Chapter Thirty-One
Natalie waited for Levi to strut through their apartment front door then shut and locked it behind him. If he’d been surprised to see her at his dad’s front door, he hadn’t shown it. Had just hurried off to his bedroom and packed up the essential toys he carted between his two homes and tossed Maria a wave on the way out the door. Then again, rolling with the punches had been a way of life for Levi since the day he’d been born, so maybe her showing up unexpectedly was just his version of normal.
She plunked her purse on the coffee table and held Levi’s backpack out for him. “Go unpack and plug up your phone to charge it. Trevor said he’d be here by seven to take us out to eat.”
Hefting it over one shoulder, he lumbered toward his bedroom. “Can we have Mexican? I wanna go to that place Bobby told me about. You know, the one with the bird on it.”
On the kitchen countertop was a yellow sticky note with her mother’s tidy cursive centered at the top.
Got your message. Playing bingo with some friends at the center. Should be home before you are. Love, Mom.
Natalie ran her fingers over the words and smiled to herself. She’d bet anything her mom announced she was moving into the same retirement village as her friends within the next six months. She never said as much, but Natalie wasn’t stupid. The only reason she hadn’t already moved was Natalie’s dependence on her for childcare.
Levi’s voice reverberated from his bedroom. “Mom?”
“Yeah, baby?”
“Can we go?”
“Go where?”
“To the Mexican restaurant. The bird one.”
“El Fenix?”
“Yeah! That one!” He bustled out of his room, a lock of his tousled blond hair falling halfway down his nose and his boots adding more swagger to his gait than normal. “Can we?”
Why not? If life had taught her nothing else in the last several years, it was to take the good when you could and enjoy it to the hilt. “If Trevor’s up for it, I’m game.”
“Cool!”
He started back for his room, but a knock on the door halted him midway. He redirected for the door, but Natalie caught him by the arm. “Remember what I said, Levi. No answering the door. Not for anyone.”
“But it’s just Trevor.”
“I don’t care who it is. No answering unless me, Nanna, or Trevor are on the other side telling you it’s us. Okay?”
She hustled toward the entrance. Sure enough, the cable box showed seven o’clock straight up, which was just like Trevor. Never so much as a second late if he could help it. She’d need to get him a key. If they were sharing I love yous and spending more time in each other’s beds than not, the last thing he needed to be doing is knocking on her front door.
She opened the door, mouth open to tell him as much, and froze.
Wyatt stared back at her, his face a mottled red and his whole body bristling with unspent rage. “You want to tell me why my boy’s here instead of home where he should be?”
Cold that had nothing to do with the late December wind whipping through her door ghosted beneath her skin. This was bad. Explosive and deadly bad. Only twice in the time she’d been married to Wyatt had she seen him like this, and one of them had ended with a backhand to her face. She shifted her stance, putting herself squarely in front of the entrance and blocking Levi from sight. “Levi, go to your room. Lock the door.”
“But Mom—”
“Go. Now.”
She heard more than saw his quick retreat and the door as it slammed shut. Firming her shoulders, she forced her voice into a calm and easy tone. “Wyatt, whatever’s got you so upset, you need to calm down. Maria called me. She had someplace to be and she couldn’t get ahold of you. I’m his parent, too. She did the right thing calling me.” She swallowed, terrified to utter her next words, but refusing to back down. Not this time. “I saw what happened on the news. I assumed you wouldn’t be able to come home, so I picked him up.”
“You saw what happened,” he mimicked back. “I’ll just bet you did. Probably were in on the whole thing.”
“In on what?”
“Your new boyfriend’s setup. Bet he’ll be pissed to know my ass was barely in a jail cell before I made bail. Probably screwed up all his tidy plans. So tell me. Did you have a hand in it?”
Tingles spider-walked down her spine and a cold sweat broke out on the back of her neck. “Wyatt, I think you should go.” She tried to shut the door.
Wyatt blocked it and shoved her out of the way. “You gonna answer me, or do I need to beat it out of you?”
She took two shaky steps back, her mind scrambling for where she’d left her phone. “Wyatt, I swear to God, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
His lips curled in an evil grin and he lurched forward. He grasped her upper arm in a brutal vise and backhanded her cheek.
Pain exploded in wake of the contact, the vicious strike reverberating down her arms and legs. The only thing that stopped her from crumbling to the floor was his hand still clenching her arm. “Wyatt, just go. I don’t know what’s going on.”
