My Convict

3-Figuring s**t Out

+Brandy

"Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out." I whisper under my breath for the past couple of minutes, trying my best to keep myself intact. My hands were getting sweaty from holding the comb too tight. My eyes keep going back and forth to the television screen. The news finally goes on a commercial break, which gives me some type of relief.

"Aye, you sure you good Brandy?" Tyson asks, his chocolate brown eyes staring into mine.

I forcefully smile at him. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just some cramps."

Tyson's face twist in disgust. "TMI." He squeals. "You didn't have to tell me all that."

"Oh, shut up Tyson. You act like it's a bad thing to be on your period." Michelle says, glaring at him. "s**t, your mom bleeds, your sister bleeds. Even your non-cooking girlfriend bleeds."

Tyson opens his mouth to say something, but Mia cuts him off. "Leave that man's girlfriend alone, Y'all always talking s**t about her. She black, Y'all black. Stop putting her down because she doesn't know how to do certain things. It's not right."

Michelle rolls her eyes. "Oh shut up Mother Teresa." She says, sarcastically almost finishing her client's hair. "I'm gonna talk s**t about whoever the f**k I want, no matter their shade of skin, their fuckin weight, nor gotdamn personality."

Savannah scoffs. "Keep that same fuckin energy when his girlfriend finds out you been talking s**t behind her back."

Before Michelle can speak, I clear my throat. "Y'all need to stop all this cursing, in front of my customers. Did y'all forget who employed you? Stop acting unprofessional!" I snap. They were getting on my last nerve, and to be honest I already got too much s**t to deal with right now and them going back and forth was really getting in the way of me thinking. My eyes roll to the back of my head, realizing that we were missing someone. "Where the hell is Yonnie? She was been supposed to be here."

Tyson's eyes widen and he stands up abruptly. "And that's my cue to leave. Y'all done made my boss lady mad." He places a kiss on my cheeks and walks towards the door.

"Go on somewhere Tyson, before you get us in trouble again." Tyson only chuckles, before walking out. Mia looks up at me. "Yonnie caught a flat tire... again," Mia says, shaking her head. Her current client paid Savannah, and she moved on to the next person.

I squint my eyes at Mia. "That's the excuse she gave?"

Mia nods, avoiding my gaze. "Yes, ma'am. Something like that."

Letting out a breath, I finish with Linda's hair. She says thank you and slides Savannah the money. "How long since you last spoke to her?"

"About thirty minutes ago," Mia confess.

Pressing the bridge of my nose, I bite my tongue. Yonnie knows damn well she ain't got no flat tire. Her ass with her abusive, small d**k nigga. Out of all the girls that work here, she was the youngest, so I made it my top priority to care for her. But no matter how much money or resources I give this girl, she always goes back to that dude. It was honestly starting to get old. "Text her and tell her she has ten minutes to get her ass over here or she's fired."

Michelle clears her throat. "No cursing." She mocks.

I glare at her. "You can get fired as well."

Her eyes widen and she lifts her hands up in surrender. "There's no need for that boss lady." She says, her voice sounding squeaky. The familiar chiming of the news catches my attention. My eyes quickly flicker to the television.

The black news anchorwoman appears on the screen. "We're back on News 6, I'm Nacy drake and here is an update on Elijah Nick Müller escaping Sean Creek's maximum prison. Now for those who didn't know, Müller is a part of the German Mobb. The Mobb is currently being run by his father Jack Müller, the notorious gangster who slaughtered eighty-nine people, back in 2009. Investigators have spoken to the inmate that Müller was bunked with and the inmate says and I quote, "Once I overheard Müller talking to his buddies about going to see his girlfriend in Atlanta. From what I heard he said, that's the first place he wanted to go whenever he got out of the pen."

Atlanta?

Did he just say Atlanta?

Elijah couldn't possibly be coming down here for me. He doesn't even know where I live. I'm sure he doesn't even remember me, after all, it was just a one-night stand. Maybe it's just a coincidence.

Savannah bursts out laughing. "Would you look at that, a cracker snitching on a cracker."

"Girl shut up. I'm trying to hear this." Mia scolds.

"The inmate who bunked with Müller also said that he heard Müller talking about a son that he's never meant."

