Mister Monster: A Hero Club Novel

by Desiree Lafawn

  Shit. Ruby didn’t know about Bev. No one did, really. She always came straight up to the top floor, didn’t pass go or talk to anyone. She had the hall pass–the magic badge she busted out whenever she needed to. Which, to be honest, was a lot fewer and further between than it used to be.

  What kind of person did it make me that I hadn’t thought of her in months? And I hadn’t seen her in months before that? Nothing about this visit was going to be good, but I had to hold it together for Devin, and I hoped like hell Church would be able to as well. I could explain everything, but it was going to look bad before I did. So bad.

  “Daddy!” The little ball of boy in my lap squealed and pulled on my tie. I couldn’t help but smile. His joy was infectious. All little kids were adorable, but Devin was special. He could only hear out of one ear, but it never slowed him down. He was constantly on the go, touching things, asking questions, laughing. There was no stopping him.

  His hair was clean, and so were his clothes. They weren’t new, but they were in good condition, and his little tennis shoes were in good shape too, just scuffed across the toes like every little kid who used their shoes as brakes on the playground swings. He was happy and in good health. That was a good sign. What wasn’t a good sign was his mother, wearing a red top so low her breasts billowed out the front like two kissing melons. A quiver in the wrong direction and they’d be toppling out the front. Denim pants so tight I could tell she definitely wasn’t wearing anything underneath, and a pair of matte black shit kickers completed her ensemble. Her flame red hair was pulled back tight on top of her head and the scarlet tail hung all the way down her back and tickled the waistband of her pants as she walked. She wanted something, and by the look in her eyes, that something was me.

  Well, shit. “Hello, Beverly. It’s been a while.” I tried to smile for the sake of the little boy in my lap, but could only manage a grimace. This was going to hurt no matter what I did. Might as well just rip off the band-aid. I’m sure I didn’t need to use the intercom to get her attention, I’m certain she had her ear trained toward the doors, just straining to hear what was going on inside. I could just picture Church and Ruby huddled in the hallway after my office doors closed, hunched over and shushing each other, trying to get an earful. Well, Ruby would be trying to get an earful. Caroline might come busting through the doors like a Valkyrie, and honestly, I wouldn’t blame her.

  Ugh, I wasn’t in the mood for this.

  I pushed the button on the intercom connecting my phone to Caroline’s. “Caroline, do you have a moment?”

  “Yes, Mr. Sugarbaker?” Oh, she was mad all right. That super rigid professionalism did not come out when she was happy. Band-Aid, Ash. Band-Aid.

  “Can you come in here, please? And tell Ruby to mind her business. I’m sure you’ll have lots to talk about later.”

  “I don’t know what you mean, Mr. Sugarbaker. But I’ll be in right away. Should I bring some coffee for your guests? A sippy cup of juice for the boy?” Shit shit shit. She was already wound up. This was going to be more painful than I thought.

  “Just get in here, Church,” I growled into the comm and hit the disconnect button.

  “Beverly, what are you doing here? You haven’t called in months and to be honest, I thought you were going to stay gone.”

  “Devin missed you, didn’t you, baby?” That might be so, but I was willing to bet Devin didn’t miss me as much as Beverly missed my money. She must have run through the last stack of bills I gave her and was looking for a refill.

  I looked down at the boy in question. His perfectly round nose, his small gray eyes, and blond hair. He looked like my twin, there was no denying that.

  “I missed you, Daddy. Let’s play.”

  It was at that moment that Caroline walked into the office and shut the door quietly behind her.

  Well, fuck me.

  18

  Caroline

  “I missed you, Daddy, let’s play.” I was not prepared for that. When I saw them come out of the elevator, I wondered just who would be coming up here without me knowing. After all, I was the gateway to Ash’s office, and no one said anything to me about anyone coming in. And even then, they wouldn’t come up here, Ash would meet any visitors on the second floor. This was not a public office, and that was known. But there were a lot of employees at Anderson Investments. It was impossible for me to know them all, and she had a badge. I saw it swinging from the lanyard hanging around her neck. It jiggled around her neck because the straps of the lanyard were caught in her cleavage and the badge jutted out provocatively in the front. But that wasn’t the most shocking thing.

