Unhurt (6 page)

My attorney got to her feet. “Your honor, I object. Suggesting that my client isn’t providing a stable and secure home for her son due to her marital status is preposterous at best.”

“He’s
my
son,” Travis said snidely, but his lawyer was already leaning back to shush him.

The judge, who had been listening with a blank expression the entire time, finally decided to speak.

“While I can’t say I agree with counsel’s theories of what does and does not make for a competent parent, I have heard enough here to revisit the case. We’ll reconvene in thirty days to begin the custody hearing of Wyatt Leroux.”

And that was it. The beginning of hell.

***

I
t had been over a week since I’d seen Joss. I’d tried calling several times but got nothing except her voicemail every time. As per her instructions, I had not left any messages. I was starting to feel like a fucking stalker with all this calling and hanging up shit. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop me from taking things up a notch by questioning her brother. It was hard not to hear a whiny chick voice in my head going,
“But Bobby...why isn’t she calling me?”
as I strolled up to the bar where he was working.

“Hey man. Haven’t seen your sister around in a while. She still working on that furniture of yours?” It sounded casual. Nonchalant. Like I didn’t really give a shit.

No...no, it didn’t
.

Bobby eyed me over the spread of half empty liquor bottles he had lined up all across the counter. Monday was inventory day.

“Yeah. She’s still working on it.” He picked up two bottles of Jack and began to marry them into one. Entirely illegal, but not exactly an uncommon practice.

“Huh. Well, you can tell her I’ll have the floor done in here by the end of the week if she wants to start dropping stuff off.” I could probably be done by Thursday if I moved some things around.

“That’s fine. She’s got some other shit she’s dealing with right now, so I doubt she’s in a big hurry anymore.” Bobby set down the Jack bottles and moved on to Jose.

“Oh? What’s going on? Everything okay?” All that effort to sound casual went right out the window.

He set down his bottles mid pour. “What exactly is going on between you and my sister?”

“Nothing.”

Bobby cocked his brow skeptically.

“No, really. I mean, I hung out with everyone at the house last weekend, but I haven’t talked to her since.” Why bother holding back now?!

“You hung out with Wyatt?”

I nodded. “Your aunt was there, too.”

Bobby stared at his half empty bottles thoughtfully. “Wyatt’s dad is taking Joss back to court for custody. It’s a fucking disaster. She went through this three years ago and it was goddamn torture for her. I don’t know how she’s going to get through it again. Especially now, after having raised him all this time.”

I couldn’t put my finger on it, but there was some part of that I wasn’t following.

“What do you mean, now that she’s raised him all this time? Was he with his dad before?”

Bobby was staring at me like he was contemplating how much he could say. Then, with a swift sense of determination, he threw his bar rag onto the counter beside the bottles.

“Fuck it.” He walked around the bar and had a seat beside me. “Here’s the thing, Wyatt isn’t Joss’s kid. I mean, he is now, but she didn’t give birth to him.”

What the fuck? “Then who’s his mom? And where is she?”

“Wyatt’s biological mother was this girl named Cara Leroux. Joss and Cara were best friends practically all their lives, starting when they were like five years old or something. Anyway, Cara wound up pregnant a few years back. It was a one night stand and she never talked about who the dad was. I think Joss just assumed Cara didn’t know enough about the guy to make it worth the conversation.

“Of course, Joss was with her for everything. Every doctor’s appointment. The stupid birthing classes – I can say that, because I had to fill in for her once – and then the actual delivery. Joss was around for all of it. And she didn’t stop there. I mean, they were roommates anyway, but still, Joss didn’t have to do everything she did. Except of course, she’s Joss, so she doesn’t know how not to do what she does. Whatever. Not the point.” Bobby was shaking his head and I wasn’t sure if it was directed at himself for sharing all of Joss’s business with me, or her for taking on things that weren’t ever hers to carry. I didn’t ask though. Just waited for him to continue.

“Everything was going pretty well. They had a good routine going. Then, when Wyatt was seven months old, Cara was in a car accident. Drunk driver hit her in an intersection. Killed her instantly."

