by Jessie Evans
I glance toward the rear of the yard to see that Ray has corralled Sean and Emmie into the far corner, near the hole in the fence, and is doing his best to shield them from the scene near the house. But I spot Sean’s wide, frightened eyes peeking around Ray’s arm and I can hear Emmie crying.
It’s the sound of her tears that makes me turn and grab Gabe’s arm, digging my fingers into the tightly knotted muscle. “Enough, Gabe. Put him down!”
Gabe hesitates, holding my dad’s gaze for a long beat.
“The baby’s crying,” I say in a softer voice. “Please, just…let it go. He’s not worth it.”
Gabe’s jaw clenches and for a second I don’t think he’s going to listen to me, but finally his muscles shift beneath my hand and he loosens his grip, letting Chuck slide down the wall. Dad lands in a heap, breath rushing out in a groan as his palms reach back to brace himself against the concrete foundation.
“Get out,” Gabe whispers, nudging my father toward the side of the house with his shoe.
Chuck staggers to his feet, swallowing hard as he backs away. He keeps his eyes glued to Gabe, watching him like he’s a bomb about to go off. Chuck doesn’t glance my way until he’s about to turn the corner, and then only for a moment before he stumbles away, but a moment is enough to see the hurt and shock in his eyes. Hurt and shock, with a kernel of fury at the center.
If I know my dad, it won’t take long for that kernel to sizzle and pop, and for Chuck to start working out a way to make me pay for humiliating him.
“Shit.” I drop my face into my hands, drawing in a deep breath that does nothing to calm the fear rising inside me.
“I’ll make sure he’s gone,” Gabe says from beside me.
“Don’t bother.” I lift my face from my hands, shoving the hair from my face. “He’ll leave, but he’ll be back in a day or two, and everything will be worse than it was before. So…thanks a lot.”
Gabe turns back, a guarded expression on his face. “You sound angry.”
“I am angry,” I say. “You should have stayed out of it. I know how to handle my father.”
“I think Gabe was awesome,” Danny says, excitement in his tone. “I loved that shit. I’ve been dying to see Chuck pinned to a fucking wall.”
“Language!” I shout over my shoulder at my brother, breath huffing out as I try to regain control. “Just…go check on Emmie, okay?”
“But I—”
“Go check on Emmie.” I point a finger toward the rear of the yard. “Now!”
Danny scowls and curses beneath his breath, but he turns and starts toward the corner of the fence. I shift my attention back to Gabe, forcing myself to lower my voice. “I get that you were trying to help, but my dad doesn’t respond well to threats. He’s going to get over being scared, and decide to get even.”
Gabe takes a step closer. “How will he get even?” he asks in a mild voice that makes it difficult to believe I watched him lose it in a major way a minute ago. “Will he make you work two jobs to take care of his kids, while refusing to pay a dime to help? Come begging for money and verbally abuse you when he doesn’t get what he wants?”
“Yeah, that’s funny,” I say in a tone I hope makes it clear I don’t find it funny at all. “But you don’t understand. Things can always get worse.”
“In this situation, I fail to see how.”
“All kinds of ways,” I say. “Once, back when my sister was in charge and she kicked Chuck out of the house for the first time, he hired a crew of guys to come rip up the front porch and leave the pieces in the yard. And then, when the men he’d hired found out Chuck couldn’t pay them, they threw a rock through the living room window. We spent Christmas Day freezing to death and had to pawn Mom’s last piece of good jewelry to pay for a new window.”
Gabe sighs, bringing a hand to press at his temple as if this conversation is giving him a headache. But Gabe doesn’t know what a headache is yet, not until he’s been on the receiving end of Chuck Cooney’s vengeful side.
“Another time,” I continue, “right after I told him I was moving into his and Mom’s old room, since he hardly ever slept here anymore, Chuck showed up at the school and told the office not to release Danny into my care. He told them he was the one with custody, and he’d be picking his son up from now on.
