Catch-22 (Single Dad Romance)

by Brenda Ford

  “Mr. Jones,” her teacher asked, giving me a strange look. “Is everything okay?”

  “Oh yes, everything is fine, sorry,” I said, turning away so she didn't see the pain in my eyes. “I just can't believe how fast she's growing up sometimes.”

  “Oh, I hear that a lot,” she said with a laugh. “But don't you worry, she will always be your little girl no matter how big she gets.”

  “Yeah, I hope so.”

  “I know so,” she said with a friendly smile. “You're a dedicated father, Harley will always appreciate that. She's a good girl and I can see how devoted you are to her. It's rare these days.”

  “Thank you,” I said, looking over at my little girl one last time.

  She didn't even notice me standing there still, she was too busy talking to her friends to even see me. The drawn out silence with her teacher was growing a little awkward – a sign that I needed to go. Sticking around would look weird, and I didn't want to stand out anymore than what I already did. Acting strangely and standing out wasn't the best idea right before you murdered someone.

  I walked out of Harley's classroom, but didn't go to my car. I had one more stop to make. One more loose end that I needed to tie up.

  The door was already open, so I peeked my head into the classroom. “Paige?”

  There she was, at her desk, painting again. She looked up at me and smiled, lighting up her face. Her smile was beautiful, engaging, and warm – and made it hard not to smile back. She stood up from her desk and walked over to the doorway. Her hair was down around her shoulders in soft waves and she was wearing makeup. And a dress too. A cute polka dotted dress that showed off her curves beautifully. I did my best not to stare, but failed miserably. She was a striking woman and I felt incredibly drawn to her.

  “Yes, Elias?” she said, standing there with her hands on her hips. “May I help you?”

  “I, umm, well, I was hoping we could talk?” I stammered. “Just for a minute?”

  Her smile faltered a bit, but after a moment, she motioned for me to come into the room, closing the door behind us. She walked over and stood next to her desk. I made no move to sit down, and just stood there like an idiot. She cocked her head and looked at me with a curious expression on her face.

  “Is everything alright with Harley?” she asked.

  “It's not – well, it's kind of about that,” I said, running a hand through my hair, suddenly feeling more nervous than I ever had before in my life.

  Her brow furrowed and she gave me a concerned look.

  “What's going on? I don't have a class for a little while, so talk to me, Elias,” she said. “You're worrying me.”

  “First, I want to talk about something else,” I said, standing up and closing the distance between us.

  “Okay?” she said. “Can we sit down at least – ”

  I cut her off with a kiss. She made a startled little noise, but didn't fight back. She actually melted into the kiss and it grew a little more heated. A little more passionate. As I pulled away, she was blushing, but looked – pleased.

  “What happened to keeping your distance?” she asked with a shy smile.

  “My life has already gone to hell,” I said. “And there's no way I'm getting out of it, so I'm here to say fuck it all. I know we hardly know each other, Paige, but I just wanted to tell you, I'm falling for you. I'm falling for you hard, and I want to be with you...”

  “But?” she asked, giving me that look all women do when they expect to be let down.

  “No buts. If everything works out the way it should, I will walk back into this classroom tomorrow and ask you out for a date,” I said. “A real, honest to goodness date.”

  “And if things don't work out the way it should?” she asked. “What then?”

  “Let's not talk about that, alright?” I cringed just thinking about it. “I can't afford to think that this isn't going to work out.”

  She laughed, shaking her head. “I don't get any of this. I really don't. This is all just so confusing.”

  “You don't need to get it, Paige,” I said. “Just know, I have feelings for you. I might even be falling in love with you, but it's too soon to tell. I just know... Well, I just know I want to be with you. I want to explore the possibility of having something deeper with you. If you'll have me, that is.”

  Biting her lip, she stared up at me with a sweet expression on her face. “Of course, I'll have you, Elias,” she said softly. “I want to be with you too. Even if you do drive me batshit crazy sometimes.”

