“Need a new dog bed, Vi,” Joe declared as I gave an active Mooch a rubdown and my eyes went to Joe.
“What?”
“Dog ate it,” Joe told me, pulling my cell out of my purse.
“He ate it?” I breathed, wondering, if he had dog bed in his stomach, if that meant a vet bill in my future.
“Not all of it but he did a number on it.”
“Shit,” I whispered.
Joe tossed my phone on the bed then got in after he did that, grabbing the dog, stretching out on his back and pinning the puppy to his bare chest.
“Call your girls,” Joe ordered as Mooch licked Joe’s jaw.
I stared at Mooch licking Joe’s jaw and the way Joe accepted this without looking angry or sinister or badass. Well, he still looked badass but not angry or sinister and I felt my belly go warm and soft again.
“Honey, the girls,” Joe prompted when I didn’t move.
He was calling me honey a lot lately and, stupid me, I liked that too.
He taught me a lesson (twice), a lesson that burned so deep I thought I’d never forget that night in his house with him in that chair, telling me he fucked someone else.
But here I was, right back where I began.
And I liked that too.
“Right,” I whispered, snatched my phone from the bed and slid it open.
Joe moved the dog from his chest to the bed and Mooch started gnawing on his fingers. This Mooch did a lot and it didn’t feel great. It started off okay but if Mooch got into it, it hurt.
As my phone rang Kate’s I noticed Mooch was getting into it but Joe didn’t push him off or even wince.
“Hi Mom!” Kate called cheerfully into my ear and I heard instantly that Dane was right, she was faking it.
“Hey baby,” I replied.
“Everything okay?” Kate asked.
My eyes went from Mooch to Joe to see his head was to the pillows, one arm cocked, his hand behind his head and he watching me.
“Not really,” I said to Kate, moving my eyes from Joe’s face to Joe’s feet, which were crossed at the ankles and bare under the hems of his jeans.
Kate’s voice grew concerned and she asked, “What’s up?”
“Well… I don’t want to, um… it’s just that… do you think you and Keira could come home a bit early?”
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine I just kinda want you guys home with me. Do you think Dane’s folks’ll mind?”
“No,” she said immediately, “they’ll understand.”
Yes, my girl wanted to come home.
It was now confirmed. Dane was a good kid and I was forced to like him, even love the guy.
Shit.
“Dane can um…” Damn! I looked back at Joe and widened my eyes at him but he just lifted his brows and then I said, “If his parents’ll let him, we’ll look out for him. I know he’s seventeen but he can stay with us, sleep on the couch and I’ll keep him fed.”
“Seriously?” Kate breathed.
I stopped looking at Joe, dropped my head to my knees and said, “Seriously.”
“I think they’ll be cool with that,” she told me and she sounded genuinely happy now.
I turned my head, putting my temple to my knee and saw Joe was smiling at me.
There it was; I’d done the right thing.
“Good, honey, but enjoy today. Get your fill and then come home tomorrow.” I told her, “but do it safe and slow, yeah?”
“Okay.”
“Call me before you leave so I know when to expect you.”
“Okay.”
I decided to give her more to look forward to and shared, “Your Gram and Gramps are comin’ down next weekend.”
“Killer!” she cried and I smiled, my eyes dropping to Mooch who was going to town on Joe’s hand and, not thinking, Kate at my ear, I spoke to Joe.
“Joe, your hand is not a chew toy.”
“Baby, he’s fine.”
“We don’t let him chew our hands like that.”
“He’s fine, Vi.”
“Stop him.”
“Honey, I said… he’s fine.”
The way he said this made me look at him and clamp my mouth shut. He was definitely done telling me Mooch was fine.
“Is Joe with you?” Kate asked, sounding beyond happy now, sounding freaking thrilled.
I jerked my eyes from Joe and realized I was naked in bed with Joe and Mooch, talking to my daughter, who was thrilled Joe was with me.
God, total slut.
