Chapter Twenty-Two
his mother’s house, a small one-story modern house with a decent sized yard and an aboveground pool the kids used in the summer. He’d already dropped Ethan off at school. He’d tried to talk to the principal again, but she was adamant that Emma not be allowed back till next year. The nine-year-old was going to mold her face into a permanent scowl at this rate. Josh felt like no matter what he did lately, he couldn’t do right by her.
Getting out, he opened the back door. “I’m trying, Em.”
She huffed. “I bet Reggie could get Principal Burns to let me back into school.”
“Reggie isn’t going to beat up your principal,” Josh said.
Grabbing her backpack, Emma hopped out of the cab. “Why not? She beat up the guy at the field.”
Josh shut the door. “Fighting isn’t always the answer.”
“It was that time.”
He rubbed his face. “It’s more complicated than that, Em.” Putting a hand on her shoulder, Josh guided her to the front door. “Those men, they came after her.”
Emma frowned and looked up at him. He could see the worry lingering in her eyes. “But she beat them, right?”
Josh knelt in front of his daughter. “Yes, and no. They’re in jail, but she got hurt, too.”
Tugging on the tips of her braids, Emma tilted her head, nibbling on her lower lip pensively. “But she’s okay?”
He nodded. “Yeah, she’s okay.”
Emma let out a breath. “Then I still think she should talk to Principal Burns.”
Josh barked out a laugh and shook his head. “Nice try.” He ruffled her hair and stood up, walking inside. “Hey Mom, we’re here!”
“In the kitchen,” her voice called out.
They walked down the hall, past the living room, and into the kitchen. Josh walked over and kissed his mother’s cheek. “Morning.”
Smiling, she hugged him. “Morning.” She wiped her hands on her apron and eyed Emma. “Still getting into trouble, I see.”
Emma shrugged a bit and looked at her pink shoes.
“Go on and put your stuff in your room,” Mary said. “Breakfast will be ready soon.”
Wrinkling her nose, Emma disappeared.
Josh eyed his mother. “What are you up to?”
Smiling, she dipped a shoulder. “Oh nothing. Just gonna entertain Emma for the day with the usual.”
Somehow, he didn’t believe her. His mother had a flair for the dramatic and extravagant. She didn’t think it was right that Emma had to miss the last day of school, either. He figured there would be lots of ice cream involved.
“Don’t overdo it,” he said.
“Don’t fuss over me,” she said, waving a spatula at him. Using her wrist, she smoothed back a flyaway bit of gray hair. “I’m healthy as a horse.”
“Yeah?” Josh leaned against the fridge, crossing his arms over his chest. “Then why so many doctor appointments?”
Mary froze for the briefest of seconds before she went back to mixing the pancake batter. “That was nothing. False alarm. You won’t have to worry about it anymore.”
“Hard to not worry about something when you don’t know what it could have been,” Josh countered.
He drummed his fingers on his bicep, watching her. When he’d been a kid, he learned his mother’s tells. His father beat the hell out of her, and for the longest time she’d kept it hidden from the world, but Josh and Carrie knew. They’d been there, heard their mother’s screams. It wasn’t until they got older that they fully comprehended. Carrie tried to step in once and their father slammed her into the wall so hard she’d blacked out. That’d been enough for Mary. The son of a bitch could go after her, but as soon as he touched the kids, she left him.
Mary moved around the kitchen, repeatedly rubbing her hands on her apron and fidgeting. Anyone else would think she was just cooking, but Josh knew better.
“Mom,” he said. “What’s going on?”
She sighed. “I may have done something—stupid.”
“Uh huh,” Josh said, his gaze narrowing. Worry crept up in his stomach. He didn’t like where this was going at all.
“Look,” she said. “I’ll tell you later. Everything. I promise.” Mary sucked her cheek in. “But not when the kids are around.”
Cement pooled into his chest. “You didn’t,” he seethed in a low tone and then glanced at the hallway to make sure Emma hadn’t come back. There’s only one thing that Mary wouldn’t want to talk about in front of the kids.
“I had to,” Mary said. “She showed up at my door with nowhere else to go!”
Hot anger pulsed in time with his temple. Sonja was a manipulative woman and his mother always wanted to help people who couldn’t help themselves. Still, the fact that she’d let Sonja stay here behind his back rankled. He dropped his hands to the side, clenching his fists. “She’s not still here?”
