Andy sat next to his dad on the couch and leaned against him, while Joey curled up on Vi’s lap. He was a big boy and a lapful, but she didn’t mind. They sat there for a while in comfortable silence. No one wanting to break the spell of what felt like family.
Vi hadn’t had a family in so long, she started to choke up. She ducked her head to hide the tears and wiped at her eyes.
Joey watched her with unblinking big brown eyes. “Why are you sad, Vi?”
“I’m not, honey. I’m happy.”
Joey squinted at her. “You cry when you’re happy?”
“It’s a woman thing,” Andy supplied with a superior tone.
Matt chuckled. “Yeah, it’s a woman thing.”
Vi gave him a playful punch in the arm. “Don’t teach them sexist ways.”
“Vi said sex!” Joey declared.
Andy giggled but sobered quickly. “Vi, we thought you were weird at first, but we kinda like you now. Are you going to stay, or leave us like Mom did?”
Vi swallowed, trying to get past the lump in her throat to speak. Three pairs of brown eyes watched her, waiting for her response. “I’m not going anywhere. You’ll have to try a lot harder to get rid of me.”
Both boys cheered and threw themselves into her arms. She hugged them close. Matt wrapped his arms around the entire bunch of them. Luther, from his perch on the back of the couch, joined the hug-fest by digging his claws into her shoulder.
“Can we get a dog now?” Joey asked.
“Yes,” Vi said, and the shouts from the boys drowned out whatever answer Matt might’ve had. She winked at him, and he smiled back.
Whatever life threw at them, Vi could handle with their support. She wasn’t on her own anymore. She had people who cared. She mattered to someone, and they mattered to her.
* * * *
Matt’s alarm buzzed incessantly. Bleary eyed, he squinted at the clock and fumbled for the Off button, but nothing happened.
Three AM?
Groaning, he realized it was a phone. Not his. But Vi’s.
Who would possibly be calling her this early? Probably a telemarketer.
Vi uttered a few colorful words and grabbed the phone on the nightstand. Matt rolled onto his side toward her. Luther’s yellow eyes glared back at him from the pillow where he was sleeping, Spitting out a mouthful of cat hair, he ignored the feline and propped his head on his hand, watching Vi through half-lidded eyes. She sat up on the side of the bed, and he admired the garden of roses and flowers on her back. Each time, he saw something new.
“Where are you now?” Vi asked the caller in a panicked voice. “Okay, don’t move. I’m coming for you. Just stay out of sight, and I’ll be there as soon as I can.” She tossed her cell on the nightstand and jumped to her feet, pulling on clothes as she did so. Matt took a moment to salivate over her fine ass before he prodded himself into action.
“What’s going on?” He stood and walked to the other side of the bed where Vi frantically pulled on her ripped, skinny jeans.
She glanced at him, and he saw the fear in her eyes. “It’s my friend. She’s in trouble and needs me to pick her up before he finds her.”
“Slow down.” Matt put a calming hand on her shoulder. “He? Who’s he?”
“Her boyfriend, husband, whatever the asshole is.”
“And this friend?”
“Steph from the club.”
“You’re not going out by yourself in the middle of the night.”
“Oh, yes, I am.”
“Is the guy dangerous?”
“He could be. He’s abusive to her.”
“Then, no, you aren’t.” Matt put his hands on his hips and stared her down. She glared right back. She obviously didn’t like him taking control, but he wasn’t bending on this. Domestic situations were nothing to take lightly.
“You’re not telling me what to do. She’s a friend in need. I don’t have any choice.”
“Fine, then I’m going with you.”
She shook her head. “The boys.”
Oh, yeah, the boys. Duh. He couldn’t leave them alone, and he couldn’t let her go by herself. Well, shit. Now what?
“Let me call Rod. He lives a few minutes away. He can stay here while we both go.”
“Matt, you don’t need to get involved in this mess.”
“Of course, I do. Any mess of yours is a mess of mine.” He leaned down and kissed her cheek.
Fifteen minutes later, they were in his SUV heading for a seedier part of Seattle.