  She stood on her tiptoes and kissed me, and I kissed her back. I held her face in my hands and kissed her with everything I had in me. For all I knew, that might be the last chance I had to kiss her. The last chance I had to feel her body pressed to mine. The last chance I had to –

  I wasn't sure who reached for my belt first, but Paige removed it and unzipped my pants quickly. She reached into my pants and took hold of my cock, stroking it nice and slow as I grew hard in her hand. I moaned as she squeezed it tight, a sultry little smile on her lips.

  “I don't have a class for the next forty-five minutes,” she said, nibbling my ear. “The door is locked from the inside. I suggest we make the most of the time we have.”

  Not needing anymore encouragement, I pushed her up against her desk. I pushed up her dress up as we kissed and her panties slid down her legs like butter. Picking her up, I sat her down on the desk and parted her thighs, trailing my fingertips along her smooth skin, making her shudder and moan softly. And before I knew what was happening, I was between her legs, pressing my cock against her warm, wet opening. She laid down on her desk and stared up at me with a look of absolute want and desire in her eyes. And I had to admit, it was the sexiest damn thing I'd ever seen.

  With my hands on her hips, I buried myself between her lips, shoving my cock inside of her as I watched a look of pure pleasure, pure bliss cross her face. The tightness of her pussy around my cock was almost too much and I thought I was going to lose control right then and there. But I managed to rein it in and started to move in a slow, easy rhythm, slipping my cock in and out of her. She bit the side of her hand, knowing we had to be quiet. Extremely quiet. If any of the students or the faculty happened by and heard what was going on in her classroom, we risked getting caught – and who knew what would happen to us if we got caught fucking on her desk.

  Slowly, I moved in and out of her tight little pussy, trying not to rock the desk too much. But it was so hard to maintain control, especially considering the circumstances. The risk of being discovered and having to be as quiet as possible only made things hotter. More intense. I pulled Paige back up to a seated position so I could kiss her and hold her close as I fucked her. I'd meant it when I said I was falling for her, and if that was the last time we ever made love, I wanted her to know how special she was to me.

  I kissed down her neck as she wrapped her legs around me tight, muttering in my ear, “Elias, oh yes, Elias...” over and over again, making me hotter and hotter for her.

  I felt the pressure growing in my balls as I continued pumping my cock into her. I already knew I wouldn't be able to last long, but I wanted this to go on forever. I wanted to cherish that moment with her, savor every second of sensation. She pulled back my head and stared into my eyes, smiling as I fucked her. I felt her pussy start to spasm around my cock, and her head fell forward suddenly.

  Her moans were growing louder, so I lifted her head up and kissed her, filling her mouth with my tongue, doing everything I could to keep her quiet. She was coming, I could feel it around my cock. It was intense and the feeling of her coming was incredible. I felt her body stiffen and then begin to shake as she came. Her breathing was ragged and shallow and she was doing all she could to stifle her cries, to remain silent.

  And as the sensation of her pussy squeezing me tight intensified as her orgasm tore through her, it sent me over the edge. Holding her close to me, I grunted as I exploded inside of her, filling her with my se
ed as she writhed and rocked against the desk, climaxing hard against me.

  Once every last drop of my cum was inside of her, I pulled out, deflated and content, and held her close. She buried her head on my shoulder as we both came down from the high of fucking on her desk.

  “Wow,” she said after a few moments. “That was amazing, and had you told me we'd be doing that today, I'd have called you a liar.”

  “Yeah, me too,” I said. “That was incredible, Paige. You are incredible.”

  I reached down and pulled my pants back up, suddenly feeling very exposed in the classroom. I looked around and thankfully, all the windows had blinds that were shut tight. There was no way anybody could have seen us. We'd just fucked at school, on her desk, and had gotten away with it. There was something that was deliciously naughty about that. And it made me crave her even more.

