“Cereal. Please,” he added politely.
As she spoke, she was thinking of what she could do to help Ricky, besides feed him. She needed to call Trevor and tell him she’d be late.
Wait a minute. Trevor. He’ll know what to do.
She handed Ricky a bowl and got out the cereal and milk. “Honey Nut Cheerios okay? I’m kind of addicted to them.” Leaving the milk and cereal out since she figured he’d want more she picked up her cell phone. Ricky stopped eating and looked poised for flight. So much for calling the authorities, not that she’d intended to right off anyway. “Don’t worry. I’m calling my boss to tell him I’m running late.”
Ricky went back to his cereal but she could tell by the tension in his shoulders that he could spook at any moment.
She called up her favorites list and punched Trevor’s name.
“Jedidiah?” he said. “What’s up?”
“I’m uh, running late. I’m not sure when I’ll be in.”
“Is there a problem? You sound kind of weird.”
“You could say that. I think I need BFK’s help.” She couldn’t afford to say too much but she needed backup. She hoped Trevor would understand without her having to spell it out. At the least he’d realize she wanted him to come over.
*
BFK’s help? Whatthe—“You want BFK’s help. You mean Bikers For Kids? All of us?”
“Yes to the first part. No to the second.”
“Can you explain more?”
“No.”
Since he had no clue what she needed beyond that it must involve a child, he knew he had to go to her to find out what was going on. Nevertheless, he asked to be sure. “You want me to come over?”
“Yes, please.”
“And you want me to come on my motorcycle and wear my jacket.”
“Absolutely. I’ll talk to you later,” she said and ended the call.
A short time later he banged on her door. Intensely curious, he waited for Jedidiah to open up. He was about to knock again when he heard a scuffling sound and Jedidiah say, “It’s just my boss. Not the police, I promise.”
Not the police? What the hell was going on?
She opened the door and he saw her holding on to the shirt of a small, very dirty child. Maybe nine or ten. Probably a boy, though he wasn’t sure. “Hi.”
“Come in. Ricky, this is Trevor. He’s my boss. Trevor, this is Ricky. He was er, hungry, so I brought him up here to feed him.”
Trevor offered Ricky his hand. “Hey, Ricky.”
Ricky looked him up and down carefully but didn’t say anything and didn’t take his hand. At least he didn’t run so he must have decided Trevor wasn’t a cop.
Jedidiah wore shorts and a sleeveless T-shirt and running shoes. “Going for a run?” Damn, she was distracting in whatever she wore but with an acre of smooth, tanned skin showing she was enough to make him swallow his tongue.
Focus on the kid,he told himself.That’s why you’re here.
“I was but I ran into Ricky. As I said, he was hungry so I thought I’d feed him.”
“Where did you two run into each other?”
Ricky had gone back to the bar and had begun stuffing cereal in his mouth again. But at that he looked up, swallowed and said, “Dumpster.”