“Fill me in on your friend,” Matt said, keeping his eyes on the road.
“Her name is Steph. She’s young, a real sweetheart. Somehow, she got messed up with this guy, and he’s a real douchebag. Like the definition of a douchebag. She hates stripping, but he makes her do it because he’s too lazy to work. She’s come to the club with bruises. Just before I left, he coerced her into working another club with a questionable reputation, as in the dancers were expected to do more than dance. I told her to call me if she ever needed anything. And now she does.”
“It’s hard to break that cycle of abuse. My cousin was in an abusive relationship. It took her several trips to the ER before she finally made a clean break,” Matt said.
Vi nodded. “Abusers are so manipulative, claiming to be sorry for what they’ve done. It broke my heart to leave her behind, but what can you do? You can’t force her to get help.”
“Yeah, I know.” Matt reached over and squeezed her hand. “She’ll be okay, Vi.”
“I hope so.”
He glanced at her and caught a lone tear falling down her face. “Maybe she’d like to do some childcare?”
“You’re asking for trouble, Matt. Two ex-strippers around your boys?”
“Two good women around my boys.”
“How do you know she’s a good woman?”
“Because I trust you and your judgment. Besides, I’ll have Al run a background check.”
“I thought you had a nanny?”
“She’s hedging. Her daughter isn’t recovering from the car accident as quickly as expected. I might be in need of some help for a month or so.”
“You have me.”
“Sure, but you’re starting your business.”
Vi beamed at him, her concern for Steph momentarily dimmed. “I am. So she can stay with us for now?”
“Yeah, sure.” He wondered if he was being a fool. He had no clue if this guy was the psycho, abusive boyfriend type who’d stalk his ex to the ends of the earth. Or if he was a bully who’d run at the first sign of someone his own size.
Matt pushed those thoughts away for now as he turned into the parking lot of the all-night Denny’s where Steph was supposed to be waiting. He drove slowly past the windows to let Vi get a good look inside. “Do you see her?”
Vi shook her head. “Drive to the back. She might be outside. I’ll call her.”
“Steph, we’re here,” Vi said into her phone. “Okay, be right there.” She turned to Matt. “She’s behind the building by the dumpsters.”
Rain pelted the windshield, making it hard to see in the darkness of the back lot as Matt drove slowly toward the fence surrounding the dumpsters. A small figure, huddled between a car and the fence, stood and stared at them. Like a deer in the headlights, she froze, poised to run at a moment’s notice.
“Stop. Wait here. She’ll bolt if she sees a man,”
Matt stopped several feet from the shaking girl while Vi jumped out of the SUV and ran to the bedraggled figure. She engulfed her in a hug and hurried her to the car, opening the back door for her. Steph scrambled inside, and Vi got in next to her.
“Hey, I’m Matt,” Matt said turning in the front seat and holding out a hand. He gave her his kindest smile. She flinched at his outstretched hand but recovered and took it limply in her small, cold one, then released it just as quickly.
“Hi,” Steph said in a small voice he could barely hear over the purring of his engine. “I’m so sorry to have ca
used you any trouble.”
“No trouble at all. Glad to do a favor for a friend of Vi’s.” Matt started to put the car in drive when an old, dented pickup pulled diagonally in front of him, partially blocking his exit.
Judging by the terror in Steph’s eyes, he didn’t have to guess whose truck it was.
Chapter 20—Illegal Stick
“Shit,” Vi muttered under her breath as the truck blocked their escape. The bastard had come for Steph. A few minutes later, and they wouldn’t have been there to rescue her, but they were here now, and he’d touch Steph over her dead body. Judging by the cold anger in Matt’s eyes, over both their dead bodies.
Steph grabbed Vi’s hand and clutched it so tightly, Vi knew she’d have bruising, not that she cared. God, she hoped the psycho didn’t have a gun.
“Matt, be careful.” Vi watched as Gino stepped out of his truck and swaggered to the SUV. His evil smirk made Vi’s blood run cold.
“I will.” Matt’s eyes were hard and uncompromising, the same look she’d seen on the ice when he was facing a particularly formidable opponent.
