by Roxie Ray
I rolled my eyes but didn’t argue. Porter was hardly a child. But if Mom felt sorry for him, she’d accept him and maybe we could eke out some sort of relationship.
Over dinner, I updated her on what was going on with Bri. Her ex, the custody threat, and me telling her everything, as well as her reaction.
Mom bopped me on the head with the paper towel roll. “What in the hell has gotten into you? Why do you suddenly think you need to keep secrets from people?”
Like she hadn’t kept a whopper from me all my life. “I was just trying to do the right thing and protect Bri.”
She put the paper towels down and nodded. “I get it. Well, if we’ve learned anything from all this, it’s that sometimes you protect people the best when you are honest with them. If Bri is as you described, then she’ll come around once she’s given herself time to be angry and process it all. I’m sure things will work out for you.” She put her hand on my head. “My boy. You need to prepare to prove yourself in a big way, a way that she’ll never question your love and loyalty to her or her daughter.”
I leaned over and gave her a big hug. She was right, and I was prepared to do anything for Bri.
21
Bri
The anger finally abated. And nothing was left behind but love… and guilt. I gave myself all week to stew on it, and that’s where I’d gotten. He’d told me he loved me and Hayden, and I’d ignored him. Guilt. He’d bared his soul to me, and all I could think about was how it might complicate my life. Guilt. Now that I’d had time to let it all sink in and think it over from all angles, I knew I loved him too. And goodness knew Hayden was crazy about him, even if she did just think he was mommy’s friend.
Damn, I was a terrible person. I grabbed my phone Friday during lunch and shot off a text. Can we meet for dinner?
We’d texted back and forth all week, but it had been strained. And I’d always initiated them. He’d done as I asked and not contacted me.
His response put a smile on my face. Nothing would make me happier. My place or yours? This isn’t the kind of conversation for a public restaurant. Maybe he’d forgive me after all. I messaged him back to come to my place. I’d take Hayden to her grandparents’. She loved spending weekends there and they loved it, too.
After work, I gathered Hayden and listened to her rattle on about the Mother’s Day present she made me today. She couldn’t wait to give it to me on Mother’s Day, and I couldn't wait to see it.
My phone rang as we walked out of her classroom. “Hold on, baby.” I didn’t recognize the number, and it wasn’t local. But with knowing Damon was about to bring a case against me, I figured I better answer. “Hello?” I prayed it wasn’t Damon.
“Briana? This is Porter, Jace’s brother.”
“Oh, hello, Porter.” I wondered why Jace wasn’t calling me if there was news. “What can I do for you?”
“Jace asked me to call and explain in person so he wouldn’t accidentally miss anything.”
I chuckled and took Hayden’s hand as we walked. “Okay, what’s going on?” My heart clenched with the hope that he had good news. “I just left a meeting with Damon’s lawyer here in town. Not to brag, but I shredded them to bits with their false claims. Damon was…” He stopped and sighed. “Irate doesn’t quite cover how angry he got when his lawyer told him to drop the charges. But he was right to advise him of that. If they were to go to court with their shitshow they could be fined for wasting the court’s time and Damon could get into even more trouble for violating the restraining order.”
“Oh, Porter, that’s wonderful news,” I said. My heart soared with happiness. “Except the part about him being furious, at least we know he won’t come after Ha—” I cut off and glanced at my daughter, who was listening intently. Little smarty pants. “Her in court.” Knowing Damon was furious made me nervous. After what I’d endured at his hand, how could it not have? But at least I still had the law on my side.
“Well, be careful, because when Damon stormed out of the office, he was not in a good mindset at all.”
“Okay, thank you, Porter. I’ll keep my eyes peeled. And thank you so much for handling this. Please send me your bill, which I will pay happily and gratefully.”
He chuckled. “We’ll see.”
I had a feeling that meant he wouldn’t be sending a bill. If he didn’t, I’d just find his address from Jace and send a nice Christmas gift or something as thanks.
