WHERE THE SON DON'T SHINE

AN: I'm baaaack! Sorry it's taken so long to update. I've been living ila vida loca! It's been an interesting couple of weeks. I hope this chapter makes up for the hiatus.

oxoxoxoxoxoxo

Walter was going to enjoy this.

Drew had been ignoring every one of Paige's and Ralph's attempts to reach him. They'd been calling and texting and messaging and even emailing for hours. The coward wouldn't answer.

As they grew more frustrated with each failed effort, Walter became more determined that dead beat was going to pay for being so gutless. Increasingly gratifying ideas swirled around in his prodigious brain and quickly began to take form.

Oh, yes. Drew Baker was going to be begging to help his son when Walter got done with him. The genius was going to make it happen the instant an opportunity presented itself.

As it turned out, not a lot of patience was required. It wasn't long before Ralph and Paige were both completely distracted. They were huddled around the conference table with Sly, helping to research defense strategies. Paige was scanning legal websites on her son's tablet while the boy and his lawyer were thumbing through a couple of heavy tomes looking for obscure cases and circumstances where charges of car theft had been dismissed.

They couldn't know that none of their work was necessary. Ralph was never going to see the inside of a courtroom. Walter was going to see to that.

Shoving his cell phone in his front pants pocket and tucking his laptop under his arm, Walter quietly sneaked upstairs to his loft. Time to do some quick, covert research of his own.

It was almost criminally easy. In no time he'd done what he'd set out to do.

Walter leaned leisurely back in his chair and dialed.

"Hello, beautiful. Everything okay?" Drew's breezy tone grated along Walter's nerves. How dare the bastard be so carefree when his son was scared for his future?

Walter sneered, his words full of venom, "Thank you for the compliment. Unfortunately, I can't honestly return it in kind. And, no, everything is not okay."

"Who is this? How are you calling me from this phone? It's a private number," Drew snapped, all pretense of friendliness disappearing instantly.

"Depending on how this conversation goes, I could simply be a temporary nuisance. Or I could quickly become your worst nightmare. That's really up to you. As for how I'm calling from this number? It was a matter of a few keystrokes. It's a handy little trick if you want someone to stop ignoring calls. By the way, your cyber security is rather… lax. It's a common mistake."

"Is this O'Brien? It figures. I'm hanging up now."

"Before you disconnect, you may want to use all of your inferior intellect and consider this fact first: I've frozen all of your accounts. Including your wife's credit cards. Oops. Look at that. Even the ones you didn't know about."

"What?!"

"I know. Women, right? They can be deceitful at times. But then we both are fully aware you're no stranger to lying either. Hmmm. It appears your wife is quite the shopper. Wow. I didn't know you could purchase a faux-chinchilla steering wheel cover. Interesting." Walter said smugly. He hadn't had this much fun in ages.

"I'm not going to sit here and let you threaten me. What you're doing is illegal."

"Oh, I'm not threatening you. I'm not one for idle threats. It's already done. Unlike you, I always do what I say I'm going to do," not trying to hide the cocky smile in his voice, Walter continued, "And while freezing your bank accounts may not be lawful, I've made certain no one can trace it back to me. Keep this in mind, it would only take me half an hour or so to erase your existence completely."

"You're insane. You-you can't get away…"

"I really hate repeating myself, but I understand it takes longer for slower minds to grasp simple concepts. Don't feel too badly. Repetition is required when teaching small children and animals too. I've. Already. Done. It. The question you should be asking, if you had any sense at all, is 'what will it require from me to get the genius hacker to undo it all?' Let me see. Your wife has already charged an overpriced salad and mineral water for lunch at her tennis club. And it looks like she spends each afternoon, well, spending. So before she tries to purchase some other ridiculous thing that no one needs, you'd better make up your mind to cooperate."

A heavy sigh preceded Drew's tight-toned reply, "What the hell do you want me to do?"

"Not much. It's only a matter of a couple of phone calls. But you'd better hurry up. You and I both know it won't be long before your spouse finds another inane item she has to have."

"Phone calls? Who am I supposed to call? I was going to call Paige and Ralph back when I got the chance. I was just busy…"

"Somehow I doubt that. But those aren't the calls I'm referring to. First, I want you to call your wife and convince her to drop the charges. Tell her you gave Ralph permission to borrow her car for his road trip."

"No way, Walter. She won't budge on that… Come on. Don't you think I've tried?"

"Try harder. You'd better persuade her. Because that part is absolutely non-negotiable," Walter gritted.

"I can't… You don't understand. She helped me pull strings to get Ralph into that school. Her uncle is on the board. I-I… But I didn't exactly tell her Paige was moving to Maine with him… When she found out… Ralph was already a tricky subject, then this…" Drew all but whined.

"You've always been the worst kind of father. You've drifted in and out of Ralph's life and never contributed anything but disappointment. For once in your lousy, selfish life, make Ralph a priority and do the right thing for your son," Walter bit out.

"You don't get it…"

"My finger is hovering over the delete key. Believe me I'd like nothing more than to erase you."

Drew sighed, "Fine. I'll do my best. Anything else?"

"As a matter of fact…"

"Are you kidding me?!"

"I'm afraid not. Sense of humor isn't one of my strengths. Unfortunately, it's often a casualty of high IQ."

A loaded silence fell and hovered heavily between them. Even with his lack of EQ, Walter could tell the other man was seething, but the genius still said nothing. It was a bit like a staring contest.

Drew lost.

"What? What else do you want me to do?"

"Once you inveigle your vindictive wife into dropping the charges, you will need to call the judge and explain the whole misunderstanding. You will offer to pay any and all fines and court costs associated with the trouble this has caused. Then you will call me back when it's settled. At which point I will personally check with the judge to be sure. Then and only then will I release your accounts. You have one hour before I truly start to ruin your life."

Walter pressed the disconnect icon while Drew was still sputtering.

He promptly set a timer. Fifty-nine minutes and fifty-eight seconds to go. If Ralph's fate wasn't hanging in the balance, he could almost wish Drew would choose not to comply.