Chapter 24

Remember when I first started driving and everything was scary to me? Now I can drive with my knee going 80 miles an hour eating a taco.

-Things a father never wants to hear

Jessie

I was running late, and I was riding over the speed limit by about thirty miles an hour.

But remembering Mr. Cantos’ secretary’s instructions not to be late, I didn’t care if I was riding like an idiot at this point. Mr. Cantos was doing me a favor, and I’d be damned if I showed up late when he was taking time out of his busy schedule to see me.

I made it with five minutes to spare and hurried into the offices of Carson and Cantos Legal Services like the hounds of hell were on my ass.

I was unsurprised to find Ellen already there. She’d asked me last night, after I’d gotten home from work if I wanted her to be, and I’d immediately agreed. I needed her. I wanted her there, and there was no reason she shouldn’t be, not at this point in our relationship.

Very soon, she would be my wife, and I wanted her to know now what she meant to me.

Hence the reason for her being here. Though she looked a hell of a lot more put together than I did.

I still smelled like smoke and sweat from work.

But the moment she saw me, not even my sweaty, dirty clothes deterred her from rushing into my arms.

“I missed you,” she informed me the moment her body met mine.

I dropped a kiss to her lips, lifted her a few inches off the ground for a good hug, and reluctantly dropped her back to her feet moments later.

“Missed you, too,” I said. “Are they ready for us?”

“Yes,” someone interrupted. “Mr. Cantos will see you now.”

The voice was familiar, and I immediately recognized her as the no-nonsense secretary from the phone.

“Sweet,” I grunted and walked up to her.

She pointed to a conference room on the left just across from her office.

“If you’ll both go take a seat in there, I’ll have Mr. Cantos meet you there momentarily.”

I nodded and tugged on Ellen’s arm.

“Let’s go.”

She went willingly, and followed close to my side as we each took a seat at the large eighteen-person table that dominated the room.

“Big table,” Ellen surveyed the space. “They could use some new curtains and a lighter paint color, though.”

I grinned at the interior designer. “Why don’t you suggest that to him?”

She tossed me a look. “Yeah, and ruin your pro-bono case?” she snorted. “I think not.”

I winked at her and pulled her closer to me.

“How was work?”

She shrugged.

“Okay.”

I looked at her, studying her face, as I realized that she hated work but likely didn’t want to talk about it.

I wasn’t one to dance around delicate subjects, though.

“Is there a reason you can’t go back to school?” I asked curiously.

She bit her lip, then shook her head.

She looked torn, as if she didn’t want to think about it because if she did then her dream might slip through her fingers if she thought about it too hard.

“No.” She cleared her throat and looked away. “It’s because I’m scared, and I don’t want to go back to school for that long.”

I knew that. I’d thought about going back to school multiple times over the last fourteen years, but not once had I scrounged up enough courage to do it.

“What about becoming a nurse. I hear that’s only a two-year program. Four if you want to get your bachelors. From there, you can go back to school at your leisure and get your nurse practitioner’s license.”

Her brows rose as she listened to me explain what she could do to satisfy this need inside of her. A need to do a job that she loved. One that she felt gave something back.

“I’ve been thinking about it,” she admitted. “But it might take something other than me wanting to go back to school to get me to go.”

“Like a nudge in the right direction?” I asked. “I think you won’t have any problems once you decide to go. You’ll love it. And if you’re smart and diligent about it, you’ll get done before you’re pregnant with our first child.”

She started to laugh.

“What if I wanted your babies inside of me now?”

“Then I’d say that’s fine,” I explained. “We’d just need to find a bathroom first.”

She struck me on the arm with her open palm.

“We can’t do that here,” she gasped in outrage.

I grinned unrepentantly.

“We could…”

“Hello!” Came a deep elderly voice. “I apologize for not getting here sooner. I was reading over some letters provided by someone pertaining to your case.”

I didn’t bother to ask who that was. It was likely Ghost, but the man wouldn’t know him by that name. Ghost went by something different with the club than he did in his day-to-day life, though I hadn’t figured out what it was. The one and only time I’d actually tried to figure it out, I’d been foiled at every possible turn by Ghost.

“All right, let’s get this started. Who wants to start first about when this all began?”

