“Is that enough? I can’t stand to listen to this asshole talk anymore.”
Tim was confused, the man was still looking at him but he seemed to be talking to someone else.
Suddenly the man on the park bench next to them put his paper down and brought a gun up, pointing it straight at Tim’s chest. “What is this?” Tim asked, holding his hand up, as if it would stop a bullet.
“Yeah that’s enough, Jesus, this is one sick fuck. Turn around, hands behind your back.” Another police car pulled up to the curb and two uniformed men walked towards them.
“What’s going on here?” Tim asked again, sincerely confused.
“Turn around and put your hands behind your back like I said asshole, and I’d do it before those officers get here if you don’t want to get tazed.”
“I wish you’d let me have a few minutes before you called in the cops,” Dax said.
“Sorry, but I’ll put in a good word for you. Maybe he’ll resist arrest just a little bit and they can rough him up some.”
“I don’t understand, what am I being arrested for?” Tim said again, looking between Dax, the man with the gun and the approaching officers.
Dax held up his shirt to show off the concealed mic he was wearing, “For spousal abuse, assault and battery, and whatever else we can think of.”
“Kidnapping,” the man with the gun offered, “Your lady friend did say she’d begged him not to take the kid out of the apartment.”
“I can’t kidnap my own child, this is ridiculous,” Tim sputtered as the officers finally got to him. “I want my lawyers present right now. I know my rights.”
The two officers looked at each other and then at the man with the gun, “One of those kind huh?”
“Yeah, he won’t turn around and put his hands behind his back,” the man replied.
The officers smiled, one pointing out, “That’s resisting arrest.”
“Yup,” the other agreed.
“I am not resisting I am just stating that I have the right to have an attorney present and I’m going to call him right now.” Tim reached into his pocket to grab his phone and the next thing he knew he was on the ground, what felt like thousands of volts of electricity passing through his body. He felt his body shaking involuntarily and then he vomited into the dirt.
Another moment and he had passed out, unaware of the handcuffs being slipped around his now limp and non-resistant wrists.
The walls of her apartment were going to close in on her, but fear was going to choke her long before the walls could do any damage.
She paced her small living room, body wrecked, brain wracked, and spirit fearful. Why had she agreed to let Dax handle this? When he’d told her his plan and that he had friends who worked in law enforcement it had sounded like a good idea. But sitting alone in her apartment waiting to hear something, anything, was beginning to seem like more and more of a long shot.
Timothy was more ruthless that anyone ever gave him credit for, including Fern. Just when she’d thought she’d found the lowest he could sink, he somehow managed to slither down further.
What made her think that just because the law would be there he wouldn’t hurt Katy, or take her and run with her? She was so little and Timothy was so cruel, there was no telling what he could or would do to her. One twist of her small little body in his hands and she’d never see her smiling, laughing girl again.
Fern inhaled hard at the thought, her heart lurching at even the possibility that something could happen to Katy. She sat down hard on the edge of the couch and let her head fall into her lap.
After a few deep breaths she stood back up just as abruptly as she’d sat. She couldn’t do this anymore, she couldn’t sit around not knowing what was happening, she had to go find them. Maybe she could stop Tim from doing anything to their daughter, or to Dax for that matter.
Yes, Dax was bigger, but Timothy was a thousand times meaner and that made all the difference. As far as Fern had seen Dax didn’t have a mean bone in his body.
Jogging pants and bleach stained teeshirt unheeded, she grabbed her purse out of a chair in the kitchen and headed for the door. Maybe if she could get there in time she could beg Timothy to not do whatever horrible thing he was planning to do. Everything would be ok. She was his favorite person to torture, if she could just get there in time he wouldn’t hurt Katy or Dax, he’d hurt her instead.
She opened the door, locking it firmly behind her out of habit, but she stopped in her tracks as soon as she entered the hallway.
Laughter. Katy’s laughter. Coming from the stairwell.
Fern ran to the edge of the stairs and looked over. There was Katy sitting on Dax’s shoulders as he pretended to huff and puff and struggle up each step.
Water rushed to Fern’s eyes and spilled down her checks. She sat down hard on the top step. It was ok, they were ok. The relief took her breath away.
She heard them getting closer and wiped the tears away. She had to get it together before they saw her. It was a good thing Dax was taking so long to come up the stairs because it took a few minutes to school her face.
“Mama! Mama!” Katy squealed and bounced when she saw Fern, “You won’t believe it.”
Dax took the squirming child off his shoulders and let her run up the last half flight of stairs into Fern’s waiting arms.
“What won’t I believe?”
“I wish you had been there, it was so ‘citin!”
“Exciting,” Fern corrected out of habit, “Well tell me, what happened.”
“Well, Mr. Dax came up to the park and I ran up to him and huggeded him hard because he always plays with me at the park, but Father got a real mean look on his face and told me to leave them alone and so I went to go back and play all sad again because nobody would push me on the swing and as I was swingin real slow and then a man pulled out a gun, like this!” She pointed her finger at Fern, her little hand cupping the bottom of the other just like she’d seen. “And then police officers came and they stuck their little shooting wires into Father and zapped him good cause he was zisting zest!”
