Road to Absolution (15 page)

“Okay, Mom,” he
said, and unbuckled himself.

She grabbed her
bag and they followed her into the dance the studio. Ace didn’t like what he
saw. Kevin was a bulk of man, barely an inch shorter than him and almost as
muscular. He didn’t look like what he assumed a male ballet dancer would look
like… he was far more masculine than Ace had counted on. Fuck!

“Kevin!”
Maverick shouted, and ran for the man.

Kevin laughed
and grabbed him, throwing him up into the air. “Hey, buddy, how are you?” he
asked, and set him on his feet.

“Good. Uncle
Carter and me are going to get food.”

“That sounds
great.”

Ace wrapped an
arm possessively around Cassidy, but she pulled away and hugged Kevin. “Hey.
Sorry I’m late. I had some car trouble.”

“I only beat you
by ten minutes,” Kevin said. “It’s all good.”

Cassidy pulled
away from Kevin and waved her hand toward Carter. “Kevin, this is Carter.”

Kevin reached
his hand out and Carter took it with a chin lift.

“Well, you boys
have fun,” Cassidy said, and kissed Maverick.

“Want us to pick
you up anything, babe?” Ace asked.

She gave him a
sickeningly sweet smile and shook her head. “No, I’m good,
hon
, thanks.”

He raised an
eyebrow and leaned down to kiss her, but she gave him her cheek, so he slid his
hand to her neck and guided her lips back to his. “Nice try,” he whispered, and
covered her mouth with his.

She pinned her
lips shut, so he let her have her hissy fit for the moment, but he made sure
she knew they’d finish this later.

“Let’s go, Mav,”
Carter said, and led him out of the studio.

* * *

“You okay?” Kevin asked as I returned
from changing into my dance gear.

“Other than wanting
to drop kick my boyfriend into next week, yeah, I’m frickin’ fabulous.”

Kevin chuckled.
“I picked up on some tension there. Want to talk about it?”

“No,” I said,
and began my stretch. “I mean, he’s totally all pissed because he thinks this
guy at work is interested in me, so he goes all Tarzan on me and barely says a
word! God, he’s infuriating!”

Kevin smiled.
“We are a simple people, Cass.”

“Well,
he
is a Neanderthal.”

“The same guy
you’ve talked about pretty much nonstop for, I don’t know, years?”

“Bite me,
Kevin,” I retorted. “You were the one who asked me if I wanted to talk about
it.”

He laughed
again. “You’re right. My mistake.”

I couldn’t help
but smile. “Let’s just forget about my devastatingly gorgeous but annoying man
for the moment and dance, okay?”

“You got it.”

Kevin and I got
down to the business of ballet, and by the time Carter and Maverick arrived to
pick me up; I was feeling a little less irritable. Although, that changed when
I caught Carter’s expression and he was looking at Kevin like he might maim
him.

“You’re still
shifting your weight, Cass,” Kevin instructed. “You’ll pitch forward if you
don’t keep your body centered.”

“Sorry,” I
grumbled and scowled at Carter. I stood in front of Kevin and focused back on
the mirror. He held my hands, stretched out to the side and ran one arm down my
waist. I kept hold of his fingers as I went up on my toe, went into a spin, and
ended with my right leg behind me.

“Better,” Kevin
said. “Do you feel the difference?”

I nodded.

“Okay, let’s try
the lift again.”

I gave Carter a
pointed look and he raised an eyebrow and sat down, stretching his arms across
the two chairs beside him. Like he was all Zen and crap. I had a check in my
gut that I should have told Kevin no to the lift, but he needed to know it
would work with his partner and I needed to keep up on my skills.

However, when he
lifted me to his shoulders and I swung down, leaving my crotch essentially in
his face, I found myself suddenly ripped from Kevin’s arms and transferred to
Carter’s, causing me to lose my breath with an “Oomph.”

“What the fuck
are you doin’?” Carter demanded.

Kevin raised his
hands in surrender and stepped back because he was a frickin’ adult and could
control his temper. Carter on the other hand, still had his arm wrapped around
my waist like a vice grip and I had to pinch his side (
hard
) to get him
to release me.

“God
damn
it,
Cassidy,” he hissed.

I stomped away
from him and over to Kevin. “I’m so sorry, Kevin.”

“We can work on
this next week, Cass. Don’t worry about it.”

