What hurt her, though, was that Hammer seemed to know it too, and behaved accordingly. For him to allow that vile Reggie Dell to kiss him? The same woman that once tried to kill Amelia. The woman Hammer refused to kill because of some promise he made to Reggie’s mother all those years ago. She still couldn’t get over that shit. She might never get over that shit.
But like Big Daddy once told her, bitterness was just a bad taste. And she had enough bad in her life. She turned to leave. JoJo had no business being up that late, and Hammer should know better, but he was the boy’s father. She never was going to question how he raised JoJo whenever Jo was in his care. Because Hammer might not love her the way he should have, but she knew Hammer loved Jo completely. Nobody was going to tell her that man didn’t love his child to death. But before she could walk away, JoJo, who loved Amelia completely, saw her.
“Mommy, mommy!” he said, and Hammer quickly looked too. “Mommy, look who’s here!”
Amelia could barely fake a smile when Hammer looked at her too. But for JoJo’s sake, she knew she had to fake it. She smiled although even Hammer could see that nothing but pain was in her eyes. “Yes, I see,” she said to Jo.
“Daddy’s here.”
“Yes, I see.”
“And he’s letting me stay up late tonight.”
“I see,” Amelia said again. “Where’s Nana?”
“Daddy gave her the night off,” JoJo said. “She went out on a date with Uncle Ozzie.”
Amelia smiled. What that child knew about a date? Sounded like something Hammer would have told him. “I’m going to take a shower,” she said, and hurriedly closed the door before JoJo could engage her any further.
She momentarily stood at that closed door, leaned against it with her eyes closed, trying to control the hurt she felt just seeing him again. And no matter where Hammer went, he always overwhelmed the space he occupied. If it wasn’t for JoJo in that same space, she’d kick his ass out of her house once and for all.
But, instead, for her son’s sake, she did as she told him she was going to do. She went into her room, closing the door behind her, and took a shower. A long, cold shower. She cried in the shower. But the water washed her tears away.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Hammer continued putting puzzle pieces on the board with his son until he realized he was too preoccupied with thinking about Amelia to concentrate. JoJo saw it too. “No, Daddy,” he said. “That doesn’t fit!”
“You’re right,” Hammer said, and then proceeded to remove the wrong piece.
“Not that one, Daddy,” JoJo said, removing the correct puzzle piece off of the board. “This one!”
“I’ll tell you what, Champ,” Hammer said. “Why don’t we call it a night?”
JoJo wanted to cry. “But you’ll be gone in the morning,” he said.
Hammer saw his son’s distress, sat up, and pulled JoJo onto his lap. “No, I won’t,” Hammer said. “I won’t be gone in the morning.”
“You promise?” JoJo asked, wiping his watery eyes.
Hammer smiled. “I promise.”
JoJo still wasn’t that certain about his father. He wasn’t around enough for him to trust him the way he trusted his mother. But he managed to smile.
“Now let’s get you in bed,” Hammer said, stood up, and put JoJo in bed. “And remember what I said.”
JoJo was confused. “What did you say, Daddy?”
“I’ll see you in the morning, kid,” Hammer said, tickled JoJo, who laughed roaringly. Then Hammer left his son’s room.
He knew where he was heading. And he didn’t delay. During the entire plane ride to Baltimore, the nearly eight-hour flight from Wyoming, he felt anxious the entire time. The details of what happened were sketchy, even as he pressed Ozzie to press Rowena. But Amelia hadn’t told her many details. Just that she was attacked on a long stretch of highway, and that whomever did it planned it to the T, and that he was now dead. That was all he knew.
But he couldn’t get Amelia out of his head. She was ready to move on. He could see it in her eyes when he gave her that check. But there was a problem with that scenario. She wasn’t moving on without him.
But if he felt that way then why, he wondered, didn’t he take her when she offered herself to him? And that was what that question about making an honest woman out of her was all about. She wanted to finally get married and settle down in a life with him and JoJo, and he all but told her no. They weren’t ready, he said. When she and he both knew it was him. What self-respecting woman was going to hang around when he all but told her to get lost?
