by Parker, Ali
I tugged my arm away from her. “No, thanks.”
Sadie giggled. “I wasn’t propositioning you, Caleb.”
Milly came and took Sadie by the hand. She pulled her away from me and shot me an apologetic look. Then, I heard her mutter to Sadie under her breath, “Don’t do that. You’re making everyone uncomfortable. He’s not … you know, like that.”
“Like what?” Sadie whispered back.
Milly pursed her lips and shook her head. Then she pulled Sadie out behind her, and they left me alone with Cassidy, who was now leaning over the back of her chair and peering into her vanity mirror as she filled her lips in with red. “Sorry about Sadie. She can be sort of inappropriate at times.”
“It’s fine.”
Cassidy looked at me in the mirror. Her smile was kind, sweet, and a little sad. “What she said is kind of true, though, Caleb. You could benefit from loosening up a bit. Having a good time. Not everything in life is watching out for other people. Live a little.”
Live a little? I didn’t even know how the fuck I would start doing that again.
“Thanks, Cassidy. Now get out there. The music is on, and the doors are opening.”
She nodded. “Yes, boss.”
I shook my head at her as she passed me. Again with the “boss” thing.
I stood alone in the back room for a few minutes considering what my next course of action should be. Lauryn should be here by now. The fact that she still hadn’t come back here had me stressing out. She’d told the girls she would be late, but for some reason, that didn’t give me any piece of mind.
If anything, it made me worry a little bit more. They’d been unwilling to tell me the whole truth. Had something happened? Were they deliberately keeping it a secret from me?
“Fuck this,” I growled. I marched over to the back wall where I used a key to open the top drawer of a filing cabinet that held employee information—including personal phone numbers and addresses. If Lauryn was in trouble and needed help, I had to get to her.
I pulled out her file and peered down at it, running my finger along the top line to find her emergency contact. She didn’t have one.
“What the hell?” I muttered.
How had the girl gotten away with not putting that information in? It was a required field for good reason. Kadia was a safe place for the most part, but shit could happen. And if it went down, we’d need to know who to call.
Or there was no one to call.
I frowned. The only name on my emergency contact was “Johnny Moretti,” and he had no idea I’d used him for it.
The door behind me burst open. I turned around and dropped the file back in the drawer as I did so.
Lauryn came in, out of breath and looking frazzled. She didn’t even notice me at first. She went to her chair and looked at herself in the mirror. Then, I saw her bottom lip tremble.
“Lauryn?”
She spun around wide-eyed and stared at me.
“Sorry,” I said, holding up a hand in an apology. “I didn’t mean to scare you. Are you all right?”
She blinked and then nodded furiously. She put her back to me and started rummaging around in her bag. She pulled out the sparkly tights she always wore. “Yes. I’m okay. Sorry I’m late. It won’t happen again.”
“It’s fine. Things happen.” I closed and locked the filing cabinet. Lauryn continued to frantically get ready. “Lauryn. Relax. Take a breath for fuck sakes. You don’t have to be on the floor right away.”
She looked up at me. Her eyes were wet. “I can go on.”
I walked toward her, and she stiffened. She dropped her head, letting her hair fall like a curtain over her face, and sifted through her bag some more. I stopped when I was right in front of her and put my hand on the back of her chair. “Lauryn?”
She wouldn’t look at me. “What?”
“What happened?”
She shook her head again. I could hear her breath tremble. Then, she slowly looked up, and I saw what she’d been trying to hide from me. Along her right cheekbone, under the layers of makeup, was a twinge of purple.
A bruise.
I sucked in a sharp breath, and she recoiled from me. She retreated, and I followed her. “Who did that to you?”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said hurriedly. “It’s fine. I’ve handled it.”
“Handled it?” I asked incredulously. “What the fuck do you mean, you’ve handled it?”
Lauryn lifted her hand to hide her bruised cheek from me. “It’s fine. It happened. I’ve moved on, and it won’t happen again.”
