Running Target

by Kari Lemor

  Bouncing the child higher in his arms, he trotted deeper into the trees. Can’t let Victor hear Jonathan. Callie would get rid of the man, he had to trust that. No doubt, she’d be fine. On her own since her parents had died, she was a survivor. As he moved farther away from the house, he kept whispering in his son’s ear to stay silent. Callie opened the back door and allowed Victor to enter. Everything would be fine, but he said a prayer anyway.

  * * * *

  Callie drove down the street, almost choking at the sight of the limousine in front of her house. Victor. What was he doing here? He’d been here at the party yesterday. She rarely saw him more than once a month. Why had he come back? Had he seen Jack with Jonathan? Oh, God. A flock of geese soared through her stomach at the thought of what she’d find inside the house.

  After pulling into the driveway, she shot out of the car. Victor strolled up behind her and she breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t look like he’d killed anyone recently. His face was calm and pleasant. But what did he want?

  “Callina, I called a little while ago but you didn’t answer.”

  “Victor, is everything all right?” Her voice was a bit breathless and she hoped he couldn’t hear how fast her heart was beating. At least it was beating. When she’d first seen his car, she thought it had stopped.

  “Everything is fine, my dear. I just wanted to check if I dropped my cuff link here yesterday. It’s one of the diamond ones my lovely Angelina gave me before she left this world. Do you mind?”

  She swallowed hard. Was Jack still inside with Jonathan? Had he seen Victor pull up? He could hardly miss the long, luxury vehicle but if they were playing noisily they might not have heard it? “Did you knock on the door, Victor, or did you see my car wasn’t here?”

  “Yes, I knocked a few times then checked the garage. I assumed you must have gone out and hoped it wouldn’t be too long. I’ve been here for about twenty minutes. I’m on my way to Boston for some business meetings next week and figured it was easy enough to stop on my way.”

  She grabbed the back doorknob and twisted. Locked. Had she done that on her way out or had Jack done it when he’d seen Victor? Taking a deep breath and exhaling shakily, she took her key and inserted it in the lock. Her hand trembled. Could Victor see how nervous she was? Think back to when you visited him while spying on Angelo. Remain calm and use the tricks Jack taught you for staying in control. She called on all of them now.

  “Where is Jonathan, dear? Is he still in the car?”

  “Jonathan?” Her voice cracked at her son’s name. Yes, where was Jonathan? If she said he was still in the car, Victor would want to see him. She could hardly say she’d left him alone in the house.

  “He’s with a friend this morning, at the church playgroup. I try and take him myself but I wanted to clean up a bit from yesterday’s party so his friend’s mom volunteered to bring him with her son.”

  She walked through the back door, Victor following behind. “So he won’t be back soon? I was hoping to see him again.”

  “No, Victor, sorry,” she answered, louder than necessary. If Jack hadn’t already known Victor was here, then maybe he would now and get out of the living room. “I think she was planning on taking the boys out for donuts after.”

  Callie’s eyes darted around the kitchen then through the archway into the living room. She didn’t hear anything so they might be safe. Victor started looking around the kitchen and she helped him search. When nothing was found in that room he moved toward the living room.

  Victor frowned then looked her way. “Where is the picture of you and Angelo? It was on the end table here yesterday.”

  Damn. She had stuck it back up on the shelf like she did every time Victor left. Her mind went into survival mode. “It’s right behind you, on the shelf. Jonathan was bouncing around the room last night with all the sugar from the cake. I didn’t want him to break it. It’s the only good one I have of Angelo.”

  “You know if you lived closer to me, dear, you could see all the pictures of Angelo I have in my house and I would be able to see my grandson more often. Once or twice a month is not satisfactory for me. Won’t you consider coming back to New Jersey?”

  She stopped in her tracks, not at the question but at the sight of the cereal box tipped over in the chair, spilling its contents all over the floor around the recliner. Jack must have left in a hurry. He knew she hated messes and he was fairly neat himself. Leaving the floor like this must mean he had no choice. But where was he? And where was their son?

