“Ten minutes, Carrie,” he muttered.
Then he turned to Aaron and lifted a hand.
Aaron glared at him as he shrugged Travis’s diaper bag off his shoulder before latching it onto Joker’s hand.
Joker took it, hooked it on his shoulder, and walked away, muttering to Travis, “Right, you got ten minutes to tell me all about your trip to your dad’s.”
“Jew jah kah.”
I blinked because that sounded kind of somewhat like Joker.
“Carissa,” Aaron called, and I started before I looked to him to see he was inside, the door closed behind him.
I sighed.
“What would you like to talk about?” I asked.
His eyes went to the hall, and his voice was quiet when he stated, “There’s another five hundred dollars in Travis’s bag.”
I tried to force gratitude into my “Thank you.”
“I’m assuming,” he continued, “since Steele’s still here that you haven’t thought on things.”
I really needed to get this through to him.
So I clasped my hands in front of me in a physical effort to demonstrate my sincerity and held his eyes. “I’m sorry. I really am. But, Aaron, please believe me when I tell you there was nothing to think about.”
His mouth got tight.
I took a small step toward him, wanting him to believe I was being genuine (because I was) but not wanting to get too close.
“This is… it’s…” I struggled to find words before I found them. “It’s very nice. It means a lot that you’re thinking of Travis and want to give him a family. But families come in a lot of different ways, and now he’s got a big one. You and your parents. Me and Joker and our friends.”
“Yes, I want to give our son his family, but you’re missing the fact that I also want my wife back,” he returned.
“I think I’ve responded to that, Aaron,” I told him.
“I got rid of Tory for you,” he snapped.
Got rid of?
I pressed my lips together, chanting in my head, do not get mad, do not get mad, do not get mad.
I got a hold on it and said carefully, “I’m sorry you’ve broken up. That must be hard.”
He threw up his hands and hissed, “What do you want? She’s gone. She was a mistake. I don’t even know what I was thinking. But it’s done. I’m giving you money. I’m being cool about that fucking guy. Do you want me on my knees? Do you want me to beg? Do you want an apology in skywriting? What the fuck do you want?”
“I told you what I want, Aaron,” I reminded him, trying to do it calmly.
He leaned toward me. “This is the best thing for our son. For us. For you.”
I held my ground and his gaze when I replied, “I think I know better what’s best for me.”
“Yes?” He leaned back, throwing a hand toward the hall. “And he’s it? Carson fucking Steele. High school loner. High school loser. Biker gang member. What kind of life is he going to give you, Carissa?”
He was going too far, saying those things about Joker.
I knew I shouldn’t engage. I knew it.
But I did anyway.
“He won’t cheat on me, for one,” I replied, and Aaron’s eyes narrowed. “He loves me, for another, really, truly, in the sense that it’s genuine. In the sense that I believe in it… totally. In the sense that I believe in it in a way I know in my heart of hearts it’s forever. Then there’s the fact he doesn’t ask me to change my dress for one he thinks is more appropriate. There’s also the fact he doesn’t look down on my job. He loves my son just like he’s his own. He has fantastic friends who are loyal and care a lot about him, something he earned. He’s talented. He has a great job that he’s so good at, even Wilde and Hay know it, which is why they want to do an article about his work.”
Aaron stared at me.
“But in the end,” I carried on, “I really shouldn’t be asked to explain this because it’s really none of your business.”
“I can give you a better life,” Aaron told me.
“I already know that’s not true,” I retorted, and Aaron’s face turned to stone.
“I love you too, Riss,” he bit out.
I now knew what love was.
And I knew I gave that to Aaron.
He just didn’t give it back.
“I hope you listen to this, Aaron,” I replied. “Because it’s important for you and your future and the woman you may someday have in it, but if you think that’s love, the way you’ve treated me, you need to rethink it. I have love now, so I know by the way you treated me that you don’t understand the right way to do it.”
His eyes flashed with hurt, and I knew that was not a good thing. Aaron lashed out when he hurt.
I was right.
The hurt vanished and his lip curled as he said low, “Never thought that was you. If I’d known how you like it, I wouldn’t have had to find Tory.”
I was confused, so much so, I stupidly asked, “What are you talking about?”
His sneer turned to a leer, he inched closer, tipping his head down to me, and even though he was really close, I thought it best to stand my ground.
That time, I was wrong.
“You like it nasty, baby?” he whispered. “You like it rough? You like to get fucked?”
I felt steel coat my spine, didn’t look away, and replied, “Actually, yes.”
His head jerked with surprise.
“I like taking my fucking, getting it hard and rough on that couch,” I told him casually, throwing a hand out to the couch. “In bed. On the floor.” I threw my hand behind me. “On the hood of one of Joker’s builds.” I rolled up on my toes and changed my tone to suggestive. “Anywhere he wants it, any way he wants to give it, and he gives it good, Aaron. I know because I get it good, every time, and I’ve had it the other way around, where I didn’t know if my man would put in the effort. So yeah, oh yeah, I like it just like that.”
He lifted his head so he could look down his nose at me. “You’re disgusting.”
