Altering Authority

by Dooley, Ashley

  Tatum smiled at them then. “It’s a bit grand for my tastes actually. It was Bill’s. He was worse than Liberace,” she laughed.

  “Not that bad,” Jager said over his coffee, smiling.

  It was as if he caught himself then, like he realized he was having a normal conversation. His smile faded, as did the look in his eyes. He stared at the boys and then stood. “I’m a… going to grab a shower. I’ll send May to look after the boys.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Tatum said, staring after him, unsure about what just happened. “I told her to sleep in.”

  Jager nodded and turned back towards the stairs.

  When he was out of earshot, Tatum sat next to Phil and looked at him, waiting for some kind of explanation.

  “He’s going through a rough time,” Phil said looking at the boys, not wanting to say too much, fearing they may overhear.

  Tatum looked at them too and understood her father couldn’t elaborate anymore at that minute but was relieved when May walked in moments later. She thanked Tatum and cleaned away the dishes for them.

  Tatum led Phil out onto the patio, where the party had been last night. She started to clear away the beer bottles that were lying around, making a note to call the cleaners when she went back in. Phil started helping her, loading up the empty boxes.

  “So go ahead…what constitutes as a rough time?” she asked her father as she reached across one of the tables and grabbed a few bottles. She thought about dumping the remainder of beer out onto the ground but changed her mind when she saw the cigarette butts floating in some of them. Making a face to show her disgust, she waited for Phil to answer her.

  He made sure his voice was low enough only for them to hear. “His wife. They’d been together since high school. They uh – were going through a rough time. She took the boys on him and ran. She couldn’t handle this life. Didn’t want it for them,” Tatum nodded, understanding but feeling a kind of resentment towards this wife. No parent should ever have their child taken away from them. Unless they were abusive, and Tatum knew from her brief moments with Jager that he was a loving, good father. She shook her head to show her distaste.

  Phil continued, “He found them, we all did after looking non-stop for a few weeks. Jager was furious, but he’d convinced himself that the boys were better off without him.” Tatum’s head shot around and she looked at her father, shocked. She rolled her eyes. Men were dumb. Phil nodded. “She was grateful to him. Things seemed to be working out. I think they’d…reconciled and then two nights later he’d found her murdered in their bathroom.”

  Tatum felt sick to her stomach.

  “Were the boys there…?” she managed to choke out. She had to sit. She believed that sometimes extreme measures were needed in certain circumstances, but when it came to kids and her family and friends, it was a different story.

  Phil shook his head, “They were with May.”

  Tatum understood now and felt bad for thinking Jager was an asshole. She decided then and there that she wanted to make this vacation count for them. The boys and their father too.

  “What was she like?” Tatum asked Phil after a few minutes, randomly. “As a mother I mean?”

  “She was a good-enough mother I suppose. Not really the kind to get on the floor and play with the kids or to plan trips to Disney, but they were taken care of.”

  Tatum went quiet for a minute and started cleaning up the patio again.

  “I’m beginning to recognize that look. What are you thinking?” Phil asked.

  She smiled at him over her shoulder. “I don’t know… What he is into. You’d know,” she paused, “I want to take the boys around. Do some fun things with them. Do you think May or Jager would mind I mean?”

  Phil shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t see why not.”

  “Why don’t you plan something today for you and the crew? You could go to one of my clubs? Or just out around the hills in your cars? Let me know and I’ll set it up. Can you ask Jager if it’s ok for me?”

  Phil couldn’t resist. He knew that Jager would protest, but his daughter seemed so passionate about this. She wanted to help so desperately that he knew he’d do anything to persuade his friend.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Convincing Jager wasn’t as difficult as he’d expected. When Phil mentioned it to him he began to say no, but then Tatum walked into the room with Connor in her arms. “I wanna go to the beesh dad.”

  Jager couldn’t help but smile at his baby. “Its beach buddy. Not beesh.”

  “Beeeesh,” Connor replied and they all laughed.

