“I’m taking her with me, and you’re right. She wasn’t happy. But Jennifer doesn’t get a say so in how I live my life anymore, not when she’s in bed with the fuckin’ devil,” I ground out.
“You think she knew what she was doing at the time?” Wolf asked.
A whistle pierced the gymnasium’s air, and I looked up to find Annie hurrying toward me.
She had Nathan on one hip, and she was smiling as she walked quickly towards Wolf.
“I’ll let him keep the ball, but try not to let him throw it on the court. He might kill one of us since we’re so rusty,” Annie snickered, handing Nathan over.
Wolf took Nathan and sat him on the bleacher between his feet. “Don’t throw the ball, boy, or you’ll get me in trouble with the pretty lady.”
Annie laughed softly, raised a hand up to her face, then blew a kiss in my direction
I smiled, barely resisting the urge to ‘grab’ it out of midair and paste it to my lips.
I was not that far gone…yet.
“So how does this volleyball game work?” Wolf asked as the girls lined up.
I shrugged. “I thought you just hit it over the net. There are rules?”
“You get three hits,” Casten said, surprising both of us. “One player serves it to the other team, and they have three touches to get it back over the net and grounded on the serving team’s side for a point. And you can’t go out of that little box around the court once it goes to the other side. There is a little more to it than just that but, you get the idea.”
“How do you know all that?” Wolf asked what we were all thinking.
“My sister. I used to have to go to her practices since she was my ride home,” Casten explained.
He sounded like he didn’t want to talk about it.
Not even a little bit.
So we let it be and watched the game being played in front of us.
The high school team was good, I’d give them that.
But they weren’t the alumni.
Even without practicing, according to Annie, they still had incredible skill.
And although they were rusty at first, they played like a well-oiled machine.
Sadly, the varsity girl’s team didn’t know what hit them.
“Perfect dig,” Casten muttered, his eyes fascinated.
The ‘perfect dig’ was received by Annie, who placed it perfectly in the girl at the front’s hands.
The next play happened so fast that I wasn’t even sure what was happening.
“Block! Block! Middle!” The assistant coach screamed loudly.
The girls scrambled, having misread the direction that the setter was placing the ball.
And Tasha flawlessly arced around the setter, then proceeded to slam the ball down the girl’s throat.
It hit the ground with such force that the ball bounced at least fifteen feet in the air.
“Holy shit,” Casten said.
I concurred.
That was awesome.
“Wonder why she quit. She could be a professional,” Wolf observed.
“She’s the coach. The woman that’s up there now is the assistant coach,” I said.
Casten’s eyes came to me.
“She’s the girls’ volleyball coach? I thought she was in nursing school,” Casten said.
I nodded.
“She is. But she’s also working full time,” I agreed. “Annie says she’s a perpetual student, and has three degrees now.”
She was only a year younger than Annie’s twenty-six, and I also wondered how she’d gotten so many degrees at such a young age, but I never asked
Casten, however, was intrigued.
I could see it the way his shoulders had shifted, following Tasha’s movements the way I did Annie’s.
Annie switched positions when the girls finally scored on the alumni, and she was switched out with one of the other players.
This one was taller than Annie, and she took her position on the front row closer to the net.
Annie sat down next to a smiling girl who looked on the verge of being too thin, animatedly talking to her while she gestured to the court.
The game continued around us, and as soon as Tasha was switched out, our topic of conversation turned to a case Griffin, Wolf and I were working on.
“Could you please stop speaking so vulgarly?” A snotty woman’s voice said from beside me.
I turned to find a woman that looked like the proverbial soccer mom, or in this case volleyball mom.
“What?” I asked.
She sneered. “You’ve said the F word no less than four times in the last three sentences. Please stop speaking like that or leave. And why on earth are you wearing those gang jackets to a school function?”
My brows rose.
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware that there was assigned seating. If I remember correctly, I was here first. You were the one who sat down next to us,” I said plainly.
She narrowed her eyes.
“I’ll have you know that my brother is the sponsor for this team, and damn near every sporting event in the school. And I’m sure he’d be more than willing to talk to your boss,” she hissed.
I laughed.
“Lady, do you know who I am?” I asked.
She sneered.
“You’re the guy who left his pregnant wife for another woman,” she hissed.
I turned my face forward, anger boiling to the surface like lava about to erupt from a volcano.
Out of everyone in the room, I would’ve expected the blowup from any one of the boys at my side.
What I didn’t expect, though, was it to come from Annie.
A ball flew within arms reach of my face.
I could’ve reached out and slapped it away, had I been expecting it. But I hadn’t, which was why the chick at my side got a face full of volleyball.
“Shut your mouth, woman! You don’t know what you’re even talking about! So before you open your mouth in the future, make sure you know what you’re actually talking about and have your facts straight before you spread gossip and lies about people!” Annie growled.
I blinked, turning to see Annie standing about five feet from me, another ball in her hand ready to launch.
