Mother's Love

by Kirsty Dallas

  “I’m fine. You don’t have to do that,” I whispered, not ready to let him go. He held me a little tighter and the warmth from his half naked body seeped into my cold skin, freeing me from the fear that had me frozen in place.

  “Annie, you are not fine, and even if you were, we would still be calling the police. You were attacked. That’s not something you just brush off.”

  Reluctantly, I stepped away from the warmth of his body, and when something wet trickled down my cheek, my fingers automatically wiped it away in confusion.

  “Fuck, Annie, you’re bleeding.”

  Dillon disappeared down the hall, and I was left alone, confused, and shaken. Sure enough, when I glanced at my fingers, bright, red blood coated the tips. Dillon reappeared, and I winced when he pressed a washcloth to my head.

  “Shit, baby, let me take a look. I can’t believe I didn’t notice.” He carefully parted my hair and probed a sensitive spot on my head.

  “Ow, that hurts,” I complained, knocking his hand away.

  “I don’t think it will need stitches; just hold this to your head to stop the bleeding. Head wounds usually look much worse than they are.” Dillon bent down and looked into my eyes. “Did he hit you?”

  My brow furrowed. “No, he pushed me and I hit the wall. How do you know he is a he?”

  “I saw him duck into the fire escape. I would have followed him, but I didn’t want to leave you alone.” Pushing me gently into a chair, Dillon dialed a number on his phone.

  “Who are you calling?” I asked in a panic.

  “The police and Bomber.”

  “Dillon—” My sharp protest was cut off as he turned his back and began talking. I held the rag against my head and silently seethed. The short time he was on the phone gave me enough time to realize he was doing the right thing, the thing any sane person not warned off by their attacker would do. In terms of injuries, this was nothing. I had endured far worse at the hands of Phillip, but the attack had left me just as rattled. These men, completely unknown to me, wanted to hurt me for something that quite literally had nothing to do with me. It scared me . . . and pissed me off.

  When Dillon turned back to face me, the concern in his eyes was my undoing. A tear slipped free, followed by another and another. Dillon knelt before me and captured my cheeks in his palms.

  “Does this have anything to do with Phillip’s financial problems?” he asked.

  I couldn’t answer, my attacker’s words ringing over and over in my head. Instead, I looked away, breaking the hold his steel grey eyes had on mine. His forehead rested against the side of mine, and I felt his frustration as if it were my own. Perhaps it was my own. I wanted to tell him so bad, but I was scared to death of the repercussions.

  “Please, talk to me, baby. Tell me what’s going on.”

  My free hand cupped his stubbled jaw. I couldn’t lie to Dillon—I simply didn’t have it in me—so instead, I said nothing.

  Chapter 12

  Dillon

  “Mom!” Eli called out.

  I smiled as he raced through the door and straight into his mother’s arms. The police had left about fifteen minutes earlier and I had finished patching up Annie’s head, which, as I suspected, looked worse than it was. Still, I made her take some ibuprofen, and I watched her closely for signs of a concussion. I had been a field medic in the army, so I was confident treating minor injuries.

  “Hey, Bean, I missed you!” Annie whispered, tears filling her eyes. She blinked them away as Eli hugged her close.

  Rebecca leaned over Eli and held the both of them. “Are you okay?” she asked Annie who nodded and offered her a small smile.

  “Everything taken care of?” Charlie asked.

  I assumed the vague questions were because Eli knew nothing about the attack on Annie, which would stay that way. He didn’t need to worry about something he could do nothing about. Nothing had really been taken care of. The police had been and gone after questioning Annie. She said little and gave absolutely no information of use. I knew she was hiding something. When the officer had asked if she knew of any reason why someone might wish to harm her, she glanced away, avoiding the officer’s sharp gaze. She had calmly said she couldn’t think of any reason, but I knew Annie well, and she was a terrible liar. I had questioned her myself after the police had left, to the point where she had quickly snapped at me to give her a break. And she was close to breaking. Her nerves were well and truly frayed, the fear in her eyes so intense I could almost feel it as if it were my own.