  She remembered Victor had asked her a question. Although it may have been rhetorical. If she kept talking maybe he wouldn’t notice the spilled mess. She moved to the opposite side of the room from the recliner and said, “You know my job is here and how much I love it. Two hours isn’t that long of a drive especially since you have a chauffeur. And you’re welcome to come visit any time.”

  Those last words she didn’t mean but she had to add them anyway. Victor could never suspect she knew what he did for a living or that she wanted nothing to do with him. So far he trusted her implicitly.

  He looked around the room and she thought he was going to say something about the cereal on the floor but he merely reached in between the cushions of the couch and pulled up a small piece of gold, smiling victoriously. “Ah, here it is. I wondered if it had fallen off when I was sitting here watching Jonathan open his gifts. Thank you, Callina, for allowing me to search. I would have been heartbroken if I had lost this permanently.”

  “It’s not a problem,” she lied, and started for the kitchen door hoping he would follow. He did. Opening the door, she smiled. “I hope you have a good business trip this week. Make sure you take some time to have fun, too.”

  Victor patted her shoulder as he passed and she was thankful he’d never been one for hugs and kisses. If she’d had to give him those every time they got together, she might have been physically ill. He turned as he walked through the door and his eyes narrowed at something behind her. Callie looked over her shoulder. Jack’s denim jacket hung on one of the kitchen chairs. A moment of panic encompassed her but Victor merely shrugged and nodded at her.

  “If the time is convenient, I may try and stop in on my way back next week. I’ll make sure to call and give you some notice first, dear. I know you have quite a busy schedule.”

  She forced another smile onto her face. As she watched Victor walk down her back steps and turn the corner to go down the driveway, she thought of all the things she could be doing when he drove back this way. He had no idea half of the excuses she gave him for not getting together were all made up. Aside from work and playgroup, she and her son didn’t travel all that far from home. After the life of adventure her parents had craved, she wanted nothing more than to spend as much time as she could with her child, enjoying every second of his life and watching him grow up. She didn’t want to miss anything because she was too busy exploring. It suited her perfectly.

  The limo started up and she raced through the house to the front window to watch it drive away. Once it was gone, she ran up the stairs yelling, “Jack, Jonathan? Are you here? Where are you?”

  She checked Jonathan’s room, the bathroom and her bedroom, even looked inside the closets. Nothing. Running back downstairs, she checked that bathroom then flew to the cellar, wondering if Jack had taken Jonathan there. It was damp and musty and mostly stored off-season clothes in large bins and her Christmas decorations, but when she went down, nothing was amiss. She even looked behind the oil tank, washer and dryer.

  Her breath came out in a heavy sigh as she climbed back up the stairs. Grabbing her purse from the kitchen, she got her cell phone and dialed the number labeled ‘Aunt Agatha’. The soulful notes of an old love song floated from the direction of the living room. It was a song from the first movie she and Jack had watched together. Her heart pounded harder. What did it mean that he had it as his ringtone?
She moved toward it and found his cell phone under the mess of cereal on the recliner. It must have slipped out of Jack’s pocket when he left. Now how was she going to find them?

  Callie pushed the curls from her face, wishing she had taken the time to secure her hair in a ponytail earlier. Now she simply wanted to know where her son was. And where Jack was. They must be together but the thought didn’t make her feel any better. Then she remembered Jack saying he didn’t think she trusted him with Jonathan. She did trust him. She trusted him more than he knew. So now she needed to trust him to take care of their son and bring him back.

  With those thoughts, she began to clean up the mess on the recliner and floor. When that was done, she went out and got the bags of groceries that had been sitting in the car for a while. She put everything away in its proper location, pulled out a frying pan then cut open the package of bacon to begin layering it in the pan. Maybe if she cooked this, her two bacon lovers would return. It was a silly thought but it helped her not to be so anxious that they weren’t here.

