"Mommy?" he called.
Only the coyotes yipping and howling answered him. Goose bumps spread shivers over his arm. Where was Mommy hiding?
Remembering what she'd told him, he pushed the orange button. Heard a loud ding-dong from inside the house.
Ridge jumped back. A light came on above him. A light so bright it hurt. He put his hand up to shield his eyes.
The door opened, and a pretty brown-faced woman who looked kind of like his babysitter, Carmen, peeked out. Her long dark hair was in braids and she wore a yellow housecoat and had round little glasses perched on the end of her nose. She blinked.
"Who are you?" she asked in a soft voice.
He was so scared. He wanted to run into the dark and find his mommy, but he raised his chin. "Ridge."
"Who is it, Anya?" another woman's voice called.
Anya shook her head, and before she could say anything, the other woman appeared, holding a baby in her arms. This lady was blond like his mother, but not as pretty and not as young. She peered over Anya's shoulder, and she too blinked at Ridge as if he was a strange zoo animal.
"What's this?" the woman asked.
"A boy," Anya answered.
"I can see that." The woman sounded like a buzzing mosquito, mean and mad. The baby in her arms swiveled his head to stare at Ridge. "But who is he and why is he here?"
Anya shrugged. "The answer could be in that envelope."
"I don't like the looks of this," the woman mumbled.
"What do we do?" Anya asked.
"Bring him in," the blond woman snapped. "We can't very well leave a toddler standing on the front porch."
"Mr. Duke's name is on the envelope."
"I can see that too." The blond woman's voice got tighter, higher, stringier. "Here." She shoved the baby at Anya. "Take care of Ranger while I get to the bottom of this."
Anya nodded, took the baby, and skittered away.
Leaving Ridge facing the mean lady.
She crooked a finger. "Come here."
He shook his head.
Snorting, she reached out, snaked her hand around his wrist.
"Mommy!" he screamed, and jerked away. "Mommy, help!"
She grabbed for him, missed, but snagged the envelope and used it to yank him toward her.
He fell backward.
The safety pin holding the envelope ripped, tearing a hole where Batman's head had once been.
Ridge lay quivering on the porch, tears burning his nose.
The woman tore open the envelope, read the note. "Oh no she did-n't!" The woman howled louder than any coyote.
Ridge rolled into a tight little ball, tried to make himself really small. Willing himself to disappear the way he did when his mommy took him to the club and he fell asleep on the pool table.
"You're coming with me." The lady snatched him off the porch, dragged him inside the house. He dug his feet into the floor, trying to stop her, but couldn't.
She towed him after her into a living room with animal heads on the wall staring down at him with glassy eyes and sharp horns.
A dark-haired man sat in a recliner in front of a really big TV. Ridge had seen him before at the club, and sometimes at his mother's house. He wore a black T-shirt over arms as big and hard as rocks. And he had a thick bushy mustache that hid his upper lip. There was a can of beer on the table beside him and a big fat brown cigar smoldering in an ashtray. The smell burned Ridge's nose.
The blonde woman had the envelope balled into her fist and she raised it at the man. Called him a bad name.
"This!" The woman snatched Ridge up by his arm, yanking him off his feet, dangling him in front of the man's face. Shook him hard. "This is your mess!"
Pain shot from his shoulder, spread out in two directions, up his arm and down his side. Ridge's heart thumped so hard he could hardly breathe. He wanted to cry, but he promised Mommy he wouldn't cry.
The man said nothing, did nothing, just glared at Ridge with angry eyes as if this was his fault.
"Clean it up!" The woman let go of Ridge's arm, and he tumbled to the rug, falling facedown at his man's feet. "Clean this up or I'm leaving you!"
The man stood up calmly. "Sabrina, calm down."
"The boy is your son, and his mother is leaving him with us."
"That's bullshit."
"Are you denying he's your son?"
"No," the man said. "But that was before I married you and settled down. She's not going to get away with dumping him on us. I'll take care of it."
"You son of a bitch," Sabrina screamed at him. "People warned me about you, but I wouldn't listen. Stupid. So stupid."