  The little blond bullet that came streaking out of the elevator and down the hall took my breath away. There was no denying the similarity in genetics between the two. The face shape, the hair, the pale coloring. All of it. They were twinkies. My chest tightened. But it was the look on Ash’s face that did me in. That split second when his doors opened and he locked eyes on the woman standing in the doorway. That oh shit look. I saw it before the redhead closed the door behind her. He knew he had some explaining to do.

  That’s why I wasn’t surprised to hear the comm go off. Something was going to go down, and it was up to me how I’d handle it. My heart had just started healing. No way in hell was I letting it crumble in front of an audience again.

  But still, no matter how much I steeled myself before I walked in, there’s something about a little kid calling for their daddy that can totally undo a woman. Especially when that man is yours, and the child is someone you never knew existed. But if anything, I was Caroline Gower, and I would not be laid low by a man again, and I would see how this played out without losing my mind.

  But after that was a whole different story.

  “Caroline, this is Beverly and Devin. Bev, this is Caroline. Caroline, can you come sit over here, please?” Well, that was a hell of an introduction. Two could play this game.

  “Yes, Mr. Sugarbaker.” I took a seat at the only available chair to the left of his desk. From what I heard from Gabe, this office actually used to be a receptionist area where Gabe’s assistant worked, and his office was another office off to the side, but after Gabe left and Ash took over, he moved the office into the smaller area and used the larger room for something else. I didn’t know for what, I’d never been in there.

  I’d just taken the only available seat, and since Ash hadn’t offered for her to sit, the woman named Bev had to content herself with leaning against the counter that used to house the receptionist’s desk. Now there was nothing behind the counter. Just an empty space for a trashy woman to lean against. Well, she was trashy to me, anyway. I guess I should have refrained from judgement until I learned her connection to Ash, but honestly, with the way she was looking at me, I thought the feelings might be mutual.

  “I’m going to ask you again, Bev. What are you doing here?” The question made her uncomfortable, I could tell. She wasn’t prepared for his hostile greeting and didn’t know how to respond. The strap of her purse was so skinny I didn’t even know she was carrying one, and the bag part was so small it couldn’t have held more than a cell phone. She ran one hand nervously over her ponytail, flicking it back over her shoulder while the other hand fiddled with the tiny chain that doubled as the strap of her handbag.

  “I told you, Dev missed you. He wanted to see you.”

  Ash looked down at the boy named Devin, who’d lost interest in Ash completely and was playing with things on Ash’s desk. “Uh, huh. I just bet.” Ash let Devin swoosh things around on his desk a bit, only stopping the boy when he tried to grab a letter opener on a stand. Then he grabbed the kid up, tickled him until he squealed with laughter, then put him on the ground and turned him toward his mom, swatting his little butt to get him moving. Devin laughed and went right to his mother, grabbing on her skin-tight pants leg and plopping his butt on her booted foot, leaning backwards like he was hanging on a jungle gym.

  It wasn’t too difficult to f
igure out what was going on, but I’d let them play for a minute.

  Beverly, on the other hand, didn’t like what was happening. I could tell from the way she narrowed her eyes and the way her gaze flicked from me to Ash and back to me again. “Did you get a new secretary, Ash?” she asked with a sneer in my direction.

  Nothing she said ruffled Ash’s feathers. Although I knew for a fact, he never allowed disrespect from anyone he knew. “Amongst other things,” was his only reply. I tried to smother my laugh, but it came out as a snort which earned me a searing look from Beverly and a sigh of long suffering from Ash.

  “And did Devin say anything else? Like that he needed or wanted anything?” He was leading her, and she knew it. But Beverly wasn’t leaving without getting what she came for, even if her whole plan was going askew.

  “Well, now that you say something it’s almost his birthday, and there are a lot of things he needs. Plus, he’s growing out of clothes faster than I can buy them. And my rent is going to be late this month as it is…”

  Ash wasn’t smiling, but he wore an expression of satisfaction. Was it because Bev was finally getting to the meat of her visit? Or because I was witness to the whole situation and had not yet lost my shit? We were about to find out.

