Cracked & Crushed

by A. J. Downey

  “He moved his shit out like we told him but left the job in the care of his butt buddy groomsmen. One of them took it upon himself to move all of Andy’s crap and I think some of yours out of the place then put an add on Craigslist pretending to be you stating you were moving out of the country and didn’t want or need anything in the townhome. He left the door unlocked and turned it into a free for all. Everything is gone Babe, the appliances, the furniture, clothing, jewelry, what’s more they punched holes in a bunch of the drywall and tagged the inside of the house. One of your neighbors got suspicious about the comings and goings and called the police but the damage was done when the cops got there. Your pops was called when they couldn’t reach you by phone because his name is on the paperwork too.” I stared wide eyed and incredulous at Reaver and felt twin scalding hot tears trail salty slick down my cheeks.

  I wasn’t hurt… well okay I was, but more than hurt I was angry, and after days of moping, hurting and just generally wallowing in self-pity, being pissed off felt really, really good.

  “What are you thinkin’ Doll?” he asked me smoothing the tears away with his thumbs. I swore to myself right then and there that those twin tears where the last Andrew Richardson was going to get out of me.

  “I’m thinking that I am way beyond pissed off,” I answered truthfully and sniffed. Reaver pulled me down against his chest and gave me a squeeze, kissing my forehead.

  “That’s m’girl,” he murmured.

  “Shit my whole life was in that townhome, things I’m never going to get back! All my clothes, all my photos and memories, my paintings!” Some more tears slipped free. “My laptop! It was at the wedding, I don’t know who has it!” Reaver placed a hand over my mouth to silence me and tapped at his home screen. He placed a call, the phone ringing loud on speaker between us.

  “Hello?” Ashton’s ethereal and melodic voice came over the line, music from the tattoo shop blaring in the background.

  “Hey Sunshine, do you happen to know what happened to all of Hayden’s stuff after we bolted from the wedding? Her laptop specifically.” Reaver asked. I waited with baited breath.

  “Oh yeah, Ethan and I have it at the house, why?” she asked. I breathed out a sigh of relief. Reaver filled her in.

  “They took her car too!?” Ashton cried.

  “Baby they took all of it,” Reaver grunted.

  “I have some clothes at the cleaners,” I informed them, “It will get me through the next day or two but I’m going to have to go shopping.” I sighed. Ashton giggled.

  “Hell of a way to get a shopping spree!” I felt myself smile.

  “True enough,” I agreed and tried very hard to find the humor in it, I managed after a short internal struggle. It was gone and there wasn’t any way to get it back. I found myself thanking my lucky stars I was fairly well off in my own right and that in my fierce independence hadn’t put Andy on any of my bank accounts.

  I would recover from this. I needed to return to being that fierce girl who had hidden away her friend, lied to the police and helped the man who held me now get away with vengeance at the way Ashton had been treated. I kissed Reaver’s chest and snuggled against him tighter. I groaned.

  “I have so much more to do now than I thought!”

  “It’ll be fine Hayden. Reaver you bring her straight to me and Ethan!” Ashton ordered and it was cute how much she had the men wrapped around her little finger.

  “I will, but not because I want to Sunshine. I gotta head to her place and check out the damage. I told her dad to hire my company to fix it, mostly because I want to see it done right,” he said.

  “Good,” Ashton sounded resolute.

  “I don’t know how bad it is yet,” I said, “But maybe it’s not such a bad thing doing a little remodeling. Make the place feel like mine instead of what it was when Andy was there.” I was desperate to grab onto anything positive at this point and I caught Reaver smiling at me, a little sheen of pride in his eyes.

  “Maybe so. Just come home and get here safely you two! I have to go, customers are coming in,” we heard the little shop bell ring.

  “Bye!” Reaver and I both chorused and he hung up. I slumped against him.

  “This is some bullshit,” I declared.

  “Yep. Fucker’s going to pay for it too,” he said darkly.

  “Just don’t get arrested. I need you,” I admitted and he gave me a squeeze.

