by Amber Lynn
“Hello,” she said shortly.
Maybe it was the phone call. If it was just him teasing, she would’ve at least attempted a more civilized tone. That was the kind of person she was. Even the pretend anger she had towards him had been simply that. Pretend.
She could say she hated George, which technically, he didn’t think she ever had. She gave off the vibe, though. Whatever anger she had towards her ex-husband, it didn’t reach Vasily’s level of pure hatred he had towards the man. It should, but Lacey was too good to really hate a person or get pissed off at a person.
It made her irritated greeting on the phone even more hilarious. He needed to get back to kissing her senseless.
“What do you mean he’s there? He hasn’t seen the kids, has he?”
The tenseness in her voice changed over to fear. Her eyes looked wildly over in his direction. She was still on the phone, so he just grabbed his phone and keys from the table her phone was on and snatched her hand, pulling her towards the door as she finished the call.
The son of the bitch. The stupid, stupid son of a bitch.
“No,” Lacey said, a frenzy in her voice. “He cannot see Rachel. I’m on my way but keep him away from her. He was removed from the list for a reason.”
Thank God for that, Vasily thought as he opened the passenger door of his car for her and let her sink in. She was moving like she was made of wood or something, with joints that weren’t hinged. Vasily was surprised she could move at all.
He’d just thought about how she didn’t hate or have anger that reached his level. She seemed too frozen and in shock to reflect either of those emotions, but Vasily had enough of every emotion that equated to being murderous for the both of them.
“Son of a bitch!” Lacey screamed when she hung up the phone.
Maybe Vasily had misjudged that part. The part he didn’t misjudge was her hurting her hand by punching the dash in front of her. She moaned in pain and curled her hand into her chest.
After they dealt with George, he was going to have to teach her to at least throw a punch. Well, he’d have to as long as he wasn’t behind bars for killing the guy. He’d been thinking about doing that for weeks it seemed, and each time he thought it, the threat grew more serious.
Chapter 25
Lacey didn’t remember a moment of the drive from her house to the school. Vasily at some point had reached over and grabbed her hand. She zeroed in on the touch to try to keep from going insane.
Not in a million years had she thought George would show up at the kids’ school and try to see them. According to the woman who’d called, he wasn’t just trying to see them. He’d asked to take Rachel out of school.
When they’d gotten divorced, Lacey hadn’t really thought he’d ever approach the kids at school. The man had moved across the country, so the odds seemed slim. She still didn’t want to take a chance, not after the ribs and the baby. After she was healthy enough to talk to the administration, she’d made it clear George wasn’t allowed to pick up the kids.
The second Vasily had the car in park, and door unlocked, Lacey threw the door open and jumped out. Running wasn’t something she did often, but it was a pure sprint to the door. She vaguely heard the chirp of the doors locking and Vasily yelling behind her to wait up. The man’s gait was twice the size of hers and he at least jogged a few miles most days of the week. She figured her head start just minimized his ability to get ahead of her.
That point was proven when she reached for the door and his muscular arm popped into her peripheral vision to open the door for her. She didn’t stop to say thanks or even take a breath. As soon as the door opened enough for her to get through, she was off again.
Vasily had never been inside the school, but Lacey knew where she was going and could get there with her eyes closed. She didn’t really need the knowledge, though. George’s raised voice could be heard once inside the building.
“She’s my daughter. If I want to take her out of school for the morning, that’s my right.”
Like hell it was. Lacey thought the words, while Vasily had his own thoughts on the matter.
“Over my dead body,” he mumbled under his breath.
The assistant principal who’d called said that Rachel was still in class. That didn’t save her from more than likely hearing whatever her dad decided to yell. Knowing how free his tongue could be, she had to wonder if it was finally time to see about getting the kids in therapy. She’d been considering it for a while, especially after all Kevin’s trouble, but she was afraid it would cause another fit.
They rounded the corner to get to the office and George came into sight. He was standing only inches away from Principal Hudson. The woman’s bun sat high on her head, which was held in her usual superior regal way. She showed no fear, which seemed like a sign of pure stupidity in Lacey’s mind. George was less than a foot away from her and had a finger pointed in her face.
Dealing with unruly kids was one thing. Dealing with a two-hundred-pound screaming lunatic of a man was another. No one else knew what could happen when George snapped, but any woman with some common sense would’ve stepped back. Whether they knew it only took him seconds to break bones or not.
“George,” Lacey said, trying to muster all the courage she could. The name came out firmer than she could have hoped.
With Vasily’s heat at her side, she felt a little braver than usual. Inside, she felt like a child waking up from a nightmare, only to find it was real life.
Blue eyes full of demented anger turned in Lacey’s direction. She’d seen George mad, but the edge of crazy she saw in his eyes was new.
“You told them not to let me see my daughter?”
Each word felt like a bullet tearing through her skin. She knew he was mad the night before when she’d delayed the conversation he wanted to have, but she didn’t understand how he’d gone from vowing to return to her doorstep to threatening the principal.