  Damn. It wasn't anything close to what I'd expected when I started the day, but it was everything I could have wished for if it were indeed, my last day on Earth.

  17

  Elias

  Carl knew my name, but beyond that, I had no idea what Amy had told him about me. Had no idea what he knew – or thought he knew – about me. But when I called his number, he didn't seem all that surprised to hear from me. Didn't seem put off by it either. Which made me hope that this was going to be an easy job. Yeah, I was out of the murder business, but given that I had no choice, at least the mark was somebody I despised. It would likely make it a little bit easier for me.

  “You're Amy's old man, aren't ya?” he said, seeming to remember me – or at least, my name.

  “Ex old man,” I said. Maybe I should have left the ex-part out – that could possibly have killed everything. But I breathed a sigh of relief when it didn't. “We split recently. She's in treatment.”

  “Yeah, heard about that,” he said. “Her parents locked her away. Damn shame, too.”

  “Yep,” I said. “But we both know she won't be in for long.”

  “Yeah, I talked to her. We've already talked about what she's gonna do when she's released,” he said. “I should tell her you called – ”

  “Nah, please don't,” I said, cringing. “I'd rather her not know what I'm up to. Like I said, we split up and we're just doin' our own things now.”

  “Fair enough,” he said. “I'm nothing if not discreet. What can I do for you?”

  “I was hoping you might hook me up,” I said. “I need to get my hands on some party favors.”

  “Say no more, buddy. A friend of Amy's is a friend of mine. Even if you are her ex,” he said with a chuckle. “If anything, I should be thanking you. Maybe this is my chance with her. You wouldn't mind, would you, bro? Now that you're all broken up and shit?”

  The idea of Amy with a drug dealer killed something inside of me. Not because I still loved Amy – far from it. It killed me because I loved our daughter and wanted Amy to pull her head out of her ass and be a mother for once in her life. Not that I had much hope for that, nor could I force the issue. She had to want it if anything was ever going to change. And if she wanted Carl Gillespie – and the lifestyle he represented – and chose him over her daughter, what could I do about it?

  Not that poor Carl would be alive long enough to score Amy, but he didn't know that. And if it helped my cause to let him think he and Amy could live happily ever after, all the better.

  “Sure, man,” I said. “I'm cool. I don't mind. Hook me up with some good shit and I can put in a good word for you.”

  Yeah fucking right.

  “Sure thing,” he said. “Want me to drop it by your place?”

  “Nah, I have a kid, man,” I said. “Let's meet somewhere. How about Elm and Cedar, down at the river front? Say, in about an hour?”

  “Sounds good to me,” he said. “There's an old factory there, isn't there?”

  “I think so,” I said, feigning ignorance.

  The truth was, I knew so. Knew there was a derelict old factory out there. Which was exactly why Mav picked that place. It was abandoned and no one hung around out there. It was falling down, filthy, dirty, and far enough away from civilization that I could do what had to be done, confident that I wouldn't be seen or overheard all the way out there. I could have probably dropped a bomb on Carl and nobody would have heard it go off.

  “Wanna just meet there?” he asked.

  “Fine with me,” he said.

  We hung up, and my hands were trembling and my heart was racing. I'd just set up a drug deal. Not only that, I'd set up a drug deal and was going to kill a man. Two crimes in one. My record was filled with charges that were mostly ridiculous up to that point. Little things, nothing too serious. The heaviest charge on my record was Grand Theft Auto.

  Meaning what I was going to do was not only out of my league, it was playing an entirely different sport. If this went to shit, I was going to spend the rest of my life in prison. If I was caught, that was.

  But there was also the chilling possibility that I didn't come out of it alive. Knowing Mav and the gang the way I did, I knew that this could very well be a trap. Once I did their business for them and put Carl down, it was entirely possible that they would take me out as well. In their view, it could be killing two pains in the asses with one stone.