  “Well I’m actually glad you came here today, Bev. Because honestly, I’ve been so busy I’d forgotten about you. I know that makes me seem like a terrible person, but at least I talk openly about this to Caroline and don’t have any secrets.”

  “What do you mean, I’m a secret?” Bev screeched. She must have made those loud annoying sounds often because the boy at her feet wasn’t even phased. He just sat on his butt and picked at the buckles on her shoes. She didn’t even notice.

  “What do you think, Caroline?” Ash asked from the desk next to me. “Want to weigh in on what’s going on here and what we should do?” I liked the way he said we. Like we were a team and my opinion mattered. This could have easily gone another way, but he was including me, not shutting me out or making excuses. It looked bad, and he let it look bad. He wanted me to come to my own conclusions.

  “I’m sure I don’t know, Mr. Sugarbaker.” I only said it to see the look on his face, and I was not disappointed.

  “I swear to God, Church, you are going to drive me to drink. Do you want to take a guess or not? Just be nice.” Ash didn’t need to give me that warning. There was a baby present, plus I was always nice. During our whole conversation Bev just stood there looking confused, Devin playing with the buckles on her shoes, oblivious to everyone else. Especially for someone who “missed Daddy” so much.

  Okay. He wanted me involved? I’d give it my best shot.

  “I’m just going off our five-minute interaction here, but I’ll give it a go. Beverly, you are a lovely young woman, but your approach is all for shock value. You walk in here like an ex-wife, or an angry girlfriend, but in reality, you have no romantic ties to Ash whatsoever. What you do have is a pitiful backstory, and the cutest little boy I’ve ever seen up close. I think you’re used to getting handouts from him whenever you need, because deep inside he’s a bleeding heart and can’t say no to a woman in trouble—don’t give me that look, I remember how we met—and you don’t know how to move on from that.” Bev just stared at me with her mouth open, then I looked over at Ash who sat with his arms crossed over his chest and a smug look on his face. “How did I do, Boss?”

  “Now wait a minute—”

  “That’s enough, Bev.” Ash cut her off with a wave of his hand. “Cut the shit. Er stuff. Shoot. Kids make it hard.” I bit my lip to keep from laughing. After several months of just working with Ash, and then another several months of dating him, I knew enough about his personality to know I’d hit the nail pretty close to on the head. “You did good, Church, except for the part about the bleeding heart. It’s not a damsel in distress thing. Not still, anyway.” He muttered the last part and I barked out a laugh. Bev just stood there looking guilty and Devin moved from playing with her shoe buckles to pulling on a loose thread of her jeans.

  “Bev, you look good, and Devin looks great, so it’s obvious you’re taking good care of him. I’m proud of you. But you don’t need money for rent, know how I know?” He didn’t wait for her to respond. “I know because I paid your rent for two years. I paid it directly to the landlord. So unless they are shaking you down and telling stories, I suggest you tell me the truth. Are you using again? Come here. Let me see your arms.”

  That part was a surprise to me. I half expected her to balk and drag her feet, but she didn’t. She just disentangled Devin from her leg and walked to the desk and, pushing her sleeves up as high as they would go, she stuck her arms over the desk and right in Ash’s face. There was no mistaking the smile on her face. She had nothing to hide. There were lots of old scar marks running up and down her arms, but nothing new. Ash looked in between her fingers and on her neck, as well. Satisfied, he let her go with a smile.

  “Good, Bev. But why are you here trying to get more money? And acting like an ex-lover? Can you just not? I said I would never let anything happen to Devin, not that I would be his father, so please stop telling him to call me Daddy. It’s not just weird for me, but it’s got to be confusing as hell for him.”

  Bev threw her hands up with a sigh now that the jig was up. “I don’t tell him to do that, he calls every guy I know Daddy. Trust me, if I could get him to stop doing it I would. He calls the cashier at the grocery store Daddy and he’s like sixteen years old. It’s awkward when I’m picking up diapers, swear to God.”