“You’re not
fuckin’ doin’ that again,” Carter warned.

“Oh, hell yes we
are,” I snapped.

“You said fuck
is a bad word, Mom,” Maverick piped in.

“It is,” I
reiterated, glaring at Carter. “Uncle Carter is going on time out as soon as we
get home.”

“Grandpa would
‘tan his hide,’” Maverick mimicked.

“Well, Grandpa’s
not here, so it’s time out for him,” I said, and sat down to remove my ballet
slippers. I shoved them in my bag, pulled on my sweats and hoodie and then
laced up my sneakers.

I was so mad, I
nearly chucked a shoe at Carter, but alas, it wouldn’t have done enough damage,
so I refrained. I rose to my feet and grabbed my bag. “Let’s go.”

I took the time
to hug Kevin really quickly and apologized again before leading Carter and
Maverick out to the truck.

It was times
like these that were glaring reminders that I had no support. I couldn’t just
drop Maverick off at my parents’ place so that I could murder Carter and chop
him into garbage bag sized pieces without my child seeing it. It sucked.

We drove home in
virtual silence. Even Maverick, who could out talk pretty much anyone, figured
there was something up and stayed quiet.

Once we pulled
into the parking lot of my building, I grabbed my purse and bag and waited for
Maverick to unbuckle. “Say goodnight to Carter, honey.”

“I’ll walk you
up,” Carter said.

“No, you won’t,”
I countered. “We can talk tomorrow… or never.”

“You never want
to talk to Carter?” Maverick asked, his voice concerned.

“It’s a figure
of speech, honey,” I improvised. “And perhaps a little hyperbole.”

“What’s
hyperbole?”

“Drama, little
man,” Carter said. “Women are all about it.”

“Bite me,” I
snapped.

“You want Carter
to bite you?” Maverick asked. “Gross.”

“I’m walking you
up,” Carter continued.

I groaned and
began to envision all the ways I could torture the man. We made it upstairs and
into my apartment. “Go shower, Maverick, then it’s time for bed.”

“Okay, Mom.”

Without argument
(rare for him, but I figured he knew it would not behoove him to squabble with
me today), he headed to the shower.

“We gonna talk?”
Carter asked.

“No.” I slammed
my bag onto the sofa.

“I’m thinkin’
I’m not leavin’ until we do.”

“Oh, now you
want to talk? What’s so special about now, huh?”

“Cass,” he said
with a sigh.

“What? You’ve
been snappy and dickish, not to mention, pounding your chest ever since you
picked me up. I get that Tom’s weird, but enough to shut me out? Then you
totally
embarrassed me in front of a good friend, which was not okay, Carter.” I
crossed my arms. “So, no, I don’t want to talk about it right now. I want to
soak in a tub and go to bed… or maybe soak and then look up the best way to
dispose of your body.”

“You fuckin’
refused to kiss me, Cassidy.”

“You shut down
long before I refused to kiss you… in front of my friend… in public,
again
.
Why do you feel the need to ram your tongue down my throat at every inopportune
moment?”

“I’m all for
opportune moments as well, baby.”

His lips
twitched which just pissed me off even more. “Oh, bite me, Carter.”

“I won’t
apologize for not likin’ that Tom guy, Cass, but I
am
sorry if I was a
dick.” He slid his hand to my neck and squeezed gently. “He’s off, baby, and I
didn’t like the way he was lookin’ at you.”

“He wasn’t
looking at me!” I snapped and threw my hands in the air. “He was just being
nice.”

“I’m not arguin’
with you about this.”

“Oh, okay, then.
Drive home safe.” I pulled away and headed to the kitchen. “Or not. Whatever.”

I’m not really
sure how long I stood in the kitchen… I busied myself with opening a bottle of
wine and pulling out some leftover mac and cheese that Carter had made the day
before… from scratch. In fact, my fridge was full with lots of delicious
goodness because he’d gone shopping and filled it, but that didn’t make me any
less mad at him.

“Babe,” Carter
said from the doorway. “Can we start over?”

I shrugged,
shoving the mac and cheese into the microwave. He wrapped an arm around my
waist from behind and kissed the back of my neck. “I love you, Cassidy, I
really am sorry if I was a dick. I will apologize to Kevin if that will make
you feel better.”

“You should
apologize to him because what you did was wrong, Carter. Not to make me feel
better.”

