Starting Point (13 page)

“You ready to start on some basics today?” Arizona asked.

The boy shrugged. “I guess.”

“Good.” Arizona smiled proudly. “You’re now my first appointment for the day, but I gotta get some things set up for the day first. Gimme twenty minutes.” Then he looked at Claude. “You come with me, squirt. We got work to do.”

“I already put the toilet paper in the girl’s bathrooms,” Claude told him as they walked off. “I made Kira put it in the boy’s.”

I pointed to my office, signalling to Ruby he was coming with me. I was trying not to smile as I sat down at my desk, but I was so excited that Ruby was gonna give this a shot. “I’ve got some forms that we need to fill out,” I said, rifling through my files.

I slid the single piece of paper onto my desk, and Ruby sat back in his seat, as though trying to put some physical distance between him and the form.

“I’ll fill it out for you,” I told him. “We can only give ’em what we know, okay?” I said, trying to put him at ease, as though it was no big deal.

I picked up a pen. “Full name.”

Ruby blinked a few times, and looked at the offending piece of paper. Anyone else might have thought the kid didn’t know his own name, but I knew better. He didn’t want a paper trail where some authority might be able to track him and his sister down and take them away. But as if he’d waged a war inside his head, whatever side opted for the truth had won. “Rueben Vaughn.”

I wrote his name in the boxes then read the next question.

“Date of birth?”

“September sixteen,” he answered.

“Do you know what year?”

His face pinched. “I’m thirteen…”

Knowing math wasn’t on his to-do list, I quickly wrote the year of his birth on the form, and moved to the next question.

“Address…” I said out loud, then wished I hadn’t. I didn’t give him time to answer. “How about we put the club down as your address. That way if anything comes for you in the mail, it’ll come here and we’ll keep it for you?”

Ruby nodded. “’Kay.”

“Phone numbers I’ll just put the club down again, and my cell number as well,” I added, writing as I went.

“Parent or guardian,” I said.

Ruby looked out into the gym room instead of answering.

“It’s okay, Rube,” I said again. “Claude told me it was just you and her. And that’s okay,” I added. “These programmes are designed for kids just like you, some have folks, some don’t. I can just leave it blank.”

“Don’t I need some permission or something?” he asked, still looking away from me.

“There are special circumstances allowed for in programmes like this,” I said. “It’ll be fine. I can have a chat with Janelle, she’s the lady at the school that organizes all this, and we’ll get it sorted out.”

He nodded, so I asked the next question. “Last school attended?”

Ruby answered quietly, “Marvin Elementary.”

I wrote it down like it was just another piece of information, but it was difficult to hear. This poor kid really had had a hard life.

I read out the last question, “Any known medical problems, medications that kind of thing?”

“Nuh.”

“Cool,” I said, giving him a smile. “Paperwork is done. Now go find Arizona and see what he wants to do with you. Tell your sister, if she doesn’t want to watch, she can help me in here.”

Ruby looked to the table and nodded. “Thanks again,” he said quietly. “For this”—he motioned towards the piece of paper on the table—“and thanks for looking after Claude last night. I was coming back…”

I pressed him for some kind of answer. “Did you want to talk about where you were last night?”

He shook his head. “No,” he whispered. “I’m okay.”

“All right,” I said, not wanting to ruin anything we’d accomplished this morning. “That’s fine. What I said before still stands—if you or Claude need somewhere to crash for a night, somewhere safe, you just let me know.”

He nodded again and disappeared through the door. I looked back down at the form I’d just filled out for him and it saddened me. There were so many blank lines, empty spaces, where a world of information should have been. Proof that he’d lived a life all thirteen year olds should, proof that someone loved him, cared for him, gave him the best they could. But for Ruby, it was all but blank.

It was so unfair.

Claude’s words from last night sounded in my head. ‘
No one wanted us’.

I picked up my phone, scrolled through my contacts until I found Janelle then pressed dial. She answered on about the fifth ring and after I’d reminded her of who I was and where I was calling from, I told her about a new prospective student. I explained he was younger than the other kids I’d applied for, but this kid was an exception to the rule.

“Why’s that?” she asked.

