“Please!” I sobbed, “No, you can’t! Please don’t give them to him! Please!”
“Over my dead body are you placing those kids in the care of the man who beat and abused Frankie for years.” Eli pulled my face into his neck and held me tight as he yelled at the agents, ripping open my secrets for the entire bar to hear, hoping to save my kids. “You say that the allegations against Frankie are too severe to leave anything to chance, then those are my allegations against him. He beat her. He abused her. And when she finally got away and ran home to be safe here in Cedar Bluff,” He sneered, like he was speaking to the Chief himself, “Where outsiders don’t get to come into our community and fuck with our people, he followed her! He has been stalking her, breaking into her home, stealing items from her belongings, and terrorizing her children. He cut the brakes on her car trying to hurt her for fucks sake!” He roared, “And if you don’t believe me then ask Lenny,” He waved his hand out to where the mechanic sat, drinking a beer with his wife and his friends. Then he looked at one cop standing behind the agents, “And don’t fuckingjust stand there silently while this shit all goes down, Johnny Hallstead, because you were at the crash that night. Time to talk! These aren’t just my allegations; there are others who have seen the shit that Danny’s been doing to Frankie and her children. He’s terrorizing them! You can’t honestly think for one second that they’re better off with him!”
“He’s right,” Lenny stepped forward instantly, “A few weeks ago, Frankie’s car was towed to my shop, with front end damage after Travis lost control while driving it. There was suspicion behind the crash because of the way the car responded during the incident, and when I looked into it, the brake lines had been cut. Not all the way through so the line would bleed instantly, but in a way that would let them bleed with each press of the brake until suddenly there would just be no resistance at all. Travis sustained injuries in the crash.
“We responded to that crash,” Officer Hallstead piped up, giving the Chief a pointed look. “There were no skid marks, backing the claim.”
“Did you report any of this?” The Chief asked, looking at me directly.
Shrinking, I grimaced as I shook my head, “We were coming to the station to file a report in the morning.”
Instantly, all the credibility Eli had built for me disappeared just as fast. “Please, you have to believe me. I don’t neglect my kids. They’re my whole life. Every single thing I’ve ever done has been for them. I work for them. I go to school for them. I have provided for them 100% on my own and have every single second since we moved back here four years ago. Toby has never even met Danny! You can’t put them in his care; he doesn’t know anything about them!”
The Chief watched the agents share a glance and then stepped in. Maybe it was the long-standing reputation of Travis’s family, or Eli’s respectable character as a first responder, ormaybe even his friendship with my mom, but he stuck his neck out.
“They’re right though, report or not, those allegations are too serious to place the kids in his care. There has to be another solution.”
“Foster care.” The woman agent, who never even introduced herself, said, “We will place them in a temporary housing facility until we can run our?—”
“No!” I cried again, banging my hands on the bar as I lost my grip on my control. “You’ll traumatize them! You’re standing there, judging me for being a working mom, who escaped an impossible situation and has fought for every single thing I have given them, calling me an unfit mother, but you’re willing to just throw them in foster care when there are dozens of other solutions!”
“What would you recommend we do then?” She pursed her lips with her hand on her lips, and I wanted to reach across the bar and slap the attitude off her fucking face more than anything else in the world.
“If I’m the problem, then I’ll leave. Let them stay in their home, with Travis and Eli, who are good men, loving men who care for them and protect them every single day alongside me, and I’ll leave while you do your investigation. Or let them stay at my mom's! Anything but the two pathetic, heartless solutions you’ve thrown like they don’t fucking matter to you! They matter to me! Let me keep them safe!”
She sighed as if the mere mention of my recommendations annoyed her, but the other agent looked more reasonable.
“Please,” I implored, “It’s late. Let them stay in their beds and in their home.”
The Chief stepped forward again and spoke to the agents, “Mrs. Blake, Frankie’s mother, is a good woman, the kids would be safe with her if that’s what route you want to take, but I thinkthey’d be better staying at home with Trav and Eli. Both are stand-up men, who have never been in trouble.”
The woman scoffed, “You have to hear the absurdity of that statement as plainly as I do.” She put her hands on her hips, “How long have youthreebeen in a relationship?”
“Months.” Travis snapped irritability. “And the kids have lived with us for almost as long thanks to Danny’s tormenting. They moved in with us to be safe.”
“Fine,” Andrews sighed as he closed up his folder. “But we’ll be conducting a formal search of the home, and we’ll need you to come down to the office for questioning.”
The words sounded so far away as I blinked in disbelief. I tried to find relief that the kids could stay with Trav and Eli, but I couldn’t get past the part where I wasn’t free of the whole situation.
“You are not to return to the home until you’ve been cleared,ifyou’re cleared. You’re also not permitted to have any contact with the children. No phone calls, no visits, no bumping into them at school pickup. Nothing.” The woman stated firmly and then laid a card down on the bar top. “You can follow us to the office now to begin your interview.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” I whispered, haunted inside and shamed.
I couldn’t go home.
The agents turned and walked away, as if they hadn’t walked in ten minutes ago, destroyed my entire sense of security and happiness, before leaving for the night.
The Chief and his officers lingered longer, coming up to the bar. “Frankie, I’d like you to come down to the station tomorrow to start the paperwork on these other incidents.”
“I—” I stammered, blinking away the tears. “How—” I suddenly felt like I was going to collapse.
“Shh,” Trav kissed the back of my head as Eli pulled me into his chest again. “Eli will go with you, and I’ll go home to thekids.” I turned and looked at him, shaking my head in absolute defeat. “We’re going to clear this all up, I promise you, Shade. No one will take those kids from us. No one will touch them, I promise you.”
“Go on,” Eli said, squeezing Trav’s arm as he turned us to all walk out. “Rick, close up.”
“On it.” Rick said, patting me on the shoulder as Eli pulled me from the bar, taking the back door to his truck with Trav following us.
“I’ll pack you some things and send them home with your mom.” Trav said, pulling me into his arms and squeezing me so tight my bones creaked under pressure. But I never wanted him to let go. “I love you, Frankie. I promise you I won’t let anyone take them from us. Those damn kids are ours.”
