Hurt: A Bad Boy MMA Romantic Suspense Novel (8 page)

I opened the door and looked to the right. It was quiet. Too quiet.

I stepped into the apartment and looked left.

That’s when I was greeted by a knife slashing through the air.

~ ~ ~

I got out of the way and watched as Ashlynn missed me and fell to her knees. The knife fell out of her hand and she braced herself on the floor. I dropped down and grabbed her by the shoulders.

“It’s me,” I said. “Jesus Christ, sweetheart, it’s me.”

She threw some elbows and got away. She went for the knife again. She spun around and pointed the knife at me. Fear spread across her face in a way that broke my heart.

“Holy shit,” I whispered. “Hey. What’s wrong?” I looked at the hallway. “Is Jude okay?”

“Why would you care?”

“I fucking care, okay? I’m just…”

“I thought they were going to hurt me,” Ashlynn said and lowered her head.

I literally crawled to her. I grabbed her wrist and stripped her of the knife. I tossed it far out of her reach. I touched her face and forced her to look at me.

“Who hurt you?”

“They left though.”

“Black masks?”

“What? No. The lawyers.”

“The lawyers?”

Ashlynn blinked fast. She licked her lips. “Sorry. I’m terrified.”

“I’m here to protect you. I shouldn’t have stormed out before. There’s so much you need to know. Now tell me who the lawyers are.”

Ashlynn inched closer to me, letting me hold her. She then told me a story of how some guy was grabbing at her at work. How he threw a drink at her. She slapped him. Then her boss made her leave.

My heart was racing by the time she finished.

“Where do you work?” I asked, regretting the question.

“Ricky’s,” she whispered. “I’m sure you know it.”

“You’re a stripper?”

“No,” Ashlynn said. “A server.”

“But you wear that shit? The bra and panties?”

“It’s a bikini,” Ashlynn said.

“Like fuck it is. What the fuck are you doing there?”

“Surviving.”

Yeah, I bit my tongue there. Hard. She shouldn’t have been wiggling around in skimpy clothes. She should have been protected by me. All the time. No matter what. I could go out and earn enough to survive for all of us.
The three of us. As a family.

“Who watches the baby?”

“My mother was helping,” Ashlynn said. “But I have a babysitter. Her name is Leah. She’s a teenager. Mostly responsible.”

“Mostly,” I whispered. “Jesus Christ. What did these lawyers want?”

“Said I was going to get arrested for assault,” Ashlynn said. “Said that if I came back to work and apologized to them, they wouldn’t get me arrested. And…”

She shook her head.

“Tell me,” I growled. “Right now.”

“The guy I hit… he told me he wanted a private session. He wanted to… taste the milk…”

Ashlynn let out a shaky breath.

I pulled her tight to my body again.

I had moved beyond anger. I was boiling with rage.

Was this the shit Ashlynn had to endure for an entire year? All by herself?

I hated myself as much as I hated these prick lawyers.

“Where’s your cell?” I asked.

“In my room. Why?”

“Call the babysitter,” I said. I wiped the tears from her cheeks.
“I’m going to teach these lawyers something about justice.”

19.

(Ashlynn)

“What the hell are you going to do?” I asked Noah.

“Take me to Ricky first. Then I’ll handle everything else.”

Before I could speak back, Noah grabbed his cell phone and made a call. He said no more than three sentences.

Just checking in.

With the guy or guys that wanted my father dead, whoever sent Noah to me.

He started to walk and I grabbed his arm. “Hey. Am I in danger? With whoever you just called?”

Noah looked at me with his icy eyes. “One fire at a time, sweetheart.”

We went into the back of the restaurant. A few of the girls saw Noah and instantly stopped what they were doing to stare at him. I couldn’t blame them even if it made me jealous.

“I’ll take him,” one of the dancers -
Becky
- said. “For free.”

“Where’s Ricky?” Noah asked, not even giving a damn that half naked women wanted him.

It gave me a little hope, considering I had been fully dressed with stretch marks and he went nuts to kiss me and want me.

