Razor's Edge: A Bad Boy Romance (Bad Boys of Football Book 2)

by Clementine Roux

  The officer tried again. In a low, soothing tone, he said, “I’m sorry. There’s an order. We’re just doing our jobs here. He’ll be fine. He’ll go with these ladies from social services. They’ll contact his mother and sort all this out. Now, please, work with us on this. Everything is going to be alright.”

  Of course, he could say that. He wasn’t the one who had a child being taken away from him. He wasn’t the one who would be destroyed. Why would he have any reason to care? None of this had anything to do with him. It wasn’t his problem.

  Kelly turned her attention to Edge. I had no words. I didn’t know how to comfort him. This whole moment didn’t feel real. I felt outside of myself, watching one of the most horrific scenes I’d ever witnessed unfold in front of me. I was helpless, useless in the moment.

  Surprising everyone in the room, Edge reacted with excitement. “I’m going to stay with my mom? Does she have a big house? Does she have toys there?”

  What remained of my shattering heart, cracked some more. Here we were panicking and all Edge was concerned with was whether or not there were toys at his mother’s house.

  Kelly knelt down next to him, wrapping her arms around his tiny waist. “Honey, you’re going to go on an adventure first.” She turned to look over her shoulder at the social workers. “Those nice women are going to take you somewhere--”

  “Where? My mom said I could go to her house.” Edge looked up at me.

  “She told you that over the phone?” I asked.

  Kelly released her hold on him. “What? When?” Her eyes bored into mine. “What’s he talking about?”

  I swallowed hard. So much had happened, I hadn’t had time to explain things yet. “He had a cell phone. He was talking to someone. I… I thought it was E.J., but I guess, it was his mom. I didn’t know. I--”

  “What the hell?” She rolled her eyes. “Where’s the phone now?”

  The social workers sighed, shifting where they stood.

  “Oh, hold onto your panties, ladies! I’m trying to figure out what happened here. Give us a minute,” Kelly snapped at them for their impatience. To me, she ordered, “Give me that phone. This is such bullshit.”

  The officer grunted. “Look, we need to finish up here. Whatever investigation or whatever it is you need to do can happen later. C’mon, little guy, let’s get your stuff.” He motioned for the social workers to get to work.

  Edge jumped up and down. “Cool! I have my suitcases in the room.” He ran off to grab his belongings, while Kelly and I stood watching helplessly.

  As soon as Edge and the social workers were out of earshot, she said, “Get that damn phone. I can’t believe this.”

  I reached into my pocket and pulled the cell phone out for her. “I’m so sorry. I was going to tell you, then, all this happened. Does E.J. know?”

  She scrolled through the phone. “He does now. I had my partner bail him out. They should be here any minute. God, I hope he doesn’t lose his shit over this.”

  I hoped the same thing, but I thought I knew what his reaction would be. If it were me, I’d be out of my mind. I wasn’t him and I felt like I was losing my mind. “What do we do?”

  Still scrolling through the phone, she muttered, “How did this bitch get to him? How did she find him without anyone finding out?”

  “Was Edge hiding him from his mother?” I asked. No one had filled me in on what had transpired between E.J. and Stephanie. “Doesn’t E.J. have custody?”

  The front door flew open. E.J. rushed in, anger in his eyes. “Where is he?”

  The police officers tried to stop him, but he barreled through them, calling out his son’s name. “Edge? Edge? Where are you?”

  It was like E.J. didn’t see us. He continued on, ignoring the officers, ignoring Kelly’s demands. A flustered woman followed a few seconds behind him. She gave us a couple of head nods as she rushed past us to catch up to E.J.

  “She’s your partner?” I asked, sensing something horrible was about to happen. Something bigger than what was already happening.

  The expression on Kelly’s face shifted from anger to fear. “My law partner, not my lover. We don’t have time for this. Stop your boyfriend before he kills someone.”

  Nothing like the fear of death to get the heart pumping!

  I yelled E.J.’s name. “Edgecott, stop right now! Think about what you’re doing!”

  E.J. stopped in his tracks, his balled up fists slowly clenching. “I’m trying to save my son!” His tone softened as he realized Edge was still in my apartment. “Come here, son,” he beckoned to him, but the social workers formed a wall to block them from each other.

  “Please, don’t do this. It’s not good for your son,” one of the social workers pleaded with him. “We have an order. You can straighten this all out in court, but for now, he needs to come with us.”

  A silence fell over the tension-filled room. I held my breath as I watched a range of emotions play out on E.J.’s face.

  After a moment, he addressed Edge. “Come here, buddy.” To the social workers, he said, “Let me talk to my son. He’s just a little boy. Let me say something to him, please.”

  Kelly spoke up on his behalf. “You can let him speak to his son. He’s not a monster. Don’t you people have hearts?”

