Four days later, I was feeling the smallest spark of hope.
I tried to keep it contained. The last thing I needed was that exploding in my face, but I didn’t smother it down to nothing either.
The pills were working. Kate was sleeping through the night, and just that change was fucking remarkable. Even after the first night, she’d stopped looking like the walking dead and started resembling the Kate I'd known since Joel brought her into my world when I was thirteen. Three more days of actually sleeping, and she looked perfectly normal again.
I knew that difference was still mostly exterior, though. She’d lined up an appointment with a therapist Doc found for a couple weeks out. Then, the hard work of dragging the real Kate back to the land of the living would start. But even she seemed a little more hopeful about what that work could bring now.
Avery, the beautiful fucking woman, was throwing herself into helping me with everything. Kate’s pills were still an adjustment, so she was sleeping in quite late. Which, compared to her not sleeping at all, was a far better option. Avery would get up with me so Owen wouldn’t be alone or stuck in his room because no adults were up yet. She’d make both of us breakfast, and take a shift of watching out for him while I showered.
When I’d tried to tell her she didn’t have to, she’d shut me down.
But more amazing than that was what she was doing with Kate.
After Avery wrangled Kate away from that scene, the two seemed to have formed some kind of bond. Before, Kate would slink from the room if anyone else was around with me—even Doc, who she’d known for about as long as she did me—but it was like she was more inclined to stay if Avery was around.
Hell, I'd even come into rooms and found just the two of them, shocking the fuck out of me.
Like right then.
Avery was in the kitchen, making chocolate chip cookies with Owen’s “help.” Even though her son was supervised, Kate didn’t take the opportunity to hide away. She was right there with them, helping Owen with the tasks Avery gave them.
They were pouring in measured cups of flour and shit, which Owen was getting a kick out of. He was laughing at the little powder clouds billowing up from the bowl when his mom tipped his hand to let the ingredients fall in. Avery was to the side, measuring the next items by memory with a smile on her face at his delight.
But what made the sight absolutely fucking amazing was the fact that Kate was smiling too.
She’d had them for her son when he was looking at her, not wanting him to feel that agony she carried with her. They weren’t entirely disingenuous, but they weren’t the real, bright ones she used to give. Outside of that, I hadn’t seen one—forced or otherwise. Right then, even though Owen’s back was to her, she had a small smile gracing her lips I’d be fucking shocked if she even knew was there.
Avery did that.
Later that night, I was in the office at Candy Shop, looking through pricing quotes from a couple liquor distributors. More than one of the last few shipments from our current company had arrived with errors—under-packed boxes, wrong brands, all kinds of headaches. At the same time they were fucking up, they were jacking up prices.
So, it was time to jump ship and find someone else to meet that need.
I was starting to consider ordering from two different companies to get the best rates on various products when there was a knock at the door.
Secretly hoping it was Avery coming in to distract us both with something far more fun than work, I called, “Come in.”
It was David.
Thoughts of middle-of-work delight were gone in an instant.
If one of the security team knocked on my door during hours, that was rarely a good sign.
“Talk,” I ordered.
“Got eyes on that guy you sent the profile around for,” he stated.
Aaron.
That motherfucker was sniffing around my goddamn club now.
“When?”
“Just now. Scott saw him, radioed in to me. Says he was walking down the sidewalk. Came by, Scott couldn’t get a look. Then he walked back again and got under the lights just so. Says it was definitely him. I instructed him to follow, but to keep that shit discreet. Says he walked a couple lots down, then got in a black sedan, few years old. Scott got a partial plate on it and said the guy was headed south.”
I already had my phone out, getting Jager’s info pulled up.
“Right,” I responded to David as I hit call.
“You want the plate?” he asked.
Jager’s line was already ringing. “No. Got it already.”
He read the dismissal and stepped back out.
A moment later, the ringing cut off, and I got a, “Yeah?”
“Where’s that fucker staying?” I demanded without preamble.
“The motel on Western,” he answered without delay.
I knew the place, and it was south of here.
“Got it,” I wrapped up, hanging up then. Jager didn’t do chitchat and I was in no fucking mood.
I was on the move, not stopping to think it through. He’d had his warning. I’d even stuck to my end of the bargain and hadn’t gone after his ass. Now, he was trying to skulk around outside where Avery worked.
No. That shit was not going to fly.
