“It means I knew you would either forget or try and get out of poker night. Don’t worry. I got someone totally respectable to watch Brody.”
“Who?” I snapped.
He held up both hands, backing up slightly. “Now, Jack, just hear me out.”
“Who?” I said through gritted teeth.
“Carly—”
“Goddamnit, Carter!”
“She’s a great choice,” he hurried on. “And ever since you helped out with Alessa during her whole seizure thing, she’s really started taking a shine to Brody.”
“So is Josh,” I snapped. “I don’t need him teaching my kid how to pick a lock!”
“Why not?” he frowned. “It’s a great life skill. I mean, had you handcuffed me when you dropped me off in the middle of nowhere, I might have gotten out of that situation a lot easier than I did.”
“The last thing I need is Carly and her mobster brother hanging around my kid.” It was a cheap shot considering the fact that I really liked Carly and didn’t hold a grudge against her or Josh. But I was also still a father, and as long as Antonio was in their lives, I had to be careful.
“Jack, what do you think is going to happen? Brody will come home wearing a fedora and talking like the Godfather?”
“It could happen.”
“You’re being way too hard on her. She just wants to help out.”
“Yeah, but why does she want to help out?”
I still didn’t understand it. She said she just wanted to be helpful, but after the way I treated them, how could that be possible? I wouldn’t forgive me if I were her.
“Well, when I mentioned how hard it’s been on you, how your house is never clean, you never get home cooked meals, you wear the same socks two days in a row…”
“You did not tell her that,” I grumbled.
“Well, no, but the rest of it, yeah. And what’s wrong with a little help?”
“I don’t need help,” I said angrily. “I have things under control.”
“Is that why you’re late to pick up Brody again?”
“I wouldn’t be late if you weren’t here bothering me.”
He nodded and backed away. “Anyway, drop him off at Carly’s and then head over to Andrew’s house.”
Sighing, I rubbed my forehead. “Is the mobster going to be there?”
“Probably, but since you got along with him well enough to kidnap me, I think you can handle it.”
He turned and walked away, so I got in my car and headed over to the daycare center. A night off from being a dad sounded really good right now. They’d been few and far between since Natalie died, and I didn’t regret that, but it was hard.
I rushed up to the daycare center, cursing when I saw I was the last parent to arrive again. Ellen Engleman was standing at the door with a big smile on her face, holding Brody’s hand.
“Jack,” she grinned, batting her eyelashes at me.
“I’m so sorry I’m late.”
She rested her hand on my arm, laughing slightly. “It’s really okay. I stayed late tonight so Diana could get home.”
I winced, feeling just awful they had to keep extending their hours for me.
“Actually, if you have a few minutes, I’d love to show you something.”
“Um…” I glanced down at my watch, really wanting to head out, but she had stayed late for me. The least I could do was give her what she asked for. “Sure. I can spare a few minutes.”
“Great,” she smiled.
She turned and headed back into the building. Brody took my hand, unusually quiet for the end of the day. As I followed her back, I noticed she was wearing a really tight red dress. And her red heels were those sky high ones that had to be painful to walk around in. Why would she wear something like that to a daycare? It had to be uncomfortable as hell, but she walked like she was perfectly comfortable in the outfit.
“So, what did you want to show me?”
“Oh, well, Brody’s made some drawings and I wanted you to see them.”
She bent over right in front of me and opened a drawer. Flipping her hair over one shoulder, she skimmed through a folder until she found what she was looking for. She gave a bright white smile as she stepped up beside me.
“Brody, can you do me a favor and wipe down the chalkboard?”
“Sure!” He dumped his backpack on the floor and raced across the room.
“What did you want to show me?”
She held the papers out, her arm brushing against mine as she pointed her manicured finger at a drawing. “Lately, Brody’s been drawing pictures of you and him together.”
“Okay, that’s normal.”
“Right, but today, he drew one of the three of us.”
I frowned, looking at the picture. Sure enough, there was a picture of Brody and me with a woman in a red dress. “Huh. That’s weird, but you’re his teacher. I guess that makes sense.”
She brushed some hair out of her face, accidentally hitting my arm lightly in the process. Smiling again, she pressed her hand against my arm. “Sorry about that.”
Her hand lingered just a tad longer than I would have liked, so I cleared my throat and took a step away. “Well, it’s just a picture. I mean, the kid just turned five.”
She nodded solemnly. “I know this is hard, but this picture represents something Brody feels he’s missing in his life. Now, I know I could never replace Natalie, but if you ever feel I can help in any way, please let me know. I just love Brody. He’s a really special kid.”
I got a slightly creepy vibe from her fawning over my kid, but then again, she was a teacher. It was her job to care about her students. And as I looked across the room at Brody, I wondered if he felt Natalie’s loss as much as I did. He was only a year old when we lost her. I wasn’t sure he even remembered her, aside from the stories I told him.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said, picking up his backpack. “Brody, we have to go.”
“Oh, and I just wanted to say, I know your job is so important and sometimes the hours are long. If you ever need me to take Brody home and watch him, I’d be more than happy to.”