“He picked Danny up for exactly two days before he disappeared and I had to have a meeting with the principal and beg Chuck to sign a bunch of paperwork to get approved to pick my brother up again. That cost me two hundred dollars, by the way, because Chuck doesn’t sign anything he isn’t getting paid to sign.”
“You shouldn’t have paid him a dime,” Gabe says.
“I didn’t have a choice, don’t you get that?” I ask, exasperated. “Chuck has custody of the kids. I’m not even a legal caregiver. He knows I don’t have a leg to stand on if he calls the Department of Human Services like he threatened.”
“But why would the state take the kids away from you? Custody or no custody?” Gabe asks. “It should be clear to anyone who takes a second to look that you’re devoted to them, and they’re being well-cared for.”
I cross my arms, shaking my head. “When it comes to the Cooneys, DHS takes kids into custody first, and asks questions later. One time, I ended up in foster care because my mom was taking a nap when the DHS worker showed up. She wasn’t even passed out that time, just sleeping, but the caseworker didn’t care. He took me and my sister, and Danny, who was just a baby, and we all ended up in separate homes.”
“I’m sorry that happened to you,” Gabe says.
“I don’t need you to be sorry,” I say. “I need you to understand that if the state takes the kids, I won’t be able to get them back without Chuck. He’ll have to sign the paperwork, because he’s the one with legal custody.”
Gabe stares at me for a long moment, his blue eyes cool and unreadable, making me wonder if he’s heard a word I’ve said, before he nods. “Okay, then you’ll sue him for custody. My father can start the paperwork. I’ll speak with him about representing you tonight.”
I fight the urge to roll my eyes. “Gabe, I can’t sue. I don’t have that kind of money, especially not to hire your dad.”
“He’ll do the case pro bono,” Gabe says. “He does a few of those every year, and he likes you, I can tell. He’ll be glad to help.”
My mouth opens and closes with no words coming out, not sure how I feel about what Gabe’s suggesting. On the one hand, it feels like charity, and I don’t want that from Gabe. But the thought of having the legal right to tell Chuck to stay out of our lives if he won’t behave is insanely tempting. How much easier would life be if I didn’t have to worry about Chuck screwing things up every time he doesn’t get his way?
“She wants you.” Danny appears at my side, a sniffling Emmie in his arms.
The moment I see her splotchy red face and eyelashes matted with tears, I know what I have to do. I can’t let her grow up under Dad’s reign of terror. He’s only getting worse. The sweet Dad who used to play the fiddle for us at night, and sneak a few bucks of candy money into your pocket when you least expected it, hasn’t been around in a long time. It makes me sad to know Emmie will never know that side of Chuck, but I can’t keep sticking my head in the sand, and pretending things are going to be okay.
Things are only going to be okay if I make them okay and that means making sure Chuck doesn’t have the power to swing a wrecking ball through this family.
“Okay.” I turn back to Gabe as I stroke Emmie’s back. “If your dad’s okay with taking the case pro bono, I can meet with him one morning this week. Wednesday or Thursday would be best. I don’t have to clock in at the diner until nine forty-five on those days.”
Gabe smiles, that devilish smile that makes him even more handsome. “Unless you decide to quit.”
“I can’t quit.”
“Can’t quit yet,” Gabe corrects with a wink before turning to the boys. “Who wants to go for a ride? I’ve got room for
three.”
“I’ll come,” Danny says, clearly having experienced a change of heart where Gabe is concerned. I’m not thrilled that the change was inspired by violence, but…I guess beggars can’t be choosers.
“I’ll go.” Ray steps up beside Danny, hanging close to his big brother, the way he always does in the aftermath of a Chuck-splosion.
“Me too! Me too!” Sean’s arm shoots up as he bounces on his toes, the smile on his face proving he’s put the dark part of the evening behind him. But Sean is usually the swiftest to recover, and it’s not like we haven’t been through this with Chuck before.
The kids aren’t used to seeing Dad pounded by my boyfriend, but they are used to seeing Dad wasted and causing trouble, doling out cuffs to the head when Danny talks back, or Ray spends too much time in the bathroom. It’s the worst kind of routine, but one I haven’t known how to break free of. There was never enough money or time or support for me to dream that I’d have a chance at getting custody, there was never…Gabe.
