Still, she had a feeling that shed forgotten something.
Remy tested the temperature of the formula by squirting some on her wrist, then took Caleb in her arms. She had given him a bottle when they arrived yesterday afternoon. He fussed at first when she held him and rooted around for her breast, but eventually took the bottle; then another one in the night. He was a good eater, she thought, watching him suck hard, almost chomping, on the nipple.
As she held him, inhaling his sweet baby scent, a wave of hormonal emotion rolled through her, and she shuddered.
He was such a beautiful baby boy.
My baby was a boy.
Caleb nuzzled against her. Remy was growing increasingly concerned about the bump on his head from the tornado. Was it a scrape, a surface cut or something nastier? After she was done feeding and changing him, she cleaned his cut and put on a fresh bandage.
Mason was still at her laptop, reading news stories and rubbing his lips a little harder. Remy braced for what was coming. She knew his cravings, his mood swings and his irritability.
Hed made her a lot of promises about their future and struggled to keep them. Remy and Mason didnt always see eye to eye, but deep down they were welded to the same philosophy: whatever life takes from you, you take it back.
Whatre you thinking, babe? she asked him.
I never thought youd do it. Youre seriously going through with this?
We have to.
He blinked hard, the way he did when he was battling not to lose it with her, especially because of all theyd endured lately. He strained to keep his temper and his voice gentle.
Weve got a lot at stake here, and this doesnt help, Remy.
Were running out of money. Were running out of time. Do you see any other options? I had to do something. Besides, the article says they think were likely all dead. Its perfect for us.
This kid is five months old. You think you can pass him off as a one-month old?
Yes, because its all meant to be. Well just say hes big.
All right, are you going to make the call?
Not just yet.
Why not?
Ive got a plan. We need to keep him a little while longer.
What for? If were going to do this, lets move fast, get it done.
First, I want to have a doctor look at the bump on his head. To make sure hes healthy, so nothing will come back on us.
What? Where? That could be dangerous. Weve already got people looking for us, Remy. I think we should just get away from here, now.
You gotta trust me, babe. Let me play this my way. Were going to do this-its going to work. Then well be done running. Itll be over and well get our little place in the sun. Well start our new lives, our real lives, and make all of our dreams come true.
Mason ran his hands over his stubbled face.
Hey. She touched his shoulder. Im hungry. Why dont you go get us some breakfast, babe? Then well get rolling.
He looked at her, internally confronting their situation. Then he washed up, dressed and left.
Remy returned to Caleb, lowered herself to the floor, smiling at him.
Youre so lucky. Yes, you are. Your mother was weak, unworthy. She couldnt face up to her responsibilities to protect you. Youll never have to worry about seeing her again. Youre so lucky I was there to save you from certain death in that storm. Yes, you are. Now, very soon Im going to put you in a better place. Yes, I am. Its all meant to be.
12
Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Texas
Sitting behind the wheel of his battered pickup truck at the traffic light, Mason Varno gritted his teeth.
Everythings gone to hell. Everythings closing in.
He looked at the surrounding traffic, checked his mirrors.
Sure as shit more people would be looking for them now.
He hammered his palms against the wheel.
Im not going down for this. Im not going back to prison for some whacked-out-
The light changed.
Calm down. Think this through. Take care of first things first.
He looked around. Other than a scattering of branches and trash, he saw no storm damage in this neighborhood. He wheeled into a McDonalds parking lot, taking a spot out of sight in a far corner, under the shade of a maple tree. He fished out a small glass tube and a stamp-sized square of tinfoil. He unfolded the foil to reveal the small heap of crystals, almost tasting the anticipation as he heated the underside with his disposable lighter. The crystals crackled, liquefied and vaporized. He savored the smell as he inhaled the rising smoke through the pipe.
Sweet Jesus, yes.
In seconds, Mason floated on a euphoric cloud. All his troubles lightened and drifted away as he shut his eyes to embrace the bliss.
Thats what I needed. Now I can think.
Review and assess, as his counselor used to say.
Mason guided his pickup through the back of the long drive-through line.
Hed never expected Remy to kidnap a baby. All this time hed thought that her odd behavior was a reaction to the stillbirth last month. That these past couple of weeks shed needed to cozy up to other women and their babies in malls and such because it was a kind of therapy for her.
