Always Us (The Jade Series #8)

by Everhart, Allie

  “What? No!” I yank my hand back. “Harper’s my best friend! I’m not letting them take Harper like they tried to take you.” I’m crying again and Garret forces me into his arms.

  “I’m sorry, Jade. But this is how it has to be. Deep down, I know you realize that. You’re just not ready to accept it.”

  “I hate these people! Why do they have to be this way? Why do they have to destroy lives and hurt people? I don’t understand how they can be so evil.”

  “Money and power can do that to people. It takes away their humanity, their compassion. And the members who aren’t like that, like my dad, have to pretend it’s someone else doing this stuff. My dad has two sides, but we only see one of them. You wouldn’t want to see his other side. I think William’s the same way. And as for the other members, I think they just get numb to it. They stop feeling and caring and just go along with whatever they’re told to do.”

  My phone rings and I stare at it, not sure if I should answer it. I don’t want to talk to anyone right now, especially Harper. How can I just pretend nothing’s wrong when I know she’s in danger? When I know that she’ll soon be forced to marry a man who has a history of abusing women?

  I let the phone go to voicemail, but a few minutes later it rings again. I go over and pick it up. It’s not Harper. It’s Sara.

  “Hey, Sara, can I call you back later?”

  “Oh. Are you busy?”

  “Kind of. Why?”

  “I know it’s finals week so I hate to ask you this, but I wondered if you could watch Caleb for an hour, maybe not even that long. I just got a call for a job interview at a law firm and the guy asked if I could meet right now. He’s going out of town tomorrow and wants to do a quick interview before he leaves. His office is really short-staffed and they need to hire someone to answer the phone and file paperwork. The job would just be two days a week for now, but he said it might become full-time in a few months.”

  I don’t feel like babysitting right now, but I have to help her out. Sara really needs a better job.

  “Um, sure, I’ll come over. I need your address.” I’ve never been to Sara’s apartment before. I think she’s avoided having me over there because it’s really small and run-down and she’s embarrassed by it. I wish she wouldn’t worry about stuff like that. I’d never judge her for living in a crappy place. It can’t be any worse than the house I grew up in.

  “Thanks, Jade. I really appreciate this.” She gives me her address and I jot it down.

  “I’ll be there soon.” I hang up and grab my keys. “I have to go watch Caleb for an hour.”

  Garret gets up. “I’ll go with you.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  “I want to.” He opens the door for me. “I miss the little guy. I haven’t seen him for a while. And like you said, if I’m there, he won’t cry.”

  I’m glad Garret offered to come with me. I’ve never babysat before. I keep offering to, but then it never happens. I’ve spent a lot of time with Sara when she has Caleb with her, but I’ve never been alone with him for more than a few minutes.

  We drive to the address she gave me. It’s in an area of town I’ve never been to before. It’s full of abandoned buildings with the windows broken out. There are some guys hanging out on the street and they eye Garret’s black BMW and watch as he parks it along the curb. It’ll probably be gone when we come back out.

  The entrance to Sara’s apartment building is locked. I look up her apartment number so she can buzz us in. But then someone walks past us and holds the door open, making the locked door basically useless for security purposes.

  There’s no elevator and Sara’s on the third floor. So she has to carry Caleb and all her stuff up three flights of stairs? If she had groceries, she’d have to make three or four trips.

  The staircase up to her apartment is dark and narrow and the paint’s peeling off the walls. It also smells really bad, like a musty, moldy smell.

  When Sara answers the door, she doesn’t act surprised that we didn’t buzz first. I guess the people in her building just let everyone in. Again, not safe.

  She hugs me. “I can’t thank you enough. And Garret came, too.” She smiles at him. “Thank you. Both of you. Come inside.” We walk in and I see Caleb in his crib. “I just put Caleb down for his nap. He might sleep the whole time you’re here, unless my neighbors come home. They can get kind of loud and it always wakes Caleb up.”

  She grabs her purse and her keys. “I’m sorry I asked you guys to do this on such short notice. It’s just that this could be a really good job and Alex is out of town at a conference. I didn’t have anyone else to watch Caleb.”

