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Brian had said that he was fine with taking Hannah, but that there was an announcement he had to make before making that decision on Friday. The curiosity was killing me!

I angled my car in front of the liquor store. Usually there was always a cruiser hanging out in the front, but today they'd left the illegal parking opened for me. I still had an hour before my shift started, baby and I were craving hot Cheetos. 

I strolled in thinking today would be a really good day. "Hi Ming!" I greeted the young Chinese girl behind the counter as I made way to the chips. There were two little kids giggling in the candy area. They both instantly stopped when I flashed them a serious look. 

Smirking I busied myself shuffling through bags of chips to find my Cheetos. The bell announcing a new customer rang and right after I heard Ming let out a scream. I shot my head up and cursed when I saw two young guys with part of their faces covered by handkerchiefs standing in front of the register with guns trained on Ming. 

Her eyes shot towards me and one of the guys turned and shot at me. The bullet hit a can of soda behind me and sticky fluid spurted all over the place. 

"Open the register bitch!" the other one shouted waving his gun at the frightened girl. 

I slowly put my hands up and started to come out of the aisle. "I know you don't want to hurt anyone..."

"You don't know shit! Just shut up!" he snarled. My heart was racing and although I'd been trained for this, I wasn't sure how to convince them to put down their guns. 

Out of the corner of my eyes I saw Ming frantically opening the register and the two little kids trying to sneak their way out of the store. I hadn't meant to call attention to them, but I had.

The guy stopped pointing at me and pointed at the two kids who stopped dead in their tracks. "Where you two little shits going?"

My heart literally stopped as I watched the guy put the gun to the little boys head. The boy flinched and the guy laughed; rejoicing in his malevolence.

I felt my heart start to beat again when I saw the lights flashing outside. We were saved. 

"Fuck, the cops!" one said snatching the money from Ming's hand and heading for the door. 

In the process the other guy grabbed the kid and held him in a headlock. "Let the kid go! You can take me..." I pleaded.

At this point the little boy was crying. He didn't hesitate with one quick move he shoved the kid out of the way and grabbed me.

My peanut, was all I could think about. She was probably not even the size of a peanut, but a lima bean. My thoughts were broken when I felt the cold steel of the barrel digging into my temple. 

"Everyone back off or I'll shoot her." He shouted standing in the doorway. It felt like we stood there forever. I noticed a few more cruisers pull up and I saw Frank, but no Alex. By now all guns were drawn. I wanted them to shoot, just not me!

The air was constricted as the guy held me tight by the neck. Everything  was starting to spin; I was in panic mode. 

"Let her go or I'll splatter your brains all over the fuckin place!" I recognized the voice right away and felt relieved.

Instantly the guy let me go and they both dropped their weapons and put their hands up. I leaned against the door trying to compose myself. Once again another thing to be remembered by; as if the naked guy incident wasn't enough.

Alex grabbed the guy and shoved him against the glass and patted him down. He slapped the cuffs on his wrist tightly. Frank walked up and took him by the collar. 

Alex stood in front of me gawking at me. "You ok?"

"I'm fine." the hell I was fine. My legs were shaking and I felt like I might pass out. 

"Can you tell me how you get yourself into these predicaments?"

I shrugged. "I don't know...but I've never been so happy to see you and Frank!" a knot grew in my throat as I said it.

He grinned. Then stretched out his hand to help me. I couldn't help myself I was emotional. I bypassed his hand and wrapped my arms around his neck, holding on for dear life. 

His hands wrapped around my waist and he nuzzled his face in the crook of my neck. "I'm never going to let anyone hurt you." he whispered.

Which sent a chill down my spine. I wondered how the hell he knew where I was. I didn't bother asking. 

"Sophia are you alright?" Kevin's voice made my head shoot up. His look was dark and jealous as he stood in uniform in the doorway. "I came as fast as I could." 

Although I was happily drowning in Alex's familiar manly smell and felt perfectly comfortable with his arms wrapped around me. I gently pushed him away and rushed towards Kevin.

After an hour of convincing the chief that I was perfectly fine to go back to work. I was in uniform and on my shift.

Later that evening I had the sorrowful task of explaining to Hannah what might happen. At first she was reluctant about the idea, but as we imagined the worse for her, she came to terms. We cried for a bit till we heard Kevin coming into the apartment.

Hannah greeted him and headed to her room to pick up her things. He took a seat next to me on the sofa. "Is everything alright?" he asked.

I was tempted to tell him about peanut. A few days had gone by since he had come back and I didn't have the nerve to tell him about the baby. Maybe it was the whole busted face look he was sporting.  He had a black eye and a busted lip. The eye he covered up with his terminator glasses, but the lip was pretty visible. Or the fact that i was starting to doubt the baby was his, it too could have been my run in with thugs earlier that day; whatever it was i couldn't  bring myself to say anything. 

"Besides still feeling shaky about earlier, I'm worried about Hannah. I don't want to send her with Brian but only he can really protect her. I can't. I would have to give her right back to her mother." I tried to take deep breaths to bring down the knot in my throat. Damn hormones had me all emotional.

"You've done all you can for her. Angie unfortunately still has the right to take her daughter from you. I don't think it's that easy for her to mess with Brian. He's her dad. He has rights, she's a junkie, it works to his favor!"

He put his hand on my knee. "It's gonna be fine Sophia!" I just nodded my head not really believing him. "I'm here for you."

Hannah came back with her things. We both stood up knowing it was that time. Kevin gave us both a sympathetic smile and pulled us in for a hug. Which only made me realize...my life was in the shits. It made no sense. 

Nothing made sense.