Sound Proof (Save Me #5) (12 page)

“As much as I’d like to continue this for the rest of the night, you need to go get Willow. She just needs you right now.”

She slides off my lap, says goodbye, and heads toward the door. Leaving me with a whole lot to think over and a hard on to take care of by myself.

“Hey, Payton,” I call out and wait for her to turn back around. “This can work. I need you, and I know we can make this work. Even if it means sneaking around until you’re comfortable.”

She closes her eyes and lets a small smile creep across her face. She nods slowly before saying goodbye again. I drop back on the couch and contemplate how to make this work now that I know Payton wants it too.

“I’m staying in the car,” Willow mutters as I shut the truck off.

“Willow,” I plead.

She shakes her head and continues to stare out the window without budging. “Take Sage, I’m staying in the car. I’m tired of being a charity case for you.” I turn in my seat and try to talk to her, but she cuts me off. “Stop being nice to me. Stop trying to make me feel better. I don’t deserve it, and you’re not going to change my mind. So. Just. Stop.”

Instead of pushing the subject, I slide out of the truck and grab Sage from the back seat. She wraps her arms around me and nuzzles into my neck. I rest my chin on top of her head and make my way into the store.

“Why did you pick us up and not my mom?” Sage asks as I set her in the back of the cart and check to make sure the boot on her broken ankle is straight.

“Well, your mom is super busy trying to get caught up at work, and I was able to get the time off. So… you’re stuck with me.” I scrunch up my face and make her giggle as I start throwing stuff in the cart around her. “What should we feed you for dinner?”

“Candy!” she exclaims.

I laugh. “How about no!”

When we’ve finally made it through the check-out, I load Sage back into her seat and look around for Willow since she’s no longer in the truck. Yelling from the corner of the parking lot catches my attention and as soon as I see who it is, I panic.

“Leave me alone!” she screams, her hands flying as she tries to push Max away from her.

Fear cripples me when I see the terror in her eyes from where I am standing, and for a few seconds I can’t move, I can’t breathe. Finally, something inside me snaps and I race forward, dodging cars and carts until I reach them. Grabbing the back of Max’s shirt, I rip him away from Willow and throw him to the ground. He screams out a bunch of shit that I block out and just focus on Willow. I grip her tear-soaked face in hands and wipe away the blood trailing from her bottom lip.

“I’m sorry,” she sobs. “I should have gone in with you. I shouldn’t have gotten out of the truck without you. I can’t do anything right.”

I can hear the crowd gathering around us and I know by tomorrow this will grace the front of every tabloid that’s willing to pay. I turn around to lay into Max, but he’s already in cuffs and being escorted into the back of the cruiser.

At least someone had the decency to call the police.

“How the hell did he get out of jail?” I bite out. The officer shrugs and tells me he needs to take Willow’s statement and get her checked out. “She’s a minor, I need to get ahold of her mother.” I ignore whatever he says in return and turn my attention back to Willow. She wraps herself around me and starts apologizing again. “Shhhh, Willow. It’s OK, babe. You don’t have anything to be sorry about. Everything is going to be all right.” I press a kiss into the top of her head. Pulling back, I frame her face and make sure she is paying attention to what I’m saying. “What you said in the car about being a charity case? I never want to hear that shit again. If I didn’t want to be with you guys, I wouldn’t be. Understand me?”

Willow reaches up and wipes her face dry. She nods and tucks her head into my shoulder.

“Good,” I whisper. “Now let’s get you two home and we’ll talk to your mom.”

“I don’t know what happened. I’m so sorry.”

Payton takes a deep breath and looks around the room to make sure there are no little eyes watching. She steps up to me, presses her lips against mine softly, and drags her fingers down my face. “It’s not your fault.”

I slide my arms around her waist, tugging her closer to me and lean back against the counter. “You sound like me in that parking lot earlier. But if didn’t let her stay in the car, or I didn’t stop to buy groceries, or if I-”

I’m cut off when she presses her fingers against my lips and she tells me to be quiet. When I finally quiet down and listen, I hear the beat thump through the walls and smile. I grab Payton’s hand and drag her toward Willow’s room. She stops before we reach the door and slides down the wall, pulling me with her.

The beat radiating through the house is harsh and completely off beat; it’s perfect. It’s perfect because it’s Willow, and she’s trying for the first time since the accident. It might not be coordinated, but just like Willow, it’s beautiful.

Squeezing Payton’s hand, I bring it to my lips and kiss her knuckles. I lose track of how long we sit there listening but when I look up, Liam is walking down the hall toward us. He shakes my hand, thanks me for being there today to take care of Willow, and slides down next to Payton. Figuring I should leave them alone to talk, I stand up and wander into Willow’s room, trying hard to sneak in.