  “Sara, don’t worry about it.” Garret walks her to the door. “We got this. Go meet your new boss.”

  She laughs. “You’re way more confident in me than I am. I’m sure he won’t hire me.”

  “You can’t think that way. You have to go in there thinking you’ll get the job.”

  “Okay. I’ll try. Bye!” She closes the door and Garret locks it behind her. Then he turns around and inspects her apartment.

  I can tell he’s thinking the same thing I am. It’s bad. Really bad. I see why she didn’t want me coming over here. It’s not like it’s messy or dirty. She tries to keep it clean. But the walls are cracked and the paint is peeling. The electrical outlets are exposed, meaning they don’t even have those covers that get screwed into the wall. There’s some kind of wire hanging from the ceiling. And the ceiling has water spots all over it and black mold growing on it.

  This place is not safe, for Caleb or for Sara. It’s even worse than where I grew up.

  It’s a studio apartment so it’s just one room with a twin mattress on the floor and Caleb’s crib next to it. There isn’t room for any other furniture. There’s a tiny TV in the corner sitting on a yellow milk crate and a few boxes of clothes lined up against the wall.

  I go over and look in the bathroom. There’s a toilet, a tiny sink, and a shower. It’s such a small space you can barely close the door.

  “Jade, check this out.”

  I walk out of the bathroom and see Garret in the kitchen. He’s at the sink and has the water turned on. Instead of being clear, the water is a yellowish-brown color. “I hope she doesn’t drink this shit or give it to Caleb.”

  I meet him over there. “I don’t think she does.” I hold up a gallon jug of bottled water that was sitting on the floor. “But she has to shower in that water.”

  There’s a rusty stove next to the sink but I doubt it works. An old microwave sits next to it on the counter.

  “She can’t live here.” Garret shuts the water off.

  “I know. It’s horrible, but where is she supposed to go?”

  “We’ll get her a place. It doesn’t have to be fancy. It just needs to be safe.”

  “She won’t take our money.”

  “Then we’ll give it to her anonymously.” He takes a few steps, which puts him in the living room. Yeah, it’s that small of a place.

  “She’ll use the money for food and bottled water and diapers. She won’t use it for an apartment.”

  “We’ll give her enough money so she can get that stuff and a new apartment.” He scans the walls and the wire hanging down from the ceiling. “This is fucked up. Nobody should live like this. Guys in prison live better than this. I’m going to find out who owns this building and report him. He’s gotta be breaking some kind of laws. You can’t even drink the water. And I’m sure there’s a law saying he has to fix shit like that.” He points to the hanging wire.

  “How are we going to give her money without her knowing it’s from us?”

  “I don’t know. I’ll figure it out.” He shakes his head. “Why the hell isn’t Alex letting her stay at his place?”

  “Alex has tried to convince her to stay at his place but she won’t do it. She said she doesn’t want Alex thinking she’s trying to move in, or that she’s using him for a free place to stay.”

 
; “No wonder you two are friends. She’s just as stubborn as you.” Garret goes to the window and tries to close it but it won’t shut. It’s broken. “Jade, you can’t even close this thing. Some guy could climb the fire escape and come right in through the window.”

  “She doesn’t have anything to steal.”

  “She’s got a baby. People want babies, Jade.”

  A chill runs through me. “Don’t say stuff like that. Nobody’s taking Caleb.”

  “It’s a shitty world. And bad guys have no problem stealing a baby and selling it to couples who desperately want one. And even if they leave Caleb alone, a guy could sneak in here at night and attack Sara. Rape her. Beat her up. Whatever.”

  “What are we going to do?”

  He rubs his jaw as he looks around the room. “They can stay at our place tonight.”

  “We can’t get Caleb’s crib in our car.”

  “We’ll go buy one of those portable ones.”

  “Sara won’t agree to stay with us. You know she won’t. ”

  “Then we’ll talk her into it. She won’t have to stay there for very long. We’ll find her a new apartment this week. We’ll put it in her name and pay for a few month’s rent so she can save up some money.”