And also, totally screwed.
“Um… yeah.”
“He’s stayin’ with us, you know, while his house is renovated. Did he tell you?”
“Yeah.”
“Keira and I think it’s great.”
“Keira does?”
“Yeah.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
The hundred dollars.
“How much of Joe’s money she have left?” I asked and Kate laughed.
“We gave Dane’s folks the money you gave us for food and stuff but we haven’t had time to go shoppin’ or anything so all of it, I think.”
“You get back, whatever you have left, you return it.”
“What?” Kate asked.
“What?” Joe rumbled.
I ignored Joe and told Kate, “When you get back –”
I didn’t finish because Joe sat up, reached in, pulled the phone out of my hand and put it to his ear.
“Money’s yours, girl. Don’t listen to Vi.”
“Joe!” I snapped.
He nodded and said, “Yeah. Everything’s good here. Tell Dane to remember the speed limit and that he’s got precious cargo. No screwin’ around.”
My anger vanished, my body stilled and my mouth dropped open at listening to Joe sounding just like a Dad.
“Right, see you tomorrow. Later.” Then he slid my phone shut.
I stared at him then at my phone then my eyes went back to him. “I would have liked to say good-bye.”
“Yeah, and you would have liked to say other shit,” Joe said as he turned and tossed my phone on my purse.
“Like what?”
He turned back, his brows drew together and he got that sinister look when he asked, “Givin’ my money back, Vi?”
“Two hundred dollars is a lot.”
“No it isn’t.”
“Yes, it is!”
“No, it fucking well isn’t.”
He was getting pissed but I figured I was getting more pissed.
I turned to him and declared, “Joe, you can’t buy my girls.”
His body went still and his face got hard and he didn’t speak for long seconds, seconds I didn’t realize he was using to gain control.
Then, low and angry, he told me, “I’m not buyin’ ‘em, I’m takin’ care of ‘em.”
“They’re not yours to take care of,” I snapped and immediately he moved. Mooch jumped away and I found myself plucked out of the bed and planted astride him, my knees in the bed, his arms locking me close.
“It was a shit time for you, the worst, but you were there and you saw ‘em doin’ it. They crawled into this same fuckin’ bed with me, so did you, and when you did, you all became mine.”
“That’s insane,” I informed him.
“That’s the way it is,” he shot back.
“Joe, we were beside ourselves with grief.”
“Yeah, and when you are you don’t lock tight to some guy you don’t know or some asshole you hate. You lock tight to what’s yours to remind yourself that it is and that you need it.”
“That wasn’t what was happening.”
“Buddy, you’re naked in my lap, your girls want me in the house, you’re pissed at me, tellin’ yourself it’s over and all I gotta do is kiss you and you turn wild. This shit gonna sink in?”
“It did, twice,” I reminded him, “and no matter the signals you gave me, Joe, it wasn’t what I thought.”
?
??Not givin’ you signals this time, Vi, I’m tellin’ you straight out and I’ll tell you somethin’ else, always listen to your gut.”
“Joe –”
“It told you you belonged to me, I’m tellin’ you it was right.”
I felt my heart start beating fast and that feeling in my belly again, the one I liked, so I whispered, “Stop it.”
“And I’ll tell you somethin’ else. I’m fixin’ up my house to sell it, we’re movin’ on from this, from Sam, from Hart, and we’re doin’ it together, you, me and the girls and along the way, I want a kid, our kid.”
I stilled and stared at him, his words another sock to the gut but it was a gut that had already gone warm, it had gone soft and, even with the wind knocked out of me, I felt that gut flutter.
Then I asked in a whisper. “What?”
“You’re not cool with that, I’ll deal. The girls’ll be all I need. But I’m not tellin’ you what I need, I’m tellin’ you what I want and I want a kid, with you.”
“Oh my God,” I whispered and his hand went to cup the back of my head and bend it to his.