The office door opened and Ricky stood there. “What the fuck is this?” He then looked at me. “You bring him here? You trying to shake me down because of last night? I’ll fucking fire you right now…”

“Whoa, whoa,” Noah said. He put his right hand to my belly and kept me back. He put his left hand out to Ricky. “You did what you had to do. I’m going to do my part now. Those fucking lawyers from last night? They showed up to her apartment. Now before I start trashing this place and shaking people down for information, you can save your own ass, Ricky.”

“How’s that?”

“I’m with Benito. The Corlandio family. I make one call and this place is shutdown. They’ll come through and take a cut, a fee, and plenty more. So let’s talk like gentlemen.”

“Fair enough,” Ricky said. “Hey! Becky! Lisa! Go shake your shit and earn. Out of here!”

The back of the restaurant cleared out.

It was just me, Noah, and Ricky.

Ricky rubbed his sweaty, bald head. “Look. Last night got out of hand. I made sure Ashlynn was safe, at home. Those assholes were out of line, but so was she. We have a rule here…”

Noah stepped to Ricky, towering over him. “You know what they want to do to her? Her body? She’s the mother of my son. Get it now?”

“Holy Christ,” Ricky said. He looked at me. “I thought you didn’t know…”

“My little secret,” I whispered. I shrugged my shoulders.

“Eyes here,” Noah said. “Right fucking on me.”

“I’m all eyes and ears,” Ricky said. “What do you want?”

“Those assholes are back,” Noah said. “Inside right now.”

I watched as Ricky swallowed hard. He knew they were there. He allowed them back in.

“Why?” I asked.

“They’re money is good,” Ricky said. “We equally apologized, too. Last thing I need is a lawsuit.”

“No,” Noah said. “That’s not going to happen. You’re going to bring them to me. In a private room. This ends for good. Nobody touches my girl. Not after everything she’s been through this year.”

My girl?

His girl?

I was in shock.

“And what do I get?” Ricky asked.

“You need anything from me, you call me. Those pieces of shit won’t ever come back. If you don’t, I’m going in with a gun.”

Noah showed Ricky his gun and Ricky’s face turned white. He blessed himself and hurried to comply with Noah.

“Are you serious?” I asked. “You’re going to kill them?”

Noah looked back at me. “I meant what I fucking said. Nobody messes with my girl.
That’s you.”

20.

(Noah)

There were better ways to impress a woman, I’m sure. But this was more than trying to get Ashlynn to not be pissed at me for all I did wrong. This was about purpose and reason. For all she’d gone through that I couldn’t control, this was something I could. I could send a clear message to anyone with eyes.

Don’t fuck with Ashlynn.

I made her stand in the corner and I sat in a leather chair.

I waited for the door to open.

This was risky. This was stupid. Benito would be livid. He’d want Dante to cut my head off. But I had to do this.

The door slowly opened.

I heard their damn voices as they walked in.

“I hope her tits are…”

I fired the gun.

Ashlynn screamed.

I wasn’t sure which was louder.

“Jesus Christ!” Ricky yelled.

The first guy fell.

I then stood up.

“You shot me!” the guy yelled from the floor.

The other two started to move, but they froze when I pointed the gun at them.

“Whoa, man,” one said. “What is this?”

“Assholes,” Ashlynn said.

“Ah, fuck,” the guy said.

“Is he the one?” I asked Ashlynn.

She nodded.

I walked to him. “You want to touch my girl’s chest? Because she’s breastfeeding my son?”

“Hey, come on, man. It was a joke.”

“Threatening her with a lawsuit? That’s a joke too?”

“Who the fuck are you?”

“Noah,” I said. “Never forget it.”

I smashed the gun into the asshole’s face. He blasted back against the wall, arms flailing. I hit him again and again, taking him down. His buddy threw a punch at me, missing my face, hitting my shoulder.

I turned to hit him with one hard right and he was out cold on the floor.

I then took all their wallets, all three.

The guy I shot was the only one conscious. I crouched and he slid back to the wall.

“Hey, I didn’t do anything, man,” he said.

“Okay,” I said. “So I have your ID’s now. I know where you live. Where you work. So what you’re going to do is clean up your friends and leave. You’re going to get your bullet wound checked out. But before that you and you buddies are going to figure out the story. Getting attacked, shot at, wallets stolen, it’s all good. That’s the story. You mention my name… Ricky’s establishment… Ashlynn’s name… and I’ll kill everyone in your life. Got it?”

