Ryan: A Contemporary Romance (For The Love Of A Good Woman Book 7)

by Giulia Lagomarsino

  “Hey, buddy. I got you something.” James turned to me and I put a Pittsburgh Steelers hat on his head. He took it off and a brief smile touched his lips, but he quickly scowled and pushed past Michael and Alisha and stormed into the house, dragging his overnight bag behind him. Originally, the court had ordered that Michael pick James up from school, but since this was James’s first overnight visit, we agreed that it would be better for us to drop him off.

  “I’ll just go make sure he’s okay.” Alisha walked back into the house as I stood there staring down Michael.

  “Cassie, why don’t you go wait in the truck.”

  I could feel Cassie’s eyes on me, but I didn’t take mine off Michael. After a minute, she turned and headed for the truck.

  “Why are you doing this? You obviously don’t give a shit about James, so why are you putting us through this?”

  “Look, it’s not that I don’t give a shit, but kids were never part of the plan. I don’t know what to do with a kid. Alisha’s good with him though and I’ll do anything to make her happy.”

  “You just remember something. He doesn’t want to be here with you. You’re fucking with that kid’s life for your own peace of mind. If you don’t step up and take on the role that you told the judge you wanted, I’ll make sure you never see him again.”

  “You know, that sounds an awful lot like a threat. I’m sure the judge would love to know that you’re threatening the biological father.”

  His smirk had me grinding my teeth to keep from pounding his face in. I didn’t know how much longer I could put up with this shit. It was hard enough to see James and Cassandra hurting, but then on top of it, this asshole was playing with me just because he could. I gathered my senses and turned toward the truck.

  “We’ll be by at three o’clock on Sunday, not a minute later.”

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  Cassie had been pacing the floor since we got home. I didn’t know what to do to make her feel better. There was one thing I wanted right now and that was to get drunk. I wanted to numb my mind to the fact that my son was over at that prick’s house as some sort of entertainment for his wife.

  “Come on, Cassie. We’re not staying here tonight to wallow in our sorrows. We’ll call and have anyone that can meet us down at The Pub for a few drinks.”

  “I don’t want to go anywhere. I can’t stand the thought of him being over there right now.”

  “Cassie, I get it, but staying around here pacing the floor is going to make the night drag by. We need a distraction. We’ll pretend that he’s at your parents’ for the night and then tomorrow we’ll pace some more.”

  “Ugh. I hate this.”

  “I know, Cassie girl. It sucks and I wish that I could take this away, but we have to stick it out. Sitting around here is just going to drive us crazy. I won’t be able to sleep the way I’m feeling right now.”

  “You’re right. We need to get out of here and go have some fun. We’ll just pretend it’s another date night.”

  “Exactly.”

  We both stared at each other and nodded for about thirty seconds before either of us moved. I called the guys and found a few to meet us in town. Cassie went and got in something more comfortable. By the time we were at The Pub, we were both jittery and in desperate need of a drink.

  “Jack and Coke,” I told the bartender.

  “Long Island Ice Tea,” Cassie said.

  “Are you sure you want to go that route?”

  “I need it.”

  “Alright.”

  We got our drinks and went to sit down with Harper, Jack, Cece, and Logan. Everyone else was busy for the night or couldn’t find a babysitter.

  “So, why did the judge award him partial custody? It doesn’t make sense?” Harper said.

  Cassie took a long drink, way too long for a Long Island, and answered.

  “I don’t know. It’s like the judge was rooting for Michael. The social worker clearly stated that Michael was not doing much to get to know James, so I don’t understand it. Our lawyer said that this might happen. He said a lot of judges are starting to side with fathers.”

  “I could see that if Michael had already been a part of James’s life, but he just came after him one day. That doesn’t make sense,” Cece said.

  “How was it dropping him off?” Logan asked me.

  “It was rough. James didn’t want to be there, but he also blamed us for dropping him off. It about tore my fucking heart out.”