“Shit.” Things were quickly making so much sense. Not just the situation with Wyatt, but Joss as well.

“Shit doesn’t even begin to cover it. Joss was a wreck. She and Cara were like fucking sisters. Then, next thing she knows, some social worker is showing up for Wyatt and because Cara had no living family members to speak of other than her son, he winds up in a foster home.”

Judging from the expression on Bobby’s face, he hadn’t come to terms with any of it any more than I assumed Joss had.

“So how did she get Wyatt back?”

“Turns out, Cara had a will. Since she didn’t have any family left, she saw to it that Joss would be his legal guardian in case anything ever happened to her. Met with a lawyer when Wyatt was only three months old and never even told Joss.”

“Wow.” I felt like a fucking idiot, all these one word responses. But what else was there to say?

“Yeah. Except of course, while DCF had Wyatt, they took it upon themselves to track down his father. Wasn’t too hard either because apparently Cara had known who he was all along. Had even listed him on the birth certificate. Which naturally, complicated things when her will was brought to the forefront. Legally it wasn’t real clear who had rights to Wyatt. Judge decided early on it was in his best interest to stay with Joss while they sorted the whole mess out since it had been his home from day one and since she was already a familiar and loving presence in his life.”

I ran my fingers through my hair several times, still trying to put it all together.

“So, when Joss found out about Travis, why didn’t she let him be a father to Wyatt? I mean, not to sound like a complete dick, but why fight so hard to keep a guy from his own kid?” I didn’t know her well, but somehow, what I did know didn’t match up with that line of action.

“She would have if he hadn’t been a Class A piece of shit. Joss went to see him as soon as she found out who he was. Asshole tried to assault her and then threatened to kill her if she tried to take his son. She never even had a chance to tell him she wasn’t going to put up a fight.”

My blood was coming to an instant boil. “What did she do?”

Bobby shrugged, a glimmer of pride in his eyes. “What she always does. Kicked him hard in the balls and then went to war with everything she had to keep Wyatt as far away from him as possible.”

“Did he ever try to make good on his threats?” Mentally I was already trying to figure out how I could park my truck outside of her house night after night without her noticing. If this asshole was back in her life, I wasn’t about to give him free access to her and Wyatt. He’d have to come through me first. And that’d be fucking impossible.

Bobby’s face turned grim again. “Travis was stalking her all throughout the custody battle, couldn’t ever prove it though. Since the cops wouldn’t do anything, Mattie and I started taking shifts on her couch, along with a couple of the other guys.” He nodded over at the main bar and I knew he meant members of his crew when he said ’other guys’. “The night after Joss won the case, there was a massive fire. Her whole place went up in flames. Fucking miracle everyone got out alive. The house was old and they wrote it off as bad wiring, but I’m telling you, it had Travis written all over it. He must have been worried too, because that was the last we heard of him. Until now.”

“So are you back to crashing at her place then?”

Bobby shook his head. “I can’t. Her new house is so fucking far away I’d never get any sleep. I’d be too busy driving back and forth all the damn time. Besides, Aunt Deb is there most nights and so far, Travis hasn’t done anything to suggest he’s stalking Joss again.”

Somehow that didn’t make me feel all warm and fuzzy.

“I could do it.” The words flew out of my mouth before I could stop them.

“You could do what? Crash at my sister’s and keep an eye out for her stalker? No offense dude, but you offer that right now and you’re going to come off just as creepy as Travis.” He slapped me on the back and chuckled. “I appreciate it though, man. And if it gets to the point that I think she needs it, I’ll let you know.”

I nodded, but managed to keep my goddamn mouth shut this time. I didn’t know what the fuck I was thinking. I barely knew Joss. But then, you didn’t spend over a decade as a SEAL and not come out with some sort of an ingrained need to protect the weak and vulnerable at all cost. Maybe that’s all this was. My instincts running rampant. Maybe after nearly a year of no action, I was just desperate for a mission. No matter what it was.

M
y lawyer
had just said her goodbyes and taken off after spending twenty minutes reassuring me that everything would work out. I was trying hard to convince myself she knew what she was talking about, but the more I went over it in my head, the closer I came to determining it was all bullshit and she was just bluffing for the sake of my sanity.

