All In: Raising the Stakes

by Lane Hart

  I head back to the living room, knowing from experience that it only takes about two minutes for Drew to get into some sort of trouble. Sure enough, he’s trying to stand on one of his big bouncy balls.

  "No, Drew! Get down," I warn him and he hops down, kicking the ball instead, sending it ricocheting off everything in the vicinity.

  I expect Joe to say he’s going to head on out, making a quick escape, but instead, he returns to his previous seat. Curious about him, Drew pulls himself up on the couch next to him and mimics his posture - a slight slouch, long legs spread wide, and hands on his thighs. It’s pretty damn adorable. Getting bored with sitting still for more than ten seconds, Drew climbs up on his knees and points at Joe's eye, so close his finger’s practically on the lid.

  "Bwue like Thomas," Drew tells him, and he's right, the two are very similar blues.

  "That's right," Joe tells him with a smile. "Do you know what color this is?" he asks, holding up the red and white soccer ball.

  "Bwue."

  Joe raises an eyebrow and looks at me in question.

  "Everything's blue. It's his favorite color," I explain to him.

  "This is actually red," Joe tells Drew.

  "Wed," he repeats.

  "Yep. And this is yellow," he tells him, holding up a yellow taxi car.

  "Wawo," Drew repeats. He just turned three and the way he tries to say certain words is too cute. His pediatrician assured me he’s meeting all his markers for his age.

  The name that color game continues for a while until everything goes back to being "bwue" and Joe gives up.

  "You know what time it is, buddy. Go potty, pick out a night-night story and hop in bed," I tell him.

  There’s the normal whining before he tugs on Joe's hand, trying to pull him up with all his tiny strength. "'Mon, Joe. Weed me a stowy, peeeaaasseee?"

  "How can you ever say no to him when he says please like that?" Joe laughs and gives in.

  After reading The Barnyard Dance twice, it’s finally time to turn out the lights.

  "All right, little man, it's time to go to sleep. Good night. Love you," I tell him with a kiss to his cheek.

  "Night Kay, Kay. Night Joe," he says with a yawn before I shut his door.

  "Wow," Joe remarks when we fall back on the couch. "You do this every night after working all day?"

  "Yep."

  "No wonder you got drunk Thursday night. How do you do it all?"

  I shrug. "I'm used to it now."

  "What about your parents? Are they still around?"

  "Yeah, they're alive if that's what you mean. They refuse to see Drew, so therefore I haven't seen them in three years."

  "Why the hell do they not want to see him? He's hilarious."

  "They think he's going to be his father's son. That someday he'll be evil and demented..."

  "That's ridiculous. You don't think that, do you?" he asks, pulling me against his chest.

  "I hope not, but I worry about when he grows up …"

  "I don't think you have to worry about that. But what exactly happened, Katie?"

  I inhale his intoxicating scent on his shirt as I try to make the words come out. "Kelly was five years younger than me. In my third year of law school at Madison, right before her twentieth birthday, she went missing. She was in undergraduate school there, too. Pre-med. We know she came home after class like her normal routine, then when my parents and I got home we noticed her car was in the driveway but she wasn't inside. The front door was open and the lights and TV were on like she'd been there…" I take a deep breath, pushing the memories of those days away. "God, every day was worse than the one before. I just knew after the first week that she was dead, but I didn't want to believe it. I wanted to keep thinking someone would see her, recognize her picture. Then, thirteen months later, on November first, Tyler Evans and an older cop showed up on our doorstep at three a.m. My mom opened the door and screamed when she saw them, waking me up. I ran downstairs, and…one look at their faces and I knew." I sniffle back more tears to keep going. "When they said she'd been found alive, but she'd just died in childbirth we were stunned. Childbirth? What the hell? And then the amount of time she was gone was plenty for her…anyway, Drew was breech. The psycho tried to deliver him in his house, but…she couldn't. Finally, when it was too late, he called nine-one-one."

  Joe's hand is comforting and soothing, stroking through my hair as I recount the story.