  Jager looked up at Tatum then.

  “They’d really like it. I can take a couple of my guys if you’re worried but I promise they’ll be fine. Phil has some things planned for you all today anyways. I hope you don’t mind… but I already told May I’d ask you if she could have the day off.”

  Jager looked at Tatum. She was wearing jean shorts and a long sleeved shirt. Her hair was somewhat tamer than it had been this morning but was still wild and curly.

  Connor really liked her. He placed his chin on her shoulder and was twirling a piece of hair around his little finger. They were waiting for him to answer he realized and since he couldn’t see any harm in it, he agreed.

  “Yay!” Tatum said and Connor clapped his hands. “Let’s go get you and your brother some shorts,” she came to stand next to Jager and leaned in with Connor. “Tell dad you’ll see him later. Give him a kiss.”

  Jager was taken aback by her proximity. She smelled good. It had been months since he’d allowed himself to really notice a woman. He’d had his share of groupies since April’s death but they were just warm bodies. Something to make him feel better, at least temporarily.

  He kissed his son and told him to be careful and to listen to Tatum. She smiled at him and he knew then that Phil must have told her what happened. She seemed warmer since she had this morning. Not that she was rude or mean, but he knew he was being a dick. It was a natural reaction to be standoff-ish toward him as of late.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Phil took the boys to his daughters club. They all drove their cars and when they walked in the girls cheered for them. At first Jager was kind of awkward, unable to loosen up, however the girls were all very welcoming, and before the day was out, he was actually laughing.

  He’d asked Phil numerous times to text Tatum and check in on the boys. He was exceptionally more paranoid now since everything and was constantly worried about his kids. Tatum called, growing sick of the texts and asked to speak to Jager. She told him that the boys were doing well. They had gone out for lunch and a bit of shopping. She had plans to take them to the beach but couldn’t find any swim shorts amongst their stuff so she just bought them new ones instead.

  Jager was comfortable with her having them for some reason. He just met her, knew she had a reputation of being a hard-ass, but he figured that they were family now. He could tell she loved his boys already and if she was blood of Phil, she had to be amazing.

  Phil was like a surrogate father to him. Jagers own father had taken off when he was just a baby, leaving his mom to raise him alone. Her brother, his uncle Adrian took him under his wing and introduced him to the gambling world and to his muscle – Gary and Phil. He was the reason why the guys looked to Jager now, having taken on Adrian’s role of Authority in running their little set-up. After Adrian died in a car accident when Jager was fourteen, Phil stepped up to the plate.

  He was able to relax after speaking to Tatum. He had a few drinks and even agreed to a lap dance. Gary motioned to one of the girls he seemed quite familiar with when Phil had gone out back with another girl. “This one reminds me of Tatum,” he said, and Jager looked at him and laughed, feigning disgust.

  “She’s half your age and your best friend’s daughter, sicko,” Jager said.

  “Not my daughter. Doesn’t make her any less beautiful to me.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Just before nightfall the men a
rrived home. The party had already started with the groupies on the patio and Jager immediately went looking for his kids. He made his way towards their room and stumbled on the last step, but caught himself before he fell. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been day-drunk. The thought of it, a thirty year old man, being day-drunk made him smile. He realized then that he was in fact smiling and that made him smile even more. It had been a while since he could say he was having fun.

  He heard the opening and closing of dresser drawers and when he rounded the corner to the boys room, he found May sitting on the floor with bags of clothes and toys. In a separate pile were tags and a pair of scissors. She smiled at Jager and said, “Tatum bought them some new stuff. A lot of stuff. She didn’t want you to get mad, and think she was over stepping so she asked me to fold it all up and put it away.” May smiled at Jager then, recognizing his squinty eyes, the way he was using the door frame to hold himself steady. He was clearly feeling no pain and she was glad. He’d suffered enough and now she hoped he was starting to come around to his old self.

