One Step at a Time

Chapter Six: Cartels and Getting out

"Do you want to watch a movie?" Asked Kaleb.
"Not really, Jacob's had a long day and needs to take a nap. Plus we need to talk, I have a huge secret to tell you, and we need a plan."
"Okay I'll get us drinks, and appetizers from the kitchen you put Jacob down for his nap."
I carried Jacob into our room. I laid him down on our bed, and handed him his bear.
"Buddy do you want me to tell you a story?"
"I'm tired. Can Bob and I go to sleep?" He hugged his bear, which was reassuring knowing that Bob was the bear, not the creepy man from before.
"Okay buddy. Have a nice nap, I love you." I kissed his forehead lightly, then turned the lights out on my way back to the living room.
I walked to the couch where Kaleb was sitting, and grabbed his hand. "Can we talk somewhere else? I don't want to be accidentally over heard."
"Yeah, that's fine baby. Let's go down stairs, I have a man cave down there." He stood up, pulling me towards the staircase.
We walked down the steps into a beautiful room. There was a pool table in the center, large televisions hung on the walls, one on every to be exact. As I look across the room I see a beautiful cherry wood bar, with brown leather stools, and two black leather chairs facing one of the TV's.
"Where would you like to sit?" Kaleb asked gesturing towards the bar.
"The bar is fine. We need to make sure that if your mom is to come home, or Jacob is to wake up that we know. Is there a television hooked up to the surveillance cameras?" I walked to a stool and sat down.
"They are, are you positive you want them on. What if the man comes back? Then we will have to deal with him being here and an adult not."
"Well at least if he comes back the cameras are on and we will catch him that way. Plus this way I can talk to you knowing Jacob is safe, and that he can't hear us."
"Okay. I understand. What's going on?" Kaleb sat next to me, putting his arms on the bar, like a man in his late thirties going through a mid life crisis.
"Your mother has been very nice, letting Jacob and I stay here under the circumstances, and I am very appreciative. However, we are placing you both in grave danger. They think that we have been kidnapped. There is Amber alerts out for us right now. I don't want you both in prisoned, because I want to be able to be with you outside of that atmosphere, not behind bars." I shifted in my seat. "Jacob and I need to leave, before we get you both introuble."
"I completely understand why you're worried, but it'll all be okay my mom has it under control. I need to leave for a few hours tonight, I have a package to pick up at my friend Hensley's house. I should only be gone an hour since it's only a few doors down from here."
"You're not going anywhere. I'll go for you, if I don't get out of here I won't make it. I have a question, do you mean Hensley Fezzoli?"
"Yeah. I guess it'll be okay if you go, but what about Jacob, and my mom what will we tell them? How do you know Hensley? I'll give you an envelope, which you are to give Hensley, and I will give you a gun for protection."
"I don't need a gun. You will babysit Jacob, and talk to your mom about a plan for us to leave. I know Hensley, because I used to work in a crew for him, but he won't know me personally, because I worked on the other side of town, and only did major deliveries so I would get a cut. How do you know Hensley?"
"Well I work in a crew directly for Hensley. Which is where I must come clean. I'm a drug dealer, well more like a drug transporter. After my dad died, I had to support my mom and I, and this was the easiest way to make money. I'm trying to get out of the crew. A few of our men got shot last month and I don't want to be the next dead body found due to the works of the Hensley drug cartel." Kaleb shifted in his seat so that he was facing me. He put his hands in his lap, and continued speaking, "Basically this is to be my last job with Mr. Fezzoli."
"Do they know yet? Like have you told anyone in the crew? Or is everything under wraps, and you know exactly what you're going to do? Because I do believe that the cartel only kills those who leave or try to. See I was never tied in with Hensley, I had an extra transporter between us, so I was never in extreme danger."
"We'll see here's the deal, I'm not going to tell anyone that I'm leaving the crew or anything. I'm just going to disappear off of the face of the earth for a little while, and just hope that they don't find me. You're very lucky Ava, having a transporter and all. See normally transporters are the ones who end up in a ditch somewhere with a bullet in their heads, or end up missing only to be found in a dumpster on the east end of L.A. So you tell me Ava, how in the world I'm going to get out with my life not being threatened, because just by telling you this now, it could get back to Hensley tonight, and he could have my head." Kaleb slid his hands onto my legs.
"Baby, listen to me, we need to get out of the country without someone in authority noticing us. So here's what we need to do, Hensley is a drug dealer, so he probably has connections to con-artists, or maybe people who make fake I.D's and passports. We can buy the four of us each a passport, remake birth certificates, recreate our identities, and be whomever we want. The last thing we actually have to worry about is being happy. We are going to pretend we are a married couple, and Jacob is your son, we need your mom on board so that she knows she now has a grandson, and Jacob needs to be a typical three year old, and start calling us mom, dad, and grandma."
"How the hell are we going to get a three year old to do that?" Kaleb stared at me unsure of what my response would be.
