Off-Limits, page 10
Breakfast was suddenly sitting heavy in my gut, and I sat down behind my desk. “Email me everything you have. I want to see it now.”
No sooner did I have my computer screen on than I got the email. Clicking on it, I saw a picture of a handwritten report as well as pictures taken around Gwen’s apartment.
The first thing that caught my eye was the drug paraphernalia lying on the coffee table that was littered with garbage and dirty dishes, all of it right on top of Josie’s coloring book and crayons. Fuck. Did my baby girl have to see and be around that kind of dangerous shit whenever she was with her mother?
The next photo showed the couch and a box of shells that was open. Bullets were spread across the cushions, two magazine cartridges right beside them. One was full, the other empty. Did she get extra magazines to go with the gun when she bought it, or did she get them from someone else, I wondered as I clicked through the other pictures.
That crazy bitch really wanted to hurt Lyla. But I’d die before I let that happen.
“Howler?” Judge grunted my name, reminding me he was still on the phone.
“Yeah, I’m here. Just looking at these damn pictures. Do you think she had the drug shit around Josie?”
“Yeah, man. I’m sorry, but I do,” he told me honestly. “She’s a selfish bitch, Howl. It wouldn’t have mattered to her that her kid was playing around things that were potentially deadly for her.”
“Can you have her arrested for this? I mean, fuck, Judge. Josie’s little coloring book is right there beside what looks like a crack pipe.” I scrubbed my hand through my hair, tugging at the roots.
“I’m doing my best, but even my pull will only go so far. She no longer has custodial rights, so Josie will be just fine for now. But it wouldn’t hurt anything if both you and Lyla got restraining orders against Gwen. Lyla, especially.”
“We can do that first thing tomorrow,” I assured him. “And then I’m taking her to work with me.”
“Good idea. Keep her close. As long as Lyla isn’t on her own, hopefully Gwen won’t chance getting near her.” I heard him yawn. “I have to go. Maybe I’ll actually get to sleep now.”
“Maybe you need to clear your conscience,” I suggested. “Call Ellianna and tell her you’re sorry for being a total douche.”
“Fuck off,” Judge growled seconds before the phone went silent in my ear.
Dropping my phone on my desk, I went through the pictures in front of me again. Every time I saw the drugs and that damn coloring book, I wanted to kill Gwen with my bare hands. Then my eyes would be drawn to the bullets and the full magazine cartridge, and my rage only doubled.
No one was going to threaten my woman.
Chapter 15
Lyla
“If you think for two seconds I believe you, then you’ve lost your fucking mind,” I snarled at the supplier in front of me.
I’d given in somewhat gracefully that morning when Howler had asked me to come into work with him to help out in the office. He may have been balls deep inside me at the time and withholding my orgasm until I agreed, but I wasn’t about to tell that to anyone else.
All morning, I’d worked alongside Cherie, but then she got called out to pick up one of her other grandchildren from school because one of Howler’s sisters was stuck at work and couldn’t do it herself. Before she left, Cherie told me she had a meeting with one of their suppliers who’d become later and later with their shipments, as well as shorting them. But she trusted me to deal with him.
When the fortysomething man arrived, I’d taken one look at him and nearly laughed. He looked his age and then some, but he dressed like a frat boy with the collar of his polo pulled up and his hair overly gelled to the point a hurricane couldn’t have budged it.
He walked into the office with a swagger. When his eyes landed on me, he licked his lips and ran his thumb over them, and I felt dirty just letting his eyes roam over me.
But I’d put a smile on my face and shook his hand, offering him something to drink as I took him into the conference room for our meeting. I listened patiently to his explanation about why his drivers were continually late with deliveries and why we were shorted a little more every time.
His assurance that he oversaw every order and loaded it personally was bullshit. I had our copies of the order slips in the binder Cherie had given me before she left, showing what was ordered, and they sure as hell didn’t match up to the papers he offered as proof. It couldn’t have taken much for him to have written a new order slip, tossed the customer’s copy, and said it was our mistake, not his.
