Megan Franchino knows her chance for escape is now or never. With school finally out for her son Antonio, and her abusive husband going out of town she just might get far enough away before he starts looking for them. If they fail to get away, Megan knows she will not live to regret trying. There is no choice though, their recent injuries prove that if they stay one or both of them will eventually die from the beatings.

There is only one place she might feel safe to go, but will she be welcome there? Can she even get there? How long can she stay? What then? And if her husband's family does catch up to them, is there any way to keep Tony safe?

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The Legal Stuff: Dollar Runaways  © 2014 By Tiffany Shar
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright  © 2014 By Tiffany Shar. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Preface

Like the first four books I posted here on BigCloset, I will be posting a full copy here on BigCloset. I was planning to post it a chapter at a time, but due to some real life events that took place in the last week I am doing two per week instead so it’ll be completely posted before I get too busy with other things! The book has a total of 26 chapters and a short epilogue. The full version should be completely posted by early March. For those that cannot wait however, I have an e-book version of the full book available from Lulu.com as of today. You may find it at My Store. My assumption is that the majority of my readers would be more interested in this edition of the book rather than a hardback or paperback. There are two types of eBooks available depending on how you wish to read it. One is the ePub format that you should be able to load on any e-reader (you may need an additional app, but I believe all will read it), and the other is a standard PDF formatted file. I believe the PDF is the best way to read it on a computer screen personally. If you enjoy this work perhaps you will consider supporting me by purchasing it ($5.95 for the eBook formatted files).

Several readers have commented on the similarities of the story to Wanda Cunningham’s ‘Incognito Parallel.’ I would reference you all to the ‘Dedication’ in the first chapter where I recognize that her tale most definitely sparked my imagination and this book! I believe you will find that in the end though this work is its own story.

One caution before continuing through this book; it is darker than my past novels have been. If it were a movie it would probably be rated R for Language and Violence. Much of this novel is just as light as you are used to seeing from me though!

Thanks again for reading, and I hope you enjoy reading Dollar Runaways!!

Chapter 5: Havens

THE WAKE-UP call came while I was still deep in slumber. I just rolled back over and closed my eyes again. Mom got up and moved around for a while before she came and said, “Ashley, time to get up.”

“Okay,” I said and moved towards the suitcase where we had put my clothes.

“Do you want to wear a dress today?” Mom asked me.

“I really hate sitting in that seat with a dress,” I told her honestly.

“Oh... Yeah, that is a bit awkward isn’t it.” She moved around me and dug around, coming up with another skirt.

“That’s the same problem...” I started to say before she pulled up the fabric and showed me there was a pair of shorts underneath. “What is that?” I asked. I didn’t remember trying it on yesterday.

“It’s a skort,” Mom said, “outside it’s like a skirt, but underneath it has a pair of shorts to keep you from having embarrassing moments with your panties.”

I blushed. “I guess that will work,” I told her. She found a top to match and sent me to the bathroom to get dressed and brush my teeth. We hurriedly began taking stuff downstairs to the car then. Mom put the booster seat from yesterday in the trunk and installed mine. We ran back upstairs a couple times, but soon I was carrying Kaitlyn and Saige down the elevator in the doll tote while holding Kristin.

“Let’s go get a big breakfast at Denny’s, and then we’ll head off,” she told me once we’d put my dolls down in the backseat. I was getting a little tired of her insisting to help me with the harness, but as I looked up I felt my heart stop.

A distant cousin of mine was walking out of the lobby towards a car and looked right at me with a smile. I had met him last year when my Dad brought us down on a business trip... Thankfully he smiled and looked away, walking on towards the car.

“What?” Mom asked me.

“Don’t turn around,” I whispered urgently.

I could tell she just caught herself, “What?”

“Eddie just walked by.”

I watched mom tense up, but she said, “Did he see you?”

“He looked right at me, smiled, and kept walking. You can go now I think.”

Mom quickly moved to the drivers seat, a little shakily, and drove away. Both of us were relieved when he got onto the freeway and drove away from us. “Mom, I hate pretending like this, but I have a feeling it just saved our lives...”

Mom didn’t speak from the front, but decided to go on to breakfast as planned. “Why don’t you bring Kristin in with you this time?” Mom suggested.

“Why not Kaitlyn or Saige?” I asked.

“Please, just bring in Kristin?”

I sighed, “Okay.”

Mom grabbed the backpack that came with her and held it over her shoulder as we walked to the hostess stand.

“Two please,” she said.

“Would you like a booster seat for your daughter?”

I felt my face redden up, “That won’t be necessary for my sister,” Mom said.

I smiled a bit then, glad that she didn’t take that offer, and we followed her to a booth. I sat Kristin in my lap and tried to hold her like a little girl would. “Here’s a menu for you sweetheart,” the lady said as she put a coloring menu in front of me. “And what would you like to drink?”

“Orange juice please,” I said.

“You’re sure Eddie didn’t recognize you, right?” Mom asked softly across the table when our order for food had been taken.

“I’m sure he would have said something. Let’s face it! I’m a cute little girl who was being buckled into her car seat... I’m about as far from Tony as I could be.”

Mom nodded and drank a few more sips from her coffee. “You know we might have to keep up this act for a while...”

I sighed, “I figured.” I didn’t want to cry, but I so needed to cry. Everything had changed in the last few days and the last thing I wanted to do was to stay like this... Or was it?

“Are you okay?”

I nodded, “I just would like to be a bit older,” I told her. “But, I’ll be eight as long as I have to be.”

Mom nodded, “Well, you’re only seven until next week though” and laughed a bit.

I giggled too and asked, “So can I be a princess on my birthday?!?”

“Of course! But, you’re a princess every day,” she reassured me with a smile.

The food was served pretty quickly and we spared no time in eating. A quick trip to the bathroom, a stop for gas, and Mom was driving again. I began brushing Kaitlyn’s hair out a little bit and changed her pajamas to another outfit. Saige soon had a new outfit too, and I was kind of regretting I didn’t want to wear a dress today since I had a dress just like hers I could have worn.

‘What am I saying?!?’ I asked myself. ‘It’s official, I must be the ‘queer’ that Dad was always trying to keep me from being...’ I should have been more upset, but the truth was I felt good about it. Not a single person had even guessed I was a boy, let alone that I was almost eleven, since we had changed my clothes. ‘Maybe I really am a girl, and this is how I’m supposed to be...’ I knew I had the boys plumbing, but other than that I’d never really been much of a manly boy.

“Whatcha thinking about back there?” Mom asked from the front.

“Nothing,” I lied.

“Yes you are, what’s wrong, talk to me.”

“Mom, I’m a boy... Right?”

“Well, normally, yes.”

“Then why am I able to fool everyone so easily, and why... And why do I like this?” I asked with tears now coming down my face.

“Do you need me to stop sweetie?”

‘Stop what? The car, dressing me like a girl?’ Instead of answering either of them with the ‘no’ that I know a normal boy would have, I said, “No, keep going, if we stop too much we won’t get to Gloria’s tonight.”

“I don’t mean just the car Tony.” Mom said, the name jolting me a bit.

“No, I don’t want to stop that either...” I wiped a tear from my eye, “I’m just worried because I don’t really want to ever stop it.”

With that I broke down into sobs and Mom pulled over to a gas station to give me a hug. “Sweetie, if that’s what you want that’s fine. Honestly I don’t know that we’ll ever find a way to be free of your Dad by being who you were. If this is who you want to be then I’m okay with that.”

“But doesn’t it make me a faggot?”

