Chapter Four
Amos stepped out ofone of the rooms and watched carefully.This guy looked more than suspicious.Not like the men they usually get here.No, he had a purpose and it wasn’t to get a home or a meal.
Amos then went down the hall to the front window as the man went to his truck.Yeah, men coming here usually don't have trucks or cars usually.Unless they were living in them.
Amos stood there watching the truck as it disappeared down the street.Taking his phone from his pocket, he texted someone.Then he turned his head and looked at Cassie’s office door.
Finally, he stepped back into his room and shut the door.
He walked over to his sofa and got his phone out again.He hit a number in his contacts and spoke clearly into the phone, “Deke, I think we got trouble coming.I don’t know it for a fact but I have a rolling feeling in my gut.There was a guy here just a few minutes ago, he just walked in off the street and he followed young Sammy down the hall.Then he stood in the doorway of Ms.Cassie’s office and just stared at her.He never spoke to her but he did stare at her like maybe she owed him something.”He hesitated then told him, “I felt dread.I mean the guy didn’t do anything wrong but there was just something in the way he stared at your woman.The man was looking at Ms.Cassie’s cut real close too.He’s up to no good and I thought you needed to know.”
Deke was silent for a moment then he replied, “Thank you for the call Amos.And you better believe I want to know about something like this.Ask Joey to look at the security backups and to have them pulled up when I get there.I want to see this guy’s face.”
“You got it,” Amos replied.“Oh, and I texted Frankie to follow them but not to get too close.Maybe we can find out where this creep went.”
Deke agreed, “I’m on my way, watch over my family until I can get there, will you?”
“You bet your ass we will,” Amos vowed.“She may be your wife and the mother of your children but she’s got our hearts in her tiny hand too.”
Deke chuckled.“I know that Amos and I really appreciate you guys watching out for her.I thank God every day she picked you guys as her warriors.I’ll be there in a few minutes, just watch over her.”
Amos ended the call and got up to walk down the hall.He paused in front of Cassie’s office then knocked lightly on the door.When he heard no answer, he pushed the door open fully and scanned the room.
It looked wrecked with files all over the floor.With the landline phone lying on the floor and the receiver knocked off the resting place.
He quickly moved around the desk and found little Sammy laying there.“Ms.Cassie?”he shouted out and walked circles around the room.“Ms.Cassie, where are you?Are you here?”
He knelt down and gathered young Sammy into his arms and hurried him toward the nurse’s office.
Several of his men rushed down the hall and they were shocked to see Amos holding the injured boy.
“What the hell happened here?”Gus shouted as he quickly opened the doctor’s office door and ushered Amos inside.
Maggie sat at her desk filling out forms when Amos burst into the room and carried Sammy over to her exam bed.Then he gently laid him carefully down on it.
Maggie bolted up from her desk, looked at Sammy then up at Amos.“How did he get hurt?”
Amos shook his head while staring at the child they all loved.“I don’t know.Deke is on his way here now and he isn’t going to be happy about this.”Finally, he looked up at his men to explain, “I saw a man come into the building a few minutes ago.He wasn’t the usual kind we get here, so I watched him.I saw him follow Sammy down the hall and he stood at Ms.Cassie’s door, just staring at her.He didn’t talk to her.I got a bad feeling in my gut.He wasn’t here to get help and the way he stared at Ms.Cassie wasn’t good.He didn’t speak to anyone the whole time he was here.He then left.I went back to my room and texted Frankie and told him to watch the street.That when he saw the truck he should follow it at a distance and let us know where it went.Then I called Deke, told him what I saw...”He shook his head.“I just didn’t think that bastard was gonna go around back so fast like that.It was like three minutes, man!He took Miss Cassie and hurt her child.”He sighed hard then straightened his shoulders.“Now I have to tell her man that I failed.I let that monster come back in here and take his woman.That’s on me but we gotta find her and bring her back here before this prick can hurt her.”
His men all looked worried.
“Amos,” Joey spoke up.“If there were two of them in this, you cannot blame yourself for not being at two places at once, man.”
Moses shrugged.“I can face that later.We gotta do this quick and quiet-like.”He looked at his men.“Boys, we gotta search every block, every hiding place we know.If we gotta, we search under every rock, every stone big enough to hide this rot that’s in our city.We also gotta protect Ms.Cassie’s kids.Deke might not want us to be around his family all the time but we need to stick close to her babies.She might be Deke’s woman but she is our light too.”
Every man in that room nodded at him.
Sammy woke up and grabbed Amos’ hand.“Where is my mama?A man climbed through the window and he hit her.Then he pushed me and I fell.I hit mama’s desk and I got blood all over me.”Sammy cried and his tears blended with the blood on his cheek.He began to sob and climbed into Amos’s arms.
Amos held the boy tightly and his eyes felt the burn of his own tears spilling down his cheeks.“We’ll find your mom, Sammy.Don’t you worry.We’ll find her,” he whispered to the sobbing child in his arms.
Suddenly, the door was rudely slammed open.
Deke and Gator stood there.
Deke scanned the room immediately but he didn’t see Cassie.He strode toward Amos and saw his son’s shirt covered in blood.He raised his gaze to Amos and asked quietly, “Where is my woman?”
Amos looked him square in the eyes and he spoke just as quietly, “When I got off the phone with you, I went to the office.I found Cassie gone and your son was on the floor.That fiend came back.He drove his truck around back and then entered through the window.It had to be while I was calling you.But he must have had help, no one could move that fast.According to Sammy he hit Ms.Cassie and then he pushed little Sammy into the desk.I’m sorry Deke, I failed you.”