Which brought us to the point where I lost it and called him out on his shit.
“Now, listen, sweetheart—”
I slapped my hand down hard on the conference table, the sound so loud it echoed around the room. “I am not your goddamn sweetheart. Or ‘sugar’ or ‘honey.’ My name is Miss Bennet, you sexist motherfucker. And as of this afternoon, our contract with you expires. Which was probably the only reason you got off your lazy ass and came here in the first place. Bronson Construction will no longer be needing your services as we’ve already got a new supplier.” I stood, tossing his documents in his direction, smirking when they hit him in the face. “Have a good day, douchebag.”
“Now, listen here, bitch,” he snapped as he grabbed my arm hard.
I reacted on instinct. Countering his hold, I folded his arm behind him and shoved his face into the table, hard. His head bounced off the thick wood, making him shout in pain even as he struggled against my grip. I twisted my elbow into his back, making him curse me.
“Now, you listen, bitch,” I tossed his words back at him. “You ever touch me again, I will make you eat your own dick. I said we no longer need your services. I suggest you get the fuck out of this office and crawl back into the hole you climbed out of this morning.”
A knock on the glass wall overlooking the rest of the office had me turning my head. Howler stood on the other side, his hand lifted after knocking on the glass, his eyes narrowed.
I gave him my sweetest smile and blew him a kiss.
Sighing, he walked over to the door and entered the room. “What the fuck, Lyla?”
“He grabbed me,” I told him with a casual shrug and finally released the asshole.
Howler’s face twisted with rage. He got in the supplier’s face, his voice deceptively calm when he spoke. “You put your hands on my woman?”
The man swallowed nervously. “I-I apologize.”
Howler jerked him closer by his raised collar. “Not to me. To her.” Turning the man around, Howler made him face me. “Apologize to the lady. Now.”
Sweat was beading at the supplier’s temples and on his upper lip, his face pasty white as his throat bobbed convulsively. “I-I’m so sorry, Miss…Bennet.”
“Whatever. You’re not worth my time. Just get out before he does something he will regret.” I picked up the binders Cherie had given me earlier and walked to the door. “Don’t do anything that will get you arrested,” I tossed at Howler over my shoulder.
There was a lot of work that still needed to be done, so I concentrated on it rather than wondering what Howler did with the creep supplier.
I kind of liked taking care of the office. It was continuously busy, and the day passed quickly.
So busy, that I didn’t even see Howler until it was time to leave to pick up Josie. Grabbing my coat and handbag, I started for the door just as he came out of his office.
“Ready?” he asked, tucking a rolled-up set of plans under his arm.
I frowned as he came closer. “You’re finished for the day? I was just about to go get Jo-Jo.”
“All done. Just going to take this home with me and finish it up tonight after Josie goes to bed.” Grasping my hand, he linked our fingers.
As we walked outside, I noticed him glancing around, but I didn’t call him out on it. Something must have spooked him, because Howler was never nervous like that. I bit my tongue until we were in the vehicle and he’d pulled into traffic, and then I confronted him.
“Want to tell me what the hell is going on?”
He glanced my way for a second before turning his attention back on the road. “What do you mean, babe?”
“I mean you seemed like you were waiting for someone to jump out of the bushes and ambush us back there. And I know for a fact that you are normally in the office on Mondays until six. At the earliest. I could easily pick up Jo and take her home.”
He shrugged, keeping his eyes trained on the horizon. “Maybe I wanted to spend the entire evening with my girls.”
“Ah, how sweet. Now tell me what the fuck is really going on.” His jaw clenched, a pulse beginning to tick in his jaw, and I knew it was something serious if he was going to remain mute. “Okay. Then what the hell are you doing driving in the opposite direction of the preschool?”
“Gotta make a quick stop. Judge needs you to sign something, and then we can pick up our Josie.”