“Young lady don’t you ever use that word again!” Mom hissed with the look that meant I was in trouble, “It just means you’re being true to yourself then. And I’ll love you no matter what you are, little girl or boy,” she poked my nose, “or cat, or dog, or whatever. You’re my baby and that’s all that matters!”

“Well I definitely feel the baby part right now,” I laughed nervously between sobs.

“If you’re going to be a girl it’s okay to cry sweetie, it’s even okay to cry as a boy.”

“But Mom, Dad always...”

“Your Dad is not the kind of man to think of here Ashley, there are much better guys out there in the world.”

“You really believe that?” I asked her in surprise.

“Do you think we’re leaving a good person?”

I shook my head, “No.”

“Then hang in there.” She hugged me again and used a Kleenex to wipe my eyes. “Are you going to be okay for a while until we stop again?” Mom asked me since we were already at a gas station. “We’ve been in the car for a couple hours already you know.”

“Oh, I guess I could go to the bathroom then...”

“Come on then, and we can wash your face too.”

Mom led me into the gas station and we both took a turn in the one-person bathroom. When I was done Mom helped me wash my face off. I noticed she was going to have to redo her makeup too and waited outside the bathroom for her to finish.

“Is everything okay?” I looked up and saw a lady police officer.

I nodded, “I’m just waiting for my sister to get out of the bathroom.”

“Okay, I know how that is!” She told me. “What’s your name?”

“Ashley,” I said.

“How old are you?”

“I’m eight,” I said. I felt bad about lying to the cop about everything, but telling the truth here was just about as bad as running home to my Dad in a dress.

Mom came out of the restroom right then and I hoped the officer was satisfied everything was okay. “Bye,” I said to her as I took her hand and we walked back out to the car.

“I hate being scared all of the time,” I told Mom as she buckled the seat again. I saw the officer come out the store and look at us and wave.

“Maybe when we’re in one place it’ll be better.” Mom suggested.

“Maybe.”

With that she went around to the other side and started driving again — this time I was out like a light.

RAY WAS FURIOUS with his father for sending him back up to Vermont even though Megan and his son were missing. His fury showed on his face as he walked into the office in the back of the store. “Ray, you’re back.” His cousin Ryan said.

“Yes, and I’m not happy about it either. You figure out anything over the weekend?”

“No, but I noticed one of my crew behaving a little strange the other day.”

“Which one?”

“Craig over there,” he said pointing to a fairly athletic looking guy in his mid-twenties.

“Former military?”

“Maybe, not sure. He’s been working with us for about a year now. I let him into the shipping end of the business three months ago once I thought we could trust him.”

Ray looked at the guy and thought something did feel funny. He looked a bit too clean-cut for someone that would be down on his luck enough to work for them. “I’m going to go talk to some other guys around here, see if they’ve seen anything.”

“Sounds good boss.”

AGENT KLINE SAT in his office looking at some reports his field agents had sent him in the last week. All organized crime cases flew across his desk at some point or another and he made it a point to know what was going on with each of them. Giovanni Franchino looked to maybe be messing up on his security for once. An agent had managed to make it into a crew in Vermont that was smuggling drugs, weapons, and stolen goods back and forth across the border. His son had come up to take a look at the operation... ‘That’s odd, why is Raimondo up there...’ he looked at some other reports and noticed that a cell phone call had actually been intercepted unencrypted for once from his phone.

‘What the hell is going on?’ he asked himself and looked at things. He debated for a moment about the idea of pulling out his agent, but this was the first time in twenty years anyone in the agency had any luck cracking the business anywhere. They easily had enough to shut down the local operation, but tying in the family was a tougher sell with the courts.

‘Whatever has Raimondo upset might just do it though...’ He picked up his phone and dialed. “Hey Jake, yeah this is Bob... I’m looking at a report here from a phone call from Raimondo Franchino that looks kind of odd... Would you look into it to see if there’s anything going on back home with him? I know we haven’t been doing much other than tapping his line, but this is the kind of thing that might finally break the case open... Great, thanks!”

‘Not much else I can do for now but be patient. They’ll make a mistake somewhere…’

I WOKE UP as the car slowed down at the off ramp. “Where are we?” I sleepily asked.

“Amarillo, I thought we could stop to stretch our legs and get something to eat.” Mom said to me.

“Okay,” I said.

I looked down and saw that I had been cuddling Kaitlyn from whenever I fell asleep in the car. I brushed a strand of hair back and looked at the ears that they had pierced for me. ‘I’ll have to find another pair and switch them sometime...’ I thought to myself as mom pulled off and into yet another mall parking lot.

“Not more shopping...” I whined a bit.

“No, I just want to walk around somewhere and we can eat in the food court,” she insisted.

“Oh... Okay I guess.”

“Let’s put your dolls in the trunk sweetheart, I don’t want anyone to decide to break in the car...”

I nodded and set Kaitlyn and Saige back in the doll carrier, and helped Mom carry some of my stuff into the trunk. Inside a bag I saw the iPad out of the box. “When did you open the iPad?” I asked her softly.

“After you went to bed last night, I was really surprised you never asked about it.” She said to me as she leaned down and pushed the skirt of my skort back into place.

I blushed, “I was more excited about my dolls.”

She grabbed my hand and smiled at me, “I know.”

The two of us walked through the mall and settled on a piece of pizza apiece for lunch. As I filled up and couldn’t eat the rest of it I looked up to see a jewelry store not far from where we were sitting. ‘I wonder if she’ll go for it...’ I thought to myself. It was then I realized that Mom must have left almost all of her jewelry back home - she definitely wasn’t wearing a wedding ring now.

“Whatcha thinking Princess?” Mom asked timidly.

I smiled, “I was just thinking that Kaitlyn looks just like me except for one thing.”

“What’s that?”

It came out in a flurry before I could stop my mouth, “She has pierced ears and I don’t.”

“She does, doesn’t she...” Mom said thinking. “Well you know Mom said you couldn’t have your ears pierced until you were eight...” She wore a really big smile.

I giggled. “I’m almost eight” I said with my own smile.

“I know you are, and what Mom doesn’t know won’t hurt us, huh?” She smiled and said, “Come on, let’s go to Claire’s, it’s where I got my ears pierced back in the day. It’s tradition!”

Mom grabbed onto my hand and we walked to the store. In ten minutes we were out of there and I had a pretty pair of pretty crystal tanzanite colored studs that corresponded with my new birthday month. It stung, but didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would. I was really surprised Mom went along with it! She’d also gone on one of her crazy shopping binges, and in ten minutes, had a selection of accessories she told me were mainly mine. Apparently a few things were for her though.

“I thought you didn’t want to go shopping,” Mom joked with me as we came out and headed to the car.

“I didn’t...” I said, “I just got my ears pierced, you’re the one who did the crazy shopping.”

“Uh-huh,” she said. With that she helped me again with the seat and closed the door, but quickly reopened it and handed me Kaitlyn and Saige, as well as the iPad.

“Thanks!” I told her.

“You’re welcome!” she told me.

With that I opened up the pink cover and blushed at the home screen background. A picture of me cuddled up with my doll sleeping greeted me. I looked really cute, but I quickly said, “That’s not nice.”

“Oh yes it is,” Mom said, “Do you know how much I would have loved to have had a camera yesterday? You were soooo cute in the American Girl store!”

I just sat there and said, “I’m not that cute,” and began looking to see what she had put on the iPad. I was a little bummed that everything I normally played wasn’t on there, but looking at my fingernails with flowers painted on them I decided I might as well try the girl games on there.

