One Day at a Time (Starting Over Series Book 4) (23 page)

Josie got to Daisy, scooping her up, but cried out when Daisy bit her. “It’s okay, Josie. She’s hurt and didn’t m-mean it.” Her niece held Daisy close to her body with tears running down her face.

“Why are you doing this? I haven’t seen you since I turned eighteen, why now?” She felt his nose against her neck and she shuddered. He smelled her and she felt his hand spasm in her hair.

“Because you’re my child, that’s the only reason you need. That brother of yours finally let his guard down enough for me to get near you.” He took another whiff of her and the bile rose in her throat. “You look just like her, except she wasn’t a dummy like you.”

“Aunt Tessa’s not a dummy!” Josie shouted. In a flash her dad moved and grabbed Josie’s arm. His hand went up to hit her, but Tessa didn’t hesitate; she grabbed his hand to stop him. With a quickness she forgot he had, he slapped Tessa so hard she hit the wall. Immediately she grabbed Josie and pulled the little girl beside her.

“Don’t you ever touch her!” He grabbed her again—this time, by the throat. Her back met the wall and he got right in her face with his stale liquor breath. His fingers started squeezing and cutting off her air supply.

“Listen, you little bitch, you don’t tell me what I can or can’t do.” He pulled her away and then slammed her back into the wall. Her head hit so hard she was seeing stars.

“Pleathe, just go away!” She didn’t want to waste any tears on her dad, but they came anyway.

“Jesus, you really are a nightmare. How does your brother stand you? I haven’t seen the boyfriend lately. He must’ve got tired of your pathetic ass.” He looked at her thoughtfully for a second. “You look so much like your mother. Now there was a good woman. She begged me to start a family. I just couldn’t tell her no, Jonathon should’ve been enough. I did it for her because I loved her. She left me, and then I was stuck with you. You’ll never be as good as her, and I hate the fact that you look so much like her.”

His words shouldn’t have hurt, but it felt like someone was ripping her heart right out of her chest. No one wanted her—not her dad, not Cash, and someday soon Jonathon wouldn’t either. What was she supposed to do now?

His hand struck her cheek out of nowhere. She was numb everywhere—her face, her body, and her heart. The hits kept coming. It could’ve been seconds or hours. A noise registered above the ringing in her ears.

“Stop hitting her!” It was Josie, she kept crying for him to stop. She opened her eye that wasn’t swollen shut and looked at the man who fathered her. He was red-faced, furious, and focused.

Josie’s voice seemed to be distracting to him because he turned his head. In that moment she didn’t think, she just brought up her leg right between his. With a grunt he fell to his knees, “You little bitch,” he groaned. She stumbled past him to Josie, who was sobbing.

“Aunt Tessa, you’re bleeding,” she cried.

“It’th okay, honey. I need you to go into your daddy’s room and call him, okay? He’ll come.”

Her niece tried to take off, but her steps were halted by her dad grabbing Josie’s arm and pulling her toward him. She knew she had to stop him.

Chapter Fifteen

Jonathon grabbed his tray at the fast food joint where he and Hunter stopped to have an early dinner. He had been an asshole lately, he knew it, but he was just stressed right now. Shannon still wouldn’t respond to any of his texts. He wished he could rewind time and do-over the day Shannon came to him with her life-altering news. He was going to be a dad again, and instead of supporting her, the first words to leave his mouth were “Get rid of it.” She’d slapped him across the face, told him she hated him and to never contact her again.

He didn’t mean it—god dammit, he didn’t. The thing they had going on wasn’t supposed to get serious. She was there to help him scratch an itch and that was all. He knew Shannon loved him, or at least she had. He didn’t love her but he cared about her very deeply. A lot more deeply than he had ever planned. He had no idea how to fix it, but he knew he wanted to be in their lives, and Josie needed to be a part of her baby brother or sister’s life.

He shook his head and sat down in the seat across from Hunter. Hunter was the only person he told. If Tessa knew what he said, she’d probably hate him too.

“Man, you have to stop. I can see it on your face and you need to quit it. You’ll figure out a way to make it up to her. How’s Tessa?”

“Shit, I don’t know. I’ve been so focused on this mess with Shannon that I haven’t really asked her lately. Be glad you have boys, this female shit is going to kill me.”