  Which was why I'd made sure to get my affairs in order before I made the call to Carl.

  One hour. One hour until it all went down.

  And you better bet, that hour fucking crawled by slower than a sloth with two broken legs. As I watched the minutes dragging by at an agonizingly slow crawl, I thought I might just lose my shit waiting.

  ooo000ooo

  The old, abandoned factory I'd chosen used to make dog food, once upon a time. That was back before they started shipping most of that work overseas, anyway. Now it was just a derelict old factory sitting on the outskirts of town that just sat there waiting to be used once more.

  And as I looked at it, I guessed that in a way, it was being used. For drug deals, a shelter for homeless people at night, and the odd place teenagers went to go when they wanted to fuck but couldn't do it in their parent's homes. It wasn't what it had been intended for a long time ago, but it was still being used in a way.

  The doors were all boarded up, the building condemned, but that didn't stop people from entering to do whatever they needed to do. Which worked to my benefit, for the most part. The boards over the windows kept getting torn down as people climbed in through windows. And there was a large pile of trash filled with used condoms and needles sitting in the middle of the floor.

  How anybody could think to screw in that kind of filth was beyond me.

  I got there before Carl arrived. Or at least I think I did. For all I knew, he was there, watching me. Making sure I was alone. Making sure the coast was clear, and this wasn't an undercover deal with the police.

  I paced the inside of the factory, checking several times for my gun. Just making sure it was still there. It had been years since I'd fired a gun, and honestly, I really had no desire to do it again. None. Guns usually meant trouble in my world. Trouble I was taking great pains to avoid. Because that kind of trouble usually meant that someone ended up dead.

  Thankfully, I'd never had to kill someone personally, but I'd witnessed a few murders in my time, and it was never something you got used to.

  It had never been something I was okay with.

  Deep down, I knew all along that I wasn't cut out for the MC life, but it was much, much too late for me when I came to that realization. I'd joined the MC to be cool, to get the ladies, to have a family – I never knew it would wind up costing me so much though.

  But I also wouldn't have Harley without having gone through life with the club. So, in a way, it made enduring my time with the MC well worth it.

  I tensed when I heard footsteps outside the boarded up door, and then the board was pulled away. Carl Gillespie entered the same way I had and placed the board back in place when he entered.

  When he stepped in,
I realized that it was my first time seeing him live and in the flesh – at least close up. The only times I'd ever seen him, he seemed to be keeping a healthy distance from me – which wasn't a bad idea.

  Carl was older than I imagined him to be. Or perhaps, the drugs he took just made him look older, rougher – a little used up. Frankly, it was hard to tell. His eyes were sunken in and his cheeks were even more so. His skin was sallow, he had a general air of ill health about him, and he looked like a skeleton more than a living human being. And when he opened his mouth to speak to me, I noticed that a lot of his teeth were either missing or black with rot.

  “Nice to finally meet ya, man,” he said, shaking my hand.

  I could smell the body odor on him, he just had a general unclean stench about him, and his breath was about as fresh as a porta-pottie on a hot August afternoon. He was a real peach, this guy.

  “Nice to meet you too,” I said.

  Not really. The last thing I wanted was to be anywhere near this asshole doing what I had been ordered to do. But it was the polite thing to say and about the only thing I could say to keep him at ease. And it was the only want to guarantee that my daughter was safe.

  “Got the cash?” he asked, licking his lips nervously.

  Carl bounced from foot to foot seemingly unable to settle down in one spot. He picked and scratched at the scars on his arms and his face, and he looked like had a bad case of the jitters. He looked like an addict in bad need of a fix.

  “Yeah, uhh hold on a second,” I said.

  That was the point I was supposed to pull out the gun and pop one in his head. Mav told me everything I was supposed to do and the way the whole scenario was supposed to play out from start to finish. Pretend to be reaching for your wallet, pull out the gun and shoot. Then get the hell out of there, as fast as humanly possible.