The Hardest Hit

by Teague, AS

  If she thought that the disgusting things she was saying would wound me, she was sadly mistaken. Maybe a year ago, I would have taken what she said to heart, letting my insecurities about never living up to my family’s expectations cripple me. But I wasn’t that man anymore. And her words, no matter how filled with hatred they were, no longer hurt me.

  “I always knew that you were manipulative. I knew that you only cared about yourself, but I convinced myself that you loved your kids and that it was my job to take care of all of you. But until this very moment, I didn’t realize just how twisted your sense of reality actually is. Do you honestly think that all of the things you’ve done over the years were for me? You attached yourself to me in high school because I was the only hope you had at a life that was different from what you had. You followed me to college because you couldn’t stand the thought of me moving on and leaving you behind. And you spent all the years after my kids were born using me for your own gain. None of it was ever for anyone but Shay Malcolm. It’s a fucking shame that it’s taken me this long to see you for who you really are. But you better believe I see it now. Five o’clock, Shay. Not a second later.”

  I ended the call and let the phone slip through my fingers before I dropped to the couch and hung my head in my hands. My entire body was heaving, the exertion of what I’d just said taking a physical toll on me.

  I couldn’t believe that I’d let that woman control me for so long and that I’d been so fucking oblivious to who she truly was.

  Mel’s hand began rubbing circles on my back, and I sighed heavily before twisting my neck to look at her. “She wasn’t happy that I retired.”

  Mel smiled sadly, her cheeks still red from anger. “I gathered that much.”

  “I should have told her off a long time ago,” I admitted. “But I just kept going along to get along. My life was crazy, but it was predictable. I just didn’t think I could handle rocking the boat with her, so I let her walk all over me for too long.” I shook my head. “God, I hope my boys don’t pay the price for my cowardice.”

  She scooted over, pressing her side against mine. “There is not a single part of you that’s a coward. I don’t ever want to hear you say that again.”

  I put my hand on her knee and squeezed. “I let her come between us. For years, I let her bullshit keep us apart.”

  Mel’s arm looped around my waist, and she rested her head on my shoulder. “Yeah, you did.”

  “Gee, thanks,” I groaned.

  “But we’re together now. There’s no point in beating yourself up over what can’t be changed.”

  “How is it that you always know the right thing to say to me?” I asked honestly.

  “I’m just really wise.” She smiled.

  I pressed my lips to her head and murmured, “Are you this wise because you’re so old?”

  She laughed and slapped my stomach. “You better watch it. You’re getting pretty old yourself.”

  I pulled her close to my side. “Game of Thrones?”

  “Let’s do it.”

  I grabbed the remote and turned the television on as she snuggled in close. I’d just had one of the most difficult days of my life, but with Mel next to me, it didn’t seem nearly as bleak as I’d always imagined announcing my retirement would be.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Mel

  Five p.m. on New Year’s Eve came and went with no word from Shay or the boys. Aiden didn’t seem surprised by the fact that she hadn’t shown up when she was supposed to, but as the time ticked by with no response from anyone, his anger and irritation grew.

  “Do you want me to go to her house?” I asked him. It was a quarter to seven, and we were supposed to be getting ready to go watch the annual fireworks display over Lake Michigan.

  I’d come to learn that Aiden had many traditions with his kids, and New Year’s Eve fireworks were one of them. Every year, they watched fireworks and then came home to drink sparkling grape juice and watch the ball drop together as a family. To say that I was excited about this idea was an understatement. Brooke and I had spent New Year’s together every year, but now that she was with Griff, I wasn’t sure that we would be continuing on with that. Not that I wasn’t welcome, because I knew that Griff loved me as much as Brooke did. But they were a family unit, and it was time that they started their own family traditions. I loved that I was getting to be a part of a family’s traditions and not only included in them, but wanted there.

