They were in the clouds, flying high and away, as they were naked and on their backs, arm in arm, watching the world go by from the comfort of the bedroom onboard.  They were in flight, on their way back to Florida, and both were still feeling the sting.

After nearly a half hour of just lying there, Alex finally spoke.  “Odysseus phoned me while you were in the tub,” he said.

Kari was surprised to hear it.  “What did he say?”

“He thanked me.  He said the families, what was left of them, called and agreed to a truce.”

“But why would they give in if they know they have the upper hand?”

“Because they know they don’t,” Alex said.  “Odysseus has a reputation, too.  He is a man who was number two in the largest crime family in Greece.  They weren’t even number two in their own smaller families.  It is in their best interest to do business with Oz.”

“And what about your father?  What did Oz say about that?”

Alex hesitated.  “He didn’t,” he finally said.

Kari hesitated, and then asked it anyway. “What do you say about that?” she asked.

“I say,” Alex said, “you get what you deserve in this life.  He killed the bosses, and directed to be killed the underbosses of five organizations.  He almost got his own daughter killed.  He ordered your execution if his men decided they didn’t want to bother bringing you in.  What the fuck did he think would be his outcome?”

Kari snuggled against him.  “I’m saying,” she said.

Then Alex began rubbing her arm.  “Thank you,” he said.

What was he thinking her for?  She looked at him.  “For what?”

“For having my back,” said Alex.  “For not barracking yourself in another room as soon as we boarded this plane.  For, hopefully,” he added, “deciding not to leave me.”

He said those last words with great trepidation.  The idea that he would allow himself to be that vulnerable with another human being would have been implausible just a few months ago.  Now he felt completely vulnerable with Kari.  Completely exposed.  But after the way she stepped up for him in Greece, he felt that coming clean and being honest with her was the least he could do.

Kari turned toward him to where her body was halfway on top of his.  And she smiled that angelic smile, he thought.  “You don’t have to thank me again,” she said.  “I’ll glad come to your rescue again and again,” she said, and both of them laughed.

But Alex, thrilled beyond measure, slid her body all the way until she was completely on top of him.  Then he held her in a big bearhug.

 

But an hour later, as Kari and Alex both struggled to stay awake, everything turned sideways when Kari’s cellphone rang.  Alex grabbed it from the nightstand and looked at the Caller ID.  “Faye,” he said.

Kari took it from him, placed the call on Speaker, and laid back on Alex’s chest as she answered the call.   “Faye, hey. Everything alright?”

“Yes, it’s. . . You’re back in town, right?” she asked.

Kari was puzzled.  “Am I back in town?  No.  Not yet.  We’re about an hour away.  Why?”

There was a pause.  Even Alex looked concerned.  “Why, Faye?” Kari asked again.

“It’s Jordan.”

Kari’s heart dropped. She immediately sat up and placed her feet toward the floor, with her ass directly on top of Alex’s penis.  “What about Jordan?” she asked.

“We can’t find him, Kari.”

Alex lifted Kari up and stood them both up.

“You can’t find him?” Kari was asking, her voice rising with fear.  “What are you talking about you can’t find him?”

“We’ve looked everywhere.  We’ve called everybody he knows.  Nobody’s seen him, Kari.  He was supposed to come home after school.  I went to pick him up.  But he wasn’t there.  Nobody at the school could remember where he went after the bell rung.  Nobody’s seen him, Kare.”

“Check my rental house,” Alex said.  “He has friends in that neighborhood too.”

“Benny checked there already.  He checked the pool.  The clubhouse.  He even checked your house to see if he was around there.  He wasn’t.”

“Oh, God,” Kari said.  “Oh, God.”

“Has this ever happened before?” Alex asked Kari.

“No!” Kari responded.  “Never!  Jordan always let me know where he is.”  Then she looked at Alex.  “What if it’s related to Greece?” she asked.  “What if those families . . .”

But Alex was pulling her into his arms.  “It’s not related, baby.  He’s not in any danger like that.”

But as Kari continued to get information from Faye, Alex moved away from her and called the two security details responsible for Jordan’s safety.

