The next day she woke up in pain and I felt a ton of guilt. I shouldn’t have taken her and no matter how she tried to convince me that our lovemaking had nothing to do with it, it couldn’t have helped.

I made her stay in bed so I could pamper her and mom was there to mother and fuss over her which she seemed to eat up. No one was talking about the incident, that is, until Sherrie showed up with the baby in the early afternoon.

The women set up in the media room with enough girlie flicks and junk to last a month while us men hung back in the kitchen which seemed to be the new designated spot.

I checked the hallway making sure the coast was clear before going back to Tony. “Where is he?”

“He bailed out, the boys are keeping tabs on him.”

“What happened?”

“They still don’t know where he went when he disappeared last week, but it’s obvious he was planning this shit. He was watching your place, so he must’ve been hiding out in the city.”

“As far as we can tell, he watched you leave before making his approach. So far that’s all Jackson got out of him. By the way there was a piece in the newspaper this morning.”

He threw the paper across the table with a look of distaste. We both hate the media, not because we think there’s anything wrong with reporting the news, but because some of these assholes take their shit too far.

I’d thought when I left the game that my time in the limelight was at an end, but nope. They stay in my ass every chance they get, which isn’t much. Not since Tony almost ran a bunch of them over a year ago.

I glossed over the words on the page and felt my ire rise. They had her name. “How the fuck did they get her name?” He shrugged his shoulder and went back to what he was doing.

I tried to think how that could’ve happened, but nothing made sense. No one in the building knew her name, so it had to be someone at the club. Then again these fuckers have ways and means of getting shit.

I’d spent a good portion of the night after she fell asleep thinking about my next move. If I’d broken his fucking neck in the beginning this wouldn’t have happened.

Just as I’d thought, he blamed her and not me for losing his job and all the other shit that has befallen him in the last couple of weeks. So in essence this shit was my fault.

I checked on her and found her asleep with the TV going and mom, aunt Jess and Sherrie whispering. “What’s going on?” I came into the room and stood over her pulling the blanket higher on her chest.

“Nothing, we were just talking.” From the guilty looks on their faces I could imagine what they were ‘just talking’ about. Mom is usually a very levelheaded woman, except when someone she loves has been hurt.

Add the influence of aunt Jess to the mix, not to mention Sherrie and her crazy ass, and there’s no telling what they were up to. “Why didn’t you tell me that he put his hands up her skirt?”

“How did you hear about that?”

“Never you mind.”

“What I want to know is how he found her here, how he know where you live?”

“I don’t know that yet Sherrie, I’m working on it now. Speaking of which, I think you might have to put off the shopping trip.”

“Nope, no asshole white boy ain’t making me, and my girl go into hiding.”

“Girl watch your mouth.”

“Grown ass woman with a kid mama. As for you, you need to get to the bottom of this mess quick. Send one of your goons to follow us around if you have to, but the last thing she needs is to hide like she did something wrong. We going shopping and spend all your damn money.”

There was no point arguing with her, and she did have a point. Though my first instinct is to bundle Anna up and take her to Miami out of the line of fire, she didn’t do shit wrong and she’s not going to run and hide from that spineless asshole.

Travis came running into the room like his ass was on fire and one look at his face told me this shit wasn’t going to be good. I looked at his sister still asleep on the couch and relaxed. As long as she was safe I can face whatever this shit was.

“What is it?”

“My dad.” He swallowed hard and looked down at his phone. “He saw the news, he wants to talk to Annie.” Like fuck!

“Is he still on the phone?”

“Nah!” From the look on his face I got the idea that things hadn’t gone well.

“Come!” I brushed my fingers through her hair and turned to follow him from the room, leaving the women to whatever the hell they were up to. I found the last number that called his phone and went to the privacy of our room.

He answered on the second ring. “Annabelle? Sweetheart, are you okay?”

“This is Max Carrington.”

“Oh, where is my daughter?” I always planned to deal with this asshole at some point in the future, but now wasn’t it.

“She’s asleep, is there something I can do for you?” He was obviously taken aback by my words and the only reason I was even entertaining this shit is because of her attack. What I really wanted to tell him was to get fucked.

