by SUE FINEMAN
“My turn, Mommy,” said Blade. He walked outside and whistled. “Daisy, c’mon girl. Get your buns home or I’ll give you another bath.”
Maria looked around Blade to see Daisy racing for home. Blade held out his arms and the dog flew into them. “You’re a bad dog.”
“It isn’t her fault,” said Andy. “She—”
One look from Blade and Andy closed his mouth. “She’s a bad dog for running off again. Maria, do you have a kennel?”
“Yes.”
“Put Daisy in the kennel. She needs a time out.”
“How do you know this much about dogs?”
“Hey, I haven’t lived in a vacuum. I worked for an animal psychologist once. She was a little weird, but I learned a thing or two. Dogs are pack animals, and they obey the alpha dog, the leader of the pack. If you let them know you’re the alpha dog, they’re all yours. Right now, this little mutt isn’t sure if the alpha dog is you or Fluffy.”
Maria pulled Daisy’s old kennel off the shelf in the garage, put it in the laundry room, and locked Daisy inside.
“Leave her alone, kids,” said Blade. “Her jail sentence has to be served in solitary.”
“She didn’t mean to,” Andy said again, his standard defense.
“Yes, she did. She’s a dog, and this is what dogs do. They chase cats. Next time she goes out, take her on the leash.”
The boys went back outside. “Poor Daisy,” Jimmy said.
“She’s in jail,” Andy said before the door slammed behind them.
Maria sighed. She’d told the kids a hundred times not to slam the door. Turning back to Blade, she said, “I thought you didn’t know anything about kids and dogs.”
“Dogs I can handle. Kids I’m not so sure about. Do you lock them in a kennel when they disobey?”
“No, but that’s not a bad idea. Do they come in kid size?”
Blade smiled, the first time he’d smiled since he’d come in. “I always feel better when I’m with you, Maria. Why is that?”
“Maybe because you’re looking for a mother instead of a wife.”
“Honey, you may be someone’s mother, but you’re not mine. I’d like to take you home and—”
She held up her hand. “Don’t say it.”
I want to make love to you, Maria. I want to hold you and kiss you all night long.
He gazed into her eyes forever, and she couldn’t look away. She was falling in love with a biker, a man who punished the dog, a son who couldn’t forgive his mother.
Maria couldn’t let him know how she felt. He needed a wife, and she wouldn’t marry again. He didn’t like kids, and she had four. The boy inside him desperately needed love, but the man was afraid to let anyone get that close.
Blade was too wild to be tamed by any woman.
What she wouldn’t give for one night alone with him.
Chapter Six
When Sophia got home from her doctor’s appointment, she saw Jimmy and Andy playing in the front yard, but no Daisy. After the last time, the day of the two baths, Sophia was afraid the dog had run off again. “Andy, where’s Daisy?”
“She’s in jail,” he replied.
“Where?”
“In the house. Blade locked her up because she chased Fluffy again.”
“He’s mean,” said Jimmy.
Sophia walked inside, where she found Maria and Blade in each other’s arms. From the way they looked at each other, she knew something had happened. Maria was comforting him, and he held on as if she was his only chance for survival. There was so much pain in the man it nearly broke her heart, like Nicky when he came to her so many years ago.
Maria spotted her and backed away from Blade. “What did the doctor say, Mom? Everything okay?”
“Everything is fine and I don’t have to go back for six months. Did you start dinner?”
“Tonight, I’m taking all of you out for dinner,” said Blade. “Is Mexican okay?”
“Fine with me,” said Sophia. “What’s this about Daisy being in jail?”
The kids had followed her inside and they talked at the same time. Blade whistled and they stopped talking and stared at him, eyes big. “One at a time,” he said. “Jimmy first.”
When Jimmy ran down, Blade said, “Your turn, Andy.”
“Can Daisy get out of jail now?”
Maria retrieved Daisy from her kennel and hooked her leash on. “Take her outside for a few minutes, but don’t let her off the leash. She has to learn not to run off like that or she could get hit by a car.”
