Read Online Hope House by Tracy L Carbone - Free Book Online Page A

was one of the reasons Mick gave her the job as a nurse even though she had no skills or education. The other reason, of course, was that she had carried Luke. Had named him. Out of respect for his son, Mick had spared her.
    Tad cared too much about all the girls. They were his Achilles’ heel. Unlike Mick, Tad never saw the business side, only the human side.
    “I don’t want to leave. I just wish you would remember once in awhile that it’s people you’re dealing with—not cattle.”
    “I’ll work in it. Help me get the babies on the van, will you?”
    “Sure.” Tad hung his head.
    What must it be like to be so weak , Mick wondered? To go along with what someone else told you all the time, even if you completely disagree .
    Tad opened the double doors and led Mick to the waiting infants. They were swaddled and ready to go. A gangly, wide-eyed girl nodded to Mick and handed him one of the babies. She was young and new to Maison, helping with the babies until she got pregnant and earned her keep the conventional way. Probably only spoke Creole. Probably couldn’t even write her own name.
    Let Tad judge me all he wants, Mick told himself, this girl and the others are getting a better life here.
    After all the babies and their supplies were loaded on the van, Tad turned to go back inside.
    “Can you come with me to the airport?”
    “Why? You always take Boris.”
    If Mick told him that Boris had asked about Martine, Tad would tell Martine. Next thing, she’d talk to the guard and might realize she had some family that cared about her. And she might leave. And then Tad might leave with her. And who knows what kind of revolt Mick would have on his hands. He fearfully imagined a bunch of pregnant natives running around, all of them yelling at Mick in Creole, leaving him helpless. Sure, he could get a new doctor, but no one who would run the whole place for such a small cut of the profits. No one who would want to live on the grounds in a little house among the residents.
    “I thought you could come with me for a change.” Mick shrugged.  “For old time’s sake.”
    “Don’t you have Louie to help you load the babies on the plane?”
    “Once I get to the airport yes.  But you know as well as I do that I don’t speak the language. It’s almost a two hour drive on dirt roads to Port Au Prince and if I break down, or get a flat, or get stopped, I need someone who can talk to the locals.”
    “All right, I’ll go. Let me just tell Martine to hold down the fort. You want a bottle of water for the road?”
    “Yeah, thanks.”
    Mick sat in the warm van, which was kept at room temperature for the infants. Not so comfortable for him but necessary. The kids had all gotten a dose of something, Mick didn’t know what, to help them sleep for the long journey. The small Maison cargo plane had a hidden compartment for the infants. Sound proof and temperature controlled. Unable to be seen by customs inspectors unless they knew to look for it. Louie, his cousin and pilot, had contacts in Customs in Key West but Mick didn’t want to leave himself vulnerable and rely on them. He took precautions in case Louie’s friends couldn’t meet the plane, or if some damned inspector who wasn’t connected did the inspection. Over the years, they’d been lucky, but it just took one slip up. Successful businessmen are always prepared, Daddy Puglisi so often said. 
    Once he cleared Customs, Louie would help him take the babies off the plane and place them into another specially designed cargo van waiting at the Key West airport. That van was also navy blue but had “Hope House” written on the outside. No one ever stopped charity vans. At least not in the U.S.
    Then Mick would pay Louie his envelope of cash and his cousin would be on his way.
    Mick would take the Hope House van on the ferry to Windy Key where he would drop off the infants at the holding facility for a few days. He flinched when he envisioned the bittersweet