by Sienna Skye
“I don’t care what the hell Madison does.”
“Bullshit. Do I look like a fucking idiot to you? You even use your kids to manipulate her. What kind of man does that?”
“They’re my kids.”
“I’m well aware you are their father. They are the only reason I haven’t made you disappear. By the way, that’s the other thing that is going to change.”
“What’s that?”
“You are going to stop using your kids.”
He turned his head and smirked. I reached over and grabbed him by his shirt collar.
“I am not playing here. You are going to start doing right by your kids. Or you and I are going to have a much different get together next time. Call it a threat. Call it a promise. Call it whatever the fuck you want. But know it will happen.” I stood up and grabbed my sunglasses.
Now that I was a few steps away, he managed to muster up some steel.
“You are welcome to Madison.”
I busted out laughing. “Thanks, but I wasn’t asking for your permission. Besides, she’s already mine.”
“The woman is cold and passionless anyway.”
I wasn’t going to give him details of my sex life with Madison. I wouldn’t disrespect her like that. But, I was going to defend her. I gave him a big smile. The one I had always used to charm the pants off women. It would work here too.
“Funny. We must be speaking of two entirely different women.”
When I got to my car, I called Trey. I was going to need to speak to Madison and tell her what happened before Ralph had a chance to get to her, but I needed to talk to Trey first.
“Hey Jace.”
“Hey man. All good?”
“Yeah. No new messages. I haven’t seen anything concerning.”
“How’s Julia doing? And the kids?”
“The kids are fine. I think Sophia realizes something is up. That kid is too smart. But, it doesn’t seem to be worrying her. She did ask why I was staying over because nobody usually stays over when her daddy is away.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That now they have Casey and her mama had a lot of work to do so her daddy asked us to help out.”
“Did that pacify her?”
“She gave me that Morgan eyebrow quirk that said she wasn’t entirely buying it but didn’t question me any further.”
I chuckled. I could picture her making that face.
“The boys don’t have a clue. They are just happy to have another human jungle gym in the house. Julia isn’t quite as frantic as she was, but I still need to talk her down. I’m trying to give her as much control as I can.”
“Good. She needs that. Listen. I need your take on something.”
“Give it to me.”
“It involves Madison’s ex, so…” I paused letting him fill in the blanks.
“It in turns involves Madison.”
“Yeah. That’s why I am not quite trusting myself. I am too close to the situation. I don’t want to miss something because I am afraid she’ll get hurt.”
“Tell me what’s on your mind,” he said calmly.
“You’ve seen this guy. Remember the day in the gym’s parking lot when you came out and walked Julia inside?”
“Yeah. That’s him, right? I was thinking about him as I was trying to piece this thing with Julia together. I didn’t like the vibe I got from him.”
“Yeah, that’s him. He’s an emotional abuser. Likes to belittle women.” I was aware of the bitterness in my voice.
“That makes sense. I can tell that Madison struggles with her confidence.”
“He spent years puncturing holes in her self-esteem. He uses the kids too. Doesn’t take them when he should. Tries to bring them back early. It’s all to keep her off kilter. To try to keep her from living her life.”
“That’s a weak fucking man to use his kids like that. Tell me you have put this asshole in his place.”
“Just leaving from doing that now. Was trying to respect Madison’s space, but I really felt like he needed to hear it from me.”
“Madison doesn’t know you confronted him?” he asked.
“Not yet. I’ll have to do that when I get off the phone with you.”
“So, does this have to do with the conversation you had with him today?”
“No, not really. After Julia gave me the green light, I told Madison what was going on. She said something as we were falling asleep. I don’t even think she made the connection.”
“What was that?”
“She mentioned that when they were deep in the middle of getting divorced and he was trying to make her think she would crumble without him, that she said something Julia said as Ask Nikki. She said she never even knew that her ex had any idea who Ask Nikki was, but that he chastised her for quoting some advice columnist.”
“So potentially, he could be blaming Ask Nikki for giving Madison the strength to go through with the divorce,” Trey said.
“Exactly.”
“And then you have the thing in the parking lot,” he said thoughtfully.
“There’s one more thing. It’s only been somewhat recently that Madison has not run off every time he wants to dump the kids. It’s caused a little friction between us. She started refusing and making him more accountable. She hasn’t said anything to me, and she hasn’t cancelled any dates or ended things early because he was dropping the kids back before he was supposed to. I thought maybe he had laid off a bit. She told me that she was just learning to handle it better and if anything, he had been ramping things up a bit.”
“Escalating just like the text messages.”
“Yeah. I’m still not sold it’s him though. But, if it is, that means heartache for Madison and the kids.”
“So, you’re not sure how much you can trust yourself because you don’t want to see them hurt.” There was no doubt Trey understood my dilemma.
“That’s why I wanted to run it by you.”