  “How are we going to explain that?”

  “We’ll make up a fake foundation and tell her she was picked to receive assistance.”

  “Do you think she’ll buy that?”

  “She’s gonna have to because she’s not living here anymore. I had no idea she was living like this, did you?”

  “If I did, I would’ve got her out of here. This is worse than my mom’s house. At least there we could drink the water. And we didn’t have mold growing everywhere. That black mold is really dangerous. It can make you sick, especially Caleb, since he’s so small.”

  There’s noise in the hallway. People are stomping up the stairs, yelling at each other. Then a door slams as they go in the apartment next door. The walls are thin and we can hear them fighting. They’re cursing and screaming and then there’s a loud bang on the wall by Caleb’s crib. He instantly wakes up and starts crying as the neighbors continue to yell and curse and throw things at the wall.

  “Shit.” Garret goes and picks up Caleb, holding him against his chest and covering his ears. He bounces him a little, which usually soothes him, but this time it doesn’t. The neighbors are too loud. “Do you think we can take him somewhere?”

  “No. Sara will freak out if she gets home and we’re not here. Besides, I don’t want to walk around in this neighborhood, and we don’t have a car seat so we can’t drive anywhere.”

  Garret glares at the wall that the neighbors keep banging on. “I need to go over there and tell them to shut the hell up.”

  “No, don’t. They probably have a gun or a knife.”

  “Can you grab his blanket?” Garret nods at the crib.

  I pick up the blue blanket and hand it to him. He wraps it around Caleb, who’s dressed in shorts and a t-shirt.

  “His arms and legs are freezing,” Garret says. “It’s too cold in here for him. You know why? Because you can’t close the damn window.”

  “Shh. Don’t swear in front of Caleb.”

  “Trust me. He’s heard worse living next to those two.” He motions to the wall, where the F-bombs are flying as the neighbors continue to fight. “See if you can find Caleb some warmer clothes.”

  I check the cardboard boxes along the wall. Inside one of them are some baby clothes. I take out a navy sweatshirt and some gray sweatpants and bring them over to Garret.

  He kneels down and sets Caleb on the twin mattress. Caleb squirms and cries.

  “I’m just going to change your clothes, okay?” Garret tickles him a little, trying to distract him from the noise. It works. Caleb stops crying and giggles and grabs his toes.

  “Hey. I can’t put these pants on you if you do that.” Garret tickles him some more and Caleb giggles so much he drops his toes.

  Garret tries to put the sweatpants on Caleb, but they’re too small. “Jade, can you find some other pants? He’s outgrown these.”

  I go back to the box as Garret puts the sweatshirt on Caleb.

  “I need a different sweatshirt, too. This one barely fits him.”

  “He doesn’t have anything. The pants are all the same size as the ones I gave you. Same with the shirts. That’s probably why Sara’s got him in the clothes he’s wearing. They’re the only things that fit him.”

  Garret picks Caleb up off the bed. “Guess we’re going shopping for baby clothes. How can she not have any clothes that fit him?”

  “She doesn’t have money for clothes. Her car breaks down every week. She’s always paying to get that thing fixed. And then rent and food and day care.”

  The fighting next door is getting even louder and making Caleb cry.

  “It’s okay, buddy.” Garret holds Caleb against his chest, trying to soothe him. “I swear I’m going to kill those people.”

  “I think they’re going to kill each other in a few minutes.”

  A half hour later, Garret’s still trying to calm Caleb down. The neighbors are still loud, except now they’re having sex, so it’s a whole different kind of loud.

  “Check your phone,” Garret says. “See if Sara left you any messages.”

  I check, and see that she sent me a text. “She says she’ll be back in about 10 minutes. What are we going to do?”

  “We’re telling her she’s staying at our place tonight.”