I tipped my head to the side. “I don’t understand. You just told me you found Tory to give you the nasty. You don’t like it like that?”
He clamped his mouth shut.
“You are very, very done, friend.”
I jumped and stepped back, my head turning to see Joker standing with his shoulder leaning against the wall of the doorway to the hall.
Travis was in his arms, crawling and burrowing, pulling hair and babbling.
The stance was calm and relaxed.
But Joker was absolutely not.
His eyes were locked to Aaron, and it was a wonder a trail of fire didn’t go from them to my ex.
“You leave, or Carrie’s got Travis and I put you out,” Joker went on. “You don’t got time to think about it. Use the door,” he growled. “Now.”
Aaron glared at him.
“What’d I say?” Joker asked, and I felt a chill cover my skin at his tone and the look on his face.
“We’re done,” Aaron clipped, and my eyes went to him to see he was looking at me. “And you’re fucked in ways you won’t like to be, baby.”
With that, he turned to the door, threw it open, and slammed it behind him.
“Not again.”
This was from Joker, and it was still in that chilling tone.
I turned to him.
“Attorneys only from now on, Carissa, are you hearing me?”
He’d heard.
I had a feeling he’d heard everything.
I nodded.
“We don’t get this shit sorted and soon, the hand off, you do not see that fuck, when Travis comes or when he goes,” he stated. “I do it.”
I nodded but said gently, “I’m sorry. That was my fault. I lost my temper—”
“It was not your fault,” he bit out, interrupting me. “But it’s done and I mean done, you with me?”
I nodded again.
Travis, feeling the atmosphere, started fretting.
r />
Joker, feeling Travis fretting, turned to him, took him in, then bent in and kissed his forehead.
After he did that, he ordered in a soft voice, “Your Joke is done, kid, you can cool it.”
Travis studied him.
Then his head wobbled a bit before he dropped it to Joker’s shoulder, cheek first, and grasped on to the neckline of Joker’s tee like he knew Joker was upset and he was giving him a baby hug.
Gosh, but I loved my boy.
And I loved my biker.
I took in a breath.
“It’s done,” I whispered.
Joker nodded.
Then he said, “Come get your kid. He needs ma time.”
I grinned. It was shaky but I pulled it off and walked across the room to get to my boy.
And my biker.
* * *
The next morning I was changing Travis’s diaper on the floor in the living room. I had an afternoon shift, which stunk. But Joker was at work, and he was coming home to look after Travis while I was at work. Then I would be home and sleeping with Joker with Travis home so it would all be good.
My cell phone rang in the kitchen as I pressed down the last diaper strip.
Travis, very much done with the changing routine, instantly rolled and started crawling toward a scattering of toys on the floor.
I nabbed the balled-up dirty diaper, got up swiftly, and dashed into the kitchen to grab my phone.
Not surprisingly, but a little scarily, it was Angie.
“Hello,” I greeted, heading to the Diaper Genie in the laundry room.
“Hey there, Carissa. It’s Leanne. Can you hold for Angie?”
“Of course,” I replied.
I held as I dealt with the diaper.
I was back in the kitchen when Angie came on.
“Hi, Carissa. How are you?”
“I’m good, Angie. Let me guess,” I said, moving to the sink to wash my hands. “Aaron’s attorneys have been in touch.”
“Was there an incident?” she asked.
“It happened during the handover yesterday,” I told her. “I haven’t had a chance to call.”
“Tell me about it now,” she ordered.
I washed my hands and did so.
“Well then, this makes their demand that we set a meeting as soon as possible not as surprising as it seemed,” she remarked when I was done. “I need you to give Leanne your work schedule for this week so we can schedule the meeting.”
“I’ll do that, but, Angie, I need to say that confrontation was unpleasant, so I feel from now on that we should talk through our attorneys only. And if this drags on, I’m not comfortable in Aaron’s presence, so there will be someone else dropping Travis off at Aaron’s and I’ll not be opening the door when he brings him to my place.”
“Will this be Mr. Steele?” she asked.
“Likely,” I told her. “However, it could be another friend. It just won’t be me.”
“Noted. And if this drags on, I’ll make that point. But I’ll call them immediately to share that any further communications go through me. If you hear from Mr. Neiland, it should only be if there’s an emergency about your son. If it isn’t, you tell me as soon as you can.”
“Thanks, Angie.”
“Not a problem, Carissa. Now I’m handing you off to Leanne.”
“All right. Speak to you later.”
“You will. Take care.”
She did the handoff. I gave Leanne my schedule as I walked into the living room and watched Travis rearranging the scattered toys.
We rang off and I called Joker immediately.
I gave him the news.
“Not a surprise,” he said when I was done.
“He’s angry, which means I’m scared,” I told him.
“You’re good, Carrie. But if he makes you not that way, then I’ll be there to make you that way again.”
“I know,” I whispered, eyes to my boy as he played.
“Hang tight, this’ll be done soon,” he promised.
“Okay.”
“Love you.”
I closed my eyes.
Aaron had made me not good.