“No, I need to get out of work earlier.”
“Are you sure? It’s really no problem.”
“I’m sure, but thank you for offering. It is difficult with just the two of us.”
She nodded sadly at me the way everyone in town did. “Please, tell me how I can help in any way.”
She smiled yet again, her bright red lipstick stretching across her lips. She was way too dolled up for this job. Maybe she had a job interview earlier today and that’s what this was all about. Who was I to judge how people dressed for their jobs?
Brody ran up to me and practically rammed into my leg. “Are we going home?”
“No, buddy. You’re going over to Carly and Josh’s house for a few hours.”
“Oh,” Ms. Engleman smiled, though it looked fake. “That sounds fun. I could have watched him.”
“It’s really not a problem. You’ve got him all day.”
“I really don’t mind.”
I nodded and turned for the door, not knowing what else to say. Brody started rambling on about all the things he did in daycare today, and I tried to follow, but the kid talked so fast and about so many people that it was hard to follow. When we got in the car, he leaned forward against the grating.
“Am I really going over to Josh’s house tonight?”
“Why? Do you not want to? Because we can just go home.”
“No, I want to go to Josh’s house! He’s going to teach me how to pick a lock tonight.”
“Buddy, I don’t think he’s going to be there.” He sagged in his seat, a pouty grin on his face. “But Carly’s going to be there and she taught Uncle Josh everything he knows.”
The word uncle slipped out before I could stop myself. Brody seemed to light up, so I didn’t bother to fix my mistake. It didn’t matter. As long as I didn’t say it again, he would probably forget about it
.
Walking up the steps to Andrew’s house, I really had to talk myself into going inside. I knew Antonio was in there. I could deal with Josh, but…Christ, I really didn’t want to deal with Antonio. Standing in the dark, I ran a hand over my jaw and tried to rein in my anger toward the man. He wasn’t a threat to anyone in town. He was just a guy that lived in the country. Hell, he didn’t really have anything to do with Natalie’s death. I was just using his link to the mob as an excuse to hate him. After repeating that to myself a few times, I finally banged on the door and waited for Andrew to answer.
The door swung open and he frowned. “Why did you knock?”
“Because that’s what people do at other people’s homes,” I said, pushing past him to walk inside. “If you ever just walk into my house, I’ll shoot you. No questions asked.”
“Geez, a little touchy tonight, are we?”
“I’m like this every night,” I grumbled, following him back to the kitchen.
I did my best to ignore Antonio, only nodding to the others as they sat around the table.
“What took you so long?” Carter asked. “I told you, one hour. It’s way past.”
“I’m ten minutes late,” I said, pointing to the clock on the oven.
He glanced over there and shrugged. “Still, you could have given a courtesy call.”
Sighing, I picked up my cards. “I got held up by Brody’s teacher.”
“What’s wrong?” Josh asked. “Is he having problems at school?”
I quirked an eyebrow at him. “And if he is, are you going to teach him a few things?”
He glanced around at his brothers, frowning slightly. “Um…did you want me to?”
“Well, I didn’t want you to teach him how to pick a lock, but now he’s all excited about that.”
“Hey, I was just making conversation. I’m ninety-nine percent certain your kid conned me into offering.”
“My kid conned you,” I said incredulously.
“You didn’t hear him. He knows what he’s doing. I’m telling you, Brody knows how to get his way. I bet he’s been doing it to you for years and you just haven’t noticed.”
“I think I would know if my own kid was conning me.”
“Maybe you should have Antonio talk to him,” Joe suggested. “You know, since he used to be good at extracting information from people.”
Carter slapped him upside the head. “What did we talk about?”
Joe winced. “Oops, sorry, I forgot.”
“Forgot about what?” I asked.
“We aren’t supposed to bring up anything that reminds you of your hatred for Antonio,” Joe informed me. Carter slapped him again. “Hey, he asked.”
I glanced over at Antonio, who looked like he’d rather be anywhere other than here. He didn’t even look like he was paying attention.
“So, what did the teacher want?” Carter asked.
He was giving me an out, so I took it. “She said Brody drew a picture of the three of us today. She wanted me to know that she would help in any way she could.”
Robert snorted. “I bet she did.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means she was letting you know she could ‘help’.”
“No, I’m pretty sure that’s not at all what she meant. I’m a grown man. I think I can tell when a woman’s hitting on me.”
“Did she touch you?” Will asked.
I thought back over the interaction. “Her hand brushed against my arm once. Maybe twice.”
“Yeah,” he grinned. “And what was she doing?”
“What do you mean what was she doing?”
“When her hand brushed up against you,” he said frustratedly.
“She was…I don’t know…showing me the pictures.”
“Let’s talk about boundaries,” Eric cut in. “Was she at a desk with you? What kind of parameters are we dealing with here?”
“She stood next to me,” I snapped. “What does it matter?”
“How close?” Josh asked.
“Right next to me, but she was—”
“Hitting on you,” Andrew finished with a grin. “Oh yeah, she wants to be your bae.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “Just because she stood next to me doesn’t mean she wants to be my…bae,” I said in disgust.