  I agree with Garret, but I know Sara won’t go for it. She always thinks she’s in the way or bothering people. I used to think that way, too, and sometimes I still do. So I understand where she’s coming from, but she needs to accept our help because this involves her safety and Caleb’s safety. She can’t live here. It’s too dangerous. She’s just lucky nothing bad has happened yet. Or maybe it has and she didn’t tell me.

  I smile as I watch Garret with Caleb. The way he’s holding him, talking to him, rubbing his back, trying to calm him down? It melts my heart. It’s not even his kid and yet he’s so sweet and caring with him.

  Now I’m starting to think one kid isn’t enough. I might just have to have two with this man. And they’re going to be the luckiest kids in the world.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  31

  GARRET

  I don’t usually get into other people’s business, but I feel I have to intervene when it comes to Sara’s living conditions. It’s not safe for her and Caleb to live this way. I know she likes to be independent and able to support herself, and I respect that, but there’s a point where you have to admit you need help. You can’t let your pride get in the way of your safety.

  I hear someone trying to open the door so I go over and say, “Who is it?” because there isn’t even a peephole to check.

  “It’s Sara. I’m having trouble with my key.”

  I open the door, still holding Caleb. I finally calmed him down. The poor kid was scared to death when the neighbors got home and went fucking nuts. I don’t even want to know what was going on over there. They’ve quieted down now.

  “How’d it go?” Sara sets her purse down on the kitchen counter. “I see Caleb woke up. Sorry about that. I was hoping he’d stay asleep. He wasn’t too much trouble, was he?”

  I wish she wouldn’t say stuff like that. A baby isn’t trouble. Yeah, the crying sucked, but shit, if I were him, I’d cry to. He’s trying to sleep and all hell break’s loose next door. And then he wakes up and finds two strangers here instead of his mom. Plus, he’s freezing because he doesn’t have warm clothes that fit. Of course he’s going to cry.

  “He wasn’t any trouble.” I hand him to Sara. “He’s a great kid.”

  “How was the job interview?” Jade asks.

  “It went really well. I think he’s going to offer me the job. Like I said, it’s just two days a week but it pays way more than I get now.” Sara bounces Caleb on her hip. “The guy said he’ll cal
l me tomorrow and let me know if I got it. If so, I can start next week. And I can still work at the coffee shop. I’ll just have to change my schedule. Anyway, thanks again for watching Caleb. You guys can go. I’m sure you have to study.”

  Jade looks at me. I guess she wants me to be the one to talk to Sara about this. How do I say it without hurting her feelings?

  “Sara, we were thinking you should stay at our place tonight.”

  She looks at Jade, then back at me. She knows what we think of her place and I can tell she’s embarrassed and ashamed. She doesn’t say anything but her eyes are watery like she’s about to cry. Shit. So much for not hurting her feelings.

  I try to explain. “It’s just that we saw a cockroach and where there’s one there’s hundreds and Jade said you hate bugs.”

  A little white lie never hurt anyone, right? And in this case, I’d say it’s justified.

  “Yeah, I hate bugs,” Sara says. “Where did you see it?”

  “Right over there.” I point to the corner by Caleb’s crib. “Your landlord will have to get an exterminator. But for now, you shouldn’t stay here.”

  “That’s okay. I don’t want to inconvenience you guys. I’ll just stay awake all night and keep them away from Caleb.”

  “You need your sleep,” I tell her. “You’ve gotta work tomorrow. You’re staying with us.”

  She hesitates, so I say, “Pack up what you need. I’ll hold Caleb.” I use the take-charge tone I use with Jade and it works on Sara, too. She hands Caleb to me and goes to a box in the corner where she keeps her clothes.

  Sara and Jade are both so stubborn about taking help from people that you can’t give them a choice. You just have to tell them you’re helping them, not ask if they want it.

  “This is just for one night,” Sara says, holding her box of stuff as we go down the stairs. “I’ll meet you guys at your place.”

  “We need to stop at the store first and get some stuff,” Jade says to Sara as we walk to Sara’s car. “We need to get a portable crib for Caleb to sleep in. Are you okay sleeping on the couch? If not, we could get a blow-up mattress, although our couch is probably more comfortable.”