He rubbed the temple of his forehead. Why would he turn down the only woman he’d ever loved? What was in his makeup that made him live that old adage: he didn’t want to join a club that would have him as a member? Was it his childhood, where he had to assume the mantel of manhood far too soon and see things no child should have ever had to see? Or was it just his fear of the unknown? Because love, for almost all of Hammer’s life, was as foreign to him as Mandarin Chinese.
And the crazy thing about all of it was that there was no doubt in his mind who he wanted. He wanted Amelia. Amelia and JoJo were his family. But he blew it time and time again. Their entire relationship was based on Hammer blowing it. But Amelia always came back to him.
Would this time, when he not only just wanted her back, but needed her too, be her final straw?
And he couldn’t stop thinking about her. During the whole trip, he kept wondering how in the world was he going to convince Amelia that she was the only woman for him. He certainly had done a terrible job of it so far, he knew. But he had to get it right because one thing was for certain: he wasn’t losing Amelia. Not Millie. Not ever.
And now that somebody had her number, and was aiming to call it in, he wasn’t leaving her side until he found out who. Cordoba or no Cordoba. Special Ops or no Special Ops. Fuck Bellamy and the president too. He wasn’t leaving her side.
When he arrived at her bedroom’s double doors, he heard the shower still running. He opened the doors without knocking, and went on in.
He could see her gorgeous, naked silhouette through the fogged-up shower glass, and any other time he would have removed every stitch of clothing he had on and joined her. And fucked her right where she stood. But he knew that was out of the question this time.
He, instead, stared at her a moment longer, getting himself hard, and then realized he wasn’t helping anything. He laid on top of her bed and waited.
When she finally got out of the shower, he could see, from the bed, her naked form through the vanity mirror in the bathroom. And just like that, he got hard again.
Amelia saw Hammer rising, but she continued to dry her body. Her first impulse was a surge of anger, and she wanted to kick him out of her bedroom, but she didn’t do it. He came to see about her. He bailed her out of that jam she was in with Lenny. She wasn’t kicking him out.
But she wasn’t playing any games with him either. Any other time and she would be in that bedroom naked, and they both would be hastily getting him naked, and his big rod would be inside of her in no time flat.
But not this time. She put on the bathrobe that hung on the back of the bathroom door, tied the belt, and then took a deep breath and went into the bedroom, her arms folded. She wasn’t about to be that vulnerable, tear-stained person she was in Montreal the last couple times she was there. She was iron lady again. She had to be around him or she’d fall apart in his arms the way she used to do. “What do you want?” she asked him.
Hammer looked at her, but remained where he was. “How are you?” he asked her.
“Fine. What do you want?”
“I heard about that incident on that backroad.”
A flash of fear swept over Amelia’s eyes that came and went so fast most people would have missed it. But Hammer caught it. “Are you alright?” he asked her.
“I’m fine, yes,” she said.
“That’s what I want,” Hammer said. “To make sur
e you’re okay.”
“I’m fine.”
“Who was behind it?” Hammer asked.
“I don’t know yet.”
“Not even the name of the guy who drove the car?” Hammer asked.
“Not yet, no.”
“His name’s Michael Ostertag,” Hammer said.
Amelia was stunned. “You know his name?”
“Yes.”
“Who does he work for?”
“That’s the funny part.”
Amelia frowned. “Funny? What’s funny?”
“He works for you,” Hammer said.
Amelia was floored. “Me?
“At least he used to. Now he freelances.”
“Doing what?”
“Whatever dirty job needs doing. Like taking you out.” Hammer’s heart squeezed when he said those words.
Amelia, still reeling, went and sat on the edge of the bed beside Hammer. She had to sit down, and near him. “I don’t recall any Michael Ostertag working for me,” she said.
“In your former life, when you was the drug queen-pin, he was one of your minions. He worked overseas at one of your distribution sites, that might by why you didn’t know his name. But he definitely worked for you.”
“Damn,” Amelia said. “Did you know who he was working for now? Or freelancing for?”