  “You know what you guys should do?” Cece asked with raised eyebrows.

  “Coming from you, I’m not sure I want to know,” I responded. “I remember what you do when you feel threatened.”

  “Hey, man. That’s in the past. Let it go,” Logan glared at me. Obviously he didn’t like seeing his woman upset and I couldn’t blame him, but every once in a while, it still pissed me off what she did. I’d forgiven her and even pushed Logan at her, but that didn’t mean I would forget how she almost destroyed our business.

  “I’m not talking about anything horrible. I was just thinking that a little yard forking could be in order.”

  “What the hell is yard forking?” Jack asked.

  “It’s when you stick a plastic fork in the ground and then break it off at the handle. It’s almost impossible to get out of the ground easily,” she laughed. “You could place a couple hundred in their yard.”

  “I don’t want to do anything that vindictive. I would hate it if someone did that to me.” Cassie sighed.

  “Yeah, well the ground is too hard anyway. You’d have to wait for springtime.”

  We continued to drink for a while. The girls excused themselves at some point to go play darts while Logan, Jack, and I hung out. I noticed that Cassandra had ordered two more Long Island Iced Teas throughout the night and that was going to be killer in the morning.

  “How’s the wedding planning going?” Logan asked.

  “I don’t know. I’m leaving it all to Cassie. Whatever she wants is fine with me. I don’t really care as long as she’s there to say ‘I do’.”

  “I wasn’t sure I’d ever see the day that you actually settled down. After Sarah, I thought for sure you were done with relationships,” Logan said.

  “Nah. I knew she wasn’t the one. It wouldn’t have worked out even if she hadn’t left me for what’s his name.”

  “No, I just meant that most guys go out looking for random hookups after a serious relationship. You just hung around Cassie.”

  “I had one or two, but I’m just not into that. When I saw Cassie, I knew I wanted her and the other women were just random fucks. They wouldn’t have ever given me what I wanted. I would have waited a hell of a lot longer to have her.”

  “Speaking of Cassie, where are the girls?” Jack asked as he looked around the bar. They weren’t by the dart board or at the bar.

  “Probably in the bathroom,” Logan replied.

  “No, look. Their coats aren’t hanging up.” I pointed to the door where we had hung our coats when we came in.

  “Shit. This isn’t good. Harper and Cece together means trouble,” Jack said shaking his head and standing.

  “Relax. Cassandra’s with them. How much trouble could they get into?” I asked.

  “Famous last words, brother. Cassie’s been drinking,” Logan stood also and threw some bills down on the table. I pulled out my phone and called Cassie.

  “Hello?” Cassie said in a sing song voice.

  “Cassie, where are you guys? You just left.”

  “We’re at a certain someone’s house exacting revenge.”

  “Cassie, don’t do anything you’re gonna regret.”

  There was no response. “Cassie. Cassie. Shit. She hung up on me. They’re over at Michael’s house.”

  “Should we call Sean now or wait until we’re sure the cops are going to show up?” Logan asked.

  “It’s Harper. When do the cops not show up?” Jack asked.

  “Still, let’s wait. Maybe it�
��s not as bad as we’re imagining.”

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  “Of fuck. I was wrong. We should have called Sean right away.” Logan said as he stared at the girls laughing like hyena’s on the front lawn of Michael’s house. Thankfully, they hadn’t woken anyone yet and the cops weren’t here.

  “We still have time. Let’s get them and get the fuck out of here before we all get thrown in jail.” I headed toward the girls, but Jack stopped me.

  “No way. I’m getting pictures of this. We need blackmail photos. Next time they try to pull something, we can pull these photos out and use them against them.”

  “Right. Like any of them would ever believe we’d turn them over to the cops.” Logan rolled his eyes, but waited until Jack was done taking pictures. The girls saw the flashes and started waving at us.

  “Enough. Let’s get them before they wake up all the neighbors.” I said as we walked forward into the massacre that had occurred on the front lawn.