As if he could sense my moment of vulnerability, Travis came slithering over from whatever dark hole in hell he spent the bulk of his time.

“Won’t be long now.” He was smiling as usual. It took everything I had not to claw his fucking lips off of his smug face.

“You’re out of your fucking mind if you think I’m going to let you get anywhere near my son.” I didn’t shout. I didn’t place my hands on my hips defensively. I didn’t even scowl or squint. In fact, I smiled right back at that asshole. He’d never know how terrified I was of what he could do to me. What he could do to Wyatt.

“There you go again, getting all confused. I’m his father. You...you’re nobody to him. And soon he’ll know that.” Even though he was trying not to show it, I knew I’d gotten to him by referring to Wyatt as mine. Because that was, after all, what this was all about. I had something of his.

I laughed. It hurt. Physically. “You’re an idiot, Travis. And I feel bad for you because you’re so stupid you can’t even see how everything you do and say just proves how unfit you are.”

“If I’m so unfit why did the judge agree to reopen the case? Huh?”

I shrugged. “Because you found a way to look good on paper. You’re not the only one who can do that, you know?” I nodded, agreeing with myself. I’d made a good point. So what if Travis had gone and gotten married and found a real job. Who was to stop me from doing the exact same thing?

“See you in court, Travis.” I winked at him as I strolled past as if I didn’t have a care in the world.

I was halfway to the parking lot when I heard him shout, “A lot can happen in a month, Joss.”

There wasn’t much need to get creative about what he was insinuating. Travis was back in full force and I’d be sleeping with one eye open for the foreseeable future if I intended to survive him a second time.

It was already after five by the time I was driving out of there. With traffic working against me, I wouldn’t be home in time for Wyatt’s bedtime as it was. Which might have been better anyway. No matter how much I tried to shield him from things, he was an extremely perceptive child. There was no way he wouldn’t pick up on just how excruciatingly tense and terrified I was right now.

I sat at the stop sign lingering over my choices. Left would take me home. Right would take me into the historic part of downtown and the Flying Monk. If I was really going to make good on my threat to match Travis on paper, there was no time like the present to get the ball rolling. So, I went right.

Twenty minutes later and I was barreling through the doors of my brother’s bar and marching straight for the back counter where Mattie was working. Squeezing in between Howie and Ralph sitting in their regular spots, I took one quick look around the place. My brother was nowhere in sight. Good. Bobby’d probably just tell me I was being crazy and kick me out if he heard me.

“Mattie!”

He looked up from the beer cooler, two bottles in hand. “Joss, what’s up?” He placed the drinks down on the counter to replace two empty ones and then strolled over to meet me.

“I need a favor. I need you to marry me.” Shit. I
was
being crazy.

Mattie snorted. “That’s a pretty big fucking favor.”

My face gave way to a pained expression. “I know. I wouldn’t ask, except Travis is back and he’s fighting me for Wyatt again. Apparently, he went and got all cleaned up while he was gone. He’s fucking flawless on paper. Good job. Married with kids! I need to level the playing field.”

Mattie flipped his bar rag onto his shoulder and leaned over the counter so he wouldn’t have to shout. “Look, Joss. I get what you’re saying, and if things were different I totally would. But I can’t marry you.”

“Why not?” I sounded like a petulant child who’d been denied dessert.

“Because,” he shrugged like it was obvious, “Bree.”

Right around then was when I abandoned all reason and flew completely off the handle. “What do you mean you can’t marry me because of Bree? You two have been dating for like two seconds. You and I have been friends for eight years!”

Mattie’s eyes went wide. I was pretty sure I’d scared him a little with my outburst. Maybe a lot, judging by the way he was moving his rag from his shoulder to hang from his belt in front of his crotch.

“It’s not that,” he hissed, “Bree’s pregnant. Just found out yesterday.”

Any normal person would have offered a congratulatory handshake at this point. But I was no normal person. Clearly. “Are you fucking kidding me? What is so hard about strapping on a motherfucking condom, Mattie?”