I wasn’t even worried about her being upset with

me for the way I was about to handle him, I just wasn’t focused on his ass right now and he needs a lot more attention than I was willing to give at this point in time.

“You can let me talk to my daughter.”

“That’s not gonna happen, you and I both know why. I understand you’re concerned about what happened, but you don’t need to be. She’s covered.”

“Look, I don’t know who you think you are. You took my son…”

“Say what you want to say and in the future, I’d appreciate it if you don’t call this number.”

“I’ll call my son whenever I choose.” Okay, so he wants to do this shit now.

“No you won’t you gave up that right when you threw them over for some ass. Travis is my responsibility. He doesn’t need you or anything from you.” I looked at the kid who was standing in the doorway nodding his head.

“If at some point in the future he chooses to get in touch with you that’ll be up to him. But Annabelle is off fucking limits.”

“I’m coming to New York.”

“You can go wherever the fuck you want, but you come anywhere near my family we’re gonna have problems. You got anything you want to say to this asshole?” I took the phone away to ask Travis.

Now on a normal day I would’ve pulled my punches, he is her father after all. But I wasn’t in the mood. He just shook his head no and that was good enough for me.

“You have anything else to say you can get in touch with me.” I hung up the phone and passed it back to him. “You okay?” He nodded again which was a sure indication that he really wasn’t.

“I didn’t thank you for saving your sister.”

“There’s no need, she’s my sister. I just wanna know what we’re gonna do about this guy.” See this is why I have to be more circumspect with my actions.

“I don’t want you to worry about that stuff, I’ll take care of it.”

“Are you going after him?”

‘Travis, you just heard me tell your dad that I’m responsible for you. All I want you to do is concentrate on school and your game. Leave the heavy stuff to me.”

I’m gonna have to keep an eye on his ass now too. It felt like there was way too much going on. I didn’t like the threatening tone to the conversation I’d just had with their father on top of everything else, that shit was the last thing I needed right now.

“Does your sister have guardianship of you, like legally?” He squinted and shrugged.

“I don’t think so, but I’m old enough to decide who I want to live with. Why, what did he say?”

“Don’t worry about it.” I should’ve taken care of this shit already. I hate feeling like I’ve dropped the ball, but since everything that’s happened I can’t shake the feeling that I’m slipping.

I want to be out there doing shit, but leaving her alone was not an option, not even with the women here. I didn’t expect Ray Morrison to show up at my doorstep, but I should’ve been more prepared after he disappeared. Too fucking lax, that shit’s not gonna happen again.

Back in the kitchen Tony was on the phone. I had a team of men on Morrison and his aunt and they knew better than to lose his ass again. My only concern was how to take him out without that shit coming back to me.

But there’s no way I’m letting him get away with that shit. Now I have to deal with their father and make sure he doesn’t cause any trouble for her. I don’t need her to tell me that she’s not ready to deal with him, that shit’s obvious every time his name is mentioned.

I have no intention of letting him anywhere near either of them, but we need a legal leg to stand on so at least the kid can feel secure. For that I’m gonna have to wait until she wakes up.

Some things I have no problem going ahead with on my own, namely anything to do with her safety, but this is something we’ll have to do together. In the meantime I can at least get my lawyer on the ball.

I did that now while Tony reamed the guys out on the phone for the shit that happened yesterday. I know like me he was feeling frustrated, but in the end it was no one’s fault but mine.

I got aunt Jess to take mom and Sherrie out my damn house, so I could be alone with my girl when she woke up an hour later and Tony took the kid for a ride.

I didn’t want to tell her about her dad calling, but there was no way around it. Just as I expected, she clammed up as soon as I mentioned the call. “Talk to me baby, do you want to talk to him?”

“I have nothing to say. Travis can talk to him if he wants.”

“He doesn’t want to either, but we need to do something in case he causes trouble. I made a call to my lawyer and he’s looking into what we can do.”

“You don’t need to do that, mom already took care of it. I have guardianship of my brother. Why was he calling anyway?”

“He said he was worried about you. Now don’t freak. There was a write up in the paper about what happened yesterday. Someone tipped them off obviously and somehow it got back to him.”

“Is he here, is he in New York?”