  "So you decided to raise him when your parents wouldn't?"

  I nod against his chest. "Tyler told us Kelly wanted to name the baby Audrina if it was a girl and Drew if it was a boy. Then she told him to tell me specifically that she…she forgave him." I wipe the tears away with my hand before I leak all over Joe's shirt. "Hearing that, I just, I felt like she was telling me the baby was hers, you know? That she wanted me to take care of him."

  "Of course. I'm only hearing all this for the first time, but it sounds like you did the right thing. Otherwise, he would’ve ended up bouncing around to a bunch of shitty foster homes. He deserves better than that kind of life. You lost your sister, but she left you a piece of her."

  I close my eyes and nod, thankful to hear someone say I'm doing the right thing.

  …

  Joe

  Katie’s passed out on me, and I don't blame her. The woman is the best prosecutor I know, usually putting in nine or ten hour days at the office, and now to find out she’s a single mom to a three-year-old…she’s amazing. She takes care of everyone else all day long, but no one's been taking care of her. How could her parents refuse to see their own grandchild? Yeah, maybe the circumstances were horrendous, but the boy is completely innocent, just like Katie's sister.

  I try to think about the kid I'd spent the night watching play and sing and dance. He seemed like a pretty normal little guy. When he looks at you dead on with those big, hopeful green eyes, and says, "Peeeaaasee" it’s impossible to refuse him anything.

  After sitting with Katie for half an hour, I come to the conclusion that she isn't going to wake up anytime soon. I heft her up in my arms and start down the hallway, trying to figure out which room is hers. I finally decide on the one with the big bed covered with a blue comforter that has some sort of floral embroidery pattern down the center.

  Kicking my shoes off, I pull the sheets back and lay Katie down on one of the pillows before sliding in behind her and covering us up. My cell phone in my pocket has a daily alarm, so I let myself drift off to sleep, holding the woman I’m falling in love with.

  ...

  I’m having a really great dream. Katie and I are back in the oceanfront resort. The sliding door is open, letting the sounds of the waves and the cool breeze in while we lie naked, tangled up with each other. Katie's tongue swirls around my belly button, making me groan before she starts moving lower. My cock twitches, attempting to draw her mouth's attention down to it. Katie, bless her heart, takes the hint, teasing with a few licks around my crown before taking me deep into her mouth, and ahh…sucking me so damn good.

  "Fuck yes," I moan, running my fingers through her hair. She shushes me in response. Which is really ridiculous since she’s a helluva lot louder than me when she comes.

  Katie distracts me from further thought when she squeezes my ass with both hands while her mouth works me over.

  "I'm close." I warn her when my hips can't hold still any longer. "So…fucking…close."

  This time when she shushes me, reality starts seeping in. Blinking my eyes open I realize I’m not at the beach with Katie, but we are in fact in bed together. Her bed, and she really is sucking my cock. Oh shit! And there’s a kid right down the hall.

  I look over to check if her bedroom door is shut, and I hope, locked. Either way I can't last any longer. I try to keep my grunts of pleasure down, but it’s impossible to stay completely quiet when my body rocks with the amazing shudders of release.

  "Good morning," Katie says as her lips make their way back up my body.

 
; "Morning," I say between pants. "What'd I do...to deserve…that kind of wake up…so I can do it again?"

  "You stayed," she says as she lowers herself down on me.

  I feel her up when she’s within reach, and realize she still has her pajamas on and other than my lowered jeans, I’m still dressed. That shit has to go. I pull her top off then push her bottoms and panties down until she can kick them off. Katie goes to work on getting my shirt over my head while I rid myself of the rest.

  Then finally, thank fuck, we’re naked and pressed against each other like we can't get close enough. With our hands pulling hair, our mouths sucking on each other, we tumble until I’m hard as a rock again, easing into her wet and ready pussy. We fuck quick and dirty, but it’s really damn amazing.

  "God, Joe," Katie whispers as we catch our breath. Her head rests on my chest with my arms around her.

  "You sure do know how to get a man up in the morning," I tell her.

