by London Casey
I spit at the ground and turned my back to him.
I’d find Craig. And as long as Ashlynn was telling the truth, then nothing would change.
Then again… what if she was lying?
29.
(Ashlynn)
One man stood with a gun pointed at Leah. The other two walked me down the hallway. One had a hand to my throat. I could see his eyes through the holes of a custom made mask, using a long winter hat.
Dark and evil eyes.
“Where is it?” the man growled.
“What?”
“You know what we want. Fucking cunt.”
The other man made a move toward Jude’s room.
“No,” I said. “That’s my son’s room. Please. Don’t hurt him.”
“Where did she sleep?” the first man asked me.
“To my right.”
They dragged me into my mother’s room.
“Ah, damn, it smells like piss,” the man said.
“She’s dying of cancer, asshole,” I said.
“Tough break then.”
The guy held me to the wall. The other guy took over every drawer and dumped them out. All my mother’s clothing was then on the floor, messy enough to look like a teenager’s bedroom. All the clothing used to fit her before she withered away because of the cancer and treatments.
My eyes filled with tears.
I then did something stupid. I lifted my knee and hit the guy in the balls. He let me go and stepped back.
“Bitch!” he screamed.
He swung and I ducked. His fist hit the wall and he crumbled to the right.
“Don’t hit her!” the other guy yelled. “Don’t fucking hurt her!”
I looked at the guy as he tore through the closet. He was holding a picture. He looked at me and then looked away.
“I’m taking this,” he said. He folded it up and stuck it in his back pocket. “Where’s the money?”
“What money?” I asked.
“We’ll be back.”
The guy I kicked in the balls said, “And I won’t be so nice.”
As fast as the ordeal began, it was over.
I rushed to Jude’s room and grabbed him. He was still asleep. He had no idea what had just happened. When I exited the room, Leah slowly walked down the hall toward me. She may have been sixteen and forced to be far more mature than her age required, but right then, her eyes were full of innocent fear. I grabbed her with my right arm.
I held Jude and Leah.
I needed Noah… right now.
30.
(Noah)
I burst through the apartment door and feared the worst. It looked completely normal, until I looked down the hallway. There was Ashlynn, sitting against her bedroom door, holding Jude in one arm and Leah resting in her other arm. The poor young girl was curled up and looked like she was sleeping.
“What happened?” I asked Ashlynn.
Leah stirred and woke up. She looked at me and her eyes went wide. “Are we safe?”
I crouched down. “We’re safe, yeah. Nothing to worry about when I’m here.”
I looked at Ashlynn and nodded.
“Three men came in,” Ashlynn said. “One kept Leah on the couch. The other two took me into my mother’s room. They demanded something. Then they took a picture and said something about coming back for money. My mother doesn’t have any money, Noah. She’s sick. She’s broke.”
Money? This was about money?
“Did they touch you?” I asked.
“One of them grabbed my neck.”
“Fuck,” I growled. “And Jude?”
He slept the entire time.
My son looked at me, eyes big and innocent. I reached out and touched his soft head.
“What about you?” I asked Leah.
“Nobody touched me,” she said.
“Three men?” I asked.
“Yes,” Ashlynn said. “They were in and out in a few minutes. Like they knew what they wanted. Like they went right into that room…”
My head spun. And it took me back to one scenario. Standing there with Benito. Dante whispering something into Benito’s ear. Could all this shit be connected? Did Benito send people to the apartment to check on things? Looking for money was an easy ploy. And if whoever broke in really wanted money they would have went through the rest of the apartment. The living room. Ashlynn’s purse. Leah’s bag. Whatever Ashlynn may have had in her bedroom.
I looked at Leah, then at Ashlynn, then at Jude.
“Goddammit,” I whispered. “Leah, you need to go home, girl. Get out of here and out of this danger.”
Leah started to cry.
“What’s her problem?” I asked Ashlynn.
“You really want to know?” she asked.
I really didn’t… but I found out anyway.
~
I opened the door and saw the two of them standing there. It was like a fucking cliche. A woman who looked tired, beat up, with greasy hair. The lines on her face gave way to what once had been a beautiful woman. The second I saw her, I saw Leah. They were almost goddamn twins.
Standing behind her was a man. Chubby, facial hair, dark eyes, his lip already curled. Probably carrying a small dick so he used his big fists to control the situation he was in.
“Leah’s mother?” I asked.
“Leslie. This is Jerry.”
I grabbed Leslie by the arm and pulled her into the apartment. I slammed the door on Jerry. He quickly pounded on the door.
“Let me the fuck in!” he bellowed.
Leah cowered, trying to cover her ears.
“She’s afraid of that man,” I said to Leslie. “And you let him back in?”
“I’m afraid of him,” Leslie said. She looked at her daughter. “Jesus Christ, Leah. What the fuck is going on?”
The thudding continued.
“Tell him to calm down or I’m going to break his wrist,” I warned.
“He won’t listen to me,” Leslie said.
“This ends now,” I said.