“You got a lotta shit in your head, I know, but I’m layin’ it out for you. There it is. That’s what’s goin’ on here. Now, buddy, you need to cut Mike loose or I’ll do it for you.”
“Joe –”
“You want him to know you spent this mornin’ with my cock inside you, you keep playin’ this game. You wanna do it yourself, you end it with him.”
“I keep trying to but he’s like you, he won’t listen.”
“Then game on,” Joe announced.
“Joe –”
“He shoulda listened.”
“Why? You don’t listen.”
“You don’t belong to him, you belong to me.”
“That’s insane too!”
“Baby, you told me so your fuckin’ self.”
“Sexual coercion.”
He stared at me a second then burst out laughing, rolling me to my back and covering me with his body again.
“Joe, get off me!” I snapped, pushing ineffectually at his shoulders.
“Nope, feel like coercin’ you again,” he said in my neck.
“Joe, stop it.”
“Keep sayin’ Joe, baby, you’re makin’ me hard.”
I growled, he grinned against my skin then, Lord help me, he lifted his head, his mouth came to mine and he coerced me and before I came I told him I belonged to him.
Twice.
* * * * *
Cal stood, back against his truck, arms crossed on his chest in the Police Station parking lot and he waited.
It took fifteen minutes before Haines came out and when he did, he came out with Colt.
Fuck.
Both men looked to Cal, Haines’s eyes narrowed, Colt’s head dropped so he could study his boots and not give anything away.
Haines turned his head to Colt, said something, Colt nodded and they separated, Haines coming to Cal, Colt going to his GMC.
Cal’s eyes remained on Haines as he walked to him but he knew Colt wasn’t going far. This was confirmed when Haines arrived and Cal glanced Colt’s way, saw his hips to the back of his GMC, his eyes on Cal and Haines.
“You got somethin’ to say?” Haines asked and Cal’s eyes went back to him.
“Stand down,” Cal told him.
His mouth got tight then he asked, “You shittin’ me?”
“You’re confusin’ Vi,” Cal explained.
“I am?” Haines asked then clipped, “Yeah, you’re shittin’ me.”
“This isn’t gonna end well for you,” Cal went on.
“No, Vi makes a stupid decision, Callahan, it isn’t gonna end well for her. I’m just positionin’ myself to be there to pick up the pieces.”
At his insinuation, Cal wanted to straighten from the truck but he forced himself to stay relaxed against it. It wasn’t like he hadn’t earned a remark like that with his history with women and his history with Vi.
“You think I’ll fuck her over.”
“You’re Joe Callahan’s son.”
This time it took everything for Cal to keep his back to the truck because his father sure as fuck hadn’t earned that remark but his voice vibrated when he asked, “What the fuck does that mean?”
“It means you’re a one-woman man.”
“Yeah, I am. Hasn’t anyone clued in yet that that woman wasn’t fuckin’ Bonnie?”
He scored, direct hit. He watched it land as Haines’s chin jerked to the side almost like Cal had clipped him.
“I thought she was,” Cal forced his voice to steady, “but she wasn’t.”
“You sure?” Haines asked.
“Yeah, I’m sure,” Cal answered.
“And how can you be sure?”
“’Cause no God is cruel enough to make the only woman you’ll love be the one who kills your kid.”
Another score, another direct hit. Haines’s jaw went hard.
Then Haines changed tactics.
“You’ve torn through practically every fuckable woman in the county,” Haines reminded him.
“Yeah, but none of them were Vi.”
Another score, a muscle jerked in Haines’s jaw, he knew Cal spoke the truth.
“She likes you,” Cal informed him. “She wants what she had back.”
“I’m not Tim.”
“I’m not sayin’ you are. I’m just sayin’ you represent what she had.”
“It isn’t just that, we got somethin’.”
Cal felt his own jaw tighten because he knew Haines spoke the truth.
Haines’s voice also calmed. “And what we got, you can’t give her.”
“Same’s true with me,” Cal returned.