  “How did they even do this? It looks so real,” Jack said.

  “Never underestimate Cece. She learned from the best.”

  He was referring to Vira, who thankfully was out of our lives. With her help, Cece had almost ruined her own life.

  “Jack, get a few close ups of this,” I pointed to the snowman the girls had built. Sticking out of the snowman’s mouth was the lower half of a boy’s body. There was blood coming out of the snowman’s mouth around the torso of the body and blood splatters all around the snowman. Scattered around the rest of the lawn were the lower halves of boy’s and girl’s bodies with large puddles of blood all around them.

  “Where the hell did they get all this in the middle of the night?” Logan asked. I shook my head and made my way over to where the girls were arranging the last body. I saw Cece squirting a large bottle of what I could only assume was food coloring.

  “Alright, Cassie girl. Let’s get you out of here before someone calls the cops on us.”

  We started walking, but she kept stumbling in the snow, so I hauled her up on my back and carried her.

  “You’re sure you didn’t leave anything behind?” Jack asked Harper.

  “Sure I’m sure. I’ve got it all right here with me!” Harper smiled brightly.

  “Harper, one of these days, you’re gonna end up in jail and I’m not going to be able to get you out of it.”

  “Jail shmail,” she waved her arm. “This is a harmless prank.”

  “A harmless prank?” Jack asked. “You massacred little boy’s and girl’s bodies all over someone’s front lawn.”

  “Fake bodies,” she clarified. “And it was only half of their bodies. We left the top half off. We figured bodies with decapitated heads would be too gruesome.”

  “Right, because bodies with their entrails hanging out isn’t gruesome at all,” I muttered under my breath.

  “Did you like that?” Cece asked excitedly. “I thought that was a pretty good touch.”

  “I think you’ve all had enough fun for one night. Harper, it’s been a pleasure as always,” Logan said as he stuffed his wife in the truck.

  Harper saluted Logan and then fell toward Jack’s truck. He had to hoist her up because she couldn’t climb in on her own. I set Cassandra in the truck and buckled her in quickly, then drove away before someone saw us. Luckily, the homes in this neighborhood weren’t close together, so the neighbors didn’t hear anything.

  When we got home, I carried a passed out Cassandra into the house and laid her on the bed. There was no point in trying to undress her. I was about to go check on James when I realized he wasn’t there. Shaking my head, I walked back to the bedroom and undressed before climbing into bed. I needed to help Cassandra find a different way to deal with her anger over what was going on. If she kept listening to Cece and Harper, we might lose custody of James.

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  “What happened last night?” Cassandra groaned as she rolled over in bed. I had been up for the past three hours waiting for her to wake up and feel the affects from her drunken rampage. I held out a glass of water and some ibuprofen in front of her.

  “Here. Drink this.” She fumbled and grabbed the glass, swallowing down the pills.

  “Did I drink the whole bar?”

  “No, but you did drink way too many Long Island Iced Teas. I know you had three when you were with me, but I have no idea how many you ordered when you girls went to play darts.”

  “We played darts? I don’t remember that.”

  “Yeah, well I’m sure there’s a lot you don’t remember.”

  “Oh God, did I embarrass myself?”

  I thought about that. I didn’t think she did in any way. She didn’t strip or sing badly to karaoke.

  “No, you just massacred little children in front of Michael’s house.”

  “What?” she screeched. “I did not. Don’t even joke about something like that.”

  I pulled out my phone and showed her the pictures Jack had sent me.

  “Oh my God!” She smacked me on the arm. “Why didn’t you stop me!”

  “You snuck out of the bar with Cece and Harper. This was all done by the time we showed up. You’re lucky nobody heard or saw you over there.”

  “Where did we get all this stuff?”

  “That’s still something we’re trying to figure out. I’m guessing Cece had something to do with it.”

  She groaned and hung her head in her hands. “I am such a bad person. Oh no! What if James sees this? What will he think of me?”

