“I suppose so.” I look up at Kaz who seems to be soaking in all the information along with Gerald. “She’d met my uncle before, so it wasn’t like he was a stranger. Plus, I’d called her to be sureshe knew what was going on. And then again when I was told I’d be moving here.”
Kaz moves his hand to my shoulder, giving me a gentle squeeze.
“Since Melody is his aide, and she’s staying with you as well, I don’t think there’s any case for kidnapping, so you can stop worrying about that.” Gerald softens his expression for my benefit. “I’ll need to see your brother’s will to determine what we can do about getting the guardianship of the boy moved to you. Since your uncle doesn’t live in the country, you may have a case.”
“May have a case? Gerald, I’m not looking for maybes here.” Kaz stands straight again, shifting into full authority mode again.
“Kaz, until I see the will I won’t know for sure what legal avenues we have. And outside of the legal aspects—well, that’s not my department.” Message received, if we can’t do this through the courts, he’ll step out of the way to let Kaz handle it how he handles things.
“My uncle is never going to just give up custody. Not when he can keep using Tommy as leverage.”
“He only uses him for leverage over you, and once he realizes you’re not going to be afraid of that anymore, he might back off,” Kaz says.
“You don’t know my uncle. Or my cousin. Marco learned most of his cruelty from Dante. My cousin is worse.”
“Do you have a copy of your brother’s will?” Gerald asks.
“No. I never saw it.”
Gerald’s pen hovers over the pad, his eyes swing up to mine. “You never saw it?”
“No. I wasn’t allowed at the reading. My uncle told me afterward about Tommy.” My stomach drops. “The will may notsay anything about Tommy. My uncle could have been lying…then we’d have a good case, right?”
“Let’s wait until we see it before we get excited.” Gerald scribbles more.
“How much of this has to go through the courts? You know how I feel about the system.” Kaz says.
“Well, legally, you want as much of this to be on the up and up as possible so there are no problems later. The last thing you want is CPS showing up at your house and dragging the boy away.”
“That won’t fucking happen.” Kaz’s voice is hard
“No, not if we do things the right way. Because if we don’t, and CPS does come banging on your door, having a bunch of guns put in their faces isn’t going to help, either.”
“I don’t want Tommy put in that situation.” I get up from the chair and walk the length of the office. “If the will never actually stipulated a guardian, then getting custody won’t be hard. Uncle Vicente doesn’t live here in the states, like you said. And Dante doesn’t even know Tommy. I’m the only one who’s ever had any relationship with him.”
“Then we’d have a solid case.” Gerald looks to Kaz. “But if we can avoid going before a judge, that would be best. Let’s hope the will doesn’t stipulate anything about the boy and we can negotiate with the DeAngelos.”
“Negotiate.” Kaz spits the word.
“Kaz.” I turn to him, my chest tight. “I can’t let Vicente or Dante get their hands on Tommy.”
“Do you think they’d hurt the boy?” Gerald asks.
“If it meant hurting me to get what they want from me, I have no doubt they would.” I let out a long breath. “Tommy’s not useful to them. It makes him dispensable.”
Just like me.
“First things first. I’ll work on getting a copy of Tony’s will. Find out what exactly is in it, then we can decide what to do. Right now, keep the aide with the boy; that way he’s with his temporary guardian. That keeps you within the lines of the law.”
“That’s not a problem. He’s used to having Melody around all the time. It might frighten him a little if that changed, too. Right now he’s having fun in the big townhouse, but that won’t last forever.” Tommy thinks he’s on a little vacation getting to run around Kaz’s brownstone.
Six-year-olds are more adventurous than adults. Where I had frayed nerves coming to stay with Kaz, Tommy has found all the fun parts of it.
“Okay, I’ll do what I do. And Kaz, try not to do what you usually do, yes? Until I get more information?” Gerald tucks the pen into the spiral of the notebook, then puts both into his jacket.
“Right.” Kaz frowns. “I want this dealt with today.”
Gerald stuffs his arms through his jacket on the way to the door. “Getting my hands on the will shouldn’t be too much of a problem. I’ll call you soon as I do.”
