by April Lust
Chapter Thirteen
Eli
I couldn’t believe it. The kid’s timing couldn’t have been better. The only good thing about it was he hadn’t walked into the room. Bad enough he would one day find out I was his father. He didn’t need to walk in on us humping on the bed before that.
“I have to go to him.” Tori got out of bed, straightening herself out while looking in the mirror on the back of the bedroom door. She pulled up the strap to her top, pulling it down, making sure she was covered again. Her hair was a mess, so she brushed it quickly before going out into the hall.
I sighed, knowing the moment was over. Would we ever get there again? If George hadn’t come to the door, would we have gone further? I thought we might have. My cock strained against my zipper. I would have done something about it.
I heard her voice, low and soothing, as she guided George back to his room. She was a good mother, no matter what I had said in the heat of anger. She had me so pissed then, I would have said anything. I could tell she cared for him, did everything she could to make him happy and make sure he felt loved. I had seen enough bad mothers in my time to know the difference.
All I could do was stare at the ceiling. What was I thinking, getting involved with her again? Even touching her the way I had, kissing her like that, was a big mistake. The less I felt for her, the better.
I couldn’t help myself, and I hated myself for being so weak, but there it was. She would always be part of me. The only reason I had hated her so much for so long was that I’d loved her so much when we were together. She was always the only woman for me. When she left, nothing else had mattered. It was the closest anything or anyone had ever come to breaking me.
She was in trouble. Worse trouble than she imagined. Then again, I wasn’t sure about that—she wasn’t a stupid person. She could probably imagine the trouble she was in with the loan sharks. I thought again about what they had done to Little Bill. Would that be how she ended up? With a bullet in her head?
I couldn’t let that happen. She wouldn’t like what I had in mind, but she had no choice. She had already fucked things up enough. I had to make it right as much as I could.
I got up, making sure I was presentable to a kid before going to the doorway to his room. What I saw made me stop and stare. There she was, kneeling by his bed. The nightlight glowed in the otherwise dark room, and in its light I saw the way she leaned over him, stroking the hair back from his forehead. She kept her voice low and soft, calming him. I could tell he was freaked out by what had happened earlier—who wouldn’t be? Especially a little kid.
I didn’t want to break into the moment, but I cleared my throat anyway to get their attention. Tori looked up. George’s head popped up from the pillow.
“You’re coming with me,” I said. I wasn’t trying to hide it or sugarcoat it for the kid’s benefit. It was a fact, plain and simple.
Tori looked stunned. She turned to George, who looked at her with wide eyes. They both turned to me. “What?” Tori asked.
“You heard me. Get his things together, then get some things together for yourself. You’re staying at my place until this calms down. There’s plenty of room for the both of you.”
Tori laughed like she thought I was kidding. When she saw how serious I was, her laughter died. She glared at me.
“Who do you think you are, coming in here like this, telling me what to do? You don’t get to make those decisions, Eli.”
“I think I do, and I think you know why.” No use fucking the kid up even more by telling him who I was to him. He would already need therapy after the scare he’d had that night. “I have a say in this. You can’t handle it yourself. No more arguments. Get your things together, now.”
“Where are we going, Mama?” George tugged at Tori’s arm. He sounded terrified. I’m not the one you have to be scared of, kid, I thought.
“Tori, tell him he doesn’t have anything to worry about, okay? Please?”
She looked like she didn’t know what to do, so I made the decision for her. I walked into the room and knelt at the foot of the bed—close to them, but not so close as to scare him anymore.
“My name is Eli, and I’m a friend of your mom’s. I came here tonight because that other man was here. The bad one. I made him go away because that’s what I do. I protect people. You know what that means?”
He peeked out at me from behind Tori’s arm, where he’d hidden himself. “You make them safe?”
“That’s right. I make sure people are safe. I like your mom a lot. We’re real good friends. And you’re her son, so I wanna make sure you’re both safe from the bad guys. I’ll do that, too. When you’re with me, nothing bad will happen.”
“No more bad guys coming in? When I’m sleeping, I mean?” His voice shook. I didn’t know who to be more pissed at—the piece of shit who broke in, or my ex-wife for getting herself into the whole mess.
“No more bad guys coming in while you’re sleeping. Besides, you would be doing me a favor if you came with me.”
“What do you mean?” Tori didn’t say a word, and that was a good thing. She was still smart when it counted.
“I mean I would be worried about you if you were here without me. I would wonder if you were okay. If you’re with me, and I can see you and talk to you and make sure you’re safe, I’ll feel a lot better. You would be doing a good thing.”
George’s eyes lit up. He looked up at Tori. “Mama, we have to go. He’ll keep us safe, and it’ll make him feel better.”
Tori scowled at me. I hate you, she mouthed.