  “I need you too Doll,” he said and I sighed. I was pretty sure I knew what the fluttery feeling my heart made meant but after saying it so many times to Andy and having the lie returned, I wasn’t ready to go there yet, so instead I melted into Reaver’s side and closed my eyes.

  “It’ll all get taken care of Doll, I promise,” he murmured and I believed him. I really did. Mostly because Reaver had never let me down in the entire time I’d known him. I mean sure, reality dictates it was bound to happen at some point, but that point had yet to arrive and I didn’t have time to worry about any ‘what if’s’ right now. No, I was firmly in crisis mode. My mind whirling and clicking away at how to best go about keeping up appearances for the über-elite, my career somewhat depended on it.

  Reaver held me, lightly stroking my skin, fingertips drifting in lazy, nonsensical patterns across my back and down my arm, making sweeping circles on my hip. I closed my eyes and tried to shut my mind off to sleep. It was hard, but the light caresses he made along my body with his fingertips helped immensely. I finally drifted off to sleep.

  Chapter 15

  Reaver…

  We woke up late for breakfast. I didn’t care. A good night’s sleep was more important. We dressed and packed and our stay was already paid for so with a quick adios to Miranda, the innkeeper lady, we mounted up but didn’t exactly ride out. We went into town first for some food and ended up at a little diner about a block up from Sultry Nights, the lingerie store. Hayden excused herself and went towards the bathroom once we were finished eating and I nodded absently as she got up from the table, my phone buzzing in my cut. I took it out.

  “Yellow?” I blurted my typical phone greeting without looking at who was calling first. My mistake.

  “Where are you?” a female voice demanded and I closed my eyes.

  “None of your business Aimee, why?” I asked. She stopped cold on the other end of the phone. I’d never spoken to her that way before. Well, before Hayden. After ten years, I think she was used to being my one and only. Even after she married Mark I’d always been as patient and as kind as I could with her but even I couldn’t deny that Aimee had turned into a total bitch where I was concerned, a condition that only seemed to get worse as time dragged on.

  “Did you forget that this was supposed to be your weekend with Connor?” she demanded. Bullshit, my weekend with Connor was next weekend and I called her on it.

  “Next weekend. I told you two weeks ago that I had a friend’s wedding to go to, you agreed that I could trade this weekend for taking him the next two. Connor knows it too, now that he’s old enough, so what the fuck are you playing at?” I demanded. Silence met me on the other end of the line, a silence so complete I had to check and make sure she hadn’t hung up. “Aimee?”

  “What’s gotten into you?” she demanded suspicious.

  “Rough weekend, now why are you trying to fuck with me this time? Are you bored?” It’d been building for a long time. She could never accuse me of not paying my child support so she would always taunt or threaten me with the next best thing, which was being able to see my son on a regular basis. I understood why she hated me, what I didn’t understand was why she still hated me with such a fiery passion after doing so much better with Mark. He loved her and he loved my son, which sometimes didn’t sit well with me as he overstepped once in a while but for the most part we were cool.

  “Connor needs a father who is going to be there for him, not one who disappears on the weekend he’s supposed to have him,” she snapped and ouch, okay, I got it but at the same time, I hadn�
�t missed a weekend or rescheduled a weekend with Connor in years, so what the fuck was the deal?

  “He misbehaving or something?” I asked quietly. Something wasn’t right, I just couldn’t put my finger on it. Aimee gave a long suffering sigh.

  “The police brought him home. He was caught shoplifting candy and soda from the corner store.” Ah ha… so this was more about ‘like father like son’. I’d done a lot of stupid shit when I was a kid, was constantly in trouble. What most people didn’t know was the shoplifting I’d pulled was so I could have something to fucking eat. You couldn’t survive off booze, black coffee and cigarettes in junior high. Shit. Connor was well fed and well looked after though which made me so want to know what this was all about.

  “I’m in fucking Florida,” I grunted.

  “Florida!? I thought the wedding was at that race horse farm out on state route 62!”

  “It was, long story, we’re headed back today…” she cut me off.

