Bye-Bye Baby

by Morgana Phoenix

  “Where’s his mom?” Cole asked instead.

  Lily was silent as she strained the pasta and brushed a limp strand of hair off her brow. “Uh.” She blew out a breath and turned to Cole. “Never seen her, actually. She left while Damon was still in diapers. Crack addict, if I’m not mistaken.” Her eyes narrowed. “What did you do, Cole?”

  “Nothing … yet,” he mumbled while shrugging out of his coat. He slung it over the back of Beth’s chair.

  He refused to discuss the matter after that, stating he wanted to wait for Sloan, which thankfully wasn’t very long. Sloan walked in, ruddy-faced and filthy. His coat was pitched aside somewhere inside the kitchen doorway and he marched straight to his wife without even bothering to notice Beth and Cole. He jerked her into his arms.

  “Missed you,” was all he said before his mouth closed over hers.

  Lily melted into him with a guttural moan that reverberated with the core of her desire. Her hands slid into his hair, clasping him tighter to her as he devoured her. The sleeve of her sweater rode up to her forearms and Beth blinked at the red welts circling her delicate wrists, like Lily spent her free time being handcuffed. Truthfully, the way the two behaved sometimes, Beth wouldn’t have been surprised if the woman did.

  “Ahem.” Cole cleared his throat.

  It had no effect on the pair whatsoever. Only when they were good and ready did Sloan lift his head and peer down at the tiny woman in his arms. He said something only she could hear, but whatever it was had the fire in Lily’s eyes darkening. It was the look of a woman two seconds away from taking her man wherever he stood, be damn who saw.

  “Promise?” she replied in a throaty murmur that was somehow a whole lot more personal than anything they’d done so far.

  Sloan smirked. He touched her bottom lip with his thumb. “Try and stop me.”

  “Okay, we’re still right here,” Cole interjected, having been staring at the ceiling the entire time like it had all the meanings to life.

  Giving Lily one last hot kiss, Sloan turned to them. “I can see that.”

  Visibly relieved that it was over, Cole turned his gaze downward and met his brother’s eyes. “I need to talk to you.”

  Sloan’s face tensed. “Everything okay?”

  Cole made everyone sit down before he would tell them.

  “He’s beating that kid something stupid, Sloan. I know it.”

  The chair under Sloan creaked loudly in the silence of the kitchen as he leaned back. One hand was lifted and used to scrub at the dirt and grime marring his weary face.

  “Are you sure?” Lily asked.

  Cole leveled her with a look Beth had only seen on his face once before, when he’d asked her why she was leaving. It was heartbroken and angry.

  “I know that look, Lil,” he said. “I’d recognize it anywhere.”

  Sloan lowered his hand and let it drop onto the table. “I don’t know what we can do, Cole.”

  “Well, we’ve got to do something!” Cole argued. “He can’t stay there.”

  Sloan looked to Lily.

  “He’s right, baby,” she murmured. “We’ve got to at least try something.”

  “No one did anything for us,” Cole piped in quietly. “Everyone knew, but not one ever stepped in to help. And he’s alone, Sloan. He doesn’t have a big brother to take the beatings. He’s got no one.”

  Sloan sighed heavily. “I can call Sheriff Henley. Maybe he—”

  Cole shook his head. “I went there after I picked Calla up. Sheriff said if there isn’t a report, or if the kid doesn’t say anything…” He looked down at the table. “He can’t do anything.”

  “Where does this guy live?” Sloan asked.

  “No!” Lily said at once. “You’re not going to go over there. Do you honestly think that will make it better?”

  “I wasn’t going to do anything,” Sloan told her. “Just drive by, make sure everything’s okay.”

  Lily narrowed her eyes. “I don’t believe you.” She looked between Cole and her husband. “I know you two. You’ll do something that will make things even worse for Damon. We need to be logical about this.” She glowered at Cole. “You’re a lawyer for crying out loud. Isn’t there something you can do?”