"Well he listens to everything I say, so it looks like I just need to tell him the plan, and tell him not to say anything, now don't I?" I grabbed his hands reassuring him.
"Okay, but I know one thing for sure, changing a three year olds name and getting him to listen when you say it is complicated." Kaleb released my hands as if he was worried about something happening.
"Baby, it will all be okay, listen to me. It looks like someone just pulled in the drive way. So we need to go back upstairs." I stood up, grabbed his hand, and waited.
When we got upstairs, Kaleb noticed it wasn't his mothers car. Hers is a 2003 Rolls Royce Phantom, and we knew right away that wasn't hers. The car that was in the drive way looked like a beat up Buick. I ran back to the bedroom, to check on Jacob.
"Sweetheart, are you okay?" I picked him up off the bed, when I noticed he was hugging his bear tightly, with tears streaming down his face.
"Sissy. The monster was here again. I'm scared. I don't want him to hurt us." Jacob gripped tightly around my shoulders, not letting go, even when Kaleb ran in the room screaming.
"Baby what's wrong, Jacob said the man is back and I'm scared, he's scared, you're shouting. I don't know what to do. Okay, so tell me why you're shouting, and let's find a place to hide."
"Well for one, the man is back, and with two others. My mom has a secret room in her walk-in so let's hide there. I'll finish telling you everything in there, for now grab only what you must."
I grabbed my purse from the bed, holding Jacob in one arm and the purse in the other.
"Kaleb, is this room you speak of does it have a bathroom, is it stocked with everything we will need? Food, blankets, water, anything?" I shifted lightly.
"Well it has everything we will need to survive, for a few days, until my mom comes home with more items, then maybe weeks. I have contacted her, and notified her of our situation, she is going to use the rear garage, coming in from the other road way, then she will enter from the laundry room, use the secret passage way to get into her room, then go from her room to the safe room without complications we should have all the supplies we need. Now if something in our plan is to fail, one or all of us will end up harmed or in grave danger."
"Um. Okay. Lead the way to the safe room, I really don't want Jacob to get hurt. He's everything to me, and he can not be harmed."
I followed Kaleb into the safe room, with a large realization that this may be the last few days I have with my baby brother. Him being my everything I didn't want anything to happen to him, but at the same time knew Kaleb wouldn't let either of us be harmed.
"My mom should be home soon, until then all we can do is watch the security cameras, maybe play a board game, and wait. I wish it didn't have to be this way." Kaleb sat down in a brown chair, and turned on the television hooked up to the security cameras.
I sat down next to him in the other chair, and put Jacob on the ground so he could sit on the mat and play with his bear. The door seemed to be air locked shut, the only way in or out was with a code, that Kaleb and his mother only knew.
"Is there anything to do, besides watch the cameras? If not I'll volunteer to go and get something for us to do, because to be honest I'm really bored, and I'm going to be even more bored two hours from now." I reached over, and laid my hand on Kaleb's.
"Well do you see that chest in the corner, there are games inside, you can pick one and set it up, I'll play. The other tub is dry food, incase you two get hungry, and the mini fridge is water, and juice boxes." Kaleb moved his hand to his lap.
"Okay, I'll find one." I got up walking across the room, to the beautiful cherry wood chest, and opened it carefully. I looked inside and saw all kinds of games, Monopoly, Twister, a deck of cards, Sorry, and The Game of Life. I grabbed Monopoly knowing we would be in here for a little while.
"Is this okay?" I showed Kaleb the game, and waited for him to nod his head in assurance.
As he nodded, I sat down on the floor mats, and began to set up the game. I chose the dog as my pawn, and Kaleb chose the shoe. We divided the money as the directions stated, then began to role to see who would go first.
"Hey, after today I'm going to sneak out of this safe room, and take a shower, because I haven't showered for three days, and really need to. Thank god your mom had extra tooth brushes."
"Haha, I showered the first two nights you were here, but I haven't yet today. There's a bathroom in here, fully functional, it's just over there through that door." Kaleb pointed to a door to his left.
"Okay, when your mom gets here you can show me where everything is at, but you both will need to keep an eye on Jacob until I'm done with my shower. And we can ask your mom to get me an outfit out of her closet. I have one in my bag here for Jacob. I'll give him a bath after I'm done showering."
"Okay, I'll show you where the soaps are at, I think I'll ask my mom to grab you that purple cocktail dress that you were eyeing on the way in here. I'll also have her grab you a few extra outfits incase that doesn't fit."
"Thanks, that'll work. How did you know I was looking at the dress? Were you watching me walk in here, because I'm not sure if you were or not, I was looking at that dress so carefully."
"Well I was watching you walk in here for safety, but I just guessed that you were looking at her best dress." We both busted out laughing, knowing how funny it was that he could guess I was looking at the most beautiful dress in Marcie's closet.
We played Monopoly for what seemed like hours, by the time we saw any more movement on the cameras, the men had left, and Marcie was just getting home. We vowed to stay in the safe room over night, just to make sure no one was harmed.