  The social workers agreed to give them a minute to speak, but refused to leave Edge’s side. I used the wall behind me to brace myself as I watched their exchange, tears flowing freely now.

  “Sir?” A social worker interrupted E.J.’s conversation with Edge. “We have to go.”

  I couldn’t bear to listen any longer. How could they come in and rip a little boy from his family? My tears turned to anger as I watched E.J. clutch his little boy’s hand. This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t have been happening.

  The social workers led Edge out of the room with the police providing interference between them and E.J. Kelly did her best to keep a level head, but I could see she was also fighting back tears. Her law partner was the only one showing no reaction. She and I locked eyes for a moment, but there was nothing in hers. They were vacant.

  A low whimper caught my attention. Standing in the doorway, clutching the frame, E.J. stood, crying as he watched them walk his son out of my apartment, out of his life for who knew how long.

  I walked over to him, placing my trembling hand on his back.

  “Don’t,” he said, pulling from my touch. “Just don’t.”

  I refused to move. I refused to give up.

  Turning to me, E.J. grabbed me by my waist and pulled me to him. I didn’t resist. I waited it out, knowing he needed me. He squeezed tighter as he sobbed, resting his head on mine.

  Kelly sighed behind me. “We’ll get him back. I promise you; we will get him back.”

  I don’t know if E.J. heard her. He wailed louder now, clutching me tighter to him. “They took my boy. They took him.”

  My heart ached for him. I wished I could make all that had just transpired go away. I wished bad things never happened. While we both cried, I prayed for something -- a miracle, a dream, anything to make it all go away. “I’m so sorry. I’m sorry,” I said to console him and myself. “I’m so sorry this happened.”

  “This is bullshit!” Kelly slammed her fist on the wall. “We’ll get him back. I need to get out of here. Hillary, can you stay with him? Don’t let him out of your sight.”

  She didn’t have to ask me. I had absolutely no intention of letting E.J. leave my sight. He needed me as much as I needed him. There was no way I’d leave his side.

  “No. I don’t need a damn babysitter. I need my son,” E.J. protested. Pushing himself out of my embrace, he said, “I’m going to get that bitch. She can’t take my son from me.”

  “E.J., don’t--” I started.

  “You don’t tell me what I can and can’t do. You don’t know anything about this. He’s all I have. You don’t have anyone.”

  His words hit me like a slap in the face. I couldn’t move. I had no
words. He was right; I had no one.

  Chapter Seventeen – Razor

  The room spun around me, but I didn’t care. I sat up, knocking empty cans of beer off the bed onto the floor, where they fell on top of a layer of empty whiskey bottles.

  “He lives!”

  I jumped off the bed, nearly falling flat on my face in the process. “What the fuck!”

  “You passed out,” my teammate, Dominic Porter, said as he helped me get to my feet. “If you keep this shit up, my girl is threatening to leave me and take all my money with her.”

  “What happened?” I asked. I had no memory of anything beyond driving all over town to find my ex-wife. I figured, she had to be nearby. That was the kind of person she was. She’d want to watch me fail.

  Dominic laughed. “You partied like a rock star last night, except there was no music and absolutely no women because my girlfriend refused to accommodate me. She doesn’t get it. We’re football players. Women are what we do, right?”

  I didn’t have time for jokes. I needed answers. “Whatever, man. For real, how did I get here? What the hell happened?”

  His face turned serious. “Okay, well, you showed up at the clubhouse last night after practice. You were already drunk. How many drinks did you have before you got there anyway?”

  “That’s what I’m asking you. What the hell happened?” I looked at myself in the mirror. I looked like hell. “They took Edge.” It was all coming back to me now. “Damn, they took him.”

  Dominic looked over his shoulder at the open door. “Hold on. Don’t say anything yet; she’ll hear you.”

  “Who?” I had no idea who he was talking about. As far as I knew, Dominic lived alone. “Who else is here?”

  He hushed me. “I told you. My girl is here and she’s threatening to cut me off if you cause any problems.”

  Now I was angry. “What the hell is that supposed to mean? They took my kid!”

  “I know, they did. We all know they did. It’s all over the news. Your face is all over the news. Look, I don’t know what you did, but your ex has a hard on for you. After you caused a scene at the clubhouse, I tried to get you home, but man, you wouldn’t let up. You were out of control, so I brought you here. My girl--”

  “What girl? Who the hell are you talking about? That stripper from the club? Man, I told you, those women are no good. Look at what happened to me.” I forced myself to my feet. The room spun under my feet. “How much did I have to drink?”

  “Enough to nearly get kicked off the team,” Dominic answered. “What were you thinking anyway? You should have heard what you said. You wanted to find your ex and do who knows what to her, like that was going to do you any good.”

  I hoped I didn’t do anything stupid. “So, you brought me here?”