The hatred she saw in his eyes somehow got worse as he looked down her body. Lacey hadn’t even noticed her arms had instinctively wrapped around her stomach.
His body spun around, and he took two steps toward her before her view was blocked by Vasily. Her breath caught in her throat, a strangled kind of gasp managed to escape her lips.
“You are not getting a step closer to her,” Vasily said.
His voice sounded sure, but the fear racing through Lacey took her back to the night she’d attempted to get George to stay. The night he’d been too drunk to see the truth and ruined any chance they had of ever getting back together. Even if Vasily wasn’t in the picture, hurting her and ending the barely started heartbeat of their unborn child was a line they could never come back from.
She’d thought he’d looked mad that night. The violence in his eyes was something she woke up in sweats from for weeks. They glowed in those nightmares.
“Yeah, and you think you’re going to stop me? I’m guessing since you’re following her around like a lost puppy dog that you’re the idiot that put that ring on her finger. You think you can take my spot on the team and move in with my family?”
George hadn’t said enough before then to hear the slurring in his words, but his little speech made it clear to Lacey alcohol had been apart of his night, and morning. George and alcohol were never a good mix.
“When you left them for your little money-grubbing girlfriend, they stopped being your family, Wilson.”
The use of a last name was usually a form a familiarity and comradery in the brotherhood of hockey players. Other guys did it, but Lacey heard it most from the hockey players in her life.
There was no comradery or good will in Vasily’s words. He said Wilson like it was a four-letter word.
“Like hell they did. Tell your Russian asshole to get out of our way. We’ve got only a few hours before your plane takes off to deliver you and the kids to my place.”
“Language,” Principal Hudson scolded in her harsh, you-will-do-what-I-say tone. “The police wi
ll be here any minute.”
The woman was ten times more fearless than Lacey, but a choked scream told Lacey that fearlessness went down a peg. Lacey’s view was blocked by the muscled back in front of her, even as she moved to see around Vasily. His body seemed to know her thoughts and reacted to continue blocking the scene.
“Bitch, you refused to let me see my daughter. You’re lucky I haven’t killed you.”
Lacey heard a crash. She couldn’t see, but it sounded like something hitting one of the lockers nearby. It was hard to determine what was worse, seeing Principal Hudson being thrown into those lockers, or envisioning it happening. Lacey had a scary imagination, so she leaned towards the latter.
Vasily shook his head and sighed. Then his shoulders flexed like he was warming up for something.
“You feel like a big man now? Why don’t you try someone closer to your size? I can promise you’re not going to be able to throw me around.”
She could feel the tenseness rolling off Vasily with every word. It was almost like a sound, which muted her small eep as she reached forward to touch his back. She didn’t want him fighting George, especially not if the other man was drunk. He’d always been a mean drunk, and he never fought fair.
Her fiancé was a big guy and had clearly proven he could take care of himself in fights before, but she didn’t trust George. She tried to grab a hold on Vasily’s shirt, to plead with him not to dive into the conversation as wholeheartedly as he did everything else.
But, the fabric slipped from her fingers. Panic swept through her, leaving her standing like a statue, unmovable and not seeing a thing around her.
No, she thought. No, no, no, no.
Vasily couldn’t fight George. She knew he’d more than likely be able to hold his own, but he would still get hurt. Not to mention the fact that it was just the night before she’d found out there was a chance he could get deported if he got in trouble again. Was there enough evidence that any fight would be self-defense? Did that even matter? George would surely press charges, even if he faced similar ones.
That meant no matter how macho adrenaline fueled Vasily, he couldn’t get involved. And when her eyes cleared so she could see again, she knew what she had to do.
Gathering speed she didn’t know she had, Lacey moved. Vasily hadn’t gotten far, which was surprising. She was able to dart around him and put her body in front of the bull staring at a red cape. His shoes scuffed on the floor as he came to a stop.
Lacey hadn’t wanted to put her back to George, but she hated not being able to see Vasily’s face. The growl that came from him let her know he wasn’t happy. Well, he could let her know about his frustration later. Unlike her ex-husband, she had a feeling Vasily worked out frustrations without his fists when it came to women.
“Kitten, that is not a smart move right now.”
The warning was clear in Vasily’s tone, but the words didn’t rush over her like a threat. She wasn’t helping his anger, obviously, but she’d explain everything to him and he’d understand. He’d have to, because she wasn’t going to lose him.
George hadn’t moved from his spot, so there was still over a dozen feet between them. His face was snarled, his lips pulled back like a dog with rabies. Lacey had to tamp back the recollection of another time his face looked that way. He wanted to attack, and both Lacey and Vasily knew what happened the last time he had.
That would not happen again. Lacey had never been brave, but that was about to change.
“Kitten?” George asked, eyes narrowing. “He calls you kitten? What the fuck kind of nickname is that?”
She had thought the same thing, but hearing Vasily explain it had brought her around to liking it a little, even if she didn’t believe his reasons. George’s vehemence against the nickname ticked a few checks in the plus column for it.