But they had no answers, either.  Jordan was dropped off at school.  They arrived back at the school an hour before the bell rang and waited for him to come out of the school.  It was their normal routine, and it had worked every time.  Accept this time, they didn’t see him.  They, in concert with Benny and Faye Church, decided to search for Jordan first, before they made that call.  When all else failed, they ordered Faye to make the call.

It wasn’t looking good.

 

And when that plane touched down in Apple Valley, Alex and Kari hit the ground running.  Benny and Faye were waiting for them, and Alex knew the two teams of security were out of sight, but waiting too.

Jimmy Hines, Drakos Capital’s chief investigator, had been ordered to get to Apple Valley too.  Because he was nearby, at his vacation home in Destin, Florida, it worked out.  He was able to drive right over and was waiting at the airstrip with the Churches.  Alex’s G-Wagon was waiting for his use as well.

“Anything?” Kari was asking Faye and Benny as soon as she ran up to them.

“Still nothing, Kari,” Benny said.  “We’ve searched everywhere.”

“But that’s not possible!”

“Four times, Kari,” Benny said before she could continue.  “We’ve searched everywhere.”

Kari was so distressed that it pained all of them.  Faye placed an arm around her.  “Jordan is a good kid, Kare,” she said.  “We’ll find him.”

But Alex pulled Jimmy Hines aside, and looked at him.  “Any leads at all?” he asked him.

Jim shook his head.  “It’s as if the kid disappeared into thin air.  Nobody knows shit.”

“One thing I know,” Alex said, “is that I want you to pull every member of both details and refresh.  Effective immediately.”

“Both details?” Jim asked.

“Did I stutter?” Alex asked.  “Both, gotdammit.  Both!  They should have phoned me when Jordan first turned up missing.  That is protocol.  If the team leader won’t do it, every gotdamn member of the team has to do it. They know the rules.  I want every last one of those assholes replaced.”

“And fired?”

Alex frowned.  It was stressful enough without him playing stupid.  He knew how Alex rolled.  “Yes, dammit, Jim!  What’s wrong with you?  Yes!”

Then he left Jim’s side, and hurried back to Kari.  Jim shook his head.  It wasn’t that he was playing stupid, it was just that he’d never seen his boss this upset over some female or her kid.

 

The teams split up.  Faye and Benny were to not only phone the list of Jordan’s friends that they had, but Alex suggested they go to those friends’ houses and talk with their parents.  See if the parents saw anything.  Faye and Benny gladly complied.

Jim and his team were to search around Alex’s neighborhood again, and surrounding neighborhoods.

But Alex and Kari went to Kari’s house.  Faye had already searched there, but Kari wanted to be sure.

When they got there, and found the house not only empty but undisturbed, it was no surprise to either one of them.  Just another big letdown.  They got back into Alex’s car.  But Alex waited.

Kari looked at him as if he’d lost his mind.  “What are you doing?” she asked him.  “Let’s go!  We’ve got to find him before it gets dark.  Let’s go, Alex!”

“Where?” Alex asked.

Kari stared at him.  She didn’t know where!  She just wanted her boy home!

Alex leaned his head back.  “We’ve got to think, Kari.”

“I’ve been thinking.  I’ve been thinking what if it is one of your enemies?”

“It’s not,” Alex said.

“But it can be.”

“No, it can’t.”

“What about your ex-wife?”

Alex frowned and looked at her.  “What?  Linda?”

“I heard what Oz said about what you did to her face.  She had plastic surgery because of what you did to her.  And it was all because of me, wasn’t it?  And how she disrespected me.”

“It was also because I know her.  She was not going to let it go.”

“See!” Kari said.  Alex looked at her.  She was too amped-up.  “That only proves my point,” Kari continued.  “She didn’t let it go.  And decided to hurt my son.”

But Alex was shaking his head.  “That’s not what’s happening.”

“How can you be so sure?”

Alex looked at Kari.  She was beyond distressed, and it hurt him.  “While we were still inflight, I had my men track her down.  I had them question her with a, let’s say, harsh interrogation.  She is not involved in Jordan’s disappearance.”