The guy’s eyes went wide. They filled with tears. He nodded.

I turned and put my hand out, pulling Ashlynn close.

“There,” I said. “Done.”

“Thank you, Noah.”

“No, sweetheart. Thank you. For carrying my son.”

Ricky was moaning with fear, knowing how messy one of his private rooms was right then. There were two men knocked unconscious. The third with a gunshot wound. There I was staring at Ashlynn, the most beautiful woman I’d ever met.

I let my heart slip up a little bit in that moment. And I said,
“I want to go meet my son, right now.”

~ ~ ~

I didn’t have much cash on me, but I gave Leah more than enough.

“Thank you for helping,” I said.

“This is a lot of money,” she said.

“That’s okay. Stay out of trouble.”

“Is this real?” Leah asked Ashlynn.

“This is Noah. This is Jude’s father. I never told anyone…”

“It doesn’t matter,” I said.

Leah left and I locked the door. I took Ashlynn by the wrist. “Hey. You don’t have to explain a fucking thing here. I’m the one who has to explain. Not you. You did all the work, sweetheart. You suffered. You were alone. It doesn’t matter what you said to anyone. What matters is right now.”

As if the damn kid had been waiting for the moment, Jude let out a noise from down the hallway.

“Your son is awake,” Ashlynn said.

“Yeah, he is.” I took a step and then paused. “Hey, sweetheart. Let me do this one alone.”

“Okay.”

It was the second craziest walk of my life. The way my heart and body felt. The way my head spun. It was almost the same feeling I had the first time I had to walk the hall to get to my jail cell. I was probably just as nervous.

Christ, this was a life here. This was a baby. A baby that would become a kid and a kid that would become a teenager and a teenager that would become an adult.

I turned and pushed the door open.

There was a light turned on resting on the changing table. I walked to the crib and gripped the wooden rail. I stared down as a baby stared up at me. Not just any baby but my baby.

My freaking baby. A life I created.

“Hey, kid,” I said.

Jude just kept staring at me. His eyes were big and blue. Like mine. He had a full head of hair. He was in some green PJ set with blue dogs on it. I made a mental note to get some black PJ’s with some skulls on them. I wanted my kid to be cool. To be tough.

I reached my hand down into the crib. Christ, the palm of my hand fit over his entire head. He was soft, warm - he was beautiful.

I ran my hand down his arm and touched his hand. I offered my hand and he squeezed at the tip of my middle finger.

“Ouch,” I said and tugged away.

Jude looked up at me and a smile crept across his face. A glob of drool fell from the corner of his mouth. I wiped it away and smiled back at him.

“Not bad,” I said. “Not bad at all. I’m going to pick you up, kid. I don’t know if you understand anything I’m saying, but I’m going to keep talking. I talk a lot when I’m nervous. You’ve got me nervous.”

I slipped both hands to Jude and lifted him up. He weighed damn near nothing. I kept him at arms length for a few seconds, not really sure how to hold a baby. I bent my arms and cradled Jude, figuring he’d wiggle or cry if he didn’t like the way I held him.

Jude didn’t make a sound. He didn’t move either.

I held him, my son, for the first time.

It was a goddamn shot straight to my heart. Like falling in love at first sight. That feeling… that instant feeling…
that only happened one other time in my life.

21.

(Ashlynn)

I slowly walked the hallway. I said I’d leave Noah alone, but I couldn’t really do that. The mother in me always wanted to protect my son. The single mother in me needed to keep a bigger guard up, especially with the baby’s father. It pained me to think that, but what kind of life did Noah live? Fighting? Shooting people? Going to jail? It all told me he wouldn’t be around like I wanted the father of my baby to be.

When I made the turn and looked in the bedroom, I lost my breath.

There was Noah, cradling Jude, gently rocking left to right. He stared down at the baby as the baby stared back at him. There was a connection there. And while Noah looked really uncomfortable holding Jude, he was doing just fine. He was doing amazing, actually. Jude really didn’t like to be cradled on his back, being held with two arms.

I stepped into the room and couldn’t contain myself. It was a moment I had been desperate for. I stood next to Noah. I touched his back. I then touched Jude’s head.

“Holy shit,” Noah whispered. “He’s amazing, Ashlynn. You did so amazing.”