  “We aren’t going to tell him. The only people that know about this are Jack, Logan, Cece, and Harper, and it’s going to stay that way.”

  “I can’t believe I did that. It’s so childish and..kind of awesome. I’ve never done something like that in all my life!”

  “Okay, so we’ve moved on from embarrassed to giddily jumping for joy.”

  “No, it’s just..you know how you always want revenge on someone that’s just a horrible person? Well, I got it!”

  “Yes, well, you can’t ever let anyone know that it was you or you’d end up in jail.”

  She shrugged. “I’m good with that. I can pretend this wasn’t my work.”

  “Cassie, while I’m glad you got your revenge, you know that shit can’t happen anymore, right? If you were caught, imagine the leverage Michael would have over you.”

  She paled at that and took off for the bathroom. I was right behind her holding her hair back as she threw up multiple times in the toilet. When she had finally purged her stomach, she laid her head on the toilet and cried.

  “I can’t believe how stupid I was. If I had been caught, I’d be in jail and Michael could have used it against me in court.”

  “Yes, he could have, but that didn’t happen, so let’s just forget about this and move on.”

  “Easy for you to say. I’m supposed to be the responsible one that thinks only of her child.”

  “Everybody needs a break sometimes. When you feel like you’re losing it, just tell me and I’ll take over.”

  I climbed into bed and pulled her against me. Her head rested against my chest until she fell back asleep. I didn’t want to leave her. I knew she was hurting and I’d do anything to make it better for her. If this was all I could give her, I’d stay in bed with her all day and let her lie against me.

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  “Sean. What’s going on?” I asked as I answered the door later that day.

  “Can I talk to you and Cassandra for a minute?”

  “Sure. Come on in.”

  I opened the door wider for him and he walked in and headed for the living room where Cassie was lounging.

  “Hey, Cassie. How’s it going?”

  “I could be better. I have a bit of a hangover this morning.”

  “Yeah? I heard you were hanging out with Cece and Harper last night. That’s always asking for trouble.”

  “Tell me about it. There’s not much I remember other than going to the bar.”
/>   “Good. Then that means you won’t be able to lie to me.”

  Cassie looked at me nervously, but I just smiled and shook my head. Sean would never turn her in over something so stupid. Cassie didn’t know Sean that well and it was probably making her panic. I sat down next to her and rubbed her thigh to help calm her.

  “Lie to you about what?”

  “Your ex, Michael called in to report his property had been vandalized last night. There’s a bunch of massacred half bodies laying around his front yard. It’s pretty realistic looking.”

  He pulled out his phone and showed us the pictures that looked even worse in the daylight. Cassie covered her mouth.

  “That’s horrible. Who..who would do something like that?” She was trying to sound sincere, but it came off as rehearsed to me and apparently Sean thought the same thing, based on the look he gave me.

  “I especially like the picture of the snowman eating the body. That’s got to be the most terrifying image to have in my head in the middle of winter.”

  “How did James take it? Did he see any of this?”

  Sean shrugged and laughed. “Apparently, he thought it was pretty cool. He told Michael that they should leave it up and recreate it at Halloween.”

  “Well, I’m glad James took it okay.”

  “Yeah, something like that could be seen in a very bad light. Especially if Michael suspected that someone was trying to get back at him for him gaining partial custody of James.”

  She nodded and bit her lip. “Yes, I could see how he would think it was me.”

  “Well, I just thought it was something funny to show you.”

  “Did they, I mean, did anyone get any video of who did this?”

  “Nope. There were no cameras in the area, but Michael did tell me that he’d be installing cameras after this incident. He wanted to be sure he caught whoever did it, if they decided to try again.”

  Sean stood and headed for the door. “Well, sorry to run, but I’ve got some stuff to get done for Lillian. She made me promise to bring home Chinese food. Last week, she was all about Italian. Now it’s Chinese food. We’re going to go broke on all her cravings.”