The apartment was in disarray. All five of us had been living in my two bedroomed apartment for almost two weeks. In the past six days, I’d had shouting matches with both Nick and Oliver. Thankfully, they’d had the good sense not to do it in front of the children. Their dad had some stern words with me, and their mother had barely spoken to me. She was barely speaking to Bex as well, which was worse in my opinion. On the upside, she seemed to embrace having three more kids to spoil. My cramped little apartment was bursting with toys and books and clothes and other kiddie paraphernalia.
We had a high chair and two car seats. One for an infant and one for a toddler. I’ve seen more animated television in the last two weeks than I had in my entire childhood. But Landon was still only speaking to Dom.
Still, the sight that greeted me stole my breath. Bex sat on the couch feeding Vicky a bottle with Landon in front of her at the coffee table, eating what looked like a grilled cheese sandwich and watching the pink pig on television. Dom was nowhere to be seen, but I assumed he was holed up in the guest bedroom — or the ‘kids’ room’ as we referred to it — doing God knows what. It was like an accurate description of domesticity. Right down to the surly teenager wanting nothing to do with the adults around him. It was the life I wanted. But not under the circumstancesI had it. I never wanted Dom to witness what he had. I never wanted Landon and Vicky to lose their parents. I would do anything to spare those kids the trauma they’d been through.
Bex seemed to have a handle on things. The woman was phenomenal. Despite the minimal conversation Dom was prepared to have with her and the struggles communicating with Landon presented, she still managed to take care of those kids.
When I was on shift at the hospital, Bex made sure she was at the apartment. Dom continued to sleep on the couch but used the kids’ room for pretty much everything else. When both Bex and I were at home, we negotiated who cooked and cleaned. Yeah, we needed a bigger place. When I mentioned it to Bex, she seemed reluctant to leave our cocoon. I understood the need for that, I really did, but we had three children who needed to find their new normal. A baby, who thankfully, had no idea of what was happening and who was already attached to Bex. A toddler who was still in shock, and selectively mute. And a teenager who was scared out of his head. Not that he would likely ever admit it, but it was our reality. The kids needed stability.
I smiled at Bex and raised a brow. “That looks good on you.”
There wasn’t any part of me that didn’t enjoy the sight before me.
“She’s being a bit clingy today.” Bex put the bottle down and lifted Victoria to her shoulder. “Not that I mind at all. I don’t know how babies’ memories work but I think she’ll get over the grief sooner than the other two.”
I knelt in front of the coffee table opposite Landon. “Hey, kid. What have you got there?”
He smiled at me and offered me one of his grilled cheese quarters. I hid my surprise and took what he offered. “Hmmm, this is good. Did Bex make her famous grilled cheese for you?”
He looked down and shook his head. Still, I took it as a win. He’d shared with me, and shook his head indicating ‘no’.
Bex also shook her head. “I gave Dom instructions and he followed it as I walked Victoria around the apartment. He made one for each of us. Yours is in the microwave.”
I stood and retrieved my sandwich from the microwave and returned to sit and eat opposite Landon. I couldn’t help but smile. Landon was starting to communicate, Dom was starting to interact. And the little girl was growing more and more attached to Bex. Child Protective Services only allowed the children to stay with us because I was a medical practitioner and Bex had the strongest support group known to man. But Bex was the one holding us all together. Even if she didn’t think she was qualified.
She saw the smile on my face and her eyes widened and she held one hand up in a stop motion
“Don’t raise your hopes.” She shook her head. “We have no claim on any of them. My priority will be to keep them together, Lo. Anything else will have to be discussed. What I want and what they need may well be different things entirely.”
I crawled around the table until I was next to Landon but facing Bex. “I know it's too soon to get anyone’s hopes up.”
I didn’t say more because we hadn’t actually spoken about what would happen once Dom was safe. The truth was, Dom was old enough for the judge to take his feelings into consideration. He clearly held a lot of resentment toward us and he still hadn’t been able to deal with his grief.
“I think Dom needs to get out of the house a little. Nick’s running a LazerGames session with the kids one afternoon next week. I put his name down.”
I smiled and waggled my eyebrows. “You know, if we ask one of your sisters-in-law or even your mother to babysit, we could… you know. I mean, we could have a repeat of the other night. I do believe you made a promise or two.”
As I moved my hand up her thigh, I heard someone clear their throat. Dom rolled his eyes at us. “Are you two going to be gross now?”
Chapter Twelve
BOYD
I watched as Martin wiped the blood off his cheek. Mary Bayers’ body slumped to the right, blood pooling onto the ugly floral couch.
“What the fuck did you kill her for? You’re like a trigger-happy asshole.”
Though I sensed I knew what the problem was. Martin grew frustrated that the woman claimed to know nothing. Not only that, we’d walked in with no masks and she could easily describe any of us, the longer she spent with us. I had no intention of her surviving the ordeal. But I had plans to make her talk first. She had to have some idea of where her grandson went.
The truth was, Martin was panicking. He was the one to pull the trigger on both Bill and his wife. Asshole owed me money. He’d been selling my goods to the students at the school and he’d thought he could stiff me.
Bill knew how things worked. He grew up on the same streets as me. He knew what Garth Folsom was like. He knew I’d have to report his failure to pay, to the boss. We were arguing about just that earlier that day. I had hoped my visit earlier that day had scared him enough to get it all together. Steal from his wife if he needed to. It was only when his kid interrupted us to say hewas ready to go home that I stomped out of his office and called Folsom.
I should’ve gone into the house myself to make sure no one fucked up. Instead, I let them go in, and trigger-happy Martin put a bullet in each of their heads.
I didn’t know if the kid had seen anything. According to my men, they didn’t see him. But he obviously saw or heard them. Hence, the protective custody. I had no idea Bill had other children, too. A long time ago, we were friends. Three of us. Bill, Boyd and Sam. Now Bill was dead and even my relationship with Sam was questionable. Martin was Sam’s brother, though. I had to consider that.
How hard could it be to find a teenager, a toddler, and a baby in San Francisco.
