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“What the fuck is goin’ on, Zariah?” Reece asks, walking out of the house with Jayden and his sister in tow.
His sister has never liked me, mostly because she’s a fucking suck up and doesn’t want anybody getting too close to her and the control she has over her brother. The two of them are close, their whole family is.
In the reflection of the front window, I can see the bikers gathering behind me. Twenty of them, all strong, all powerful, all ready to take what belongs to me. I know this isn’t necessarily the right way to go about getting this to stop, but it’s certainly the most effective. Reece isn’t going to take on a biker club, even he’s not that stupid.
“I’m taking Jayden back.”
“Mommy!” Jayden cries, running toward me with a happy smile on his face.
He moves before Reece can stop him, and the moment he’s in my arms, I exhale a sigh of relief. Pure, utter joy that my baby is safe in my arms again. I lean down so I can hug him, even though my body aches. I breathe him in and thank everything in the universe that he’s here with me and I’ve gotten him back.
The idea that he would be taken from me made me sick to my stomach.
The idea that he’s going to be taken from Reece makes me equally as sick.
He loves his father, and I know Reece loves him, but after what he did to me, I can’t be certain he’ll never do it to my son.
We’re going to have to fight this one out and let a judge decide.
“I’m taking my son back,” I say carefully as Jayden walks toward Kendric and Alarick, standing at the front of the group. He looks at their bikes and squeals happily.
He’s not afraid of them. Not at all.
“What?” Reece’s sister, Tarryn, snaps. “Who do you think you are, coming here and threatening my brother with a bunch of ... what ... gang members?”
I fight the urge to roll my eyes. “This has nothing to do with you, Tarryn.”
“It has everything to do with me. That is my nephew.”
“He is my son, and I am taking him because your brother is an abusive asshole and I’m done with it. I’m not risking my baby boy’s life any longer.”
“I’d never hurt him!” Reece bellows.
“You’re a liar!” Tarryn spits.
“Oh, so your brother hasn’t told you that he’s been abusing me for years?”
Tarryn shakes her head, her expression tight and angry. “You monster. You lying, pathetic woman. How dare you make up lies so you can take Reece’s only son away from him. How dare you.”
“I’m not here to convince you of the kind of man he is. I know what he’s done. I lived it. I’m not going to put up with it anymore.”
“He’s never laid a hand on you,” she screams, throwing her hands up. “Reece, tell her she’s a god damned liar and call the police.”
“I am the fucking police,” I yell back. “Go ahead, Reece. Tell her that you’ve never laid a hand on me. Tell her you’ve never beaten me. Tell her you’ve never shoved my head down a fucking toilet because I was so sick. Tell her you never pushed me down the fucking stairs when I was pregnant with our son. Tell her you never punched me in the ribs, or the stomach, or the legs because you didn’t want to leave marks on my face. Go ahead, tell her you’ve never fucking hurt me.”
I’m screaming now, so much that Jayden makes a little cry.
I immediately stop, panting, rage building in my chest.
I turn and see Kendric lean down and scoop Jayden up into his arms. His eyes flash to mine and I see something in his expression that breaks my heart—understanding. Kendric finally understands why I’m so fucking broken. He looks to my son and, putting a smile on his face, he tells him, “Want to look at my bike, little buddy?”
Jayden nods, his eyes still a little sad, his face still a little distressed.
Reece charges forward, but Alarick steps out, stopping him. “You take another step, I’ll fuckin’ take you down in a way you’ll never come back from.”
Reece pauses, glancing at me with pain in his eyes. “That’s my baby, Zariah.”
Those words tug at my heart in a way that’s almost painful. It is his baby; I couldn’t imagine anything worse in this world then having Jayden taken from me. Everything inside of me is screaming to stop this, hand his son back and just pretend none of this ever happened. I wouldn’t be doing my duty as a mother if I did that. I have to protect my son from even just a chance that he might hurt him sometime down the line.
“We’re done here,” Alarick goes on before I can speak. “You come near her or the boy again, you even so much as breathe in their direction, and we’ll take care of you. Do you fuckin’ understand?”
“That’s my son!” Reece screams. “My fuckin’ son!”
“You care about your fuckin’ son, you should have thought twice about layin’ your hands on that woman,” Alarick snarls.
“You can’t do this, Zariah!”
I close my eyes, heart racing, trying hard to think amongst this chaos. I look up to see him on his knees, crying. It about breaks me. I take a step forward, but Kendric’s voice rolls in behind me. “Do not go to him, Zariah. You know you gotta do this.”
I’m panting now, chest dragging in and out with pain. I don’t know what to do, I don’t know how to think, all I know is that I feel like a god damned monster right now and I hate feeling like I’m ruining someone’s life. “Get help, Reece,” I say carefully. “Get the help you need because right now, you’re dangerous and I have to protect our son from that. We’ll go to court, have them decide and ...”
“They’ll take him away from me,” he bellows. “You know they will.”
“If they do it’s because of something you’ve done,” I say. “If you didn’t do anything wrong, they’d have no reason to. I don’t want to take him from you forever, but right now, in this moment, I can’t let you have him because you nearly took my life, Reece. I can’t risk him. Get help, proper help, and we’ll discuss the next steps.”
“I’ll fucking kill you, Zariah,” he suddenly roars, leaping up and charging toward me. Alarick steps out, Cohen by his side and the two of them take him down with one, quick movement. Alarick pins him to the ground with his boot and then leans down and growls, “I will put a bullet through your skull and rid the world of your fuckin’ presence if you so much as look in her direction again. Do not fuckin’ tempt me.”
Reece squirms and roars, “Get your fuckin’ foot off me, biker. Get off me.”
Alarick lets him go, and Reece gets to his feet as Tarryn rushes toward him and gives me a look so deadly I flinch. “We’re going to take you down for this, Zariah. We’re going to make sure that everyone knows what you’ve done here. About the bikers. Everything. You think a court is going to favor you when you’ve done that?”
I keep my stance and don’t flinch away from her, then I smile and lean in close. “What bikers?”
With that, we turn and leave.
Bring it on, I say.
Bring. It. On.