I know, I mouthed back. I didn’t care. All that mattered was keeping her and my kid safe from whatever was out there, trying to hurt them.
# # #
It took a half hour to get everything together. It seemed like George kept coming up with things he had to take with him.
“Oh, my froggy.” He packed a stuffed frog in his backpack. “And my bear. And my X-Men. Did you ever play with X-Men?” he asked me.
“No. They didn’t have those guys when I was your age. I mean, they had the comics, but not the action figures.”
“So what kind of things did you play with?” he asked. I could tell from the gentle, serious way he packed them that they meant everything to him.
“Oh, I don’t know. I had toys. And a bike. And games. We just didn’t have such cool things when we were kids. You’re really lucky.”
“I know. Mama always makes sure I have stuff. And Santa, too.” I turned my face away to hide my grin. So he still believed in Santa. That was sweet.
He looked so much like me. I thought back to when I was his age. I didn’t have many toys—not as many as he had, for sure. Everything I got was handed down from my older brother, and by the time I got my hands on it, the figures were sorta broken, or drawn on, or missing pieces. It wasn’t the same as having something brand new, something that had only ever belonged to me. I used to envy the kids I went to school with, who brought in toys for show-and-tell. Their toys were always new, shiny. Sometimes I would pretend to be sick, just to miss out on show-and-tell day.
If he were any older, there would be no pretending we weren’t related. He was young enough not to notice, or not to care, that our eyes were exactly the same shade, just like our hair color. That we had the same face, just in older and younger versions. I was glad for his youth—the situation was sticky enough without him asking questions. He was still little enough to accept what adults told him without argument.
“I think I have everything,” he said, sliding his arms into the straps.
“You sure you can handle that, little man?” The backpack was almost as big as him.
He nodded. “Oh, sure. I carry it all the time.” He was right, too. He was a pro, lifting it off the bed like it was nothing. I watched as he looked around the room. It was a nice room, a good-sized room for a little boy. I saw his chin quiver a little bit.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Will I ever com
e back here again?”
I wanted so much to hug him, it almost hurt. I couldn’t believe how fast a kid I didn’t know existed two hours earlier had made me care about him. “Sure you will,” I said. “You’ll be back in no time. This isn’t forever.”
“You promise?” He looked at me, and I knew he wanted to believe me. He wanted to trust me. He needed a man in his life he could trust.
“Yeah, I promise,” I said. “Just like I promise the bad guys won’t hurt you. Okay? You believe me?”
He thought about it for a second, then nodded. “Yeah. I believe you.”
I wished his voice sounded like he meant it. I wondered if he’d ever known a reliable man. Had his mother dated around? I thought about asking him, making it a casual question, but that wouldn’t have been right. I couldn’t use my kid like that, right after meeting him. Too many parents did that to their kids.
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s see if your mom is ready to go.” I put my hand on his little shoulder—it was so small, skinny, compared to my hand. This is my son, I thought. It still didn’t seem real. It would take a long time before it did, I guessed.
Tori waited for us with an overstuffed tote bag. “You sure you have enough stuff in there?” I asked.
“I’m sure this won’t be for long,” she said, smiling down at George. “I didn’t want to pack too many things since we’ll be coming home soon.”
I glared at her. “You sure about that? I mean, you’ll come home, yeah. But it might take a little time. I wouldn’t want anybody to get the wrong idea about how long it will take.” She had to be fucking delusional. I was sure of it. I could see making the kid feel better, but it didn’t do him any favors to lie. If anything, he would be even more upset when it took longer than he thought.
“I’ll be the one to decide whether somebody has the wrong idea,” she said, still smiling. I could have wrung her smug neck.
“And I’m the one asking you to stay with me, so I think I have some say in it.”
“Are we leaving?” George asked, rubbing his eyes. “I’m sleepy, Mama.”
She looked down at him, almost like she’d forgotten he was there. “Oh, of course, honey. I’m sorry. We’ll go right now. Come on, Eli.” Like I was the butler or something. She left her tote on the floor, right next to another tote bag for George’s clothes and stuff. I took the hint that I was supposed to carry them for her. I sighed, picking them up.
“What about the locks on the door?” Tori asked. I had forgotten about kicking the door in.
“I’ll call a locksmith in the morning if it makes you feel better.” What I wanted to do was remind her that the asshole who’d broken in didn’t need to go through the front door, so if somebody wanted to steal her stuff, it didn’t matter if the locks worked or not. I didn’t wanna freak George out any more than he already was, though.
“You following me?” I asked, putting her bags in her car once we reached the garage.
“Yes, thanks.” I watched as she loaded George into the car, buckling him in. The poor kid was half-asleep. It would give me and his mother plenty of time to talk things over once we got to the apartment. I had a feeling she would have plenty to say once we were there. That was fine with me, since I had a lot to say, too. There would be some ground rules in place if I were going to help her get out of trouble.