Which she didn’t waste time doing.
She reared back and threw it again, but this time I was quick enough to catch it before it could hit the woman at my side for a second time.
“Now, Annie,” I chided laughingly.
She glared at me.
“How can you defend that…that horrid, awful woman while she sits there spewing those lies? I had not one thing to do with your marriage ending, and I certainly didn’t break up your home. And, she doesn’t know a goddamned thing about your life or mine, and she shouldn’t be spreading lies and gossip like that!” Annie spat.
The woman got up, turning to face us both. Her face obviously angry and eyes narrowed as she spoke. “Oh, you’re going to regret this, I’ll make sure of it. My brother will see to it that no one, not one single person, sets foot in your salon ever again. You can kiss your business and your home-wrecking life goodbye!” The lady sneered at Annie.
I wondered idly how long Ridley was going to let this go on, but when the young girl I presumed was the woman’s daughter started to cry, it was Casten, of all people, that got up.
“This isn’t the time nor the place for this. It’s time to go,” he ordered, starting forward.
“Don’t you dare touch me!” The woman hissed and she yanked her arm away from Casten before he could touch her. She turned on her heel, and stormed out of the room, leaving the distraught girl trailing slowly behind.
“Well,” Annie huffed, “that was a lot of fun.”
I moved forward, to grab hold of her hand before she could move away, and laid a wet, possessive kiss on her mouth.
“Finish up,” I ordered. “I’ve got a few things I want to do.”
<
br /> Her brows rose. “Oh yeah? What’s that?”
I didn’t answer her, I just walked back to the bleachers and took a seat once again.
She stared at me the entire way, only turning back to the game when Tasha called her name.
For the remainder of the game, we just admired the view and kept our talk to things that didn’t have anything to do with what had just happened.
Once they were done playing, we went outside to wait for Annie and Tasha.
They must have hurried because it wasn’t long before Annie was back in my arms.
“You did good, baby,” I growled against her neck.
She tasted of salt, the sweat on her skin having dried in the time she’d spent talking to all the younger players.
“So what now?” She asked. “I’ve got an hour before I have to be in the salon.”
I shook my head. “I’m have to drop you off early…I’m sorry, I have to deal with Jennifer.”
She visibly slumped.
“I was afraid you were going to say that.”
***
Jennifer looked positively contrite when I arrived at her house an hour later.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I know I was out of line.”
I wanted to laugh in her face.
Of course she was out of line. That was what she did.
She was so out of line, so often that I wouldn’t be surprised if my friends called her Out Of Line Jennifer.
“I have some questions for you,” I said tersely, looking at all the shit she had laying around.
It was as if she’d given up cleaning all together when I left, and by the looks of all the take out menus, scattered around, she stopped cooking, too.
“I have to go to a doctor appointment, do you…are you still going with me?” She asked softly.
I shrugged. “Yeah. That’s fine.”
The conversation I wanted to have probably shouldn’t be discussed at a doctor’s office, but I thought that just maybe it’d keep her from throwing a huge fit.
We drove the hospital in my truck that I hadn’t moved from under the carport since I’d left.
As I parked and got out to walk, I wasn’t immune to the looks Jennifer and I got.
Jennifer was beautiful and pregnant, she was stunning.
People looked at us like we were the perfect couple.
Oh, if they only knew!
I hurried to take a seat, and Jennifer didn’t take the one next to me, instead sitting a few seats over.
We sat in silence for five minutes until a nurse called her back.
“You must be so excited. You only have a few more weeks to go!” The nurse said happily. Then, she turned her eyes to me. “I’ve been wondering when you’d show! She always telling us how proud she is of you.”
I gave Jennifer a look that clearly said everything I was feeling, and she looked away with embarrassment.
We waited for the nurse to get done taking Jennifer’s blood pressure, checking the baby’s heartbeat and asking if Jennifer had any concerns.
“I’ve been having what I think are Braxton hicks, but my back’s been hurting for going on a week now,” she said.
That was news to me.
I may not like her very much, but I didn’t want anything to happen to her.
Which reminded me that I needed to get to the point of why I was here with her in the first place.
“Okay, I’ll let the doctor know. He may or may not want to check you,” she said.
I was hoping for not.
I wanted to talk to her, and if he had to check her, I’d have to leave.
“Thank you,” Jennifer said formally.
The nurse smiled and patted her arm, and I wanted to scream at the nurse about how manipulative Jennifer was.
She could make anyone like her.
Anyone.
Well, except me.
I didn’t like her.
Then again, neither did my brothers.
The moment I was left alone with Jennifer, I pulled out a note and handed it to Jennifer to read.
Her eyes widened, and her head hung like I’d gutted her where she sat.
“This man approached me, offered me two hundred thousand dollars to sleep with you. To get some information out of you. I got him your number. Your address off your driver’s license. Little things like that.” Jennifer’s lip trembled, and I never wanted anything more but to put her in her place.