Haines’s voice was actually soft when he asked, “What can you give her, Cal?”
“Everything,” Cal answered and he scored again, Haines blinked.
“She needs –” Haines started.
It was Cal’s turn to soften his voice. “I know what she needs, Mike.”
They stood staring at each other silently.
Cal broke the silence. “She’s gonna come to you, break it off, cut you loose, this time let her even if she tries to hold on at the same time.”
Cal watched Haines’s entire face go hard as the knowledge penetrated as to what Cal was saying and how much he knew of the game Vi was playing. It was a game she didn’t know she was playing, she didn’t have the experience, but she was running roughshod over Haines all the same.
“She was fifteen when Tim asked her out, she’s got no idea what she’s doin’,” Cal defended Vi.
“I know that,” Haines ground out.
“She’s lost, with Sam gone now more than ever,” Cal went on.
“You aren’t helpin’ her get found, Cal.”
“We’re all lost, Mike. The best chance we got is to wander this life with the people who matter.”
He’d scored again and he wasn’t looking for it. Haines went from angry to watchful.
“You don’t want her for her, you want her for you.”
“Yeah,” Cal replied instantly, “isn’t that what you want?”
“I want her because she’s Vi.”
“And I want her for the same but because she is, she can give me what I need.”
“And what’s she get?”
“She gets to give me what I need.”
“Nice,” Haines bit out, back to pissed.
“That’s who she is, man, haven’t you figured that out? Isn’t that what she does for you? Because if it isn’t then you don’t have her, nowhere near. That’s what she is, that’s what those girls are, that’s who she made them to be. They exist to give you what you need. It isn’t selfish, that’s how they get off. Fuck, when I went to the mall with them, Keira tried to be my personal shopper.”
Cal knew it cost him but Haines couldn’t help but chuckle.
Then he asked, “No shit?”
“She picked a pink shirt,” Cal told him then added,
“with flowers on it.”
Haines chuckled again.
Cal kept going. “She ever shove her shoulder in your pit, make you put your arm around her?”
The humor fled Haines’s face but he didn’t answer which was his answer.
“Katy do it?” Cal pushed.
“Kate did it?” Haines whispered.
“Vi did it when I needed her, Katy did it when she needed me.”
Haines closed his eyes and looked away.
“Stand down,” Cal repeated, his voice quiet and Haines’s eyes opened and he looked back at Cal and when he did, Cal knew he’d won.
“You fuck her over –”
“I won’t.”
“You do…” he let that hang and Cal decided not to repeat himself so Haines finished. “You don’t give her everything, I’m back and I’ll bust my ass to do it instead of you.”
“I know that, she does too, so I reckon I better bust my ass so you don’t have to.”
“Wouldn’t be work.”
“Agreed.”
They again stared at each other silently.
Then Haines broke the silence but he spoke quietly. “You gotta know you’re killin’ me, man.”
Cal spoke quietly back. “I know, Mike.”
And he did, he couldn’t imagine standing down from Vi, not now. He’d pulled away twice thinking it was for his good and hers and neither time was the least pleasant. It was like tearing off a fucking limb.
Standing down for good would kill.
But if he knew Haines had with her what Cal had, he’d do it knowing he’d be doing it for her. Haines wasn’t stupid, he knew she was tied in knots and a woman like Violet didn’t get tied in knots for something that didn’t matter.
Cal mattered to her.
Haines knew that.
So he was standing down.
“Fuck,” Haines muttered.
Cal didn’t reply. There was nothing to say.
Haines studied Cal then said, “Anyone else, I’d be fuckin’ over the moon for you, Cal.”
Cal remained silent but that didn’t stop him from thinking that Mike Haines was a good man.
“Now, I’m not,” Haines finished.
Cal lifted his chin.
The muscle jumped in his jaw again, Haines nodded then he moved to turn away.
For some fucking insane reason, before he did Cal said, “She’s out there.”
Haines’s eyes locked on his. “What?”