She heard the click of the door locks. Steph cowered down in the seat, shrinking into herself.
Matt lowered the window a few inches. “What do you want?”
His menacing tone gave Gino pause. His eyes narrowed as he sized up the man in the driver’s seat.
“Is that traitorous bitch in there?” Gino spat out in a voice dripping with disgust.
“Shhh.” Vi shot Steph a look. Steph swallowed and nodded. She slid off the seat and onto the floorboard, making herself even smaller than she already was.
Matt’s razor-sharp gaze cut through the man in the truck, the same way he intimidated the rookie wingers. Vi almost smiled as she imagined Gino the coward peeing his pants in fear. He thought he was so tough to beat up on someone weaker than him. How did it feel to be confronted by a guy who could take him out with one punch?
“You’re in my way.” Matt’s voice was steely and coldly unemotional. “Move that piece of shit before I call the police, or better yet, take care of you myself.”
“I want my woman.” Gino’s voice wavered for a fraction of a second before his bluster came back full force. “Hand her over.”
“She’s not your woman anymore. Now get the fuck out of my way.”
Gino’s hard eyes flicked to the backseat and briefly met Vi’s then went back to Matt. “You tell that bitch I’ll be looking for her. She’ll be sorry she disrespected me. As if she can do better. She’s nothing but a two-bit whore.”
“Move. The. Fucking. Truck. Now.”
Gino’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down and he turned pale underneath his scruffy beard. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, as if torn between arguing and getting the hell out of there. A second later, he sauntered to his truck and moved out of their way. Matt put the SUV in drive and exited at a leisurely pace.
They were on I-5 before Steph poked her head up and climbed back on the seat. She was sniffling but in decent shape. “Is he following us?”
Matt glanced at the rearview mirror. “Nah. He’s not that stupid.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Vi said sarcastically. Gino was that stupid and arrogant, but a glance over her shoulder didn’t reveal his piece-of-shit truck as they took the off-ramp to Matt’s house.
“Where are we going?” Steph asked in a small voice.
“We’re going to my house. I have plenty of room. You’ll be safe there.” He wasn’t going to be swayed, and within minutes they’d arrived home. Vi took Steph upstairs to show her the spare bedroom with its adjoining bathroom, while Matt went in search of Rod.
As Vi swept open the door to the large, cheery room, Steph stood in the doorway and stared in shock. Matt’s mother had decorated this room in yellows and greens; even the walls were painted a cheerful pale yellow. The window seat had a flowered cushion that matched the bedspread on the queen bed.
“This is—too much. It’s beautiful. I can’t—”
“Of course you can. We’ll talk in the morning about where you go from here.”
“I can’t afford to pay for this.”
Steph patted her friend on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about that right now. Let’s get you taken care of.”
“Do you cook?” Matt asked from the doorway, startling both, which drew a hearty chuckle from him.
“Yes, I’m a good cook.” Steph frowned at him in confusion.
“What kind of stuff? Not that health food crap Vi tries to foist on us, I hope.”
“No, I’m a meat-and-potatoes girl.”
“Merci Dieu.” Matt clasped his hands together and looked to the sky. “You can cook for us to earn your keep if you’d like.”
“Oh, I’d love to.” Steph smiled the first genuine smile Vi had seen on her, possibly ever.
“Good, then, I’ll let Vi get you settled in.” He turned to Vi. His eyes darkening. “I’ll be waiting for you. Don’t be long.”
“I won’t.” She winked at him, and he grinned and walked from the room.
Vi showed Steph where stuff was and pointed out the boys’ rooms down the hall. Luther, not to be ignored, slipped into the room and settled on the bed, his black head on a pillow.
“I hope you’re not allergic to cats.”
“No, not at all.”
“Good night, Steph.”
“Good night, Vi. Thank you. I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to repay you.”
“Stay away from him and get your life back.”
“I will. I promise.”
“I’m going to hold you to that.”
Vi left the room and shut the door. Setting herself free wouldn’t be that simple. Abusive men were like an addiction that was tough to break. Even though it was bad for Steph, when it was good, it felt so good. Abusers were like that.