Damn, I liked how he said “our Josie” like she was mine just as much as she was his. I liked it so much that I shut up for the rest of the drive to my brother’s office.
In the cage, Judge was so named because he was the judge, jury, and executioner. What he said was law, and if the Sons or even the fans who came to watch the fights didn’t follow the rules, then he was the one who dished out the punishment.
When he was twenty-five, he became the youngest judge in the state. Having graduated from college and then law school at an early age, he’d more than gotten his four years of experience before being offered the judgeship. Now he was one of the richest and most influential men under thirty in the country.
His secretary greeted both Howler and me with a grim smile while she was on the phone. With a wave of her hand, she indicated we could go into his office. Howler nodded his thanks, and with his hand at the small of my back, guided me toward the closed door.
My brother was standing by the window overlooking the back courtyard, but when the door opened, he snapped his head around as if annoyed at the intrusion into his privacy. Seeing us, however, he relaxed his expression, and he left his place at the window to greet me with a hug.
“How was your day?” he asked me, but I had a weird feeling he was actually asking Howler how my day went.
Stepping back from him, I glanced from one man to the other. “Howler said you have something you need me to sign?”
“Yes, it’s right here.” Walking to his desk, he pulled out a stack of documents and flipped to the last page. “Just need your signature here and here, and it will be taken care of.”
He offered me a pen, but I wasn’t stupid. He’d taught me from an early age never to sign something I hadn’t read first. And as much as I loved him, I didn’t trust him very much at that moment.
“Very funny,” I said, snatching up the documents and flipping back to the first page. “What the hell?” I tossed the papers onto his desk and turned to confront both men. “Why am I signing a restraining order?”
“Just covering all the bases with this Gwen thing,” Judge said with a casual shrug.
Crossing my arms over my chest, I lifted my brow at him, but when I got only a stony glare back, I turned it on Howler.
“We have reason to believe Gwen isn’t just blowing smoke about her threats to shoot you,” he confessed. “Judge’s people found magazine cartridges in her apartment. Multiple ones, with plenty of bullets to take out you and a dozen other people.”
I couldn’t believe they were letting that stupid bitch scare them. “I broke her wrist. Even if she did happen to have the balls to try to shoot me, she couldn’t handle a gun very well. I’m not scared of her, and I’m not signing that stupid restraining order. If I do, it just proves to her I’m nervous. And I’m fucking not.”
“Gwen is psychotic, Lyla,” Judge tried to reason. “And her wrist will make her that much more dangerous. What if she comes after you and Josie is with you? What will you do if she shoots at you and hits Josie by mistake?”
I felt all the blood draining from my face. The world began to spin for a moment, and if Howler hadn’t wrapped his arms around me, I knew I would have fallen on my ass right then. Just the thought of something happening to my precious little Jo-Jo was enough to make me almost pass out.
“Easy, baby,” he murmured near my ear. “It’s okay.”
“Sign the restraining order, Lyla,” Judge commanded. “If not for your own sake, then for Josie’s.”
Turning my head, I pressed my face into Howler’s chest and breathed in deeply in an attempt to ground myself. Judge was right. I needed to sign the order so I could protect Josie.
I felt Howler kiss the top of my head, and I blew out a heavy sigh before pulling away and walking back to Judge’s desk. I picked up the pen and the paperwork. Flipping to the last page, I signed the two places already indicated for my signature and tossed the pen aside.
“Anything else?” I choked out past the lump in my throat.
“Howler, this one is yours. Sign it, and the two of you will be covered.” Judge produced another restraining order, already typed out, and offered both it and a pen to Howler.
After signing it, Howler took my hand. Lifting it to his mouth, he kissed my palm. “You did the right thing, babe.”
I could only nod, still shaken by the idea of something happening to Josie.
Chapter 16
Lyla
Josie was bouncing off the walls as we walked into Cora’s School of Performing Arts Tuesday evening.