  “Okay, so what happened? Oh, I’m Caroline, by the way. Ash’s actual girlfriend.” I grinned to soften the blow, but the damage was already done. The carefully constructed facade crumbled right before my eyes, and as she let her guard down, I could see she was much younger than I had originally thought. Barely mid-twenties, maybe.

  “This could not be more embarrassing.” Beverly turned to her son and scooped him up to his feet, his hand clutched tightly in hers.

  “Trust me, it totally could be. As soon as you walked down the hallway and through the doors, I was ready to rip them off the hinges. I could have made it way more embarrassing for both of us, so don’t worry. But seriously, what were you doing?”

  “Um. I was trying to be appealing?”

  Ash coughed into his hand, but that wasn’t cutting it, and it took him a full thirty seconds of coughing before he gained control of himself again.

  “What? Were the boobs too much?” Bev looked down at her cleavage, which sat approximately two inches under her nose.

  “It’s a lot, Bev.”

  “He’s an ass man,” I whispered conspiratorially, keeping my voice low so Devin wouldn’t hear me.

  “God, Church, are you having fun right now?”

  “Kind of, I mean, you were sweating bullets when you saw my face when she walked in here. I know it. What did you think I was going to do?”

  Ash turned to me and smiled weakly. “I thought you were going to lose your ever-loving mind and I was going to have to beg you to stay again.”

  “Again? That sounds interesting.” Beverly was definitely interested in that turn of the conversation.

  “Nope, you’re not off the hook, Bev. What happened with school? And your housekeeping job at the hospital? I thought things were going really well there and they had on-site daycare. It was a perfect gig. You shouldn’t need to come here pretending to be anything asking me for money. So, what’s going on?”

  “I got fired for punching an ER orderly in the dick.” Ash’s eyebrows raised, but he didn’t say anything. We both waited for more of the story before asking any more questions.

  “In my defense, he’d just tried to feel me up in the supply closet. And when I said no and tried to stop him, he called me a frigid bitch.”

  Ash’s jaw ticked, the only outward sign that he was angry. But I’d seen that look before. He wasn’t just angry. He was livid. “And why were you fired and not the orderly?” I was
proud of him for not yelling, but if he gripped the edge of his desk any harder, he was going to leave fingermarks in the wood.

  “Oh, he got fired too. Mostly, I was fired because after I punched him in the dick, I drop kicked him out of the supply closet, then spilled Quat Stat cleaning solution all over him as he lay on the ground. Told him if it could kill a live virus on equipment it could definitely clean his filthy ass since he couldn’t seem to keep his hands off people. Then, I was so mad, the first doctor that came to figure out what was going on tried to grab my arm, and I punched him too.” Beverly shook her head sadly and her ponytail swung behind her. “In hindsight, it was a little rash.”

  If she hadn’t come into the office trying to shake down my boyfriend, I probably would have liked this girl.

  “I’m still trying with school, but it’s super overwhelming, and I feel like I’m away from Devin all the time. It’s almost impossible to find a job with a record and a history of drug abuse. I don’t want to quit school, but not knowing when I’ll get a new job is tough. I’m sorry, Ash, I swear I’m not using, but it’s really hard right now. I don’t know what to do.”

  The little boy at her feet tugged on her pant leg to get attention and without pausing she scooped him up and set him on her hip. He was a little big to be carried around like that, in my opinion, but I also saw the way he snuggled his head into her neck, and the perfect way he fit into her arms. They were all each other had, and honestly, I could almost admire her for doing what needed to be done to protect her family.

  If only it wasn’t my man she was trying to shake down.

  “You know, Ash…”

  “No, Church.” He didn’t even let me finish, but he knew where my thoughts were going. “This isn’t something just money can fix. What we have is an issue of Bev being impulsive and not thinking ahead. Now the right thing to do would have been to go right to HR about that orderly’s behavior and let the chain of command take care of it. Then you would have had a job and he would have been out. Now you’re both out of a job and your last resort was to come to me, shaking your…rear end, looking for a handout.”