The Love She Craves: Selling Her Soul to Declan (30 page)

“Hospital records. I was trying to clear up some confusion about Nyxie’s birthday and saw her sister had a DUI traffic accident about four months ago and she had been treated courtesy of the jail.”

“So you want me to draw up papers having her hand over guardianship of the two girls to Onyx?”

Declan tapped his thumbs on the steering wheel. “Well, that’s the first step, isn’t it? Nyxie needs to have the right to sue the state to have custody returned to her. I’ve got her with me now. We’ll run down to the jail and see if she’ll sign over guardianship.”

Declan smiled at Nyxie
but the smile died on his lips as he saw the uncertainty in her eyes.

“Yeah, we’ll get right on that over here. We’ll draw up papers for both temporary and permanent. Just let us know which, and we’ll go over later this afternoon and get her to sign them.”

“Permanent?” Nyxie chimed in. “Does that mean adoption?”

“Yes, sweet thing, that’s what that means,” the lawyer’s voice said over the speakers. “That is what you want, isn’t it?”

Her faraway expression turned to a tentative smile. “More than anything. But I don’t think my sister will sign away her rights like that.”

“Can’t hurt to ask,” Junior said.

“One more thing, Stryker; I noticed her sister was being represented by the public defender. Did you want us to step in?”

Declan turned to Nyxie, but before he could answer Nyxie spoke. “No. My sister is a drug addict. She is safer locked up than out on the streets. Besides, the more likely
she is to go to prison, I think the more likely she will be to sign the papers.”

Nyxie didn’t care if it sounded cold-blooded to let her sister sit in jail so she could get her girls. Melinda had run away from home, leaving Nyxie to fend off their parents and take care of Cody who wasn’t even two at the time. And then she just abandoned her daughters with her a year ago. They were strangers to each other. With their father gone, Nyxie’s income covered Cody’s and her needs, but with two more mouths to feed and clothe and the price of everything going up, Nyxie’s finances were backsliding.

Fuck her.

She hadn’t called once in that whole year. Melinda knew Mrs. Jones had a line going into their apartment. She knew Nyxie worked at the truck stop. She didn’t have the decency to call to let her girl
s know she was alive. She couldn’t even call to say she loved them and hoped they could be a family again nor did she warn Lotus and Reina that she wanted them to stay with Nyxie for a prolonged visit.

Nyxie was so lost in thought she didn’t know when Declan got off the phone with the lawyer. She wasn’t even aware he was in the car until he touched her hand.

“Are you okay?”

Nyxie exhaled a deep breath through her mouth. “Not really. I-I’ve been so mad at Melinda for everything, I hoped I’d never see her again.”

“Damn. That’s pretty mad,” he said lightheartedly.

“You don’t know how hard it was on Reina and Lotus when she dumped them off.”

He laced his fingers between hers. “But they were better off with you and your life has been enriched because they’re in it.”

Nyxie nodded her head reluctantly. “They are the best gift, besides Cody, that anyone has ever given me.” She turned her head toward the window. “You know when you don’t have much, I think you can really appreciate the true value of the things that are most important and those
things
are my kids.”

“Do you want to have lunch first?”

She turned and smiled at him. “I’d probably just puke it up. Do you have an old T-shirt in your gym bag?”

“Old? Probably not, T-shirt, yes.”

“May I borrow it? I’m afraid she’ll see me dressed like this and want me to bail her out.”

“Help yourself.”

Nyxie reached behind Declan and pulled his bag through the gap in the seats. After a quick rifle inside she pulled out a Tech T-shirt.

“It just had to be a forty dollar T-shirt, didn’t it?”

“Turn it inside out. You’ll be talking over a monitor. She’ll never know the difference.”

With a quick look around, Nyxie unbuckled her seatbelt, and pulled her blouse over her head. Declan’s head pivoted on his shoulders first as he looked at her then darting around to traffic as she pulled his inside-out shirt over her head.

“Trying to make me wreck?”

“What?” She drew out the word with an innocent intonation.

“If you’re going to strip in my car, warned me so I can watch.”

“You got it,” she said smiling widely at him.

“Seatbelt, Nyxie.”

As they pulled off the Marsha Sharp Freeway onto the interstate, it occurred to her he had been to the jail before. “Were you required to volunteer at the jail during medical school?” she asked wonderi
ng if he had ever been arrested but was not bold enough to ask.

“I didn’t go to medical school at Tech.
I did my undergrad studies here but I went to medical school in Connecticut. There’s this whole national program to hook you up to a school for residency. I wanted to come here and may have helped my chances with a little donation to the Garrison Center. I figure it couldn’t hurt when I applied for the fellowship program for them to already know my name.”

Nyxie didn’t really understand
about residency and fellowship but was too embarrassed to ask him to explain. She made a mental note to do an internet search when she had time to look it up.