  She giggles as her fingertip draws some sort of random designs over my chest and stomach.

  Draw. Drew.

  "You don't think he heard us do you?" I whisper.

  She smiles. "No, Joe. He didn't hear us. He's at the other end of the hall and sleeps like a rock."

  "Good." I glance at her alarm clock and see I have ten minutes before my phone goes off. Shit. "I better get going, so I can get a shower and get ready for work."

  "Yeah," Katie sighs. "I've got to start getting ready, too. Candace will be here any minute."

  "Is Candace Drew's babysitter?"

  "Uh-huh. I didn't like the idea of throwing him in a daycare with dozens of other kids."

  "Yeah, I can understand that," I agree.

  I know I need to get moving, go get ready for work, but it’s tough to do when it feels so good where I am. This is where I feel like I'm supposed to be. It feels so damn right. "Wanna do lunch today?" I ask her.

  "Sure. I've got a few appointments with victims this morning but I should be free by noon."

  "Okay, I'll swing by your office when I get done in court."

  "Okay," she says before, unfortunately, moving off of me and climbing out of bed.

  I can't help but stare at the gorgeous woman. I always thought she was a knockout in her work suits, but this morning her long red hair is sexy and messy, flowing down the middle of her naked back. Her ivory skin is a beautiful contrast to her bright, fiery hair. She’s stunning.

  I finally force myself off the mattress and start rounding up my abandoned clothing to put it all back on. I give Katie a quick kiss then let myself out the front door. And is it just me or does the sun seem a little brighter? The sky a little bluer? A new spring in my step? Yeah, maybe it's just me, because last night I wiggled my way into a whole new, intimate side of Katie's life that I never knew before. I met her son and spent the night in her bed. I'm on top of the world. At the same time, my heart hurts knowing the pain Katie must feel losing her sister in such a terrible way.

  Figuring Tyler and Jess will be up since they have twin toddlers, I dial his cell while I drive back to my place.

  "Joe? What do you want now?" Tyler laughs.

  "How'd you know I wanted something?" I ask.

  "Because you call Jess when you just want to catch up. You call me when you want something."

  "Fair enough. I want to know what you remember about Katie's sister's case."

  "Shit, that damn case still gives me nightmares. Having to tell them…it was the worst thing I've ever had to do."

  "What happened? That was a few months before I came to town."

  "I was right out of the academy. It was my first week riding with Simmons. We got a call from a neighbor who heard a woman's screams. Then dispatch said a call came in from the house. A woman was in labor with complications. We were at the scene by that time, so Simmons decided to at least let them know the ambulance was on the way. When we went in, Rakes was frantic. No shit, he took us down to the basement. The door had like two or three deadbolt locks on it. Then we saw her," he says, followed by a pause. "She was on a mattress on the floor and had recently been chained up like a damn dog. She'd lost a lot of blood and she was in agony. Finally, the paramedics arrived, but it was too late. Before they took her to the hospital she told me what she wanted to name the baby."

  "So they got her to the hospital but couldn't save her?" I ask the obvious.

  "She was gone, but the baby, a boy, survived. We went to her parents’ house to tell them and of course they were crushed. Especially since she'd been alive just hours before…then she was gone because of something as fucked up as childbirth. That only made it worse, realizing what she'd been through all those months. I don't know what happened to the baby. She named him Drew."

  "He just turned three," I say.

  "Yeah, I guess he would be three. Doesn't seem like it's been that long."

  "He loves trains and his favorite color is blue."

  "What?" Tyler asks. "How do you know that?"

  "Because Katie's been raising him for the last three years. I met him last night."

  "Holy shit! I had no idea. I mean, I talk to Katie on cases, but I've never brought it up because I knew how hard it was on her and her family. Wow."

  "What happened to the bastard? You said his name was Rakes?" I ask.

  "Yeah, Richard Rakes. Forty-year-old, white male. No prior record, which was why no one ever suspected him. He was the custodian at Madison, where Kelly went to school, and had been for like fifteen years. We figure he followed her home from school and then forced her out of the house with him."

