I turn the key in the ignition and crack the windows, making sure the air conditioning is on full blast, but leave the passenger door open. I don’t know why. Crazy scenarios are running through my head since I didn’t actually observe my brother and sister leave. Images of them trying to get to the kids and me diving through the door to speed away is all I can think about. I keep my hand on the doorframe to the car.
The cops take my statement, asking me who they were, if I know the case number of my lawsuit, if I want to press charges, get a restraining order, if they can talk to the kids. I let the kids talk to the police, not even thinking that I should be calling Batty until my phone starts exploding. An officer looks at me with concern. I shrug.
“It’s their father. I need to let him know what’s going on.”
“Alright, ma’am. We’re done here for now. The suspects fled, but please contact us if you have any trouble at all.” I shake everyone’s hand.
“Thanks.” I leave the now emptying school and head straight for home.
“Aren’t we going to soccer?” I shake my head. No fucking way I can take them running all over the place in two different directions out in the open.
“Not today. We’re going to skip it.” They get pouty, and maybe a good mom wouldn’t break routine, but my nerves are shot. “Let’s go swimming in the lake.” The girls start bouncing and clapping.
“We’ve never swam in the lakes before! Can I jump off the dock like we do at the pool? I’m a good diver,” Bridgette practically yells in my ear.
“Yes. We’ll take it slow and move up to that, okay? You’re both practically fish, anyway.” They giggle and I smile, pushing the remote for the Los Rancheros gate that I took out of the truck.
My phone goes off again as we pull up to the house. “Go in and get your suits on. I’ll be in to put sunscreen on you in just a minute. I have to talk to Uncle Finn first.”
“Hello?”
“What in the ever loving fuck is going on, Sadie?!” Shit, he’s pissed. I sigh and rub my temple.
“Brian and Patricia were at the school when I went to pick up the kids.”
“How can this happen? Where was the school security?”
“Oh, I don’t know. All I did was borrow your truck and the teachers helped the kids in and smiled at me. They parked in the parking lot from what I saw.”
“This is unbelievable. I’m coming home.”
“What? I know you’re freaked out. I’m still shaking, but they never touched the girls. The police took everyone’s statement, including the kids, and they never touched them.”
“Sadie.”
“Finn, I swear they’re fine. We’re at the house for the rest of the day, behind all of the gates that this place has. We’re skipping soccer. I’ll have them call you if you want.” He sighs.
“Fine. Have them call me before bed, please.”
“Okay,” I say quietly, but the call has already been ended. A cold sense of unease works its way through me.
Walking into the house, it’s a tornado of backpacks, socks, and other various clothes all the way down the hall. I pick up as I go, starting a load of clothes like I usually do at bedtime when they change out of their clothes for the day. I French braid their hair and slather them with sunscreen then change my clothes.
When we get out to the docks, I set the fluffy towels down on a long dock and peer into the water. I’ve never seen anything but fish in the water. I turn back to the girls.
“Has there ever been any alligators or snakes in here that you can remember?” They shake their head no, eyes wide. “Alright, here we go.”
I take a step back and cannon ball into the lake in my bikini. I come up for air and smile at them. “Jump in one at a time. I want to be close when you go in, just in case.”
Hannah goes first, and I make sure I’m right in front of her on the dock. She holds her nose, squeezes her eyes shut and jumps. Right on top of me. I get a knee to the eye socket and go under.
I surface coughing, holding my eye and check on Hannah. She’s literally swimming circles around me.
“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, are you okay? Did I hurt you? I jumped really far, didn’t I?” I smile through the pain.
“Yeah, you did, kid. Great job.” I turn to Bridgette, my cheek on fire, my eye tearing. “Your turn, Bridge.” I back the fuck up.
Both of the girls work on their butterfly stroke for a while and we move closer to shore to do handstands. We play and laugh. I’m relieved that the incident at the school seems to be forgotten.
“Help me, help me!” Bridgette yells. I move to her quickly.
