Chapter 16

If it weren’t for physics and law enforcement, I’d be unstoppable.

-Every man’s secret thought

Jessie

I knew with the way Tommy Tom looked at me that he realized finally who I was.

I also knew, with certainty, that I should’ve told him a long time ago who I was to his sister. Maybe then he wouldn’t feel so betrayed.

I thought I’d have more time, though.

Thought that I’d have more time to get him on my side, to see that I wasn’t who I used to be, before he figured it out.

The fist… I should’ve seen that coming.

The right hook I actually did see coming, but did I stop it? No, I didn’t.

Because I deserved that and more.

I’d been a stupid kid. A stupid, fucked up kid who didn’t have a leg to stand on.

Speaking of legs, mine went out from under me at that moment, just like they always did when I least wanted them to.

I hit my back and saw stars, barely able to keep my head up off the ground in time for it to slam into the ground with the momentum.

“Tommy!” I heard Tommy’s wife, Tally, call out in surprise. “Why are you hitting him?”

I rolled over to my back, barely in time to avoid a kick to the ribs, courtesy of Tommy Tom’s booted foot.

“You motherfucker,” Tommy snarled. “You. Mother. Fucker!”

I pushed myself up on my hands and knees, then went up to my knees only and regarded the man that was going to become my brother-in-law.

“Your sister was kicked out of her rental,” I informed him. “You either help me move her shit into my place,” I coughed, wiping away blood from my lip. “Or you don’t. Either way she’s moving in with me.”

“You gutted her, man,” Tommy kept on.

My eyes closed and I looked away, my tongue darting out and licking the line of blood that was still oozing from my split lip.

“I have a lot of reasons for doing what I did,” I told him. “I was in a bad place. My fuckin’ psycho ex, who is still in the picture might I add, wasn’t and isn’t a nice person. She’s a sneaky bitch who lies, manipulates and steals to get what she wants. And when I walked in on your mother telling Ellen that she wasn’t going to pay for medical school for your sister, like she did for you, I knew that, maybe, it was best if I didn’t stay. Maybe it was best that I go and give her that chance she needed to shine bright without the fucked up cloud of my baggage hanging over her head the whole way.”

“But that didn’t work,” Tommy Tom drawled. “And you expect me to believe that, after all this time, all the shit between you both will be erased now that you’re together again?”

I stood up, ignoring the way my knees creaked in resistance, and stared the man right in the eye.

“I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure she’s happy,” I promised him. “If she needs me to shoot my own self in the foot, then I’ll damn well do it just to see her smile.”

“Awww,” Tally cooed. “Tommy, go fucking away. Let’s get her packed up.”

Tally walked around her husband, shoving him in the gut with her shoulder on her way, causing her husband to grunt in annoyance.

All to receive an ‘I’m not going to kill you—not right now but soon’ look from Tommy Tom. The moment I got the clear to proceed, I walked around him and inside, giving him a wide berth as I did.

My jaw was aching, and by tonight, it’d likely be bruised, making it hard to eat. But it’d be worth it. Every single second.

Ellen had a soft spot when it came to her brother, and right now, we needed to work together to get all of her stuff out before the deadline hit us.

Tomorrow, though, when we were done. I knew all bets would be off. He’d hit me with everything he had, and I’d be ready for him.

***

We were three hours into packing Ellen’s house when Ellen finally arrived.

She was staring at the driveway to her house with her mouth hanging wide open.

She had a pitiful amount of five boxes under her arms, and she was staring at the massive stack of boxes ready to be loaded into the boys’ trucks with what amounted to awe.

Big Papa, who was on the phone with someone from his work, was pacing the end of the driveway while he looked around worriedly.

The moment his eyes lit on Ellen, he grinned, waved her past him, and went back to his phone call.

Ellen, on stiff feet, walked toward the group of men who were filling a pickup truck bed full of her things, and came to a halt.

“Jessie…” she breathed. “What the hell?”

I jumped down from the truck and gathered her into me for a quick, hard kiss. “Told you not to worry, babe.”

She blinked.

“You told me not to worry,” she repeated. “Okay.”

The last word was said so sarcastically that I nearly laughed.

“It’ll be okay,” I promised her.

She bit her lip. “I don’t think…”

I pressed another kiss to her lips to silence her. “Go pack your clothes with the boxes you have. We’ll talk once you’re done.”

She bared her teeth at me.

I lifted my hand and dug the tips of my fingers into her ticklish side, causing her to squawk at me. “Ack!”

She dropped her boxes, and I started to laugh.

When I bent down to get them, she pushed my head away with the side of her ass, and then picked them up herself.

The new position put me right in line with her ass cheek, so I did what any sane man would do.

I bit that delectable piece of flesh.

Then took off before she could retaliate.

“Not funny, James!” she called at my retreating back.

I winked at her over my shoulder.

She snarled silently at me and followed the path up the walk to her house. When she disappeared inside, I grabbed another box from the pile and halted suddenly when I came face-to-face with an expressionless Tommy Tom.

“What?” I asked him.

“You act differently around her,” he accused. “Like you’re fucking human.”

I shrugged.

“Doesn’t mean that you’re off the hook.”