He shook her and bellowed back, “Don’t play dumb, you uppity bitch. You knew goddamned good and well what I was doing in my office and you turned me in.”
She locked her knees and tried to free herself, but there was no shaking Wyatt’s hold. From the cable box’s display, 7:05 glowed, neon blue fuzzy but a beacon of hope nonetheless. Trevor would be here. Soon. Dear God, she hoped it was soon. “I had nothing to do with your arrest. I never told anyone.” At least no one but Trevor.
“You think I buy that shit? Think I’d believe you wouldn’t spread your legs to get your revenge?” He shoved her backward.
Head still reeling from the blow he’d dealt her, the room spun. She caught herself from falling and scrambled for more distance.
He stalked forward, crowding her further toward the kitchen. “Here I thought you were the classy type. Turns out you’ll fuck just about anyone if it gets you what you want. Even a sneaky lowlife like that cowboy.”
Something tripped. A trigger inside her unleashing years of repressed hurt and anguish in an all-consuming fireball of rage. She was done with taking Wyatt’s shit. Anyone’s shit. Especially when they tried to hurt or defame the people she loved. She forced her shoulders back and held her ground, her voice shaking with fury. “No! You don’t get to talk about Trevor like that. He’s a good man. More of a man than you’ll ever be!”
“Oh, he’s good all right. Good at smuggling in those dirty products you were so quick to condemn me for.”
Her head jerked back as surely as if he’d dealt her another backhand.
Wyatt prowled closer and leered down at her. “What? Didn’t know your latest fuck had his hands in the cookie jar, too? You gonna dump his ass the way you did mine?”
It wasn’t true. Wyatt was a liar. A manipulator that twisted and abused the truth. Trevor wouldn’t peddle bad goods. He was good. Honorable. All the things that Wyatt wasn’t. “I didn’t leave you because of what you were doing. I left you because you hit me.”
“Hit you?” He chuckled low, the sound of it laced with so much evil her stomach pitched. The malevolent grin on his face slipped to show the pure ugliness underneath. “That wasn’t a hit. This is a hit.”
Before her brain could fully process the meaning behind his words, he reared back and slugged her jaw.
Her head whipped to one side, pain detonating out from her jaw and shearing down her spine. She fell against a wall, the smooth drywall slipping beneath her palms as her legs gave way.
Wyatt fisted her hair and yanked her up, pinning her shoulders against the wall that had broken her fall. “Tell me something,” he spat. “Were you as frigid in the sack with him as you were with me?”
“Wyatt, please stop,” she croaked as much as her jaw would allow. The taste of blood coated her tongue and the ache inside her skull was too great to fully open her eyes. How had she ever thought Wyatt handsome? Gentle and caring? “You’ll regret this. Go away. Go home.”
“Leave? Now?” Wyatt cocked his head, sneered, and squeezed one breast in an excruciating clench. “I don’t think I will. I think I’d rather stay right here and take what’s mine.”
* * *
Trevor glanced at the dashboard’s readout, scowled at the idiot who’d taken too long with their left-hand turn before the light had turned red and forced a slow exhale. If he knew Nat, she was more than ready to get on with dinner so she could get Levi to bed at a decent hour. He was good with that. Levi’s bedtime meant playtime for him and Natalie, and man, did they have some playing to catch up on.
The light finally turned green and the red Prius in front of him inched through the intersection, Trevor on his ass the whole way. Oh, who was he kidding? It wasn’t sex that had him fired up to get to Natalie’s house, it was the ring in his pocket. The second Natalie had pulled out of the parking lot to pick up Levi, he’d beelined it for the safe and watched the clock ever since. The only question now was if he should ask her in front of Levi, or when they were alone later.
Yeah, maybe later. He could take a hell of a punch, but if Natalie turned him down in front of Levi, his ego wouldn’t surface again for days.
His phone vibrated in his back pocket and the Bluetooth ringtone fired through the truck’s cab. The stereo’s display showed Levi Jordan. He grinned and punched the talk button. “Hey, bud. I’m just a few minutes away. You guys ready to go eat?”
Muffled shouts sounded in the background. A second later, Levi’s voice whispered down the line. “You gotta help Mom. She’s in trouble.”
Everything around him dropped into slow motion. The cars, the people, the businesses—everything except Levi’s shaky voice and Natalie’s stifled cries. “Who’s there?”
“My dad.” His voice was a little stronger, but still obviously trying not to draw attention. “He showed up a few minutes ago. He’s really, really mad and...I th-think he hit her.”