“Your pussy was
in his fuckin’ face, Cass.”

“Ohmigod, it was
not
!” I craned my head to look up at him. “There’s only one face my pussy’s
ever been in, thank you very much.”

Carter smiled
but I could tell he was stuffing a laugh. “I will apologize to your friend.”

I nodded.
“Good.”

“But you can’t
refuse to kiss me, babe.”

“Excuse me?” I
elbowed him in the side, not that it did any good. “I am
not
your
chattel, Carter. If I don’t want to kiss you, I don’t have to kiss you!”

He sighed as the
beep of the timer sounded and I tried to pull away, but he held firm.

“I know you’re
not my chattel, Cassidy.”

“Coulda fooled
me,” I snapped.

“I’m sorry,
baby.” He turned me to face him and stroked my cheek. “Will you forgive me?”

“Yes. But you’re
never allowed to come to a dance rehearsal again.”

He kissed me
quickly and then released me. “Even if I promise—”

“Never again,” I
interrupted, and pulled out my dinner.

“You gonna let
me stay tonight?”

I shrugged and
took a bite of cheesy goodness.

“Gotta drive you
to work tomorrow, babe. It’ll be easier to stay here than drive up in the
morning.”

I shrugged
again.

He grinned and
pinned me to the counter. “Also kinda want your pussy in my face again. It
helps me sleep.”

I shivered and
closed my eyes.

He slid his
hands to my hips and kissed my neck. “How about instead of you taking a bath,
we’ll take a shower together, then I massage all your aches and pains away, eat
your pussy, and fuck you ’til you come so hard, you can’t stay awake?”

I swallowed and
opened my eyes slowly. “Can I eat first?”

Carter laughed.
“You eat, I’ll get Maverick down, and join you in the shower.”

I nodded and he
rubbed my arms and kissed my forehead. “I love you, baby.”

“I love you too…
sometimes,” I grumbled.

“Are you guys
gonna kiss?” Maverick asked from the doorway.

I giggled.
“Maybe.”

“Gross.”

Carter grinned.
“Come on, Mav, let’s get you to bed. Mom needs to eat.”

They left me and
I downed my food as fast as I could, grabbed the wine and a glass, and headed
to my room. Before jumping in the shower, however, I said goodnight to Maverick
and made sure he wasn’t concerned about my argument with Carter. All was good
in the world of Maverick, so I led Carter to the bathroom.

O
VER THE NEXT few weeks, Carter became a
pretty solid fixture at my apartment, as did the dog. I was half expecting a
neighbor to rat me out and contact the management, but so far so good. For the
most part, we spent weekends at Carter’s place and weekdays at mine, which
worked for now, but would probably have to change relatively quickly.

Most weeks,
instead of taking Maverick to daycare, Carter would take him to his place on
Friday mornings and hang with him while I went to work and I’d drive to his
place in the evening. Maverick loved his one-on-one time with Carter and I
loved that I got to sleep in.

One Thursday
morning, I got a phone call from the director of the daycare and it seriously
put a wrench in my busy day.

“Ms. Dennis,
would you please come down, ah, we need to discuss your son.”

My stomach
dropped. “Um, sure, is everything okay?”

“We’ve had an
incident, and I think it would be a good idea if we talk about it in person.”

“I’ll be there
as soon as I can.” I hung up, let my boss know there was an emergency, and
headed to my car. My mind ran rampant with all the issues it could be.

“Cassidy?” I
turned to find Tom following me into the elevator. “Everything okay?”

“Something’s
happened at my son’s daycare,” I said, and pressed the button to the lobby.

“Can I drive
you? You look upset.”

“No, I’m okay. I
just need to get there as soon as I can.”

“Let me drive
you,” Tom insisted.

“No, it’s really
okay. Thank you, though.” I left Tom standing in the elevator and rushed for my
car. I probably broke a few speeding laws, but figured if I got pulled over,
the cop would more than likely be sympathetic. I pulled into the parking lot
and saw two Harleys parked by the entrance. I recognized Carter’s and frowned. I
couldn’t imagine the school would have called him unless they couldn’t get hold
of me.

Walking into the
building, I saw Maverick sitting next to Lily on a chair outside of the
director’s office. Carter was standing close by.

“Mom!” Maverick
called, and rushed to me.

“Hey, honey. You
okay?”

“Ms. Dennis, if
you could join us, please?” Monica leaned out of her office and waved me in.