“See you soon,” he says, as the boys race each other around the house to the Beamer. “I’ll take them for a ride down to the old mill, and get ice cream before we head back.”
“They’ll drip in your car,” I warn.
“It’s just a car.” Gabe leans down to kiss my forehead, making my chest tight, a condition that only gets worse when Emmie laughs and pats his cheek.
“She likes you.”
“I like her,” Gabe says, smiling at Emmie before his gaze shifts back to me and the smile becomes something more intense. “And I like you. I’ll fix anything I messed up tonight, we’ll finish what we started with Pitt, and everything will be fine. I promise.”
“I believe you,” I say, meaning it.
It scares me, but I do. I believe in Gabe, and maybe, even more dangerously, I’m starting to believe in this dreamy future he’s spinning, daring to imagine what it might be like to not only survive, but to break free, and take the people I love with me.
Chapter Nine
Caitlin
You’ll never plough a field by turning it over in your mind. –Irish proverb
I ignore the way my skin has already begun to sweat in the unrelenting heat of the June night, tug my long-sleeved black shirt down to my wrists, and pull on my gloves. The gloves are black leather, softer and suppler than anything I’ve ever owned.
They arrived in the mailbox yesterday, unwrapped, without a note saying who they were from, but I knew. Just like I know that Gabe will be here in exactly two minutes. He’s always on time.
I have two minutes to decide this is insane, turn around, and run back to the van as fast as my legs can carry me. I know I should. But instead, I tug the back of my black sock cap lower on my neck, making sure every strand of blond hair is tucked safely beneath, before sliding the mask over my face.
As soon as the soft knit smoothes over my skin—concealing everything but my eyes and mouth—I feel something shift inside of me. The black uniform helps silence the voices warring in my head, reducing me to the simplest version of myself, the one who wants to survive and won’t let anyone stand in my way. The anxiety that has followed me since I crept out of the house fifteen minutes ago vanishes, leaving cold, steady certainty in its place.
Pitt deserves this; he deserves this and more. The man tortured and abused his mother for eight years before administering a lethal overdose, all while filming the misery he was inflicting so he could relive the nightmare over and over. Now, he lives to torment the kids he’s supposed to be helping, staying on as a teacher for the joy of making preteens suffer, when his inheritance was more than enough to set him up for life.
At our conference after school yesterday, Pitt threatened to fail Danny, even though his grades are all B’s and C’s. After spending the entire year riding Danny’s ass, I would have assumed Pitt would be glad to see my brother go, but the bastard wants to keep his favorite punching bag around for another year. He said he was recommending Danny be held back to give him another year to “mature.”
The only thing another year with Mr. Pitt would mature in Danny is his determination to give authority the middle finger. He wouldn’t make it. He’d end up getting transferred to the alternative school, where, at thirteen, he’d be one of the youngest kids on campus. He’d either be eaten alive, or drawn into a group of kids way more dangerous and destructive than the Baker boys down the street. Either one is intolerable. I won’t see Danny’s life ruined because one nasty man singled him out as his latest victim.
I have a meeting with Principal Tharp to discuss whether or not Danny should be held back on Thursday. I’m hoping Pitt will have tendered his resignation by then. Without Pitt applying pressure, I know Tharp can be persuaded that holding Danny back isn’t in anyone’s best interests. After all, passing him means she only has to deal with his crap for one more year before he’s promoted to high school, instead of two.
“Hey there.” Gabe’s whisper comes from the shadowed woods behind me, but it doesn’t startle me.
I’ve been waiting to hear his voice again since we parted ways outside my house late last night, after a good night kiss that scrambled my thoughts even more than the hour spent plotting how to get in and out of Pitt’s house within Gabe’s ten minute time limit. I’m not sure the tapes Gabe’s father’s file mentioned still exist—if I were Pitt, I would have destroyed that evidence long before I went to trial—but Gabe thinks they do, and that I’ll find them in the attic. He scouted the house yesterday while Pitt was at work, and says the ground floor is very sparsely furnished. There aren’t many places to store a box of old, VHS surveillance tapes, and Gabe’s betting Pitt is keeping the videos of his mother’s suffering in the same place he kept his mother.