Trevor punched the gas and shifted lanes, barely missing a lumbering semi. “Where are you?”
“Mom made me go in my room and lock my door.”
“That’s exactly where you need to be. You know your address?”
“Yeah? They make us learn it at school.”
“Then you hang up right now. You call 911. You tell ’em there’s an intruder in your house and you stay put behind that door until you hear me ask you to open up. You got me?”
“Yeah.”
Trevor took the next turn to Natalie’s house so fast his shoulder hit the window. “Say it back.”
“Call 911. We have an intruder. Give them my address.”
“Good job. Now hang up and make the call.”
“Hurry, Trevor.”
The terror in Levi’s voice ripped him from the inside out, an echo of his own voice all those years ago. “I’m coming. You make the call. I’ll be there in two.”
Not waiting for Levi to respond, he hit the end button and floored the accelerator. The houses and apartment buildings on the quiet side streets went by in a blur. The past blended with the present, the same thick dread he’d felt opening the door to his parents’ too-quiet mobile home that day after school pooling around his heart. He should have stayed home that day. Had known how on edge his father had been. But he hadn’t. The same way he hadn’t driven Natalie.
He whipped into the parking lot and slammed his truck out of gear. His boot heels thundered against the concrete, as loud ricocheting off the buildings around him as his pulse in his ears.
Ahead, a woman and her daughter skittered off the sidewalk at the sight of him barreling their direction.
He took the stairs two at a time, rounded the landing, and shoved open Natalie’s door.
Natalie lay pinned to the floor. Wyatt straddled her hips and manacled her hands above her head with one hand while the other squeezed her bared breast in a punishing grip.
One second. One terrorizing and fury-inducing second seared the image into his brain before instinct took over. He didn’t register moving. Felt no remorse at ripping Wyatt off his woman and all but throwing him the opposite direction. One punch. Then another. And another. Rage poured out of him. Everything unspent from his youth and a fresh, untapped well from the present. No one touched the people he loved. Not again. Never again.
His forearms ached and his knuckles throbbed, but he couldn’t stop. Wouldn’t until the son of a bitch couldn’t breathe. He reared back for another strike.
A hand coiled around his wrist and yanked him back, another banding around his other arm for added leverage. Voices waded through the animalistic haze, masculine ones he didn’t recognize. He fought to free himself.
“Whoa, buddy. Take it easy.”
Reality crashed around him, his eyes clearing enough for his brain to register two policemen restraining him, one on each arm. On the floor, Wyatt was curled in a ball, his arms around his gut. It wasn’t enough. Not for what he’d done to Natalie. “I’ll kill him. He hurt her, I’ll kill him.”
The man on the left muttered, “Think you damn near did already.” He paused long enough to study Trevor’s face. “Hey, Mike. This one of Beckett’s boys?”
Trevor fought for air. Tried to steady the ragged in and out of his lungs and the unsteady beat of his heart. Eyes still on Wyatt, he managed a ragged “Beckett Tate’s my brother.”
The same cop who’d recognized him motioned to his partner with a jerk of his head. “Call him up. Let him know his buddy just went ape shit on some guy.”
“That’s not just some guy,” Trevor growled. “That’s her ex and he hurt her. Had her pinned to the ground.” His gaze shifted to Natalie, another policeman kneeling next to her.
Braced against the wall, she’d pulled her shirt down and had her knees pulled up to her chest as though she were freezing. Her elbows were on her knees and her forehead braced against her palms.
“Let me go.” He tried to shake himself free, but the cop on his right held tight.
“We let you go, you gonna start pounding that guy again, or are you gonna rein that shit in?”
“You cuff his ass and haul him in, I’ll leave you to it. Nat needs me.” He wrenched his arm free and barked a command at the cop beside her. “I’ll see to her. You call an ambulance.”
He dropped to his knees. “Natalie?” Christ, he wanted to touch her. Wanted to hold her, but was too terrified he’d hurt or scare her. “Nat, sweetheart. Look at me.”
Her shoulders shook on a ragged sob and she lifted her head. Her dark hair clung to her tear-streaked face, but it couldn’t hide the nasty red marks at her cheek and jaw. They’d bruise. Badly. Already, the places Wyatt had hit her were beginning to swell. “I don’t want Levi to see me like this,” she whispered.