Pain is clearly written across her face as she slams her leg down way too hard against the foot pedal. I turn around and go grab the ice pack out of the freezer before heading back into her bedroom. Willow doesn’t even act like I’m there when I pull her desk chair over and sit down next to her. She keeps slamming away until I slide my foot under the pedal and stop it from coming down again.

Willow drops the sticks, letting them fall to the floor. “Why did you stop me? Isn’t this why you brought it over?”

“I brought it over so you could see that just because you got hurt, doesn’t mean your dreams and ambitions need to go away.” I sigh and wrap the ice pack around her thigh. “If you work this hard before you’re one hundred percent, you’ll hurt more than help, though.”

“Whatever.” She shakes her head, stands up, hobbles to her bed and flops back with the ice pack. “You don’t know what it’s like.”

“You’re right.” I agree because it’s the truth, but I do know someone who does. “Field trip next time I have a full day off.” I stand up, grab the sticks from floor and toss them on the bed next to her when I walk by. “No excuses, and go easy on that leg.”

I hate this place. I hate the steel bars and the cement walls and the stale scent makes me want to vomit. Most of all, I hate that I had to leave the girls with AJ and Liam so I could come here to deal with this. A lot of the guards know me by name and wave at me as I check in. I take a seat on the stool that’s bolted to the floor and stare straight forward. The door on the other side of the window opens and Max slides onto the stool facing me. He sits and does nothing but stare at me.

Finally he throws his hands in the air and asks me what I want.

“I hate you.” I scream through the glass. “Who the hell do you think you are?”

“I hate you too,” he spits. “I hate you, and that pain in the ass daughter of yours that ruined my life and almost killed my daughter.”

I shake my head at his delusion. “You have one seriously messed up vision of what actually happened.”

“She was in the driver’s seat and I promise I will make sure she remembers that. Every second of every day. For the rest of her life.”

I slap my hands off the counter and stand up from the stool, getting closer to the glass and look him dead in the eye. “If you ever come near my children again. You will regret it. You’ll regret it so much more than I will ever regret leaving you.”

He crosses his arms over his chest and leans back against the chair. Usually when he speaks, he has the decency to sign to me, but this time he makes me watch his mouth. “Why? Big bad rock star boyfriend going to hurt me?”

I choose to ignore his comment because nothing has happened between AJ and me since I walked out the other night to rush back to Willow. “I know it’s inevitable that you’ll be out in a few hours. You’ll make bail despite what you’ve done because of who you are and the friends you have in high places, but I promise you this: I will make your life hell if you touch my daughter again.” Without another word, I walk out of the jail, stopping only long enough to grab my stuff before making my way to my car. I know I need to take some time to calm down, so instead of heading home, I drive to IronSound and hide out in my office for a bit.

“Twenty-six…” I mutter and toss another file in the pile on the corner of my desk.

Abby slides into the chair in front of me, smiling as she crosses her legs. “Twenty-six what?”

“Twenty-six is the number of clients that have switched representation since everything started happening with Max. They don’t want to be associated with us because his name is still attached to us. They stuck with me while I was working out of town, but now… Twenty-six accounts, Abby. That leaves me with about three personal accounts and you guys. That is, until the rest of you decide that you don’t want to be part of this disaster, either.”

She reaches her hand across the desk and squeezes my fingers. Sifting through the files until she finds the ones with her name and the IronSound files, pulling them free of the rest. Abby stands, pulls the drawer of my filing cabinet open and drops the stack inside.

“This—” she motions toward the drawer she just closed and drops down into the chair in front of me “—is where my files belong. We’re not going anywhere, the company isn’t going anywhere. We’re your clients, not the firm’s.”

“I’ve been an emotional mess the past few months, so you have no idea how good you just made me feel.”

“You deserve to be happy, Payton. You are amazing, and you took one of my best friends and made him so happy just by letting him be a part of your life.”

I try not to, but I can’t help the smile that spreads across my face when she mentions AJ. She’s right, but not just about him being happier. I’m happier than I’ve been in years. Well, other than all the Max stuff and Willow being depressed.

“Everything is going to be all right, right?” I ask.

“You made it through college, law school, becoming a mom, and you make it through day-to-day life and for most of that you were deaf. You’re amazing and you can make it through anything. Hell, you made it through AJ being an ass and not learning to sign”

I laugh. I can’t help it; as hard as Abby always tried, she still missed or messed up half the words she tried to sign. So instead of watching her sign, I always watch her lips and catch more that way. I should tell her, but the fact that this super-star of a woman has actually tried when she didn’t have to still amazes me.

“I guess I figured sooner or later he would break and learn something.”

Abby tosses her head back, her long red hair falls down her back as she laughs. “Honey, you broke him a long time ago. It might not have been the way you thought, but I’ve never seen him like he is when he’s with you and I like him like that.”

I smile. “I like him like this too. I’m just scared that if anything happened between us that he’d get bored and go back to groupies. I’m afraid because Sage and Willow are already attached to him. I’m afraid because…”