Saved and SAINTified (10 page)

“Of course I am. I wouldn’t play about that.” He smiled at her then turned his eyes back the road. “I know you want another baby and I know you are hoping and praying for a daughter. But before we do this, I need you to look me in my eye and tell me you’d be okay if it is another boy, Xenia. I just don’t have that sort of control—unless we went to a gender selection specialist, which I don’t personally feel is appropriate for our situation.” 

“Well, I agree with that and I promise you, S
aint, I’d be totally okay if we ended up with a third son. Is it what my dream is? Well, no, but my desire to have one more baby is stronger than what sex he or she may be.”

“Yeah, but we both know that if we do this, you want a little girl. I just wanted to be sure that you’d be okay, either way. I don’t want you depressed or having regrets. I want you to be happy, you know?”
He glanced at her affectionately.

“I know you do
,” she said quietly, a grin spread across her face a mile wide.

S
aint sighed as he made a right turn. “Okay, so, if my memory serves me correctly without having our bedroom calendar in front of me, you ovulate in about three weeks. We can try then, or wait until the next cycle. It’s up to you.”

Xenia
nodded vigorously, unable to control her enthusiasm. She burst out laughing as they pulled into the babysitter’s driveway. Immediately, Hassani and Dakarai bustled out the front door toward them, leaving the screen slapping loudly against the siding behind them.

“Mommy! Daddy!” Dakarai called out as his little legs propelled him forward through the front grass of the neatly cut
L.A. lawn. He stumbled and fell down onto his stomach. Saint smiled as he raced toward his fallen tiny hero, picked him up, and carried him high into the air, making him giggle with airplane noises. Hassani hugged Xenia’s legs tightly and looked up at her with a wide, toothy grin.

“Mommy, guess what?”

“What, Hassani?” she answered as she picked him up in her arms. “Boy, you are getting heavier every day!”

“I know!
I got to watch the Thomas movie and I’m getting big. I’m a man now, Mommy.”

S
aint and Xenia looked at each other and burst out laughing.

“
Nuh uh!” Dakarai screamed out, his dark eyebrows furrowing above his large hazel eyes as he shot Hassani an evil glare. “Tellin’ Mommy! Mommy, ’Sani bad!!!”

“Shut up,
Day-Day!” Hassani screamed while Chantel, the babysitter, came out the door wearing a red halter top and tiny white shorts.

“
Hey!” Saint walked toward Xenia and pulled at Hassani’s leg. “I told you about telling people to ‘shut up’, Hassani,” He said sternly. “Don’t let me hear it again. I mean it.”

Dakarai smirked at his brother, while gripping his father tightly around the neck.

Hassani made a pitiful face and buried it into Xenia’s chest. Saint immediately softened and turned away.

He looked
toward the babysitter. “Hey Chantel, thanks for watching the boys, we appreciate it.”

“No problem, they were good.” She smiled and waved at
Xenia.

Xenia
waved back. “Hi, Chantel, thanks again!” She looked back down at Hassani.

S
aint removed his wallet and handed Chantel a fifty dollar bill.

“Thanks
, Dr. Aknaten. Oh, just so you know, I will be out of town next week but my cousin can watch them if you need someone.”

“Well, we’d have to interview her first, so in the meantime, we’ll just make do without you
. If we have anything come up between now and then, we can call my sister-in-law or mother-in-law.”

Chantel nodded and turned to go back inside the house. S
aint looked at Xenia, who still appeared to be in her own little world until Dakarai broke the silence.

“’Sani did a bup-tee on me!”

Xenia shot Dakarai then Saint a look of confusion.

S
aint looked down at Dakarai as they made their way to the car. “A bubble? Hassani did a bubble on you?”

“Yes!” Dakarai angrily crossed his arms over his heaving little chest.

Saint burst out laughing as he placed him in his car seat and strapped him up.

“A bubble, like gas? He farted on you again?” S
aint recalled several incidents in recent weeks in which Dakarai would come running out of their playroom, charging toward him like he’d been shot out of a canyon. Each and every time, Hassani would remain in the quarters, hunched over, laughing while his brother screamed bloody murder and reported the heinous, malodorous crime, time and time again.

“Yes!” Dakarai’s tone
got angrier each time he responded.

Hassani looked over at Dakarai as
Xenia put him in his booster seat in the back of the SUV. He could tell she tried to contain herself to no avail. Her shoulders continued to move up and down as the obvious laughter effervesced in the pit of her stomach. It was wrong, but it was in times like these that wearing a straight face was virtually impossible.

“Now Hassani,
” Xenia began. “We know you think that is funny, but it’s not nice to do that to Dakarai, or anyone else for that matter. If you have to pass gas, you step away from the person and say ‘excuse me’.” She managed to muster between puckered lips.

“He did it!” Dakarai yelled, pointing at Hassani as if it were a game of ‘Clue’. Hassani was now looking straight ahead
, defiantly, with his arms crossed over his ‘Sid the Science Kid’ t-shirt covered stomach.

“He
jump on me, hold me down and den he bup-tee! Then he run away and laugh!”

With that final accusation, his tiny finger pointed squarely at his big brother who feigned ignorance
, and the angry scowl on Dakarai’s face, he ensured that his parents could no longer oblige to the ‘no laughter’ rule. It was now too late. The battle was lost.

Xenia
exploded, holding her stomach tightly as she bent over, her eyes filled with tears. Saint joined in, then quickly got a hold of him. He ran his hand over his mouth and stood straighter, trying with all of his might not to break down again as he got back in the car. He slid onto the driver’s seat while Xenia climbed onto the passenger’s seat, her body still teetering from the conversation.