I didn’t even know we reached New Mexico until Mom pulled off the road at a gas station. “Come on Princess, potty time,” Mom told me as she opened the door. After I was out of the seat she hid the iPad underneath a seat and we walked into the store. It wasn’t a long stop though, and Mom had us back on the road in a short while.

“How much longer until we get there?” I asked.

“It should be just about three hours or so to her ranch. We have to drive through Santa Fe and a bit towards the mountains to get there.”

“Great! I’m so tired of being in the car!”

“I am too sweetie. I just hope we can stay there for a while and avoid having to move again anytime soon.”

“Again?” I asked. “You don’t think we’ll be able to stay?”

“Well sweetie, I can’t impose on Gloria too much here... I think after a week or so we’ll try and find somewhere else to settle down.”

I sighed, “We’ll see what happens I guess. I don’t know why I bother even hoping that we’ll plan something. I was supposed to go to Cedar Point with Frank today...”

I hadn’t thought much about life continuing at home, but my aunt and uncle were supposed to take Frank and me up overnight to the amusement park. This was to have been the first year I was tall enough for the next level of rides. All I had been able to ride were the little kids rides since I was less than four feet until last month.

“I know sweetheart. You definitely didn’t plan this.”

“Did you Mom?” I asked.

“Plan to run?”

“Yes.”

“Definitely, especially when Ray hit me that last night. He would have killed me, and probably either killed you when all was said and done, or managed to scar you for life and made you into a...”

“Monster like him?” I suggested softly.

Mom looked up at me in the mirror and nodded.

“The girl thing though, I didn’t ever even dream of sweetie.”

“Really?”

“Really, it was just that waitress saying you were my daughter... Well that’s happened a lot the last couple years since you grew your hair out.”

I nodded, maybe she’d heard some of it too, but I’d probably gotten that a lot more than her. Over Spring Break Dad had a convention in Las Vegas to go to and had brought both of us with him. I’d stayed with Mom and gone shopping and seen some of the sights the first few nights, but the last night Dad wanted to go out and have a night to themselves.

“Do I have to go there?” I asked indignantly. “I’m ten! I’m old enough to stay in the room by myself!”

Mom could tell I was getting ready to have a tantrum, and honestly it wasn’t helping my argument. “Look Tony, it’s not legal for us to leave you in the room by yourself here until you’re at least twelve. This isn’t back home where I can feel a little bit okay with you staying by yourself at home for a couple hours. Vegas isn’t exactly the safest city in the world...”

“Fine.” I griped as we walked in.

“Besides, at least this one is designed for older kids too,” she tried to reassure me.

“Good evening, may I help you?”

“Yes, I need to check him in here.” Mom spent ten minutes filling out forms and listening to the rules about when I had to be picked up then. There was a five-hour time limit apparently, but just that meant she didn’t have to come get me until after eleven.

“Okay Tony, go ahead and go on through that door...” I had tuned most of it out at that point, finding a place to sit down and stare at the room. One side did have a massive jungle gym thing that looked kind of fun, but I wasn’t happy that I had been abandoned.

“Are you okay?” I heard a girls voice and looked up.

“I guess,” I answered.

“Pissed your parents left you here?” I was amused to hear the language from her since she seemed like one of the rule following girls from school.

“You might say that. My dad insisted that he wanted dinner and a show with my mom only tonight. Sooo not fair.”

“I hear you, this is the fourth night my parents have dropped me off here, and I was here earlier today too.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, I’m Candice by the way.”

“Tony.”

“You want to do a puzzle or something?” She asked, “Or I guess we could climb up on the jungle gym for my gazillionth time.”

I laughed, “I’m sorry, I thought I had it bad. Whatever you want to do, I was just going to sit here all night and be miserable, but maybe you’ll at least make things fun.”

She smiled at me and we looked through the puzzles, finding the only one that seemed challenging enough to amuse us being a Disney one. “I hope you aren’t one of those anti-girly girls,” she said to me.

I flushed and wondered all of the sudden. “What do you mean?”

“Well you know I’ve got this one friend that hates everything that might at all make anyone think she’s a girl. Disney, Dolls, My Little Pony, anything pink!”

I laughed in terror, but didn’t correct her.

“No I’m not quite like that...” Had been all I could say.

“How old are you anyway?”

“Ten.”

“Wow, I thought you were farther from my age.”

“You?”

“Eleven, so why are you so short?”

“My parents are both really short.”

“How short?”

We had continued to talk and put the puzzle together for a couple hours before the staff forced interaction with us and some other kids on a board game. The whole time that night no one thought I meant Tony as in Anthony, they all thought it was the girls form, ‘Toni.’

“Are you okay back there?” I heard.

“Yes, I was just thinking about the trip to Vegas.”

“The daycare place where everyone they thought you were a girl?” She asked.

I looked up, startled, “How did you know about that?”

“Well the staff made some sort of comment about how well behaved my daughter had been all evening when I came to pick you up. Something about you had made friends with a girl that hadn’t talked to anyone else and then you helped a couple of other kids out too.”

“Well, she just thought I was a girl... And I never tried to change her mind. I was afraid she’d hate me otherwise. What do you mean she wouldn’t talk to anyone else though, she came right up to me and we started hanging out...?”

We talked about that for a few minutes and she told me a couple of other stories that I hadn’t heard in the last few years. “It’s why Ray was so insistent on you getting that haircut.”

I nodded, “Are you sure he’s not going to think about you hiding me like this?”

“I doubt it, he thinks of you as being too much like him. I don’t think he’d ever believe you would put on a dress...”

“I hope not...”

“That’s part of why it might be better for us to keep pretending you’re a little younger though,” Mom added.

“For how long?”

“I don’t know. If we get to the fall we’ll obviously have to figure out how to deal with you and school. I brought our birth certificates and social security cards, shot records, passports, and your school records - but I really don’t think we should use them if we can avoid it.”

“No, we shouldn’t, Dad will trace us through them. We have to have all of those things for you to get a job and me to go to school, though, don’t we?”

“Yes, that’s why I brought them...”

“I just wish we could change them I guess,” I said mostly to thin air.

“I’m hoping maybe we can get them changed somehow sweetie,” she told me.

“How?”

“Well, we’ll see... for now we just need to make it to Gloria’s...” Mom said as she made a turn past a place that looked like a bona fide tourist trap.

“What’s that?”

“Clines Corners,” Mom said. “I remember stopping there one time with my parents. It’s filled with junk for the tourists to buy!”

“So we’re not stopping?”

“Not unless you need to, I really want to keep moving here, it’s only another hour or so.”

“I can wait,” I told her.

With that I opened up the iPad again and decided to see if she had bought any movies. One about my doll’s character was on there and I decided to watch it. Apparently I must have been enjoying it, because Mom interrupted me, “Why don’t you pause that and you can finish it later sweetie,” she said as she made a turn down a dirt road, “we’re here.”

A sign for Rocky Ridge Ranch was made of cutout metal above a tall metal gateway that we passed under as Mom drove down a winding dirt road with pasture to either side. I could see some cattle grazing, and some horses, but not like I would have expected. “Mom, where are all the cows?”

“Probably up in the higher pastures for most of them... They have more to eat up there. She only keeps the dairy cows close by so she can milk them daily. Gloria’s family has owned this ranch for a very long time and they have pastures going right up the hillside onto the mountain. They graze the rest of them up there during the summer and bring them down here in the winter or to ship them off for slaughter.”

I jolted a little bit about that. I really was a pretty squeamish kid, the idea of eating meat wasn’t a problem, but killing the animal myself would be. I hoped there would be none of that while we stayed there!

