Razor's Edge: A Bad Boy Romance (Bad Boys of Football Book 2) (8 page)

M
y
  day couldn’t have gotten any better if I’d won the lottery. Lying here with this curvy beauty on top of me was as close to heaven as anyone could get. I wasn’t even bothered by the fact, she’d shown up on my doorstep to give me hell about how her life had turned upside down. Like she was the only one who was dealing with shit right now. If she had to deal with a fraction of what I was dealing with, she’d lose her mind. So, yeah, bedding her -- taking her down one lick at a time -- is exactly what I had to do. I needed it, and based on the moans and groans that escaped her beautiful, luscious lips, she needed it more.

Hillary stirred in my arms.

“Good morning, sunshine,” I offered, caressing her soft, silken skin. She was the picture of perfection. Everything about her was flawless, from her bright hazel eyes to her dark hair and copper skin. She was probably the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. It floored me that I had no memory of her as a kid. She couldn’t have been very different back then. I’m sure if had she looked like this when we were kids, I would have never forgotten her.

“How long have you been awake?” Hillary asked, nuzzling her nose into my neck. “Let me guess; you never sleep because you’re a machine.”

I had to laugh. “I did say that, didn’t I?”

She planted a kiss on my cheek. “You said a lot of things last night. Maybe I should have recorded you.”

I loved these moments almost as much as I loved the moments that led up to them. Anytime a woman wasn’t trying to convince you to buy her something or perform any favors for her, things were good. But so far, Hillary didn’t give me any indication she was one of those women. She’d never asked me for anything, other than to leave her alone, but considering neither one of us was wearing more than a smile on our faces, I didn’t think she truly meant what she’d said.

“What are you grinning at?” Hillary asked as she tucked a wayward curl behind her ear.

“You,” I said.

I mentally counted the seconds until she asked me what it meant.

“What? Why are you laughing at me? Am I funny? Did I say something funny?” She lifted her head up to look me directly in the eyes.

“Three seconds,” I said, stifling a laugh.

“Are you drunk?” she teased. “What are you talking about?”

We remained in bed for a half hour more, talking more than playing, but I was okay with that. For now. There would be plenty of time for more later.

As we made our way down to the kitchen, Hillary hesitated, wrapping one of my bathrobes tighter around her. “Who else is here?” she asked.

I looked around. “Who do you want to be here?”

“No, where’s your staff?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

That was funny. “I have a staff? Wow, I didn’t know. How many people do I keep on staff?” I teased her.

Poor thing; she really thought I was one of those guys. Like I couldn’t handle anything on my own. Wow! “I have people who work for me, but I don’t have maids and butlers. The only people who live here are me and Edge.”

“Who helps you with Edge? Nannies?” Hillary looked genuinely confused.

I didn’t mean to sound offended, but I had to admit, I was a little offended. “I take care of him by myself. He’s my son. I’ve taken care of him by myself since he was born. Even when his mother was around, I did most of the work. She was too busy partying and whoring around to be a mother.”

Hillary didn’t have time to ask me anything else because both my house phone and my cell phone rang at the same time.

“What’s wrong now?” I groaned, knowing whoever it was, wouldn’t be calling with good news at this hour in the morning. “I’ll meet you in the kitchen. Let me see who that is.”

I didn’t have to wait long to find out the bad news. By the time I got the phone to my ear, the buzzer at the front gate was going off and police vehicles were parked outside of it.

Kelly’s voice was shrill as she tried to warn me. “Hey, the police are on their way to your house with a warrant.”

“They’re here,” I said as I walked to my front door, wearing nothing more than my boxer shorts. “They’re everywhere.”

Hillary must have noticed the commotion because she was standing in the living room, staring out the front picture window. “What’s going on?”

I shrugged. “I have no idea.”

Kelly said, “Don’t say anything to them. I’m on my way.”

Hillary watched for Kelly out the window while I phoned Kelly’s daughter to ask her to keep Edge for a few more hours. He didn’t need to see or hear any of this. It was bad enough that he knew his mother and I were having issues again. He didn’t need to be exposed to anymore adult problems.

“She’s here,” Hillary said, looking like a deer in headlights. Just hours earlier, I’d promised her, there wouldn’t be any more problems. I’d told her, I’d keep her out of the line of fire. I lied. I didn’t mean to. She would probably argue with me about it, but the truth of the matter was, I had inadvertently lied to her.

My cell phone rang again.