“What was she wearing?” Antonio asked, cutting into the conversation.
I glared at him. He was the last person I needed saying anything to me. “She was wearing a red dress and heels.”
“What kind of dress?” Joe asked. “Was it tight or loose?”
“It was tight.”
“How tight?” Robert asked. “Tight enough to look like she was going out, or tight enough that she just didn’t want to accidentally show off something to the kids?”
I thought of her bending down in front of me, how the fabric had stretched across her ass.
“Well, that answers that question,” Robert muttered.
“Okay, so she was dressed nice and she smelled good. What does that matter? She probably wanted to look nice after working with kids all day. Maybe she had a date.”
“Exactly,” Carter pointed at me. “She wanted a date with you. No woman would show up to a daycare in a skintight dress and heels.”
“I never said skintight.”
“You didn’t have to,” he argued.
“The real question is did she flick her hair?” Andrew asked, nodding his head.
“What does that even mean?”
“Oh, when I was dating Lorelei, she used to do this flick thing,” he said, tossing his head to the side and back. “It’s like a mating call for chicks. Did she do that?”
Squeezing my eyes shut, I couldn’t believe I was even having this conversation with them. “No, she didn’t flick her hair. If you must know, she pulled it over one shoulder.”
The guys all hissed in a breath as they nodded at me.
“What?”
“Yeah, she was hitting on you,” Eric grinned. “Exposing the neck, that’s like asking for you to come kiss her.”
“On the neck,” I said stupidly.
“It’s a pheromone thing,” Carter added. “Or a dominance thing? I read about this once. It’s like her submitting or some shit. It’s like saying she’s there for the taking.”
“You really think that’s what she was doing?”
“Hell yeah,” Josh grinned. “A sexy man like yourself…single, with a cute kid for her to play off.”
I jerked back slightly. “Is that how women see me?”
“Uh, yeah,” Eric laughed. “The kid definitely makes you a chick magnet.”
“But…Brody isn’t their kid. Would a woman really want to tie herself down to a guy with a kid that isn’t theirs?”
Robert shook his head. “The kid is just the in. See, she pulls you in with these great stories of Brody and how adorable he is. Maybe she offers to watch him sometime. Suddenly, you’re picturing what it would be like if she was his mother.”
I frowned as I thought about all the offers she made. “Fuck, she totally did that.”
“Did what?” Nathan asked as he walked into the house, followed by Tyler and Lucas.
“Jack’s got himself a lady stalker,” Carter grinned.
“We don’t know that for sure,” I said quickly.
“It’s the daycare worker,” Joe added. “She dressed up for him and rubbed up against him.”
“But did she flick her hair?” Nathan asked.
I rolled my eyes as Andrew answered. “She tossed it over one shoulder.”
Tyler laughed. “She’s totally hitting on you.”
6
Christy
“Tell me who the fuck she is!” I heard a man shout from the lobby.
Startled, I got up from my office chair and slowly walked to the doorway of my office. A disheveled man stood at the reception desk, yelling at the woman behind it. Most of the workers in the office were staring at the crazed man. He didn’t seem at al
l familiar to me, but that wasn’t unusual. There were a ton of cases that came through this office. He could be related to any one of them, or none at all.
The man stormed further into the office, raising his voice for everyone to hear. “Who’s the coward that was supposed to be looking into the Woods case?”
I instantly felt lightheaded as eyes turned to meet mine.
“Somebody fucking tell me who didn’t protect my sister and my nephew when they needed it most!”
Nobody was going to say anything. There was an active investigation into their murders. Still, I couldn’t let this man rant at everyone in the office when it was my fault. He was right. I was responsible for their deaths. I took a step forward, but a hand landed on my arm to stop me. I looked over at Katherine who subtly shook her head.
With all the confidence of the woman that ran this office, she marched up to the front and spoke calmly to the man. “Sir, I understand that you’re upset. We all are. What happened was a tragedy, but there’s an active police investigation. We can’t give out any information on your sister’s case.”
His face crumpled as he shook his head. “They’re dead,” he said brokenly. “Do you not understand that?”
“I do,” she nodded. “I understand this is devastating for you, but this is not the way to deal with it.”
“The daycare reported abuse,” he said scathingly. “I talked to them and they told me they reported the abuse to DCFS. Why didn’t you do anything?”
“There was an active investigation into the abuse allegation. Unfortunately, we were too late. I’m sorry, but that’s the only thing I can tell you at this time.”
He blew out a harsh breath, shaking his head as he looked around the room. When his eyes met mine, I quickly dropped them. I was so ashamed of my failure. I could sense him staring at me. I could feel the heat of his gaze boring into me, but I couldn’t look up.
“Sir, you’re going to have to leave or I’ll be forced to call security.”
“Pathetic,” I heard him say as he turned and stormed out of the building.
Nothing I could say or do would change that man’s mind, and I could feel it deep inside. It was tearing me apart. Every minute that I stayed in this office was killing me.
Four Horsemen: A Small Town Romance (A Good Run Of Bad Luck Book 5) Page 5