“I don’t think so, but he did say he might come here.” She was sitting on my lap, so I felt her reaction. “Hey, you don’t have to worry, no one is getting near you.”

She was still achy and a little clingy. The latter I did not mind, but the former made me want to run out and find Ray for some one on one. I pulled her head back to my shoulder and wrapped her up tight. “I’m sorry I let you down baby. I have no words, nothing I can say to make this right.”

“It’s not your fault Max, come on.” I didn’t want this to turn into another her comforting me session so I kept my thoughts to myself. “Did you wanna do something today baby?”

I was testing the waters to see where her mind was. I have no experience with a woman who’d been attacked by an asshole, and wondered if like me, was she worried that he had something more in mind?

“Sure, where should we go? You know I never really got around to seeing most of the things I wanted to see in the city, and with the school opening Tuesday I might never get the chance again anytime soon.”

I watched her eyes to see if this was one of those things where she was over compensating, but she looked excited. She’d cancelled this weekend’s dance class ahead of the big open, and we had the next few days free because no way am I leaving her side.

“We can go anywhere you want.” Wrong fucking thing to say. Not only was she not stressing over the attack, but she had a boundless amount of energy. First stop was the statue of liberty, which she made me climb.

In her words, it was good for working the kinks out. I’ve known grown men who would be laid up for at least a day or two from a hit. We had lunch at the seaport before heading into midtown.

She wanted to play tourist, which was fine by me. And by the time we were ready to head back, she had about ten pounds of chocolate from the Hershey store along with bags of kettle corn. Now she wanted to go to an arcade.

“I have all those machines back at the apartment.”

“You do? how come I never saw them?”

“You never made it up to the third floor.” She was going to town on a double scoop praline cone like a twelve year old while taking looks behind her.

“Max, I think we’re being followed.” She got closer to my side than she already was, and I looked back

to see what she was talking about. “That’s your security.”

“My what?” I had to tug on her arm to get her moving again which wasn’t easy with my hands full of crap.

“Max, why do I have two men the size of tanks following me around?”

“You really wanna do this here?” I kept moving towards the car with her shadows behind us. I knew it was only a matter of time before she made them, but I didn’t think she’d do it that quickly.

She argued my ass to death all the way home, which only took about fifteen minutes with light traffic, but she was singing into the wind. I let her have her say and then calmly told her that they were staying.

I released them at the door and had to listen to her shit all the way up in the elevator. Oh she was not feeling any pain, not the way she lit into my ass. I was still waiting for her to have some kind of meltdown, or flashback or some shit. Any one of the things mom had told me to look out for.

As far as I can see she wasn’t overly bothered by the whole ordeal and I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. “How’s your head baby? You need pills?” I still think I should’ve taken her to the doctor, but she nixed that idea when she woke up this morning. According to her she’s had worst dancing.

She took the stairs ahead of me up to the game room and I had to hear how unreasonable I was among other things. I wish I could see it as her really not being affected, but it was the opposite. I knew she was being too fucking reasonable and accepting.

And then we reached the game room. That’s where I got to see how she really felt. “Baby, you’re gonna break it.” I kept my voice low and calm. We were battling it out at the foosball table and she was taking some serious shit out on the game.

I stepped back and out of the line of danger at the look she gave me. “Not that I mind. Are you really that upset about your bodyguards?”

“Yes, I don’t need anyone to take care of me, I can take care of myself.”

The floodgates opened up and she let me have it. I didn’t interrupt, but listened, because I knew this was about more than the guards. And then she broke. I knew that shit was coming. All day she’d been full of smiles and laughter like she didn’t have a care in the world. I knew if I was still wound this tight she must be feeling something. But she’s held that shit all in. Until now.

“Come ‘ere baby, I got you.” I took her down to the floor with my arms around her and her ass in my lap. There wasn’t much more I could do but hold her and let her get that shit off her chest.

“I want to find him and punch him in the face. Then I’m gonna kick him in the balls and…and…and…” Her little frame shook and it broke my heart.

She screamed and pounded her balled up fists on my chest with tears running down her face. And I just sat there and let her get it all out. When she drooped from exhaustion I just held her, not saying a word and kissed her hair. I knew exactly what I was going to do with Ray Morrison.