“But it was Fluffy’s fault,” said Andy.
“I know Fluffy likes to tease, but it isn’t safe for Daisy to run free. If she won’t stay in the yard, she can’t go outside without her leash. And keep her out of the mud.”
The boys were partly awed by Blade and partly afraid of him, and Blade didn’t know quite what to do with them. He might not be an experienced parent, but his instincts were good. It took a firm hand and a lot of love to handle kids. Blade could handle the firm hand part, and he had a lot of love to give, but he wasn’t comfortable in a family situation.
Maria was half in love with Blade. She had a big, loving family, and he’d always been alone. Their relationship was doomed before it began. Sophia wanted to hug the little boy inside him and tell him everything would be all right, but nobody could make things all right until Blade could open up and let someone love him. The poor man couldn’t even love himself.
Although Sophia felt sorry for Blade, she didn’t want him with Maria.
He’d break her heart.
<>
After promising to be back at Maria’s house in an hour, Blade walked home. Jimmy and Andy tagged along until he said, “That’s far enough, kids. Go back home, and I’ll see you in an hour.”
The kids turned back, and Blade walked the rest of the way alone. He didn’t know if Sunny had come here alone or with someone, and he didn’t want Maria’s kids near his house. Innocent kids didn’t belong around Sunny and her friends.
Now that Sunny knew where he lived, he couldn’t stay in the house. If she didn’t come back after she was released from jail, she’d most likely send someone after him. Either way, he didn’t want to be here. Criminals had moved in and out of the house frequently when Blade was a kid, and he couldn’t believe that Sunny had severed her relationship with those people. She was still drinking and using, and she was probably still partying with the dregs of society.
Sunny loved the excitement of being on the fringes and living vicariously through the people who bounced in and out of jail. One of her male ‘friends’ had tried to molest Blade when he was eight or nine. Sunny laughed it off, and Blade knew he was on his own. He stayed with a friend for two nights, and when he came home, he slept with a knife under his pillow until the man left the house. But he’d never told anyone else what happened. Like the rest of his childhood, he’d buried it deep inside him where no one could touch it.
Blade walked through the house, trying to figure out what to keep and what to leave behind. He could buy himself a new computer and have the data on the hard drive of the old one transferred. That left the new clothes he’d bought in New York and his favorite jeans, his personal papers, his books, and the Harley. The old pickup had seen better days and wasn’t worth fixing, and he’d bought his furniture second-hand. Thirty-nine years old, and he still lived cheap, like a kid just out of college.
He had a stack of collapsible file boxes in the garage from when he’d moved here two years ago. He carried some of them inside and put them together. If he worked most of the night, he’d be ready to leave here in the morning. The books could be put in a storage locker for now, and he’d leave enough of his clothes for it to look like he was still living here. When Sunny came looking for him again, maybe she wouldn’t notice he’d moved out.
Before he started packing books, he called the emergency number for his credit card and cancelled it. The Visa card was the only one he carried, and he intended to pay i
t off tomorrow. Sunny would stop at nothing to get the money for her next fix. If she’d passed the number on to someone, they could be charging on his card right now.
As he showered and dressed to go out to dinner, Blade thought of one other thing he needed to do. He needed to find an attorney and make a will. If he died tonight, Sunny could end up with the money in his bank account, the house in New York, and the house in Florida. No way in hell would he let that happen. No matter what happened to him, he didn’t want to reward her for the way she’d treated him.
<>
Maria got the kids cleaned up. “We’re going out to eat tonight,” she told them, “and I want you to be on your best behavior.”
“Pizza?” asked Robbie.
“Mexican.”
Jimmy grinned. “Mmm.” He loved Mexican food.
Andy and Jimmy thought Blade was awesome because he drove a motorcycle and mean because he put Daisy in jail. Robbie’s mind was in a book, as usual, and Molly’s was on a new pair of jeans she just couldn’t live without. They were low slung and had slits in the knees and in the butt. Molly knew her mother wouldn’t let her go to school with her underwear showing, but she wanted them anyway. Bad enough to have so much skin showing between her jeans and shirt. Molly wouldn’t wear something like that in public anyway. She just wanted to see how much she could get away with.