Hayden and I stepped out the front door as I slipped my phone back into my purse. Hayden stopped short and looked at me in confusion. “What’s wrong?”
She shrugged, but I noticed the slightest light coming from under her shirt. I reached down and threaded my finger under the chain and pulled it from under her shirt.
The gems on the eyes of the dragon were glowing. Shit. Jace said it was protection. I looked around. I hadn’t been in a hurry today and by the time I got everything together and walked down to get Hayden, most of the students and quite a few of the teachers were gone. We’d walked down the hallways slowly after leaving her classroom, and now the parking lot of the school was nearly bare.
But Hayden still couldn’t seem to move. “Mommy, this is weird,” she whispered. The eyes on the dragon glowed a little brighter.
“What’s going on?” she asked. “Why can’t I move?”
What in the hell was I supposed to tell her? “It’s just the wind,” I said.
She looked at me like I was crazy. “Something doesn’t feel right.”
“I agree, cupcake.” I considered going back inside, but my instincts screamed for me to get to Jace. “We’re parked close.” I could see my car, and there was nobody in the parking lot at all. No cars parked near mine. “I’m going to pick you up and run for the car before this wind gets any worse, okay?”
She nodded. “Okay, Mommy.”
I balanced my bags in one hand and got my keys out, unlocking the car before we even left the school steps. Grabbing Hay up, I walked swiftly for the car. “We better hurry,” I said. Her chest was pressed to mine, and the dragon necklace trapped between us. It was warm, nearly hot. That didn’t make me feel more comforted. I broke into a jog as I crossed the small patch of grass separating the drop-off lane from the parking lot in front of the school. “Might start raining.”
There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, but I prayed she went along with it.
I opened the back door and plunked her into her seat, then launched myself into the driver’s seat and slammed my door. I had barely gotten my finger on the lock button when two hands slammed into my driver’s side window.
Damon—and he looked like absolute shit. His clothes were disheveled and his hair all over the place. “Mommy, Daddy looks scary and my necklace is hot.”
Damn it. How was I going to explain that away? “It’s body heat, and we’re not going to talk to Daddy today.”
I put the car in reverse, but Damon ran around and glared at me in the rearview mirror. I couldn’t back up without running him over, and I couldn’t go forward without going over the curb. I’d do that if I had to, but it wasn’t ideal. My car was pretty low to the ground.
For the moment, I was trapped. I cracked the window and put my mouth close to it. “Damon, move! I’ll run you over!”
He slammed his hands down on the trunk of the car, making Hayden jump and start to cry. “I’m not going anywhere!” he screamed.
I watched him in the rearview mirror, and then nearly jumped out of my skin when someone tapped on my window. A tiny woman stood at my door. She shouted through the crack in the window. “I’m Sammy.” She craned her head toward Damon, who was yelling something or another but oddly it was nearly impossible to hear him now. “He can’t see me. The necklace called me.”
I gaped at her until my brain connected the dots. It was the witch that gave Hayden the necklace. “Jace is on the way, and hoo, let me tell you, he is hot.” She laughed and winked at me. Ah, double entendre. I hadn’t gotten it at first. Too much going on.
“Mommy,” Hayden whispered. “She’s a witch.”
“Don’t be silly. Witches aren’t real.” My gaze flew between Sammy standing as if at her leisure beside my door and Damon beating on the back of the car, which was muted somehow. I guessed by Sammy.
“They are and I know it.”
I wasn’t about to argue with a seven-year-old about witches, especially not right now. I could just hear Damon. He was going on about taking Hayden from me. “You’ll never see her again!” he screamed, but to me, it sounded like a whisper.
Hayden did hear it though. Her eyes widened. “Can he do that?” she whispered.
“No, baby. That’s never going to happen.”
Sammy waved her hand and suddenly Damon’s words disappeared entirely. He kept shouting, apparently able to hear himself, but in the car, we heard nothing.
“I told you, Mommy!” Hayden said. “She’s a witch!”