  “I sure did. I didn’t know what else to do. You were out of control; someone had to do something to stop you. By the way, your kid’s teacher is on the way over here to pick you up. You might want to think about cleaning yourself up before she gets here,” Dominic said, pointing to my wrinkled clothes.

  That’s all I needed was to get yelled at by Hillary. How was that going to fix anything? “Why is she on her way? Who called her?”

  Dominic shrugged. “You did!”

  Of course, I did. I was fast becoming an expert at making my life more complicated than it already was. “Why did you let me do that?” I asked him. “Damn, I don’t need this shit right now. I have to get out of here and find my son.”

  He tried to block my way, but I was ready for him. “Get out of my way!”

  “You can’t do this,” Dominic said. “Calm down. What are you running from? Think about your son. Think about what you’re doing.”

  I stopped. He was right. I had to focus on Edge and getting him back. Defeated, I said, “I don’t know what to do. Tell me what to do.”

  Dominic was a man I thought I could count on. He always had my back on the field, but right now, he looked like I’d beat him. He was out of answers for me. If he couldn’t help me, who could?

  From the other side of the door, Dominic’s girlfriend called out for him. “Dom, the teacher is here for Razor. She’s in the kitchen. Get him out here.”

  I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I looked like I’d just come off a month-long bender. “Great,” I groaned.

  “What’s the deal with this girl anyway? Does she live here with you?” Dominic asked.

  The door sprung open. “Did you hear me, Dom?” His girlfriend’s eyes opened wide as she took me in. “Your friend is here to see you. What do you want me to tell her?”

  “I don’t know. Tell her, I’ll be down in a minute, I guess.” I stood up, the room spinning around me. “I need a minute.”

  She nodded, giving Dominic a stern look. “Okay, well, don’t take forever. I don’t know what to say to her. She has some kind of attitude, like she’s better than me or something.”

  Dominic tried to warn her to keep quiet, but she continued on. “Where did you find her anyway? She acts all hoity toity, like she didn’t come from the hood or something.”

  I tried not to react. I tried to ignore her comments, but my temper got the better of me. “Shut your damn mouth. You don’t know anything about her. By the way, she acts like that because she is better than you. You’re some stripper from nowhere and she’s… she’s... “ I started.

  “Stop this. What are you doing, Razor? You’re going to talk about my girlfriend in front of me now? Is that what you want to do?” Dominic folded his arms in front of him.

  “Is everything okay here?” Hillary’s voice startled us. “E.J.?” She peered around the corner. Her eyes met mine. “What happened to you?”

  Her question didn’t warrant a response. It was obvious what had happened. I looked and felt like hell. As I walked past her headed for the front door, I heard her inhale quickly.

  “Are you going to be okay?” Dominic asked as he ran to catch up with me. “What do you need me to do?”

  “Keep… No…” I took a deep breath. “Do me a favor and don’t mention to anyone what I said to you last night. Make sure your girl doesn’t say anything to anyone either, okay?” I didn’t need another scathing report against me. I already had enough working against me. “Thanks for not letting me do something stupid last night. I’ll catch up with you later.”

  Hillary marched out of their place with rage in her eyes.

  “Watch out,” Dominic warned as he closed the passenger side door for me.

  “I’m not worried about her,” I grumbled.

  “Well, you must not be too smart then, because you should be worried about me. You should be worried as hell.” Hillary didn’t bother to say goodbye to Dominic before starting the engine and peeling off down the street. “What were you thinking? Do you realize how I scared I was? Kelly and I spent half the night looking for you!” Hillary scrubbed tears from her face.

  “What are you crying about? Nothing happened to you,” I said as I clutched the door handle.

  Slamming on the breaks, Hillary yelled, “You’re such an ass! This is happening to me too! You brought me into this the moment you left your son in my home. Do you realize how much trouble I could be in because of you? Do you know what you’ve done to my life?”

  She was right. I had dragged her into my mess. She didn’t deserve it, but it was too late now. What could I do? “I’m sorry. I didn’t know it would get this bad. I honestly had no idea she’d ever pull something like this. I understand if you want to walk away now. I would, if it were me,” I offered.

  The car blocking traffic, the drivers behind us honked. “Walk away? I’m sorry, but explain to me how you expect me to walk away like nothing has happened. Let’s see, last I checked, I was out of a job, living off my savings, accused of kidnapping one of my students, and--”

  I grabbed the wheel. “Step on the gas. Let’s get your car out of the way. You’re blocking traffic.”

  Hillary looked at the line of cars behind u
s. “And, you’re doing nothing to help yourself.”

  “Please, move the car, Hillary,” I begged. “Park it over there so we can talk about this.”

  The cars sped past us, a couple of drivers flipping us the bird as they passed.

  “What? What is it you have to say?” Hillary threw the car into park. “You took off last night and didn’t bother to let anyone know where you were going and what you planned to do. Do you know how worried I was--”

  “You were?”