Chapter 3: Getting Real

I was able to escape the Sinclair clutches after dinner and made it home in record time. It was dark when I got there and Travis was waiting for me at the door with his insanely happy expression and body shake. We enjoyed a Bro moment and then I fed him his dinner and went through my emails. I received a quote for the rock crusher that included delivery to Randy’s wrecking yard and paid the invoice to set the ball rolling. I also ordered a ball mill that Gil recommended. For the sluice box, I downloaded the CAD for a custom-built unit that I fancied. I just needed to collect the material and weld it up.

Trinity had left her Damascus blank and drawing behind so I took it to the shop and transferred the image onto the steel with a piece of blue transfer paper. I redrew the lines with chalk and cut it out as carefully as I could with my plasma cutter. After grinding it smooth, I was pretty impressed with how it turned out. It was going to be a heavy weapon to be certain, especially if she was going to construct the sheath and handle from ebony. I was tempted to begin shaping the edge but it was her project and I didn’t want to overstep. So, I let it cool down and put it in the truck console for when I returned to town.

Suzy texted me as I was eating a quick snack before crashing.

Hey Carter, I hope I didn’t wake you; she wrote. I just wanted to let you know that all your furniture and furnishings have been ordered. I expect them to begin arriving here in 2-3 days. I contacted Randy as you requested, and he will pick it up and deliver it this weekend. Then we can get busy making your house a perfect retreat. I’m so happy you are letting me do this for you. It means a lot. Take care.

She ended with a red heart icon.

I looked around the empty room and tried to imagine the transformation she envisioned. The next day, I needed to begin purchasing the treated lumber and posts, for the deck frame. I pulled out Jenny’s drawing and measurements and began compiling a bill of materials to shop for. After writing out my list I retired to the bedroom and found the California King particularly empty. Travis decided to sleep in front of the gas furnace so I found myself lying awake in the dark and thinking about Sam. She had told me to remember Bianca and I assumed that was a clue as to how she planned to elude her pursuers. Hondo’s granddaughter had managed to travel incognito across half of Europe and into the US by using multiple travel papers and different transportation modes. But I had Sam to help me find her in time to save her from the contract Killer, who was sent to take her out. How do you track down a hacker who didn’t want to be found?

Rachel looked twice as miserable yet nowhere closer to labor when I returned the following morning. I brought Travis with me and he found her lying back in my usual recliner under several blankets. Kevin indicated that she was no longer able to climb the stairs on her own and chose to sleep in the recliner the last night. She went through cycles of overheating—when she would toss all of her covers off—and freezing, demanding that her feet be covered and a hot water bottle be placed behind her back. She was currently in her frozen stage and appeared delighted to see her favorite pooch when he barged into the living room. For his part, Travis whined and shook excitedly as he delicately sniffed her over and rested his ginormous head on her swollen tummy. Once he was certain that his wife was comfortable for the next few minutes, Kevin gestured for me to follow him into the office.

“Trinity left a vapor trail out the door this morning,” he laughed. “Rachel was particularly waspish about only getting 6 baths yesterday and couldn’t stand the sound of our chewing in the other room, or something.”

“Let’s get her up in the tub in a bit and maybe that will put her in a better mood,” I suggested.

Kevin pursed his lips, “Hmm maybe. But not likely. She is 100% convinced that it’s a boy now because there is no way a girl would cause her this much anguish and torment.”

“Wow! What a difference a day makes,” I replied, “yesterday she was getting her hair washed and styled ... today she...”

“I can hear everything you’re saying about me, fuckers!” her voice yelled from the other room, “and it is a boy! And I’m gonna name him Carter after his asshole Godfather!”

Kevin tried not to smile too loud for fear of her hearing it, while I winced. “So, a bath is out of the question?” I called back, from a safe distance.

“Don’t be an even bigger asshole! Kevin, go start the water and then help him carry my beluga butt up the stairs!”

“Yes dear,” he replied contritely despite his grin.

Fifteen minutes later she was several degrees nicer as she savored the heated buoyancy of her tub.

“I wanted to show you a couple of places I discovered, while I was house hunting with Trin last night,” Kevin stated after we returned to the office. “I was wondering how you felt about another investment idea I have.”