“It’s Kelly.” I lifted the phone to my ear, confused as to what she wanted me to do. “What’s going on?”

“They have a warrant to search the house,” she said.

I swallowed hard. “Why?”

“Open the gates, Edgecott. You have to let them in,” she said.

I pushed the button on the control panel, my hands shaking. I didn’t have anything to hide, so I wasn’t nervous about that, but having police at your home rarely ended well for anyone.

Kelly and the officers pulled their vehicles in front of the house.

I looked at Hillary, realizing she was still wearing nothing more than my robe. “You might want to get dressed.”

She turned and ran up the stairs to get dressed while I walked over to the door to find out what they wanted with me.

“Mr. Edgecott Razor,” an officer said, his hand hovering over his service weapon.

“Yes, what’s this about? I haven’t done anything wrong,” I said, nodding at Kelly, who wore a worried expression on her face.

“We have a warrant to search the property,” the officer said, handing me the court documents. “Here’s the order.”

I didn’t acknowledge him. I decided to focus on Kelly instead. “Can they do this?” I asked her.

She nodded, looking at me with sympathy in her eyes. “They can. The judge signed the order. Just let them in to look around. I’m sure they’ll be out of here quickly because you’ve got nothing to hide.”

“What are you looking for?” I asked the officers.

“You’ve been accused of assaulting your ex-wife. We’re here to look for evidence,” the officer explained.

I couldn’t believe my ears. “What the hell are you talking about? I didn’t do anything to her. She’s a lying bitch.”

Kelly interjected. “Wait; if she accused him of attacking her at her house, why do you have to search his home? What exactly are you looking for? Did she say he attacked her here?”

The officer motioned for the other officers to go inside. “Your wife--” he started.

“Ex-wife. She’s not my wife. She hasn’t been my wife for a long time,” I said, as I watched the officers walk into my home and begin looking through my things.

“Okay. Your ex-wife says when you assaulted her, you threatened her with a weapon. Do you own a weapon, sir?” the officer asked.

Hillary stepped out of the house just then. “What’s going on? The police are searching through all your stuff.”

My heart sank. I didn’t own a weapon. I’d never owned a weapon. Where did she get that cockamamie idea from? “It’s fine, Hillary. Stephanie made up some stupid story and they’re here to prove she’s nothing but a no good lying whore.”

Kelly scolded me, through gritted teeth. “Shut your mouth. If you keep talking, they’re going to think you’re guilty of something. Suck it up. Let them look, then, they’ll be on their way.”

She was right, but I was too angry to listen to reason. I wanted my life back. I wanted my son. Stephanie could take everything I owned, but I’d never let her take my boy away from me.

Hillary reached for my arm. “Stay calm. I know you didn’t do anything wrong. Everything is going to be okay.”

I turned to look at her, but noticed some more movement behind us. “What the hell are they doing here?”

Stephanie and her crackpot attorneys were parked outside the front entrance gates watching the whole ordeal.

Kelly followed my gaze. “That dumb broad. What is she doing?” she muttered. To me, she said, “Don’t move. I’m going to talk to them.” She waited for me to agree before she stepped away, saying, “Hillary, don’t let him leave your sight.”

I didn’t know what to do with myself. If I tried to go back inside my house, I’d end up doing something to make things worse for myself. If I stayed outside, I wasn’t entirely confident, I wouldn’t
actually
attack my ex-wife. If anyone deserved to have her clock cleaned, it was her. And that was saying a lot because I didn’t believe in harming women physically. In fact, the thought of it, made my skin crawl, but she was making it really hard for me to resist the urge.

“Why is she doing this to you? What does she want?” Hillary asked the million dollar question.

I shrugged. “She wants my son.”

“Why now?” she asked. “What’s different now? I thought, she walked out of your lives?”

I wondered the same thing. What had changed in her life? What was she really after because I didn’t believe for a minute she truly wanted to be Edge’s mother. If she did, she wouldn’t have walked out on us in the first place. What was she really after?

Hillary unknowingly answered the question for me. “Do you think maybe it’s you she wants? Maybe she’s doing all this because she wants you back? Could that be possible?”

I didn’t have an answer for her. All I could do was stand there and try to keep myself upright to weather the current storm. Figuring out what Stephanie really wanted required energy I didn’t have at the moment. What I needed to focus on was doing everything I could think of to keep Edge with me. “She’s not getting me or my son back. I can guarantee you that,” I said with conviction. I’d never been a good loser and I wasn’t about to start now.