Conversation was minimal while they ate their dinner. They were just wrapping up when both their phones started going off. Hunter answered his and his body immediately went rigid. Jonathon glanced at the screen—it was Tessa.

“Hi, sis, what’s—“

“Daddy?” He knew immediately something was up. Hunter was watching him like a hawk.

“What is it, baby girl?” Her quiet sniffles scared the shit out of him. He stood up and he and Hunter walked out to their cruiser.

“Gr-Grandpa c-came here. Daddy he hurt Daisy and Aunt Tessa real bad.”

“She already called 9-1-1. Units should be about there, brother,” Hunter said.

“Baby, I’m on my way.” He could hear sirens on the other end of the phone. “I hear the sirens. They’ll help you until I can get there. I love you, darlin’.”

Hunter raced them toward Jonathon’s apartment. Two cop cars, an ambulance, and a fire truck were already there. Jonathon was out of the car before it stopped. He made it to the stairs when one of the other officers stopped him. “What the fuck are you doing? That’s my fucking apartment.”

“Jonathon, we need to let you know what you’re walking into. When we got here Josie was sitting outside the front door shaking like a leaf. We sent her with Susan to go get checked out by the paramedics, and we went inside and found your sister sitting on the sofa. Her face is a swollen, bleeding mess. Um—I don’t know how to say this, but it looks like she hit your dad with a baseball bat. He’s dead, man.”

He didn’t need to hear anything else, he just shoved the other officer out of the way and made his way toward the door. It was slightly ajar so he pushed it open and froze. On the floor was a body covered in a sheet, blood was saturating the carpet. He looked up and found Russ, Erin, and a fireman he knew, checking on his sister. She was staring straight ahead, her beautiful face swollen and bruised.

Erin stood up when he approached them. “Hey, Jonathon.”

“Is she okay?” He knew she wasn’t. He could see it on her face.

“We’re going to take her in. I’m worried about her cheekbone being broken and possibly her jaw. She’s in shock and we can’t get her to move. Susan took Josie down the street to get something to drink. We didn’t want her coming back inside and seeing his body or seeing your sister’s face like this; it’s swollen up even more since we got here. We could use your help. The puppy she’s holding is dead, and she won’t let it go.”

He crouched down on his haunches in front of her. “Hey, Tessa. What happened, honey?”

When she looked at him his heart shattered into a million pieces. Her good eye was glassy. She tried to talk but it came out all garbled.

“Shh…don’t say anything, sweetheart. We’re going to get you to the hospital, okay? Can you give me Daisy?”

She whimpered and shook her head. The little furball was stiff and lifeless in her trembling hands. If the man weren’t already dead, he’d kill him himself.

“Tess, let me take her, okay? I’ll call Cash to come get her.” She slowly nodded. It freaked him out that he couldn’t tell if she knew the puppy was gone. He reached out and picked up the puppy. When his fingers brushed her hands, he felt how cold she was already. Hunter came up behind him with a towel to wrap Daisy up in. His partner held on to the dog while Jonathon helped Russ get Tessa off of the couch. Erin pulled the blanket around Tessa tighter until Jonathon picked up his sister in his arms—holding her close to his body.

They made their way out quickly and got her loaded into the ambulance. As soon as he was told what hospital they were taking her to he stepped back. He pulled out his phone. He was going to need help. Help with his sister and his daughter.

Jonathon: Shannon, I know you don’t want to hear from me, but I need your help.

He explained everything that went down and hoped that she would respond. Thankfully, minutes later she did. He told her where to come and that he’d see her soon. Of course, he got no response, but she was coming.

“Daddy!” His little girl came running to him. Dropping to his knees he wrapped his arms around her. She trembled in his arms as he rocked her back and forth. “He hurt them, Dad. Why would her daddy do that?”

Her normally confident voice was soft and broken. “I don’t know, baby. He was just a mean man. Hunter’s going to take us to Tessa, okay?” She nodded against his shoulder. He carried her to the cruiser and climbed in the back while Hunter held the door open. Holding out his phone, he handed it to Hunter before he shut the door.

“Here’s Tessa’s phone. Call Cash. I know they broke up, but she’s going to need all the support she can get.”