“Hassani, apologize to Dakarai
,” Saint said sternly, holding onto a serious face by only a thread.

“…Sorry Day-Day.”

As Saint got back on the road, he took Xenia’s hand and kissed it. The bout of laughter came back but they both calmed down after a few moments.

“Baby,” he said
in a low voice as he approached the interstate. “Just let me know
when
, and I’m there.” He paused, grinning as she looked down at her lap with a reserved smile. “But are you sure you want more of
this
?” He looked in the rearview mirror at their sons slapping each other’s hands.

Xenia
laughed lightly and looked out the window.

“Seriously though, we can do this. Let’s go for it. Why not? I look forward to it
,” he said suggestively.

Xenia
turned to him, blushing. “Okay,” she whispered. “Thank you … you don’t know how much this means to me.”

“Ah, I have an idea and it’s important to me, too
—and I should be the one thanking
you
…”

****

Days later…

“So how long have you known?” S
aint asked.

Lawrence
stood and delicately removed the empty glass from Saint’s fingertips. He walked back into his open kitchen, the wet bar beautifully accessorized with imported mini-bottles of tequila, vodka and rum from around the world. Above it was an art piece made of recycled corks, giving focus to the large stainless steel sink where he poured the left over liquor coated slithers of ice.

“Oh, about the same time frame as you
. What’s your pleasure now?” he said with a garish grin.

S
aint narrowed his golden eyes and contemplated his choices. It had been a very long work week and he and Lawrence had barely been able to talk, let alone socialize.

“You may have to drive me home tonight.” S
aint gritted his teeth, trying to temper his anger. “I would really love to get lit.” He leaned forward and rubbed his fingers through his hair.

Lawrence
laughed. “No problem. I can drive you home. I know this is beyond upsetting. Hey, how about a vodka and orange?”

A slightly sinister grin budded across S
aint’s tired face. “Yes, that sounds perfect.” He leaned back on the couch. “Are you sure we aren’t disturbing Donna? It’s late. I’d hate to wake her up.”

“Oh no, she is out like a light
. A hard sleeper.” Lawrence finished making both of their drinks and walked back into his living room, handing Saint the glass. He remained in a reclined position and took deep sips as Lawrence sat across from him in a comfortable brown leather Lazy Boy chair.

S
aint looked over at the staircase then whispered, “Xenia is out with her girlfriends. They are helping her friend Stacey with some stuff regarding her baby shower. No one is at the house at the moment and I’m so pissed. I need to be able to talk to someone right now about this, so thanks for inviting me over.”

Lawrence
nodded.

“Is it any better?”
Saint grinned.

Lawrence
turned several shades of red and looked around the room anxiously. “Yeah, what you said worked!” He hesitated. “I can’t talk about this. I’m not as comfortable as you are about this sort of thing,” he said nervously.

S
aint slapped his leg and laughed. “I knew it.” He nodded and took a sip of his drink. “That’s good that it worked out. I told you everything would be fine. I’d noticed you were more relaxed lately.”

There was a brief pause and then both men looked at each other and cracked up.

“So anyway…” Saint cleared his throat and took another sip of his drink. “The bad vibe was there even while James was alive, but it got worse after his death. So, whoever it is, whatever their motives, now that I’m in charge, it has gotten stronger.”

“I agree
. This is directed toward
you
now  ...  to stop you, I suspect.”

“This is why I screen the guys the way I do,
Lawrence, so that this wouldn’t happen. Some snake is in there, but it is mind boggling to me what he could possibly want besides the obvious, to expose us. I feel like there is more, though.”

“Of course, there has to be. I wonder if this ties into the hate crime unit we discussed and then formed some time ago? Remember there were some guys concerned about the element that may attract?”

“Exactly. I’m feeling that it has something to do with that, specifically. The mole is there to keep tabs and alert the parties involved with what we have planned. I always get a sense during the meetings of a horizontal or linear feel of electricity—that always means message exchange to me.” Saint continued to rack his brain.

“Me
, too. We are in complete agreement.”

“Because of our hectic schedules, I haven’t had time to address this the way it is needed and I can’t hire just
anyone
to do it. This has to be handled delicately—no accidents are allowed.” Saint closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead in frustration. He scratched his cheekbone and exhaled.

“Why don’t you let me handle it?”
Lawrence offered as he crossed his legs and shook his black hair, trying to move it away from his face. “Let me start, a soft interrogation if you will?” He smiled as he took another sip of his gin and tonic.

“You don’t want to tip anyone off, so what is your plan?” S
aint made himself more comfortable on Lawrence’s couch. He slid his shoes off and sloshed the ice around in his glass.

“Well first of all, whoever is open, I want to get in. I can
, at the very least, eliminate some people from our suspect list. Also, if you don’t mind, I have a couple of friends who have backgrounds in investigation work, one of which is stronger than me, you know, psychically, and he’d be perfect for this. He’s a detective in Utah now, but still does some freelance work in Colorado.”

“Tell me about him.”

“Well, he is half Italian and half Navaho. I’ve known him since we were teenagers. We went to high school together. He is one of
us.
… I told him about you before Donna and I moved here, actually before you offered me a job. I told him about your work; he was quite intrigued. You and he have a lot in common.”

“Like what?” S
aint took another sip.

“Well
.” Jagger grinned.

“Just say it, man. My feelings won’t get hurt.”

“You’re both, how shall I say it, stubborn and take-charge kind of guys...”