Mom pulled up to a large house that looked like a house that time had forgotten. It really didn’t look appropriate to the Southwest. Two stories with a tall pitched roof, it was Victorian in style and had a wrap around porch. The outside was painted yellow with white trim and posts. It really could have been straight out of the old South.

Mom parked in the circular drive that lay in front of it, and then came around to my side and undid the harness buckle. I sat the iPad aside for the moment and stood up, ‘I really need to go to the bathroom!’ I thought to myself. As we were beginning to walk to the porch a screen door opened and a very tall lady walked out, “Hi Gloria.”

“Megan?!?” Was the reply, followed by a hug and squeals from both of them.

“And you must be Tony... Or no, your mom said another name...”

“Ashley,” I answered softly as I accepted the strangers hug.

“Which would you prefer I called you?”

I looked down at my skort and answered, “Ashley please.”

“Very good, well you can call me Aunt Gloria, okay sweetie?”

I nodded and asked, “Do you have a bathroom I may use?”

“Of course, go in there and down the hallway and there’s one on your right.”

“Thank you,” I said and hustled to find where it was. I immediately discovered that the house must be gigantic! I didn’t take time to take in the decorations or anything, just found the bathroom, closed the door, and hurriedly pulled down my skort and, panties to sit down and go.

As I washed my hands I looked around the bathroom and saw that it was a full bath. The décor reminded me of my grandmother’s house in Colorado. Lot’s of little cute knickknacks and such lined the room. I decided it would be rude to stay in there much longer though, and walked out to find my mom waiting to go in too. Gloria stood in the hallway and looked at me. I looked at her and tried to guess what kind of a lady she was. I guessed she was at least a couple inches over six-feet tall, not skinny, but not grossly overweight either. She had graying hair and well-worn skin, which led me to believe that she worked hard outside, and had done so a long time. There was something in her gaze though that told me she was a good lady.

“You’re very brave to do this,” she told me.

“If I didn’t he might find us...” I told her carefully. I wasn’t sure how much Mom had told her.

“Well, I’m going to do all I can to help you and your mom hide from him and get back on your feet!” She assured me and gave my shoulder a squeeze. “Have you guys had supper yet?”

“No ma’am,” I told her.

“Definitely a polite young lady, aren’t you?” She asked me with a smile. “Well, let’s go see if we can’t get you two fed with something that’s not fast food!”

I smiled and said, “That would be great!”

GLORIA, MOM, AND I sat down long after dinner talking. “So what are you going to do now?” She asked Mom.

“I honestly don’t know. I haven’t worked the last ten years since Ash... Tony was born, but I do have my chemical engineering degree to fall back on. With the oil industry in this state I probably could find a job somewhere... Maybe.”

“You probably can, but there’s still going to be the whole issue of your identity.”

“I know... I really don’t know what to do about that.”

“Have you thought about going into the witness protection program or something? I’m sure the FBI would be willing to help you out for testimony.”

Mom sighed, “Testimony I don’t really want to give. Besides, half the time they still find people in those programs. I’m pretty sure that more than one witness has gone missing when they tried to testify against Joe or the others.”

Gloria nodded. “And you young lady?”

“What about me?”

“Well, for one you are one of the cutest little girls I’ve seen in a while, definitely polite, but school is going to be an issue for you unless you go as Tony.”

“I don’t know... I think if I go as Tony my dad is going to find us.”

“You could just change your name?”

I shook my head, “You don’t know my dad... I’m guessing he’s really mad right now. Probably the only way we can...” I sniffed a bit, “the only way Mom can be safe is for us to keep up the deception.”

“You know your vocabulary is the only way I can believe that you’re really not seven or eight,” Gloria told me. “Why don’t we all sleep on everything tonight, and we’ll see if we can’t come up with a plan in the morning.” She said, looking at Mom.

“You don’t mind us staying here for a week or so, do you?” Mom asked.

“Of course not honey! I don’t even mind you staying here longer than that if you need to, as long as you have a plan. That’s the important thing, I want you to get back on your feet and have a chance for both of you to live as normal of lives as possible!”

Mom gave her a tearful hug and said, “Thank you.”

“It’s no problem, I loved you as a teenager and I can see you’re still just as exceptional. Somehow we really should let Kaitlyn know you’re down here.”

“We can’t risk that... She might say something to my parents, or they might think to talk to her.”

Gloria nodded. “Well, if you’re here more than a week you’re going to have to tell her since she’s coming down with her two kids to see me.”

Mom smiled, “I guess we’ll jump off that bridge when we come to it... just like all of the others I’ve jumped off.”

Gloria hugged her and then said, “Well, let’s go get your stuff and take it up to your rooms.”

The three of us went down and Gloria insisted on helping to carry a couple bags upstairs. I grabbed the backpack that Kristin was in, the tote with Saige and Kaitlyn in it, and one suitcase somehow and followed my mom and Gloria up the stairs. “Why don’t you take this room Ashley,” Gloria told me as she opened up the door to a room obviously decorated with a little girl in mind. It was complete with a white daybed, pretty quilt, and white furniture everywhere else.

“This is pretty,” I said aloud.

“Well as long as you stay here it’s yours sweetheart,” she told me.

As soon as I sat my dolls down on the bed I turned around and hugged her, “Thank you for taking us in.”

“You’re very welcome sweetheart.”

“I’m going to go get some more things,” I told her and walked back down the staircase. It seemed like it was a very grand staircase for a house that was a ranch house. I guessed that whomever originally built the house was building their dream mansion. Everywhere I looked antiques were displayed and I felt like I was in a museum where I shouldn’t touch anything. I kept walking without looking around too much though because we needed to get settled in.

I found Mom at the top of the stairs as I climbed back up with another load. She pointed towards the room she was staying in across the hall so I could drop off the makeup case in my hand. After a few trips I decided I had everything and found myself plopped on the bed holding Kaitlyn.

Gloria walked in then and said, “Your dolls are very pretty, what are their names?”

“Well this one is Kaitlyn, she’s Saige, she’s Kristin, and she’s Kaelye.” I said somewhat proudly, and somewhat embarrassed.

“Are you embarrassed about liking dolls?”

“I don’t... Like them...” I tried to lie.

“You most certainly do sweetheart,” Mom came around Gloria and sat down on a chair in front of a mirrored dressing table.

I gritted my teeth and said, “Yes I do, you’re right.”

They both laughed at me, “It’s okay, I don’t have a problem with it,” Gloria said to me. “I’m happy to have you staying here as a little girl named Ashley, whom I fully expect to behave as such and like dollies.”

I blushed, “I’ll do my best.”

“I’m sure you will dear.” She came over and gave me a peck on the forehead. “For now you’ll have the bathroom there to yourself, but next week you’ll have to share it with Madison whose room connects to it on the other side.”

“Who’s Madison?” I asked.

“She’s Kaitlyn’s daughter, she’s a little bit older than you, thirteen.”

“Oh...” I thought for a second, “Didn’t you say there were two kids?”

Gloria nodded, “Mark is fifteen, he’ll be in another room down the hall.”

“Okay,” I said again and yawned.

“Well Princess, I think it’s about time for bed,” Mom said to me.

“I’m not that tired...” I tried to lie.

“Well I am, and you are definitely going to bed before me,” Mom told me as she unpacked my suitcase and hung things up in the white armoire that stood next to a closet. She gave me the pajamas I’d worn last night and I went into the bathroom and brushed my teeth. Mom had pulled down the quilt on top of the bed and I looked at the bed hoping it was as comfortable as it looked.

