Unhurt

by Thomas, K. S.

  Having sex had opened the door to this false sense of familiarity where we could easily pretend that we had established a level of comfort between us. Only, what we had had nothing to do with trust or intimacy. It was strictly a means to an end, both of us filling a void in the other. A void neither party knew anything about, not where it came from, how long it had been there or even if it could ever be filled. It didn’t seem to matter. Or, at least we were both trying to convince ourselves that it didn’t. It did. And she mattered. Shit, she mattered more than she was supposed to.

  “We’ve gathered here today to witness the union of Joss Arabella Kelley and Derek Harley Tice.” The look on her face was a perfect example of how little we really knew about each other. And mine was probably the mirror image. Arabella? Where the fuck had that come from? She was so Joss. I had just assumed her parents had seen fit to spare her any additional moniker.

  “So, I’ve been told you’re both the strong silent type, so we’re going to go ahead and keep this simple.” He turned to me. “Do you have rings?” I did. I hadn’t told Joss, but I’d picked up a set the day before. Just seemed like the proper thing to do. Fake wedding or not, it just would have felt half-assed not to have a ring to put on her finger. Plus, that shit would have gotten me punched for sure. Even out of the corner of my eye I could see Bobby giving me the stare down from his seat in the front row. He hadn’t said much when he showed up. I knew he was aware of the fact that we were only doing this for Wyatt’s sake, but that didn’t change the fact that I probably wasn’t at the top of the list when it came to guys Bobby trusted enough to move in with his sister and nephew. I hadn’t been around nearly long enough to earn that.

  I pulled the ring box from my pocket and held it up for everyone to see. “Got them right here.”

  I saw Joss’s eyes go wide and automatically reached out for her hand, that false sense of familiarity leading me on again. It had her fooled too though, and her face relaxed into a small smile.

  “Alright, Derek, if you would take the ring and place it on Joss’s hand. Repeat after me, with this ring, I thee wed.”

  I was shocked to see my own fingers shaking as I did what I was told. “With this ring, I thee wed.”

  “Now, Joss, if you would do the same.” He waited for me to retrieve the second ring from the small velvet box and hand it to her. “And repeat after me, with this ring, I thee wed.”

  I couldn’t even tell anymore which one of us was doing the trembling as she slid the plain white gold band onto my finger and whispered, “With this ring...I thee wed.”

  “I now pronounce you, husband and wife. You may kiss your bride.”

  For some ridiculous reason I’d thought this part would be easy. I’d kissed Joss plenty in the last three days. Only, it had always been in the heat of the moment, hidden away out of sight. Stolen kisses the world wasn’t meant to ever know about. Kissing her now seemed like I was breaking some sort of unspoken rule between us.

  Slowly, I leaned down until I could feel her warm breath on my skin. I glanced up and was surprised to see her eyes closed. This was for real. Our first real kiss. And I was going to make it count.

  Chapter Twelve

  Derek’s lips landed on mine softly in a kiss that was both sweet and filled with a quiet passion that still lingered on my mouth even after he broke away. When I opened my eyes again, he was smiling at me nervously, like he was thinking the same thing I was, that this one single kiss could ruin everything. Because that kiss hadn’t been just about the lust we’d set loose three days prior, it had been about feelings. Real, emotional, potentially heartbreaking, feelings. And those there just wasn’t any room for in my plan.

  “Who’s ready for cake?” Aunt Deb’s voice cut through the awkward silence we had unknowingly created by our kissing and then standing there, staring at each other, wearing matching strange expressions, both mentally contemplating the consequences of our actions.

  There were some cheers and applause in response to her suggestion, and slowly the crowd of people who’d shown up to play the audience for our performance, broke up and began to move about the yard in search of food and beverages.

  “So, I guess that makes you my brother now.” Bobby stood in front of us, his hand placed on Derek’s shoulder in a firm grip.

  “Guess so.” Derek’s sheepish grin shifted into an uncomfortable grimace.

  “You two boys having like a moment here? Do I need to leave for this?” It wasn’t easy trying not to laugh.