My heart drops.

"What. The. Fuck." I whisper. He's definitely coming for me and Elliot.

"The mayor of Atlanta is taking this seriously. He has upped the amount of police on the streets, just in case Müller does come to Atlanta." The anchorwoman clears her throat, smiling. "Müller is considered armed and dangerous, so once again we remind you. If you see something say something." The news cuts off and Maury comes back on.

With shaky hands, I quickly grab my purse. I turn to my girls. "Guys, I'm gonna go home. I'm not feeling too well. If anything happens or if you notice anything suspicious, call me. Since there are only four clients here left, shut the store down and go home." I hand Savannah the keys to the shop. "You're in charge."

She smiled happily. "Thanks, boss lady. I'll take care of everything. Hope you feel better."

"Yeah, thanks." Before I can walk out the door, she stops me.

"What do I do if Yonnie comes?" She asks.

I glance at the clock. "If she doesn't make it here by the time that clock hits 11:30 fire her," I say sternly, before walking out of the shop. Within seconds I'm in my car, speeding my way to Elliot's daycare. Taking my phone off the passenger seat, I start to dial Elliot's daycare.

The phone rings for a moment, before someone answers. "UTF daycare, how may I help you today?"

"Hi, I'm the mother of Elliot Quinn. I'm calling to ask if you guys can get him ready for dismissal. I'll be there in a couple of minutes, to pick him up."

"Sure thing ma'am. He'll be ready by the time you get here. Please make sure to have your I.D with you, when checking him out."

"Alright, thank you." Hanging up the phone, I step on the gas, making sure to keep my eyes out for any cops.

My mind thinks of all the reasons why Elijah would want to come to Atlanta. I never personally did anything harmful towards him, so I doubt he'd want to kill me. But then again he's in the Mobb, and I never told him about his five-year-old son...

Damn, now that I think about it, he probably will kill me.

Maybe he'll be understanding, it's not like I purposely kept Elliot away from him. To be quite honest, we don't even know each other. If it wasn't for seeing him on the news today, I'd probably never know his name.

Wait. How the hell does he even know about Elliot?

How does he even know we live in Atlanta?

Has he been keeping an eye on us?

How the hell is that even possible?

What if he wants to take Elliot away from me?

My heart sinks, just thinking about it. "Breathe Brandy." I remind myself. Whatever the case is, I need to get the hell out of Georgia before he gets here. At the end of the day, he's a convict and that's not good for Elliot... Or me.

We're better off without him.

Making it to the daycare, I pause. Looking at myself in the mirror, all there was, was despair. My face looks heavier than usual, which is sadly a way of my body telling me that I'm stressed. This all started when I was pregnant with Elliot and five years later, it still stuck around.

Letting out a breath deep breath, I grab my wallet before getting out the car. Locking the door, my feet take steps across the concrete ground. Opening the doors to the familiar daycare, the cool blast of air hits me. "Hi, how may I help?" The blond receptionist asks, smiling brightly.

I hand her my I.D "I'm picking Elliot up."

She glances at the card, before handing it back to me. "Alrighty, just give me a second he'll be down here in no time."

"Okay." My hand cross over my chest, as I look at the little kiddie drawings on the wall. Elliot wasn't exactly artistic, he drew, but it was mostly stick figures. He likes music, just as long as it isn't too loud and of course, he loves to read. He keeps to himself most of the time and when he's scared... When he's scared everything changes.

"Here he goes, Ms. Quinn," the receptionist says, pointing towards a grave-looking Elliot.

"Thank you." I look down at Elliot, signing to him. "Hey, bud. I'm sorry to pick you up so early, but something came up."

He looks at me, processing what I said. "Okay." He signs back. Grabbing a hold of my hand, he leads the way to the car.

I'm guessing his first day of daycare didn't go so well.

Helping him into the car, I shut his door, before getting into the driver's seat. Pulling out of the parking lot, I drive onto the road. "Did you enjoy daycare little man?"

Elliot looks at me in the wing mirror. "No." He whispers.

I nod. "How come?"

He fumbles with his fingers. "Too much... people."

"And it made you uncomfortable?" He shakes his head yes. I nod in understanding. "Can I let you in on a little secret?" He nods. "I use to be uncomfortable around people too. It's absolutely normal."