“Well hop in there Princess,” Mom told me.

She covered me with the quilt and asked a little quietly, “Do you mind if I keep calling you that?”

My brain worked quickly and I knew my answer, “I would be upset if you didn’t call me that, after all I am a princess.” I said it with a lot of inflection and Mom giggled at me.

“Well Princess, here is your teddy bear, I hope you sleep well and I’ll see you in the morning!” She kissed my forehead and stood up.

“Night Mommy,” I said.

“Goodnight Princess,” she replied.

I looked over at the window and could hear lots of odd sounds that didn’t make sense for a long time that night. The house creaked, owls hooted, and I thought I might have even heard a coyote. Eventually though I went to sleep dreaming that maybe we could stop running for a while.

RAY LOOKED DOWN the street and could clearly see Craig leaving something behind a dumpster.

‘Something definitely smells rotten there’ he thought to himself.

“Go check it out,” he said to Carlos sitting next to him.

A few moments later, he could see Carlos carefully grab something and bring it back to the car.

“Let’s see what Craig is up to...” He said as he pulled on a pair of gloves to match the set that Carlos had used. Opening it up carefully he found an SD Card. “Well, what have we here?” He asked.

“You have a computer on you?” He asked Carlos.

“Of course, in my back pocket, what do you expect?”

“You should. Ah well, get mine from the trunk for me.”

“Why should I...?” He started and then saw Ray’s face, knowing this wasn’t a request.
A few moments later he handed Ray the bag and he pulled the computer out. His MacBook Air conveniently enough had the slot on the side and he quickly copied the contents. Placing the disk back into the envelope and sealing it back up he said, “Go put it back.”

“Why?”

“I want to see who comes for it. Get a crew out here to trade places with us. I want the guy who’s doing pickups and then we’ll pickup Craig. Then we’ll take a little trip with those two.”

Chapter 6: City Girl

I WAS DREAMING something about my dad finding me in a dress while holding Saige when all of the sudden I heard a scream, “HELP, HELP!!!!”

I jumped out of bed wanting to cry. Someone must have found us. I heard it again, it sounded like a woman — maybe Gloria was crying out. ‘I should get Mom!’ I thought and hurriedly opened my door and ran across to her door. I looked around but didn’t see her! I had just turned around and walked back into the hallway when I saw her.

“Mom, something’s wrong. They must have found us, they’re torturing Gloria or something!!! I can hear her screaming!”

Mom grabbed hold of my shoulders and said, “No she isn’t.”

“Well someone is!” I was sure of it.

“Looks like someone really is her mothers’ daughter.” I heard a laugh behind me.

“It’s not funny, someone’s being hurt!”

“No sweetheart that would be the peacocks outside.”

“Peacocks?” I asked, wanting to believe it, but I was so ramped up it was hard to calm down.

“Peacocks,” Gloria said as she came down the hallway and knelt down in front of me. Even kneeling I was shorter than her. “That’s the sound they make in the mornings, and it’s fooled a great many people over the years.” She paused and smiled, “including your mother.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling really embarrassed. I started crying then without any good reason why and felt Mom close her arms around me.

“It’s okay baby, I don’t think they’ll find us here - not for a while anyway.”

“It’s just I was dreaming that Dad found us... And then I heard that sound...”

“I know sweetheart, it’s okay.” Mom said gently to me.

I eventually sniffled and looked up at Gloria, “Do they make that sound every morning?”

“Unfortunately, but you do get used to them. We’ve had a flock of them here since before I was born and I just can’t convince myself to get rid of them. They do have really pretty feathers that fall out though, you might be able to find some later if you want.”

I just nodded, not wanting to go through that again each morning.

“Why don’t you throw some jeans on and you can help me feed the chickens?”

I gave her a look that probably said all I was thinking right then, You have birds that sound like people crying for help, it’s early in the morning too, and you want me to go feed chickens???

“Come on, it’ll be fun!”

“Really?” I asked.

“Well, the first time it probably will. My rule is that as long as someone stays as a guest here they help out with the chores. I think feeding chickens is a good start for you, and we’ll add some others later probably.”

I looked at Mom, “What’s she doing?”

“Well, I thought she could help me milk the cows this morning. I assume you remember how?”

I felt my Mom sigh, and she said, “I sure do. Think I can do it without being kicked the first time?”

“We’ll see. It’s not quite the same setup, since we’ve had to add some modern milking equipment the last few years, but it’s not too hard. We only have thirty dairy cows right now. I’ll show you how after I show this young lady how to feed the chickens and find eggs.”

I felt a light pat on my rear as Mom shooed me into my room to find jeans and a t-shirt. I had wondered at the time why she insisted on buying me three pairs of jeans, but now I knew. I liked the Princess shoes for the most part, so I put on the Barbie ones... figuring if I was going to get a pair ruined - that was the one to do!

I reappeared at the door to my room and found Mom ready to go as well. She looked down at my shoes, “Well I guess we’ll have to go buy a couple pairs of boots later, huh?”

“Might be a good idea,” I agreed. “But I won’t be sorry to see these go,” I told her with a smile.

“I wondered if you’d think about that!” She giggled.

Gloria was waiting downstairs and walked with me out to a yard they had setup with a big chicken coop. “How many chickens do you have?” I asked.

“Oh... Probably about fifty or so... We use the eggs around here and I have a guy who picks most of them up once a week to sell at the farmers market in town. We usually slaughter a few going into the winter for special meals. For the most part though the turkeys are what we’ll use for Thanksgiving and such.”

“You raise your own Thanksgiving turkey?” I asked in disbelief. “That’s kind of cool.”

“There are usually no qualms in killing them either... They get rather mean. You’ll need to watch yourself in their pens.” She showed me where to get the feed and how to throw it out. “While they’re eating go ahead and go into the coop like this and pick up eggs...” Gloria got me started pointed me towards the turkeys next, and then went off with my mom.

I managed to make it through the chickens pretty easily and left the cartoned eggs where Gloria told me. I was more than a bit nervous as I went in to feed the turkeys. I could see there were about a dozen of them and started throwing out the feed the same way. That’s when one of them charged me and I screamed!

Closing the pen right behind me I managed to get out just as it tried to peck me. “What was that?” I asked aloud.

I heard someone laughing behind me and found Gloria checking up on me.

“That would be George. He’s a major pain in the rear, and he is destined to be on the plate at Thanksgiving. Most of the time I go in the pen I carry a shovel, it gives you something to whack him with if he decides to charge you.”

The problem was I could barely hold the shovel and the feed, so she helped me find the handle from an old broom. “Go away George,” I said to him as he tried to come at me again. Having something to push him back helped a lot! While I was feeding the turkeys I also spied the peacocks for the first time. They were kind of pretty really, but I still had a major grudge against them for the way I woke up that morning!

Gloria had gone back to help my mom right after I finished so I took the feed buckets back to where they were kept and decided to go find Mom. I found her in a barn a little ways away attaching some weird gizmo to a cow. “That looks weird,” I said aloud.

“Yes it does,” Gloria said, surprising me again. “You finished with the poultry?”

I nodded, “What would you like me to do now?”

“Well, there’s a limit to how much I can have an eight year old girl do,” she told me.

“Oh,” I said. “Well, what should I do now then?”

“You can watch, or if you want to pet the cows or something that’s fine, but be careful. You are pretty tiny,” she told me.

I blushed and said, “Okay...”