“I’ll save you, little girl!” I yell back. Both girls start giggling and I pick Bridgette up and start tickling her. It’s Hannah’s turn so she starts pretending to need help and I turn to her when there’s a pounding on the dock.
“HANNAH!” Boom, splash. Before I have time to freak out, Finnigan Brennick in a goddamned suit and tie lifts Hannah out of the water and rushes to shore. Bridgette squirms out of my arms.
“Uncle Finn!” she yells, jumping on his back.
“Hannah, can you hear me, Hannah?” Finn is checking for injuries as I slowly make my way out of the water.
“Hey, you’re really good at this Uncle Finn. But you’re supposed to tickle me,” Hannah says. He collapses back on his butt.
“What?”
“Yeah, Aunt Sadie tickles us. It’s part of the game.”
“Aunt Sadie . . .” he pants.
“Come on, girls. Let’s get a popsicle and let Uncle Finn catch his breath.” The girls get up and beam.
“Can you stay for dinner, Uncle Finn?”
“This is the best surprise ever!”
“Can you read me a story tonight?” I shoo them in.
“He’ll be in shortly. Go now.” I roll my lips in and bite them nervously. Finn stands up and wipes the sand off his slacks, getting sand all over his hands.
“I saw the car in the ditch and thought . . . I thought she was really drowning. They can’t swim, Sadie,” he says angrily. I turn to the dock and grab a towel. I can hear his shoes squishing behind me.
“Yes, I crashed the car in your driveway facing the front yard and it threw them, in their bathing suits, into the lake in the backyard.” I roll my eyes. “Oh, and they can swim.”
“No. They fucking can’t.”
“Yes. I taught them in a pool almost from the first day I was here.” He blinks at me.
“Why would you do that?” I throw my arms up.
“Because we’re in the land of one thousand lakes and they’re six. It’s dangerous for them to not know how to swim.” I grab the girls’ towels and brush past him, already knowing there’s going to be puddles all over the floor I just mopped last night.
When I get in the door, there are indeed puddles everywhere. I throw the towels down and hear squishing of expensive shoes behind me.
“Oh, hell no. You take that off outside and towel off first then go straight to the shower.” Finn’s eyebrows crash down.
“Excuse me?”
“You’re full of sand and mud, plus the water. Strip and I’ll grab you a towel. You aren’t dragging all of that in with you.” I close the door in his face and swear I hear him growl.
I quickly put towels around the girls and grab one from the closet for the angry man. He stalks right up to me, his anger bright, his scent a little fishy, and grey eyes blazing.
“You know I seem to recall a night of swimming on your beach when you weren’t too worried about puddles, Sadie,” he says quietly, scraping his five o’clock shadow on my cheek, making goose bumps explode down my arm.
“Your house gets a lot messier than mine. It’s a lot more work.” I pull away from him so that I can look him in the eyes. “And I have a maid. Here, I’m the maid. Make sure you pick up your clothes in the garage after your shower.”
I move past him and grab a popsicle. My back is to the girls when I suck it into my mouth. “Woman,” he
says in warning. My eyes drop to his towel and he follows to where the front is rising steadily. He looks to the girls then glares as he leaves quickly.
I shiver. Batty’s home.
Chapter 9
When the minions are fed, bathed and in bed, I close the door to the bedroom softly. Batty is sitting on the side that I’ve adopted as my own with a laptop in his lap. He doesn’t look up so I take a t-shirt from the dresser and head for the bathroom.
As I wash my face and brush my teeth, my stomach flips. Does he not trust me with these kids? Why would he leave them with me? Even if I was a last resort, I wasn’t really the last resort. He has enough money to find a qualified nanny to watch them.
This is what I know: He loved a woman who married his brother. He’s now raising their children. And he won’t talk about any of it.
Looking in the mirror, I see a redhead in an oversized white shirt that barely covers her ass. Her hair shines in the fluorescent light, her cheeks are pink from the sun, and clear of makeup. She looks young, and determined as hell.