Mary shook her head. “No,” she said in a heated whisper. “I kicked her out after flushing...a large quantity of drugs.”
“God damnit!” The fact that Sonja came back, and that she definitely wasn’t clean, about killed him. She’d tried to play them all, but his mother caught on before things got too bad.
“What’s going on?” Emma walked into the kitchen.
Mary turned, smiling at her. “Nothing sweetie. Your father and I are just having a disagreement about your principal.”
“Oh,” Emma sat at the table. “She’s a jerk.”
“Watch it,” Josh said in warning. His anger wasn’t at Emma, but the words came out clipped, and he took a breath to calm himself. “I have to go. Carrie’s going to be at the house soon to take a statement from Reggie.”
“That woman you’ve had staying in the bunkhouse?” Mary put a skillet on the stove.
“We’ll talk about that later,” Josh said. “Amongst other things.” Walking over, he kissed Emma on the head. “Be good for your grandma.”
Without saying anything to his mom, he walked out, doing his damnedest not to slam the door behind him.
Carrie pulled up just behind Josh as he turned into the drive. He may or may not have ignored some of the speed laws, but his anger seemed to be tied to the gas pedal of the car. The more he thought about what his mother had done, about the way Sonja probably manipulated her way into the house, the heavier Josh’s foot weighed down. He’d made it home in half the time.
Getting out of her squad car, Carrie rested her hands on her belt and raised a brow. “It’s 9:30am. How bad can it be this early?”
He turned a glare on his sister and then stopped before he directed anger at her when she didn’t deserve it. Carrie had been nothing but patient and considering the incident last night, Josh knew she was probably reeling with her own problems down at the station, but if he could talk to anyone, it was his sister. She, in her infinite wisdom, had warned Josh about Sonja long before things got nightmarish. He should have listened to Carrie, taken her advice and put the kids first.
“Mom,” Josh said in his best attempt at an even voice. “Has been harboring Sonja for the last week.”
Carrie’s gaze narrowed, her hands tightening on the leather belt. “What?!”
He nodded and started pacing again. “Yeah, all this crap about doctor’s appointments? It was her covering with Sonja. At least I’m assuming. We haven’t actually had the talk to dish out all the details. The kids don’t know she’s in town and I want to keep it that way.”
Carrie put her index fingers to her temples and massaged the soft area. “I can’t believe she did that.”
“Sonja showed up last night too,” Josh added. “Said she’d changed. I’m not really seeing it. Except, admittedly, she did look sober. I might have thought she was, except mom dumped a bunch of drugs she found.”
“What happened last night?” Carrie asked, keeping her voice even.
Leaning against the bumper of his SUV, Josh recapped everything. He rubbed the back of his neck, trying to relieve some of the tension that was building up and pressing at the base of his skull.
“Great.” Carrie leaned against the bumper next to him. She let out a slow breath. “I don’t have better news either.”
Josh raised a brow. “What, are the assholes out?”
Carrie nodded. “Reggie stopped by this morning. She said she wasn’t going to press charges and reclaimed her gun.”
“She told me it was hers,” Josh said. He didn’t understand why Reggie wouldn’t press charges, though. She didn’t seem like the type to be intimidated by people, but then he remembered something bad had happened to her, something they never really went into detail about. He didn’t want to push it, not when he practically felt the pain coming off her, like it was something tangible, like he could physically grip it if he reached for it. If Josh could have, he would’ve shed it from her like a second skin and left her weightless and without it. “Did she say why she wasn’t pressing charges?”
Carrie shook her head. “No, but she seemed shaken, not like I’ve seen her at all this past week. Did something happen between you guys last night?”
Plenty of things happened between them last night. Heat rushed to Josh’s dick just thinking about the feel of her skin under him, the taste of Reggie in his mouth. She’d been perfect, and he wanted to do more to her, but the bruises were still raw and she’d been sore. Josh had some self-control—though it’d been hell to restrain himself. “Nothing that would make her not press charges.”
Carrie let out a sigh. “Well, something happened. She was spooked, bad.”
“She should be back soon,” Josh said. “I’ll talk to her.”
“In the meantime, I’ll try to figure out where Sonja went. At this point, she’s violated her parole.” Carrie stood up, adjusting the gun on her hip. “Call me if you can get Reggie to change her mind about pressing charges.”
Josh nodded. “Call me when you find out what’s going on with Sonja.”
Giving him a soft smile, Carrie walked to her squad car and left.
He got up and went inside to wait for Reggie.