It was almost impossible to not yell at her. She wasn’t the one I was mad at. Whoever laid hands on her was the one I was mad at. I took a deep breath as she watched me nervously. Her eyes darted back and forth between mine. I tried to soften my stare. “Lauryn. I care about you. Tell me who hurt you.”
“I can’t.”
“Yes, you can. You have to. Let me help you.”
“This isn’t your problem to fix!” She was nearly screaming at me. It took me aback for a second. Then, I realized this was all coming from a place of fear, and the fury that raged within me was hotter and fiercer than anything I’d ever felt before.
I reached out and took her hand. She resisted but only for a second as I drew her to me. She was so close, I could smell her citrus shampoo. I looked down into her eyes and said with as much calmness as I could muster, “You have a son. If you’re in trouble, he’s in trouble. Tell me who did this to you.”
She blinked. A tear trickled down her cheek, and she didn’t bother to wipe it away. “He wouldn’t hurt Jayden.”
“You probably said he wouldn’t hurt you before too. And believed it. A man who lays hands on a woman has no boundaries, Lauryn. You can’t guarantee your son’s safety. I won’t let you do this. Let me help you.” I could hear in my voice that I was basically pleading with her to see reason.
The look in her eyes told me she heard me. She looked horrified. Her eyes were wide and empty, and her lips were slightly parted. For a moment, I thought she might crumple in my arms and break apart. Instead, she strengthened her resolve. She closed her mouth and clenched her jaw. Then she nodded once, sharply. “It was Cliff. My boyfriend.”
Cliff.
That no good piece of shit had no idea what was about to befall him.
Chapter 12
Lauryn
Cliff was scary when he was angry. His control went out the window, and a big vein grew to twice its normal size across his forehead. His face turned bright red, and his voice would become so loud and angry that within a few minutes, he’d be hoarse from yelling at me. His fists would be clenched tightly at his sides, and for the first time since getting with him, I knew the pain he could inflict with those knuckles.
But Cliff’s anger was not nearly as terrifying as Caleb’s.
Caleb remained mute in front of me after I told him it was Cliff who hit me and left the deep purple bruise beneath my right eye. I could see the tightening of the muscles of his jaw, and his eyes seemed to darken by two or three shades—which I knew was physically impossible. But I was sure that they had. There was a dark fury burning there that made my blood run cold.
“Caleb?” I asked. My voice was barely more than a whisper.
He didn’t say anything. Instead, he moved around me and walked out the doors. I stood there like a stick in the mud for a couple heartbeats. My head was spinning, and my skin was tingling. I’d broken out in a cold sweat the minute Caleb had seen the bruise because I knew without a doubt that things were going to change now.
They had to.
Caleb wasn’t the sort of man to find out this information and let the abuse continue. He was the sort of man who would go through fire to make things right. I was sure that’s what he was about to do right now.
“Get it together, Lauryn,” I whispered to myself. I ran my sweaty palms down my thighs and turned and followed him out. I was still wearing my jeans and a pullover. I cut through
the crowd that was forming in front of the bar and found Caleb near the front doors talking to Jack, one of the other security guards.
I came up behind him as Jack nodded and said, “No worries, man. I can handle this for a couple hours.”
Then, Caleb turned and grabbed my hand. I wasn’t sure how he’d known I was there, but he had. He pulled me out through the front doors.
“Where are we going?” I asked nervously. The question was a pointless one to ask. I already knew exactly where we were going.
“Your apartment. I’m going to show this piece of shit boyfriend of yours that he can’t get away with laying his hands on you. And we’re going to evict his ass. You hear me?” He drew me up in front of him and held me by the shoulders. “You can’t keep him around, Lauryn. You get that, right? This will only get worse from here on out.”
“I can do it myself. I don’t need you to fight my battles for me.”
“Yeah?” he asked sharply.
“Yeah,” I snapped back.
