The Fight for Us (41 page)

“It’s just not time yet.”

* * * *

The next morning Joss joined them for breakfast. Nat and Harp chatted as Joss nibbled on some toast. It hadn’t escaped Isaiah’s attention that she wasn’t eating nearly enough, and when he fixed her a second piece of toast, she smiled tentatively and only took two bites before setting it down. He watched her from across the table.

“You’re still not feeling good, Mom?” Harper glanced up from Joss’s plate. Harper had her moments of attitude, but she loved her mother. It showed clearly in her eyes, even if she often failed to reconcile her words with her feelings.

“I’m okay, honey.”

“You didn’t go to work yesterday.”

“Yeah, I know. I’ll go to work tomorrow if Nat goes to school.”

He hadn’t expected that, and as he peered up, she was smiling at Nat, and Nat was smiling back. They weren’t big smiles being tossed around his table, but they were smiles nevertheless, and before he could stop himself, he chuckled and Harper started laughing. For a moment he felt like life was normal. It wasn’t, not yet, but there were too many small smiles in his life at the moment not to let himself feel a little bit of normalcy.

A bad man had tried to take it away, and Isaiah wanted to think, hell, needed to think the asshole had failed.

* * * *

“He posted bail, Isaiah.”

“Great,” he remarked sarcastically as he shut the door to his office. Joss was in the living room with Nat watching T.V., and he didn’t want to run the risk of them hearing him.

“He’s been ordered to stay away from your house and Joss’s house, and they’ve imposed a curfew.”

“Yeah, ’cause the asshole is just so good at tolerating authority.” Isaiah couldn’t seem to shake the sarcasm, but the quiet chuckle from the other end of the line said Jeffries wasn’t offended.

“How is she?”

“Which
she
are you referring to? The
she
who is coping with the fact that she has no memory of being raped by a man she hates although she knows perfectly well she was, or the
she
who is coping with more humiliation than any one person could hope to survive. You’ll have to be a bit more specific. I have only one
she
who isn’t going through hell right now, and let me tell you,
she’s
a handful regardless—even on a good day. Then again,
she’s
serving in-school suspension at the moment, so I’m not sure
she
doesn’t have her own drama too.”

Jeffries chuckled again. “It’s more than any family should have to endure. That man sure did a number on you guys.”

But Isaiah had gotten stuck on the word
family
, and he barely heard the second sentence. That’s exactly what they were, and that’s exactly what that asshole had tried to take away from him. It was also exactly what he wasn’t willing to lose.

“He’s going to be mad, you know that, right? This is a man who doesn’t accept not getting his way. He doesn’t tolerate it well when he loses control.” Isaiah offered.

“We’ll keep an eye on him. If he gets himself into trouble, his bail will be revoked, and he’ll only end up with more charges lodged against him. He’s not a stupid man. He’d be insane to try anything right now.”

“You’re right, he isn’t stupid, but he
is
insane, and it’s really just a matter of whether his intelligence trumps his insanity or vice versa.”

“How do you peg him?”

“Well, he definitely has some sociopathic tendencies—his complete disregard for others is a clear sign of that much. Hell, his disregard for his own daughter’s well-being is disturbing, and a clear sign there’s something fairly off about him. Borderline personality perhaps. Frankly, he’s just a fucking whack-job.”

“The whack-job finally has a criminal record—one I’m assuming he’s deserved for years. That’s a good first step I’d say.”

“Yeah, it is. Keep me posted. Nat’s going back to school tomorrow, and Joss is going back to work. I can’t say I’m thrilled to have either one of them out of my sight with Todd on the island. This island suddenly seems exceptionally small. I’ll be glad when this bullshit is behind us, and he’s in prison.”

“We’ll be stepping up patrols, and we have an officer doing rounds in the school since the incident with Nat.”

“Good.”

They hung up after that, and as Isaiah swiveled in his chair to stare out to the front yard, he propped his hands casually on the back of his head. He’d known from the word go that putting Todd in jail would also come with him getting bailed out. He wasn’t a fucking idiot, but that was the inevitableness of the situation. He needed charges, charges came with bail. They’d just have to fucking deal with it.