  “Yeah, I’m a lawyer, not a damn cop,” he shot back. “If there was something I could do, don’t you think I would have already?” He rubbed a frustrated hand back through his hair. “I hate knowing he’s there right now with that monster. Who the hell knows what he’s going through? Is he hurt? Is that bastard beating him? Where the fuck is his mother?” The last part was said with a vicious snarl that was followed by the slam of Cole’s fist on the table. Beth jumped. “Why isn’t she protecting him?”

  “Maybe she can’t,” Beth murmured. “Maybe she’s scared.”

  Cole’s eyes sparked with a rage that terrified her. “She’s scared? What about him? He’s just a kid. It’s her job to keep him safe.”

  With a growl, he shoved out of his seat and marched from the room. They heard his boots in the hallway and then the slam of the front door.

  No one spoke. The hum of the refrigerator filled the silence. Lily rose and went to the pasta turning hard in the strainer. Sloan stared down at the table, his expression as dark and angry as Cole’s. Beth didn’t know what to feel. Her heart hurt for Damon, for the little boy she’d never met, but wanted to gather up into her arms and protect. No child should ever face pain under the hands of the person they were supposed to love and trust. She understood Cole’s frustration perfectly. The same cold sliver was embedded in the pit of her own stomach, urging her to get up and do something.

  But what?

  There was no sleep for Beth that night. She lay sprawled across the bed, staring at the square patches of light cutting across her ceiling. Beyond her slightly ajar door, the apartment was bathed in silence, the sort that assured her Cole wasn’t sleeping either, or his snores would have been shaking the walls. It was the knowledge that they were both silently suffering in the same way, over the same thing, that propelled Beth out of bed. Her feet made no sound as she crossed to the door and out into the hallway. The light from the bathroom led her to the only other door there.

  It was closed firmly. She stared at the doorknob and the hand hovering inches from it, unable to bend. That single inability twisted something in the pit of her stomach and she started to back away.

  The door flew open. Beth wasn’t even given a chance to react when a hand reached through the opening, closed around the front of her top and she was dragged inside. The door was shut behind her.

  Cole peered down into her upturned face. His hair was mussed from the pillow and a day’s worth of growth darkened his jaw. He looked beautiful.

  Neither said a word. He led her to the futon, and still not speaking, he pulled her down with him. His bicep was tucked beneath her cheek, doubling as her pillow. The blanket was drawn around them both and his arm became a comfortable weight resting around her middle, tucking her firmly into the curve of his body. His slow, even breaths warmed her ear. They lifted and fell against her back. Beth closed her eyes as his steady heartbeat pattered against her shoulder blade.

  It was unclear when exactly one of them moved, probably her, but when Beth opened her eyes the next morning, she was half draped over Cole’s chest. They were a tangled mess of arms and legs, and she wasn’t even sure which leg was hers. Her cheek was mashed into his chest and his arms were possessive bands around her and one of them, probably him, had kicked the blankets off. But it had been the best sleep she’d had in four years.

  “Morning.” The low, gritty murmur rumbled against her cheek before ruffling the hairs at the top of her head.

  “Morning.” She shifted, inconspicuously checking for drool before lifting her head to meet his half-lidded eyes. “I’m sorry for squishing you all night.”

  Cole snorted. “Are you kidding? That was the best damn sleep I’ve had in ages.”

  “I feel bad for taking up both
your beds,” she said, rather than admit she felt the same.

  One hand unlocked from the small of her back and slid up to push her hair off her face. “You can take as many of my beds as you want, Beth. Besides.” His grin was lopsided and sleepy. “I was on my way to your bed last night. You just beat me to it.”

  Beth blinked. “You were?”

  He nodded. “I was going to beg you to let me stay the night.”

  Her cheek brushed the soft cotton of his shirt as she rested her head back over his beating heart. “You wouldn’t have had to beg.”

  His answer was the skim of his fingers up her back, moving to slide into her hair and cup the back of her head.

