Chapter 20

How do you politely tell someone you want them naked on top of you? Asking for a friend.

-Text from Ellen to Jessie

Jessie

“He what?” I snapped, turning to the man at my right. “What did you say he was doin’?”

The coach nodded.

“Saw her pull up here and try to pick him up from practice. When he wouldn’t go with her, she freaked out and tried to force him to get in the car. Luckily, a couple of the other players were there, or she might’ve actually accomplished it.”

I gritted my teeth and stared at Linc.

It’d been two weeks since I’d found out about Linc’s mother’s attempts at blackmailing him to do things no sixteen-year-old should ever have to do. Two weeks of searching for her, only for her to drive right on up to his school, where he was at his practice, and nearly force him away.

The one good thing I could see in all of this was that Coach Rhodes, the drug dealer that’d died with his million dollars worth of drugs on him, was no longer a problem I had to worry about. Essentially, while Linc was at school, he was safe.

Or at least I had thought he was.

“Go get in the car,” I ordered him roughly.

Linc walked to his car and got in. Lucky enough for him, he got into his car and sat there, waiting for the inevitable, on my end. If he hadn’t, things would’ve ended a hell of a lot worse than they had.

“I can’t file charges against her because they said she’s not doing anything wrong…yet. I’m trying to get a restraining order against her now,” I told the coaches who were watching me with wary eyes. “She’s a manipulative bitch who will do anything in her power to accomplish whatever it is that she’s trying to do, even if she has to use my son’s back to do it. I appreciate you calling me, but until I can figure this out, Linc will be coming straight home after school and won’t be attending off-season practices.”

Linc wouldn’t miss much. Off season was really just a way for the coaches to keep the kids in shape and sharp. Linc wouldn’t have that problem. He never slacked.

Both coaches nodded, their faces chapped due to the wind that was assaulting the open field around us.

Coach King and Coach Martin would have likely come in hours ago, due to the cold, but they’d waited for me to arrive from work.

Unfortunately, I’d been over two hours away, and none of the other club members could get off from what they were doing to help me out. And Ellen was working, and no way in hell would I call her and insert her into a situation she might not be able to extract herself from.

I couldn’t feel the cold at all.

I was numb from Margot’s latest stunt.

She had no fucking morals. Attacking my kid at school was something I never thought she’d do.

“Thank you for calling me and watching out for him,” I told the two men, offering them each my hand.

They shook it, and I nodded at them before heading to Linc’s car.

He looked at me warily.

“Drive straight home,” I ordered. “I’ll be right behind you.”

After receiving his nod, I angrily walked to my bike and started it up.

When he pulled into traffic, I pulled right behind him, staying on his tail the entire way.

When he pulled up to the house, I pulled up behind him, got off the bike, and held out my hand for his keys.

“You won’t be needing those,” I informed him. Anger at Linc’s mother made my voice come out sharper than I intended. “I’ll be taking you to school, and one of the boys from the club will be picking you up until I can figure out what in the fuck to do about her.”

Linc was angry. Really angry.

“She’s pregnant, Dad. What do you want me to do? I can’t fucking deal with that when she holds a goddamn knife to her stomach and threatens to kill a baby!”

I looked at my son, really looked at him, and finally saw what he was trying to hide.

“You think she’s going to do it.”

His head fell forward.

“I would’ve gone with her to stop her from doing that.”

“She did that to me, too, when she was pregnant with you. Used me up and nearly hung me out to dry. I was only a good lawyer’s final trick away from prison, and the only thing that saved me was the fact that she wanted to save her ass more than she wanted to punish mine,” I informed him. “Called her bluff finally. I’ll never forgive myself for that, but I wasn’t sure what else to do anymore. Nobody would fucking help me. I was a dumbass kid who wasn’t well liked. Nobody at my side to do anything about it but me.”

Linc looked up at me.

“But you don’t have that problem,” I said fiercely. “You’ll always have me.”

Linc nodded, and then, without another word, he turned around and walked away.

He didn’t even greet Ellen when he passed her as he made his way inside.

“What happened?”

The concern in Ellen’s voice had my anger dissipating. Not all the way, but enough that I could think clearly once again.

“Margot decided to try to force Linc to go with her after school. When he wouldn’t, she held a knife to her stomach and threatened to kill the baby she’s carrying. He went to get in the car, and two of his coaches saw him. They stopped him, then called me,” I growled. “I got there, they explained the situation. I don’t know what the fuck to do anymore.”

“You may not, but I do.”

I flinched, not expecting to hear Ghost’s voice coming from inside my house.

“What do you have?”

He handed me a paper.

“A court ordered psych evaluation,” Ghost said. “That’s probably why she got desperate enough to try to get your kid in her car after the warning you scared her with.”

I bit my lip, and Ellen’s head turned toward me slowly.

“Warning?” she asked carefully.

“Warning,” I confirmed.

She sighed and looked back toward Ghost.

“I don’t even want to know.”

Ghost’s lips twitched.

“That’s good, darlin’,” he said. “Because I’m sure he wouldn’t tell you.”

I barely contained the urge to pinch the bridge of my nose.

“There are some things, Ghost, that you shouldn’t tell a woman.” I laughed under my breath. “How about we go inside and have a beer. You can tell me what in the hell you did, and I can offer my thanks.”

Forty-five minutes later, I was finished reading the paperwork that Ghost had handed me, and I stared at him.

“These practically say that she’s going into this with eyes wide open. She’s openly admitting to trying to kill herself, multiple times, and she’s also admitted to taking drugs to try to quiet the voices that she hears in her head,” I said, dumbfounded.

Ghost nodded.

“And she’s going to turn them in. I made sure of it.”

“How?” Ellen asked.

“By giving her no other choice,” he said. “I’m fucking tired of it. We all got problems of our own, and you don’t need her adding to your shit.”

“What did you say to her to get her to agree to this?”

His grin was evil.

“Better you don’t know that.” He stood up. “She’s got until tomorrow to do it, or I fuck up her life worse than she’s ever done on her own.”

With that he left, not waiting another minute for us to argue.

“I don’t know what to say,” Ellen whispered. “I feel hope, but I also feel, I don’t know, maybe a weird sort of pity that I can’t quite make go away.”

I stood up and walked over to the back door, whistling for Achilles so he could go outside.

He came barreling down the hall, and I assumed that he’d been outside Linc’s door, which was where he stayed if Linc was in the house.

“Don’t feel pity for her,” I said softly. “This is the best place for her, or at least, the best place that doesn’t actually involve a grave.”

Her brows rose.

“Not to mention that it’ll give that kid of hers a chance to be born healthy if she’s actually getting proper care to ensure that.” I paused. “And my kid’s safe, you’re safe, I’m safe. We’re getting a break from dealing with her and her shit. I can’t find a single fucking thing wrong with whatever he had to do to get her into that place.”

With that I walked outside and didn’t come back in until I was sure that Ellen had gone to bed.

That night, as I laid beside her, I went through a riot of emotions.

One thing I wasn’t feeling, though, was pity or compassion for the woman whose sole purpose in life seemed to be to wreak as much havoc on mine as she could.

It hit me then. What I was feeling so intensely was free. I was free, and the relief that came with that realization would have brought me to my knees had I not already been lying down.

For the first time in sixteen years, I was free to live my life without looking over my shoulder for her to ruin whatever good that I’d managed to make or find for myself.

And in feeling it for the first time as an adult, I realized that I would be willing to do just about anything to ensure that I continued to have this feeling for the rest of my life. Even if I had to go to hell to accomplish it.