Freeman chuckled, wiping his mouth with a napkin and walking to the front door to unlock it, leaving it cracked open as an invitation to come in. “Be careful.” He said to his friend as he sat back down at the table.
“Of wha--AAAAH!”
Ruby came running out of the hall leading to the Garage, barking her head off and showing her teeth. “Down, Ruby.”
“What the..Crap, Freeman. You trying to give me a heart attack?”
“Sorry, Ruby is for the Simmons.”
“Still. A warning before I came in would have been nice.”
“I said be careful.”
“Yea, well, that’s not what I meant.” Gideon held his hand over his heart as he side stepped away from Ruby who was laying on the floor in a submissive position. “She is one scary beast. Bishop never greeted me like that.”
“That’s because Bishop met you at the park and not in his home he was protecting.”
“This aint her home. You said she was for the Simmons.”
“You’re right, but she’s here right now and therefore she is protecting it. Plus, I’ve worked with her before. So.”
“Okay, Okay…” He sat down across from Freeman. “So, what was this favor? Not that I should give you any favors considering the trauma you just put me through.”
Freeman pushed a plate of food towards him and the manila envelope. “I picked that up last night and the food was delivered hot and fresh about two minutes before you walked in the door.”
“Nice.” He took a couple mouthfuls of food before opening the manila envelope and looking through the contents. “Where did you get these from?”
“Louie. Aida brought them to the old apartment complex I used to manage. I don’t think she knows where I live now, but..”
“Yea, but.. She was stalking you guys for years before she acted. Did you guys keep to a schedule?”
Freeman nodded. “Like clockwork, which is why I was surprised it took her so long to leap. She could have taken Amora at any given moment, why just then?”
“Why indeed.” Gideon took another bite of hash browns before he looked over the top of the picture he was holding and asked. “Have you told Faye about these?”
“No, and I don’t plan to. At least not right away. I’m filing for custody of our daughter, Sophia. She isn’t going to like me much, but I’m hoping that once she sees this information she’ll understand that I had my reasons for why I am doing it.”
“Except that you filed for custody of Sophia before you got these..”
“Yes, well, I’ve always relied on my gut instinct about all things in life. People. Places. People.” He shrugged, “I’ve never liked Eli, but I never thought him capable of kidnapping either. He changed since he was deployed and whatever Aida found out about him has her running scared for the hill with his unborn baby growing in her belly. If you knew Aida like I do, you would know this is 100% out of character for her.”
“I trust your judgement. Okay, what do you want me to do? Contact these people?”
Freeman nodded his head again, wiping his mouth with his napkin before taking a drink of his coffee, holding up the mug to Gideon who nodded in acceptance of him offering him a cup as well. “Yes, but we would have to do this discretely. Do you think Natalie..”
“Would love to dig up some dirt on the people causing her family pain? You kidding. My girl lives for this.”
Freeman poured two cups of coffee, the scooped four table spoons full of sugar into Gideon’s before walking back to the table. “Great, I’ll call her today before I take Ruby over to Jaymie’s and Christian’s house.”
“Don’t worry about it, I’ll do that.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, you kidding me? Valdez is probably in withdrawal of not being to feast upon me.”
Freeman rolled his eyes. “Yea, I’ll bet. I need copies made so you can take them to Nat and show the team. I need to originals so if you need to pull prints.”