  “We? Does this have something to do with that stupid motorcycle gang you’re in? I swear to God Rhett,” I grimaced at the use of my name, “If you skipped out on your son for that club of yours and used some stupid wedding as an excuse…”

  “Aimee shut it. It’s not like that,” I said. Silence on the other end of the line, stunned this time.

  “What did you say to me?” she sounded incredulous.

  “That’s better.” I said, “Now I’m headed north as soon as I get off the phone with you. I’m not with the MC, I’m helping out a friend.” The word ‘friend’ as I applied it to Hayden left an oily film of deceit in my mouth once it was spoken. Hayden was way more than a friend but I didn’t want to set Aimee off any worse than Connor already had.

  “How long will it take you?” she asked. I did the math in my head, about nine hours or so, with stops I’d push that to ten, getting Hayden set up with Ashton and Trig…

  “About twelve hours. You want me to come by and talk to him tonight or you want it to wait until morning?” I asked.

  “It’s going to have to wait until morning, I let the police take him. He’s in juvenile lock up,” she said and had the mother fucking audacity to sound smug.

  “I’ll see you in twelve hours and you had better have my son out of that place. You don’t know what it’s like in there. You are fucking unbelievable! Twelve hours Aimee or I swear…”

  “You swear what? Rhett? I’m his parent! Me! You’re just the unlucky sperm donor! If I say he needs to be in jail for what he’s done then that’s where he’s going to be! I will not have him turn into a worthless druggie gang banger like you! I will not let my son ruin some other teenage girl’s life! You hear me!?” she yelled into the line and never in my life had I been angrier or more defeated.

  Where the Hell was Hayden? I frowned realizing she should have been back from the bathroom by now. I swallowed hard.

  “Twelve hours Aimee. You have every right to be pissed off at me but I’ll be fucked if you’re going to take that shit out on our ten year old boy. As for the rest. Okay. I’ll take that. I did ruin you for a while but if you can’t see what you’ve got right in front of you with Mark and our beautiful boy well… Jesus, I don’t even know what to say. I’m speechless.” I smoothed my hair down between my eyes and closed them.

  “He’s staying right where he’s at Rhett. It’ll be good for him,” she said quietly.

  “Okay. Sure. Whatever you say Aim’s.” I hung up the phone on her and sucked in deep breath after deep breath, resisting the urge to chuck the glass and plastic brick against a wall. I closed my eyes and retreated to the quiet place where I killed, shutting down the emotions as fast and as hard as I could. I needed to think I needed to be clear headed, where the fuck was Hayden?

  I called Trig.

  “Yo, what’s up?” he asked by way of greeting. I spelled it out for him. There was silence for a time and he gave a low whistle.

  “You want me to try and go get him?” he asked.

  “Yeah. Call me if there’s any trouble I don’t think they’ll let you have him. Take Sunshine with you and try to look respectable. Might help. If you can’t get him out, at least try to get in to see him, hell, fuck I don’t know…” I felt my knee bouncing under the table with my distress. The bell over the diner’s front door chimed and I looked up, and felt my face collapse into a frown. Hayden slipped into the booth a second later.

  “Just get back here, Sunshine and I will do what we can,” he grunted.

  “Thanks Trig. I owe you another one.”

  He snorted. “Bull shit. We’re family and family takes care of each other. We don’t keep score.” He hung up on me. I slipped the phone back into my cut and raked my gaze over Hayden.

  “Where the fuck were you?” I asked and she turned wide green eyes up at me.

  “Something wrong?” she asked and raised an eyebrow and I cursed myself silently.

  “Yes and no,” I told her, then asked her again more gently, “Where did you go?” She looked out the window, refusing to meet my gaze but she spoke…

  “This trip has meant more to me than I could possibly… I didn’t know how to…” she exhaled harshly and held out her tiny fist towards me. I bumped it with my own and she laughed.

  “No, hold out your hand,” she said and she was smiling from ear to ear, her light green eyes dancing. I held out my hand palm up and she dropped a necklace into it. Not just any necklace either, but one of those old ass coins, the silver edged in gold. A white gold chain, fashioned to look like rope through the loop at the top, pooled warm from her body’s heat against the palm of my hand.