I nodded and led
Maverick back to his seat. “Just hang for a bit with Lily, okay?”

“Yeah, Mom. I’m
protectin’ her.”

Oh, this did
not
sound good. I frowned up at Carter and then walked into Monica’s office and
frowned, Carter following. Hawk stood looking very fierce and somewhat pissed
off, while Payton sat on one of the chairs looking more worried about the state
of her husband than anything.

“What’s going
on?” I asked.

“Have a seat,”
Monica said. “We’ve had a little bit of an incident with Maverick and Lily. I
must ask your friend to step outside.”

“I’m not goin’
anywhere,” Carter said.

“He’s Maverick’s
father,” I said, unsure exactly what to say.

“Oh, in that
case, come in,” Monica said, and sat at the desk. “Maverick hit another little
boy today.”

I gasped.
“What?”

“Yes. Ethan
Walker. According to Maverick, he was harassing Lily and Maverick was
protecting her.”

I forced myself
not to let out a holler of victory.

“Lily, as you
know, Mr. and Mrs. James, unfortunately, has a nasty bruise on her arm, and
since we have a zero tolerance policy, Ethan is expelled, however, I’m
attempting to figure out the best course of action for Maverick.”

Hawk looked like
he was ready to kill someone.

“I don’t
understand,” I said.

Monica sighed.
“I can’t condone violence, Ms. Dennis. Maverick hit Ethan and then put him in a
chokehold that caused him to pass out for a few seconds. This is very serious.”

“Yes, very
serious. I agree,” I said.

“Maverick said
the reason he put Ethan in a chokehold, was that even after Ethan was hit, he
would not release Lily, which I believe is why Maverick went that route… how he
even learned how to do that is disturbing, but in this case, it was effective.”

I narrowed my
eyes up at Carter who gave me a look of complete innocence. Well, right there
was proof of how Maverick knew how to do that. Crap!

“So,” Monica
continued, “I think it would be a good idea if Maverick takes the week to talk
about non-violent ways to resolve his conflict—”

“That little
bastard put his hands on my daughter,” Hawk said, his tone frightening.

“I’m aware of
that, Mr. James.”

“He nearly broke
her arm.”

“I… I know. I
apologize…”

“Are you hearing
me, lady? He nearly broke my daughter’s fuckin’ arm. If Maverick hadn’t stopped
him, he would have. Where the
fuck
were the adults in this fuckin’
situation?” he bellowed.

“Honey,” Payton
whispered.

A disturbance
outside had Carter pulling open the door, then, “What the fuck?”

We rushed out to
see Maverick shoving Ethan away from Lily, a large man drawing his arm back as
though to hit him. Carter moved with lightning speed, as did Hawk. The man I
assumed was Ethan’s father seemed rather surprised when Carter’s fist landed
squarely in his face, while Hawk pulled Ethan away, and Maverick rushed to
stand in front of Lily, blocking her from harm. I wasn’t sure I was correctly
processing everything that was happening.

“Ohmigod,”
Payton said, groaning.

Payton and I
guided the children into Monica’s office, while Monica pulled Ethan aside.
Hawk, Carter, and Ethan’s dad had disappeared, but I caught movement out a side
window, so I assumed they were having a discussion… well, or something.

“I’m calling the
police,” Monica stated, and pulled out her cell phone.

“I think we
should get the kids home,” I said, and grabbed Maverick’s hand.

“Good idea,”
Payton agreed.

“You need to
wait for the police,” Monica said.

“My husband can
deal with the police,” Payton said. “I would rather get my daughter somewhere
safe… it’s obviously not here.”

“Yes, what she
said,” I said, and tugged Maverick toward the exit.

I was pulled up
a little as I realized Maverick had taken Lily’s hand and was guiding her with
us. I caught Payton’s eye and she bit her lip… yes, even in the stress of a
biker fight, my kid protecting this little girl was adorable.

We arrived at
the car, luckily parked in the opposite direction of where I assumed our men
were, and I pulled open the door.

“Hold on, Mom,”
Maverick said, and faced Lily, laying his hands on her upper arms (the way
Carter did to me, I might add). “Hey, you okay?”

“I’m okay, Mav,”
she said, her tiny little voice lilting as she smiled at him with hero worship.
“Thanks for helping me.”