  “No, no. It’s cool. Stand by your husband, Joss. You might as well start practicing that.” Damn, now he was directing his little jabs at me, too. I hardly felt like I deserved them though. Maybe fake marrying Derek wasn’t the smartest thing I’d ever done, but it certainly wasn’t anything compared to the dumbest thing he’d ever done. In fact, I could probably make a whole list of really fucking stupid things my brother had done over the years, all of which would make my little pretend wedding look like the work of a genius.

  “Are you implying that I will make a shit wife?” I mean, in all honesty, I probably would, but Derek was in no position to have any expectations, and Bobby really had no reason to give a fuck either way.

  “Just pointing out that your little bolting hobby is going to be a lot harder to keep up with now that you’ve legally bound yourself to a man for life.” Bobby was smirking. At least he had moved on to amusing himself.

  “Um, for life is probably a bit of a stretch. Until divorce would likely be the better choice of wording there.” I reached down and took Derek’s hand. “In the meantime, in the interest of being wifely, I’m going to take my husband and go smear some frosting on his face.” And that’s exactly what I did. The cake was so freaking delicious I didn’t even care when Derek returned the favor.

  After filling up on pastries, Aunt Deb cued the D.J. and before we knew it, everyone was rocking out to tunes from the sixties and seventies. Because Aunt Deb’s a hippie and she chose the songs. When I’m a Believer from the Monkees began to play, I was surprised not to see Wyatt busting out his best moves. Aunt Deb had had him hooked on Monkees tunes for the past six months, so there was no way he hadn’t recognized the song.

  Curious, I searched the yard, assuming he was off goofing around with Bobby. Only my brother was standing near the buffet chatting up the leggy blonde he had brought along as his date. An uneasy feeling was quickly spreading through my gut, making me want to hurl up the cake I’d only just devoured.

  “What’s wrong?” Derek’s face was instantly riddled with concern.

  “I don’t see Wyatt.” I started walking, my eyes moving as fast as they could as they covered the area, repeatedly searching for what I was clearly missing. Aunt Deb was busy updating her song list with the DJ. Wyatt wasn’t with her either.

  “He’s probably just inside the house. Maybe he got bored.”

  I nodded, already heading toward the back porch. “You’re probably right.” I heard Derek say something else after, but I was too focused on getting inside and putting eyes on my son to make out whatever it was.

  Barely through the door and I saw Hattie. She was standing in the hall, growling.

  At first I thought maybe she had trapped Wyatt in his room and wasn’t letting him back out. It was completely unlike her, and I was about to scold her when I heard something else. A voice. But not just any voice. Travis.

  Total panic set in as I moved through the house. I wanted to scream for help, but nothing was coming out. I wanted to run, but I barely felt myself moving. I reached Hattie without even knowing how I’d traveled there. All I knew, was my son was alone with a monster. A monster who had been willing to risk killing his own child just to keep him from me.

  One hand on Hattie’s collar, I turned the corner into Wyatt’s room.

  “Hi, Joss.” Travis was smiling at me, the same skeevy smile he put on every time he looked at me. It made me wish my own skin would split just so the ick he made me feel would have a way to seep o
ut.

  “What are you doing here?” The last thing I wanted was to scare Wyatt. As it was, he was sitting on Travis’s lap looking very confused and uneasy.

  “Wyatt and I were just talking about how we were going to get out of here before your vicious dog attacks us. It hardly seems safe to have an animal like that around children.”

  I swallowed, hoping I could push down the emotions threatening to run completely off the sanity tracks. “Actually, Hattie is specially trained to work with children. She’s part of a volunteer program where she visits pediatric hospitals – with my husband.” On some level, my mind had thought that maybe saying those words would make him magically appear, sort of like the agent always did in those car insurance commercials. I’d never been into the possibility of having a knight in shining armor swoop in and save the day, but I was willing to be open to the idea if there was any chance at all that Derek might show up and rescue Wyatt and me.

  “Your husband. Yes, Wyatt was telling me how you got married today. Congratulations.”