I spent the next hour hanging out with them while the two of them finished rotating the cows through the milking process. I even managed to build up some courage to go up to the animals and pet them a little. They didn’t really seem to care about me one way or another though. When they finished up Mom and Gloria were just starting to wash down the milking shed when we heard, “Morning Gloria!”

Gloria just turned around briefly and kept working, “Hi Hank, how’s it going?”

“It goes well. Who are these two lovely ladies?” He asked.

“Well, this is Amber, and the cute princess over there is her little sister Ashley.”

“Pleased to meet you,” he said with a tip of his hat.

I giggled, it was so much like a bad cliché movie.

“Hi, nice to meet you too,” I said with a smile.

“What brings you ladies to the ranch?” He asked as he started helping to clean up.

“I’m working on finishing up a degree in agriculture, and my mom suggested we come stay with Aunt Gloria for a few weeks for some experience.”

“So Ashley’s your sister?”

“Yep,” she said and then stage whispered, “she was the oops child.”

“I heard that!” I said. I was laughing though, so everyone knew I thought it was funny too.
“And how old are you Ashley?” He asked.

I debated on my answer, but if Mom was sticking to the story I was too, “I’ll be eight next week!” I noticed Mom nod to me like that was the right story to say.

“Wow, you’re going to be all grown up before no time at all aren’t you?”

I nodded.

“Hank do you have the rest of this in hand?” Gloria asked.

“Yes ma’am, I’m guessing you’re going to go get ready for breakfast?”

“Yes sir, Consetta will have it on at eight, let the guys know please.”

I nearly froze for a second, ‘How many others work here?’

“Come on Ash,” Mom said as she tried to reach for my hand.

I saw hers though and said, “Uh-uh, not until you wash them!”

Gloria laughed, “You are such a city girl!”

RAY LOOKED AT his watch impatiently. He was at a safe house that no one from the organization in Vermont knew existed. It was a place that he and his father had bought through other people fifteen years ago and kept it supplied for anytime they needed to keep their heads down, or have a quiet place to take care of business. He watched the long dirt road for a long time before he finally saw the dust cloud flying down the road to him. The rumbling engine of a diesel truck grew louder as he waited. The cabin was in the hills and not easy to get to. The nearest neighbors were two miles away, and that made it ideal for business.

As the black truck came to a stop he opened the top of the bed cover and was satisfied to see two people gagged and bound. He wrinkled his nose at the smell though, one or both had soiled themselves on their two-hour trip out there. Trigger was the driver and he came around and shook his hand.

“You want some help getting them in there?” He asked, pointing towards the brick shed.

“Please,” Ray said. “You turned your cell phone off when you came out here, right?”

“Of course, I ain’t stupid — took the battery out too! These guys were also searched real carefully, those aren’t the clothes they were wearing when we grabbed them.”

“Good.”

Both men stayed unconscious all the way until Ray had them both chained to the wall in the basement of the shed. It was a pretty impressive trick of architecture in that you wouldn’t guess at there being a hiding hole underneath there. A good thousand square feet of space was available though for whatever they needed. All of it was covered in an easy to clean tile like in hospitals.

“Where am I?” Craig was the first to wake up and speak.

“In Hell,” Ray stated through his mask. Gloves and masks were the required attire for this kind of work to him.

“I didn’t do nothin,” he tried to say.

“You sure have a guilty conscience for someone that didn’t do nothin,” Ray responded. He held up the SD Card, “Remember this?” He had the satisfaction of watching Craig’s eyes grow wide in disbelief. Apparently he never had a clue he might be caught.

“So my only real question, is who you are working for. I’m guessing the FBI...?”

Ray had no doubt it was for the FBI. The SD Card had been encrypted, but one of his men was an expert on breaking encryption. They’d been fortunate in that the encryption hadn’t been the state of the art that should have been used. If it had been it would have been a different story right now... But as of right now he knew that he had been telling his supervisors about the next big drug shipment over the border, who was involved, where they stored everything, and enough details about the operation to get every man in Vermont’s operation in jail for years. Ray wasn’t mentioned, nor was his father, so he suspected they might not have known about those details.

“I don’t work for the FBI, what gave you that idea?” Craig laughed nervously.

“Well, your memos on this card to start with.”

“If I put that on there I’d be sure to make it to where no one could look at it, there’s no way there’s something like that you’ve found.”

“If you had been competent, yes. But you used too light of an encryption, idiot. Good for me though, now I know what you were doing of course.” For good measure he took the taser in hand and shot a barb the ten feet into him. It was a brief shock though, and it just caused Craig to cry out in pain.

“God, don’t do that, I can’t tell you anything!”

The other guy next to him started to wake up and Ray was certain it was going to be an interesting day.

ASHLEY PUT HER wet hair up into a towel like her mom had done for her the other day and went back into her room. She wasn’t sure what she was going to wear, but knew that she was supposed to be down for breakfast in ten minutes. The idea that she’d woken up at 6:15am on her own without an alarm clock just seemed really weird. The fact she had then spent an hour outside feeding chickens and turkeys was like science fiction.

‘I need to pick something to wear...’ Ashley thought to herself. Apparently all of the ranch hands would be downstairs for breakfast and would be meeting her. They had come to an unspoken consensus that they were sticking to the storyline no matter what... ‘So I need to look like a cute almost eight year old city girl...’ She smirked at that.

She found the pink and blue plaid dress, which she had a matching one for Kaitlyn, and matched it with her pair of white sandals. Kaitlyn was quickly changed into the same dress with a pair of sandals that weren’t quite the same, but close. She was just getting ready to try and figure out her hair when there was a knock at the door.

“Ashley?”

“Coming,” I said and opened the door.

Mom smiled brightly as she looked at me. “Good choice, it’ll help convince them you are who you say you are!” She paused and then added, “That and you look really adorable like that!”
I blushed. “Can you do my hair?”

“I thought you might need some help. Watch though, as I really want my sister to start doing her own hair!”

“Well I can do the same boy pony-tail if you want…” I told her with a smile.

She stuck her tongue out at me and motioned for me to follow her across to her room. Mom used her hair dryer to dry my hair and quickly combed it to match the new style I shared with Kaitlyn. Mom hugged me, “Come on, let’s go eat before the food is all gone!”

I saw why she was worried when we made it to the large dining room downstairs. Ten men and two ladies made up the rest of Gloria’s hands in addition to Hank. All were digging into food from a buffet that another lady, Consetta, had cooked up. I put a little bit of eggs, bacon, and potatoes on my plate before asking, “what’s this?”

“That’s green chile sauce,” Mom told me.

“Is it hot?” I asked.

“It’s not too bad,” Gloria said. I wasn’t sure I trusted her though with the smirk she had on her face. “Try a little on your eggs.”

I decided I was going to regret it, but I put a little bit on my eggs, not even a spoonful, and then sat down across from Hank and next to Gloria. When Mom sat down Gloria stood up.

“Everyone, we have two guests that are going to be staying with us for a few weeks. This is my great-niece Amber, she’s finishing up her agriculture degree. Her mom suggested she come out here for a few weeks on an internship and so she’s here!” She came and put both hands on my shoulders, “And this little princess is her sister Ashley. She’s going to be feeding the chickens for us while she’s here!”

I blushed a bit, but smiled and said, “Hi.”

They all introduced themselves, but I couldn’t keep track of their names. The two girls were Annie and Rachel. Both girls apparently had been working the ranch for years and I suddenly worried they would recognize Mom.

I wrinkled my nose a bit as I tried the eggs with the chile on it. I was pleasantly surprised that it tasted good! That was until my tongue started burning and I had to put it out with the Orange Juice. Gloria smirked at me and I gave her a dirty look back. I ate the rest of the eggs in answer to her unspoken challenge though.