  “Hayden I can’t take your…” the words died on my tongue as I caught the glint of the coin she’d bought the other day on a shorter but similarly fashioned chain. The coin resting alluringly in the hollow of her throat where her collarbones met. I stared at it for long moments and curled my fingers around Hayden’s gift.

  “I know it’s sappy and maybe even a little silly, I mean matching necklaces,” she laughed mockingly, “who even does that anymore?”

  “Hayden, Baby, shut up,” I said and she immediately went silent, “I love it.” I pulled the chain over my head and the coin settled just above Trig’s dog tags. I pulled the black cords containing other various charms off and looked through them for the pewter sword my son had bought me with his allowance for father’s day when he was five and put it back on. The others were meaningless and so I stuffed them carelessly into my hip pocket of my jeans. Hayden’s lips were curved into a subtler smile as she watched me, her hallowed green eyes lingering on the coin where it rested against my tee.

  “Come here so I can kiss you,” I said. She slipped around the table and onto the bench seat of the booth beside me. I kissed her, a long lingering touch of lips, deepening it with a sweep of my tongue and I poured my appreciation and love for her into it. A soft sound of surprise escaped her lips followed by a contented sigh of relief, her warm breath fanning across my face.

  “You do the most perfect things at the most perfect times without even realizing it,” I told her. She smiled and blushed a little at the praise.

  “You like it then?” she asked.

  “No Doll, I love it. Like isn’t a strong enough word.” She smiled and I pulled her against my chest in a fierce yet gentle hug.

  “Ready to go home?” I asked eventually.

  “No… but yes, if that makes sense?” she looked up at me, resting her chin on the swell of one pectoral.

  “Yeah it does. Come on Baby, we have a long ride.” I let out a great exhalation of breath that ruffled her chestnut hair which looked and felt much softer without all the crap she usually smeared in it to keep it in place.

  “Okay, let’s go.” She got to her feet and I followed her. We paid at the front and started the long ride home.

  Unlike the ride down here I made stops for her to stretch, get a drink and Hell even use the bathroom. We stopped maybe six times on the way back, one of those times was for a late lunc
h, early dinner and was only a couple of hours out from home. We were at least back in the ‘ol home state.

  “How are you holding up?” I needed to know, she looked tired and I was a little afraid she was going to try and fall asleep on me like she had on the way down.

  “I’m okay, really not used to this, but it’s not so bad the second time around.” She smiled but it was a bit wilted around the edges.

  “We need to get you an energy shot or something?” I asked. She considered it half a second too long because despite her shaking her head no, I pulled off at the next convenience store and got her one. It helped but not that much. By the time I pulled into Sunshine and Trig’s driveway Hayden was flagging pretty hard.

  Ashton had her front door open, the hulking figure of my best friend looming in the rectangle of light behind the diminutive woman. I helped Hayden down and Ashton swallowed her whole in a big hug. Trig was at the edge of their cement drive on this side of their white picket fence arms crossed, face schooled carefully neutral. I raised my eyebrows hopeful and his came down slightly. He shook his head almost imperceptibly and my heart sank.

  That fucking cunt left my boy in there. I shook myself out of my black thoughts a little shocked at myself for thinking about the mother of my child that way. That had never been me before… I got the saddlebags off of Baby handing them over to the big man.

  “Go ahead Doll, let Ashton get you settled, I’ll come say good bye in a minute.” Hayden nodded, a furrow between her brows as she regarded me and my bestie before reluctantly letting Sunshine guide her into the house.

  “Spill,” I told him.

  “Went to see him, they at least let us do that. He was crying a lot. He’s scared as Hell. Some of the other kids are bein’ hard on him. You can go and try and get him out but this time of night, I’m not sure you’ll have much luck, especially with Aimee behind tellin’ ‘em to lock him up.” He took a drag off his e-cig, the tip flaring blue and let out a plume of vapor then crossed his arms over his black tee and cut. I unconsciously mirrored him, my leather jacket creaking.