Kevin handled all of my finances and managed several lucrative investment portfolios in my name, protecting my money from the evils of taxation and such. I shrugged as I typically did whenever he started talking about investments, venture capital, bonds, annuities, etc. “What kind of investment?”

He had printed several listings for apartments and townhouses and laid them on the desk before me. “She could rent a place easily enough but since you had me start that trust fund for her, I wondered if it might be more prudent to just purchase her a place like a condominium apartment or something.”

I saw the sheet in his hand that he was holding back and nodded toward it, “Why don’t you just lead with what’s really on your mind?” I suggested.

He grinned sheepishly and handed me the listing for a duplex townhouse that was just recently built. It looked like one of the units was occupied.

“Is it for sale or rent?” I asked.

“Well, both technically,” he replied. “The entire unit is for sale, but it is a rental property. If you bought the unit, Trin could live in the empty one while you collect rent from the tenants next door. If you mortgage it the rental income would pay the mortgage fee for you.”

“Or if I bought it outright and gave it to her, she would have a steady monthly income from it,” I replied.

He nodded. “That is a hell of a birthday present, but I support your idea fully. In fact, I have already anticipated that you would probably lean that way and hired a friend to inspect it for us.”

“Can I afford it?” I asked. I did just purchase a double-wide manufactured home last month and I had no clue just where I stood financially. I figured Kevin wouldn’t have suggested it if I were not able to do it.

“Easily,” he replied without looking up from his computer. “That reminds me ... I pulled us out of our entire BitCoin holding after we tripled our money. I have been concerned by all the regulatory kerfuffle getting bandied around with Congress. So, I wanted to get out before the mass exodus, if it occurs.”

I shrugged. Tripling an investment sounded like a pretty solid win to me. “So, we made out, okay?”

He paused what he was doing and picked up a remote control to turn on a flat screen on the wall beside his desk. He pressed another button and it displayed his computer screen. He began by opening a folder and selecting a spreadsheet. My head already started throbbing as I anticipated another presentation on stocks, investments, and portfolio performance. He regarded me with a smirk and double-clicked on a small box that produced a graph. “Don’t worry Einstein, I dummied it down for you.”

Oh good. I leaned forward and noted that four different colored lines started at the bottom of the left side and climbed jaggedly toward the right top corner. He moved the mouse over each of the colors and text blocks appeared.

“We have treasuries and bonds, metals and gold, real estate and venture capital, and stocks which include options, stocks, REITs, and IPOs.” And this was dummied down? I crossed my eyes at him. “See how all the lines are going up?” he blew out exasperated.

I nodded. “Going up, yep, that’s good...”

He rolled his eyes. “Indeed. I liquidated most of that ‘gift’ bag you brought back from ... wherever, and invested it equally among all the portfolios here. I also took the capital proceeds from liquidating your BitCoin holdings and similarly dispersed it, putting aside a portion to cover long and short-term capital gains taxes.” The ‘gift’ he referred to was what Bianca gave me after I took care of the crime family that wanted to end her so badly. It was a black bag full of cash, gold coins, bearer bonds, and diamonds worth over two million dollars. I nodded when it felt appropriate to do so and made a few affirmative hums and hahs. “Now this does not reflect any of your quarterly dividend revenue because, so long as it is reinvested under specific rules it can be left untaxed until you sell ... sort of like Roth versus traditional IRAs,” he continued but I quit listening sometime after the word ‘liquidated’.

My phone buzzed and I jumped for it excitedly while Kevin frowned. It was Rachel.

“Come and get me out of this tub before I shrivel up!” she ordered.

“Yes Ma’am,” I replied, jumping to my feet, “Kevin was just going over money stuff,” I glanced briefly at his astonished face and he rose, “ ... and things. Be right there!”

“You are so whipped!” he grumbled as he moved around the desk to join me.

“You married her,” I retorted, just glad to be done with the money lecture. “So those graph thingies are gonna be enough to buy that Duplex? How much was it anyways?”

“Seriously dude,” he growled. “What are you gonna do when I keel over and die?”

“CPR, I suppose.”

Ten minutes later we had her out of the tub, dried off, and tucked into their bed for a nap.