I put my shoulders back and enter the bedroom. Batty doesn’t look at me until I’m crawling across the mattress and slamming the top on his computer, barely missing his fingers.
“What the hell, Sadie? I have a shit storm I have to handle.”
“Not tonight,” I mumble, throwing a leg over his lap and grabbing his head. His hands go to my forearms to pull my hands away, so I dig my fingers into his hair.
“Sadie.”
“Shut up.” I slap my mouth into his, parting his mouth with my tongue and diving in. It takes him excruciating seconds to react. Seconds that I think he’s about to throw me across the bed and reach for his laptop again. Seconds that my heart pounds and my head gets dizzy with the mixture of his taste in my mouth and the lack of oxygen in my lungs since I don’t breathe.
Batty uses his hands on my arms to pull me closer and I lose my balance to fall against him. Our noses glance off each other’s, our foreheads knocking together, but our lips never part.
He lets go of my forearms to pull at my biceps, then my shoulders, finally yanking in my hair, like he wants me closer, but we’re plastered against each other and can’t get any closer than this.
I roll my hips and my skin breaks out in goose bumps when he groans. I hum in my throat when he bites my lip. His hands in my hair direct my head where he wants me, our tongues waging war, until he yanks back, exposing my neck.
I moan at the feel of his teeth sinking into flesh, sighing when his tongue sooths the pain.
One hand leaves my hair to skate up my thigh, taking the shirt with it until it’s over my head and gone.
I push his head down to my breast. Maybe that’s where he was going anyway, but I don’t give him time to find out. He pushes into me so that I’m leaning back so far I would fall if not for my grip on him. His mouth opens and he sucks me in, making me rock against him, back and forth, with only his pants in the way.
I move my legs until I can get my feet flat on the bed and push him back against the headboard. He takes me with him with hands on my back and I have to move my head to the side before it hits the hard wood.
When Batty goes for my other nipple, I wiggle a hand between us and move his soft cotton pajama pants down to free his erection. The material is damp from my naked grinding.
His hands are pulling at the skin on my back and I know that if he had any kind of nails there would be welts there. It spurs me on.
Grabbing his hair in one hand, the other goes to the top of the headboard, and I pull myself up to sink down with him inside of me. I watch his eyes turn to steel as my flesh stretches to make room for his cock.
Batty bares his teeth. The tendons in his neck pull taut. His hands fall to my ass, squeezing tight. And his eyes stay on mine.
I tell him with my eyes to let me in. I ask nicely. I beg. Then I get mad and demand it.
I drag my hands down his face, pulling his skin, stretching his lip as he stays frozen, his only movement the pulsing inside of me. Down, I move past his collar bone. That’s when I dig in. I do have nails and I do leave welts. I grit my teeth, nostrils flaring and glare as I drag my nails down his chest and over the ridges of his stomach.
“FUCK!” The sound explodes from his soul. It’s pain, and rage, and love, and relief.
I gasp when he thrusts into me, violently pulling me down, before immediately lifting again. My hands leave his skin to reach for the headboard above our heads. I pull myself up with my arms and feet on the mattress, and know I can go forever. I will go forever like this, until he gives me what I want.
He moves a leg to try to flip up and I lean away from it. “No.” I’m doing this. I’m in control, and he won’t take it away from me.
“What do you want?” he asks, his breathing labored as I start to move again.
I put my forehead to his, our noses gliding against each other’s and whisper against his lips, “Everything.”
Batty’s fingers clench on my ass, and he pumps his hips hard into me. When I move my head back, I pick up the pace, grinding when I need it, slamming down when he does, becoming drenched in sweat. My hair stretches between us, like even that is trying to pull him into me.
Batty’s eyes skim over my body, his hand glides on my skin, his forehead beads with sweat that I watch move down his chest.
I go forever. I have to stop moving when he gets close, or I do, but neither of us goes over the edge. I work us up to that line and ruthlessly push us back. More than once Batty tries to take charge, but I’m prepared.
There is no other option. I’ve taken this on, chosen to do it this way, and if I fail I know his defenses will go back up and I’ll never get a chance again. I will break this man.