“Nice mask,” Gabe whispers, as I turn to face the silhouette emerging from the shadows across the street from the elegant, old farmhouse where Mr. Pitt’s mother was born and died. “And stunning gloves.”
“Thanks, they were a gift from this boy I like.” I move into his arms, blood singing as his Gabe smell fills my head and my breasts flatten against his chest. I can’t make out his expression in the darkness, but I can feel how much I affect him in the way his fingers curl into my hips, pulling me closer.
“Glad they reached you safely,” he says. “Any trouble on the way?”
“Nope, the kids are all asleep, and I left a note saying I was running to the Laundromat to pick up a load I forgot this afternoon in case anyone wakes up. I parked the van under the railroad trestle down the road. Only took me two minutes to get here.”
“Should take less on the way back,” Gabe says, a smile in his voice. “Post job adrenaline is pretty intense. You ready to go?”
“I think so.” I take a breath and let it out slowly, shocked to find my heartbeat speeding only a little. Gabe and I went over the plan so many times it feels like we’ve already pulled this off. Now, it’s just a matter of going through the motions.
“Remember, the ten minutes start as soon as you’re in,” Gabe whispers. “Find the tapes first, then poke around for anything valuable. I’m pretty sure the jewelry is on the ground floor in the mother’s old room. It doesn’t look like it’s been touched since before Pitt decided to start keeping her in the attic. So I’ll take care of that, but it wouldn’t hurt for you to hunt for other goodies if you have time.”
I nod. “And if I don’t find the tapes?”
“We’ll revisit the plan when we get back to your place, do some more digging, and find another way to blackmail him. But I’m betting you’ll find them.”
“How much are you betting?” I ask in a lilting tone, shocked that I’m flirting at a time like this.
“I’m betting dinner, dancing, and a swanky hotel room Friday night. All on me,” Gabe says, giving my hips another squeeze before adding in a smoky voice, “And I promise to make you come at least three times before I let you sleep.”
I press closer, the feel of him getting hard against my stomach making
me ache. “And if I win, I’ll let you teach me how to give a blow job.”
Gabe’s fingers dig into the curve of my bottom. “I doubt you’ll need teaching.”
“I might,” I say, pressing up on tiptoes to press a kiss to the cleft of his chin. “I’ve never given one before.”
His breath rushes out. “Never?”
“Never,” I confirm, kissing his cheek before moving my lips within a breath of his, hovering just out of reach as I speak. “But I want you to be my first. I’ve been imagining what you’ll taste like since that night at your dad’s office.”
He groans softly, trapping my sock-cap-covered head between his hands. “Stop it. Or I’m going to take you to the van and get you naked in the back, and we’re not going to leave here with any of the things we came for.”
“All right.” I rock back off my tiptoes and take a reluctant step away, putting distance between us. “But promise to meet me at the house later. I’ll leave my window open. You can climb the tree outside, sneak in, and…stay the night if you want.”
“Sounds perfect,” he says, sending a sizzle of anxiety-laced-anticipation racing across my skin.
I know I should be more nervous about breaking into Pitt’s place than potentially having sex with Gabe for the first time, but the events of this evening are already all mixed up together in my head. I feel like I did that night at the pawnshop, fear and attraction fusing to create a heightened state that makes me feel more awake, more alive than I’ve ever felt before. I can’t wait to visit unto Pitt some much deserved karmic retribution, and I can’t wait to feel Gabe’s skin against mine, the two are tangled together and I don’t care to untangle them, not when the combined stakes make the thrill that much more intense.
“I’ll be back outside in ten minutes,” Gabe says, squeezing my hand as we step to the edge of the shadows. “If I’m caught, I’ll make enough noise for you to hear me in the attic. You’ll have time to get out and make a run for it before the police arrive. It’s only a thirteen-foot drop from the window. You’ll be fine as long as you land with bent knees.”