  “Uniforms just left. They dusted the stairwell for prints and took our statements. Bomber was in and out before them and did a quick check of the stairwell and surrounding buildings. I only got a quick look, but enough for height and clothing. I’m just glad I was here when it happened.” I looked to Annie who was fussing over Eli in the kitchen.

  “You stayed the night,” murmured Rebecca with a smile, and I didn’t miss Annie’s blush either. Charlie’s eyes lit up as he caught onto the implication behind that statement. “Oh, my god,” Rebecca continued, bouncing excitedly on the balls of her feet. “Was it romantic? It was romantic, wasn’t it? He had the flowers, the suit, and he took you to a ball,” she sighed out loud, “just like Cinderella.” Annie let out a nervous chuckle before throwing a towel at her. “That’s so sweet.” Rebecca slapped Charlie on the shoulder. “Not at all like you, who hauled me out of the shower this morning and . . .” Annie cleared her throat and nodded towards Eli. Rebecca rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry. I’m on my best behavior. Charlie hauled me out of the shower before climbing in. He left me dripping wet on the tiles right outside the shower stall!”

  Charlie shrugged unapologetically. “As I recall, I wanted to climb in there with you, but you wouldn’t let me. Anyway, I promised I would make it up to you.” Charlie winked at Rebecca, and I didn’t miss her own blush. “Four big O’s tonight if I recall correctly.”

  “What’s a big ‘O’?” Eli asked as he climbed up onto a stool beside me.

  “Oranges,” Annie was first to come up with something.

  Charlie laughed loudly. “I assume you had oranges last night, Annie?” She glared at him.

  “She sure did,” I said with a smirk.

  “Men,” Rebecca shook her head in dismay, “they’re as bad as each other.”

  “Thank you for watching Eli last night. Did he behave himself?” Annie deftly changed the subject.

  Rebecca’s answering smile was genuine. “He was perfect. I want my own.” She glanced wistfully at Eli.

  “How about we go have some oranges and practice making one,” Charlie growled, grabbing Rebecca around the waist.

  “You can make one of me with oranges?” Eli asked, all wide-eyed innocence and curiosity.

  “Sure you can,” said Charlie as he tugged Rebecca towards the front door. “In fact, the oranges are the most important part.”

  “Good lord,” Annie murmured.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow.” Rebecca grinned. “You can tell me exactly how good your oranges were.”

  “Can I have an orange?” asked Eli.

  Rebecca’s hand flew over her mouth as she attempted to stop the laughter, the door closing behind them.

  “There are none left. How about an apple?” Annie suggested.

  Eli shrugged and jumped down from the kitchen stool. “Can I play Xbox?”

  “Just for ten minutes, then you need to get dressed. I’m working today, and Jaxon is picking you up from the coffee shop.” Annie said, using her best motherly voice.

  “You’re going to work?” I asked, surprised. After her morning, I just assumed she would stay home.

  “I am. It’s too late to call someone else in, and I’m fine. Working will be good for me. It will help me take my mind off things.”

  “I don’t want you out of my sight, Annie, you or Eli.”

  The need to keep her and Eli safe was all consuming. Remaining still and calm in this moment of frustration was an exercise in p
atience that was fast giving me a throbbing headache. I was also positive something was going on with Phillip, which had forced Annie to try and make contact. Perhaps the attack this morning and her need to get in touch with her husband were somehow connected. I suddenly had a burning desire to find Phillip and beat the ever-loving shit out of him. Annie glanced over her shoulder as she disappeared down the hallway.

  “I’m working. I need to.” There was no argument, her words said with such a gentle ease that it took me a moment to kick into action and follow her.

  “Annie, someone attacked you. You have a head injury, and you could have a concussion.” Her shoulders tensed as she pulled a top from a hanger in her closet.