  Shay had never cared about spending the holiday with them because there were more important places to be on that night than at home with her kids, and Aiden had gladly agreed to have his boys at the start of each year.

  “She’s not there,” he said distractedly as he typed out what I assumed was yet another message to Shay.

  I sat helplessly on the couch and watched as he wore a pattern on his floors, going between his front door to the wall of windows that overlooked the backyard and back again. “She might be. Maybe she came home and is just ignoring you?”

  He shook his head. “Ignoring me is not Shay’s style.”

  For the last two days, Shay had blown up his phone, calling and texting non-stop. He’d answered once but had quickly learned that she didn’t have anything nice to say, so he’d stopped picking up. When she realized that he wasn’t going to answer, she’d resorted to texting, and the messages that she sent ranged from pleading for him to talk to her and reconsider his retirement to cursing him for being worthless and pathetic. But the contact had stopped earlier today, and it had been radio silence for the last few hours.

  I’d never been one who advocated for physical violence, but the thought that if she’d made the mistake of coming around anytime soon, I would have to let her know that she was way out of line, with any means necessary, had crossed my mind more than once. In the end though, I’d just listened to Aiden rant the first day and then spent the second day occupying him with my ridiculous antics.

  At seven fifteen, Aiden had finally had enough and declared that he was calling Shay’s mother. I sat on the edge of the couch while he pulled up her contact and put the phone to his ear.

  “Barb?” he said a moment later. “Is Shay still there?”

  He paused, and then the crease between his brow deepened and his forehead wrinkled. “What the hell do you mean?” he bit out.

  I shoved to my feet and crossed the space between us, pushing to my toes so I could hear what she was saying.

  “Aiden, is everything okay?” a timid voice came across the line.

  “No, everything is not okay. When did Shay leave?”

  There was a pause. “Honey, I haven’t seen Shay since this summer. What is going on?”

  I rocked back on my heels and stared at the whites of Aiden’s knuckles as he gripped the phone against his head, my breath frozen in my lungs. “Shay and the boys haven’t been there? At all?”

  “No, I haven’t even heard from her. Why? Did she tell you she was coming here?” Barbara Malcolm’s voice was ripe with worry.

  “Two days ago,” Aiden managed to husk out. “Two days ago, she said she was taking the boys and coming for a visit. She was supposed to have them home by five, and I haven’t heard from her at all since this morning.”

  “Chuck!” Barb shouted, I assumed for her husband. There was rustling in the background, and then a deep voice got on the line. “Aiden!” he boomed. “What the fuck is going on?”

  Aiden quickly recapped what he’d just told Shay’s mother, and when he finished, Chuck cursed, “Son of a bitch! Something happen between you two? You have a fight?”

  Aiden pushed a hand through his hair. “You could say that. Listen, I don’t have time to rehash everything that’s happened in the last few months. I’ve gotta find my kids. You hear anything at all from Shay or the boys, you call me immediately, you got it?”

  “Sure, son. I’ll see if any of her friends have seen them,” Chuck’s deep voice rumbled across the line, and Aiden thanked him quickly before d
isconnecting the call.

  “I’m sure they’re fine,” I soothed immediately. I didn’t have to be a psychic to know that his mind had gone to the worst, and the sheer panic on his face was enough to tell me that I had to do something to keep him calm, even though I was also suddenly afraid of the what if’s.

  He pulled up Shay’s contact again and put the phone to his ear. It didn’t even ring before her voice mail picked up. After listening to her outgoing message, Aiden growled, “You better call me right now.”

  He hit the End button and pulled up Landon’s contact. When there was no answer there, he tried Owen, again with no success.

  “I’ll drive by her house,” I said, turning on the ball of my foot to grab my purse and keys.

  Aiden grabbed my arm. “No. Let me call Sandy and ask her to do that. I want you here with me.”

  I wanted to be there with him too. The thought of leaving him alone in the house while he was worried about his kids gutted me, but I also needed to do something. I couldn’t just sit around hoping that Shay would call or show up soon. “What can I do? I need to do something.”