“I need to go grab some treated lumber for my deck,” I said after we returned to the kitchen. “Do you think you will be okay for a couple of hours? Trin will be getting out of class early but she got this maniacal gleam in her eye when I handed her that Damascus blank this morning. So, I expect she will be heading over to that old boyfriend of hers to work on her knife.”

Kevin just shook his head. “You know, we were doing just fine without y’all,” He opened the fridge and pointed to the interior. “Do you have any idea how much that girl can eat?”

“Do you have any idea how difficult she gets, when she doesn’t eat?” I replied smiling sublimely.

“Touche,” he grunted. “You gonna take your dog or do I have to feed him too?”

As if on cue Travis came sauntering down the steps followed by the largest cat in three counties, their Maine Coon, Charlotte. Travis stretched at the bottom of the stairs and his feline BFF mimicked his move.

“I just need to get my truck loaded up and I’ll be back, in an hour or so.” I grabbed my keys. “You need me to pick anything up beside a load of groceries?”

He bent down to keep the cat from bolting out the front door as we left. “Just make sure you grab another gallon or three of milk!”

I was only gone an hour and a half. Loading the lumber took the longest and shopping for Trinity and a pregnant woman didn’t sound so hard. Milk, bread, frozen dinners, and ice cream. Just to be sure I covered every flavor they had. The dune buggy was still missing from their parking lot so I figured I would have a longer shift this time. Rachel was back downstairs and reclining in ‘my’ chair. Kevin came out and helped me unload the groceries. We had the bags all laid out on the table when my phone rang with another unlisted number. Kevin regarded me with a frown when I placed it on the table and answered it.

“Hey Sam, I’m at Kevin and Rachel’s, you are on speaker. How are you doing?”

“Better now,” her voice was broken up and staticky, with a loud droning noise in the background. “I think I lost them good, this time,” she giggled.

“Um, where are you, and what is all the noise?” I asked. Kevin gave me a ‘look’ as he regarded a dozen containers of ice cream that he pulled from a bag. Rachel waddled past me and picked up a couple, scrutinizing the labels.

“I’m in an airplane and I’m about to blow across your border,” she replied.

“What kind of plane?” Rachel asked as she grabbed herself a spoon and began testing several containers.

“Is that Rachel?”

“Mmmhmm. Oh, this is yummy,” she mumbled as she took a half pint of Cherry Garcia and wandered around to the other side of the table. She patted my arm as she passed me. “Good boy.”

“It’s a Cessna something... 150, I think. 2-seater. I wasn’t being very selective when I stole it.”

I dropped a slab of bacon on the floor. “You stole a Cessna? You can fly a Cessna?”

“Can’t you?” she replied, “And how else can I cross the border without a lot of fuss? They are watching every crossing for me, I’m sure.”

“But ... what ... about, how did you learn to fly?” I had so many thoughts in my head right then.

“I got a (or had a) flight simulator program,” she replied confidently, “I’m rated up to a 737. A Cessna is way easier by the way.”

My mouth dropped open and I gazed at Kevin’s expression which probably matched mine.

“So, you’ve never actually flown a plane?” he asked incredulously.

“That must be Kevin,” she said cheerfully. “Congratulations by the way! And just for the record taking off was almost exactly like the simulator ... except for all the bumps and yawing.”

I placed my face in my hands and groaned. “Wha ... Sam ... how are you going to land that thing?”

“How hard can it be?” she replied flippantly. “Not any time soon though I hope ... not a piece of land in sight at the moment.”

“Where the fuck are you right now? Where did you steal the plane?” I blurted.

“My bike broke down in London ... that’s Middlesex Ontario for you Yanks. And I am currently flying over Lake Erie, I suppose.”

I drew a blank as I tried to picture the geography in my head.

“So, you are headed for Cleveland?” Rachel mumbled with a mouth full of ice cream.

“Not sure yet, hopefully. I think I see America down there ahead of me.”

“Oh man, there is this restaurant not a block away from House of Blues called Mabel’s! Sister I am telling you they have the best Barbeque on the Planet!” I gaped at Rachel as she licked her spoon with a dreamy look in her eye. Then she started snapping her fingers at Kevin as he was trying to pack the last container into the fridge. He looked at her exasperated as she tossed him the Cherry Garcia while pointing at the peanut butter something in his hand.