Tough Love

by David Horne

  Jack felt sick. He’d had child molesters try to skate around the rules before, but this was different. In a way, he was connected to it all. He had listened to Mark talk about this case, and he had met Joe Swarbrick. The ex-husband was angry that his children were in contact with his former in-laws, but he loved his children. He was much shorter and not as heavy as Lucas, but Jack could see Joe ripping his ex-brother-in-law to pieces if he could get his hands on the guy.

  Jack would have done the same in his position. But he had to put that aside. He took a deep breath.

  “I speak to you every week, Banfield, and you tell me that you’re never alone with children.”

  “Right. I’m never alone.”

  Jack growled.

  “You know you’re not supposed to be around children at all. After not telling me about this, how do I know you’re not putting your hands on children now?”

  “He’s never touched Lily and James!” Denise protested. “He loves them!”

  “He said he loved the kids he touched as well. You think I’m going to believe that?”

  Denise floundered. Lucas was wavering a little, a flicker of worry behind his eyes. Good. He needed to know that he had screwed up big-time.

  “Lucas has got a right to see his niece and nephew.” Denise said stoutly. “And they love seeing him. Lily and James adore their Uncle Lucas.”

  “I don’t care that two children love their uncle. You two seem to be ignoring the fact he’s not allowed around children. Not in the same room. You knew that.”

  “I can’t help it if I want to see my babies.”

  Her babies? Jack hated it when grandmothers called their grandchildren their babies. Made it sound rather icky.

  “You could do that elsewhere. Anywhere that wasn’t here or make Banfield leave for a period of time. He’s supposed to have a job, isn’t he?”

  “I can’t get a job right now.” Lucas said sullenly. “My last job fired me for no reason, and I can’t seem to get past the interview stage.”

  Jack called bullshit on that. Lucas had always been slack on working. He had been like that before he got arrested. Why change now? He made a mental note to call Lucas’ employer. Why the hell hadn’t they called him?

  “I can’t tell Tracey to drop them off elsewhere.” Denise was still protesting. “I can’t say no if my grandbabies want to see my son.”

  “From what I’ve heard, Tracey is leaving them here for hours on end, sometimes the whole weekend.” Jack scowled. “You didn’t think to tell her that maybe she should look after her own children on the weekends she’s got them?”

  “Tracey likes to go out and have fun.”

  “Then she should do it when she doesn’t have children around, not push them on you. Even if she wasn’t helping violate her brother’s parole, it doesn’t look good in getting custody.”

  “Their father fills those kids’ heads with a lot of things.” Lucas snapped. “He’s the bad one here, not us. Why aren’t you bothering him?”

  “Because he’s not on parole for felony crimes.” Jack shot back. He felt like he had stepped into an alternate reality. “I can’t believe you just said that, Lucas! You went to prison for molestation crimes. You were lucky you didn’t serve the whole term, and it was harsh. You got a chance to get out early and you’re screwing it up because you three believe it’s okay you can see your niece and nephew as long as you’re not alone? That’s not how it works!”

  “He never touched them!” Denise cried. She hurried to put herself between Jack and Lucas, giving Jack a pleading look. “He’s a good boy, Mr. McGuire. And he never hurt those children. They were all liars!”

  Jack silently counted to ten. How they couldn’t see this as wrong, he had no idea. It made him feel sick.

  “Trust me, Mrs. Banfield, I know who the liar was. Just like you’ve been lying to me all this time.”

  “I never touched Lily and James!” Lucas shouted.

  “Doesn’t matter. You were in contact with them and that violates your parole? How long would you have done this? All the way until I cleared you to come out of your probationary period? If Mr. Swarbrick and his attorney hadn’t brought it to Judge Harvey’s attention, then we wouldn’t have known.” He reached into his pocket and drew out his cuffs. “You’re going back to jail, Lucas. Turn around and put your hands behind your back.”

  For a moment, Lucas was frozen. Then he darted to the counter and withdrew a knife from the knife block. He brandished it at Jack.

  “Not a chance am I going back.”

