Sound Proof (Save Me #5) (21 page)

I grab Willow’s arm, dragging her behind me and out of Max’s sight. Her hands fist in the back of my shirt, keeping herself as close to me as she can possibly get and sobs against my back.

“Walk away, Max.”

He shakes his head slowly, his eyes never leaving mine.

“She’s mine, AJ. You can’t stop me from seeing her. Mine. Do you get what I’m saying? Because I don’t think you understand what that word means. First you take my wife from me, now you take my daughters. And now everywhere I go everyone looks at me like they pity me because of that goddamn photo you two posted.”

“I didn’t take your wife away from you,” I say calmly, trying to figure out how to get Willow out of here before either one of them freaks out. I can smell the alcohol on his breath from where I stand. “You did that one yourself when you bent her assistant over her desk. Payton and I didn’t get together for months after she left you. And Willow isn’t your daughter, you have no claim on her, Max. You broke her, shattered her and no girl should ever need to be afraid of a man. Especially not one that was supposed to protect her.”

“I should have protected her? Stupid bitch got what was coming to her. She was the driver! She crashed the car! She is the reason everything happened and now I’m reaping the consequences!”

“No I’m not!” Willow screams from behind me as Max gets closer.

I reach behind me, gripping her arm gently. “Willow, do you remember what we talked about when we were talking about keeping you and Sage safe? About how if you don’t feel safe you need to run away and find someone to help?” I feel Willow nod rapidly. Looking back at Max, I stare him down. “Max you need to leave right fucking now.”

He doesn’t listen and starts rattling off random shit that about anything that pops into his head. From Payton and I, to Willow being the cause of all his issues. The things he says makes me want to vomit. I see red and tell Willow to do what we talked about. She lets go of my shirt. I drop my hand from her arm the second Max is within striking distance and swing. My fist connects with his face. I hear Willow’s shoes slap against the floor as she runs away and I hit him again, and again, and again only letting him get a few hits in.

I can’t seem to make myself stop but I know if I don’t I’m going to kill the son-of-a-bitch. Maybe that’s why I can’t. My body wants to kill him, but I know I shouldn’t. I want to protect Payton and the girls but I know I can’t do that from prison.

I hear the sirens outside and push myself off the floor, trying to catch my breath as I walk away, leaving Max spread out on the tile. The second I open the doors to go outside to find Willow, guns are trained on me and I raise my hands above my head instinctively.

Willow screams my name, struggling to get out of the grip of a female officer and rushes toward me even though she’s being told not to. She barrels into me, knocking me off balance and into the grass and wraps her arms around my neck when I push us up so I’m sitting.

“It’s all right,” I whisper, running my hands up and down her back. “Everything is going to be all right. Did you call your mom?”

She nods and sniffles into my neck but I really didn’t need to ask because I hear Payton and Liam yelling Willow’s name as they run across the parking lot. They get detained by the officers who are still surrounding us. The same officer that was holding Willow back kneels down next to us and asks her a bunch of questions before finally walking away.

I stand up, not sure how I do it since Willow is still attached to me like a spider monkey, but I do. She sobs in pain when her legs wrap around me, arms tightening around my neck so she doesn’t fall and I make my way over to the barrier where Payton is. When I get to her, the tears streaming down her face break my heart.

Liam attempts to pull Willow off of me but she screams and tightens her hold on me again. “Don’t let him touch me, AJ. Please don’t let him touch me,” she sobs into my neck and the broken look on both Payton and Liam’s face match.

“Willow, honey, it’s your dad. Your dad made it,” I whisper my words into her hair. “It’s not Max. We’ll never let him hurt you again.”

Payton’s hands cover her nose and mouth as she watches me try to calm Willow down. After a few minutes, she finally lets her legs drop from around me and touches the ground, instantly searching for her mom. Liam wraps his arms over the both of them, pulling them as close as he can get them.

Payton loosens her hold but never fully lets go and pulls me against her. My arms circle her waist, pulling her tightly against me. I want to tell her that everything will be all right, that I’ll never let anything happen to them. I can’t though because I’m not sure everything
will
be all right but every time I turn around, something else is happening.

Soft fingers caress my face and I slowly open my eyes only to find Payton smiling at me. Willow and Sage are curled up together on my spare bed with my left arm tucked around them. I was reading a book to Sage but Willow wanted in on it, not wanting to be far from her sister tonight. I guess I must have fallen asleep at some point.

I reach up, tucking a stray piece of hair behind Payton’s ear, before letting my thumb rub gently across her lips. She leans into my touch and sighs.

“Come downstairs. Let’s let the girls sleep.”

I slide slowly out from beneath the girls and off the bed. As soon as I stand up, Payton wraps her arms around me, burying her face against my chest. I slip my arm over her shoulder and kiss her temple before pulling her out of the bedroom and back downstairs.

I flop back into the corner of the couch, patting the seat next to me. She kneels on the cushion, lying down and sliding until her head is resting in my lap. I see the tears sitting in the corners of her eyes as she looks at me.

“Hey.” I grab her hand, kissing her knuckles and setting it back down so I can use my hands to brush her tears. “She’s all right.”

“That’s just it, AJ. Every time she seems to be getting a little better, that bastard pulls a stunt like this. She’s scared to be alone. She’s petrified to go to sleep and she’s having a hard time even letting Sage out of her sight now. I just don’t know what to do.”

