Chapter 16

Stop encouraging everyone to go to college. There isn’t enough parking.

-Text from Frankie to Coke

Coke

I arrived at Beatrice’s office—which just so happened to be my father-in-law’s office, too—and didn’t bother to stop at the receptionist who was clearly expecting me to at least slow down.

Instead, I stormed right past her, then walked at a fast clip in the direction of where I remembered her office being.

She didn’t do anything for my father-in-law.

In fact, they weren’t even on the same goddamn floor.

He gave her this corner office, with a fancy title, and basically gave her a paycheck to show up every day.

In all honesty, I knew the only reason Ben had done it was because he knew I’d end up having to pay alimony to the bitch. Beatrice was that petty.

She’d been living off her father for years, but she hated me a little bit more than was likely normal.

She hated that I’d ended our marriage, but only because she hadn’t been the one to do it.

Her father had given her an ultimatum. Leave me, and he stops giving her money.

So, she stayed with me out of greed—not because she wanted to.

She was petty, though. Meaning she disliked that I was able to end our marriage when she wasn’t.

But she’d sunk to a new low, and I was here to confront her ass and see what, exactly, she’d been thinking when she’d paid a man to kidnap our daughter.

I knew I didn’t have the full story, and honestly? I just wanted, for once in my goddamn life, to understand what in the hell had gone through Beatrice’s head when she was doing what she did.

Barging into her stupid corner office where she acted like she was so fuckin’ happy, I didn’t mince words.

“What. In. The. Fuck.”

Beatrice turned to me, looking so goddamn serene that I wanted to throat punch her.

I refrained. Barely.

“Well, Coke. For once it’s you coming to me. To what do I owe this pleasure?” she asked, looking smug.

Like she knew she’d caused something to happen.

“Did you know that you had a large, lump sum come out of your bank account that paid one of the men that was caught kidnapping my new neighbor?” I asked carefully.

I mean, obviously she knew good and goddamn well that she’d had a part in that particular scenario. I just wanted to see the confirmation on her face.

Which came not two seconds later.

“I’m sorry, but it’s not illegal to pick your own daughter up.” She paused. “From what I’ve read, anyway. I hired a car service to get her. I needed her here so we could discuss a few matters.”

Lying bitch.

She knew exactly what she’d done.

“Well, there was a problem with that. Your car service didn’t even go to the college to pick Frankie up—and we’ll discuss why you think it’s okay to do that in a minute. Unfortunately, your ‘car service’ came to my place, and they kidnapped my neighbor, who happened to be coming to my house. And you knew good and well that Frankie wasn’t at my place,” I snapped.

“Oh, dear,” Beatrice said. “Was your new little toy hurt?”

My new little toy.

Now it was all making a sick sort of sense.

“So, you knew I’m seeing someone.” I guessed where her mind was.

I wasn’t actually seeing Cora, but Beatrice didn’t need to know that. Likely, all she’d heard was that her husband had moved on and had reacted to it the only way she knew how—irrationally.

“I don’t know what you’re insinuating,” she lied. “I was just expressing concern for your new neighbor.”

Lying sack of shit.

“Well, regardless of whether you meant for it to be our daughter or not, you can’t just go around kidnapping people and bringing them to you. And, unfortunately for you, you’re about to learn that lesson the hard way,” I said.

“What are you talking about?”

I turned, gesturing for Tyler to come in.

Tyler came in and held out a set of cuffs.

“Do you want to do this the easy way, or the hard way?” Tyler asked, looking at Beatrice, whose face had gone utterly shell-shocked.

She honestly didn’t think that this was going to happen?

She hadn’t even tried to hide her tracks. She’d literally paid someone to go kidnap someone else, even if it was our daughter—which I was ninety percent sure that it wasn’t her daughter she’d intended for them to get. Whether she’d actually given specific instructions for Cora to get picked up or not was beside the point. Cora had been the one to be kidnapped, and whether Beatrice had wanted that to happen or not, she was going to be punished for it.

The days where Beatrice ran roughshod over my life were over.

She’d crossed the line, and I was going to make sure she knew it.

“I don’t think so.” Beatrice crossed her arms and glared at the two of us.

“You may not think so,” Tyler continued around the desk and stopped next to Beatrice. “But it’s happening. Sorry for you.”

Then he gestured for her to get up. “Either we do this where you’re walking under your own free will, or I cuff you and force you to walk out of here. Which one do you think will go down better in your place of business?”

That was when Ben arrived, looking worried.

“What’s going on?” Ben asked the moment he walked farther into the room and took a look at what was going down.

“Your daughter is being arrested for facilitating the kidnapping of Cora Maldanado yesterday,” Tyler said. “And I’m taking her into the station. You can call her lawyer for her if you want.”

Beatrice stood then, clearly unhappy.

“I’m right here!” she hissed, displeased that she was being spoken about as if she wasn’t present. “And I’m not going anywhere with you. I did nothing wrong. I sent for my daughter. How is it my fault that this one’s” —she gestured to me with a flick of her hand— “new hussy got caught up in the crossfire?”

It was at that point that what little respect I had for the mother of my child wasted away into nothing.