"Really?" He asks, setting his hands down.

"Yes really. I use to pee my pants whenever my mom brought me to school." I chuckle. "And when your grandma found out I was doing it on purpose, she whooped my butt so bad."

Elliot giggles. Something he rarely does. "That's funny mommy."

I smile. "Funny? You think that was funny? My butt hurt for days. Months even. Your grandma really had a way with the belt."

He giggles once again. "Mommy, you're being over... dr... dra." He struggles to pronounce the word.

"It's okay. Let's just take a deep breath and pronounce the word together." Elliot takes a deep breath. "Overdramatic." We say together. "Good job Elliot. You know, not much five-year-olds can say that word." Elliot doesn't say a word, once I pull onto the driveway he quickly unbuckles his seatbelt. "Bud, I have to tell you something and you're probably not gonna like it."

"Tired." He states, wanting to get out the car.

Sighing, I get out of the car and open his door for him. He steps out and runs to the porch. "Elliot, what did I tell you about running?" I question, following him, completely forgetting to lock the car. My keys stay glued to my hands, but I left my cell phone in the car.

When I get to the porch, Elliot is nowhere to be seen. The house door is wide open. I gulp, there's no reason for it to be open if I locked all the doors this morning. Oh no! "Elliot?" I question, running inside the house. "Elliot where are you?"

"I'm right here mommy." He says, coming from the kitchen.

I sigh in relief. "Elliot baby, don't do that again." I walk towards him, placing a kiss on his face. "Go to your room and put all your clothes in the dresser inside of your suitcase." Elliot tilts his head in questioning. "Go, now Elliot." He starts running in the direction of his room.

My eyes scan around the house, looking to see if anything has been touched. From the looks of it, if anyone did come in here, they took nothing. Walking inside my bedroom, I begin to put all my clothes in a deserted suitcase. I made sure to only take the ones that made me feel comfortable. Once I'm done, I decide to grab Elliot's medication from my bathroom.

My hand grabs a hold of the bathroom door handle, before twisting to open it. Pushing the door back slightly, my body goes numb at what I see.

The bathroom light was already open and a set of dark black boots was on the floor. But what made my heart sink, was the orange jumpsuit on top of the counter that read, inmate 859456 in the front and on the back had the words D.O.C printed in bold.

He's here.

Elijah is in my house.

My skin crawls as fright stirred in the pit of my stomach. Every instinct in my body warned me of danger. "Elliot, let's go. Come on, we're leaving." Taking a hold of my suitcase, I quickly run to Elliot's room. "Baby we gotta go," I say, picking him up. Elliot cringes at how tight I'm holding him, but I didn't care. We needed to get the hell out of this house asap.

Taking his small suitcase, I take fast steps towards the car. The weight of Elliot and both suitcase makes it a challenging to walk down the stairs, but thankfully I make it.

"My book mommy, you forgot my book." Elliot reminds me, once we get outside.

"Shit." I curse, sitting him down in the car. Knowing him, he wouldn't let me leave the house the without the book, I doubt he'd even sleep without it. Elliot's blue-green eyes stare at me, waiting for me to speak. "Okay." I finally, let out, putting the suitcases in the back seat. "I'll go get your book, buckle yourself up and don't you move from this spot." He nods his head in understanding and I shut the door, before running back inside the house.

Jogging inside the house and back up the stairs, I was out of breath. My lungs felt like they were gonna give out on me. "Why the hell don't I work out?" I ask myself, walking inside of Elliot's room. Thankfully the book was on his desk, so no time was wasted trying to find it. Running back down the stairs and out the house, I slam the door behind me.

Getting inside the car, I quickly lock the doors and start up the engine. "I got your book, Elliot."

"Mommy?" Elliot questions, his voice barely audible.

"Yes, baby?" I ask, searching for my phone. Before I got out of the car, it was on the passenger's seat.

"The man in the car wants to know where we're going," Elliot says.

My mouth goes dry and my body starts sweating fiercely. Before a word can come out my mouth, a voice I never thought I'd hear ever again speaks. "Yeah, perle." Rough hands clamp around my shoulders. "Where are we going?"

Shit!

He's in the car.

I'm screwed.