  He tipped his head to where my phone sat on the coffee table. “Try the boys again.”

  I jumped to do what he suggested, glad to be doing anything, and sent both Landon and Owen texts, asking them to call their father when they could.

  Thirty minutes later, Sandy called to report that Shay’s SUV was not in the driveway and there was no answer when she knocked and rang the bell. That was when Aiden decided that he’d had enough. “I’m calling the police. This is ridiculous.”

  After an hour of pacing back and forth, opening the front door every two minutes, a detective finally pulled into the driveway. Aiden was waiting for him by the time he finally ambled up the stairs, and when he stuck his hand out in greeting, Aiden took it for less than a second before he snapped, “What took so damn long?”

  The detective stepped inside, and Aiden slammed the door behind him. I crossed the space and put one hand on Aiden’s forearm while sticking the other out in greeting. “Please excuse him,” I told the middle-aged man. “I’m Melanie Holstein. This is Aiden Shaw.”

  The detective took my hand in his. “It’s alright. I’m Detective Jones.”

  “Detective Jones, do you need anything to drink?” I asked politely as I led him into the living room.

  “No, but thank you for offering,” he said as he pulled a pad of paper and pen out of the pocket of his overcoat.

  Aiden had remained quiet as he followed us into the room, but when he saw the detective’s pad, he started ranting.

  “She took the kids two days ago and didn’t come back when she was supposed to. She lied about where she was going, and now her phone’s going straight to voice mail and no one’s heard from her. The boys haven’t answered their phones either, and that isn’t like them at all. Those two live on those damn things. I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt, but it’s been almost four hours since she was supposed to be here, and I’m done waiting for her. I need you to put out an APB or a BOLO or an Amber Alert or whatever the fuck it is that you do when someone’s kids are missing!” His voice cracked as his eyes filled with tears, and I swear if it were possible for my heart to shatter, it did in that moment.

  Detective Jones held up a hand and said, “Woah, okay, let’s start from the beginning. Why don’t you take a seat?”

  Aiden shook his head angrily. “Can’t sit.”

  The detective nodded, as though he figured as much. “Okay. Let’s get the basics out of the way.”

  The detective went on to ask all the standard questions, the kids’ names and descriptions of them, when the last time he’d seen them was, the last time he’d actually spoken to the kids or Shay, the make and model of her vehicle, and Aiden answered them all evenly, going into great detail when he described his boys.

  I never left his side, only interrupting him to show the detective a picture of the boys that I’d snapped on Christmas morning.

  “Now, what’s the custody arrangement you have? Is she allowed physical custody?” Detective Jones asked.

  “Yes. We have an agreement in place, but she broke that agreement by not having them back on time!” Aiden’s frustration at this whole ordeal was shining through, and I couldn’t say I blamed him one bit.

  “I understand that. We can send a patrol unit out to her house and do a welfare check,” he told an increasingly irritated Aiden.

  “No need. My housekeeper already went. They aren’t there.”

  “Is there any reason for you to believe that she would take the boys and run? Try to hurt them?” the detective asked, his voice firm but soft. It was obvious that this was not a question he relished in asking, but one that needed to be asked, nonetheless.

  He vigorously shook his head. “Not a chance.”

  The detective tipped his head. “Anything happen recently that could have made her angry? She been acting strangely?”

  Aiden paled. “Uh, well, actually, yeah.” He looked at me, his eyes bulging. “But she wouldn’t…” He didn’t finish his sentence before sitting down on the couch, hard.

  “Detective Jones,” I said, and the man turned his understanding eyes to me. “They have a history, as most people who share children do. But a couple of days ago, it reached a boiling point. Aiden let her know that he was no longer going to deal with her… crap.”

