All I've Ever Wanted - Adrianne Byrd [54]
Chapter 25
Max cursed as he slammed the phone down. The line had remained busy for the last ten minutes. He needed to know the last number dialed. He called the operator. In seconds he had the number.
“Operator, what region does area code 901 belong to?”
She paused for a moment before responding. “I’m sorry, but you will have to call information for that, sir.”
“Okay, thank you.” He hung up and dialed 411 and asked the same question.
“I’m showing that’s Tennessee, sir.”
“Tennessee? Uh, thank you.” He hung up and rushed into the living room to retrieve the manila folder. Hadn’t he read something about a relative in Tennessee?
Max scanned the contents until he found what he was looking for. “Jackpot. Grandmother: Alice Louise St. James resides in Memphis, Tennessee. I should have guessed that was where she would stash her kid.” He closed the folder and took it with him when he rushed out of the apartment.
Once in the car, he tried the number again on his cell phone. The line remained busy. Was Kennedy now on her way to Memphis, or had she just sneaked out as a way to avoid telling him what she knew? He shook his head. If she’d wanted to hide out in Memphis, she would have left with Tommy.
Unless Tommy hadn’t reached his destination.
Max cursed. Why hadn’t he thought of that? He tried calling her grandmother again. A ball of anxiety churned in his gut when a recording informed him that all circuits were busy and to try his call later.
Tommy watched the tall stranger who claimed to be a friend of his mommy’s. He didn’t like him. The man also made his great-grandmother nervous. He could tell by the way her lips wouldn’t quite turn up all the way when she smiled.
Keenan. He thought about the name. Funny. He didn’t remember his mother ever mentioning anyone by that name. Tommy eyed the stranger suspiciously, in the living room with the phone tucked under his chin. How long was he going to stay here anyway?
His great-grandmother leaned over and patted his hand. They shared another nervous smile.
“Mommy told me she couldn’t come here with me,” he said, looking up into her kind face.
“That’s what she told me, too,” she responded.
“So, why is she coming now?”
“I don’t know, baby.” She cast an irritated look at their visitor. “Are you sure you’ve never met that man before?”
Tommy nodded.
Her nervousness seemed to increase. “I don’t understand any of this,” she whispered.
He had a feeling that she was talking more to herself than to him, but he agreed with her all the same.
“Can we call Mommy and ask her?”
“If that man ever gets off my phone. And he better not be running up my phone bill with long distance,” she added angrily.
“Will you ask him to leave?”
She faced Tommy again. “I most certainly will.”
Keenan hung up, and then came to join them in the dining room. His smile was wide, but unnerving. “Ah, how’s the little reunion going on in here?”
“Young man, I don’t know what’s going on around here, but I don’t like it. I don’t know you and I’m almost certain you are no friend of my grand-daughter’s. I want you to leave my house.”
Tommy’s heart raced as he looked back and forth between the two grown-ups. The room grew quiet—too quiet. The strange part was that Keenan never stopped smiling.
“I’m sorry that you feel that way, Granny. I really am. I was kind of hoping that we could all get along.”
“I’m not your granny, young man. And I want you to leave.”
He shook his head and frowned. “Now that I can’t do.” He reached inside his pocket and pulled out a gun.
Bennie didn’t take Kennedy directly to the bus station. First he gave her a ride back to her apartment.
“Thanks, I really appreciate this,” she said as she reached for the car door handle.
He placed a hand against her shoulder gently.
She stopped and looked back at him.
“Are you going to be all right?” he asked, his voice filled with concern. “I’m worried about you,” he added when she didn’t respond.
“Don’t be. It’s nothing I can’t handle,” she lied. She was amazed by the note of