  I nodded. “Thanks. Speaking of, Wyatt why don’t you go and get another piece of cake?”

  Wyatt’s head turned from me back to Travis who still had his arm draped across my son’s legs. “Do you want to getted another piece too, Travis?” His tiny voice was so unsure it broke my heart.

  “No thanks, buddy. And you really don’t need another piece either. Too much sugar is bad for your teeth. Wouldn’t want our boy to get cavities, now would we, Joss?”

  If Travis hadn’t physically had Wyatt in his grip, I would have marched straight into the room and yanked my kid out. But Travis had hands on him. Who knew what he would do if provoked. He’d certainly proven that he had no problems with doing us bodily harm in some of my past encounters with him.

  “Mommy?” Wyatt was looking at me with sad, scared eyes.

  “It’s okay, monkey man. Travis is just trying to be nice. He doesn’t know about your super teeth brushing powers. No cavities in that little mouth, huh, mister?” It took everything I had to muster a smile, but I needed Wyatt to see in my face that everything was going to be okay, even if I didn’t know how yet.

  “What’s going on in here?” Derek. Then, before I could stop him, he went right past me, straight for Travis. “Hey, man, I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Derek, Joss’s husband.”

  He reached for Travis’s hand, freeing Wyatt from his embrace in the process.

  “Travis. Joss and I go way back. Don’t we, Joss?”

  Derek cut back in before I could even answer. “Oh I know. I’ve heard all about you.” His tone was insanely casual. Insanely not because the situation was so surreal, but because I’d heard him do casual when it was actually casual, and this was so casual it was unnatural. All the while, his hand was still gripping Travis’s, whose face was slowly beginning to distort as if he was in some sort of pain.

  Derek tipped his head down toward Wyatt. “I think Hattie’s getting pretty grumpy about being stuck in the house. Think you could take her outside for me and sneak her a piece of cheese without Aunt Deb noticing?”

  Wyatt nodded happily. This time he didn’t even glance at Travis. Relief washed over me as my kid slid down from his lap and hurried to Hattie’s side, wrapping both arms around her in a hug before tugging at her collar and leading her from the room. “Come on, Hattie. Let’s go getted some cheese.”

  Derek waited until the sound of the screen door slamming announced Wyatt’s exit. Then he pulled Travis to his feet by his hand before twisting it behind his back and throwing him chest first against the wall. Travis yelled out in pain briefly, then proceeded to mutter threats under his breath.

  Derek completely ignored his outburst. “Go call the police. Now.”

  I felt my head move up and down repeatedly, too caught up in the relief of knowing Wyatt was safe to form any words yet. My fingers had barely swiped the screen of my phone when I heard Travis pipe up yet again.

  “I don’t know if I would do that if I were you, Joss. What are you going to tell them? Huh?”

  “That you broke into my house and threatened my child you, asshole!” I practically went flying from the doorway to where Derek had him pinned.

  “Hm, that’s not exactly how I would tell it. See, what actually happened is, I came by to see my son. I knocked but no one answered. Hearing all the commotion out back, I assumed everyone was outside and no one could hear me. So, I let myself in, since the door was unlocked anyway. Wyatt was just leaving the bathroom when I ran into him in the hall. We were having a nice little chat when your vicious dog showed up, threatening us so we had to retreat to the room, afraid of being attacked. Which, of course I was anyway, when your husband showed up. I don’t know about you, but if I were a judge trying to determine who would make a better parent, I don’t think I’d pick the one who keeps her doors unsecured so strangers can just waltz right in. Never mind the clear issues of having an aggressive dog and a husband who’s prone to violent behavior.”

  I could feel the blood draining from my head. It was making me dizzy. “You’re a sick son of a bitch. You know that, don’t you? That’s fine. I won’t call the cops. But don’t think for one second that means anything. You’re not getting Wyatt. Not today. Not ever.”

