting here for years waiting for you to find that bitch and either bring her to me or kill her! You’ve done nothing I’ve asked for, and now, you’ve got yourself arrested. How the fuck are you gonna help me, Daddy dearest?”
“Watch your mouth.” AJ stared at Hiro, worried that the statement was out of character for the father and son.
“What’s going on?” he asked quietly. “Where are you really?”
“I told you. I’m in jail.”
“No. No, you wouldn’t waste your time calling me from jail. Who is this? Who the fuck is this?”
“Stop being so paranoid, Archie. It’s me. Your father. Just sit tight, and don’t leave the cabin.” AJ stared at Tanner, who had one finger in the air.
“Fine. Fine, I’ll sit here and rot in the cabin while you rot in jail. Fuck you!” The line went dead, and AJ and Hiro looked at Tanner.
“It’s not perfect, but we’ve got a five-mile radius. We have to get there before he decides to leave.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“A child. He calls me a fucking child! I’m the one sitting here with nothing to do, no recourse, no life! At least he’s sort of free,” he laughed. “What a fucking joke!”
He puttered around the cabin for a while, pretending to clean some things up when in reality, he was just pissing away time. Then he heard the ping of his phone.
Don’t leave the cabin.
“What the hell?” he muttered, texting him back.
Yeah, I know. We just spoke.
There were several long moments of silence, and Archie just stared at the phone. Then the little bubbles started to move, telling him that his father was texting. Again.
NO. No, we didn’t. I’m using a guards phone.
You just called me and we spoke. We spoke for like five minutes.
Leave. Leave now. Take all the cash you have and find somewhere to go. They’ve found you.
Who? Who is they? No one could find me with a phone call.
These people can, Archie. Leave now.
He tried to call the number on his phone, but it went to voicemail for a name he didn’t know, with no one picking up. When he attempted to text back, the text messages were unanswered.
“Leave. Leave, he says. Where the fuck am I supposed to go?”
Pulling his suitcases from beneath the bed, he packed as much as he could carry on the snowmobile. When he hit town, he’d have to rent a car. At least his father had given him several fake IDs when they first came out here.
Seeing the bottles of unopened liquor, he packed them in an old milk crate along with some food supplies and loaded the snowmobile. There was a blizzard on the East Coast, so he would need to head west.
“Where? Where the fuck can I go?”
From the small wall safe, he pulled out the fake IDs and two envelopes of cash that his father left the last time he was there. He expected there to be a few thousand dollars but was shocked to find that there was nearly fifty thousand.
“Well, at least I won’t have to stay in a roach motel,” he laughed. “Daddy came through after all.”
Realizing that his mother would be alone now with her husband in jail, Archie knew he could count on her to send him more cash. Dialing the number, she answered with a chipper tone.
“Mom?”
“Archie! It’s wonderful to hear from you. Your father isn’t here. He’s in a bit of a pickle but should be home any day now.”