  He wasn’t mad. He was touched and felt a little guilty. How long had it been since he’d bought his kids new clothes? That had been April’s thing. He made a mental note to thank Tatum and to pay her back. “Where are they?” he asked May.

  “At the beach still. You have to see the boys Jager. They are having the time of their lives!” Jager smiled at her again. She loved his boys too. He realized then at that moment that maybe he had a lot more to be thankful for than he had been. Walking out the patio doors, the groupies cheered at the sight of him. He said his hellos and peeled a couple of them off his arms. He made his way towards the beach and spotted the boys and Tatum trying to run away from the waves. Tatum held their hands and Ava was yelling at them from the sand to hurry. He could hear the squeals of delight from a mile away.

  Ava spotted him first and walked over to give him a hug. “You smell like a brewery,” she said smiling at him. He smiled back, a real smile before walking towards his kids.

  It took Ava’s breath away. She hadn’t seen that smile in months. She watched the boys run to him and waved good bye to Tatum, who was making her way up through the sand from the water, pulling her wet shirt away from her body, in attempt to shield Jager from seeing.

  He picked up a soaking wet Matthew and hugged him tight, not bothered by the water. He messed up Connors wet hair and looked up at Tatum. She could see it in his eyes that he was happy. He practically glowed. She couldn’t help it. Her smile was uncontrollable. She didn’t believe he could get better looking but seeing him happy, albeit drunk, made him look like a God.

  Her smile took his breath away. She was beautiful, just like Gary had said. They laughed at each other then, for no reason what so ever other than the fact that they were both smiling at the same time.

  “Swing me!” Matthew called out, holding Tatum’s hand in one and his father’s in the other. Tatum looked at Jager and said, “One, two, three!” and they swung the older boy as they walked down the beach, his feet skimming the cold ocean water.

  From above, on the patio Phil looked down and at first he thought that they were a family. A mother and father and their kids having a good time. He was about to scan the beach again when he recognized Jagers sweater and realized it was them. Something about seeing two of them together like that had Phil feeling uneasy, but he didn’t know why. He knew that keeping Tatum from this life was already out of the question. She was as tough as Jager. Maybe that was it.

  Still, he was glad to see Jager having a good time. The day had been productive on that front but he wanted to mention it to him. Them, together, gave Phil the willies.

  CHAPTER TWELEVE

  Jager dried his kids off, put on their new pajamas, and tucked them into bed. Within fifteen minutes they were asleep. Tatum had really worn them out that day and he could tell that May had a good day as well. She was happy and relaxed.

  He left and went out to the patio with his brothers. There were a couple bonfires going. He scanned the crowd for Tatum and found her sitting with Ava, a few groupies and some other girls down on the deck below them. They had tables laid out with food and drinks that weren’t there when they came back from the beach. He walked over and sat with his guys. Bobo was polluted and pretending to dry-hump a pool toy in the shape of a whale. The guys laughed, drank, and ate. Someone threw Sugar in the pool. Phil hadn’t remembered a time when he saw Jager laugh so much. He decided to leave his conversation about Tatum until later.

  A girl ran up the stairs then. She was friends with Tatum and she looked frantic. “You need to come down here now and get your girl Jessica.” Jager calmly took a sip of his drink; he hated Jessica and didn’t really care if she was in trouble. “What’s the matter?” he asked. “She’s saying shit and Tatum’s getting pissed off. When she gets pissed off she’s dangerous. Seriously, if you want her to go home whole, you need to come and get her or Tatum is going to destroy her.”

  When no one made an attempt to move, the girl began growing panicky. Phil and Jager stood, taking their time, bringing their beers with them with no real intention of stopping what was supposedly going to happen. Tatum looked fine. She was sitting next to Ava while Jessica was saying something.

  “Seriously, I know Tatum. She’s brewing right now. It’s coming. Go and take Jessica away.”

  Phil was about to say that everything looks fine when Tatum stood slowly, walked over to a cooler on the table behind the circle of women and grabbed the lid. She turned it slowly in her hands, as if judging the durability of it.