At the hospital, a few days after it had happened, the doctor had informed Mason that Remy was having trouble dealing with the loss and could experience borderline postpartum psychosis. It meant shed sometimes have delusions, hallucinations and other thought disturbances. They gave her medication, but every so often Remy had a spell, a headache accompanied by a lot of crying.
Mason never thought her condition would go beyond her having the blues and ogling other peoples babies then-BAM-she grabbed that kid after the storm, then screamed at him that the mothers dead and the kids bleeding and they have to get out.
But the mother aint dead, is she, Remy? Shes on the damn news looking for her baby, and were in a world of trouble.
He shook his head as he inched his truck along the drive-through line.
Oh, but Remy had a plan.
She had a way out of their situation, and she wanted him to trust her. Un-freaking-believable. She was an unstable psychotic, and he had to trust her plan?
He struggled to get hold of the situation, which was getting worse by the second. The babys got that bump on his head. That cant be good. What if it dies? Hell just dump the thing and Remy and run, find his way out of it all. I should do it now. Just hit the gas, he thought. Dump her now and never look back.
But he couldnt.
He was handcuffed to her by circumstance.
How in hell had he let this happen? He had planned things so carefully while doing his eighteen months in Hightower Unit. His time was for a drug deal that involved a lot of players and went wrong. A lot of money was lost, and Mason took the fall with the understanding that he would be cut loose, left alone. Then word got to Mason inside that a wronged party, a guy by the name of DOA, might seek payback or retribution from Mason. DOA had a lot of associates. Mason knew some of them, and he could trust a few but not all of them. One thing Mason knew about DOA was that he was big on threats, liked to talk them up but didnt always follow through. Still, as month after month passed, Mason kept his ear to the ground for talk about DOA reaching inside to seek vengeance on him. So far, nothing had come of his threat.
Remy had started writing to him through a social network. Then shed started visiting. She was a looker, no doubt about it. And hed decided that of all the women whod written to him, she was the one hed use for his plan.
In Hightower he needed to show the system that he had something stable set up on the outside to be eligible for early release and a minimum level of supervised parole. Inside, he stayed out of trouble, enrolled in carpentry school and took several reentry programs dealing with addiction, conflict and confrontation, learning how to cage your rage. His clear, stated objective was to settle into a stable life with his new woman, Remy Toxton, and get a carpentry job with the goal of eventually starting his own carpentry business in Oregon, where Remy wanted to get married and begin a family. It was what the Texas Department of Criminal Justice needed to hear from inmate #01286413.
But it was all bullshit.
Sure, once Mason got out, hed play along with the straight life until he activated his real plan, which hed kept secret from Remy. In prison, trusted friends told Mason that for $25,000 he could buy into an import-export start-up company run by an American player known only as Garza. This business would be based in Belize, then expand in the Caribbean and Central America. It was going to be huge. With the $25,000 investment Mason was guaranteed $250,000 return in the first two months.
Word got back to Mason that Garza would let him into the enterprise as a favor for a friend. Garza was moving fast so hed set a deadline for Masons delivery of $25,000 cash: within three months of Masons release.
Trouble was Mason had lied about having the cash.
Hed said he had it stashed from the deal he was doing time for, just so Garza would hold a place for him in the deal when he got out.
Truth was Mason had no cash.
Hed told no one, but when Mason got out he intended to pull a few quick freelance deals to secure the cash for his investment. It was risky, but it was the best he could do.
Whenever Remy visited Mason at the prison hed tell her he needed $25,000 to start his carpentry business. Then they could live their dream in Oregon. Thats when she stunned him.
I can get the cash for us, she said.
A couple of months after that, she beamed from the other side of the glass, telling him that she was pregnant, how shed answered an ad online to be a surrogate. When she delivered and signed off shed get $60,000.
Mason couldnt believe his ears.
But there Remy was, smiling, saying it was all legal, all handled by international adoption lawyers through a global network. They took care of everything. Theyd flown her to one of their clinics overseas for the procedure. Remy would be due around the time of Masons release. She said giving up the baby was not a big deal for her. As a teen shed had a baby and given it up to some couple. This time it was all planned, and again shed help a childless couple.
And Ill be helping us get closer to our dream, too. Its all meant to be, babe, Remy told him.
This was a long way from the fifty dollars in gate money and the bus ticket the prison gave Mason when he got out. It left him thinking how now he wouldnt have to pull off any risky deals. When Remy delivered the baby, hed take $25,000 and dump her.