***

When I arrived back at the yard, I wasn’t surprised to see Janie, Cora, Kayla, and June still there. Even though it was closing time over a half hour ago.

I nodded at June as I walked in the door. “Thank you for staying.”

She winked. “I got to pull a carburetor off of a car. But, this one’s dad helped me do it.”

She pointed to Cora, who was smiling.

I felt my heart soften.

“You mean he took it off for you, and you got to watch?” I teased.

That’s what she always did with me.

I’d taught her a few easy things, but honestly, I’d never hired her to pull out the parts that customers wanted. Plus, she was better utilized on the other side of the business—taking inventory on impounded cars—where she wasn’t required to do things that might cause her to actually get hurt.

“Your dad was here?” I asked, looking at Cora.

She nodded. “He came by to let me know that they had your ex-wife in custody. Though, that was hours ago…I expected you back sooner.”

She flushed, and it made me feel good that she was worried about me.

“I went on a ride,” I admitted.

“I love rides!” she informed me. “And yeah, my dad does that, too, when he’s got things on his mind. I can see how you would need one after a day like today.”

I had. I’d needed it very badly.

I’d also been thinking non-stop about what could’ve happened had Beatrice hired someone smarter, and not just some random dumbass off a Craigslist ad. Then there was the fact that I had to tell Frankie that her mother was likely going to see the inside of a jail cell for a while.

Although, I was fairly certain Frankie would classify that as good news.

To have her mother not able to call her any time she felt like, it might be a dream come true for Frankie.

“Well,” Janie stood and brushed off some crumbs that had fallen into her lap from something she’d enjoyed at an earlier point in the day. “I gotta go. Rafe’s been with the baby for the entire day, and I’m sure that he’s ready to have her momma home.” She looked to me. “If I were to apologize for leaving a child with her father all day, and ignoring his pleas to come home, what would you buy or do for him that would help with his anger?”

My brows rose. “Do you want the PC—politically correct—answer or the real answer?”

Janie’s eyes sparkled. “What would you say if I said I wanted the PC answer?”

“I’d say that there was something wrong with you, and maybe we should call the cops because you’ve been either drugged or silenced by a threat of some kind. Then I’d tell you to maybe get some pizza and beer,” I teased.

She giggled and reached for her keys. “Now, tell me that non-PC answer, because we all know that I’m not a nice girl all the time.”

That was the truth.

“I’d tell you to text and make sure he has the baby happy, fed, and content enough to be left to play in her crib alone for about twenty minutes. Then I’d tell you to drop down to your knees the moment you walk through the door and give him a blow job.” I didn’t hesitate to tell her like it was.

There was one thing that I’d missed out on all of these years with Beatrice—and that was a blow job.

Beatrice, apparently, was too good to give those.

But, I’d heard that they were nice.

One day, maybe I’d trust a woman enough to get that, but for now…the only woman that I wouldn’t mind having that close to me didn’t need to be there.

Speaking of that woman.

“Are you ready to go?” Cora asked with a smile.

I nodded. “Yeah.”

***

It was an hour after she’d fallen asleep, exhausted and dead to the world, that my brothers finally cornered me.

I knew they’d find their chance.

Well—I knew that Ale would share the news that I’d found another woman with the rest of my brothers.

After our first talk about the kidnapping the morning that I’d opened my door to them, I knew that they wouldn’t be able to stay long.

Ale and Jim were headed back to their bases early in the morning, while Absinthe and Bellini were headed out tonight.

I’d intended to have at least a couple of hours with them before they headed out, but apparently that wasn’t going to happen—thanks to my ex-wife’s antics.

With three of four brothers still active duty army, I hadn’t expected to see them at all. Yet, as I opened my door, there they were. I hadn’t realized that I’d needed them as badly as I did.

They’d been there for a day, only able to stay for a short time, but knowing that they’d dropped everything to come had been enough to allow me to acquire a semblance of calm.

They’d always done that for me.

They’d never once said a word about my lack of forethought, or how stupid I was to ever get involved with Beatrice.

“So…you have a much younger chick living with you, your daughter’s away at college, and your ex-wife has taken offense to that fact.”

I grinned at Ale. “Yeah. No, she was just scared last night. She doesn’t live here.”

“Either way, seems to me like you have a conundrum,” Sin drawled. “What are you going to do about it?”

“You mean in the form of the cute little thing in his bedroom?” Jim asked, leaning back in his chair.

He had a five o’clock shadow and looked downright rough. Though, that would be gone by tomorrow morning when he went back to work. There was no room for anything but perfection when it came to being a drill sergeant.

“I think you should take advantage of the young ass,” Ale offered his two cents.

I flipped him off. “I’m not taking advantage of anything. The woman is off limits.”

“Is she off limits because she said she was off limits, or because you said she was off limits?” Jim questioned.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “She’s off limits because she’s my neighbor, she was kidnapped because my ex-wife thought it’d be goddamn funny and because she’s too nice for me. She’s a good girl that doesn’t need to be mixed up with my business.”

***

Cora

“Too nice for me,” I murmured as I listened to the men talk.

Too nice my ass. And good girl I was not.