Hammer shook his head. “Not yet. But I’ve got an army on it.”
Amelia appreciated that. But she wasn’t telling him. “I took a picture of him,” she said. “Do you need it?”
Hammer pulled out his phone and showed her a picture of the same man she recalled at the scene. “Is this the picture you have?” he asked her.
Amelia nodded. “Yup. Same man.”
Hammer put his phone away.
And then silence came.
It was Hammer who broke through. “That day, when you met my plane,” he said, “I didn’t know you were coming to Montreal.”
Amelia wanted to roll her eyes. “That was obvious,” she said.
Hammer gave her a hard look. “It wasn’t what you think it was, okay?”
Amelia didn’t even want to entertain that. She stood up and made her way over to her lingerie drawer.
“You didn’t give me a chance to explain,” Hammer continued.
Amelia frowned. “What you got to explain? There’s nothing to explain. You don’t have to explain shit to me.”
Hammer looked away from her because he knew it was going to be a useless conversation when her temper was riled. Then he looked back at her. She was slipping on a pair of panties. “You don’t know what’s going on, Mill.”
“Oh, I know what’s going on. I caught you with one of your fuck buddies. That’s what’s the fuck is going on!”
Hammer’s own anger rose. “Don’t you talk to me that way!” he fired back.
Apparently he thought Amelia was one of his subordinates who jumped when he said frog. He thought wrong. “If you don’t want me to talk to you that way, then get the fuck out of my fucking house. That’s what you can do, Hammer. Get out of my house! In fact that’s a great idea. I don’t want you here!”
Hammer saw the pain deep inside of Amelia’s eyes. “I didn’t have Reggie on that plane to fuck her, okay?” he said. “You know she’s a CIA operative. She caught a ride with me on my plane. Period. Full stop.”
“Yeah, right. And you gave her a great big kiss on the lips the way all operatives do with each other. Is that a full stop too?”
Hammer seemed surprised that she didn’t take his word as the final word. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked her. “I’m telling you the truth.”
“And you never been with her before, right? Is that what you expect me to believe?” Then tears appeared in Amelia’s eyes again. Nobody hurt her so devastatingly the way Hammer’s behavior did. And this time she yelled it out. “Is that what you think I’m going to believe?!”
Hammer saw her pain and let out a sorrowful exhale. “Amelia,” he said heartfelt, and then he sat up on the edge of the bed, his feet on the floor. “Come here,” he said.
“Leave now, Hammer,” she said, trying to rally, angrily wiping away her tears. “I’m not playing. Just leave me alone!”
He was just about to get off of the bed and go to her himself when the bedroom window shattered as a bullet sailed through.
“Millie!” Hammer yelled in horror and leaped over to her, knocking her down, his body on top of hers, as more bullets, a hail of bullets, began sailing through that bedroom window like a sudden outbreak of fireworks. Hammer shielded Amelia as they hurried beneath the bed, both of them on their bellies, and he kept them under that bed as the bullets kept coming.
But as soon as the bullets stopped coming through that bedroom window, they suddenly heard the sound of a window shattering in another room, and they looked at each other.
“JoJo!” Amelia said desperately.
“Stay here!” Hammer yelled, got from under that bed, and ran out of that bedroom. He ran for his son’s room.
Amelia got from under the bed, too, as she could hear the gunfire intensifying in JoJo’s room. She ran to the nightstand, put in a three-number combination, and the lockbox opened. She grabbed her loaded gun and took off out of that bedroom too.
Hammer didn’t realize Amelia was running right behind him until they both made it to their son’s room with both of their weapons drawn. Bullets were still coming through JoJo’s bedroom window and they both started firing out of that window to protect Jo. They were firing and firing, but they didn’t see their child.
“Cover me!” Amelia yelled before Hammer could object and she got on her belly and began crawling toward JoJo’s bed. Hammer began firing more rapidly, so that whomever was firing into the house didn’t have time to fire with successive shots.