Jerry hit the door again and I thought it was going to explode. I opened the door and grabbed him by the shirt.
“You motherfu-”
I punched him in the mouth. He tried to take a swing at me, but I dodged him. He was big, but he had no fighting skill. He wasn’t used to the person fighting back. He wasn’t used to fighting a man.
Leslie yelled his name as I hit him in the stomach. He dropped to one knee and I drove my knee into his face. I would have fucking killed him if it wasn’t for Ashlynn and my son in the same room. I put Jerry on the floor and put his hand in the doorway.
“You want to slam the fucking door?” I asked. “Here.”
I rammed the door three times before his wrist finally gave way and broke.
He screamed and I dropped my knee to his throat.
“You ever look at Leah again, I’ll cut your eyes out. You ever touch her again, I’ll cut your hands off. You ever think of her again and I’ll blow your head off. Got it?”
Jerry nodded, tears escaping his eyes.
I lifted myself and pulled him to his feet. He instantly cradled his wrist.
“Go to the hospital,” I said. “It’s your turn to tell a doctor you accidentally fell down a set of steps.”
“Bitch,” Jerry said, looking at Leslie.
I made a fist and he started to run.
I then dug in my pocket and took out a couple hundred dollars. I offered it to Leslie. “Take this.”
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Saving you. One time though. Got it? Take your daughter out to dinner. Talk to her. Listen to her. Love her. That guy ever bothers you again, you tell me. I’ll have him taken care of for good.”
Leah went to her mother. Leslie held her daughter and looked at Ashlynn.
“It’s nice to finally meet you,” Ashlynn said. “Leah is a great girl.”
“I know,” Leslie whispered. “I know.” She looked at me. “Thank you.”
I sent them on their way, another fucking mess cleaned up in the goddamn apartment. I shut the door and I locked it.
“Noah, what’s happening?” Ashlynn asked.
I turned and faced her. “I need to know everything. About you. Your mother. Your father. Your family.”
“Is it bad?”
I touched Ashlynn’s cheek with one hand and touched Jude’s small head with the other hand.
I nodded.
“Yeah, sweetheart, it’s really bad.”
31.
(Ashlynn)
I couldn’t remember the last time I was able to kick back and try to relax. The baby was asleep and I had pumped enough milk for a few days, leaving me able to have a couple drinks with Noah. We ordered takeout and Noah added on a six-pack of beer. I had a bottle of wine someone gave to me before I got pregnant. It was strangely fitting to open wine that had been brought into my life before all of this madness.
We were in the bedroom, sitting on the floor.
It was almost innocent. Like we had done it a million times before. Yeah, I had to try and ignore all the bad stuff, not to mention the gun on the floor.
Noah killed off his third drink. “Ready to talk?”
“No,” I admitted. “I don’t think I have a choice.”
“You don’t. Benito wants you and Jude. He’s not going to let this go much longer. In his mind, you have to be connected to your father. So if he kidnaps you and Jude, it gives him leverage.”
“My father won’t care,” I said. “And I have no money.”
“Then he’ll kill you. Both of you.”
That made the room suddenly feel icy cold. I took another sip of the wine. I needed it. Oh God, I needed it. Sitting across from Noah left my body on fire. The reality hovering around us left me shivering. Fire and ice battling the never ending war inside me.
Noah leaned forward and touched my face. I was really getting used to him doing that. “I grew up with nothing. My mother was a stubborn Irish woman. My father was a bum. An Italian bum. He ran favors for friends. He did the books, dug the holes, pissed away everything he had on whiskey and women that took his money and gave him nothing in return. Benito’s uncle put a bullet in the back of my father’s head, finally ending it. My mother, being the hopeless woman in love she was, died a month later from an unknown heart condition. I have one friend and his name’s Dante. He’s higher up with Benito now because they were able to trace him back to Italy.”
“Trace?” I asked.
“Family stuff. Benito is just one member of the Corlandio family. They’re big and they go deep, sweetheart. That’s what I’m trying to explain to you. When Benito makes the call, it can’t be stopped…”
Noah turned his head and looked at the door. The anger washed over his face.
“Do you think it was Benito who attacked me?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I’m trying really hard to think of who else it would have been.”
“You know, I was the good girl, Noah.”
He looked at me. “You weren’t a good girl the night I met you.”
I blushed. “Yeah, well, that was a one time wild night.” I wiped the corners of my eyes. “I was going to med school, you know.”
“No shit.”
I nodded. “I worked hard in high school and college. I put myself through college. My father, Craig, was always in and out. My mother tried her best but she was strung out and hell bent on hurting herself. Her having cancer isn’t a shock, but it’s still sad. Especially when it all falls on me. Anyway, I was getting ready to start med school. A friend told me I needed to have some fun. That’s how I ended up at the fight. I convinced myself that one crazy night wouldn’t matter. I was wrong.”
“Hey,” Noah said. “It did matter. To me. To what’s sleeping in the next room.”