“Resisting arrest,” Dax corrected, smiling at the way the child was telling the story.
“Yeah that, and then Father took a little nap but then he woke up again and zisted zest some more and even more policemen came and some of them sat on him and one of them punched him in the face.”
Fern knew Katy sounded excited but she was worried. “Were you scared or upset?”
“No, Mr. Dax came and got me and put me in the police officer’s car, and he even had a dolly for me,” she shoved the stuffed toy into her mother’s face to make sure she saw it. “I was supposed to play with Dolly and not watch what was going on but it’s hard to not watch when there’s so many people and stuff is happening, you know?”
“I know, but are you upset your Father got arrested?”
The smiling happy child seemed to disappear in an instant as she came closer and sat in her mother’s lap. Her little hand ran over the tender and newly bruised skin of her mother’s face and she said, “No Mommy, I wasn’t upset. He’s been bad and he needs to go away. I know that.”
Fern looked over to Dax, but he just shrugged his big shoulders. “Did you see Father being bad?”
The little girl looked down and nodded, “I saw this morning Mama and I was so scared. I wanted to help you but I didn’t know what to do so I hid under my bed.” The little girl started to cry, her shoulders shaking, and Fern cried right along with her.
“Oh baby, I wish you hadn’t seen, there wasn’t anything you could do.”
“I could have said ‘NO! You leave my Mommy alone’ in a big voice and he would have stopped, but instead I hid and cried like a baby. I’m sorry!” The little girl cried even harder. Fern held her tighter, she felt like her heart was going to be ripped out of her chest. She’d never wanted her daughter to see that.
“No baby, he wouldn’t have stopped, he would have just hurt you too. It’s not your fault, I
promise. It’s Father’s fault for doing the wrong things.”
Fern sat there in the hallway crying with her daughter until they were all cried out.
***
“Do you think she’s ok?” Fern asked Dax as he made them coffee in her tiny kitchen? Fern was worn out. The coffee would be welcome, but she doubted it’d do anything against the towering wave of exhaustion that threatened to knock her down.
She’d been up for over 24 hours and it had been a long rollercoaster of a 24 hours. She had an even longer life ahead of her.
She felt like she was going to start crying again but held them back. She could wait to have an emotional breakdown until Dax left.
“Yeah kids are resilient. I’m sure it was rough on her, but with a mom like you I’m sure the damage with be minimal.” He looked up at her with a smile on his lips but the smile died when he saw her face. “What is it? You’re probably in shock or something. Sit down.”
He tried to usher her into a chair at the kitchen table, but she put a hand up to his chest to stop him. “No, I’m fine. Just thinking about the future. Tim might be in jail right now, but he’s rich, he knows people, and he’s going to be out before I can even catch my breath.” She looked up into his concerned eyes, “He’s going to come after me again. And you won’t always be there to fight my battles for me. I don’t have any time to waste, I have to start planning my escape right now, before he can come for me again.”
Dax stared at her, taking in everything she’d said.
“Do you know why I came over here this morning?” he asked quietly.
It seemed like days since he’d knocked on her door. Maybe it was her sleep deprivation, but time had seemed to go on forever today. “To get your phone?” She remembered he’d left it on the coffee table the night before and she’d been happy that she’d have an excuse to see him. That was another world, a world where she’d been allowed to be happy and hope that she could make a future with someone.
“That was only part of the reason, a small part,” he guided her into a chair and sat across from her, “Last night when I was walking home I realized something and I wanted to come right back over here and tell you then. And, God, now I wish I had, but I decided to let you rest and come back over first thing this morning and talk to you about it then.”
“No,” she whispered, Fern didn’t want him to say it. Not now when it wasn’t possible for them to be together. She couldn’t stay, he had to see that. “No,” she said again louder, hoping to stave him off.
“Yes.” He was determined to say what he’d come to say, she could see the look in his eyes. “Fern, I love you and this doesn’t change that. I want to be with you. I want to fight this battle with you and every other battle you face, I want to be there too, and face them together. I want you to never have another bruise anywhere on your body, because you’re too precious to me. I want you and Katy to be mine. For us to be a family.” His eyes shone in the glare of the harsh kitchen light. She knew what he was saying was true, that he meant them, and she wanted to reach out and grab this with both hands, but… could she? He didn’t even know her real name. He didn’t know how cruel and devious Timothy could be.
“Dax, you don’t know what you’re saying. You don’t know how Tim can be, he’s never going to let me go.”
“He won’t have a choice, you’re mine,” he said, steel, twining through his words.
“You don’t even know my real name, my real hair color, where I’m really from,” she protested.
“So tell me, I’ll call you whatever you want me to, just say the word. Do you think my birth mother named me Dax? No, teenage me thought it sounded cool and I’ve been stuck with it ever since” Dax reached out and covered her hand with his, “Why are you fighting this so hard?”
Why was she? Because she was scared to hope that there was a future beyond running from Tim? That there was someone she could trust and lean on when things were hard and complicated. Scared that Dax would turn into a monster that terrorized her just like Tim had?