I rode slower than usual, making sure she could follow behind me. I wasn’t used to taking my time when I rode my bike. It gave me time to think, at least. I thought about her. About the kid. About what I would do for them. What could I do for them? I didn’t know yet, but I had to figure something out. I needed to use my connections to find out exactly who Tori had borrowed money from, how much she owed and how they planned to get the money from her.
If it was just a matter of the money, I could give it to them without blinking an eye. Her original amount was five thousand dollars—I had more than enough in the bank to cover that twenty times over. Even with the interest I knew was growing every day, I could take care of it. Only I had the feeling that the loan shark she went to wasn’t only interested in money anymore. If he were, he could have had his guy rough the place up a little, look for valuables. Something.
He wanted to scare her. To intimidate, to play with her. He might have been planning on it from the beginning. No loan shark with half a brain would have given her that kind of money when she didn’t have a job or any way to pay him back—even if he did give her a month to do it in. No, when he saw her, he knew he’d have fun with her before…what? Getting rid of her? Using her? Maybe pimping her out somehow? She was a beautiful woman. I clenched my jaw at the thought of anyone forcing her to do something like that.
By the time we reached my building, George was sound asleep. “Car rides do that to him,” Tori explained, handing me his backpack. I guessed riding around in the middle of the night didn’t help, either. Especially when he knew he would be safe with me. I only hoped I could live up to my promises—without knowing who Tori was up against, I wasn’t sure.
She lifted him from the car, his sleep-heavy body slumping against her. I felt a sort of longing I wasn’t used to. I wanted to be the person who did that, I realized. The one who picked up my son and held him in my arms while he slept. While he trusted me enough to sleep in my arms.
When we got to the apartment, I led Tori straight to the room that would be hers and George’s. The queen-sized bed in the guest room would be more than big enough for the two of them—I thought he might feel more comfortable being with her, too.
I watched as she tucked him in. How had I not known she was pregnant? I thought back, trying to remember those days. The days when I wasn’t paying attention to her—not because I didn’t care, but because I didn’t want her to know what I was doing. I realized with bitter certainty that she could have done just about anything in those days and I wouldn’t have noticed. It had taken her leaving for me to pay attention to what I’d done to her—and by then, it had been too late.
I couldn’t think straight while I was around her. “I’ll let you get some sleep. You must be tired.”
She looked up, eyes wide in—surprise? Disappointment? “Oh, okay. Thank you for this. Good night.”
I stepped out, closing the door behind me. The click of the lock told me what I needed to know.
Chapter Fourteen
Tori
I was never any good at sleeping in a strange bed. My son could sleep through just about anything. I envied him that. Me? I wondered if I would get even an hour’s worth that night.
I rolled onto my side, sighing. It wasn’t just the bed. It was thoughts of Eli—specifically, what had happened between us in my room. I couldn’t forget it, and I didn’t want to. We’d always been good together. He had known my body like the back of his hand by the time I left, even though it had been a while since he’d touched me. The passage of seven years hadn’t done anything to make him forget how to turn me on.
It had been rapture, handing myself over to him like that. Letting him touch me, play with me, drive me crazy. I’d felt like a teenager again, and it had been a very long time since I’d felt that way. Like there was nothing as hot as being petted by a man I was crazy about…or at least, extremely hot for.
I was still hot for him. The thought made me squeeze my eyes shut. I wished it weren’t true, but there was no denying the effect he had on me. His presence alone was enough to drive me crazy. It didn’t help that I’d been so long without a man—even the slightest touch was bound to turn me on. That the touch came from Eli only made things more exciting.
Oh, hormones. They made us do stupid things. I shouldn’t have stayed with him the way I did, even when I knew he was bad news back in high school. He hadn’t exactly tried to hide it—in fact, most of our classmates thought he loved the way people saw him. I’d thought it, too, and I’d known him better than any of them. He loved that they thought he was no good, a bad seed, someone to be afraid of. I hadn’t done anything to convince them ot
herwise. I knew it would kill him if I destroyed his rep. It was all he’d had as a kid.
I’d stayed with him, though. Through thick and thin. Why? Because he was sexy, dangerous. He hadn’t been wrong when he accused me of being turned on by the danger. It had been fun, and worlds away from anything I’d ever known in my sheltered world. I was a good girl, always doing the right thing. He was just what I needed. He shook me up, changed me, tapped into something which must have been there all along. The desire to get into a little trouble, to really “live,” as I saw it.
Only he’d never let me get into trouble. He’d always done his best to protect me back then—all throughout our relationship, in fact. He’d kept me away from the danger. Until he couldn’t anymore, of course. By then I was married. And pregnant.