“Well, he’s thirteen,” I admitted. “And last night I pulled his nine-year-old sister out of a dumpster, where she had intended on sleeping the night. Ruby won’t tell me where he was, or why he left his sister alone, but I’ve offered him this as a chance to change his and his sister’s lives, and he’s keen.”

Janelle hummed into the phone. “He’s too young to sit for his high school diploma.”

“I know. But he can barely read or write, so I was hoping you might have a school programme he could do to help get him on par.”

“We’re not a government school with a full curriculum. We run intermediate courses to help older people get their diplomas—”

“Yes, but you have the means and the tools, and I’ve told him he can sit in here with me while he learns. Please, Janelle, this kid has had adult after adult let him down and abandon him. I won’t do that to him. I won’t tell him he’s not worth it. If he’s made to go to a normal high school, he wouldn’t last a day. But if I can get him this, he stands a chance. If I can get him an education then he can secure funding for his fighting gear, and when he gets his high school diploma I can try and get him an MMA scholarship at college. It’s a few years away yet, but it needs to start now. Someone needs to show him that someone cares—”

Janelle’s laughter cut my rant short. “You’re nothing if not determined, are you, Mr Elliott?”

I took a deep breath. “I can’t let him down.”

I heard her groan, but then she spoke as though she was smiling, “Let me see what I can do. If you say he can’t read or write very well, then maybe I could push for an introductory course to English first to see how he goes, then we’ll know what we’re dealing with and where to place him in relation to high school standards.”

I grinned into the phone. “You’re fantastic,” I told her. “Thank you, thank you.”

I promised to hand deliver the application myself later that day, and even bring Ruby with me so she could meet him. Janelle said if we left it till tomorrow, she’d have some kind of prelim schoolwork organised for us to take with us so Ruby could make a start. I promised we’d be there.

I disconnected the call, and I sighed. But the smile on my face waned the longer I stared at Ruby’s almost-blank enrolment form.

I took my phone and this time dialled a familiar number. I probably shouldn’t have done it, it probably breached his trust, but I wanted to help in every way I could. And for me to help both Ruby and Claude, then I needed to know exactly what I was dealing with.

“Matt? Is that you?”

I smiled at the sound of his voice. “Yeah, Mitch, it’s me.”

“What’s up?”

“I met your two drug runners this morning.”

“Matt.” His tone was pure caution. “I told you to stay away from them.”

“I did,” I told him. “They came here. They were following one of the kids who was coming in, and I stopped them at the door.”

“Same kid as before?”

“Yep. Ruby.”

“Hmm,” he hummed.

I knew that sound. It meant something didn’t quite add up, but his mind was joining the dots anyway. I knew how Mitch’s mind worked. I’m sure he wanted to ask me a ton of questions, but as a civilian, protocol didn’t allow it. Not without making it official, anyway. Instead, he asked, “Is the kid okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Did they threaten you?”

“No.”

“Good,” he said with what sounded like a sigh of relief. “So what can I do for you?”

“I need some information.”

“What kind of information?” came his tentative reply.

“I want a full history and background check.”

There was a second of silence. “On who?”

“I want to know everything you can tell me about a Rueben and Claudia Vaughn.”

Chapter Nine

The moonlight cast a silver light across the room, across the bed and across Kira.

We lay on our sides facing each other. The leather strand that held his engagement ring, which hung around his neck, weighed down towards his armpit. Reaching out, I took the ring, feeling the cool weight of it in my hand. I marvelled at the beauty of the ring, and what it signified.

“I love you, Matt,” Kira said. He would quite often tell me, out of the blue, but seriously. He’d always look me in the eye and tell me he loved me, like it was something I was likely to forget. As if I could, ever.

“I love you, too,” I replied.

“You feel okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay.”

Kira had picked me up from work, we’d had dinner and I’d told him all about getting Ruby signed up for the scholarship programme. Kira had offered to drive me and Ruby up to the college in the morning to get his paperwork finalized. I’d kissed him lightly on the lips and whispered in his ear how much I’d like to thank him.

