“I know I’d love a sweet tea,” he said, flashing his best smile towards the woman he hoped would one day be his mother-in-law. “What about you, honey?” he glanced over at Charity, who still looked like she was trying to take everything in.
“Coffee would be amazing. Mandy, you know what my favorite frappe is, right?”
“Got it.” Mandy cocked her head to the side. “Jasmine, Dalton’s outside doing protection too, and I know he could use something. I can’t carry all of this back by myself. Would you come help me?”
Eager to please, Jasmine jumped at the chance. “I would love to.”
And just like that, they were out the door.
“You know, sometimes I wonder why my mom became a stripper. Ya know, other than the money,” Charity mused. “Then things like this happen, and I realize what a people pleaser she is. That’s her ultimate goal, no matter what. To make sure the people in her life are happy. She makes it her business to make sure they are taken care of.”
“She comes from a good place,” Drew agreed. “Pleasing people is probably why she made as much money as she did.”
Charity had to hand it to him; he said those words with a straight face, even though he said it with a laugh attached to it.
“You mean to tell me that all those times you’ve spent at Wet Wanda’s you’ve never watched a woman on stage and then went home and taken care of the problem?” she teased. “That’s pleasure too.”
He shook his head. “No, I was always the one with my back turned to the stage, working protection. I was always the one who made a beeline for the parking lot, where I knew you would be after the show was over. I didn’t need anybody but you to take care of any problems I had.”
She swallowed against a lump that had popped up in her throat at his words. “Not even those lonely nights after I left?”
“I couldn’t stand to go in there. Half the time I gave my shifts to Dalton, the other half of the time I took the ass-chewing my dad gave me because I wasn’t contributing. There are a lot of memories there, Char. That one building holds more than these backroads do. That’s the first place I saw you, the first place I kissed you, the first place I tried to get into that tight, wet heat that’s always been just yours.”
A wistful smile crossed her face. “I remember that night. We got interrupted.”
“I have never been so goddamn pissed off in my life. The case of blue balls I had was legendary. Never before have I wanted to kill Tyler, but I did that night.”
She laughed, thinking about how they had quickly put their clothes back on and tried to pretend like they weren’t minutes away from doing the deed. She hadn’t been able to look Tyler in the eyes for weeks after that.
“He saved my life though.” Drew had a seat in the chair across from her desk. “Tyler was the one who helped me throw my sadness that you were gone into something else besides anger. Not counting my dad and Dalton, he’s been my best friend since you left. He’s a huge part of my life, and no matter what, he’s been there.”
She reached up, hugging him around the neck. “I’m glad you’ve had people like that in your life.”
“I hope you did too.”
She hadn’t. She’d had Mandy and that was it, but it was also her own fault. She hadn’t let anyone get close enough, had never allowed anyone to know the real her. Defense mechanisms sucked ass most of the time.
“I had what I needed.”
She would leave it at that, because there was no reason to go any further with it. What was in the past was in the past, and it was best to stay there. Neither one of them could change it; the only thing they could do was move forward.
“Good.” He glanced out the window of her office. “Now my job is to make sure you do what you need to do while Mandy’s got your mom preoccupied. Is there anything I can do to help?”
Like that, Charity put on her lawyer face and leaned over the laptop she’d pulled from her bag. “I have to do this legal brief, and no, you can’t help me; I’ve seen your spelling. Sometimes spell check doesn’t even have suggestions for you. We’ve got to make sure this gets over to the courthouse and filed. Since this is an emergency, when Mandy goes and files this, they should give us a court date for tomorrow or the next day. That’s what we have to prepare for—I can’t see him taking this lying down.”
And that’s what Drew was dreading more than anything.
Chapter Thirty-Five
“It’s done.” Charity breathed a huge sigh of relief as she printed off the paperwork that would be taken over to the courthouse. What was there would hopefully be enough to get her the emergency protective order as well as the witness protection she knew Maggie and Skylar needed. If she had done a good job, they would be getting what they wanted, what they needed. If she hadn’t—they had a hell of a fight on their hands.
Mandy held out her hand. “As your paralegal and assistant, let me do the honors of walking this over there.”
“Agreed.” Drew handed the papers to his sister. “There’s not a bull’s-eye on your back the way there is on hers. Be safe and don’t let your guard down.”
“I’ll see if Dalton will come with me. I’m not too excited to be walking over there by myself.” She grabbed her bag, the paperwork, and the identification she needed to file.
Charity watched as she walked out the door. “I hope all this works out for us.” She gripped the desk. “If not, we’ve poked a bear that won’t lie down and spend the winter in hibernation. Dixon will come at all of us, guns blazing.”
Drew knew she spoke the truth and that was exactly what would happen.
The day was cool, but the sun was warm as Mandy stepped out of Charity’s office.
“I’m walking this over to the courthouse. Would you come with me?” she asked Dalton, carefully.
Since the night at the clubhouse, when they’d gotten carried away (again), things had been different between them. In a way she hadn’t been able to put her finger on. Maybe it was the fact that she wanted acceptance, she wanted what everyone else seemed to have so easily. She was sick of Dalton making jokes about it. Her feelings and her heart weren’t a joke. At the same time, she also knew that as long as she let him continue to walk over her, he would.