When he stood, he walked to the closet, and he unlocked the gun safe. It wasn’t a large one; he didn’t even own a rifle or shotgun to need one, but it was large enough for his Magnum. He’d not even touched his handgun for two years. He’d surrendered his service piece when he resigned his position, but this one was his. He’d resented the hell out of it as much as his service piece—though only the federal issued one was responsible for killing his wife.

For some reason what used to be fairly common and every day just seemed haunting to him now, and the sight of his own gun that he’d owned for years was uncomfortable. Even lifting the damn thing and holding it in his hand felt wrong and awkward. He was also staring at a small collection of pill bottles and kitchen knives as well. He was damn lucky no one had cramps or a headache in the past five days, and apparently they didn’t need to cut things either to survive around his house. Of course, they’d eaten enough pizza, Chinese takeout, and boxed meals for an entire lifetime, and if he saw someone pull out another box of Hamburger Helper, he was a little worried he’d go insane.

After a final deep breath, he checked the magazine, made sure the safety was on, and he slipped from his office to his bedroom quickly and silently. He tucked the gun at the back of his underwear drawer, and he returned to the living room. Joss was still very quiet, far more quiet than she typically was, and his daughter was little better. He knew she was terrified as shit to go to school the next day, and he watched as she gnawed on her fingernails, but an odd thing happened at four forty-five that afternoon.

He was just getting ready to go pick Harper up from volleyball practice when the front door was opened. He shot to his feet, instantly panicking that someone was entering his home. Joss sucked in a quick breath, and he held his hand up to her, stilling her before she could follow. What he didn’t expect to hear next was a gaggle of teenage girls come pouring into his living room along with Harper. But it wasn’t all kids, and on their tail were the coach and the assistant coach.

Suddenly his house exploded with shrieking, crying, and laughing, and every last reaction known to mankind. It was like a schizophrenic party of confusion, and he stepped back as the crowd descended on his daughter who was standing in shock. They hugged, they petted, they squeezed her arm, they rubbed her shoulder, they even went so far as to slap her on the butt, which left his eyes bulging and his head shaking in utter confusion.

“What’s happening? I don’t understand any of this.” He turned his head as he commented to Joss who’d just stepped to his side, but he’d get no support from her. She had her own tears in her eyes, and she just shook her head, nodded, shook it again and let her tears sit precariously on her lower eyelids. She gripped his upper arm, squeezing down hard as she watched the swarm of girls.

“You. Are. So. Fabulous.” It was said in a dialect he recognized from one of the movies Nat had forced him to watch in the past.

And as he watched in horror, his daughter responded with the very same tone. “No, you are. You guys all are. So fabulous. So. Fabulous.”

“No, you are.”

“No, you totally are.”

Jesus, his daughter was one of them. These bizarre creatures just kept exchanging one compliment after another until Isaiah was sure there couldn’t be any left to exchange, but he was wrong, and as the junior varsity girls moved out of the way, the varsity descended, and things got ten-times worse.

“I
love,
love, love
your house. I wanna live in a house like this someday.” One said dreamily as she looked around, and when her eyes lit on Isaiah, she smiled. “Is that your dad?” She eyed him like he was edible, and he instantly stepped behind Joss who was chuckling. He couldn’t believe she was fucking laughing. The catatonic love of his life was chuckling at his expense.

When he leaned to Joss’s ear, he whispered. “Why are they staring at me? This is weird.”

“Nope.” She angled her head over her shoulder to look at him. “
This
is normal. You might as well enjoy the attention, because these girls haven’t learned restraint yet.” She smirked, and his heart raced at just how happy she seemed all of a sudden. He’d not seen
this
Joss for entirely too long, and as he focused on her eyes, he lunged for her mouth before he could stop himself.

There was snickering galore at that, and when he pulled back from her, he wrapped his arms around her. “There’s my girl,” he whispered against her ear. He caught her looking away for a moment, and then a single tear ran down her cheek. She nodded subtly, but her eyes glanced away again quickly.

“Whoa!” One girl remarked.

And another added, “Gettin’ hot in here!”