“I’ll look into it. But, don’t be too hard on yourself. I’m not quite feeling it either. It all seems like it should add up perfectly…”
“But your gut just doesn’t go there.”
“Yeah. But I will go over everything with a fine tooth comb,” he promised.
“Thanks Trey. Call me if you need anything.”
Now I needed to tell Madison about my conversation with Ralph. It needed to be done in person. Ideally, I’d rather wait until I could get us some time alone in the evening, but I didn’t trust that he wouldn’t get to her before I did. That meant I had to head to her job and talk to her there.
On the way to her office, I ran into Sarah.
“Hi Jace. You here to see your girl?”
“Yeah. Hoping she can get away for just a few minutes.”
“Taking her to lunch? That’s sweet of you.”
“Something like that,” I smiled at her.
“Come on. I’ll show you to her office.”
I followed Sarah down the hall. She told me that Hunter was on edge.
“He’s worried for Julia. The kids. Even Morgan. I know Morgan can take care of himself, but who knows what a crazy person will do.” Sarah looked worried.
“It’s understandable. We’re all on edge.”
What she said next managed to bring a smile to her face. “I talked to Julia today. She said Trey has been training her in hand to hand combat. At least that’s what she called it. I pity Morgan the next time he gets out of line.”
I had to smile at that. “I don’t know which visual I like better. Julia trying to take down Trey or her kicking Morgan’s ass the next time he gets on her nerves.”
Julia already knew some self-defense. Morgan was a black belt martial artist. He had taught her years ago. It saved her once from a situation that could have turned into something much worse.
I knew Trey wasn’t only teaching her for safety. That’s one of the things he meant when he said he was trying to give her some control.
Sarah knocked on Madison’s open door.
“Hey, I found this hot guy roaming aimlessly in the hall. Do you think you could keep an eye on him?”
Madison smiled when she saw me. “I’ll have to check to see if cavorting with hot men is in my job description.”
“You do that,” Sarah said. “You guys have fun.” She waved goodbye before she left.
“What’s this about men?” I asked.
“Huh?”
“You said men. As in plural. I don’t like the idea of you cavorting with other men.”
“You have nothing to worry about. You are more than I can handle as it is.”
“Oh, I don’t know. I am quite happy with the way you handle me.” I winked at her and took great satisfaction in the blush that spread across her face. “Have you eaten lunch yet?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Do you have some time to go eat?” I stopped before I said I wanted to talk to her about something. That would have only made her nervous.
“I’d love to. There’s a little café next door. Food is good and it will get me back here on time.”
“Perfect. Let’s go.”
She grabbed her purse and we headed back down the hallway.
“What’s with them?” I asked.
“Who?”
I nodded in the direction of a man and a woman, each dressed in scrubs. They were eyeing us up and wearing shit eating grins on their faces.
“Oh. Noah and Laura. They are probably excited to finally put a face to the name.”
“Been talking about me to you coworkers?”
“Maybe just a little.”
“I like hearing that,” I chuckled.
After we placed our orders for lunch, I jumped right in with what I needed to tell her. I knew we had limited time before she had to get back to work, so there was no time for idle conversation.
“I did something today that I need to tell you about. I went and had a conversation with your ex-husband.”
She didn’t say anything at first, but her eyes widened in surprise.
“What did you…wait…how did you know where to find him?”
“I have ways of finding things out, Madison.”
“Non answer. Okay. What did you talk to him about?”
“I let him know what a piece of shit I thought he was for playing games with you and for dragging the kids in the middle of it. I told him it was going to stop because I wasn’t going to put up with it anymore. He’s going to have to start going through me to get to you.”
“And what did he say?”
“Not much. He doesn’t have much courage when he’s dealing with someone he doesn’t feel he can intimidate. He did make it clear that he was the kids’ father.”
“Jace, that’s a touchy area.”
“I get that. I told him that I was well aware he was their father, but that doesn’t mean he is going to get free reign to use them as a game piece.”
“He took you seriously?” she asked me.
“He would have liked it to seem otherwise, but he did.”
“Did he say anything else? Other than about the kids?”
“About you? He told me I was welcome to have you. I told him that I wasn’t asking for his permission and that you were already mine.”
“Why do I feel this whole encounter was a lot more intense than you are trying to make me believe?”
“It will be okay, Madison. Trust me. Has he contacted you, yet?”
She pulled out her phone. There was a missed text from him. She read it and then looked at me.
“He told me I could call off my guard dog now.”
“Good. Maybe he got the point.”
“Jace, it’s not that I don’t appreciate you trying to look out for me and the kids. I do. But, for better or worse, I need to co-parent with that man. I would have appreciated a little warning before you did that.”
“Madison, I’m going to be straight with you. I knew if I told you, you would have probably tried to convince me not to confront him. And I would have had to do it anyway.”