  The early morning calm closed a pale blanket around them. Beth shut her eyes and let herself fall into the familiar peace Cole always brought her. Part of her never wanted to leave.

  “I’m going to drive Calla to school this morning,” Cole murmured.

  Memories of the previous night clouded in around her moment of happiness and Beth’s eyes flew open. She raised her head and met Cole’s blue eyes.

  “I want to come with you.”

  His fingertips ghosted the curve of her cheek. “I’d like that.”

  He helped her bathe and dress before taking a shower himself and meeting her fully dressed in the kitchen. Beth had started the coffee machine and the scent of it filled the apartment. He poured them each a cup while she took down a box of pop tarts and stared at the empty spot where the toaster used to reside.

  Cole burst out laughing. “I guess it serves you right for killing my toaster in the first place.”

  Beth glowered at him and set the pop tarts back on the shelf. “Not funny.”

  Filled with nothing but coffee, the two left the apartment and made their way down to the car.

  Calla was waiting on the front steps when they pulled up to the house. She waved and bounded down the steps. Cole honked the horn three times to let Lily know they’d arrived before rolling out of the car and scooping Calla up into his arms. Whatever he said to her was muffled by the door slamming shut behind him. A moment later, he had his daughter strapped into the backseat and was turning to face the blonde huddled in the doorway. The two waved. Then Cole was behind the wheel and they were off.

  “Morning, Calla,” Beth said, twisting around in her seat.

  “Morning!” Calla said cheerfully. “Are you going to work with my daddy?”

  Beth shook her head. “No, I’m just coming along for the ride. Is that okay with you?”

  Calla nodded. “Yup, Mommy says family is always welcome.”

  Something settled hard on Beth’s chest, but she didn’t have the courage to tell the girl she was no longer family. Instead, she offered the girl a smile and returned to facing the windshield. She caught Cole watching her and she looked away.

  Willow Creek Elementary was like any other school, but smaller. There were two stories of gray stone and about a million windows. Children were everywhere, running and practically trampling all over each other trying to get out of the cold. Cole opened Beth’s door, then Calla’s. The three made their way to the sidewalk to join the other parents and kids.

  “Bye, Daddy!” Calla tugged Cole down for a quick kiss before rushing off. She got as far as the classroom doors before spinning on her heels and running back. She threw her arms around Beth’s legs, squeezed tight before letting go. “Bye, Auntie Beth.”

  This time, when she ran off, she didn’t come back and Beth was left staring at the spot with a deep ache in her chest.

  “Did you tell her to say that?”

  Cole never glanced at her. “Nope.”

  Lily must have, she realized with a sick sense of dread. She let it go. For now.

  “Do you see him?” she asked instead, peering over the many faces all around them.

  Cole shook his head. “Nope.”

  The gnawing in her stomach grew, becoming a pang that nearly doubled her over. She had no idea what Damon Comb looked like, but she searched for him, begging the heavens he would show up. All she could picture was this tiny person, bloody and bruised, huddled in a corner as the dark shape of a man loomed over him, hands balled, prepared to unleash another round of hell. She’d seen enough of that in foster care for it not to be a full exaggeration of her imagination. She had only been there for three years, but the horror of it was an ugly, smudged handprint smearing the white of her soul. She didn’t wish that sort of punishment on any child, especially not the ones that were left abandoned and alone with nowhere to go but the system, only to have that same system beat them even further. It didn’t ruin everyone, but it had never done her any favors. From the moment she’d returned from school to find her mother a cold, gray heap across the kitchen floor, mouth foaming and eyes filmed over, her entire world had become one giant eggshell. Each day, she had waited for it to crumble out from beneath her and send her spiraling into the same black void that had swallowed her mother, and each day she fought like hell never to let that happen.

  Except with James. He had nearly broken her. She had been so certain that he could give her the love she wanted so badly. Instead, he had taken her virginity in the backseat of his father’s pickup and spent the next year pretending she didn’t exist. Leaving him and that school behind was the only good thing about being taken away.