It was hard though; the woman she had become had no problem standing up for the things she believed in, but she did have a problem standing up to herself when it came to Dalton. She guessed that was the fear he would decide she wasn’t worth it to fight for anymore. They had been stuck in this rut of complacency for so long she wasn’t sure how to get out of it—wasn’t sure he even wanted to. He got his rocks off without having to do any of the other things most men in relationships had to do. They didn’t share a home, bills, or a car; they didn’t even go out on dates anymore. For him, it was the fucking best of both worlds. He lived like a single man, except for when he wanted to sink himself inside her warm body. That had to stop.
“Sure.” He threw down the cigarette he’d been smoking and put his hand on the small of her back.
She tried to remember the last time he did that, and couldn’t. Now, she knew he did it as a show of protection and ownership to anyone who might be looking. It pissed her off, but she also knew there was nothing she could do about it. In essence, she knew as long as she was her father’s daughter—she would be stuck. In a lot of eyes, the club came first.
They entered the courthouse, and she was directed towards the window she needed to file the information she had. She shook her head, wondering why they told her where she needed to be. Charity wasn’t the first lawyer she had been a paralegal for, and she did some work for CRISIS as well. Just another example of a man telling her what to do.
She and Dalton passed the office where marriage licenses were issued, and she turned her head so that she could look at him. “Wanna make a stop?”
She watched as his eyes cut over to where she pointed, and she swore he got pale.
“That’s not what we’re here for today, babe.”
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Babe. It was a token sentiment, one she was sure he hadn’t meant in years. Mandy wasn’t sure how they’d gotten to this point. The way he said it wasn’t the way she’d heard Tyler say it to Meredith, or even the way her dad said it to her mom, always with a little chuckle on the end of it. It was flat, boring, and cold. Almost like how Drew had said it to his horde of women.
“We’re never gonna be here for that, are we, D?”
She hadn’t called him D in a long time, and she did it with a smart ass edge to it, hoping he would realize how badly his inability to commit pissed her off. It was passive-aggressive, but she couldn’t help it.
“What are you talkin’ about?”
Clueless as always. She wasn’t sure where his mind had gone. At one point, he’d been a very intelligent man when she was concerned. Over the past ten years he’d lost his memory, and she’d lost her goddamned mind.
Shaking her head, she walked up to the window she needed, gave the paperwork to the proper people, signed the documents, and paid the filing fee. When she was done, she didn’t wait for him, didn’t tell him she was leaving, she just did it.
“Mandy, wait up,” he yelled, jogging.
“Then pick your feet up and let’s go.”
His raised eyebrows told her he wasn’t sure what to make of her tone, but that didn’t bother her. She wouldn’t let it ever again.
Chapter Thirty-Six
The next morning, Charity sat at the commons table in the clubhouse again. This time she had her laptop open, coffee cup in front of her. To her left, her mom was sitting next to her.
“Is there anything I can do to help you?” Jasmine asked, fiddling with her hands.
“No, mom, most of the stuff I’m working on is confidential anyway, but I appreciate it.” She smiled at her to soften the blow.
“If you need anything, please let me know.” Jasmine grabbed her own coffee cup and walked towards the back, where a covered deck and back porch were.
Charity groaned. She wished her relationship with her mom were easier, but she couldn’t snap her fingers and make the years they had struggled through go away. If they were going to recover anything, it would have to be done in its own time. Right now, though, her attention needed to be on another mother and daughter—Maggie and Skylar needed her more than anyone.
She clicked into her email, hoping she had the information she needed. They had waited the full twenty-four hours they were required to, and their motions had been approved. Today they would move Maggie and Skylar to a safe house, Dixon would be served with a motion to appear, and hopefully Bowling Green wouldn’t implode. She checked their court date and wasn’t surprised to see that it was for the next morning. Grabbing up her coffee, she drained it, hoping that Drew would be here soon. He’d gone out for a run with Tyler, and she wanted to get over to CRISIS to brief Maggie and Skylar as soon as possible.
Figuring that while she was waiting, she could go ahead and get herself ready, she made her way back to Drew’s dorm. As she entered, she realized how right this felt. She had fought coming back here for so long, because she thought it made her weak. Purposely, she’d waited until she was “grown”. She could afford her own apartment, her own car, what little student loans she’d had to take out were paid. Looking back, she realized she hadn’t wanted to get in her mom’s situation. Broke and not wanting to depend on a man, Jasmine had sold herself. In the back of her mind, Charity knew that was her motivation for everything she’d done since she’d left Bowling Green at eighteen.
Realizing that let her breathe. For the first time in a long time, the breath she took didn’t make her feel like she had a weight on her chest, on her shoulders—it was clean and unimpeded.
The door opened and Drew walked in. Shirtless and wearing a pair of sweatpants that rode low on his hips, she had other thoughts rather than what really needed to be done. A part of her wanted to forget all of the commitments they had, shed her clothes, lie on the bed, and tell him to take her. She knew, however, she couldn’t. Too many people depended on the both of them.