Blade tapped on the door and Andy ran to open it. Daisy ran outside. Blade hollered at her to get back here right this minute, and the dog came running to him and cowered at his feet.
“She didn’t mean to,” said Andy.
“Does she have to go back to jail?” asked Jimmy.
Blade’s eyes sparkled, but he didn’t laugh out loud. “Yep,” he said. “Lock her up.”
“You’re mean,” Andy said through his pout, but he and Jimmy put Daisy in the kennel in the laundry room.
“Does your mom let you run out in the main road?” Blade asked the boys.
“No,” said Jimmy. “We’re not allowed to go that far.”
“Daisy isn’t allowed to go outside the yard unless she’s on her leash,” said Maria. “Every time she runs in the street, she has to go in her kennel until she understands it’s wrong.”
“Can she come out now?” asked Andy.
“No. She’ll be all right while we go out to eat.”
Blade gazed into Maria’s eyes. We could get a bigger kennel and put Andy in there with her.
Maria was still laughing when they left for the restaurant.
After pouting for a few minutes, Andy warmed up to Blade. Robbie talked about the stock market game the kids in his class had played. Robbie had done better than anyone else in the class. No surprise there. Maria wondered how long she could hold him back in school. He’d already skipped one grade, and with his mind, he could skip junior high and never miss a beat. She’d kept him back for social reasons, and Robbie wasn’t the least bit interested in socializing. His mind was like a sponge that soaked up every bit of knowledge, and he was bored in school. Robbie could handle the work if she let him jump ahead another grade, but she didn’t want her little boy in high school with his big sister. Molly would hate it, and so would Robbie.
Molly kept glancing around. A boy from school sat at a nearby table, and Maria knew her daughter had a crush on him. The boy was nice looking, in a fourteen-going-on-fifteen fashion, but he was thinking about his brother’s car, not Molly.
Sometimes this ‘gift’ of reading thoughts was more of a curse.
<>
After Maria brought her family home after dinner, Blade stood on her front porch and said, “I’m moving out of my house. You have my cell phone number, so keep in touch.”
“Tell me you aren’t leaving for good.”
“No, the sellers on that property have agreed to my price and terms. Don’t give up on me, Maria.”
“I thought you wanted me to help you find a wife.”
He pulled her into his arms for a big hug. “Too bad you don’t want me.”
She snuggled in closer. “It’s the other way around, Blade. You don’t want a family. You don’t really want a wife, but you want the money more than your independence.”
He stood holding her for several seconds before asking, “What would you do with ten million dollars?”
“Find a bigger house. Send Robbie to a private school for gifted kids. Buy a new car. Take my mother to Italy so she can see where her parents were born.”
“Sounds nice.” More than nice. Maria had people who loved her, a family to share her life with, and all he’d ever had was himself.
He pulled back, kissed her, and said, “Goodnight.”
Maria watched him walk down the street. It sounded like he was saying goodbye. She wanted to call him back, but she couldn’t. Better to break it off now, so he could start looking for a woman to marry. A woman who didn’t have kids or pets. A woman who would give him the love he so desperately needed.
At the thought of Blade with another woman, sadness crept inside Maria and settled deep in her chest.
<>
By six the next morning, Blade was packed and ready to leave. He cleaned the house, did his laundry, washed the dishes and put them away, and tossed the perishable food. He removed the hard drive from his computer and left the rest sitting on the battered old table he used as his desk. He’d packed his personal papers and most of his clothes in boxes or bags. Some would go into storage. After he took care of business this morning, he’d find a place to hole up until he closed on the property and got a workable house plan, and then he’d go to New York to take care of the house there. If he stayed gone long enough, Sunny might give up and return to California. If Sunny and her friends tracked him down, things could get rough, and he didn’t want those people around Maria and her family.