* * * *
“How’s she doing?” Matt asked after Vi came to bed. He pulled her naked body to his and kissed her shoulder.
“She’s still shell-shocked, but she’ll make it because she’s a survivor.”
“And you know this how?”
“I don’t, but if I can will her to be one, I’ll do just that.”
“Ah, yes, my Violet, rescuer of whales and wayward girls.”
“And one stubborn man.”
“What stubborn man?”
She cocked a brow and tilted her head.
He pointed at his chest in mock innocence and feigned shock. “Who did you rescue me from?”
“From yourself.”
“You have a point.” She’d saved him from a life of routine and boredom by injecting a little spice and spontaneity into everything. The same thing with the boys. They laughed a lot more now and bared their emotions. He had Vi to thank for their improved lives, even if Andy kept asking him to get a tattoo. Not yet, bud, you gotta be eighteen.
“I really do want you to move in, Vi. I want a life with you.”
“What about my baggage?”
“We’ll deal with stuff as it comes up.”
“What? No plan? Just wait until it happens. That sounds like something I’d say.”
“It is.” He laughed heartily, and she joined in.
Vi rolled on top of him and stared down at him. He tried to focus on her face instead of those incredible breasts with their equally incredible flower petal tattoos. He inhaled the heavenly scent of wildflowers.
She was his wildflower, and he never wanted to tame her.
Chapter 21—Hat Trick
Vi sat with Matt at the kitchen nook going over the lease on her soon-to-be dance studio when Mrs. Pratt, the new nanny, arrived with the boys from their hockey practice. Matt stood, and Vi followed to greet the boys on the front porch.
Andy stared at his feet with his Sockeyes baseball cap pulled down over his eyes. Instead of running to them and hugging them both, he hung back and kicked at a rock on the sidewalk.
“Andy, what’s wrong?” his father said, immediately
sensing something was off. Not that it took the Dad of the Year to figure than one out.
“Nothin’.” Andy tried to slip past them, but Matt reached out and grabbed his arm, pulling him around. He knelt and swept his son’s hat off his head.
“What happened?” Matt asked, while Vi fretted behind him.
Merdi. The poor kid had a shiner the size of a grapefruit.
“I got in a fight.”
“I can see that.”
“Fighting is never good, Andy,” Vi said, then wondered if she hadn’t overstepped her bounds. She was Matt’s girlfriend, not their mother or even stepmother.
Andy didn’t seem to notice or care.
“Why were you fighting?” Matt carefully touched around Andy’s eye, checking the damage.
Andy glanced at Vi. “Because some guys said some mean things about Vi.”
Vi’s heart sank. And so it started. She’d been in la-la land thinking her past wouldn’t eventually surface in some manner when it came to the boys. “Wha—what did they say?” Vi croaked, hating the shaky tone of her voice.
“They said you’ve been in jail. That you were a bad person and had to be locked up. They said you danced naked for men.”
Wow, those little pricks didn’t miss anything.
“Who said that?” Anger reverberated through Matt’s body as he held his son by the shoulders and held his gaze.
“Dezi Clark. He told all the guys on my team.”
“Luke’s son?”
Andy nodded.
Vi looked to Matt for clarification. “Luke?”
“New guy on the team. Veteran brought on for our playoff run. I’m not a fan. Obviously, his kid has his attitude.” Matt turned to Andy and Joey. “Get in the house and wash up for dinner. We’ll talk more later. Put some ice on that shiner.” He smacked his boys affectionately on the butts and scooted them in the door.
“Matt, they’re talking about me and taking it out on your sons. I knew this would happen.”
“Yeah, me too.” He raised his troubled gaze to hers. “I don’t want to make a big deal out of this. I’d like to downplay it.”
How did one downplay the fact that one’s girlfriend was a former stripper and ex-con? Vi wasn’t exactly sure. She’d been a fool to think this would all work out. Her protective bubble had just burst, and the outside world rushed in, flooding her with all those old feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt.
Penalty Play (Seattle Sockeyes Hockey) Page 20