Harper chimed in with her arms crossed on her chest. “Yeah. They do that. They’re like in love or something.”

But none of it seemed to stop the older girls from eying him, smiling flirtatiously at him, and staring. He did everything in his power to avoid eye contact with any one of them—he assumed it was something like a
National Geographic
special on predatory animals. The less eye contact the better… Or was he supposed to curl up in the fetal position?

When the conversation finally turned to something appropriate, he pulled Joss further away, and they simply watched.

The team was there to rally around Nat. They wanted her back. They were squaring off with the Baymont Bulldogs that Thursday, and they wanted the J.V. team to pack as much talent as the varsity. Nat watched them hesitantly, and her smile was suddenly small and her expression overwhelmed.

“We will kick everyone’s asses who say shit about you, got it?”

One of the coaches stepped in then to curb the language, but Isaiah was busy laughing against Joss’s neck, hiding his own amusement. He didn’t give a shit if the entire team took turns sucker punching the bullies, and he was damn glad he wasn’t charged with being the authoritative adult at the moment, because he might try to rally the troops and storm Jen’s and Lena’s homes and burn them to the ground. He was maybe a bit overly-protective of his daughter at the moment.

“I don’t know.” Nat cringed as she said it. It was obvious in her expression that she didn’t want to let them down, but she clearly wasn’t willing to check her insecurity at the door just yet.

The pleas and assurances started flowing strongly, and when the compliments and words of support for Nat’s past started pouring out, she started crying and nodded through her tears. Isaiah’s chest felt tight and painful as he watched, and when he glanced to Harper who was a few feet away, her eyes were filled with tears and she was shaking her head in what looked like frustration. Crying wasn’t her style. He’d figured that much out, but it didn’t mean she wasn’t fiercely emotional, and she was just as fiercely protective of his daughter as he was.

“Okay.” That’s all Nat said. Her voice was quiet as she relented, and then the swarm descended around her again.

By the time he got his house back, he’d been flirted with by four different underage girls, he was pretty sure someone tried to grab his ass, he’d given up deciphering what “totes” and “crazeballs” meant, and he felt like he might be losing his mind.

And as the last of the juveniles left, he locked the door behind them, turning to Joss. “What. The. Fuck.”

She smiled as her top teeth bit down on her lower lip, and his cock instantly throbbed. She had such a way with him, and that’s all it took—just a glimpse of
his
Joss, and he was a ravenous dog. It didn’t mean she was ready. It didn’t have to. But it was something. He rolled his eyes as his nostrils flared, and when he approached her, still standing in the entryway, he pulled her up in his arms before he could hump her leg.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

That night Joss went to bed feeling oddly jealous. It wasn’t jealously of the attention Isaiah seemed to attract. Not at all in fact. He clearly wasn’t interested in it in any way, but she was just jealous of how easy it was for other women to…well, feel like a woman—even the ones too young to be playing that game. She just felt defective.

She was a grown ass woman, and she didn’t feel at all like one at the moment. She felt like her body was made of silly putty. It was squishy, dirty, and disgusting, shapeless garbage. She watched him undress. He didn’t appear to have any idea her focus was so glued to him, but it was. She was as attracted to him as she’d ever been. She hoped he understood that, but she couldn’t guess if he did. It was her. She was the one who felt unattractive, and his desire for her didn’t seem to make her feel any better about it.

He glanced at her as he pulled the last of his clothing from his body, and when he caught her looking, his lips pulled up slightly. He studied her for a moment, and she could tell he was contemplating something. When he stood, walked to the light switch, and flipped it off without ever having redressed in his usual flannel pajama pants, she sucked in a quick breath.

She felt him slide in next to her. She was, in contrast, practically dressed for a blizzard. Her sweatshirt was baggy and big, her pajama pants were thick, and even her mismatched fleece socks said, “Trust me. I’m the most asexual being in the world.” But he didn’t seem to care, and as she felt him pull up close to her, he slowly started peeling her out of her clothes.

“I don’t expect anything from you but some skin. I need to feel you.” His voice was breathy and warm against her neck, and a rush of heat circulated through her body as a whimper escaped her lips.