“Sadie . . . you have to . . . I can’t do this . . .” he pants. I take his hands in mine up to the headboard. They slide with sweat, but we grip hard, our skin turning white at the knuckles.
I’m not deluding myself, if he really, really wanted me off of him, he could move my bony ass, but I will do everything in my power to make him move past this. Sex is our thing. We have always said everything we couldn’t bear to vocalize with our bodies, and right now he’s vibrating with words that have to come out.
“Give it to me, baby. Please, Batty. Please,” I gasp. His eyes roll back and his head falls.
“Say it again,” he whispers. What? Say what?
“Batty.”
“Again.”
“Batty, I think I love you.” I suck in a shocked breath. Fuck. His eyes open and his breathing stops.
“What?”
“I’m . . . I didn’t . . .” I panic and do the only thing I can think to do. I bring us back to that ledge, and we jump together.
~
Our hands have slid from the headboard and Batty pushes them behind my back to hold me without letting them go. Our bodies fuse together and we don’t speak.
My head is shouting every curse word I can possibly come up with. I meant to break him, but have a fucking epiphany at the worst possible time imaginable. I want to run. My mission was to get him to talk about his past love, not throw mine at him. Jesus Christ.
“Sadie.” Our bodies aren’t cooling. They’re radiating heat in waves like the sun on hot cement. Still, I don’t move. “Babe, I’m in a fucking puddle. We need to move,” he says quietly.
“I can’t.” My words are barely a sound, I’m so exhausted. “I can’t move my legs.” Batty moves his head down and fuses his mouth to my bare shoulder, then lets go of my hands.
He lays me back before getting out of the bed. I whimper when he leaves my body and get a kiss on a shaking knee. My legs are jelly, the muscles so overused they spasm over and over.
Batty grabs things around the room, putting them in a bag, then picks me up.
“What the hell?”
“Shh. We have to be quiet.” Batty opens the door and walks past the kids’ room and out the front door with me in his arms. I watch him in the moonlight
, his face highlighted and shadowed as we walk through the trees.
Batty walks right into the water. He lets my legs drop and tosses the bag onto the floating dock before wading in. When we’re up to his shoulders, he lets me go gently. I sink into the water placidly, then push my hair back and rise up to float.
When Batty surfaces from his own dunk in the cool water, he moves me with his hands so that I don’t float away as I stare at the stars. I feel his fingers skim down one side of my body, catching a nipple and back up to the other. It makes me shiver and my nipples get tight enough to hurt.
“You’re so beautiful, Sadie.” He moves my body until my head drifts close to his chest and he leans forward to touch his lips to mine in a whisper of a kiss. “Come with me, baby.”
I sink in the water to put my feet back into the soil below. “Where?” I watch as he leaves the lake, his body so beautiful I would follow him into a burning building, anywhere really.
We get to the bag on the dock and he pulls out towels then takes it and my hand down to the water. With our legs over the side, I silently wrap my hair into a wet bun on the top of my head and use the band around my wrist to keep it there.
I don’t have anything to say. I’ve done everything I know how to do. If it didn’t work, there’s nothing else in me. It’s silent for a long time, every second, every minute that passes my heart beats a little harder until I fear that it will stop beating all together.
“Her name was Annie and she was the prettiest girl I had ever seen. She was a new transfer into my class, and I fell in love with her instantly. We were seven, my brother was ten. From the day she walked into my class, I was stuck to her. I played on the playground with her, then invited her over after school. Aiden didn’t like a girl playing with us. He didn’t want anything to do with her until she was about thirteen. Annie and I were always together, she loved to fish, and swim in the lakes. We did that a lot, and one day Aiden realized what I had known the whole time. Annie developed pretty early on, but when she did, Aiden started to want to fish more, and swim. I didn’t even realize, not really, until I saw them kiss for the first time that anything changed. Annie was always mine, had been for years. But he came along and took her away.
Finally Finn (Los Rancheros #4) Page 6
