Jeanie was pacing her mother’s apartment as she looked at her son Walker playing with his race car set. She looked over at the clock on the cable box again, Scott should have been home thirty minutes ago, and he was never late, not anymore. She thought maybe he had to work late, but usually, he would call her. She couldn't shake a gut feeling that something was wrong. The last thing she wanted to be was a nagging wife, always calling to check up on her husband. Scott had been working so hard and being a good father and husband since he came home, he deserved some leeway she thought. The three years she was with him before their son was born was a different story.

When she first started dating Scott, just 23 years old, and the bad boy thing was a huge turn-on, but its effect wore off as she grew up. The problem being by the time it wore off she loved him. For so long she begged him to clean up his act and lead an adult life. He made promises but, they never stuck. Then she discovered she was pregnant. Scott insisted on one last job when that surprising blue plus sign on her pregnancy test showed up. She begged him not to, but he had insisted that he needed to set up his family and it was a safe job with a huge payday. Not only was he arrested but almost killed by an over-anxious enforcement agent. She decided to leave him, convinced he would never change. Jeanie even went to the jail to break it to him, but he made a promise, and as stupid as it sounded, she saw something in his eyes that made her believe. He made her glad she had, she felt a real shift in him when he couldn’t witness his son's birth because he was in prison. It destroyed him inside to not be there for her and their son. She truly thought that would be the final nail in the coffin of his criminal career, but today she felt something. She couldn’t even describe the sensation, but she knew something was off.

She grabbed her mother's house phone from the kitchen and glanced at Walker playing on the floor, she and Scott could only afford the one cell phone, and Scott carried it to work. She was trying to fight the urge to call, but she was slowly and surely losing that battle. Jeanie thought of a frequent saying of her grandmother ‘Trust is hard-earned, but easily destroyed’. It was probably related to the fact Jeanie’s grandfather was a womanizing alcoholic. Her family's bad taste in men seemed to be an inherited trait; her father was no winner either, or present for that matter.

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"Give it some time Jeanie. I'm sure he will be home soon." Jeanie's mother called from the living room. Her mother did not even turn around; it was eerie she knew what Jeanie was thinking.

"I know mom; I'm not..." Suddenly the phone in Jeanie's hand began to ring.

"I told you, it's probably him there. A mother always knows." Her mother shouted back

"Yeah, yeah mom.”

“Hello, yes this is Jeanie Carr. What? What did he do!? Oh..." Jeanie's mom had come in from the living room and was standing next to her, hanging on to every word. “No, thank you, Really, I appreciate the call. Please ask him to call me as soon as he is finished. Thank you so much. You too, bye." Jeanie pressed the button to hang up the phone.

"What is it, Honey? Scott alright?" Jeanie's mom asked

"I think so, mom." Jeanie had a shocked look on her face "That was the North-Eastern Territory enforcement."

"What?"

"Yeah mom, they said Scott is helping them," Jeanie said, still in a state of disbelief.

"Helping them? What do you mean honey? He works at a deli, is he making them sandwiches?" Her mom queried, only half-joking about the sandwich part.

"No mom, they said he was helping in a matter of great importance to the territory security." The words left Jeanie’s mouth, but she didn’t believe she was saying them.

"No offense honey but what the heck could Scott do for territory security?"

Jeanie knew the answer to her mother's question, but she sure as hell was not telling her. She was certain that it related to his ability, but the how and why eluded her. What did Scott get himself into? It had better not involve his old crew.

"Not sure mom, guess we should wait and see."

Walker waddled his way into between the two women and looked up at his mother. "Mommy, car!" And he held up a miniature race car.

"Yeah, sweetie. Car." She patted the boy on the head. A Carr weighed heavily on her mind, but it sure was not the wheeled kind.