  When the bacon was cooked and set aside on a paper towel to soak up the grease, Callie cracked a few eggs in a bowl and began to stir them with a fork. Jack liked his eggs over easy but Jonathan liked them scrambled. Over easy was how she preferred them too, but parents usually sacrificed what they liked for their children’s desires. Well, at least that was the type of parent she would be. Her parents had never taken what she wanted into consideration. If they had, they’d still be alive right now.

  Closing her eyes, she recalled the day when she’d found out her parents had been killed in the rockslide. Writing articles for an international travel journal had made them famous in their field and fairly well off. The money hadn’t helped them survive. They’d been on one of their climbing expeditions and a huge rainstorm had come up, causing the conditions to become unstable on the mountain. Both of them, along with four other people, had perished. But they hadn’t been the only ones to suffer. She had been left without parents. The nanny, who always took care of her when they were out on one of their jaunts, had made quick arrangements and shuffled her off to Aunt Agatha’s. Her aunt loved her but the woman had no idea what to do with children. She thought providing money to other people to take care of her was the right thing to do. Maybe in Aunt Agatha’s case it had been.

  She would never do anything like that to Jonathan. He already didn’t have a stable father figure in his life; she would never risk his losing his mother too. It was one of the reasons she had become an accountant. The job was safe, the money was good and she didn’t have to worry about living dangerously. Well, she hadn’t until Jack had come along. But having Jack in her life hadn’t been all that dangerous. They mostly communicated using technology and he was never around long enough to cause any waves. Until today.

  She leaned against the counter, thinking how much she’d missed having Jack around. But maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to have him here in the flesh. The gorgeous, lean-muscled flesh. Maybe keeping in touch through the use of technology was better in the long run. It kept the danger aspect out of it with using Aunt Agatha’s profile.

  “Be nice and quiet and maybe she won’t notice if we snitch a few pieces of bacon.”

  Callie turned, her heart hammering, at the whispered voices, to see Jack and Jonathan sneaking in the back door. Jonathan’s bare feet were covered in dirt and Jack was smudged in a few spots too. She didn’t care. They were the most beautiful sight she’d ever seen.

  “Oh, God, where have you been? I’ve been worried sick. You saw Victor was here.” She rushed and scooped her son from the floor to hold him tight. Kissing his precious face, she checked to make sure there was nothing more than dirt on him.

  “Luckily he left a message on your machine before he showed up. It gave me enough time to get out. Barely, but we made it.” Jack’s face held a wry, cautious smile. Did he think she was mad at him? Victor showing up was hardly his fault. Although the danger aspect of Victor’s visit certainly was.

  Jonathan leaned out of her arms trying to reach for the plate of bacon she had cooked. She allowed him to grab a few pieces then deposited him on the floor. “Sit in a chair, Jonathan, and you can eat that. I’m making some scrambled eggs to go with it.”

  Moving to where she had left the bowl on the counter, she began to stir again. But relief at their returning safely caused her hands to shake and she dropped the fork. Jack moved up behind her, settling his hands on her shoulders.

  “Are you okay, Calico? We were fine. I took Jonathan into the woods behind the house. He was chattering like a little magpie and I thought Victor might hear him so I kept moving farther away. I checked back a few times but Victor was still here so we had to stay there.”

  She nodded her head but she wasn’t okay. The reality of what could have happened if Victor had seen Jack here began to set in and her whole body shook. Jack turned her around and she immediately fell against him. When he pulled her close to his chest she absorbed the strength and warmth that had been missing from her life for so long. His arms wrapped around her trembling form and she relished their support.

  “Shh, it’s all right, Calico, we’re good. Everything is fine.”

  But it wasn’t fine. As long as they had to live like this, it wasn’t fine. But for now, she would absorb as much comfort as she could from Jack. She wasn’t sure when she would be able to get it again.

  Chapter 7

  Callie watched from the doorway as Jack read a story to Jonathan. The two had played hard and fast today once they’d been filled with bacon and eggs. This morning’s near miss was still on her mind, making her shaky. Get a grip on yourself. You can’t take care of your son if you’re a basket case. After all, Jack wouldn’t be around for much longer. When Jonathan went down for his nap, he planned to leave.