Caleb shook his head. “You think you can walk in there and kick his ass out and he’s not going to come after you again? Lauryn. Come on. I get that you’re a fighter and all, but this guy could do a real number on you. I’m not going to let that happen, not when I’m capable of fixing this.”
“Please.”
“No,” he said, shaking his head again. “If you don’t fix this now, you never will. And you’ll never forgive yourself if Jayden gets tangled up in it. Neither will I. You have to be brave tonight, and then it’s over. All right?”
I searched his eyes and found genuine concern there. This scared me more than anything. I hadn’t had someone show me they cared about me like this in years. He was looking at me in a way that suggested he knew my pain, and he knew he could take it away, and he wanted to. He wanted to make things better for me and my son. He wanted to protect me from a monster I couldn’t defeat on my own.
“Okay,” I whispered.
Then, he kissed my forehead. It was the strangest, most comforting thing a man had ever done to me. I stood in his arms and felt the warmth of his kiss against my skin. It was over as soon as it had begun, and he led me down the sidewalk to his car. He opened the door for me, and I slid into the inky black sports car.
He walked around the hood, got into the driver’s seat, turned the ignition, and pulled away from the curb.
I swallowed and rubbed my hands up and down my thighs.
“Don’t be scared,” Caleb said.
“I can’t help it.”
He reached over and took my hand. His fingers intertwined with mine, and he gave them a reassuring squeeze. “This guy will be nothing but a memory for you in a couple hours. Trust me.”
“Jayden is at the house.”
“Is there anywhere he can go? Someone you can call?”
I shook my head. “No one. I don’t have anyone.”
I could feel Caleb’s eyes on me. My cheeks were burning with shame, and I looked down at our hands wrapped together. Caleb sighed. “Me neither.”
We spent the rest of the drive in silence except for the couple directions I gave Caleb to lead him to my apartment building. When we arrived, I was sure I wouldn’t have the strength to get out of the car.
I’d wanted to escape Cliff for months now, but I didn’t have the tools to do it myself. I was too afraid of change. I didn’t want to confront this world alone, but I also didn’t want to give Jayden a bad example of the sort of treatment a woman should accept. I’d promised myself a long time ago that I wouldn’t ever let that happen.
And I’d broken that promise to myself.
Caleb parked the car and came around to my door. He opened it for me and offered me his hand. I stared at it, and he curled his fingers in a come-hither motion. I took his hand, and he helped me up. Then, we walked silently up the path to the front doors. I buzzed us in, and we got in the elevator.
“Oh god,” I breathed as we rode up. I watched the illuminated number above the doors creep upward until it hit six. The doors chimed when they slid open.
Caleb handed me his car keys when we stepped out. “Don’t be scared. You don’t have to do anything. You just go and get Jayden, and I’ll deal with Cliff. Take him down to the car and go for a drive. I won’t need more than half an hour, tops. By the time you get back, your home will be yours again.”
I reached out and grabbed his sleeve. “Caleb?”
“Yes?”
I frowned and bit my bottom lip. “Please, be careful. Cliff is a strong man.”
Caleb’s mouth twitched in a smirk. “Are you worried about me?”
“Maybe.”
Caleb chuckled. “Don’t be. I can handle guys like this in my sleep. You know who I am.”
He was reminding me that he was a Lost Breed member. I knew he’d been through hell and back these last few months. He’d seen things that had changed him. He didn’t laugh as easily as he used to, and I caught him staring off into space more now than he ever used to. He’d lost a friend, and I knew it weighed heavily on him.
We stopped in front of my front door. I unlocked it and took a steady breath.
“Just go get Jayden,” Caleb said, reminding me that my role in this was minor. All I had to do was get in and get out. Then by the time I got back, I would finally have a peaceful home.
“Right,” I said. And I marched in.
I walked straight past the living room where Cliff was draped over the sofa. The television was on, but he wasn’t paying any attention to it. He was on his phone as he always was, and he didn’t say anything as I blew past the door.