  “Dillon, I’m fine. I’ve taken enough beatings in the past to know when I’m not fine. Just because some vagrant decided to randomly stumble into this building and attack me doesn’t mean my life is in mortal danger from now on. It’s just work for goodness sake.” She was spitting mad, her hands shaking as she gathered her clothes.

  “This doesn’t feel right. There’s something more to this, Annie. I’ve always trusted my gut, and right now, it’s screaming at me.”

  Annie took a deep breath before her tear filled eyes met mine. “I can’t stay here cooped up in this apartment, Dillon; it would drive me mad. Phillip kept us inside, sometimes for days on end. At his worst, I was stuck inside for three weeks. Three weeks where I didn’t feel the sunshine on my skin. Now, I can’t stand feeling trapped inside. I just can’t do it. Sitting in here, worrying about who’s outside my front door, afraid to go to the store for milk . . .” She shook her head. “I won’t do that, not to myself, not to Eli. I know you, I know you need to protect, it’s who you are, but you need to do it from a distance. Let Bomber or someone hang out with me and Eli at the coffee shop.” Her words almost brought me to my knees; as it was, my ass found the side of her bed in dumbstruck silence. Annie shuffled nervously under my scrutiny.

  “He wouldn’t let you go out?” I asked.

  “As his illness got worse, he became very suspicious of people, and during episodes, he would lock us away in the house. Towards the end, he even put deadbolts on the front and back doors, and only he had a key for them. When he got back on his medication, he realized how ridiculous he had been, and he gave me the key. If he hadn’t done that I would never have escaped the house the night I did, I would have been trapped. I can’t stand the feeling of being trapped, Dillon. I need to know there is an exit available. I need to know I can walk out to my front door, and if I’m too afraid to do that, then I’m really in trouble.”

  I nodded, my mind and body shocked into a numb state by her confession.

  “I’m not crazy,” she whispered.

  That spurred me back into motion, and I stood and reached for her, pulling her rigid body into mine.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I knew you loved going out. You’re always at the park with Eli, but I didn’t realize it was something more than just you loving the outdoors.”

  “I do love the outdoors,” she murmured into my chest.

  “Okay,” I said as my mind began planning a way to fix this. “Okay,” I said again with more confidence. “I’ll take you and Eli into work. I’ve got things I have to get done at the office, so while I’m doing that, Bomber will stay with you guys. I don’t want either of you leaving the building, though.” I pulled away just a little so I could look her in the eye. “I’m serious, Annie, please, just stay inside with Bomber. If you need to go out, wait until I get there, and I’ll take you myself.” She nodded, her eyes softening, and her body beginning to relax. “Alright, Sunshine, go take a shower and get dressed. I’ll get the little man moving.” I pressed a kiss to her forehead before I let her pull away. “And, Annie?” She glanced over her shoulder. “I would never do something like that to you. There will always be a door open for you, sweetheart, whenever you need it.”

  My meaning was more metaphorical than literal. I didn’t want Annie to feel trapped with me like she had been with Phillip. If she needed to walk away, I’d let her. It would possibly break me to let her go, but I’d do it, if that’s what she needed.

  *

  “Did we get anything off the CCTV footage?” I asked Sam.

  The first thing Bomber had noticed on his scout around Annie’s building was that the apartments directly opposite had security cameras.

  Sam shook his head. “Nope, the cameras have a nice ol’ view of the sidewalk in front of the building but don’t cover enough area to encompass the apartment across the street.” Sam hadn’t lifted his head up from this computer monitor once. He was typing a thousand miles a minute, an intense look on his face as his gaze flittered from one monitor to another. He had three. I don’t know why he needed all three, and I didn’t ask. Any answer he would have given me would have gone over my head, anyway. I leaned against his door and took in the chaotic office. There were pizza boxes, cans of Coke, coffee mugs, paper, and strangely enough, bobble head dolls, scattered all over the place. Sam was messy, but he was a genius so I let him have his messy, as long as he kept it contained to the back office we had set him up in. “Bet you’re wishing she had set herself up in the apartment with the security footage,” Sam murmured. He wasn’t being sarcastic, nor was he having a dig at me. I knew Sam well enough to know that when he said something, he meant it, no beating around the bush. And, yes, I fucking wish Annie lived in one of the larger, more modern and secure apartments across the road. But the rent was higher, and Annie couldn’t afford it. She also wouldn’t accept a handout from any one of her friends who all offered to help her secure the better home.