We’d been fooling around on the sofa and my head had started to spin. Not in a good way, but in a vertigo kind of way. It had been getting late anyway, so Kira had taken my hand and slowly led me to bed. He’d undressed me to down to my briefs, while I’d sat on the edge of the bed with my eyes closed. He’d pulled back the covers, then while he’d stripped down, I’d slowly lain down, before he’d joined me.

He traced his fingers along the scar above my eyebrow, I still held his engagement ring, and we simply revelled in the silence. Sometimes the quiet moments between us were the most intimate.

“You really like it don’t you?” he asked.

I turned the ring in my hand, making it catch in the silver moonlight, then looked to his eyes. “I can’t wait until you wear it.”

Kira smiled and touched the ring that hung around my neck. “Did you want to pick a date?”

“For what?”

“The wedding,” he said with a chuckle. “I’m sure Mom wouldn’t mind.”

Despite the lopsided tumbling in my head, I smiled. “I’d marry you right now, but I think we’ll know when the time is right.”

Kira’s eyes widened. “Are you saying no?”

I threw back the sheet and sat up, though my head spun and pulled me sideways. Kira caught me and laid me back down on the bed. “Whoa, where are you going?”

“Taking you to find a priest or a minister or someone who’ll marry us.”

“Now?”

“Right now,” I said, still trying to get up.

Kira laughed and kept his hands on me, holding me down on the bed. “No you’re not. You can’t even sit up.”

I pulled his hands off me, but he rolled on top of me and pinned me with his weight. He was still smiling. “You’re not going anywhere.”

I loved feeling his full weight on me, but my head was still spinning in the opposite direction to the room. I closed my eyes to ease the revolving in my head.

Kira moved to get off me, but I hitched my thigh and hooked my leg around his to keep him exactly where he was. His hands were on my face, and he kissed my closed eyelids. His hardening dick pressed against my thigh and my hips responded by flexing into his.

“Matt,” he whispered with another kiss to my lips. “You’re not okay.”

“I am now.”

Kira shifted his weight, and his erection now pressed against mine, making me moan. He laughed softly and kissed me again. “I’m sorry. My body reacts to you.”

Without opening my eyes, I ran my hands over his chest and up his neck to cup his face. I pulled him in for a proper kiss.

He hummed into my mouth as my tongue met his, and we got lost in the kiss, but when he groaned then pulled away, I finally opened my eyes.

Kira rested his weight on his elbows, one hand on my head, his fingers in my hair, his other hand framing my face. His eyes were dark, full of want and desire. He licked his lips and groaned low in his throat.

“What’s wrong?” I asked him.

“You’re not well,” he said, his voice was husky. “We shouldn’t be doing this.”

I rolled my hips into his, feeling how turned on he was. I ran my hand over his ass, pulling him harder against me.

“Matt,” he started to protest again.

I pushed him off me a little, so Kira leaned up just enough for me to move, but instead of sliding out, I rolled over underneath him and settled back on the bed face down. “If you want me, then have me.”

Kira groaned again, and needing just one more reason to give in, I lifted my hips and pulled my briefs down exposing my ass cheeks.

Kira laughed as he leaned over me, trailing his lips up my shoulder to the back of my neck. He held his body weight off me, his knees on either side of my hips. “Matt,” he said, before kissing my shoulder again. “If your head starts to spin…”

“You always make my head spin.”

His smiling lips pressed against my neck, then he murmured in my left ear, “I promise I’ll be slow.”

I shivered at his words, at the gravel in his voice. The bed dipped as he fumbled with his briefs, and I groaned when he trailed his cock along the crack of my ass. I thought this might be it, I thought he might take me bare—without a barrier between us—just him.

I moaned without shame, lifting my ass, urging him to do it. He slid his cock down to my hole, kissing my shoulder, my neck, behind my ear. My head was still hazy, with vertigo, with sensation. When I rocked my hips back, Kira grunted, but then he was gone. He knelt back, pulled my briefs down my thighs and off my legs. I half expected him to crawl back up my body and finish what he’d started, but then he was off the bed taking off his own underwear. I heard the bedside drawer open followed by the familiar rustle of foil.

I didn’t even care that he wasn’t about to bareback me, I just wanted him inside me. If he wasn’t ready, if he wasn’t ever ready to do it, I wouldn’t mind. I just needed to feel him where I wanted him the most.