  In spite of clearly being in pain, Travis looked at me smugly from the corner of his eye. “I’m his father, Joss. He belongs to me. And I will get him. There won’t be anything you or your new husband here can do about it. Hell, I could have taken him from you today if I had wanted to.”

  Derek picked him up and threw him back into the wall forcefully. “That’s enough. Joss, go check on Wyatt. I’ll finish up in here.”

  “You can’t hurt him. Please. I know you want to, but don’t. He’s not worth it. And I don’t want you to end up in trouble because of it.”

  Derek nodded, but he kept his head turned away from me the entire time I spoke. Whatever he was going to do, he wasn’t going to let me talk him out of it and the fact that he was making me leave the room to do it was making me panic all over again. But I did what he said and went back outside, because getting to Wyatt and wrapping him up in my arms safely had been all I’d wanted to do from the moment I’d seen him sitting there on Travis’s lap.

  “You and Derek sneak off for a quickie or something?” Bobby barely finished his snarky comment when he caught sight of my expression. “What the hell is going on in there?”

  “Travis.” There was no need to elaborate. Bobby was already running past me to get into the house. I didn’t stop him. If he kept Derek from killing Travis, that’d be a good thing. On the other hand, if he helped him do it and then went along for the body dump, I’d find a way to deal with that too. I was sick of living this way.

  ***

  I waited until I was sure Joss was out of earshot, then I shoved Travis face first into Wyatt’s bed to muffle any sounds he might make and put the maximum amount of pressure I could on his hand without breaking it.

  “Listen to me carefully, because I’m only going to say this once. You come anywhere near Joss or Wyatt again and I won’t tell her to call the cops. I’ll kill you. I mean it. I won’t think twice about it. Not like you’ll be the first.” Although I’d sworn myself I had seen the last life snuffed out at my hands, I would go back on my word for Travis. Taking him out would almost feel like atonement for the others.

  Travis twisted his head free from the pillow he’d been buried in. “You can’t touch me without it hurting Joss’s case and you know it.”

  “I get rid of you, there no longer is a case.” A few calculated moves and I had Travis off of the bed and in a chokehold so snug he’d be taking an involuntary nap shortly if I wanted him to. This shit was like riding a fucking bicycle. Didn’t matter how far I’d removed myself from that life, I would never be able to outrun what was living within me. Or what had died there.

  “I know you’re used to dealing with people who have to live by the law and have faith in the system, but neither of th
ose things apply to me. I’ve been making bad guys disappear for years. And I’d be willing to come out of retirement to get rid of one more. Got it?”

  I felt a slight movement against my arm, Travis’s attempt at nodding. Not that I expected him to mean it, but at least I’d left enough of an impression on him to make him want to cooperate with me in the moment, even if that didn’t last beyond this particular encounter.

  “Good.” I eased up on his throat.

  “Want any help with taking care of this motherfucker? I don’t have any fancy Navy Seal skills, but I know how to use a shovel.” Bobby was standing in the doorway. I’d heard the door a few seconds prior and had counted on it being him. I was glad I’d been right. Things could have been awkward had one of Joss’s friends wandered in expecting to use the bathroom and instead found me nearly choking this douchebag to death.

  “Rain check. I think today we’re just going to let him walk out. Maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll be smart enough to just keep walking.”

  Bobby laughed dryly. “Yeah, it be the first smart thing Travis ever did.”

  I released Travis altogether and pushed him forward. He tripped but caught himself in time.

  “Not sure I’d be quite so quick to talk shit, Bobby. You remember last time, don’t you?” Travis sneered as he went by.

  The look on Bobby’s face told me all I needed to know. He wanted to beat the shit out of Travis right then and there, consequences be damned. As tempting as it was, now was not the time or place. Before Bobby could act on his feelings, I kicked Travis in the back of his knee, causing him to tumble. The palm of my hand made impact with the back of his head just as he was going down, smashing his face into the corner of a table Joss had sitting along the wall.

  “Damn, dude. You should really watch where you’re walking. That shit looked like it hurt.”

  “You tripped me, you motherfucker.” Blood was running from his nose and down his mouth and chin.