***

Ellen

Jessie seemed to hesitate.

“How about you begin the day you met Margot.”

And that was how I’d learned every little detail that had happened over the last seventeen some odd years of Jessie’s life, and what he had to endure in dealing with this woman who was clearly off her rocker.

Two hours passed as Jessie explained, Mr. Cantos interrupting him every few minutes to ask questions pertaining to what Jessie had just said.

It continued on like that until a little past eight, and by that point, I was sick to my stomach and barely able to keep my tears at bay.

Jessie had endured so much. Gone through so much. Put up with so much.

This man had literally thrown his life away just so his son could live a good life. It hadn’t always been glamorous, but Jessie had made it work the best he knew how.

“Well, Mr. James,” Mr. Cantos said as he sat back in his seat and looking at us both. “It seems to me like you’ve done everything you could to make sure she was happy. When that didn’t work, you distanced yourself. Yet, she continued to pursue when it was evident that she was nothing but a nuisance who didn’t have your child’s best interest at heart.” He paused and studied his notes for a long moment. “The things she’s done more recently are going to help our case the most. With her overdosing in the car on the way to the movies with your son, as well as the other tid-bits of information you’ve helped me with, I feel that we have a strong case. There’s not a judge in the county that will turn down your charges as well as your desire to have a restraining order.”

I breathed a sigh of relief, and moved my hand to rest over Jessie’s still clenched one.

He dropped his head and stretched his neck left and right, all the while he continued to stay silent.

“Jessie…” I looked at him. “Did you hear what Mr. Cantos said?”

He cleared his throat. “Yes, but I just feel like, even getting the restraining order against her and stopping her visitation won’t be enough. She’s not going to be happy about that once she gets out.”

I digested that for a moment.

“No,” I said. “But right now, Linc is seventeen. Maybe when she does finally get out, he’ll be eighteen and an adult, and this will all be a moot point.”

Mr. Cantos grunted, his bushy eyebrows lowering in concentration. “That’s true. He’s seventeen now, and from what I’ve been able to find out, she’s voluntarily admitted herself to this program that she’s currently in. She won’t be let out for at least three months as they process everything, and by that point I should have all of this taken care of and ready to go. The day she walks out, she’ll walk straight back into the courthouse and be served with the restraining order, as well as the visitation cessation order. She’ll be allowed a lawyer, but this is open and close, in my opinion. They won’t give anything to a woman that so recently left a psychiatric hold.”

I tried not to squeal with happiness knowing that that woman wouldn’t be able to sink her claws into Linc or Jessie any longer.

But before my excitement could be expressed, Jessie’s phone rang.

He pulled it out of his pocket and pressed ignore, but the moment it settled down, it started ringing again.

He muttered something under his breath.

“I have to take this,” he apologized as he stood. “Whatever you need from me, let’s go ahead and get started. In the meantime, if you need any other answers to any questions, Ellen has full recourse to make any decisions on my behalf that she needs to.”

Pride at his words swelled in my body. He trusted me with his kid. That was enough to make my throat tighten.

Mr. Cantos nodded at Jessie, who disappeared not even a moment later as he answered the phone.

I tried not to listen in, and likely would’ve managed to accomplish that had Jessie’s voice not rose.

“You make sure she has twenty-four seven guards. She could be doing this because she wants out of there.”

I stood up and turned to survey Jessie’s angry face where he stood in the middle of the lobby, and I turned to find Mr. Cantos doing the same.

“I…”

He grinned at me. “It’s okay, ma’am.”

I nodded and hurried in the direction of Jessie, stopping just short of being on top of him as he listened to whomever was speaking on the other end of the phone.

“I’ll be there in twenty.” He growled. “Call my son and tell him he’s grounded at either the house or the clubhouse until further notice.”

Without waiting for an answer, he hung up and turned to me.

“Margot is having her baby and she’s on the maternity ward at Central,” he grunted. “I don’t want to…”

I held up my hand.

“You don’t want her to be up there without you watching to make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid.”

He nodded.

“And you want me to go home?” I guessed.

He shook his head.

“No, I want you to come with me.”

My brows rose. “Really?”

He nodded again.

“Well…okay then.”