And it worked. As Amelia looked under the bed, the bullets from outside slowed considerably. And Hammer kept up the assault as Amelia saw little JoJo’s body beneath the bed. She and Hammer had taught him that. If he ever was in his bedroom and heard gunfire or any other type of bad commotion, they taught him, get under the bed. He was under the bed.
“He’s alright,” Amelia yelled to Hammer. “He’s alright!”
“Stay under there with him!” Hammer yelled back, as he continued his assault.
And soon, those gunshots outside stopped too.
“Let’s go!” Hammer yelled to mother and son as he hurried over to the bed, grabbed JoJo and took Amelia by the hand, and hurried them out of the bedroom, into the hall, and then into an interior closet.
“Stay here I mean it, Millie!” he ordered hastily, and ran out of the house.
But it was already too late. A car was speeding, but was turning the corner by the time Hammer made it outside. He tried to fire on the car, or at least get a license plate, but he didn’t get either.
He ran back into the house, down the hall, and he opened the closet door. Amelia was in that closet with JoJo behind her, with her gun drawn. And would have fired if she wasn’t as trained as she was.
When she saw it was Hammer, she dropped the gun to her side, and sighed relief.
But she couldn’t possibly be as relieved as Hammer was. He lifted a crying JoJo into his arms, and, with his free arm, placed it around Amelia, pulling her against him too.
Amelia resisted at first, but then she gave in. Because she knew what happened. She knew she could have been shot dead if Hammer hadn’t reacted as fast as he did and knocked her down, using his own body to shield her. She didn’t forget he was an asshole, but she wrapped her arms around him because of how close a call it all was. And their baby was in that house!
Hammer pulled her even closer against him. Because he knew the truth too. His family was at risk, and his traveling ass was rarely ever there for them. And the only reason he was there that night was because of what happened to Amelia that morning.
But what if she hadn’t been ambushed that morning? What if she never showed up at that airport a few d
ays ago? What if she left Montreal that day, and his stubborn ass decided to just let her go?
That was one too many what ifs for Hammer to handle. Because the consequences the other way would have been catastrophic. He realized, holding his family in that hallway, just how absent he’d truly been from their lives. And just how devastated he would have been if something would have happened to them, and he hadn’t been there to protect them.
He had to make this right.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Amelia sat quietly on the sofa, with JoJo leaned against her, as the police collected bullet fragments and other evidence. Hammer was over in a corner, talking quietly with the detective in charge, steering all inquiries to him so that Amelia wouldn’t have to be questioned. But it still was, for Amelia, a damnable thing. And she was angry. Whomever was behind it had not only targeted her, but targeted JoJo as well. Her child! Were they insane? She was going to track their asses down if it was the last thing she ever did!
But then she looked at JoJo as he leaned against her. He was trembling still. She thought her side jobs were going to be great money engines and hassle-free. All she had to do was get product from the Baltimore docks to the people who had already paid for them. She would only be the middle man. The risk-reward was supposed to be all upside. Until somebody started fucking with the supply chain she was responsible for transporting to their destinations. She had to find out who was intercepting those shipments because she knew it was all connected. Somehow she just knew it was. And those so-called hassle-free side jobs had just become the largest problem of her life.
Because they targeted JoJo too. That was some crazy shit right there. That wasn’t done right there. She placed her arm around her son and leaned him against her. She was not a good mother. She’d be the first to admit it. And Hammer was not a good father, either. They loved JoJo to death. There was no doubt in her mind that no two people could love him more. But the two people were the problem. She and Hammer were the problem. Because unlike her brother Mick, who had his challenges as a parent, too, she had no backup. Mick had Roz, who, despite her vast career, was an excellent mother. Big Daddy had Jenay. Tommy had Grace. Sal had Gemma. Reno had Trina, who was perfection in Amelia’s eyes for putting up with Reno’s ass. But Amelia didn’t have that husband who picked up the slack. Hammer was the slack, and so was she. If something didn’t change, she knew, between her and Hammer, Hannibal Joey Reese was in trouble.
Amelia Sinatra: What Hammer Wants Page 8