Breakfast as a group was a pretty tame affair for the most part, and before I knew it everyone was done and heading off to do their jobs. “Would you like some help cleaning up?” I politely asked Consetta.

“Wow, you are a polite little lady aren’t you hija?”

“Mi-haw?” I asked.

“Well it means daughter, but we use it when we like sweet little girls,” she explained.

“Oh, thank you!” I said.

She handed me an apron, “We wouldn’t want to get that pretty dress messed up, would we?”

I shook my head, “Nope!”

“Why don’t you help by loading the dishes after I rinse them?” She suggested.

I showed her that I wasn’t a clueless little girl and was able to load the dishwasher as she handed me the things and started it going. “Ashley?” I heard from the other room.

“Coming!” I said and walked into the dining room. Mom was sitting there talking to Gloria.

“I think you’re being a little paranoid by keeping your story going, but I don’t blame you. Everything you told me last night freezes my blood! You’re welcome to stay here as long as you need to, but I would like you to talk to my friend Roger who’s a lawyer.”

“I don’t know...”

“One way or another you’re going to have to find some identification… maybe he can help you get your birth certificates changed?”

Mom sighed, “Yeah, I guess that’ll be a good first step. I’m just scared senseless.” I climbed onto the chair next to Mom.

“So what now?” I asked.

“Well, you two ladies probably should go get you some good work boots. Your sister here is especially going to be working her tail off here. I think I have enough riding gear in both of your sizes so you won’t need that. You might also want to go get some swimming suits to use in the swimming hole.”

“Swimming?” I asked.

“Yes, I’m sure next week you’re going to be spending a lot of time doing that too with Madison here. She loves the swimming hole.”

“Do you think...?” I asked Mom.

“We’ll figure something out sweetheart.”

“Okay. And you said riding?” I paused, “Like on horses?”

“Yep! I think this afternoon before dinner would be a great time for you to get your first riding lesson!”

I couldn’t deny that sounded really cool, “Cool!” I said

“Well, you two had better go if you’re going to get back for lunch and then to talk to Roger.”
“Are you sure you trust him?” Mom asked.

“I grew up with him and I’ve watched him over the years. He only takes cases on that are worthwhile, and I know he doesn’t have a crooked bone in his body.”

“I just hope you’re right,” Mom said quietly. We walked upstairs where Mom grabbed her purse and repeated the now familiar ritual of getting into the car.

“Let’s go to town!” Mom said with a smile to me.

“POPS, THIS IS Raimondo,” Ray said into the line, “are you secure?”

He knew his dad was checking his phone screen on the other line. “Secure.”

Just because it was secure though, didn’t mean this wouldn’t be in the open. “What we discussed as a possibility of happening is real. A yellow bird was in the shipment instead of a blue one. I’ve spoken with the manager and they claim it’ll be some time before they are able to ship a new one.”

“That’s too bad, well, you’ve done what you can. Did you find out why they shipped the wrong type?”

“A few excuses, nothing major.”

“Well, why don’t you head on back once you take care of your end there. We’ll talk tomorrow at dinner.”

“Sounds good Pops,” Ray shut the phone off and looked up at the two men. Both had broken way easier than he would have expected. He almost wondered if they’d lied to him, but it didn’t really matter. The area underneath them in the wall was going to have to be cleaned up, but he figured he’d get Trigger to do it. He could do that in exchange for the pleasure of finishing the two.

“Trigger, can you finish up with this mess?”

“Sure thing boss. You want me to use the enzymes like last time?”

“Yeah, I don’t like flesh and bones being available. It worked well last time.”

“Sounds good to me boss, it’s one time TV almost got it right… wrong type of chemicals though,” he said with a smirk. “They’re still kicking down there for now?”

“Barely, I figured since I’m asking you to cleanup I’d let you have the pleasure.”

“Mighty thoughtful of you.”

“I’m heading back into town to talk to Ryan. We’re going to need to clean things up for a while up here.”

“Sad to hear it, but I think that’s smart.”

“Yeah.”

Ray drove off a few minutes later unconcerned that two men were about to die from the lethal dose of drugs they had with them. He and Trigger both preferred to kill with as little blood as possible. It was just about impossible to clean up some spills.

AGENT KLINE PICKED up the noisy phone on his desk, “Agent Kline... Oh hey Jake... What did you find?” He began scribbling some notes, “No one has seen them for a couple days?” He wrote a few more notes. “You think they ran? Or do you think he took care of them?” He put the pen in his mouth and chewed on the cap for a moment while he listened. “No, I agree Giovanni probably wouldn’t let him hurt the boy either. The mom though...”

He talked to Jake for several minutes and decided that it would be in their best interests to quietly put out some feelers on her car, credit cards, and everything else. “Let me know what you find out.”

He had just hung up the phone when a knock on his door alerted him to one of his other Agents, Kelly O’Hare, walking through the door. “Good afternoon sir, I thought you would need to look at this report right away...”

She handed over the folder and he began looking through it. “Son of a bitch!” He said allowed, “The kid must have gotten sloppy. Just a couple of days of Raimondo being up there and they identified our agent and his supervisor...”

“Are you sure of that sir?” She asked him.

“You never got a chance to work with Elliot I’m guessing... Elliot never missed a report, ever. If he’s not reporting, and there’s no communication, he was compromised. I think we should probably go ahead with a raid on the operation in Vermont now. Even if we can’t get the family we can at least get some of their material.”

“Won’t they be closing up shop?”

“Probably, but maybe we can beat them to it.”

He immediately picked up the phone and dialed three agencies to assist in raiding the building in two hours. The toughest to get in place was the lead FBI SWAT team. They excelled at hits like this and he really wanted them there. Hopefully two more hours weren’t enough to clean up!

MOM HAD DRIVEN us to a western store that Gloria recommended, and I couldn’t help but feel like I was in some cliché novel the second we stepped inside. Mom seemed comfortable though as she walked amongst the racks of clothes, boots, and gear. We looked for a pair of boots for me first. She was sorely tempted by the pink ones that lit up like the shoes I had on earlier, but went for my preference of a pair that had brown leather on the bottom and pink up the top part. They had some pretty flowers tooled into the leather and a couple of glass rhinestones attached on the top that helped appease Mom’s need for them to be girly. She also found a pink cowboy hat that I would definitely die if anyone who really knew me saw me wearing!

The store sold jeans too, but Mom decided Wal-Mart would be a better choice for that. We began looking for a pair of boots for Mom and I was amused that we ended up finding a pair that looked like mine almost, without the rhinestones. “If anyone asks, I want you to say that you made me pick these because they were like yours.” Mom told me.

“Okay,” I said. She found socks to go with the boots and some other things she was sure we would need before driving to the mall.

I was a bit surprised that Santa Fe would have a mall, since it felt kind of too old and small for that. She made a point of driving through the old part of town and promised we’d come shopping there sometime too. At the mall we found all of the normal stores and she headed straight towards a directory.

“Okay, Penney’s will be first, but then I want to hit Children’s Place too...” she said mostly to herself.

She was walking pretty quickly so I had to almost run to keep up with her. Once in Penney’s she said, “Let’s look at jeans first, that’ll be the easiest thing. We each need three more pairs.”

Mom and I looked in the girls section first and found three pairs of blue jeans that were boot-cut style. She carried them with her while she searched for jeans in her sizes in the junior’s department. Within five minutes we were both sharing a changing room stall.

