Past the point

"No, shit." Noah did his best to hold it under his breath.

Who was that guy at their house? On instinct he knew it was trouble. Terrible trouble. His mother did not have boyfriends. Never, in fact. Especially, one to walk around bare assed in the dark.

Noah eyed the naked man coming out of the upstairs bathroom. It was still dark. He'd gotten up to get Josie something to drink. Thankfully, his mother felt sorry for his girlfriend and was letting her stay with him.

After all, she was pregnant with his kid.

Naturally, it wasn't that funny when her Mom mentioned him earlier that night when they were alone in the kitchen.

"And to think I thought you were gay all this time." She was so sincere about it. He couldn't stay mad at her. Besides, he was washing the dishes while Josie was doing laundry.

Things definitely changed since being on the run with Josie and his brother Jonah, who was staying with Lexie, in her basement lair.

They'd grown up over the summer. Hell, it was practically winter. But they were back now. It would be normal, even if things changed.

And now this. He squinted hard thinking he needed to call Jonah now, to let him know. Something was up. Only Jonah didn't know. He couldn't think this guy was with his mother for the sake of wanting her motherly love.

No, he couldn't think of his mother being desirable. Actually. He wasn't suppose too. After all, she was his mother.

But this guy was naked. He was definitely doing things with his mother in the dark in her bedroom. Noah squinted hard on his way back to his room with the orange juice for Josie.

"What's the matter?" She was in his bed in his P.J. bottoms and tight stretchy wife beater that exposed her baby bum.

"Well.." He didn't want to scare her. "I..I saw the weirdest thing." He so wished it was a dream. Even so, it was a nightmare.

"How weird?" Her eyes were so big with worry as she took the juice and drank it as if her blood sugar might be low.

"Mom's got a guy..in her room." Noah told her.

"That's not..so weird." Josie winced then and went into a big monologue how his mother was a desirable woman and how lonely she must have been while he was away.

Noah got back in bed. They cuddled after she downed the juice and he switched off the lamp. He hoped she was right. He hoped. But he couldn't wait to tell his brother about this.

Past the Point

Rick remembered the first time. It was sort of like a faded dream now. He was still a kid then, and thought he might have been as cool as Keanu Reeves. Well, he liked to believe that. Back when his thick locks were always in his face, as well as he was trying to grow something on his chin. Yeah, he liked to think he was cool then.

It was always that cool. Not really. He recalled, still thinking the first time hadn't came off quite as easy as they said it would. Granted, they'd enticed the daughter right away. Cause, she was easy. Plain and simple. Perhaps she had it in for her parents, all along. Honestly, Rick didn't know the full story. But they had her in the motel room and well, she had a thing for Sonny, or maybe it was just the drugs he was giving her. Honestly, it had to be. The more he thought about it now.

And then there was her mother. That was the hard part. Getting her there under false pretenses, as they'd say. She'd brought groceries. Fucking groceries. Yeah, what a goddamn laugh that was. Sonny ripping the bags from her, canned food hitting the floor. Hell, all Rick really wanted was the free cable at the room. They'd said he wouldn't have to have a thing to do with it.

Of course, all they'd wanted were the guns.

"Where are the god-damn guns!"

Rick squinted now as he was trying to take a shit. Why in the hell, did this come to him every morning when he went to take a shit. He just remembered those words, over and over. WHERE ARE THE FUCK'N GUNS!

Sonny had hit the woman in the head with a can of Ranch Style beans. She had a gash in her forehead, and he saw the daughter felt nothing. Nothing, for the pain Sonny had given her mother. The mother kept saying she didn't know anything about the damn guns.

As far as Sonny was concerned, how in the hell were they ever going to get this operation off the ground if they didn't have the guns. But it just left the woman in her mid-life with a crisis. Her forehead bled. Damn, she was just so fragile, and Sonny kept pressing the issue he'd kill the daughter if she didn't find the guns. There were guns at her house. She was suppose to bring them, but she'd only brought beans.

That's when they let her get away. It was dark at the motel. Rick still beat her to her car and was waiting in the back seat for her. He'd had to clear his throat to let her know he was there.

"Just don't do anything stupid. All right. We just need the guns." Rick told her, all cool like. Damn, if she didn't almost get them killed on the drive home. There was a fog that turned things to ice. It was really a freaky time of year.

Shit.

The house was a pile of holy crap. That husband of hers was a real hoarding whore. A shitty pack-rat. No wonder she hadn't found the guns.

Rick remembered the taste of the stale potato chips he'd taken to, because he was hungry. Did they ever clean up? Who'd let their house get this fucked up?

"Promise me, you won't hurt her!" The woman demanded, still bleeding, who he knew right then she'd do anything for her daughter. She was the type of woman who'd give childbirth to her own grandchild just not to see her own daughter go through labor.

"I ain't gonna do shit to her." And he wasn't. He wasn't going near anything Sonny possessed. "The guns. I need the guns." Plain and simple.

They went to the basement for them. The old man had them in a closet. A special closet. Thank god it wasn't locked. It was easy pick'n. Except. No fuck'n ammo.

"What the fuck!" Rick was getting jumpy. Naturally, the woman didn't know. She knew shit about guns.

Rick put the pistols in a pillow case. That would have to do. They'd have to find their own ammo. He guessed. He didn't want to waste time. Just get in. Get out. Oh, yeah, the woman. He had to do something about her.

That was the first time he ever tied anyone up in duct tape. Pink duct tape.

He wondered if they ever found her. He guessed he might have cut the circulation off her wrists. She was so fragile. Honest to god she was a fragile thing.

Just as he knew Jonah's mother was as fragile, like a flower that's petals were about to peel away and expose the woman she really was. Irresistible.

Damn, she was hot to be so fuck'n old. Old enough to be his mother. Well, she'd probably would have had to have been 14 when she'd had him. As he thought about it now. Not that Rick dwelt on that sort of thing in this sort of business. Not a lot of time for fuck'n, as it was. Really, he'd missed out on a lot fuck'n because he was either on watch or guarding something. Actually, he didn't even watch porn. He watched a lot of crime shows, and then he got hooked on Degrassi. Yeah, he wasn't so bad. Honestly, he could relate to people. He'd related to Jonah's Mom.



The fact remained, she had no idea what sort of trouble her son was in. Yeap, gangs could be trouble even if it was just a local bunch. He guessed that's what they were. Hoodlums. Guys who didn't know how to hold down a 9 to 5 job.



Jonah was one of them now. They seemed to get younger every year. Of course, they were looking for someone to sale drugs to the high school kids. Jonah fit the description. He wasn't much for education, but that's where most of his friends were. And he was too afraid not to sale drugs for Sonny. They had him right where they wanted him until he took off with Sonny's daughter.

It seemed, Jonah couldn't follow instructions, after all. And that was why Rick was here.

Rick botched something under the hood of his mother's old car and then he fixed it in the parking lot where she'd bought groceries. Rick could play nice. No one really knew just how nice Rick could be.