  Denise was staring at her son like he had gone mad. Jack couldn’t believe what he was seeing. At least it was a knife and the bastard hadn’t charged at him. That would have sent him flying.

  “You’re kidding me, right?” Jack withdrew his gun and pointed it at Lucas’ head. “You do know I can shoot you before you touch me.”

  “I’m not going back to jail!”

  “If you didn’t want to go back, you shouldn’t have been a fucking idiot. Now drop the knife.”

  “Please, don’t!” Denise cried. She looked like she was about to cry as she tried to grab his arm. “Don’t shoot him! He’s a good boy!”

  Jack growled and shrugged her off.

  “You touch me again, Mrs. Banfield, and I’ll arrest you, too. You’ve been complicit in this, and that won’t go unnoticed when I make the parole board aware.” Stepping away from Denise as she reached for him again, Jack focused on Lucas. “Turn around, Banfield.”

  “You turn around.”

  “I’ll put a bullet in your head and I’ll be completely justified.” Jack was bluffing there, although he was sure he wouldn’t be penalized too much. “Do you want to walk out of here or be carried out? Either way is fine with me, but if you’re going to threaten me with a knife I’ll shoot you.”

  Denise wailed loudly. It was a little weird seeing a middle-aged woman sobbing in such a dramatic fashion. Jack ignored her. If he shifted his attention, Lucas could go for him. And Jack wasn’t interested in having a knife coming at him.

  Then Lucas lunged. He went for Jack’s gut. Jack stepped to the side and slammed his gun onto Lucas’ arm. Lucas cried out and his arm spasmed. He dropped the knife. Then Jack grabbed Lucas’ wrist and twisted it around, causing Lucas to be knocked off his feet and landing hard on the floor. Lucas lay dazed as Jack pushed him onto his front and holstered his gun before he started to snap the cuffs on. He was armed and could have shot Lucas, since he thought he could hurt him.

  “Did you seriously need to do that, Lucas? Seriously?”

  “Let him go!” Denise started towards him. “He did nothing wrong!”

  “Like I said, Mrs. Banfield, you touch me and I’m arresting you as well.” Jack brought out his cell phone, Lucas moaning underneath him. “I’m going to call for backup. If you even attempt to block any of us from doing our job, you’ll be joining your son.”

  Denise’s bottom lip quivered, but she didn’t say anything. Instead, she screamed and stormed into the other room, slamming doors behind her. Jack was half-hoping she would attack him so he could arrest her; she was far too unstable for his liking.

  Considering who she had for children, it wasn’t a surprise.

  ***

  “Mark?”

  Mark looked up. Stevie was in the doorway to his office, shuffling from foot to foot as he fiddled with the sleeve of his hoodie. Mark put his pen down and turned.

  “Yeah, buddy? What’s up?”

  Stevie shoved his hands in his pockets, and shuffled into the room. His head was bowed, not willing to look at him. Mark knew the look. It was what Stevie did when he was about to accept a punishment. His parents used to beat him, and Mark had vowed that no adult would ever lay a hand on him again. Even though Stevie knew that Mark would never hurt him, he still flinched whenever he had done something wrong. That broke Mark’s heart. The kid didn’t need that.

  “I…” Stevie took a deep breath and looked up. “I’m sorry.”
r />   “What are you sorry about?”

  “For getting into another fight. For being an embarrassment.” Stevie swallowed. “For being a screw-up.”

  He looked close to tears. He was a teenager and looked like a shaking little boy. Mark swallowed the lump in his throat and beckoned Stevie over, opening his arms. Stevie went to him and hugged him tightly, burying his face into Mark’s neck. Even a year after finally getting Stevie to be okay with touching, this made Mark happy. Stevie was a tough kid, and he tried to show himself as one. But he just wanted to be loved and accepted.

  “Look at me, Stevie.” Mark eased the boy back and clasped his shoulders, giving the kid a smile. “You’re not a screw-up. Far from it. And you didn’t embarrass me. You scared me, certainly, when I found out about the knife, but I wasn’t embarrassed. I’m just glad you’re okay.”

