59 ◆ The Encounter ◆

◆ MILES ◆

"How's the baby?"

"Baby Jules is healthy, and ready to go home," Ricchar announced over the phone.

"And Cloe?"

"She's doing fine. Tired and bled for a few hours, but, all's good. Doc said it's normal."

"Congrats." I smiled and pressed my phone onto my ear, the pinch of panic after hearing Cloe just gave birth now subsiding.  At least my cousin had good news for me tonight.  Good enough to distract me from the sense of imminent doom creeping into my thoughts.  

"Still no sign of him?" Ricchar sighed after a stretch of silence.

"Don't bother." I lit a cigarette and glared at a black  SUV as it snuck into the half-empty parking lot beside the nightclub.  "He's prolly holing up in a beach house somewhere with his whore."

"And Zia?"

"Mamma's home. Resting