“I heard you were lookin’ for me.”
He stood there, gazing at her, letting his eyes take her in. She knew that he knew he looked good. There wasn’t an ounce of shame within him. He let her look her fill before he let a smile spread across his face. “You like it?” He flexed his tattooed pectoral muscle, grinning when she blushed.
“Yes, on both accounts.” She gazed at his chest. “You know, I’ve never thought to look, even after Laura said you have a tattoo of my name. I never bothered to look.”
“Laura?” he questioned, grinning as he did. “Wasn’t her name Karen?”
She giggled, walking over to him. “This is gorgeous, and I can’t believe I never saw it before.”
“I did it in a fit of loneliness and rage, but having your name over my heart has helped me through a lot. Putting you there let me know that you were flying and that even though you’d spread your wings, I still got to keep a little piece of you with me.”
Charity tried to recover from her bout of speechlessness, turning so that she didn’t face him anymore. The words he’d spoken meant so much more to her than she wanted to admit.
“What did you need?” he asked to her back, his tone patient.
“We need to talk to Maggie and Skylar—let them know that witness protection has been approved and that Dixon will appear in court with them tomorrow, if he shows. I don’t want them to be surprised. And your dad moved them up to your old house. I’m kind of scared to go there on my own. It’s still a bit of an embarrassment,” her face burned, “getting caught on the back porch like we did when we were young.”
His face burned too with the memory. Those had been good times.
“Rooster and I will go with you to Mom and Dad’s, and then Rooster will escort them to the safe house, and then he will go with the friends he still has in the sheriff’s office to serve Dixon. He wants to see for himself that he’s served and see what his anger level is.”
She nodded. It sounded like a great idea to her. The more they knew, the better off they were.
“Then I guess we better get ready to go.”
Drew caught her around the shoulders, pulling her in for a hug. “Hey, this is all gonna be okay.”
“If it’s not,” she bit her lip, “it’ll be all my fault. I don’t want anyone getting injured on my watch.”
He understood that, probably more than anyone else. Back when he’d been the man of the house, he’d taken that role seriously and had done anything he could to protect Mandy and his mom. In essence, Charity had always been that role in her home too. Her mom didn’t have a partner—so it had fallen to her to be the partner her mom needed.
“No, it won’t be your fault. It will be the fault of a man who decided to put all of this in motion at least a year ago. The only thing you’ve done is figure it out and try to make a difference in these people’s lives. There’s nothing braver than that.”
She wished she could believe what he said was true, but she worried to death that this would not end well.
Drew pulled up to his old house with Charity, while Rooster was on his bike behind them. All of them got out and made their way to the house. Charity felt as if her step was light. It was the most satisfying thing in the world, knowing that she was helping these two.
“Are you two ready to get out of here?” Charity asked as she entered the living room. Immediately she was assaulted with memories, but she couldn’t take a minute to stop and appreciate them. That would have to come in the months and years that hopefully followed. “Witness protection has been approved.”
Maggie nodding, looking up at her with big eyes. “Is that Drew?” she asked.
Charity nodded. “Sometimes things work out for the best, even when they make you feel your worst,” she told the other woman.
Maggie smiled softly at her. The first smile Charity had ever seen from her. “I’m gonna hope for that—not only for Skylar, but also f
or myself. I haven’t been able to say it yet, but thank you so much for what you’ve done for us.”
“Don’t thank me yet. We go to court tomorrow, and that’s where you tell your story to the judge. We aren’t out of the woods,” Charity cautioned.
“But you believed us. That’s more than anyone else did for years. You felt like we were special enough to take a chance on. That takes someone special, to do that for us.”
“That takes someone who’s been there,” Charity argued. “But we’ll get you in a safe place, and we’ll make sure you all have everything you need. When we get you to the house, I’m going to go over, briefly, what you may be asked tomorrow. Chances are the judge will ask you to affirm what we’ve put in the complaint; you’ll say yes, and we’ll be done with it.”
“I’ll do what I have to do,” Maggie promised. “I’ll even face Dixon.”
Charity grabbed the other woman’s hand. “We’re all gonna face Dixon.”
Less than fifteen minutes later, they were escorting the girls to their new safe house, and Rooster was escorting his friends to go serve Dixon. They all hoped everything was going to go as planned.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The club sat around the commons area table eating pizzas as they went over what all of them were doing the next day. Many of them would be hanging around, just to make sure things went off without a hitch—they also figured they would help with crowd control and general protection if needed. Drew and Dalton would be accompanying the girls into the courtroom, and Rooster would be ready with his old friends if he was needed there.
“Are you nervous about tomorrow?” Denise asked as she refilled a few drinks, walking around the table. The question was directed at both Mandy and Charity.
“I am,” Charity spoke up. “What makes me nervous is that he’s going to be in the court room. There’s no place to hide there if he decides he wants to make an example out of anyone. None of us have ever really known his endgame—I mean, why did he start these invasions? To run people out of Warren County? Or was it just because he was bored? In the end, it doesn’t matter, but I wonder. Like, what does he have to lose? If it’s nothing, then he’s very dangerous.”
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