Chapter Twenty
I made it back to Austin’s hospital room just as Jake stepped out to take a phone call. But Emily still sat beside the gurney listening intently as my son rambled out another story about how he was raised by lions––in three hours––and in Texas of all places. The kid sure had an imagination on him.
“Hey, monster. The nurse gave me some green Jell-O for you,” I said, holding up a sealed cup and a plastic spoon. “It’s your favorite.”
Austin’s eyes lit up and he reached for it. “I can open it by myself.”
“Okay,” I said, handing it over before I settled in the chair next to Emily.
She glanced over at me and lowered her voice, though it was unnecessary, since Austin was preoccupied trying to open his snack. “Where’s Seth?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Everything okay with you two?”
I shrugged. “Not really. I’m not sure what’s going to happen, but I don’t really have the energy to deal with that right now. I just want to focus on my son.” More like wrap Austin in Bubble Wrap so nothing bad could ever touch him again.
Including Seth’s past.
She nodded. “It’ll be okay. Your emotions are all over the place right now because of everything that happened today. Once things calm down, I’m sure you two will work it out.”
I wasn’t so sure she was right, but thankfully, I didn’t have to respond. The hospital room door opened and a different nurse from earlier came in carrying Austin’s discharge papers. Once I signed the documents, she said, “Once Austin gets dressed, you’re free to go.”
“Thank you,” I replied as she vacated the room.
Austin peered up at me. “No more medicine, Momma?”
“No more,” I assured him. “At least not tonight.” I lifted a bag that contained a change of clothing that Cowboy and Anna had run to the farmhouse to pick up for Austin. I set it on the bed and pulled Austin toward the edge before helping him to remove his gown.
“Momma, do I have to see that bad man again?”
Bad man? He’d seen Bishop? My heart hammered against the walls of my chest, but I tried to remain calm. “What bad man, honey? Who did you see?”
“You know, the one with you.”
I cocked my head, not understanding. “Seth?” I asked.
Austin giggled. “No, Momma. Seth isn’t the bad man. It’s the other one.”
I didn’t know who he was talking about, and it was starting to scare the hell out of me. “Austin, who are you talking about? Where did you see him?”
“He comes to our house sometimes. I don’t like going with him, though.”
I blinked repeatedly. “Jeremy? Is that who you’re talking about?”
“Yeah. I don’t like him. He calls me names.”
A spark of fury lit inside of me. “What do you mean? What does he call you?”
“He calls me a brat. But it’s not nice to call names. Right, Momma?”
“No, it’s not.” I closed my eyes and counted to ten, not that it helped any. Jeremy hadn’t lifted a finger to help find his son. And even now, he wasn’t here to make sure Austin was okay. He just didn’t give a damn about being a father, and the asshole proved it every time he had been given the opportunity.
Well, that was fine by me because I no longer gave a shit what the court order said. Biological father or not, this was the last time that man would pick up my child and have him in his care. “Don’t worry, baby. You don’t have to see that bad man anymore.”
A huge smile spread on Austin’s face as he lifted his arms for me to put his shirt on. When he was finally dressed, I gazed over at Emily. “Could you do me a huge favor?”
“Sure. What is it?”
I hesitated, knowing the last thing I wanted to do was leave Austin’s side right now. But he was content and happy and didn’t seem to be the least bit traumatized by the events of the evening. Unfortunately, I couldn’t say the same for myself. “Would you mind taking Austin home with you and Jake for a little while? It won’t be for very long, but I have something I need to take care of.”
She smiled and nodded. “Of course.”
Emily probably assumed I would be going to find Seth and work things out with him, but that wasn’t what I had in mind. While I had no doubt that Jake would protect my child with his life when it came to Bishop, there was another threat in my son’s life that also needed to be dealt with. One that I would be taking care of myself.
…
I pulled into his driveway a little faster than usual, shoved the gear shifter into park, and blew out an irritated breath. If I thought my foul mood couldn’t get any worse, I was wrong.
Jeremy should’ve been at the hospital tonight waiting to hear if his son was going to be okay. Not sitting around a campfire drinking beer with a couple of his idiot friends.