No, she knew Dax could never be like Timothy. So what was her deal?
“I honestly don’t know Dax. I’m just scared. Scared of everything.”
“Well answer this, and everything else will fall into place, do you love me?” His heart was in his eyes as he asked, and she felt hers rise to her throat.
How could he not know? “Oh Dax, I love you so much just the thought of leaving physically hurts me. I’ve loved you almost before I even knew your name. Yes, I love you a thousand times over, but sometimes love just isn’t enough.”
Dax grabbed her and pulled her into his arms, “Yes it is. We’ll make it enough.”
The room buzzed with all of the people talking, laughter sprinkling through the sound as low throbbing music played in the background. It seemed like there were people from all walks of life clustered together in implausible groups. Here a man in a flannel shirt next to a man in a button down suit and a woman in next to nothing, letting her skin show her multitude of tattoos and piercing. Equally odd conglomerates had formed around the shop.
Fern stood near the table that was acting as a buffet for finger foods and drinks and tried to help people to cover the fact that she didn’t know anyone.
Katy came bouncing up, a little boy being dragged behind her like a rag doll. “We want some more punch Mama! His mama says we could.” Katy jerked a thumb in the little blonde boy’s direction.
“Oh, did she?” Fern smiled down at her sweet girl who was trying to get one over on her, “Well, he can have some, but your mama said you’ve already had three cups of it and that’s enough sugar. Here have some water.”
“But mama, the punch is so good!” she pleaded.
Fern hesitated a moment just to make it look like she was thinking about it, “Alright, but this is the last one.” She handed the two children cups of punch and they ran off without so much as a ‘thank you’.
“What are you doing hiding over here,” Dax asked.
Katy looked up at him, dazzled again for a moment by the sheer beauty of his smile. “Helping not hiding, besides, the only people I know here are your family, and they seem to be hiding.”
“Well, everyone here knows who you are and they want to meet you,” Dax began pulling her by the elbow.
Fern’s stomach flipped in her belly and she looked down at her hand where the new addition of a tastefully small but elegant ring sat on her ring finger. Of course they knew who she was, word always traveled fast no matter where you were.
She could barely believe it herself. One moment she’d been happy and wondering if she could have a future with Dax, the next she’d felt like everything had been snatched away and she could never live a normal life; and then she’s engaged to a man who somehow makes everything seem like it’s going to be ok.
Timothy was still going to be a problem. But she’d been granted a fast divorce, they’d issued a restraining order, and though he was out on bail, several more women had come forward claiming he’d assaulted and raped them, so they were watching him closely, assuming that a man of his means would be a flight risk.
She hadn’t seen him again since the day he’d opened her door, but her imagination filled him in dark corners and behind every bush. But that was just something that was going to take some time. Dax was also working on convincing her that there wasn’t some personal deficit within herself that made her choose to be with a man who didn’t value her. It had felt good to tell someone how she’d felt, about what it had been like living with Timothy, someone who didn’t judge her or hold her responsible for the life she’d lived. She hoped he’d tell her about his wounds too one day. She could tell they ran deep and that he hadn’t had much practice talking about it. But he could work on it, just like she was still working on not feeling terrified every time she was left alone.
It’d help when she got out of town. She and Katy were going to stay with Sandy for a little while, until they put Timothy in prison or until Dax could ma
ke arrangements for their new location to open.
She couldn’t believe he was willing to leave his town and his family just so she’d feel safe, but he’d said that Joker and Ma could manage the place without him and that he’d always wanted to see if he could recreate the success he’d had with the Fallen Five.
She knew he was lying. He was doing it for her and she loved him for it.
She smiled at the people Dax introduced her to and laughed at the jokes they told, but really she just wanted to go home and cuddle Katy and Dax on the couch while they watched something heartwarming. Maybe there was a Touched by an Angel rerun on somewhere.
“Hey now, nobody should be having this much fun at my going away party!” Sandy said, walking up to the group as everyone laughed at something Joker had said.
Joker’s smile immediately faded and the focus of his cold blue gaze leveled on Sandy. Sandy looked anywhere but at Joker. Something was going on between the two of them but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Sibling rivalry maybe? Maybe he was angry that she was moving to work somewhere else? Who knew. Fern would ask Dax about it later.
Or maybe she’d ask Sandy herself. She felt like they had gotten close in the couple of weeks since she’d moved into the apartment with her and Dax. It had been a little crowded with the four of them, but Sandy had been more than welcoming, and hadn’t seemed to mind having Katy and all her stuff underfoot. In fact she’d been super supportive anytime either she or Katy had needed anything, even if it were a minute alone. It was more than she had expected.
No one else seemed to notice the awkwardness between Joker and Sandy and the moment passed.
“Excuse me, can y’all look up here for a minute, I got some news!”
All eyes turned toward the front of the shop where Ma stood on top of the counter, her little mini black spaghetti strap dress and fiery red hair didn’t hold a candle to her personality. And while some people might look twice at a woman her age dressed like that, it was only if they didn’t know her because it perfectly matched who she was.
Out of the Ashes (Marked as His Book 1) Page 16