  “Okay.” Stevie bit his lip. “You’re not going to send me away for getting into fights, are you?”

  “Why would I do that?”

  “Dad would have beaten me for fighting.”

  The mere mention of the man filled Mark with fury. He was a disgusting piece of work. It was a good thing he was in jail for a very long time, because he didn’t deserve to be outside in the real world.

  “I’m not your dad. And I’m not going to hit you for standing up for yourself.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Did you think I was going to send you away?”

  “A little bit.” Stevie shrugged. “Dad used to threaten me with that when I was naughty.”

  “You were barely ten.”

  “He still did it.”

  No wonder Stevie and Christy never said anything, even though they were always in the house when their father was carrying out his heinous crimes. They were more terrified of what would happen if the toxic family broke apart. It should never be like that, not for any children. Stevie and Christy were good kids, and it had taken a lot of time and patience to get them to how they should be as children. Mark wasn’t about to send them away and have that gone. He wouldn’t want to send either child away, anyway. He loved them too much.

  “Thank you.” Stevie squared his shoulders. “Can you see about me going to your school soon? I think it will be better for me to have a change of scenery.”

  Mark smiled.

  “Of course. I’ll give the principal a call.”

  He had actually given the man a call on the way back from Jack’s office to ask for his advice. Principal Dockerty had offered to get Stevie settled in at his middle school first thing Monday morning and all Mark needed to do was to get Stevie to turn up, but Mark decided to delay taking the offer. It was Stevie’s choice, after all. Mark wanted him out of his old place, but he didn’t want to force Stevie anything. Now he could call his old principal and ask if the offer was still open for when Stevie had finished his week’s suspension. The guy had made sure Mark didn’t screw up as a kid, so he could easily do it for Mark’s foster kid.

  A blonde-haired girl almost as tall as Stevie poked her head around the door.

  “Mark, Mr. McGuire’s at the door.”

  Mark’s pulse jumped. Jack was already here? He wasn’t expecting to see him tonight. He gulped and dusted down his shirt.

  “I’ll be a moment. Have you let him in?”

  “He’s in the kitchen.”

  “Thanks, Christy.”

  Christy nodded and disappeared. Stevie gave Mark a smile and hugged him again.

  “Thanks, Mark.”

  “It’s okay, buddy.” Mark glanced at the clock. “I’ll order food shortly. Do you have any homework to do?”

  Stevie groaned.

  “I still have to do that?”

  “Don’t slack just yet. Besides,” Mark winked, “you get it done, I’ll give you an extra hour on the video games tomorrow when your ban is up.”

  Stevie’s eyes widened. Then he grinned before disappearing. He would do anything to get onto that new console system. Mark felt that getting it was worth it to see Stevie’s eyes light up. The kid was such a big gamer. It certainly made him happy.

  But sitting here wasn’t going to make Mark happy. And there was a hunk in his kitchen. Standing up, Mark dusted himself down, almost checking his hair before realizing that he was being an idiot. He shouldn’t be doing that. Jack had seen him at his worst, practically, so why bother?

  He couldn’t help but check himself in the mirror on the way to the kitchen. He was now in jeans and shirt instead of his suit, and the jeans were brand new, still relatively stiff. If he ended up showing how aroused he was, Jack would be able to tell. And Jack wasn’t about to do that in front of his kids; they didn’t need to see that.

  Jack was in the kitchen, leaning on the center counter talking to Christy. He had changed into jeans and a dark gray t-shirt that hugged his body. It was almost like he had had the t-shirt sprayed on. Christy was giggling at something Jack had said, twirling her hair around her fingers. Mark had to fight back a smile. Christy was taken with Jack as well. Who wouldn’t when he used that gorgeous smile? Anyone would be melting. Mark certainly did, and Christy adored him.

  Jack looked up as Mark stepped into the room, his eyes looking Mark up and down in open appreciation.

  “Hey.”