I slung open my car door and marched up to them with my hands on my hips and narrowed eyes on Jeremy. “Your son is fine, not that you seem to give a damn.”
Almost immediately, the two men sitting with him jumped out of their chairs and headed for their beat-up old truck, muttering how they’d talk to Jeremy later. The chickenshits. But Jeremy didn’t seem the least bit concerned by my presence. He just sat farther back in his plastic chair and tipped his hat up to give me a once-over.
“Aren’t you even going to say anything?”
He took another swig off his beer, then tossed the empty can into the fire. “What do you want me to say?”
“I want you to show some kind of care where your son is concerned. I want you to be a man and grow the fuck up.”
He groaned and rose to his feet, then grumbled under his breath as he headed for his front door.
“That’s it? You’re just going to walk off? You’re not even going to own up to what you did?”
He turned back to me. “Jesus Christ, woman. A guy makes one little mistake and you come over here pulling this shit? It was a one-time occurrence. It won’t happen again.”
“You’re damn straight it won’t happen again. Because you’re not allowed to pick Austin up anymore.”
“Not allowed. Ha.” Jeremy rolled his eyes. “You can’t stop me. The court says—”
“Don’t go there. If you think for one second that the court won’t hear all about you letting your five-year-old son wander off into the woods by himself, you’re delusional. I’m going to have your parental rights stripped from you so fast, whether you like it or not. You’re a danger to my son, and I’m not going to let you within a mile of him. Austin deserves better than you. He always has.”
“I guess no one can be a perfect parent like you, doll.”
I shook my head. “It has nothing to do with being perfect. It’s about making that little boy a priority and loving him enough to want to keep him safe and secure.”
“Yeah, well good luck with keeping me away from him. I’m that boy’s father. I have rights.”
“You’re unfit to call yourself anyone’s father. I’ve tried to get you to take an interest, but you’ve made no effort.”
“I’ve tried my best.”
Now it was my turn to roll my eyes. “From day one, you’ve never been anything more than a sperm donor and even Austin recognizes the difference. Why do you think he hasn’t ever called you dad?”
“That’s because you’ve filled his head with lies about me.”
“I’ve done no such thing. If anything, I’ve kept myself from telling my son the truth about you. That you’re nothing but a chickenshit coward who isn’t man enough to be a father to his own son.”
“What’d you call me?”
“You heard me.”
His eyes narrowed. “You bitch.”
“Yeah, maybe,” I said with a one-shoulder shrug. “But at least I’m not a disappointment to everyone around me.”
Fire lit in his eyes, and he reared his hand back.
I flinched but managed to stand my ground. “You want to hit me, Jeremy? Then do it,” I dared him. “Because once you do, I’ll get sole custody of my son without a problem. It’ll be worth it.”
He gritted his teeth together but lowered his hand. “Oh, I’m sure you’d love that. But I’m not going to give you the satisfaction of me firing one off at you.”
I laughed sardonically. “Satisfaction? You’ve got to be kidding, right? You wouldn’t know how to satisfy me if I got myself off. Besides, this is hardly the first time you fired too fast. I should know. I’ve slept with your sorry ass.”
I turned to leave, but barely made it back to my car before Jeremy’s hand twisted into the hair on the back of my scalp. I tried to open my car door, but he yanked me away from it and threw me up against the side of his nearby truck. The moment I turned back around to face him, his open palm slapped across my left cheek, knocking me back.
Stunned by the hard blow, I held my stinging cheek as the adrenaline coursed through my veins. A red mist filled my vision.
He sighed. “Damn it. Now look at what you made me do.” He hesitated for a moment but then took a step toward me.
“Get away from me,” I demanded, the words grounding out between my clenched teeth.
But he didn’t. Instead, he continued to come closer.
Afraid of what else he might do, I darted around him to get to my car, but he grasped my arm in a bruising grip to stop me from leaving. When I swung my free arm to strike him, he blocked it and then winched my other arm into an awkward angle behind my back. Pain shot through me, and I yelped. I continued to fight him, but he was too strong and it only seemed to make him angrier.