  “Now you remember I have to go back to work, right, pal?” Jack reminded the boy once more. “But I promise I’ll talk to you tomorrow on the computer. Mommy said we could do that before you go to bed.”

  Jonathan held up the book to his father and said, “Wead a me?”

  Jack gave a sad smile. “Sure, I can read to you. What story do you want me to read when I get back home? You know I don’t have that many at my place.”

  “Night Moon.”

  “I have Goodnight Moon. That’s the one I always read to you when we talk on the computer. Maybe I’ll have to get a few more. For now though you need to close your eyes and get some rest. We had a busy day, didn’t we?”

  Jonathan’s eyes fluttered. He wouldn’t be able to keep them open much longer. It was past his usual nap time and he had gone without one yesterday. Leaning down, Jack kissed their son on the forehead, lingering for a few seconds. He ran his fingers through Jonathan’s hair and down his cheek for even more minutes until the boy was sound asleep. Unmoving, Jack sat on the side of the bed staring at their son. Callie stepped out of the doorway and headed downstairs.

  She figured she’d let Jack have a few minutes alone with Jonathan. The leaving was always the hardest. It must tear him up inside whenever he had to go, especially as he had no clue when he might be able to appear in their lives again. The despair in him was quite evident, though he tried to hide it.

  Oh, sure they communicated using various forms of technology but it wasn’t the same as actually being in the room together. If she couldn’t see Jonathan except once a year, she’d have gone nuts by now. It would have ripped her heart into tiny pieces. What it did to Jack must be intolerable. He loved their son; there was no doubt in Callie’s mind. He showed it in everything he said and did. He never mentioned love to her though.

  She shook her head as she walked into the kitchen and wiped down the already clean counters. Keep those thoughts out of your mind. What you and Jack had was fleeting. It had been powerful and strong, resulting in the appearance of their son, but it had hardly been permanent. And it certainly couldn’t be now.
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  Even if Victor was somehow taken out of the picture, could she be with Jack? Did he even want her? He worked for the FBI, or at least he had before all this mess. She wanted a simple life, a quiet life, one where she could always be with her child and not worry about having her loved ones taken away from her. If Jack worked for the FBI or any other law enforcement agency, he would always have the potential for getting hurt or killed. She couldn’t put herself through that, relive what had happened with her parents.

  Opening the refrigerator door, she removed cold cuts and mustard. She would put together a sandwich for Jack to take with him. Five hours was a long ride and he’d need some sustenance. Lunch had been a few hours ago, but he wouldn’t return to the construction site until well after supper time. She put a few pickles in a plastic bag so he could add them to his sandwich if he wanted. Tears welled in her eyes at the memory of all the joking they would do, simply over the subject of pickles.

  Once the sandwich was all bagged up, she took a bottle of water and set it next to the food on the counter. When she turned around, his denim jacket screamed from the back of the chair and she sighed. Victor hadn’t said anything about it, but she was getting good at making up excuses quickly when it came to the mobster anyway.

  Picking up Jack’s coat, she held it to her face. The scent of sawdust and his spicy soap assaulted her nostrils. Another reminder he was hiding in a life that wasn’t his. Luckily for him, Scott had a business where he had work all over the country. The company had belonged to his father and he could have taken it over, but he had chosen to work for the government after he’d left the military. He’d wanted more excitement and travel. Once Victor had put a hit on him, he’d traveled from one end of the continent to the other trying to stay hidden. Scott’s business had come in handy, providing a living for Jack as well as a variety of places to hide. Not quite the type of travel Jack had desired.

  Callie inhaled again, wondering what life would have been like if Jack had been in the construction business and she had met him then. If his parents had still been around to help her with their grandchild. But his mother has passed away from a long illness right after high school and his dad had suffered a fatal heart attack a few years before she’d met him. Having family around would be amazing. But that was a dream, and she had to live in the real world.