Barrick was already sitting in the waiting room, surrounded by mothers and daughters. More than a few of the mommies were sending my cousin covert looks of interest, but the majority of them were out of his age range. He didn’t go for cougars, unlike a few of the other Sons, and even if he did, he was so in love with Mia, he didn’t see anyone else.
“Hey,” he greeted as I sat beside him, his voice raspy from disuse.
“Hey.” I gave him a sympathetic smile. “She still not talking to you?”
“No. And now she’s talking about going back to California after this semester.” He leaned his head back against the wall behind his seat and glared up at the ceiling. “I told her, if that’s what she really wants, then I’ll find us a place out there and have us moved in before the spring term starts. And she fucking killed me by saying she wants UCLA but she doesn’t want me.”
I gave his arm a squeeze, hating that he was hurting. “She’s just mad right now. Give her a little time, Barrick. She loves you.”
Tormented dark eyes met mine. “I know that and she knows that, but she won’t say the words. And it’s killing me Lyla.”
“Miss Mia! Miss Mia!” Josie pulled our attention to her as she ran toward Mia when she came out of a room down the hall. “I’m ready to dance.”
Mia gave her a kind smile. “So am I, sweet girl. And I have a surprise for you.”
“You do? What is it?” Josie demanded excitedly.
Mia laughed softly. “You’ll just have to be patient and wait for the other girls to arrive before I make an announcement. Go on. I’ll be right in. I just have to grab my phone so I can get the music.”
Knowing this was likely my only chance to talk to her, I stood and walked toward her just as she turned away. “Mia.” I waited for her to turn back. “Could we have coffee tomorrow? I really would like to talk to you.”
“No thanks.” Her voice was so cold, it could have frozen over the Bahamas. “If you will excuse me.”
Frustrated, I said the first thing that came to mind. “So, you can forgive Braxton, but not me? That doesn’t seem fair if you ask me.”
Her laugh was dry and humorless. “Life isn’t fair, Lyla. Haven’t you realized that by now?”
Without so much as another look at me, she turned and walked away, disappearing into what I thought was the dance instructors’ locker room.
Damn it! My heart was hurting because she wouldn’t give me the chance to apologize. She’d forgiven Braxton like it was nothing, but me, she wouldn’t even talk to.
Feeling slightly defeated, I walked back over to my cousin and flopped down inelegantly into the chair beside him.
“Still think she will forgive us in time?”
I shook my head. “I have to. Otherwise, I think my heart will actually break if she doesn’t.”
“Mine’s already fucking broken,” he muttered.
We both sat there silently for the rest of the time while Josie was in class. When she came out, humming what sounded like a Christmas song and talking nonstop about Sugar Plum Fairies, I was thankful for the distraction.
Mia didn’t come out of her classroom, so I gathered all of Josie’s things, told Barrick goodbye, and we left.
My town car was waiting right in front of the dance studio, but I was still vigilant as I walked with Josie close to my side. Ever since Judge had hammered home for me that Josie could be in danger, I’d taken the whole Gwen thing more seriously.
If something were to happen to Josie, there would be no place for the bitch to hide, though. I would personally make sure of that.
“Will you come watch me in the recital, Lyla?” Josie asked once she was buckled into her booster seat and we were on our way home.
“Of course I will,” I assured her. “I can’t wait to watch you be the best little Sugar Plum Fairy ever.”
I thought that would make her happy, but she got a worried look on her face. “Do you think my mommy will come?”
“I…” Pausing, I took a deep breath. “Do you want her to, Jo?”
That got me an adamant headshake. “No! I don’t want to see my mommy. Please, don’t make me.”
Stroking a hand over her hair, I tried to give her my best smile. “Then you won’t have to, baby girl. Your daddy and I will make sure you won’t ever have to see her again.”
Her shoulders dropped with relief. “Are you and Daddy dating?” she surprised me by asking suddenly.