Then Joker was there to make me that way again.
When I opened my eyes, I was smiling. “Love you too.”
I could hear the smile in his voice when he said, “Let you go. Later, Butterfly.”
“Later, sweetie.”
We disconnected.
Before I left for work a few hours later, Leanne called.
Aaron wasn’t messing around.
The meeting was set for Thursday afternoon, the specter of which made me not good again.
So I called Joker.
And he made it all better.
Joker
Disconnecting with Carissa, Joker texted Tack.
It’s happening.
Five minutes later, he got back, Meet me at the table.
Joker didn’t waste time leaving the garage and walking across the forecourt to the Compound. He went directly to Chaos’s table in the meeting room.
Tack was the only one there. He was standing by his seat at the head of the table, two piles of folders resting on the table in front of him.
One was very high. The other one wasn’t near as high, but it was still tall.
Joker closed the door behind him, walked into the room, and stopped, his eyes on Tack.
“This,” Tack said, his fingertips pressing into the high stack of folders, “is Chaos. Angie has it. She won’t be blindsided.”
Joker nodded. He didn’t need to give gratitude. Tack knew what he was giving was huge, and he knew Joker knew it.
They also both knew they had attorney/client confidentiality.
“This,” Tack went on, touching his fingertips to the other stack, “Angie’s also got. You need to study it, brother, then decide by how ugly it gets when or if you need to give the nod to Angie. Her ex isn’t dirty. But he’s a cheat, and I know Carrie knows it. I just don’t think she knows he’s had his dick in so much pussy, he makes Shy in his glory days look like a choirboy.”
Fuck.
This meant he might have to have the conversation with her that she, too, should get tested.
Fuck.
“It’s the father that’s deep in dirt,” Tack continued. “Shit in here gets loose, she’s got destructive powers that if she gets queasy at markin’ your old man, who she fuckin’ hates, I’m not thinkin’ our girl’s got in her to use. But it’s yours. It’s hers. They force it, be smart how you use it. It gets to that point and you need a strategy session, you know where to find me.”
Joker nodded again.
Tack held his eyes, and Joker saw in his what he saw after their meeting with Sebring and Valenzuela. It wasn’t exactly the same, but only because it wasn’t for the same reason.
Now, Joker knew the reason because he knew that he’d shared with Tack the trash talk Aaron Neiland had tried to shove down Carrie’s throat.
And Tack had not liked that.
Therefore Tack’s voice was granite when he stated, “They will not take her boy, and the time to fuck with Carissa Teodoro is now over.”
Joker’s voice was a quiet growl when he stated, “You know you got my love, brother.”
“I do,” Tack returned. “And it’s a privilege, Carson.”
Joker felt that in his throat but only nodded again.
Tack tipped his head toward the end of the room, where there was a closet that held their massive safe. “Read. Lock it up when you’re done.”
“Yeah.”
Tack moved, clapping Joker on the shoulder as he walked out.
Joker went to the folders.
He didn’t touch the high stack.
But he read every page of the shorter one.
When he was done, he locked them away, and he didn’t do it smiling.
But he did it relieved.
Chaos had them by the balls.
But Carrie would never know.
Not un
less she needed to.
And all Joker could do was hope like fuck she never needed to.
Carissa
“Okay, this is not good,” I whispered.
I was sitting in Angie’s conference room. I was not in my tube top. I’d chickened out on the tube top.
Instead I was wearing my butterfly dress and shoes. It wasn’t casual, exactly.
What it was, was me.
But also, it was my lucky dress. I deemed it so because I thought of it as Joker’s.
A Joker who had been completely calm since all this went down, thankfully, since (until that moment) his calm had been calming me.
He was there, but he was in Angie’s office with Travis because Angie said we shouldn’t goad Aaron with his presence or make the statement that I needed backup.
Both Joker and I agreed.
So he was close but too far.
But he was close, and that was all I needed.
“No, you’re right. This is not good,” Angie muttered.
I didn’t need to look at her to know she was doing the same as me, looking through the windows of her conference room at Aaron approaching with his attorney.
And his father.
“Intimidation,” Angie said quickly, and I tore my gaze from the approaching men to look at her just as she curled her hand around my forearm resting on the table. “To you, not me,” she went on and squeezed my arm. “I got this, Carissa.”
She seemed super confident, fortunately.
So I nodded.
The men came in.
Aaron glared ice at me.
His father glared daggers.
I sat and thought thoughts of my son sitting in the grass of my backyard with butterflies drifting around him while he giggled.
It worked for me.
Leanne got the men glasses of water then sat at the end of the table with her notebook while the men settled in across from Angie and me.
“Right, let’s start,” Angie said. “I believe you received our communication of where we’d like to begin negotiations.”
Aaron glared ice at me.
His attorney opened his mouth to speak.
But it was his father who spoke.
“We’ll see you in court. My son is going for full custody. We’ll see Ms. Teodoro declared unfit. When we’re done, if she manages to get any visitation, it will be supervised.”
My insides shriveled, and slowly, I looked to my ex-husband.