Payton links her fingers through mine and I run my free hand through her hair, trying everything I can to calm her down before she starts freaking out completely. We sit silently for a few minutes before someone knocks on my door. I motion for her to sit up and when she does, I make my way to see who it is.

“Hey, Liam, how ya doing?” I say after opening the door. He left after everything settled down earlier because he needed to go back to work. As much as he wanted to stay, we all knew that if he didn’t get back to work that he wouldn’t have a job

“I need to see Willow,” he says without greeting me.

I step back enough for him to walk in and close the door behind him. “She’s asleep but you’re more than welcome to come in anyway. Payton’s having a minor meltdown again.”

Liam fidgets with his hands, twisting his fingers together as he tries to figure out what to say.

“I figured she was asleep already,” he whispers. “I need to see her though. I just need to make sure she’s all right. My mind’s twisted everything up and it’s like it doesn’t believe that you were there to protect her even though I know you were. I won’t wake her up but I need to see her.”

I nod. Since I don’t actually have kids I don’t know what they are going through but I know that I will protect Willow and Sage like they are my own. I also know how scared I was today that something was going to happen to Willow so I don’t stand in his way.

“Upstairs. Second door on the right.”

Liam disappears and I walk back into the living room, settling back in my seat to tell Payton what he wanted. I pull her into my lap, wrapping my arms around her waist. Her head settles against my shoulder and I feel her sigh.

“If you hadn’t been there…” Payton drifts off.

“Stop thinking about it, baby.”

“But if—”

“No, but nothing, Payton. I was there. Nothing bad happened so stop thinking about it.”

“He’s right,” Liam says from the doorway. Making his way over to the other couch, he drops down, his eyes darting back and forth between the two of us. “It’s hard not to think about everything that could have happened, hence why I showed up here, but we shouldn’t. He was there, Payton. He protected our daughter. Again. And there’s no way I can possibly thank you enough.” His eyes lock on mine and all I can do is nod. We all sit in silence for a few minutes before Liam finally speaks again. “So you two, huh?”

Even with everything going on the thought of Payton being mine still makes me grin. “Hopefully it won’t be an issue with you.”

“AJ,” he starts but then stops for a minute. Payton lets her fingers drift aimlessly over my shoulder while we wait for whatever he has to say. “Man, you’ve saved my daughter how many times now? Each time you had the choice to walk away and let someone else deal with it, but you didn’t. You put her safety before your own. That means a lot to me. As long as y’all are happy together and the girls are safe, I’m good.”

“Then there won’t be an issue,” Payton says against my neck. I can hear how tired she is by the sound of her voice. I relax back against the couch more. Talking quietly with Liam, I run my fingers through her hair until I feel her breathing even out.

“Sage you can’t run off!” Willow yells from the picnic table bench beside me.

I lay my hand on her thigh and she pulls away. “Willow, she’s fine, honey. I can see her.”

I watch Willow’s face every time Sage disappears behind something on the playground. She holds her breath, only releasing it when Sage emerges.

“I think you need to talk to someone, Willow. A professional.”

Turning her head, she glares at me, cutting my thoughts off with one word. “No.”

I take a deep breath. As much as I want to push the issue, I know that she’s as stubborn as I am and I would be saying the exact same thing. I know she’s so caught up in her own thoughts that she can barely breathe. I see it in her eyes every time she looks at me.

I check my watch before yelling to Sage, telling her that we need to get going anyway. The voice in the back of my mind is screaming at me to load the girls up and take Willow to a therapist anyway, but I can’t. It’s taken a lot to get her to talk period. I’m not going to take a chance on making her clam up again.

Instead of climbing in the front seat, Willow sides in next to Sage in the back. She helps her buckle into her seat and wraps her arm around Sage’s shoulders. The sight of her being so protective kills me but warms my heart at the same time. I know she’ll never let anything happen to Sage, but I’m starting to wonder if she’s doing it because she’s afraid that
she
is going to do something again. No matter how many times we tell her that it isn’t her fault, she continues to tell us that it is.

Pulling into the grocery store parking lot, I unload the girls and we wander through the aisles trying to decide what to make for dinner. I can feel everyone staring at me but I try to ignore it. If I just pretend it isn’t happening, it isn’t happening, right?

Setting everything the girls and I picked out onto the conveyer belt, the cashier’s eyes drift from me to the stand behind me and back a few times. It isn’t until Sage speaks up that I turn around and see what she was looking at.

“Momma, look it’s you!” She giggles, pointing at the cover of a magazine. I shake my head when I see the photo of AJ kissing me at dinner the other night.

“I don’t get it,” the cashier mutters behind me, giving me a dirty look while she tosses my items into bags as she rings them up.

“You don’t get what?”

“Nothing, ma’am. I was just thinking out loud.”

“No, tell me what you meant,” I demand. I know I shouldn’t get worked up, but I can’t help it. Even though AJ’s words about letting everything go run through my head, I can’t.

“It’s just. I don’t,” she stutters. I wait patiently as she continues to scan. I cross my arms over my chest, waiting. Thanks to my outburst everyone around us is staring.

“It’s just that you don’t understand what he could possibly see in me, right?” The girl’s moves falter but I know I hit the nail on the head when she tilts her head down to avoid looking at me. I swipe my credit card as soon as she finishes scanning and grab my receipt from her. Pushing the girls out in front of me, I turn back and look at the cashier. “Tact. You should learn what the word means. I’m actually pretty sure you guys have dictionaries on aisle twelve.”