“No worries, I’ll take care of it.” He shut the door and Jonathon watched Hunter make that call. When it was done he sat back and closed his eyes. What a shitty fucking day.

***

Cash had put a lot of thought into his plan to win Tessa back. She didn’t want or need anything expensive. His girl was more sentimental, so he needed to do stuff that was personal. Having written down everything he needed for his win-Tessa-back plan, he was on his way to Master’s Ink to run it all by Betsy. He actually had butterflies in his stomach. He had shared his epiphany with Derek. He felt lighter, freer than he had in a long time.

He pulled into the parking lot, parked and then got out. Pulling out a cigarette, he lit it quick and made his way toward the door. Betsy saw him through the front window. He gave her a determined smile. The dork gave him double thumbs up and returned his smile. Throwing out his cigarette, he headed inside.

“I’m guessing by your smile that you’ve come up with a great plan,” she said with a big smile. She had always been one of his biggest cheerleaders and one of his best friends.

“Yeah, I did. She doesn’t need a lot of flash so I’m going to do lots of little things. I even got Daisy one of those blinged out dog collars.” He couldn’t wait to see the little furball. She was probably getting so big. He hoped she remembered him. His phone started ringing and he pulled it out of his jacket pocket.
Tessa
flashed on the screen. He held it up to show Betsy. “She’s calling me.”

“Well, answer it.” She clapped and hopped up and down. Jared came out and Betsy quietly told him what was up.

Swiping his finger, he put the phone up to his ear. “Tessa?”

His heart sank when a man’s voice came over the line. “Is this Cash?” He told him yes. “I’m Jonathon’s partner, Hunter. He asked me to call you. You need to get to Lutheran Hospital. I don’t have time to explain, but trust me on this. Do as I say. We’ll meet you in the emergency room.” The line went dead before he could respond.

“Cash?” Betsy touched his arm, bringing him out of his stupor.

“I-I have to get to Lutheran Hospital. Something’s happened to Tessa.” He turned and ran out of the door. He could hear footsteps behind him. Reaching his truck, Jared grabbed his keys saying that he would drive. Cash was grateful because he couldn’t think straight. Every worst case scenario went through his head as he climbed into his truck. In seconds Jared was racing out of the parking lot. The three of them were sandwiched in the cab of his truck as they weaved in and out of traffic. He heard Jared tell Betsy that one of the other tattoo artists was watching the shop.

As soon as they pulled into the parking lot he practically shoved Betsy out of the truck so he could get out. He ran through the doors and found what looked like the whole Charleston police department sitting in the waiting room. He scanned the room until he found Jonathon sitting next to a redhead he’d never seen before,who was holding on to
a distraught Josie.

Making his way over to the other man, he called out, “What happened to her, Jonathon?”

Jonathon leaned over and whispered something to his daughter and the redhead and stood up. “Let’s go outside.”

He, Betsy, and Jared followed Jonathon silently out the sliding doors. Once outside, Cash stared at him expectantly. “What’s going on?” He couldn’t stand not knowing.

“Our dad showed up at the apartment and got Josie to let him in. We haven’t gotten all of the details yet. Josie’s traumatized and they’re still checking out Tessa. All I know is they’re wiring my sister’s jaw shut, your puppy’s dead, and so is that bastard.”

Cash took a step back and let out a scream. How could someone be so cruel? Tessa was that bastard’s flesh and blood. He felt Betsy wrap her arms around him. Jonathon came up to him—he thought for sure he was going to be a dick because he’d broken up with Tessa, but instead he was the complete opposite.

“I know things are over with you and Tessa, but she loves you and it’s obvious you love her still. She’s going to need you.”

“Of course I still love her. I’ll do whatever you need me to. Do you guys need a place to stay? I’ve got a spare bedroom and a couch.” He would do anything for Tessa, which included her family too.

“I appreciate the offer. We may take you up on that. Let’s go back inside and see if she’s ready for visitors yet.”

***

They sat out in the waiting room for another hour before Tessa was ready for visitors. Cash had paced the waiting room for a while—back and forth, back and forth. Every time the doors to the back opened he froze. A little while ago Josie had a meltdown. She screamed for Tessa over and over again until Jonathon and the redhead took her down the hall.