On the way out, I ran into David again at the exit. Forcing myself to think rationally for even a fucking moment, I stopped, and told him, “You see Avery, tell her I’ll be back soon.”
“Got it, boss.”
That was all the rational I had in me. I was on the move again, and this time, there was hell to pay.
I pulled my bike over to the curb a few yards down the street. Driving by first had yielded no visual on the car. I’d hoped my instinct that he would be coming back here instead of approaching Avery again was right.
Keeping my eyes on the lot, I dismounted. The delay of him not being there yet gave me an opportunity to think this shit through a bit before charging in. I had a change of clothes in a saddlebag. When the back and forth to Avery’s started, I’d gotten in the habit of having them in case.
Thanking divine fucking providence, I found a hoodie crammed in there. Avery must have squirreled it away. How the hell she even wanted to put that much on in summer was beyond me, but she’d stolen two I knew of from my place.
I couldn’t even bitch. She looked a hell of a lot better in them than I did.
Now, I was just fucking glad she did.
Taking off my cut, I folded it up before tucking it in the saddlebag. Then, I threw on the hoodie and grabbed an extra t-shirt to wrap around and cover my face.
It wasn’t a bit inconspicuous, but the dumbass had chosen a motel on the shit side of town. Nearly every building on this block was abandoned, and the few businesses still hanging on were closed for the night. Even the motel hadn’t put any effort into lighting the lot.
I waited, watching. All the while, Avery’s story of what that motherfucker had done to her played in my head.
He locked me out of everything just to prove he could.
Seventy-five thousand.
It was my dream.
I’d saved for so long.
And then he took it from me.
By the last, my hands were fisting to the point that my knuckles ached and my dull nails felt like they might break through the skin of my palms. He’d destroyed all she’d worked for before she even got to experience it. He took the one thing that had mattered most to her.
There was a part of me that wanted to fucking kill him.
But I couldn’t.
Maybe she’d never know, but I wouldn’t be able to get back in bed beside my girl with that on my conscience. She’d given in on the fact that I might have needed to make a statement, but it wasn’t something she was entirely comfortable with. To know I’d killed the motherfucker in cold blood would have been too much, but I wouldn’t have been able to keep it from her knowing it was past the line we'd come to agree on.
He hadn’t hurt her, not physically anyway. He wasn’t a threat to her safety. Fuck, he wasn’t a threat at all anymore with Jager’s involvement. The asshole might have been sneaky enough to get some passwords and account information, but he wasn’t clever enough to go toe-to-toe with my brother when you got computers and shit involved.
I was here just to get him to stop badgering her. Nothing more.
Deliver a message and go.
Ten minutes later, I saw headlights. Then, a whole black car. As soon as it started to turn into the motel lot, I was on the move. Good thing the dick was shit at parking. He pulled in at a fucked angle and had to back out and straighten. It gave me time to make my approach.
Hanging back just enough to stay out of notice, I waited while he got out and moved to one of the units near the end. A shitty place like this probably spread out the few folks who checked in. They knew there was shit going down in their rooms that wasn’t on the up-and-up, and were likely accommodating that by not having anyone in the rooms right next to each other to give their shady patrons privacy.
That worked just fucking fine for me.
It also worked fine that this dick was half moron. It didn’t even occur to him to check his surroundings. He just walked right up to the door, back to the world and vulnerable as fuck, and started digging around for his key card.
Christ, he was like the poster boy for how to get your ass robbed—or worse.
I capitalized on his distraction, moving swiftly until I was fucking ten feet behind him all without him noticing. The second he inserted the card and the electronic lock beeped, I was on the move.
I plowed straight into his back, sending him into the room stumbling until he fell to his knees. Kicking the door shut behind us, I bent over him and landed the first blow into his lower back.
He cried out like a little bitch, but I didn’t let up. Two kicks to his side had him curling into the fetal position, turning his face my way far enough for me to throw a sucker punch to his jaw. He didn’t even try to fight back. The fucker could destroy a woman’s life, but only when it involved being a treacherous dick. He didn’t have the fucking balls to take someone head on.
I unloaded blow after blow, the picture of Avery happily baking in her kitchen filling my mind, cheering me on. Only when the cunt gave up the fight, going lax while he fucking cried on the ground, did I rein myself back in.
Stepping right over his hand splayed on the dirty, worn carpet, I walked out. It was time to get back before my girl worried over where I’d gone.
I rode back to her with a fucking smile on my face.