CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“A child. He calls me a fucking child! I’m the one sitting here with nothing to do, no recourse, no life! At least he’s sort of free,” he laughed. “What a fucking joke!”

He puttered around the cabin for a while, pretending to clean some things up when in reality, he was just pissing away time. Then he heard the ping of his phone.

Don’t leave the cabin.

“What the hell?” he muttered, texting him back.

Yeah, I know. We just spoke.

There were several long moments of silence, and Archie just stared at the phone. Then the little bubbles started to move, telling him that his father was texting. Again.

NO. No, we didn’t. I’m using a guards phone.

You just called me and we spoke. We spoke for like five minutes.

Leave. Leave now. Take all the cash you have and find somewhere to go. They’ve found you.

Who? Who is they? No one could find me with a phone call.

These people can, Archie. Leave now.

He tried to call the number on his phone, but it went to voicemail for a name he didn’t know, with no one picking up. When he attempted to text back, the text messages were unanswered.

“Leave. Leave, he says. Where the fuck am I supposed to go?”

Pulling his suitcases from beneath the bed, he packed as much as he could carry on the snowmobile. When he hit town, he’d have to rent a car. At least his father had given him several fake IDs when they first came out here.

Seeing the bottles of unopened liquor, he packed them in an old milk crate along with some food supplies and loaded the snowmobile. There was a blizzard on the East Coast, so he would need to head west.

“Where? Where the fuck can I go?”

From the small wall safe, he pulled out the fake IDs and two envelopes of cash that his father left the last time he was there. He expected there to be a few thousand dollars but was shocked to find that there was nearly fifty thousand.

“Well, at least I won’t have to stay in a roach motel,” he laughed. “Daddy came through after all.”

Realizing that his mother would be alone now with her husband in jail, Archie knew he could count on her to send him more cash. Dialing the number, she answered with a chipper tone.

“Mom?”

“Archie! It’s wonderful to hear from you. Your father isn’t here. He’s in a bit of a pickle but should be home any day now.”

“Yes. I know, Mom,” he said, rolling his eyes at her naivete. His mother preferred to play ostrich, sticking her head in the sand and ignoring the real issues facing her family. “Mom, I need money. Dad told me to leave the cabin and find somewhere else to go.”

“Oh, that’s terribly inconvenient, isn’t it? Well, I’m sure he had his reasons for asking you to leave the cabin. It’s just a musty, nasty place anyway. Where should I send it, dear?” she asked.

“Just send it to a cash-receiving store in Lexington and send me the address. Pick any place that works for you, Mom. I’ll be heading west from here.”

“Alright, Archie. Be careful. I can’t afford for the two of you to be in jail.”

His mother was blissfully unaware of what was really happening in their lives. She was happy as long as she had her credit cards, country club, and cocktails.

With everything tied down to the snowmobile, he made his way into the little mountain town that had been his home for the last few years. When he arrived in town, he hit the one and only used car lot and traded the snowmobile and some cash for an old clunker of a car. It wasn’t pretty, but it had heat, a radio, and new tires. That’s all Archie cared about. For now.

With the money his mother sent, plus the cash he had on hand, he wouldn’t have to stay at terrible motels. He could stay in clean, decent places, hopefully with top-grade restaurants. And bars. Bars would be important to him at this point.

Maybe later on he could even rent a small place until he could find Khloe. Until then, he’d get a haircut, clean himself up a bit, and find a woman to ease his tensions. He hadn’t had sex in years, and he was desperate.

Besides, finding Khloe was his number one goal.

When he did, he’d get his life back and take hers.