Holy shit. I was about to lose my cool. Teachers were coming out. They’d hear Damon and I’d lose my job. There was too much going on. I had to get out of here. “Hey, calm down,” Sammy said. “Everything is okay. No one can see anything.”
I watched the teachers, but they waved at each other and separated, and not once did either of them look our way.
Looking up at Sammy, I gaped. “How?”
She winked. “Protection shield.”
Hayden clapped like she was at a damn magic show, but I was still about to lose it. “I’m about to run his ass over,” I said.
But then Damon had to escalate everything. He ran around to the front of the car and pulled a gun out from behind his back. My blood turned to ice and Hayden screamed. The whole world froze in an instant. “I’m through with you taking things from me.” Then, he smiled, and it was terrifying. Sadistic and completely insane. “I’ll make sure to take good care of Hayden.”
In the same second, I heard a gunshot and saw a flash of the muzzle, but then Jace was there and Damon was on the hood of the car with Jace’s hand wrapped around his neck. Jace’s eyes blazed red, and he had his teeth bared and they looked too long and sharp.
Hayden sobbed in the back seat, and I couldn’t stop shaking. I turned and made sure Hay hadn’t been hurt by a stray piece of glass or part of the bullet or something. In my panic, I just had to make sure, but other than being scared, she was fine. Everything was happening so fast that I wasn’t sure which way was up. The next thing I knew, I was bent over outside the car, vomiting up the remnants of my lunch into the parking lot.
I didn’t remember getting out of the car.
“I’m sorry!” Sammy said. “Freezing time causes nausea.”
I turned when I heard Hayden crying, but clearly outside the car, and turned to see Jace holding her and rubbing her back. “Shh,” he crooned. “I’ve got you.”
Hayden clung to him as he walked to me. He gathered me into his arms with Hayden and held us both tight. “It’s okay. You’re safe. He’ll never hurt you again.”
And I believed him. I believed he’d never let us be hurt again, and once I knew I was safe and protected, I allowed myself to break in Jace’s arms.
22
Jace
As soon as Briana composed herself, she called the cops. Sammy disappeared before they showed up and I came up with a reason for being in the area. I’d driven my truck here to save time, so we just agreed to say mostly the truth. Porter had called and told me about the meeting.
“I took off as soon as he told me how upset her ex had become.”
“Why didn’t you call us immediately?” the officer asked. I wished my buddy, Ian, had been on duty. He was a dragon and would help us make sure the paperwork passed muster. I couldn’t tell them that the reason the bullet hole in Bri’s car hadn’t hit Bri or Hayden was because a witch had frozen time and stopped the bullet in mid-air. She’d gotten Briana and Hayden out of the car and then the bullet had gone forward and buried itself into Briana’s car seat. It would’ve gone right through her chest if she’d been sitting there.
We just kept it simple and she acted all shocked. Not an act really, I was fairly sure she was in shock. “I must’ve ducked at the right time,” she whispered. “Thank goodness it didn’t hit Hayden.”
They took Damon into custody. “There’s no getting out for him this time,” the officer said. “We’ve all been sort of following the case. It’s a small town, we all talk. And we’ve been pretty pissed when he’s gotten off with a slap on the wrist after violating his restraining order. We’re all ready for him to rot in jail.”
Damon glared at us out of the back of the cruiser and looked extremely confused in his anger. That had a lot to do with Sammy. She wiped a select few memories before she took off.
Speaking of memories, Hayden still clung to my neck. She sobbed or hiccupped every once in a while, not handling having watched her father try to shoot her mother. She wasn’t dealing with it well at all. I couldn’t imagine what was going on in her head.
After things were settled with the cops, I drove my girls home, to their home, and when we unlocked the door and walked in, Sammy was waiting on the couch.
“I’m going to take her to lie down,” Bri said. We’d driven my truck, as the police had to tow Bri’s car in as evidence. As soon as Bri had gotten Hay out of the truck, she’d clung to her the way she had me.
I went into the kitchen and looked for the makings of tea. Sammy followed me in. The house was quiet, so we both heard Hayden sobbing in her mom’s arms. The sound broke my heart.