I raised a brow at him.

He growled something under his breath, grabbed his own box, and took off.

Before I could follow suit, Ghost appeared out of nowhere with haunted eyes.

“How’s it going, man?”

I hadn’t expected him to answer me. If I were being honest, this was something he never did. I didn’t know if it was due to me being so new or the fact that he didn’t like me, but the man never spoke to me at all. When he did, it was to relay something that somebody else asked him to relay.

“Fucking dandy,” Ghost grumbled. “Found my kid and wife, though.”

My brows shot up to my hairline. “I thought that they moved and you couldn’t find them.”

He picked up two boxes and walked away without answering, leaving me with the question of ‘is that it?’ before I followed behind him.

There was no talking again until well past lunchtime, and by that point my belly was eating the inside lining due to its eagerness to have food filling it.

“Babe,” I yelled at Ellen when she started to pass me.

She glared. “What?”

“Will you order some pizza?” I asked, placing the box on the tailgate of Big Papa’s old Chevy Silverado. “Here’s my wallet. Just try not to spend over two hundred dollars or you might need to use the credit card instead of the bank card.”

Her lips thinned, but she took the wallet without a word and walked away, only looking back once to glance at me to see if I was still standing there watching her go.

I was.

I watched her until I couldn’t watch her anymore. Then continued to watch until she passed by the large picture window in between the kitchen and the dining room.

She paused and looked out, her eyes catching mine, and gave me a tiny smile that told me this wasn’t nearly as bad as it could be. She could be really pissed. She could hate me for inadvertently causing her to get kicked out of her place and practically forcing her to move into mine. She could be doing a lot of things right now, but she was calm, cool, collected and helping us pack.

That was not the way I would think that a woman not keen on moving in with a man would act if she really didn’t want to do what she was doing.

No, she wasn’t upset by this at all.

Not even a little bit.

***

“Dad, do you want me to take her clothes into your room, or the spare bed…” I gave him a look, and Linc started to walk away, heading toward my room with the box that held all of Ellen’s clothes.

“This is the last box,” Big Papa said, setting the cardboard monstrosity down next to the other piled boxes.

I offered him my hand, and he took it.

“I got some news today while we were moving that you’re not going to like.”

I waited for him to explain, and he didn’t leave me in suspense for long.

“Your ex made bail last night.”

My head tilted.

“How did she make bail already?” I grunted, not really surprised that she found a way out.

“Had someone show to pay the big bucks.” Big Papa shook his head. “They let her out of there yesterday. She sat in a jail cell for about three hours before she was allowed to make her one phone call. A man showed up to pick her up; supposedly he looked pretty rough, too.”

I gritted my teeth.

“Probably her fuckin’ dealer,” I grumbled, dropping his hand. “Maybe even the baby daddy.”

Big Papa shrugged. “Could be. I don’t know. Asked the man on duty if he had any details on the man. He gave me his info he had to fill out to post bail, but every piece of information was forged. License was fake. Pulled the video feed, and the man knew not to look up at the cameras. Never got a clear view of his face. We have nothing but the plate number at this point, which we’re running.”

Fucking figured.

I nodded. “Thanks.”

He clapped me on the shoulder and headed for the door.

“She comes over here again, I suggest you file a restraining order,” he advised. “That way you have something to fall back on when you take this to court.”

“How do you know I’m taking this to court?” I questioned.

He opened the door and stepped through it. “Been a cop for thirty years now, boy. I know this kind of behavior better than you, and you’ve been dealing with it firsthand for going on sixteen years now.”

I grunted.

Big Papa’s smile was wry. “She’ll come around. What you need to be thinking on is what you’ll say to your boy when you tell him that he won’t be seeing her anymore.”

Big Papa’s eyes flashed to somewhere behind me, and I knew that Linc was there. Probably had been for a while.

“See you tomorrow at church.”

Then he was gone, leaving me with my son, who was clearly not very happy with what he’d just overheard.

“Dad…”

I held up my hand. “Tomorrow, after your game, we’ll discuss this. We’re not doing it now. It’s nothing dire. Nothing that’s going to change in between then and now. So please, for the love of all that’s holy, go to bed. Get the rest you need. You’ve got a game tomorrow; I have to get up early and get half a day in of work before I head to the game. And there are fuckin’ boxes to unpack.”

Linc’s lips twitched. “She’s passed out on your bed. I only dropped the box inside the door before I left her.”

“What about Achilles?” I started scanning the room.

He was nowhere to be found.

“Took him out before you got home,” he said. “He’s in my room, sleeping on an old pillow.”

I nodded once. “When you leave tomorrow, let him out and then put him on the couch,” I said. “Good luck tomorrow, boy.”

Then I pulled my kid into a hug that wasn’t made for pussies.

He groaned and squeezed me just as hard back.

“Love you, kid.”

Linc let me go, and then walked away. “Love you too, Dad.”

My fucking heart swelled, and I couldn’t keep the smile off my face as I locked up and set the alarm.

Making a mental note to give the code to Ellen in the morning, in case she wanted to leave and come back after I left for work, I headed to the bedroom. Stopping just as I had yesterday to admire her sleeping.

Yes, I could definitely get used to this.