Felici
a
  held her head in her hands. “Have you gone crazy? Please, tell me that’s what’s happening here because nothing else makes any sense to me.”

I knew, it sounded nuts. Even I couldn’t believe I’d agreed to something as ridiculous as this, but after witnessing what I witnessed at E.J.’s house, I felt like I had no other choice. I had to help. That sick woman was trying to take an innocent little boy away from his father -- a very good father, at that -- to get back at him for some perceived wrong a long time ago. How could I sit there and do nothing? Edge deserved to be happy. He needed to be with his father.

“Woman, are you listening to me? You can’t move some kid in here and raise him like he’s yours! That’s insane. You’re his teacher, remember? And, where do you plan to put him? You don’t have any room for a kid here.” Felicia was right. I didn’t have the space in my home, let alone my life, but I felt compelled to do this. Something about it felt so right.

“Hear me out; I’m not going to raise him as my own. I’m going to let him stay here until E.J. can smooth things out with his ex. That’s it. Edge needs a home base for now. I’ll be his home base. It will be fun. You’ll see,” I said.

“It won’t be so much fun when the crazy woman has you locked up for kidnapping her son. Do you hear yourself? E.J. isn’t your husband. Hell, he’s not even your boyfriend. Why would you want to take on the responsibility of his kid right now? You’re supposed to be getting your life together, not trying to fix someone else’s life,” Felicia added.

Instinctively, I knew she was probably right. As an outsider looking in, I could see how it sounded like I’d lost my mind. If it was her volunteering to take a five-year-old child into her home, I’d probably try to talk her out of it too, but since it wasn’t her and she had no idea of what the back story was, I couldn’t take her advice this time. “I have to do this. It feels right. Trust me. Things will be okay,” I said as confidently as I could. “He needs me.”

Felicia threw her hands up in the air. “Oh, he needs you. Well that changes everything, doesn’t it? He needs you. Tell me, who exactly are you talking about here? Edge or his father? Girl, I don’t know what’s gotten into you. I know, you’re hurting. I get it. We’re all hurting. I miss my brother too. I miss him every single day, but you can’t bring Sam back by doing this. He’s gone, honey. He’s gone.”

Goose pimples started to cover my body. She believed I was doing this because I was sad. “This isn’t about Sam. This is about helping Edge and his dad. That little boy doesn’t deserve to have his life torn apart.” Tears spilled down my face. “I know what it’s like to have everything taken away from you. I know what it feels like to have the person you love the most in the world -- the person you trust more than anyone -- stripped from you. It hurts. It hurts like hell. No one, not even a womanizing football player, deserves to have to go through that. No one.”

Felicia stared back at me, tears forming in her eyes. “I’m sorry. I get it now.” Clapping her hands together, she asked, “So, how do we do this? What do you need for me to do?”

And our plan was in motion. Now, I had to figure out what exactly the plan was. I hadn’t thought much beyond telling Edge and having him brought to my house.

“I guess, we wait,” I answered.

She looked around my apartment. “How about we unpack some of these boxes and make some room for your new roommate?”

Two hours later, my apartment was in order. Art pieces were hung on the wall. Some of my family photos had been placed in frames and hung on the walls or found a home on the built-in shelves that lined many of them. We’d even managed to transform my bedroom into an actual bedroom and not a makeshift office/storage room/living area.

“What do you think?” Felicia asked as she stood back and admired her handiwork.

I smiled. “You did good. You did good.” I checked my watch to see how much time I had before E.J. said he’d bring Edge by for what he was told would be a mini-vacation. “It’s almost time.”

Like clockwork, the downstairs buzzer rang.

“Your new family is here,” Felicia said as she peeked out the window to the yard below. “Do you want me to disappear so you can get settled?”

I shook my head. “No, I need you to stay. My stomach is in knots.”

I held the door open as Edge and E.J. stepped into my apartment. “How are things?” I asked them.

E.J. kissed me on the cheek. “Quiet for now. How are you doing? You look gorgeous as usual.”

Edge rolled his eyes at his dad. “Yuck. Really? She’s a teacher, though.”

“She’s a beautiful teacher. She’s the teacher, you’re going to hang out with while I take care of business. Remember what I told you; you have to listen to her. Help her around the house, eat what she serves you, and do what she says,” E.J. reminded him.

Edge considered his father’s warnings for a moment, wrinkling up his nose. “Do you make paella? I hope so because I love paella. Right, dad?”