He kissed her
forehead and gave her a hug and I had to turn away and bite my knuckle to keep
from sighing out loud. Payton had her lips pressed in a thin line in an effort
to do the same.

“I’m gonna make
sure Lily gets in her car seat safe, ’k, Mom?”

I smiled at
Payton and then turned to the kids. “Absolutely, buddy.”

He took Lily’s
hand and then stared up at Payton. “We’re ready, Mrs. James.”

“Right,” she
said, recovering a little slower than Maverick expected. “Let’s go.”

Payton hadn’t
parked far from us, so I followed her to the car, sandwiching the kids between
us. Once Lily was in the car, she smiled over at me. “Why don’t you guys come
back to our place for a bit? I don’t know how long the guys will be and maybe
we can order pizzas or something.”

“I feel like we
should wait for the police,” I said.

“Don’t worry
about it. Alex will take care of it and if there are any issues, my brother
will help.”

“Is your brother
a cop?”

“FBI.”

“Oh, wow.”

Payton smiled.
“I really want to get Lily home and get ice on her arm. Macey’s coming over
later, so I’m going to have her look at it.”

“Should she go
to the emergency room?” I asked.

“No, nothing
feels broken. She has full range of motion, so we’ll ice and see what Mase says
when she comes over.”

“Can we go to
their house, Mom, please?” Maverick begged.

“Sure, buddy.
I’ll just text Carter and let him know what we’re doing.”

“Don’t,” Payton
said. “It’ll distract him.”

“Good point.” I
laid my hand on Maverick’s head. “Okay, buddy, let’s get in the car. We’ll
follow Mrs. James home.”

Maverick buckled
himself in and we followed Payton home. I didn’t see Carter as we drove out of
the parking lot, I did still see his bike, but wondered where the heck the men
had gone. We passed a lit up police cruiser on our way home and my heart raced a
little. I’d never been in trouble with the law… or anyone for that matter, so
it made me nervous.

We pulled up to
a lovely and spacious house in Felida, an upper class area of Vancouver. It was
a newer development and it made me long for a place of our own. Me, Maverick,
and
Carter. I smiled, realizing that it was very, very likely that we’d have it one
day.

Maverick
unbuckled himself and rushed to open the door for Lily. I caught Payton’s eye
and we both stifled giggles. Grabbing my purse, I followed her inside the house
and, after a quick tour, we sat at the dinette table with the kids while Payton
iced Lily’s arm.

Hawk and Carter
got home less than an hour after us.

I studied
Carter’s body, checking for injury, but he looked fine… well, other than the
knuckles on his right hand.

“Babe, I’m
fine,” he said, stroking my cheek.

“How bad?”

He studied his
hand. “Not bad.”

I let out a
frustrated snort. “Not
you
, Carter. Ethan’s dad.”

“Babe, don’t ask
questions you don’t want answers to.”

“I’m not.”

Carter sighed.
“He won’t be an issue.”

“Did the police
come?”

“Yeah, but it’s
sorted.”

“Carter.”

“I’m hungry. Are
we ordering pizza or what?”

“Honey,
seriously, tell me.”

He smiled,
kissing me quickly. “Ethan’s dad didn’t press charges, and we didn’t either,
considering his kid hurt Lily, so it’s done.”

“Except we need
to find another daycare.”

“We’ve got time,
Cass. I’ll take Mav with me to the shop on days I have to go in and when we get
married, we can find a more permanent situation.”

I huffed and
stalked into the kitchen.

“Babe?” Carter
called, following me.

“You okay?”
Payton asked me, glancing up from her laptop on the island.

I nodded. “Yep.”

“What do you
want on your pizza?” Payton asked.

“I like combo,
Carter’s a ham and pineapple guy, and Mav’s all about the cheese.”

“Perfect.
Ordered.” Payton grinned and closed the laptop. “Should be here in half-an-hour
or so.”

“Don’t like ham
and pineapple anymore, Cassidy,” Carter said.

“Don’t care,
Carter,” I retorted, and sat at the island.

I saw Payton
smile and I glared up at Carter, catching his grin before he schooled his
features. “What?”

“What?” he
repeated, innocently.

“Bite me,
butthead.”

He leaned down
and gently nipped the back of my neck. “Anytime, baby.”

“You’re an
idiot.”

Carter laughed.
“God, how I have missed that from you, babe.”

“Bet you have.”

“I still love
ham and pineapple.”