“Why?”
“Because I know down to my core that it was the right thing to do. I couldn’t go against my instincts. I’ve been doing too much of that lately.”
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing. I just need you to know that I didn’t do it to hurt you or to cause you any grief. Just the opposite.”
“I know that.”
“And I want you to tell me if he starts to act up. It will keep me from going to the trouble of figuring it out on my own.”
“I guess it would. Okay. But, for the record, I’m still not overly thrilled by the way you handled it.” She meant it, but there was no anger in her voice or on her face.
“Duly noted. I have to get to work. Let me walk you back to the office.”
“I know you are working late tonight, but the kids will be at a birthday party tomorrow night. Would you like to come by for dinner?”
“I’d like that.” And after tomorrow, I’d be relieving Trey so there would be no alone time for us for a few days.
Chapter Twenty Three
Jace
I stopped on my way to Madison’s and picked up some flowers. She was letting me off the hook for confronting Ralph, but I knew she still wasn’t thrilled that I did it. The flowers weren’t so much of a peace offering as a thank you for her not losing her shit on me.
She answered the door with a smile on her face.
“Hi! Come on in.”
I gave her a kiss and handed her the flowers. “Hi. These are for you.”
“They’re beautiful. Thank you.”
We talked about our day over dinner. She told me some stories about her coworkers, and I told her some of the things that happened at the gym. I was picking up some of Trey’s clients while he was pulling security detail.
“Hunter was looking for my opinion today on some things. It got me thinking about how this is the stuff I’d be doing all the time if I had my own security firm.’
“I always thought that plan was a good idea. Was he asking you about what’s going on with Julia?”
“Not entirely, it has more to do with this big new direction for TechStone. They’ll end up having a separate division just for this.”
“Can you tell me what they are branching out into?”
“In very loose terms. It actually has to do with security. So not only could they use the help with creating the material for this division. But, they will want an inhouse security team. He spoke about government contracts.”
“Did Hunter ask you to head that up?”
“No, not in so many words. I don’t think it was his intention to bring it up today. It just kind of happened. I got the feeling he wants Trey and me to do this. But, he wouldn’t make that decision without talking to Morgan first.”
“It’s not like Morgan is going to say no.”
“It’s not that. In fact, they probably have talked about it in depth already. They didn’t get this far by not making well thought out decisions. But, I’m sure they would want to approach us together. Hunter wouldn’t want to take that away from Morgan. Especially not after everything that’s going on.”
“If they do offer it to you, would you take it?”
“I’ve been thinking about it a lot since he and I talked today.”
“It would be hard not to.”
“I think I would only do it if Trey is involved. I’d want to work with someone I could trust right off the bat. It would be different than what I planned to do. I wouldn’t be working for myself and it would be on a much bigger scale.”
“Would that be a bad thing?”
“No, its more the fact that I’d be straying from what I had planned and wrapping my brain around that.”
“Isn’t that what happened when you left the Marines? You strayed from the plan you had?”
“That’s true, oh wise one,” I laughed.
“If that life plan hadn’t change
d, we wouldn’t have met.”
“Another valid point. In a lot of ways, it would be a better choice. There is always a risk when you start up your own company that it may fail. TechStone is an established and successful company.”
“Do you think if they start up this division that it will take off? Will they be able to get the government contracts Hunter mentioned? Because that would also play into job security. Though I know that Hunter and Morgan would do everything in their power to make sure you were okay.”
“From what Hunter spoke to me about today, I do think this has huge potential. They would have some guidance and contacts in regard to the government contracts. They still know people because of their father’s involvement with politics. Maybe the only good thing they ever got from that man.”
“I forgot about that. Not to change the subject, but did I tell you that we saw Julia’s mother the day we all went dress shopping?”
“You saw the ice queen?”
“Funny, that’s what I thought of her when I saw her. She was out on a date with a much younger man.”
“No shit. I wonder if her and Parker are on the outs.”
“I don’t know, but it wasn’t like she was hiding the fact that she was with that guy. Next question, how would the salary be compared to you having your own firm?”
“No question it would be more. It would be a steady income. The stability. The income and benefits. These are all things I need to consider seriously now that I have you in the kids in my life.”
I watched her expression change from surprise, to disbelief, to uncertainty. I knew she wanted to ask what I meant but was too nervous.
“It’s all about planning for the future, Madison. A future I want you and the kids to be a part of.”
“Have you really thought about that, Jace? About us having a future together?”
“Yes, I have. I wouldn’t have said that if I hadn’t.”
“Like what kind of future? I mean are you talking about a dating future?”
“I mean a future as a family. Did I jump the gun here? Maybe that’s not something you want.”
“Of course, it’s something I’ve thought about. Yes, it’s something I want. It’s just that we need to talk about something important before we even start considering anything in that direction.”