I laughed. “Paella is delicious. I know a wonderful paella recipe. I learned to make that and a lot of other dishes when I lived in Spain.”

Felicia muttered under breath. “Making paella ain’t cheap. How about Sloppy Joe's?”

E.J. cleared his throat as he dug into his pocket and pulled out a wad of cash -- all one hundred dollar bills. “Here, this will help cover your expenses.”

I’d never seen so much cash. “I can’t take that from you.”

He grabbed my hand and folded my fingers around the wad of money. “Yes, you can and you will. Look, you’re taking care of my son. Kids are expensive little creatures. He has expensive taste. Take it. Buy whatever you need and when you run out, call me and let me know. I’ll get you some more.” He shook his head. “No, you know what? I’m going to call Kelly and have her set up an expense account for you. That way you won’t have to ask me for money. Get whatever you need.” He looked around the apartment. “There are really nice places near where I live. Maybe you could find a new place to live while you’re at it.”

Now he’d crossed the line. “What’s wrong with my apartment?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Nothing, but if you’re with me, it doesn’t look good. Your place should be luxurious, like you. Let me see about setting you up in a better neighborhood.

“I don’t want your money. I’m fine where I’m at,” I whispered as we watched Edge bore of us and move on to unpack some of his things.

“Take it. Let me take care of you. You don’t have a job right now because of me. It’s the least I could do to make up for everything I’ve put you through,” E.J. offered.

“Damn right it is,” Felicia chimed in.

Planting another kiss on my cheek, E.J. said, “It’s done. From now on, you won’t have to worry about money. I’ll have my realtor show you around to help you find a better place. And, in the meantime, if you need anything for Edge or yourself, let me know. If you can’t get a hold of me, call Kelly. She’ll know where to find me.”

“Where to find you? Are you leaving town?” I asked. That wasn’t part of the deal.

“I don’t know yet. All I know for sure is, I need to keep Stephanie and her goon squad away from my son,” E.J. said, his eyes on Edge. “Keep him safe. Thank you for this. Thank you for everything. I promise, when this is all over, I’ll make it all up to you. I’ll fix everything.”

Felicia shifted in place. “I’ll go help Edge get settled in while you two lovebirds sort out your arrangement. If you ask me, you two need to admit you’re in love with each other and quit resisting the inevitable.”

“Don’t hold back, Felicia. Tell me what else is on your mind,” I said.

“In love?” E.J.’s eyes lit up. “Is Ms. Jackson in love with me? Did she say that to you?” E.J. looked at me, grinning from ear to ear like he’d been given the key to paradise.

“No!” I protested. “I never said that to her.”

Felicia shook her head and tiptoed away.

“Who did you say it to then?” E.J. grabbed my elbow and led me into the kitchen to sit at the table. “Are you? Are you in love with me?”

I rolled my eyes at him.

“I mean, I can’t blame you if you are. Women love me and I love them,’ E.J. boasted. “You can tell me. I won’t tell anyone, I swear.”

When I didn’t respond, E.J.’s tone changed, became more serious. “About what you’re doing for us -- thank you. Seriously. Thank you for agreeing to do this. You don’t know how much it means to me. I promise, it won’t be long. I just need some time. With the police making appearances and the accusations flying all over the place, I don’t want to risk having Edge exposed to any of it. It’s better if I keep him as far away from the drama as possible.”

In my heart of hearts, I knew I was doing the right thing. Edge didn’t need to be exposed to the turmoil, but at the same time, I wondered how E.J. would fair in all of this. As the pressure increased, E.J.’s anger grew. I hated to think about how much further he’d have to be pushed before he unleashed all of his anger on everyone.

“You don’t have to thank me. It’s the right thing to do. And besides, like you said, I’m not working these days. Hanging out with Edge for a few days or weeks will give me something to do,” I said.

E.J. sighed as he reached across the table for my hands. “They’re going to come after you too.”

I swallowed hard. “Who?”

“Stephanie and her people. The media is already clamoring for information. They probably followed me here. Just know, people are going to figure out you are keeping Edge here. They're going to want to know what our relationship is. They’re going to start snooping around. When that happens, you have to be ready,” he explained.

“Ready for what?” I asked.

“Ready for whatever happens. It’s not going to be pretty. In fact, it’s going to be really fucked up. They’re going to say things about me that will make you hate me.” E.J. turned his head. “Don’t leave me, okay? I need you.”

His vulnerability both touched me and scared me at the same time. How bad were things going to get?