  "Damn. That's…God. What happened to him?"

  "He confessed that night. He was a mess, sobbing because he hadn't gotten her help in time. He thought her and the baby died, so none of us told him any different."

  "How much time did he get?"

  "I think it was something like six hundred and fifty-four months all together."

  "Where's he being held?"

  "Probably at Central Prison in Raleigh with most of the other lifers, but I can check and tell you for sure."

  "Okay, thanks. And thanks for the info. I can't imagine how hard this is on Katie."

  "Yeah, I can't imagine. So you two are seeing each other out of the office?" he asks.

  I can't help my smile. "Yes. Finally. I've been trying to get the woman's attention for months."

  "Well, good for you, I guess. I'll talk to you later."

  "All right, thanks, Tyler. I owe you again. Put it on my tab."

  "Will do. See ya."

  Chapter Eight

  Katie

  Joe shows up in my office right at noon. I stand up and grab my purse to leave, but he shuts the door. When he pushes the lock in, I swear it felt like his thumb was pressing on my clit. I stand frozen, watching as he comes, all sexy and smug, to me. I expect him to kiss me, but instead, he drops to his knees, his hands reaching under my skirt for my panties.

  "Joe!" I say in shock when he lowers them all the way to the ground. "Everyone's gonna know."

  "Know what? That you're mine?" he asks, pushing my skirt up to my waist. God, I like the sound of that.

  "What-what if Caldwell finds out?" I ask him, but then I feel his warm breath on my pussy and any other concerns go out the window.

  "I'm sure he'll be thrilled to know we're getting along so well."

  "Joe," I half complain and moan. My eyes close when his tongue laps at my flesh.

  "Spread your legs for me, Katie Kat. I'm trying to eat your pussy and still have time to take you out to lunch." As a motivator to do as he said, Joe thrusts two fingers deep inside me, making me cry out. Holding on to the edge of my desk, I open my thighs wider for him because I don't want him to stop. My breathing turns ragged as my legs begin to shake. The mmm sound Joe makes give me that last push off the ledge, making me come on his tongue, and not exactly quietly.

  When I'm able to open my eyes again, Joe's looking up at me, his mouth still between my legs, lapping up every drop of my
arousal. It's almost enough to send me into another full blown orgasm. Finally he holds my panties out for me to slip them on again and then lowers my skirt.

  "Ready to go eat?" he asks with a smug smile.

  "Sure," I say even though if I look anything like I feel, I'm a complete mess. I'm off balance. Discombobulated. Tipsy even.

  "Maybe we should just order in today," Joe offers, biting his lip,

  trying not to grin. I nod my agreement before taking a seat in one of my office chairs.

  I vaguely hear Joe ordering us something over the phone. After he hangs up, he comes and sits down in the chair next to me. When our eyes meet we both start laughing. Then I notice the tenting of his suit pants.

  "How long before they'll be here?" I ask him.

  "Twenty to twenty-five minutes."

  "Should be plenty of time for me to get you off with my mouth," I tell him. It takes less than five.

  …

  After work, the doorbell rings and my heart races at the thought of seeing Joe. It has to be him, right?

  I walk past Drew drawing on his doodle board in the floor and look out the peephole to the porch. God, the man looks even better than I remember from our naughty rendezvous during lunch today.

  "Hey," I say when I open the door out of breath. Yeah, because the twenty steps from the kitchen to the front was a strenuous workout. I know my body is all hyped up at the sight of the man in front of me. Speaking of strenuous activity…

  "Hey," he replies with a tight smile. "You up for company again tonight?"

  "Ah, yeah. I guess." I was starting to think I couldn't refuse him if my life depended on it. Then I notice the big bag in his hand.

  "What's that?" I ask.

  He looks down at the bag like he'd just remembered he was holding it. "Oh, it's something for Drew if it's okay with you?"

  In my Ally McBeal like hallucination, Hooked on a Feeling blasts loudly as the diaper-wearing baby does his little happy dance on my welcome mat, ending with a moonwalk.