  “Hey.” God, why did he have to sound so breathless. Mark cleared his throat and glanced at Christy. “Can you give us a moment, Christy? We need to discuss something about work.”

  “Okay.” Christy pouted, clearly not happy. “Is Mr. McGuire staying for dinner?”

  “I don’t know.” Jack gave Mark a smile. “If Mark says it’s okay…”

  How could he deny him anything with that smile?

  “I’m only getting takeout.”

  Jack chuckled.

  “Then I might just say yes.”

  Christy brightened. She pushed off the counter and headed towards the door. Mark ruffled her hair on the way past.

  “Hey!”

  “Go and start on your homework and I might let you play that game I got you after dinner. Stevie won’t be hogging the console.”

  Christy grinned and hurried towards the stairs. Jack laughed.

  “Are you always bribing them with video games?”

  “It’s just an incentive. And you haven’t seen how awesome the new gaming console is.”

  “I don’t do video games. I haven’t got the time.”

  “Neither did I, until I got children.” Mark shut the door and moved towards the counter. “How did it go with Banfield?”

  Jack sighed.

  “Not good. They admitted to it. I had Banfield arrested after he went for me with a knife.”

  “He what?”

  “Didn’t get anywhere near me. He’s going to be having a sore wrist, though.”

  Shit. Mark hadn’t thought it could get that dangerous. He pushed aside the panic, forcing himself to calm down. Jack was okay. He wasn’t hurt. There was no need to worry.

  “You say they actually admitted to it?”

  “They did.” Jack’s expression was grim. “They told me so many times that they weren’t around children, but it seems like they weren’t adding Lily and James into that equation.”

  “Sounds like it.” Mark shook his head. “I didn’t think they would actually do that. And I wasn’t expecting Tracey Banfield to readily admit it in court, either, after the accusations towards her ex.”

  “Neither did I. I remember her when Banfield came out of jail a couple of years back. She seemed rather put together and that she would keep her children safe. Now she looks like she’s on something.”

  “Drugs?”

  “Probably. Where she’s getting them from, I have no idea, but her erratic behavior has certainly started since her brother went on parole, which tells me he’s to blame for it.”

  Mark wouldn’t be surprised. Toxic family members tended to change the dynamics in people just by being present.

  “And they didn’t think that Banfield being around his niece and nep
hew when he’s banned from doing so was something we needed to be aware of? Even if Tracey was doing it on her own and they were caught on the back foot, they should have said something.”

  “I think they believe because he was never alone with them it should be okay.” Jack leaned his crossed arms on the counter. “Trying to find loopholes.”

  “That’s not a loophole, that’s just another way to get into trouble.”

  “Exactly. Don’t think they see it like that.”

  Mark grunted. God, this was more of a mess than he realized. He pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose.

  “At least Lily and James weren’t abused. Joe would have brought it up long before, and they don’t behave like kids who have been abused.”

  “That’s the only slight silver lining to all this.” Jack grumbled.

  Only very slightly. Mark knew people’s mentality would go all over the place at times, especially when family were involved. Nobody wanted to believe family could be capable of such awful things. And there was something not quite right with that family. Mark had suspected it with his first interaction with Tracey. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, though.

  Whatever it was, Joe did a good thing getting out of that madness.

  “They’ve got another hearing on Monday where Judge Harvey gives the official verdict on the custody arrangement.”

  “Do you think he’s going to give Tracey Banfield what she wants?”

  “I hope not. I doubt it.” Mark frowned. “Judge Harvey’s a good guy. And he makes sure everything he does is in the best interest of the children.”

  Craig Harvey was an advocate for children. He always had them in mind, and he was the most respected family court judge in Northridge. Other judges had rotated in and out, but Craig had stayed. He said it as his mission to make sure kids had a voice. Mark had to respect that.

  His stomach growled, which had Mark grimacing. Damn, he should have ordered food already.

  “You really want to stay for dinner? We usually just get pizza or a Chinese.”

  “Either’s fine for me.” Jack gave a slight smile and shrugged. “I haven’t really got anything to go back for.”