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se looking at him hurt.
“It’s too late.”
Cedric looked at me then to Amber, who shrank in her seat.
“Laz isn’t just going to go away.”
I spent the next few minutes filling him in as Amber silently cried on the couch. Every day, even with her progress, she was raw with the loss of her son.
I was sure Cedric’s tongue-lashing after I told him about what went down in Tennessee could be heard by every resident in my complex. Once we moved on, I pleaded Amber’s case.
“It could take months to get custody. But from what the lawyer said, things are moving faster than she expected.” I briefly gripped my sister’s hand and felt her return squeeze. We finally had a reason to be thankful to have lived in a town with a minuscule population. There wasn’t much on the court docket.
Cedric palmed the top of his freshly shaved head and scrutinized Amber. I trusted him more than anyone in my life, and the worry on his face was doing a number on my mental state. I called him in for reassurance, and he looked like he was about to pass sentence.
Cedric narrowed his eyes when he questioned Amber. “You’re clean?”
She looked up at him from the couch with a nod. “Yes.”
With worry-riddled features, Cedric warned us, “He’s going to come, no matter what. We just have to make sure we’re prepared.” Cedric paced the condo and stopped with his hands on his hips. “Christ.”
Amber bit her lip, her meek posture a sure sign of her guilt. I gave her a reassuring nod. “We’re in this together.”
She smiled weakly. “Okay.”
Cedric turned to both of us. “We can get the local PD on this.”
“No cops.” I shook my head. “No cops.”
Both of them turned to me in surprise. “Slapping him with a restraining order will only get him here faster. We have to do this legally and by way of custody. And then deal with whatever he brings with him when he comes for Joseph.”
Cedric blew out a breath. “I agree. Any sort of drama between you two could hold up the case. Laz is behind you having full custody?”
Amber nodded.
“Then security is our only other option.”
Cedric and I spent the next hour picking through his list of capable bodyguards. Amber fell asleep on the couch while we sat at my dining room table.
He leaned over and whispered, “It’s not going to be enough. If he’s as crazed as you say and still getting high, a bullet might not be enough to stop him. He’s not just coming after Joseph.”
“I know.”
“How do you feel about this?”
I looked up to see Cedric’s eyes on me. “I’m nervous, of course. You should have seen him, Cedric.”
“I mean the baby.” Cedric brushed a finger over mine, and for a moment I saw the boy who taught me how to shoot a gun at his parents’ property, the one who tried to warn me away from Laz. The man who told me he loved me and offered to take me away from Dyer. Cedric would have been a good choice.
“I’m concentrating on too much to think about it. I left her there. This is my mess.”
“Bullshit, you can’t blame yourself.”
“But I do. And that won’t change. I should have fought to get her out of there sooner. This is on me. She couldn’t see past the drugs, and then when Joseph came, she was trapped.”
“So were you, and you found a way out.”
“She’s not like me,” I whispered.