Jeremy grabbed my chin roughly and forced me to look directly at him. “You want the truth? Fine. I only wanted joint custody of that brat so I wouldn’t have to pay you child support. Not only that, but I never gave a damn about you. I only fucked you to get back at Jake. But it didn’t work, since he’d already left town. Guess he didn’t want you, either, you whore.”
“You’re a disgusting pig. Everything about you repulses me.”
“Oh yeah? That’s not what you said the night you spread your legs for me. You wanted every inch of me inside you. You were practically begging for it.”
“That’s what you’d like everyone to believe, isn’t it? But I was there. I know what happened between us. We may have only slept together one time, and maybe I came to my senses way too late, but I regretted having sex with you from the moment my clothes hit the floor. With every half-ass stroke, I just wanted you to hurry up and finish so I could get as far away from you as possible. Even then, I hated myself for letting you touch me.”
“You’re a goddamn liar. You wanted it.”
“I’d had a rough day at work, got drunk, and was in self-destructive mode. So I did the one thing I swore to everyone I would never do. You.”
Jeremy released the grip he had on my chin and whipped another hard blow across my face. Pain lashed through my cheek and into my jaw, clacking my teeth together. I shook my head to clear my vision, but the blinding fear of how far out of control he was sent shock waves through me. Though our encounter had already taken an ugly turn, I needed to get away from him before things worsened.
So, just like Seth had taught me, I thrust the palm of my hand upward into Jeremy’s nose, hard enough to allow me to escape his clutches. He immediately bent at the waist, holding his nose and cussing loudly, and I took off at a dead run for my truck.
But I didn’t get the door open before Jeremy caught up with me and tackled me. I tumbled forward onto the ground, the impact forcing all the air from my lungs. My elbows scraped against the gravel as bits of rock embedded into my arms. Jeremy flipped me over roughly, ripping my T-shirt in the process and revealing my white cotton bra beneath it. I quickly moved to cover myself, but Jeremy slammed my arm back against the rock-laden ground and held it down so hard that his fingers left depressions in my skin.
“Well, well. What do we have here?” His glazed eyes focused on my chest, and he gave me a sadistic grin.
I knew that look well. “Don’t touch me.”
“Why not? You like what that other asshole does for you, don’t you? Well, he doesn’t have a damn thing that I don’t. I could show you what a real man can do for you.”
Jeremy wedged himself between my legs to push them open, and a hard ridge pressed against me through my blue jean shorts. Leaning forward, he pressed all of his weight onto me and held me in place as he reached down and unzipped his pants.
Panic rushed through me, and I fought him as hard as I could, but my resistance only seemed to excite him more. It was as if there was some sort of prize element involved and my protests were nothing more than echoes in the background that he blatantly ignored.
He shoved his hand down my shorts and found the top of my panties with his fingertips. The thought of him sliding under them and having access to me made me gag. Damn it, Bobbie. Do something!
With a sudden burst of renewed energy that he hadn’t expected, I bit his arm as hard as I could and then shoved him off of me. I barely managed to pull my legs together before he pounced on me again. But this time, one of my legs was between his. Hard and fast, I brought my knee up and planted it into his groin. He groaned and fell over, his hands instantly going to his crotch where I’d hurt him most.
I scrambled to my feet and bolted toward my truck. As I stumbled across the rocky drive, I realized one of my flip-flops had fallen off, but I wasn’t about to go back for it. Jeremy shouted vulgar threats. Loud enough that I worried he was right behind me and that, at any moment, he would grab me once again and finish what he started.
Thankfully, that didn’t happen.
I climbed into my truck and locked the doors before Jeremy even made it off the ground. Once I was safely behind the wheel, I started my engine and drove out of there as fast as I could, almost sideswiping the tree at the edge of his property.
I didn’t know what to do and apparently wasn’t thinking clearly because I headed in the direction of my own home, even though I knew it wasn’t safe to be alone with Bishop somewhere out there still. But my entire body ached and my head pounded, and that wasn’t even the worst of it. My heart hurt and my mind swam with confusion. Because out of all the things that had happened today involving Jeremy, there was one thought that bothered me more than anything.
How had I missed what a monster he truly was?