I went into Jayden’s room.
I felt bad for waking him, but I gently shook his shoulder until he blinked his eyes open. He looked up at me, confused, and looked around. “Mom?”
“Hey, kiddo. I’m sorry to wake you up. Everything is fine. Could you get out of bed for me?”
Jayden yawned but got out of bed. He was in his pajamas, which was good enough. I grabbed his sweater from the hook on the back of his door and helped him into it. Then, I took his slippers and put them on his feet. I held his hand, and we left his room.
Caleb was standing at the entrance to the living room. He had his arms crossed over his chest, and he gave Jayden a warm smile when we approached.
That was when Cliff looked up. “What the fuck are you doing in my house?”
Caleb didn’t answer him. Instead, he looked at me and then nodded at the door. “I’ll see you in a bit.”
I nodded.
“Lauryn? Get your ass back here. Who the fuck is this clown? You bringing home clients now, you little who—”
I closed the front door behind me and walked to the elevator. Jayden was watching me, but he didn’t say anything until we stepped in and started riding it to the ground level. “Mom? Who was that man in there? Why’s Cliff so mad? Are you okay?”
I crouched in front of him and gently cupped his perfect little face in my hands. I stared into his hazel eyes—eyes that matched mine—and gave him the most convincing smile I could muster. “That man is named Caleb. He’s my friend, and he came over tonight to help me.”
“Help you?”
I nodded. “I think it’s time that Cliff left and we had our home to ourselves again. I should have talked to you about it, baby, and warned you. But sometimes things just happen, and you have to go with it. You know?”
Jayden frowned but nodded after a minute. “Like if it’s raining, you spend lunch inside at school.”
It wasn’t the same thing, but it was close enough. “Exactly,” I said.
“So Cliff won’t be there when we get home?”
I shook my head. “No. He won’t. We might not ever see him again. I’m sorry you didn’t get to say goodbye.”
Jayden stepped forward as the elevator doors opened. We were on the ground level. He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and hugged me tightly in his little arms. “It’s okay, Mom.”
I rubbed his back. “How did I get
so lucky with a kid like you?”
Jayden giggled into my shoulder. I scooped him up in my arms when I stood and walked out to Caleb’s car.
I put him in the back seat and buckled him in before getting into the driver’s side. It took me a good couple minutes to get the seat and mirrors adjusted. Caleb was a lot taller than me. I hoped he wasn’t bothered by me messing with all his presets. I almost laughed at myself for thinking he would be. Caleb was in my apartment to save me from my abusive boyfriend. He wouldn’t give a damn if he had to adjust his seat when he got back in his car.
I pulled away from the curb. It was nearly ten thirty at night, and I had no idea where we could go that would still be open. The only place I could think of was a convenience store, and there was one that sold a huge variety of candy about fifteen minutes away. If Caleb really only needed twenty minutes, that should be plenty of time. Candy was a rare treat in our house, so I knew Jayden would be on board.
“How about we stop and grab some candy, Jayden?”
Jayden clapped his hands together in the back seat with excitement. I turned on the radio and flicked through the stations until a song came on that Jayden liked. Then, we both sang along, and I did everything I possibly could to not think about what was happening back at my apartment.
I wasn’t worried about Cliff. I was worried about Caleb, the man who’d held me and kissed me like I was as fragile as glass. Right now, I felt like I was.
Chapter 13
Caleb
Cliff, the smug bastard, was exactly what I expected him to be.
He was standing now, the back of his knees pressed to the edge of the sofa cushions, and he was swaying on the spot as he pointed an accusatory finger at me. “The fuck you doing in my house?” he slurred.
He’d been drinking, that much was obvious, and the smattering of empty beer cans all over the living room suggested he’d been drinking to excess. I remained where I was, standing in the doorway with my hands in my pockets as he nodded at the door and told me to get the fuck out.