I kept my cool. Barely. She was pregnant with my child after all, and I would never actually hurt her…at least not physically.
“Go on,” I said shortly.
“At first, he just wanted me to sleep with you so he could get pictures of us to blackmail you with should they ever get busted.” Jennifer whispered brokenly. “But when I got pregnant, he decided it would be better to have access to you anytime they wanted it. They planned to use our child to make that happen.”
White hot rage boiled underneath the surface of my carefully calm exterior.
“And that was okay with you?” I asked carefully.
Her eyes met mine, and she looked grief stricken.
“I took every possible precaution when it came to you. I put on a condom for you. I had an IUD. I never intended for this to happen. I just wanted to take care of my…problem, to make it go away,” she cried. “I just wanted to get off of drugs.”
I crossed my arms over my chest.
“And how’d that work out?” I asked.
She shook her head.
“I kicked the drugs in rehab, right before I realized that I was pregnant. So, in a roundabout way, my original problem is gone, but, well, new ones have since emerged,” she admitted.
Ain’t that the fuckin’ truth.
“Why tell me now?” I asked, staring at her stomach.
Oh, how I wished this would’ve happened with Annie.
I wanted Annie to be the woman carrying my child, and not this deceptive bitch in front of me.
“I should be having the baby any day now…and I wanted you to know…in case Liam tries something,” she whispered.
I looked away from her to the wall beyond her head.
“You’re going to sign the paper relinquishing all parental rights to this child and giving sole custody to me. You will leave and never look back. You’ll never try to contact us again, ever. And by us, I mean me, the baby, Annie, my friends. Anyone in my life at all. I’ll get you out. I have a plan in motion through some contacts who can and will make you disappear. You’ll do everything they tell you to do, exactly as they instruct you to do it, and you’ll be able to live your life with a clean slate and a fresh start,” I said slowly, succinctly, making myself clear and leaving no room for negotiation.
Jennifer started to sob.
“But I-I-I want m-my baby. She s-saved my life,” she cried.
I just stared at her.
“I am a law enforcement officer, Jennifer. You actively colluded with a drug dealer to drug me with the intent of raping me in order to get photographs for this dealer to use in an attempt to blackmail me. Despite your precautions, you became pregnant as a result of your role in these crimes against me. Now you have a drug dealer on your back who will not hesitate to use the baby to get to me directly and to keep you in line to get to me indirectly. There is no way that you can safely participate in the baby’s life without putting either of you in danger. To avoid either becoming the dealer’s puppet for life or the possibility of prosecution for your crimes, your only real option is to run, to never look back and to start over. Don’t you agree?” I asked carefully.
She shook her head vehemently. “No, you’re r-right. I’ll do it, I’ll go. And, Mig, I… I’m sorry. If that’s even worth anything to you now.”
I shrugged. “Maybe some day it’ll mean something. But right now, everything you told me is just too fresh and new. You raped me. I just don’t understand how doing that to me—to anyon
e—was a fair price to pay so you could get drug money. Most likely, I’ll never understand.”
She cried harder.
The doctor came in, and he looked at Jennifer with sympathy.
“Hormones make a lot of women cry uncontrollably,” the doctor said, misunderstanding the situation.
I didn’t correct him, because, honestly, I had no idea how to tell the doctor that the minute the baby was born, I intended to take her as far away from Jennifer as I could get her.
He’d wonder why, and then I’d have to lie, because no matter what, I would never make Jennifer out to be the devil.
“The nurse tells me that you’re having a back ache?” The doctor asked.
Jennifer nodded.
“Yeah, it’s been like this for the past week,” she replied.
And as I left the doctor’s office with a still sobbing Jennifer twenty minutes later, I was seriously regretting the decision not to tell the doctor just how much I disliked Jennifer and why.
Chapter 15
Every man either needs to stand up and be the man she needs you to be, or sit the fuck down so the man behind you can see her.
-Fact of Life
Annie
“No. Just no,” I said, shaking my head vehemently. “I’m not doing it.”
“She doesn’t have anyone else. And I don’t have another choice. Please don’t do this to me,” he pleaded.
She glared at me.
“Why do I have to be there? Why can’t I stay at my own place? What about my dog?” I countered.
Mig’s eyes narrowed.
“Because I don’t want to be there either. Unfortunately, someone needs to be around for Jennifer, since she was placed on bed rest and there isn’t anyone else, except me. And if you’re there, it’ll be a little bit more bearable,” he said evenly. “And we could move to your place above the salon, but it would be cramped for space. I’ll do either one that makes you more comfortable.”
“Why don’t you hire someone to watch over her?” I challenged.
He sighed and looked out the window.
“I tried that. And would do that, but it’s going to cost a fuckin’ whack, and I just bought some new land, and then put all the money down on a house that’ll be built within the next six months. I don’t have the money to spare,” he said defensively.
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