Unable to stop himself, he pulled her against him, careful not to jostle her in the process. “It’s not that bad,” he lied. “Levi’s a tough kid. You’ll see. Let me get you taken care of then I’ll see to him.” Keeping her cradled against him, he jerked his phone out of his back pocket and punched up Zeke’s number.
His brother answered with the same carefree happy voice he’d used with Trevor and Axel at The Den. “Thought you’d be knee-deep in dinner by now.”
“Wyatt got Nat. He hit her. Bad. They’re calling an ambulance.”
Zeke’s tone shifted, the background noise and the way his voice modulated through the connection telling Trevor he was on the move. “I’m headed to Baylor. Have ’em send her there. Where’d he get her?”
Bile spun in his gut and surged up his throat. He swallowed it back. “Two hits to the face that I can see.” He pinned the phone between his ear and shoulder and shifted Natalie on his lap.
She buried her face in his shirt, the tears coming nonstop.
“Darlin’, need you to look at me.” He gently urged her face to his. “He get you anywhere else? Torso? Ribs?”
She shook her head and refused to meet his gaze.
“Just her face,” he said to Zeke. “They’re bad though. Swelling already.”
The Den’s background noise died away and the chirp of Zeke’s car alarm sounded through the phone line. “Any loss of consciousness? Dizziness?”
“She was awake when I got here.” The image of her beneath Wyatt lashed through his mind, how she’d writhed and tried to free herself. “She fought him.”
Sirens sounded outside, growing closer and closer by the second.
“The ambulance is almost here,” he said to Zeke. “How far out are you?”
“I’ll beat them there by a long shot. You just get your girl in the rig and we’ll take it from there.” His voice lowered. Calm and steady. “She’s going to be fine, brother. She’s strong. We’ll fix her. All of us.”
They would. His brothers were good that way. So were Gabe, Vivienne, and the moms. They’d fix whatever Wyatt had broken no matter what it took.
Levi’s shaky voice sounded from behind the bedroom door. “Trevor?”
Shit.
“Yeah, bud,” he called out toward the bedroom door. “You stay put a minute.” He shifted back to Zeke on the phone. “Gotta go. Gotta get Natalie situated and see to Levi.”
He stuffed the phone back into his pocket. Arms shaking from too much adrenaline, he got to his feet, cradling Natalie tight. He lowered his voice and muttered close to her ear. “Gonna let Levi out.”
She buried her face in his neck and whimpered. “He shouldn’t see this.”
“He’s not going to see the marks. He’s going to see his mom breathing and safe.” He gently kissed her temple, all the fear and turmoil he’d wrestled watching his dad hit his mom surging to the surface. “Trust me. I know where he’s at. He needs to see you. You understand?”
She fisted her hand in his shirt and gave him a jerky nod. “Yeah. Okay.”
Gently, he laid her on the couch and smoothed her hair away from her face. “It’s gonna be okay. Swear to you, Nat, I won’t let this happen again. None of it. He’ll pay for what he did.”
Something flashed behind her gaze. Fear maybe. Or hurt. He stood and scowled down at Wyatt, who’d yet to make it to his feet. Four policemen surrounded him, one crouched close and barking a string of questions. Trevor focused on the cop who’d recognized him. “That bastard was arrested early this afternoon. What the hell was he doing here?”
“Was out on bail.” The cop cast a disgusted look at Wyatt then gave Trevor his full attention. “Not thinking he’ll be able to stay out much longer after what he did.”
“I want him out of here.”
“He needs a medic.”
“He needs to get the hell out of my woman’s home. I don’t care if you have to drag him out to make that happen.” With that, he strode toward Levi’s room, paused outside his door, and pulled in a slow breath. He knocked on the door. “You ready to come out, bud?”
The lock snicked and the door inched open just enough to show Levi’s worried face. “Trevor?” The second his gaze locked on the Trevor, Levi threw the door the rest of the way open and charged into Trevor’s waiting arms.
Trevor hoisted him up, Levi’s little arms curled in a death clench around his shoulders.
“He hurt her,” Levi whimpered into his neck. “I heard him.”
Smoothing his hand down Levi’s back, Trevor bit back the need to rail on Wyatt all over again. “Yeah, he hurt her, but it looks worse than it probably is. You remember that when you look at her, all right? She’s safe now. I won’t let him near you again, not without me there. Okay?”
Levi hugged his arms tighter and nodded his head.
“Good.” He eased Levi to his feet, gave him a minute to pull his shit together, then squeezed his shoulder. “Let’s go take care of our girl.”