He rented a storage unit, parked his Harley on one side, and walked three miles to the Ford dealer, where he bought himself a late model used car. It took three trips to move his books and other items of importance to the storage unit.
The post office was his next stop. He rented a box and changed his address, mailed his payment to the credit card company, and stopped by the office of Max and Company. Maria wasn’t there, but Nick was.
“Nick, I need to hire an attorney, and the sooner the better. Any suggestions?”
“Something wrong?”
“My stepmother is making trouble, so I moved out of my house this morning. I thought I’d camp out at Penrose until I get things settled here and get you started on my new house. Sunny should be gone by then.”
“What if she isn’t?”
Blade didn’t answer. If she sent her friends after him, Maria and the kids would have a nice little nest egg. Dead or alive, he wouldn’t give Sunny what she wanted.
Nick made two phone calls and five minutes later, Angelo walked in the door. Nick asked, “Angelo, how would you and Teresa like a house to live in for a while?”
“Sure. Where is it?”
“It’s Blade’s house.” Nick explained the situation. “Don’t let Teresa stay there alone, and if you see anyone messing around the place, call 911 and then call the guards. Blade is taking your room at Staff House for now.”
Blade said, “Do you think that’s a good idea, Nick?”
“We bought a piece of land to build on and ran out of money,” said Angelo. “That’s why we’re living in the Staff House. It’ll be nice to have some privacy for a change.”
“Do you have furniture?”
“Not yet. Is the house furnished?”
“Yes, it is.” Blade handed the house keys to Angelo and talked about the things he’d left in the house. “If you know anyone who wants an old pickup to tinker with, they can have it.”
“Vincent,” Angelo and Nick said together.
“My nephew is looking for something to drive, and he can fix nearly anything,” said Angelo.
“Then give it to him. The keys are in it. Look, Angelo, I appreciate you doing this for me. I ha
ve a big house in New York and it has more furniture than I’ll ever use. I’ll put some things aside for you and Teresa.”
“Hey, thanks, Blade. I appreciate that.”
Angelo went back to work, and Nick introduced Blade to his attorney, Gerry Merlino, who’d just come into the office. “I have work to do,” said Nick, “so you’ll have the place to yourselves.” He grabbed his jacket and left.
Gerry flipped the lock on the door and they got down to business. “Tell me about this trouble with your stepmother. Start at the beginning.”
Blade talked about his earliest memories, of being beaten by his father with the belt buckle until blood ran down his legs, and of having bourbon poured down his throat until he threw up. “That was Sunny’s solution to every problem. By the time I was in high school, I was a full blown lush. I couldn’t get through a day without a drink.
“When I was fifteen, Sunny and I had a big fight, and I knew if I stayed any longer she’d either kill me or I’d kill her. I emptied her purse, stole a motorcycle, and left town.”
He told Gerry about his grandfather and the condition in the will. “My greatest fear is ending up married to a woman like Sunny.”
“I hear you. I’m divorced. I always thought I’d marry again, but every woman I date reminds me of my ex, and I don’t want a repeat of the past.”
Gerry scribbled notes on his legal pad. “I’ll check with the police and see what they’re charging Sunny with. Will you testify against her?”
“Of course, although the cop was the one who found the open container of Jack Black and coke vials in her car and my mail in her purse. I want to know if she came here alone. I don’t want to wake up dead tomorrow morning, which brings me to another issue.”
“You need a will.”
Blade nodded. “I want to leave everything to Nick’s cousin, Maria.”
Gerry leaned back and pulled off his glasses. “I wasn’t aware that you knew Maria that well.”
“Better than I know anyone else.”
Except Daisy.
<>
Angelo and Teresa moved into Blade’s house that evening, and Blade moved into their room in the big house shared by all the people who worked on Cara Andrews’ staff here in Washington. Lucas, one of the guards who’d been watching over Cara for years, showed him around. The women had the two bedrooms downstairs and the men, including four guards, shared four bedrooms upstairs. Since Blade took Angelo and Teresa’s room, he had it all to himself.