“If you don’t know why that’s a perfect nickname for her, it’s clear you’ve never been man enough to see what happens when she comes around your cock.”
Lacey couldn’t let the words go without glaring behind her. There was no apology on Vasily’s face as his eyes didn’t move from George. No matter if the words were true, there was a time and place for them, and in the middle of a school was neither of those. She made a note to explain that to him later and turned back to her ex-husband.
Just like she was sure he’d have plenty of lecturing ready after what she was about to do. The comment only solidified the fact that Vasily couldn’t get within arm’s reach of George.
“George,” she said softly, hiding the fear in her tone. “You wanted to talk about us moving in with you, so let’s talk.”
She took a step forward, which brought rough hands to her hips instantly. She expected the move. She was fairly certain she was being stupid, but not stupid enough to think Vasily would just let her walk across the hall to the mad man at the other end.
“It’ll be all right. Just let me do this.” Her words were quiet. She knew they weren’t quiet enough for only him to hear, but she didn’t have another way to get the message to him.
She tried for another step. His hands dug into her side and then let go. The fact that he let his hands fall meant more to her than he would ever know. It meant he trusted her.
He’d read her mind enough that she worried he’d know what she had planned. If he did, she didn’t think he’d let her go that easily.
Her eyes fixated on George, watching as his eyes softened a little and his lips transformed into a smirk. An outsider may think the smirk was better, but Lacey knew George. Any show of confidence amounted to trouble for the people he dealt with.
“That’s right, Ox, let go of my wife.”
A slight sneer took over for the smirk for a second, but as she got closer, his smile grew. There was a time his perfectly straight and white teeth, assisted by the help of a dentist, made her smile. They never turned something in her stomach like when Vasily smiled at her, but she had been happy enough.
Seeing them now just straightened her resolve. He needed help, and anger management was just the tip of the iceberg.
“What happened, George? You couldn’t divorce me fast enough six months ago. It’s the first time you’ve been back in town and suddenly you want to get back together?”
She’d heard him the night before. Evidently, newly married life didn’t work out for him, but that didn’t mean she was his answer.
“Gummi bear, life is hell without you. Nothing is going like I thought it would in L.A. I need my voice of wisdom and sanity back.”
Because that was all Lacey was to him. A keeper. Someone who tried to keep him out of trouble, even though she really had no authority to do anything of the sort. He did what he wanted, and she was the only person who didn’t call him on it.
“And what about everything else, George? The things you said. The things you did. How are you going to make those better?”
Lacey’s goal was to keep him talking as she got closer. There were only a few feet left between them, and she swore she heard Vasily’s teeth grinding behind her. She had to make things quick, or the man she loved would snap.
She thought about skipping the little reality check. Bringing up the past could push him. At the same time, if she didn’t bring it up and just jumped in his arms, he’d have to think something was up. If he didn’t, he’d be a moron. While there were times that fact was clear, he liked to pretend he wasn’t, so he learned somewhere over the years to get pretty good at reading people.
He’d never been great when it came to Lacey, which was why he didn’t move away as she got closer to him. Fear prickled at her. He could reach out and grab her at that point. God, she’d lost her mind.
“That’s why you have to come with me. I can’t apologize and make things right with you thousands of miles away. We can start over.”
The thought made her stomach roll. Morning sickness hadn’t been a constant in her life for a few weeks, but she felt it bubbling at the surface. Before she could totally chicken out a
nd run, she took one final step forward. In one swift motion, she brought her knee up and aimed right for George’s dick.
It was the only move she knew, even if she’d never used it. The concept seemed easy enough. Get close and lift. After everything he’d put her through, she couldn’t think of a guy more deserving of having his balls pulverized. Not that her force was that great, but the scream that broke out of George’s lips was satisfying.
She’d never known his voice could get that high. It was something that would take over for the nightmares he’d caused over the years. The noise was accompanied by some whimpers as his hands flew to his groin and he dropped down to his knees.
The saying about never kicking someone while they were down didn’t register at all when Lacey took advantage of his prone position and swung her right leg back a little before driving it with all the force she had to kick him in the balls. She should’ve worn more than just sandals, but she hadn’t thought about how helpful some steel-toed boots would be that morning as she threw her clothes on. Even without them, the second impact dropped George to his side as he started to roll and scream out his pain again.
“Fuck me,” Vasily said from behind her. There was a hint of awe mixed with a healthy dose of male preservation. It didn’t surprise Lacey one bit to turn around and find Vasily cupping the front of his jeans protectively.
Chapter 26
“What are your feelings about rope? I can probably get my hands on some handcuffs, but I think rope might be a little more comfortable for long periods of time.”
Vasily was good with knots, and with enough rope, he figured he could keep Lacey, who had just been told bed rest was highly recommended for the rest of the pregnancy, restricted to their room without driving himself crazy. It had been four months since she’d stopped his heart and insisted on dealing with the George situation at the school.