  “Have you heard from Braiden this morning?” I wondered. Braiden had already left home when I stopped in this morning to shower and change.

  “He called about half an hour ago. He’ll be in around ten. He was dropping Emily off at Mercy’s before doing a coffee run. Dr. Beth called again.”

  “Beth?” I asked with a raised brow.

  “That’s what she told me to call her.” Sam’s mind seemed a million miles away. It almost seemed as if he didn’t even realize how oddly personal it was that the doctor had him to call her by that name. “She wants me, even asked me if I might find myself in Holton Springs any time soon.” Sam grinned, his gaze still focused on one of the computer screens. “She sounds hot. What did she look like?”

  I chuckled. “She looks like a psychiatrist. Fancy suit, fancy hair, fancy attitude. What did she want?”

  “Did she wear her hair in a bun?” My brow rose without conscious thought. “I have this fantasy about a woman in a nice skirt suit; her hair pulled back in a bun . . . glasses . . .”

  “Stop,” I laughed. “That is more information than I know what to do with. What the hell did she call for?” Finally pulling away from the computers, Sam leaned back in his chair, his hands laced behind his head and a carefree smile on his face as he shrugged. “Nothing really, just letting us know she still hasn’t heard from Phillip. I wonder if there’s a picture of her up on her website.”

  “Does Jessica know about this little fantasy of yours?” I asked, still laughing.

  Sam’s grin fell, and he glanced away. “You know what I was thinking?”

  “Something about librarians?”

  He grinned. “That, and I wonder if Phillip Lonergan is in some sort of trouble, the kind of trouble that might come looking for his ex-wife.” This is why I had paid damn good money for this kid; he was smart, his brain constantly sifting through information, coming up with ideas and strategies. He might not have been a soldier but his mind was the best strategic combatant I had ever come across.

  “What makes you say that?” I had already considered the idea. In fact, I was damn sure the two were connected, but I was curious how Sam had come to the conclusion.

  “All of a sudden, out of nowhere, he wants to see his son, and then he asked you if Annie and Eli were safe . . .”

  “How the hell did you know that?”

>   “Sorry, heard you on the phone to Braiden. You need to be quieter if you want to keep your conversations secret, or at least shut the door.” He waved away the dropped jaw look I was giving him. “You yourself said Annie seemed a bit off the last couple of days, now the attack. I don’t know, I’m no crime fighter, and I know computers better than people, but it seems pretty cut and dry to me.”

  “Phillip was sick of the leash the prison system had him wearing with those damn weekly doctor’s visits, wants to get away, perhaps even make a permanent exit from life, wants to say goodbye to his son. He was medicated and in control, so he did what any concerned father would do and checked on his son’s wellbeing before pulling a Houdini. Annie’s still out of sorts from Eli’s meeting with his dad. It scared the hell out of her and brought back memories she thought she’d managed to bury. Hungry, homeless man finds an unlocked door to Annie’s apartment, slips in looking for warmth, sees Annie throwing out her garbage, and it’s an opportunity to eat.” My mind ran over another plausible scenario.

  “Why would he attack her, though?” Sam asked.

  “Starving people do desperate things.”

  “And why would he bother going up to the second floor when the first floor is closer to an escape and has easier access to the trash shoot.” It was Sam’s turn to raise a brow.

  “Both our assumptions have holes in them, but to be honest, yours sounds more likely. I appreciate life has a certain amount of room for coincidences, but there are too many here, something feels wrong. Annie told me Phillip was in some sort of financial difficulty. She told me it was a hunch, but I know she’s lying. He must have made contact with her, maybe he phoned her at the coffee shop.”