“Come on sweetheart, don’t be shy, I need you to try on all three pairs.”

I made a point of not looking at my mom while she changed and quickly changed into the first pair. I figured out I could leave my dress on and just pull them on underneath. “This okay?”

Mom did the thing with the thumb on the waist and said, “Those will work! Next!”

“Okay, now for the tougher mission. Let’s find you a swimsuit!”

I think she was just as nervous as I was about this one. I had been able to hide my extra part pretty well so far, but this was probably not going to work as well. Mom and I picked out two one-piece suits and two bikinis to try on.

“Well, let’s try this one first,” Mom said while holding out a pink one piece that had a shoulder strap only on one side with a ruffle flowing down. “Try pointing it down or something,” she whispered to me as I tried it on.

I blushed bright red then.

“Can you see it?” I asked her.

She frowned, “Not much, but a little. Madison is supposedly pretty smart too... I guess you could wear a tight pair of panties on underneath...”

She had me try the others on too and had similar problems. That was when she saw the shorts next to the racks and had me try on a pair over the bottoms. “That’ll work!”

“Won’t she think it’s weird though?”

Mom shook her head, “It’s a style right now. I really wish this were like a few years ago when all of the suits had skirt attachments that would have been even easier. Oh well.”

Mom ended up getting the two one-piece suits for me to emphasize I wasn’t ‘old enough’ yet for a bikini. Mom also found a couple bikinis for her to have just in case. It was a quick check out and then we were on down the hall.

“Let’s run by here really quick,” Mom said towards Children’s Place. She spent her frantic twenty minutes in there picking out outfits that were pretty cute, having me try them on, and then checking out.

“I think I have enough clothes now...?” I asked somewhat hopefully.

“Maybe...” Mom allowed.

“Maybe?!?”

The two of us headed out of the mall and into the car. “Leave the clothes other than the boots in the trunk for now,” Mom said as we pulled up later at the ranch.

“Why?”

“I want to make sure that people don’t see us carrying a bunch of bags inside like we had to buy new wardrobes. The hands all go home after six, and they won’t know then.”

“Oh,” was my only response. Mom and I carried our boot boxes upstairs.

“Why don’t you put on those socks and change into them?” Mom suggested.

“They don’t really go with the dress... Do they?” I said.

“Anywhere else, no, here, definitely!”

“Oh, okay...” I said.

I put them on and immediately noticed that the boots had that heel I remembered being odd when I was trying them on. Now that I was walking it was even weirder. The two of us found our way downstairs and found Consetta in the kitchen.

“Well look at you!” She said to me, “Such pretty new boots!”

She looked at Mom and said, “And you too! Glad to see you match your daughter.”

“Little sister,” Mom tried correcting, but there was something in Consetta’s gaze.

“I’m not going to say anything to anyone else, but even with your red hair I would recognize you Megan.”

Mom looked petrified, and I was pretty sure my own face reflected that a little too. “I really need you not to say anything to anyone else. No one but Gloria can know we’re here.” Mom insisted.

“I won’t say a word, but I wanted to let you know I knew so you could talk to me if you needed to.”

Mom’s eyes were wet and I could tell she was the same nervous wreck that I was.

Consetta moved in to her and said, “Hija, whatever you’re running from I guarantee you’re safe with us.”

While Mom was wiping her eyes Consetta looked at me. “So I’m assuming Ashley isn’t your real name?”

I shook my head, and terrified by what she would say I just said, “It’s Tony.”

“Well that is a bit of a switch of names, isn’t it. The jump to being a girl probably is more though?”

“Uhh...”

“How do you know about that one?” Mom asked in surprise.

“How could you forget the birth announcements you sent out?” She asked, “Gloria received one and she showed me. It took me a while to remember that though.”

I just nodded.

Mom said simply, “I’ll tell you more about it later, but we’re running from my husband.”

“He gave you that bruise that’s starting to peek through your makeup?” She interrupted.

Mom nodded, “He’s well... I didn’t realize until I was married to him... the whole family is Mafia.”

Consetta’s eyes showed surprise for the first time. “So you really are running.”

Mom nodded, “If he finds us he’ll probably kill me. Ashley might get away with being beaten, but he might very well kill her too if he sees her in a dress.”

Consetta shook her head at that and came over to give me a hug. “We aren’t going to let that happen at all. So as far as anyone is concerned you are my adorable little princess helper in the kitchen who has her birthday next week on Tuesday when she’ll be a big eight year-old, and you,” she said with a look towards Mom, “are a sweet grand-niece of Gloria’s, and her older sister.”

We both nodded.

“Now, you two get out of the kitchen before I put you to work.” She said with a smile.

I gave Mom a hug and said, “She’s awesome, and I know we can trust her!”

Then I turned back around and went back into the kitchen. “Can I help you with anything?” I asked and she smiled brightly back at me.

“HEY AGENT KLINE!” he heard as he walked up to the command post.

“Hey Jones, what’s the word?”

“Well I think we’re probably pushing this operation with being underpowered, but any longer and I’m sure you’ll lose whatever you’re raiding.”

“Definitely, if we haven’t already. We know the agents disappeared sometime within the last fourteen hours, but it may have been earlier than that.”

Agent Jones turned back towards his monitors and pressed on his radio. “All teams report!”

The five teams they had managed to crunch together all reported, including two snipers on the rooftops nearby. Agent Jones took a deep breath and said, “All teams go, all teams go for breach.”

With that both agents watched the monitors as the feeds came in from the lead SWAT team they were linked to. As it was a dollar store they were concerned about civilians. To try and mitigate casualties they had been counting for the last hour — making sure they knew how many were inside.

“We have all four civilians safe, and twenty-four suspects secured.” A team commander reported in a short while later.

The drug dogs entered next to go through the warehouse behind the store. They searched every square inch for five hours before coming back and reporting to Agent Kline. “We found a couple guys with outstanding warrants, but even though the dogs indicated that there had been stuff there, the place was clean.”

“Damnit! A year of hard work and we still don’t have anything on them.”

“Sorry sir,” the agent stated.

“Not your fault. We were really trying to take the longer approach on this, but that didn’t pay off this time. Any sign of our agents?”

“No sir, we are sending a team to triple check their apartments though.”

“They won’t find anything. Did you guys happen to have Raimondo Franchino or Ryan Franchino in there by chance?”

“No, neither of those suspects was present.”

“Probably taking care of the move...” He sighed, “Back to the drawing board. Tell your men good work, it was a well executed raid.”

“Thank you sir.”

With that Agent Kline had to head back to headquarters to see what damage control could be done there. ‘One thing is for sure, I doubt we ever find any signs of our two agents.’

TWO BLOCKS OVER Raimondo watched the takedown through a pair of binoculars from a hotel room. ‘Just in time,’ he thought to himself. An hour before the teams started showing up and forming up he had all of the material smuggled out the front as normal purchases by innocent looking people. The half-ton of cocaine that had been being prepared for various shipments across the country took a lot of such trips, but laundry detergent bottles, boxes of diapers, and boxes of small appliances had worked out well for them. He had always felt a certain irony in the idea of laundering the drugs so to speak in the detergent bottles.

He knew he needed to report to his dad, “Hey Pops, scramble,” with a confirmation that both phones were encrypted he said, “Just in time. I’m heading home.”

A shorter transmission on something like this was always better. All in all it had been a pretty good win for him; a mole, his supervisor, and no product loss. Yes, a few of his guys looked like they were being taken off somewhere for outstanding warrants, but they all understood Omerta. They wouldn’t talk.

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