Chapter One
4months later...
Boo was laying on the floor playing with Andros when she remembered something.She got up and went to the bedroom and knelt at the cedar chest then quickly opened the lid.She smiled as she saw the stuffed elephant she’d had since she was a child.It had been the last toy her mother had given her before that fateful day that Logan forced her off the road.
She will never know how she survived that accident but she had and when she woke up that day, she still held her only childhood toy.
Now she carried it out to her son.She picked him up from the floor and held him in her arms.“I’m trusting you with something your grandmother gave to me once upon a time, Andros.She would have loved meeting you but she never got the chance,” Boo whispered as she gave the elephant to Andros.“His name is Mr.Peanuts.”
Andros grinned and grabbed the purple elephant then immediately pulled it to his mouth.A moment later he began to cry.
Boo pulled it away and saw red in Andros’s mouth.She gasped and checked his lips.He had a small cut there.She grabbed a wipe and took care of it.
After she got him to settle down, she looked over at the elephant and saw something hard peeking out of the tip of its trunk.Puzzled, she laid her baby on the floor and reached over to pick at the elephant’s trunk.She took a small SIM card from his trunk and looked at the plastic case then she saw a small piece of paper still in the trunk.She pulled it out and found it was a small note.She didn’t know the writing, but the words were barely legible anymore.
“My darling girl, if you survive what’s coming and I don’t, please keep this safe and when you find it give it to your dad.He’ll know what to do.I love you always.You are the best of me and him, remember that.”
Boo just sat there and stared at the note.
Andros was quiet now while sucking on his tiny fist.She reached for her phone and called Nash.When he answered, she whispered, “Dad, I need you here now.Can you come?”
“What’s going on, baby girl?”
“I just found something and I think it's from Mom.”
Nash gasped over the phone.“You mother?Are you sure?”
Boo sighed and said, “No, I’m not sure at all.I gave Andros a toy mom had given me before we left New Orleans to find you.Andros bit down in the trunk and he began to cry.When I looked something soft plastic was sticking out of Mr.Peanut’s trunk and when I dug it out, it was a SIM card then I found a note too.
Nash was quiet on his end of the line and finally he said, “Lock your doors and windows, make sure no one can break in until we get there.Then call your husband home, me and the boys will be there as soon as possible.I’m on my way, baby girl.”He paused, then said, “You keep yourself and that baby safe, you hear me?”
“I hear you dad,” she whispered.“Please hurry.”
She hung up and immediately tapped Kirill’s number.When he answered the call, she whispered, “I need you to come home now.”
“What’s wrong, Boo?”
“Please just come home.I found something and it scared the hell out of me.”She paused, then told him, “My dad and his boys are on their way.”
“Your father?”Kirill barked.“What does he have to do with this?”
“Just please come home,” Boo urged him.
Then the line went dead.
Kirill slowly movedthe phone from his ear and just stared at it.Then he looked up at his brothers.
“What’s going on?”Kosta growled.
Kirill shook his head.“I’m not sure.That was Boo, she wants me to come home right now and she said she found something that scared her.She even called her father in and he’s on his way from Jackson’s Landing with his men.”
“What the hell is going on here?”Yuri snapped.“What did she find?”
Kirill shrugged.“I don’t know, but she sounded terrified.I have to go.”He got to his feet and the chair he was sitting on scraped the floor as he stood.
“We’ll all go,” Yuri stated.“Boo isn’t one to terrify easily and she needs us at the moment.”He looked over at Kosta, “Bring your laptop, we may need some help on this.”He looked back at Kirill.“You said she called her father in on this?”
Kirill nodded.“Da, he is on his way with his men.”