  The detective’s worried gaze left my face and shot to where Aiden was still sitting on the edge of the couch, his skin several shades lighter than usual, and I moved to sit beside him, pressing myself into his side, and wrapped an arm around him. “Well, I’ll go ahead and head back to the station to get this written up, and we’ll still send a unit to patrol her house, in case she returns.” He pulled his card out of the flip pad, and I reached for it.

  “Thank you, Detective Jones. Let me walk you out.” I went to push to my feet, but he shook his head.

  “No need. I’ll be in touch. And, Mr. Shaw,”—he waited for Aiden to make eye contact and then, with more conviction than I felt, told us both—“we’ll find your boys for you.”

  Aiden’s head bobbed slightly, and his Adam’s apple worked as he croaked, “You better.”

  The detective dipped his chin, some sort of manly exchange passed between the two of them, and then he turned on a heel and let himself out through the front door.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Aiden

  The minutes ticked by agonizingly slowly. I couldn’t stop checking my watch, watching the second hand move around the dial at a snail’s pace. The seconds bled into minutes, and the minutes turned to hours, and despite the fact that I’d called Shay and both of my boys’ cell phones repeatedly, there was no response from any of them.

  I had no idea where my kids were.

  For all intents and purposes, they were missing.

  My boys, all three of them, had vanished, and there was not a goddamn thing I could do about it but wear a track into my living room rug and hope that this was all a bad dream.

  I even went as far as to pinch myself, thinking that surely that would wake me up, but all it did was leave a mark on my arm and cause my anger to spike.

  “You know, fuck her! How fucking dare she! She just takes my kids and makes me worry because she’s mad at me? And why?” I pushed a hand through my hair for the hundredth time and continued my tirade. “You know, she spent years and years pretending like we were still together. Inserting herself into situations she didn’t belong in, fucking talking to the media even once and telling them we were still together. All that bullshit you probably heard over the years, none of it was true. I haven’t even entertained the thought of getting back together with her since college. Even when she came to me and told me she was pregnant with the boys, I knew that there was no way that we would ever work out.” I stopped and spun toward where Mel sat on the couch, her beautiful features lined with worry. “All she’s ever wanted was the fame and notoriety that went along w
ith being with someone famous. The moment that I retired, she decided that I was no longer good enough and takes off. And she takes my boys! She takes my fucking boys with her!” My voice cracked as emotion welled up within me.

  Mel pushed to her feet and moved toward me, but I shook my head and held out a hand to stop her. “I’m sorry.”

  She took my outstretched hand and laced her fingers through mine. “Don’t tell me you’re sorry again.” Her voice was angry. I opened my eyes, and they collided with hers.

  Those fierce eyes, the perfect shade of whiskey, were blazing with fury. “You don’t have a damn thing to be sorry about. You wanna call her every name in the book, you do it! You need to sink to your knees and snot-sob, you can do it on my shoulder and ruin my shirt. But you do not say you’re sorry again.”

  I swallowed hard, forcing my dry mouth to work, and stared at Mel.

  That woman was a fucking rock. She was easily the strongest, most compassionate and fiercest woman I’d ever met.

  And she was mine.

  My rock.

  My warrior.

  My partner.

  I jerked her to me, wrapping myself around her, and buried my face in the crook of her shoulder, inhaling the fragrance that had become as vital to me as the air that I breathed.

  I was a proud man. A man who worked my ass off for what I had in life. I’d never asked anyone to help me with my problems, and I never thought that I would need to.

  Just a few short months ago, I’d been too damn prideful to admit that I needed Mel. I’d done my damndest to push her away, said things that I shuddered to think about now, and through it all, through every bit of it, she’d stayed by my side.

  But I wasn’t that same man who I’d been then. And now, I wasn’t too proud to admit that I needed her.

  I needed her strength, her optimism, her intense loyalty and all-consuming determination to stay with me no matter the cost.

  “I love you so much,” I whispered into her neck. “You don’t know what it means to have you holding me right now.”