Kids on the Doorstep
Page 18
“Poor Chloe,” he crooned and the sound sent a chill down Gladys’s back. “Poor little daddy-less Chloe. The baby no one wants.”
“Shut your mouth,” Gladys said, anger vibrating through her stout body in spite of the danger that radiated from Jason’s wasted body. “You hear me? Shut your filthy mouth before I slap you into next week. You’ve got no call to come in here and be nasty to this little girl.”
“All right, all right,” Jason snapped, waving Gladys down as if the sound of her voice grated on his strung-out nerves. “God, can’t you take a joke? I was just kidding around.”
“What do you want? Money? Fine. I’ll get my purse, write you a check and you can get the hell out of my sight and never come back.”
He shook his head and wiped at the thin rivulet of snot that trickled from his reddened nose and sucked back the rest. “Now you’re really hurting my feelings, Auntie. I want my girls,” he said. “Don’t they miss me? Where are they?”
“Not here.”
“Then where?”
Gladys switched tactics, delaying for time although she didn’t know how she was going to get to the phone without him noticing. Somehow she didn’t think he’d let her just walk to the phone and ring the sheriff.
“You look like hell. Let me guess, drugs?”
Jason scowled. “Shut up. Where’s your purse?”
Petty little thief, she wanted to mutter but instead moved past him to grab her purse on the table. Chloe’s cries had turned to soft whimpers that pulled at Gladys’s heart. She narrowed her gaze at Jason. “How much is it going to take to get you out of my life?”
His gaze turned shrewd. “How much you got?”
Gladys thought of her nest egg and narrowed her stare. “Enough. What’s it going to take, Jason?”
“My girls…are they doing okay?” he asked. A disconsolate expression pulled his mouth into a grim line and he rubbed at his red-rimmed eyes with the flat of his palm while still gripping the gun. “I mean…do they ask about me?”
“No, they don’t.” Gladys stared at him coldly. “In fact, they’re fine. Better since they’ve seen the last of you.”
He looked at her. “What the hell are you talking about, old woman?”
“You’ve lost custody. There are consequences for neglect and abuse, Jason.”
His stare hardened. “You old bitch.”
“Foul-mouthed hooligan.” She lifted her chin.
Jason lunged at Gladys but spooked Chloe instead and the toddler tried to bolt, attracting his attention. Gladys couldn’t catch her fast enough but Jason could, the rage in his eyes scaring the life out of Gladys for Chloe’s safety, not her own. “Chloe, no!” she screamed but Jason already had the baby in his grip.
Grabbing the toddler, he hoisted her in the air, the gun still in one hand, tipping her upside down until she screamed and Gladys squeezed tears from her eyes. “Put her down,” she ordered, trying for some semblance of authority but Jason merely laughed.
“Shut up, you old bag, and start writing that check. Besides—” he gave Chloe a shake “—I’m just playing. We used to do this all the time, didn’t we, Chloe-baby? She loves it.”
Gladys felt on the verge of begging, terrified for Chloe and of what Jason was capable of doing in his current mental state.
“I’m going to give you two seconds to put down that baby before I tear your head off.”
The air rushed out of Gladys’s lungs in undisguised relief as John and Renee came around the corner. There was murder in John’s eyes and Gladys didn’t feel sorry for Jason one bit for the beat-down that was coming his way.
RENEE WANTED TO RUSH JASON and rip Chloe out of his grasp but she was afraid he might drop the baby straight on her head out of spite. Fear kept her rooted but hatred flowed through her veins, thick and hot.
“Hey Rae…long time no see. Who’s he?”
“Put. The. Baby. Down.”
Jason slowly lowered Chloe but then dropped her the remaining distance and she fell. Gladys, closest to her, pulled the crying baby to her and put distance between them.
John stalked toward Jason until he raised the gun. “Ah, ah, ah. Remember who’s holding the gun. That would be me, jackass, so before you go all John McClane on me just remember I could shoot your nuts off.”
“Jason, what’s gotten into you?” Renee gasped. “Look at what you’re doing. Why would you be so cruel? You didn’t used to be like this.”
Jason looked bleak. “Things change. Wives leave. Life sucks. Whatever, right?”
“You need help. How many nights have you been up?”
“Drug addict,” John sneered under his breath and Renee swallowed hard, knowing that at this point Jason was capable of anything. This was not the man she’d known.
“You need help,” Renee tried appealing to Jason’s long-buried sense of self, hoping to touch that part she’d fallen in love with so long ago but the bile in her throat kept choking her. “Jason, you’re in no shape to be around the girls…you have to know that. Do you want them to remember you like this?”