  “Oh my God,” the friend began to say.

  Tatum looked over at the group of girls and then at Jessica’s back. She took three slow steps toward her and swung the lid, nailing Jessica in the back of the head and sending her flying off her chair. The girls all stood, screaming, tripping over tipped chairs as Tatum launched herself on top of Jessica and began pounding her fists into her face.

  All Phil and Jager could do was stare at them, their mouths hanging open, eyes wide. Some of the girls were yelling at them to stop and the guys who were up on the top patio came running down to see the cat fight. It wasn’t a cat fight though. Tatum was a better fighter than most of the guys here. She dragged Jessica, screaming, by the hair towards the ocean and pushed her head into the water, holding it there with her foot while the other girl thrashed widely.

  “Fuck! Go stop her before she kills her right here in the open in front of everyone!” the girl pleaded.

  The two men looked at each other, thought about it. They didn’t want Tatum to get arrested. Just as they took two steps forward, Tatum removed her foot. It appeared then that she would stop. She stepped off Jessica and began to walk away.

  Jessica spit and spluttered and stood up, wiping the hair and water out of her eyes. “You crazy fucking bitch!” she yelled at Tatum’s back.

  Tatum turned then to face her, looking serene and calm. She walked back slowly towards Jessica and smiled, noticing her eye was beginning to swell. She took a couple steps closer to her. Jessica was stubborn and refused to back away. She regretted not running when Tatum cocked back and struck her in the mouth. Falling back into the water, Tatum straddled her and began wailing on her face. Eventually Jager and Phil knew they had to stop her. Jessica was barely conscious.

  Grabbing her by the waist, Phil pulled his daughter off the girl. She didn’t really resist him. Just smiled towards Jessica and it was then, at that point, that Phil saw himself in her. He couldn’t help but laugh. She realized then, with the sound of her father’s laughter, what she’d done. She turned to look at him, pushing his arms away from her waist. “Shit, I’m sorry Phil.”

  His laughter grew even louder. “If I’d seen this before the paternity test, I wouldn’t have even bothered with it. This is the proof right here that you’re mine.” He kissed her on the forehead, “go on and put some ice on those,” he nodded toward her knuckles which were busted and covered in blood and sand. She no
dded, feeling the sting of them then and walked back towards her house. As she made her way through the crowd, they cheered for her and patted her on the back. Someone smacked her ass, and she was almost positive it was Bobo by his expression but she chose to ignore it, her hands in the state they were and all. While she was running her hands under the kitchen sink, the patio doors opened and Jager came through.

  “Remind me not to piss you off.” He said to her smiling.

  She didn’t know if he was mad at her or not for nearly killing one of his girls. His smile seemed pretty relaxed. He seemed in a good mood.

  “I’m sorry Jager. She was saying shit. I get in these moods sometimes…”

  “Don’t apologize for going rounds with Jessica. I hate Jessica. Everyone hates Jessica,” he laughed and opened the freezer door, pulling out a bag of mixed veggies. He laid them on the counter and grabbed a towel from the handle on the oven. He opened it up in his hands and motioned for Tatum to put her hands in his. He dried them gently, avoiding the parts that were busted open. Laying the towel aside he motioned for her to sit at the table. She laid her hands flat on its surface and Jager put the veggies over them.

  She flinched and sucked in a strained breath. “You’re not that tough then I guess,” he joked, looking fixatedly at her hands and avoiding her eyes.

  She laughed and the room grew silent.

  “Thanks for everything today. Thanks for spending the day with the boys, and buying them new clothes and toys. Thanks for the party for the guys at your club. Plus, you know, kicking Jessica’s ass.”

  She smiled, suddenly feeling self conscious and shy. The heat from his hands was heating her in places she forgotten she’d had. She looked at him as he studied her hands, gently running his thumb over her knuckles. She noticed that he had a light smattering of freckles across his nose and on his cheeks. The hair on his face had kind of a red highlight when the light hit it a certain way.