But Kari shook her head.  She still wasn’t convinced.

“You have got to settle down, honey,” Alex said.  “You can’t think straight in this state of being.  He’s a smart kid.  He’s going to be okay.  Don’t you feel that?”

Kari actually did.  “Yes,” she said.

“Then let’s think about this.”

“But what’s there to think about, Alex?  He’s not with any of his friends.  Benny is a lawyer.  He knows how to question people too.  He covered those bases.”

“But what if he has a new friend?” Alex asked.

“A new friend?”  Then Kari thought about it.  “You mean like a girlfriend?”

Alex nodded.  “Yes.”

“He never mentioned one to me.”

“But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have one.”

Kari agreed.  “No, it doesn’t.”  Then she looked at Alex.  He was an expert in relationships.  “If you were a fourteen-year-old boy, where would you take your girlfriend?”

“This time of day?  It’s been what, nearly a couple hours after school?”  He thought about it.

But then they both looked at each other, and said it simultaneously: “The movies!” they said.

Alex quickly pressed the Start button. “Where’s the nearest cinema?” he asked.

“The only cinema,” Kari said, “is actually in walking distance of his school!”

Alex smiled.  “I’ll be damned,” he said, and they took off.

 

And it was as simple as that.  Alex and Kari hurried out of the SUV, purchased two tickets to get inside of the cinema, and went from empty theaters to near-empty theaters until they found the right one.  It was a long-ass film on World War One and that theater was completely empty.  Except for the two young people, Jordan and a beautiful black girl, sitting in the very back of the room.  Kissing.

Kari leaned against Alex as a relief filled her entire body.  She was going to kill him, but she was so happy he was alright!  She was going to kill him, but she was so thrilled that no harm had come to him!

But after the relief washed over her, only anger remained, and she was ready to march up those stairs in that dark theater and embarrass the shit out of Jordan.

But Alex pulled her back.  Then pulled her back into the corridor of the movie theater.

Kari looked at him.  “What is it?” she asked.

“Jordan has done what most red-blooded American boys do.  He’s done what I did as a young boy in Greece.”

“What’s that?” Kari asked.

“He’s taking his girl to a movie.”

“But no, Alex, no.  It’s more than that.”  Kari’s face was sincere and serious.  “He could have told Faye or Benny.  They would have let him go.  He didn’t have to sneak around and pull this shit.”

“You’re right.  That was his mistake.  But because we adults overreacted and called in the Fifth Fleet doesn’t make that his mistake too.  He should have told his godparents what he was doing.  Yes, he should have.  But let’s not embarrass the boy in front of his girl by making it more than what it is.”

Kari stared at Alex.  “I won’t make it more than what it is,” she agreed.  “But he should have told Faye and Benny.  He knew she was picking him up from school.  He knew they would worry sick about his whereabouts.  And Jordan knows I don’t play like that.  He’s going to have to pay for what he put all of us through.”

And Kari left Alex’s side, and went into the theater.  Alex was proud of Kari.  She stood by her principles no matter what.  If he didn’t do right by her, it was going to be to his own detriment.  He had a lot of old clothes to toss out.  A lot of baggage. But she was well worth the effort.

But Alex still felt whimsical.  The kid was alright and all was right with his world, too.  But he still smiled and raised his eyebrows at just the thought that he couldn’t convince Kari to go easy on that little Lover Boy in that theater.

“I tried, Jordan,” he said jokingly to no one but himself, as he shook his head and went into the theater too.  Kari had his back in the most dangerous of situations.  The least he can do, in the most domestic of situations, was to have hers, too.

“I want you to call Aunt Faye and Uncle Benny and personally apologize to those good people who are still running around this town looking for your foolish butt.  Then you’ll be calling Alex’s people too.  He’s got them all over the place looking.  You know better, Jordan.  Your ass know better than this!”

Ah, family life, Alex thought delightfully, as he made his way to the back of the theater and sat beside a still-fussing Kari, a terrified young girl, and Jordan, who was listening to his mother’s diatribe with big-ass, I can’t believe Mom is back in the country embarrassing the shit out of me, stunned eyes.