“I know. I don’t like talking about it because it makes me sound like I don’t love Jude. Or that I’m depressed because of him. It’s not that…”
“I would never judge you for anything you tell me, sweetheart. You have every right to be confused, to be angry. To regret everything. You deserve to feel how you want. I’m sure everyone feels that way sometimes. Not to mention I wasn’t there. I fucked up and I wasn’t there. You didn’t know why either. So spending all that time…”
Noah gritted his teeth. His eyes looked…
He looked like he was crying.
He lunged at me, wrapping those strong arms around me. He held me and I put my arms around him. I was pretty sure I was holding him more than he was holding me. There was nothing to say to how both of us felt. I wasn’t going to shy away from my anger and confusion, no matter how upset he was.
“It was a long time,” I whispered. “I went all out that night with you, Noah. Somewhere in my mind I had this fantasy of you finding me after the fight. Of something happening. Hell, I would have just taken getting home safe and sound, without anything else. Whoops.”
Noah backed away but didn’t go far. “What else? I told you, I want to know everything.”
“Pretty simple, really. I started to feel like crap. I would throw up every morning three times. Like clockwork. Then I’d feel great. I was getting ready to pack up and leave. I looked at the calendar and realized I had missed my period. It had been so stressful with things I thought I threw my body off. Is this gross to hear?”
“No. Not at all. It’s… it’s kind of beautiful. Your body doing all that to create my son.”
I smiled. Noah was sweet in such a rough way. “Just don’t forget, Noah, you put him there.”
“I’d do it all over again if it means me getting you.”
“I was on my way to work one morning. I got really sick. I had to stop at a gas station to throw up. When I threw up, I felt fine then. It was really weird. I was going to see a doctor about my stomach. The med student and wannabe doctor inside me didn’t want to think about pregnancy. How could I be pregnant? You need to have unprotected… oh, right.” I laughed and sucked in a breath. “So I bought a test right there at the gas station. I pissed on it in the bathroom. Two lines came up.”
“Holy shit,” Noah said.
“I wanted to hide it all. I cried every night. I took ten more before finally admitting it. Then I got really mad. Because I let myself slip up. I never saw you again. The second my friends found out, I was sort of cast away.”
“Why?”
“Can’t really go out and enjoy the young life when you’re pregnant. Places that allow smoking. Staying out late. Drinking. All that stuff. Gone. Plus, I just hid. Because it was… it was embarrassing for me. I was the good girl. I told everyone it was a one night fling and I didn’t know who the father was. In my mind it made it seem less whorish, but that was a mistake. People talked about me. My mother hated me. She hated me until she got sick. Then she started to poke around. She told me she had money and would help. Basically, she was looking for a caretaker.”
Noah pulled me in again and hugged me. “You’re the strongest woman I’ve ever met, Ashlynn. For everything you just said. You were a great mother from day one.”
“Yeah, right,” I said. “Hovering over a toilet in a gas station, crying my eyes out. Then stepping on the pregnancy test, wanting to end it.”
“That’s okay. That’s okay.”
“That’s the story,” I said. “I could tell you every detail, but you want to know about my father. I don’t know much. He was always gambling and always in trouble. Now he owes your boss money.”
“A lot of money,” Noah said. “Six figures money.”
“Oh my God,” I said.
“Why would he use this address?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I didn’t know he knew where I lived.”
“Sweetheart, don’t take this the wrong way,” Noah said, “but what about your mother? Would she keep in touch with him?”
> “Maybe. Probably not though.”
“Maybe she contacted him about you being pregnant. To try and settle him.”
“What? He couldn’t be a father, but he’d magically be a grandfather?”
“You never know,” Noah said. “I watched my mother go to her grave to be with my father. Love is a fucking beast.”
No, Noah, you’re a fucking beast.
“Yeah,” I whispered.
“You said your mother had money,” Noah said. “Maybe that’s why Craig used this address. To divert people to come after you and your mother. Those guys that came in, they went right to her room, right?”
“Yeah, but that’s dumb.”
“Why?”
“My mother has cancer. She doesn’t have a lot of money anymore. If you knew how much the treatments and doctors…”
“Craig doesn’t know that. Benito doesn’t know that. Holy shit, sweetheart, that’s why they’re coming here for you and her. I hate to say this, but we need to talk to your mother. Find out if your father has been in contact with her. Find out if she knows where he is.”
“She’s in the hospital. I don’t even know if she’s awake yet. Jesus, I haven’t even checked on her today.”
Guilt flooded me.
“No, you don’t get to do that to yourself,” Noah said. “You don’t get to feel guilty right now. Feel anything but guilt. I’m going to protect you, Ashlynn. I’m going to take care of my son. I have a fight coming up. I’m going to be able to earn more. Benito owes me from my time in jail. I will take care of you.”
“For how long? How long can you fight?”
“Don’t worry about that. You’ve done enough worrying for a year. Take a break. Do something for yourself.”
“You know what I really want right now?”
“Name it.”
My heart raced. It was kind of dumb, but there was a hopeless flicker of romance as I stared at Noah.
“I want you to sleep next to me. To hold me. So I could…”