  Her father, the only person left who should have loved her, never even bothered to see if she was still alive after he walked out. He left her to the hands of neglectful, hateful, cruel, and abusive foster parents and overworked and underpaid social workers without a single thought. She had been completely alone and afraid with no one to turn to and wondering what she’d done wrong to deserve so much pain.

  Then she’d met Cole. He had smiled at her from across the coffee cart and Beth had done the only thing she knew how to do: she’d tried to run. Instead, she managed to dump half her coffee down her front and got a boy she really hadn’t thought she deserved. He was too nice, too charming and funny. He made her feel warm and safe, but more than that, he made her feel like she wasn’t lost. That was still the case and she, despite all her best efforts, was still that scared little girl waiting for her eggshell to crack.

  But it wasn’t her own life she was worried about this time. It was Damon. It was fear for him and all the things that could have happened that filled her with a numbing chill.

  “Cole…”

  His arm slipped around her waist and she was pulled into his side. He turned his head for just a second and brushed a kiss to the side of hers.

  “It’s all right, baby. I’ll find him.”

  But they didn’t. Damon Comb never showed up that morning.

  “He’s hurt,” Beth decided at once as they rode back into town towards the apartment.

  “Don’t.” From the driver’s side, Cole unclenched one hand from around the wheel and rested it lightly on Beth’s knee. “Panicking isn’t going to help the situation. I’m going to take you home, then I’m going to make some calls.”

  True to his words, Cole parked the car outside the building in his usual spot and helped her upstairs. But rather than let her go, he drew her into his arms. His lips brushed the crinkle between her eyes, smoothing it out.

  “I’m going to fix this,” he promised with such conviction it was impossible not to believe him. “I’ll make sure he’s all right.”

  Beth gave herself those few precious seconds and melted into him like she used to. Her face nuzzled the freshly shaven skin of his jaw and she inhaled the spicy scent of his cologne until she was drunk on him. But even that wasn’t enough to mask the gnawing sense of dread that refused to dislodge.

  “I’ve never even seen him, but I’m so scared he’s hurt,” she confessed. “Does that make me sound crazy?”

  He shook his head. “No, it makes you the woman I fell in love with.”

  She squeezed her eyes shut tight as his words smoothed over her wounds like healing balm. “Don’t say that.”

  “That
I love you?”

  The matter of fact way he said it, like it was the most natural thing in the world, suffocated her of all other words. All she could do was nod helplessly and wish she was strong enough to pull away.

  “I would,” he mused quietly. “Except I do love you, Beth. I’m damn near crazy about you. Not saying it won’t make it any less true.” He drew back, took her face between his warm hands and waited until she had no choice but to open her eyes before speaking again. “Not going to ask you to say it back. I know we’ve got a lot of things to work out, but I’m a patient man, sweetheart, and I’ll be right here waiting for you.”

  Not giving her a chance to settle the riot of her heart, he kissed her tenderly on the cheek before leaving.

  Alone in the apartment, Beth shut her eyes and tried to prioritize her worries. There were so many that they had become a dark wave repeatedly slamming into her, threatening to take her under and she wasn’t ready to let go. There was still so much she needed to sort out. Plus there was Damon. What she’d said to Cole stood true; the boy was a faceless figure in the vast ocean of all her worries, yet he stood out the brightest, like a beacon, glowing bright against the night. But it wasn’t her safe return to land, but his. She had to bring him home, wherever that was. It made no sense. There was no rhythm or reason behind the sudden obsession, yet it was all she could think about.

  Mind made up, she left the apartment after a few minutes of struggling with the doorknob. The car was in its usual parking spot, but Cole had the keys. Not that it mattered. She wasn’t even sure she could steer with her hands and wouldn’t risk the lives of others in attempting to drive.

  Instead, she walked. The town wasn’t nearly big enough to worry about getting lost. It was all about following the main road. The paved path was like an artery giving life to all the little veins. The area she was headed into was on the outskirts, tucked away from the town and most of its more … acceptable residents.