“My girls are gone. You’ve poisoned them against me,” he said. A shadow passed over Jason’s eyes and he wavered on his feet but the gun never changed position.
Renee shook her head. “You did that all on your own, Jason. I left the girls in your care and you neglected and abused them. And what you did to Chloe…”
“You’re the one who left,” Jason raged, spittle flying from his mouth. “Don’t you dare go all righteous on me. You’re no better, you lying drunk whore!”
Renee felt John tense beside her and she knew time was running out for any kind of peaceful resolution. A part of her didn’t care. She hungered for violence for what he’d done to her girls but she was trying to find an ounce of mercy in her heart for the pathetic excuse of a man standing in front of her. Renee tried not to grit her teeth and dialed back the growl in her throat, knowing she needed to keep him talking somehow. “Why, Jason? Why would you try to hurt a baby?”
For a second Renee didn’t think he’d answer. Finally, he rubbed at his eye and Renee almost thought she saw moisture but she couldn’t be sure, as strung out as he was. “I stopped, okay? I felt like shit but you left me stuck with the kids and one of them wasn’t even mine. I lost it. But she’s fine, see? No harm no foul.” At that, he chuckled as if he’d actually said something worth laughing about. It took great strength of will to keep her hands loose and not clenched in tight fists but she managed it until Chloe, reacting to the tension in the room, let loose with a high-pitched wail.
The ear-splitting decibel distracted Jason long enough for John, who was just waiting for the right moment, to make his move.
“Shut up!” Jason roared but as he turned back around he was met with five knuckles smashing into his nose. Blood splattered everywhere and Jason stumbled back screaming in pain. He tripped on his own feet and went down. John reared back and sent his booted foot right into his ribs. As Jason writhed in pain, Renee tried to drum up some sympathy for the man who was probably suffering from a broken nose and several cracked ribs but she felt nothing.
Her gaze traveled to John, breathing hard, big fists still clenched, and smiled. Holy hell. Suddenly amidst the bloody mayhem and the overall horrific nature of the last couple minutes…everything became blindingly clear. And for that she had Jason to thank. She let out a shaky breath as the adrenaline left her body in a rush and was replaced with something far more comforting.
Renee opened her mouth and…laughed.
“IN LIGHT OF THE EXTENUATING circumstances and the fact that your ex is in custody, I will forgive your missed court appearance.”
Renee smiled. “Thank you, Your Honor.”
Judge Lawrence Prescott II drew his paperwork together and then set it back down again, steepling his fingers in front of him. “From what I’ve read you’ve come a long way from the first day you stood before me. The children seem well-adjusted and ready to resume a relationship with you and you
aren’t carrying a chip on your shoulder any longer. I’m curious…what changed?”
Renee thought long and hard about that question. She let her gaze drift to John and his steady stare filled her with peace and happiness. Somehow she’d found a man who could love and protect three children who weren’t his by blood, with everything in his power. She found a man who saw past her flaws and her issues and stood by her without enabling her to cling to bad patterns. What changed? For the first time in her life she fell in love with an honest-to-God good man. And you know what? She was going to marry that man. Not today. Maybe not even tomorrow. But someday. And she was going to learn to love the country.
And snow.
EPILOGUE
RENEE LOOKED STUNNING. John licked suddenly dry lips but couldn’t pull his gaze from the vision standing before him. She was in a white halter dress that showed off creamy shoulders he longed to kiss and a nipped waist his hands itched to span.
His collar squeezed his neck but he didn’t dare try to adjust it for he knew Evan would tease him mercilessly at the reception, or worse, knowing Evan, during the toast.
All three girls, miniature versions of their mother, stood to Renee’s right while Evan’s boys stood beside Evan to his left. Hot damn. John Murphy was finally getting married.
How’d he get so lucky? For as long as he lived, he’d remember the moment Renee walked up to him and said, “I’m in love with you, John Murphy, and if you have a problem with that you’re just going to have to deal with it because I know you’re in love with me, too.” That was the best day of his life.
Then she’d grabbed him and laid a lip-lock on him that made bells go off in his head and his pants a bit tighter.
And that’s what he loved about her. Well, one of the many things.
“Do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife? To have and to hold till death do you part?” the minister asked, a smile wreathing his face as he regarded them kindly.
Renee gazed at him, her blue eyes shining like the ocean on a clear summer day, with a tremulous smile playing on her lips, and John knew there was nothing more he wanted in this life.
“I do,” he answered solemnly.
Two words had never sounded so sweet.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-3618-3
KIDS ON THE DOORSTEP
Copyright © 2009 by Kimberly Sheetz.
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*Emmett’s Mill stories
*Emmett’s Mill stories
*Emmett’s Mill stories
*Emmett’s Mill stories