Sammy put one hand on my back as I stood at the stove, waiting on the water to heat in the kettle. “He won’t bother them anymore,” she said softly. “That little girl will get past this, and you can make sure she has a wonderful life.”
“Damn straight,” I whispered. “That child will be lucky if I don’t spoil her.”
Sammy chuckled and sat at the table. We listened to Bri reassure Hayden that they were safe and well, then she began humming.
A good half hour later, Bri tiptoed down the stairs. I held out my arms and she stepped straight into them, thank goodness. We still hadn’t talked about us. With her head on my chest, she looked at Sammy. “She’s out. She hasn’t napped in a long time, but after that mess, her mind needs some time to reset.” She looked exhausted. I kept my arms around her and led her to the table to sit down, then set a mug in front of her on the table.
Bri looked at Sammy. “Can you take her memory away?” she asked. “If we can’t, she’s going to need years of therapy.”
“Shouldn’t she know the truth?” Sammy asked.
“There’s no reason I can’t tell her the truth while she thinks she wasn’t present. The only people who know she was there are us and Damon and two cops who have no reason to ever tell Hay the truth.”
Sammy nodded. “Okay. I can remove whatever parts you want me to.”
Bri chuckled, but it was strained and almost sounded like she choked. “Hayden was so excited to realize you were a witch. But I’m not so sure it’s a good idea for her to know.”
“I agree. Not at her age. Not yet.”
Sammy shrugged. “I can do the same spell on her that I do all the other children. When and if she tries to tell anyone that doesn’t already know about the supernatural world, her mind will wander to something else and she’ll forget she wanted to tell them.”
Bri looked at me for guidance. I shrugged. “It works for us. Of course, you still need to drill into her head that she can’t tell. The spell causes mild confusion when it’s activated and the people she’s talking to might notice that she changed the subject or something. It’s best if she doesn’t say anything to anyone at all, but if she does, it’s effective.”
“Okay,” she sucked in a deep breath. “Let’s do that, then.”
Sammy stood. “Let me grab the potion. And you decide what memories I should remove.” She returned in seconds and placed a small vial on the table. “Here. Mix this into her next meal. We have to repeat th
e potion once a year or so. It’s better to administer it a little early, so say eleven months or so. Set a reminder or mark your calendar. Then when she’s old enough to keep the secret on her own, you simply don’t administer it anymore.”
Bri nodded. “Can you make her think she fell asleep in the car and woke up in her bed? I’ll tell her the story when she’s older about her father and tell her it happened before I got her from her room.”
Sammy nodded. “I can do that. Hayden won’t remember a thing. She’ll just think she fell asleep in the car.”
Tears coursed down Bri’s cheeks. “I think it’s best,” she whispered.
Every tear that fell broke my heart a little more.
Bri stood and grabbed my hand. “We’ll show you to her room.”
She wanted me to go with her. Was it wrong for me to be happy about that even as I was upset about everything that had happened? Maybe. But I was.
Sammy sat on the bed and put her hand on Hayden’s head. A dim glow shone from under her palm for a second before she removed it. “It’s done,” she whispered. “She’ll sleep until morning without dreaming.”
We filed back downstairs. “I’ll leave you two to talk.” She pulled Bri into a hug. “I’m glad you’re okay, and I’m so sorry we had to meet this way.”
Bri echoed the sentiment. “I’m glad to know you, Sammy, and so thankful for you. If we hadn’t met Jace and you, I’d be dead right now and my little girl would’ve grown up in a much different world.”
We sat on the couch and Bri snuggled in close to me. “I can’t believe all this,” she whispered. “It’s so shocking.”
“Agreed. Do you want to sit here for a while or talk about what you wanted to talk about over dinner?”
She nuzzled closer. “I wanted to tell you that I love you. I wanted to tell you I was sorry for freaking out and getting angry, and that we’d find a way to make it work, all of it. I’m glad fate chose us for one another, and I want to be your mate or your wife, or whatever works best for us.”