“So, how do you know so much about the jail?”

“A friend got arrested on a DWI once. His parents refused to bail him out.”

“Did you bail him out?”

“Hell, no. He shouldn’t have been smoking pot in a public park. I did put twenty dollars in his commissary account.”

She shoved his bag into the back seat. “I don’t know what that is.”

“You know if they need extra stuff like deodorant or snacks, they can buy it with the money in their account. Maybe if you put money in your sister’s account, it would buy a little goodwill. Use your debit card and put fifty dollars in there.”

Nyxie gave him a face full of attitude. “I am not putting fifty bucks in her account. She’ll want to know where I got the money. If she knows about you, she’ll come looking for me when she gets out. She’ll beg me for drug money, come back into the girls’ lives and then abandon them again.”

Or worse take them away.

29

The paper driver’s permit proved problematic for Nyxie. The deputies required a picture ID, but they never dealt with a state-issued paper license now that it had a picture on it. But after calling the lieutenant and the captain they decided if DPS could accept it so could they.

Nyxie sat nervously for at least fifteen minutes waiting for Melinda to appear on the screen. While she waited, she tried to decide how much to tell Melinda. In the end, she decided to tell her about everything but Declan. How could she explain their agreement? She’d be mortified if she tried to get money from him.

The screen blinked on and both women reached for the phones simultaneously.

“Onyx! My God, I didn’t know who would come to visit? How did you know I was here?”

“The chief saw you when he was dropping off a prisoner and told me yesterday. You didn’t call.”

Melinda shrugged and flipped her chestnut brown hair over her shoulder revealing a tattoo of a playing card under her ear and shrugged. “I knew you didn’t have bail money or even a car to drive out here. How’d you get here?”

Nyxie was ready with a lie. “One of the regulars at the truck stop gave me a ride.”

“Did you bring the girls?” Melinda stretched her tattooed neck as if she could change the camera angle and look around the room Nyxie sat in.

“No, Melinda, that’s why I’m here. Cody got hit by a truck last week while I was at work. CPS took Reina and Lotus because they said I was negligent.”

“You lost my girls?” Melinda shouted into the phone making Nyxie pull the receiver away from her head.

“I’ve been working doubles to feed and clothe
your
girls. Cody was watching them.”

Nyxie noticed Melinda didn’t ask about Cody and it broke her heart that she cared so little for their brother.

“I think I can get them back. The police aren’t filing charges on me and one of the waitresses introduced me to a Legal Aid lawyer who will help me fight for them.” Nyxie explained everything as she understood it and asked if she would sign the paperwork.

Melinda acted annoyed. “I should’ve never given them to you. Only someone as stupid as you can lose custody of two kids.”

Nyxie mentally corrected her.
Three
. “I can get them back. How-how long are you going to be in jail?”

“I really can’t talk to you about my case. They’re recording our conversation, but if I’m convicted, probably a couple of years.”

Nyxie nodded hoping her sister would be put away until the girls were grown. “That’s a long time for them to stay in foster care.”

Melinda shrugged. “That’s all you are to them—a foster home. I’m their mother.”

Nyxie coaxed a smile hoping to disarm her. “I know. I just hate to see them forced to change schools and lose their friends. They’re already used to Cody and me. Why make them change? Besides, when you get out, you’re going to want to know where to find them and not have to go through all of the bureaucratic bullshit to get them back. Of course, if you want to let me adopt them, you won’t have to worry CPS will take them and move them around from foster home to foster home.”

Melinda looked as if she smelled something foul as she studied Nyxie. “Would you give them back to me when I get out if I sign adoption papers?”

Nyxie bit her lip trying to decide if she should lie. “No, if you let me adopt them, they are mine for life. If you’re sober, you can visit all you want. If you’re on drugs or drunk, you can’t.”

“Oh, look who’s acting all high and mighty. You’re no better than me. You dropped out of school just like me. Only I was smart enough to leave home. But brains were never your strong suit.”

Nyxie counted to ten and slowly exhaled trying to calm herself. “Why are you mad at me?”

“Because you’re full of bullshit. You want to steal my girls from me.”

Nyxie became deadly calm and turned her eyes from the monitor to the camera. “That’s right, I do. I love them. You’re a drug addict and a terrible mother.
You
neglected them and then you abandoned them. They cried for days until they realized they were safe. I went without so your daughters could eat. I enrolled them in school and helped them with their homework. Neither one is caught up yet, but they will be if they stay with me. What have you ever done for them besides squeezing them out of your uterus and give them to me?

“Do you know,” Nyxie continued, “that Lotus is a prankster and Reina has a beautiful singing voice? They are so beautiful just like their mother. And Cody loves them, too.
When he found out they were getting picked on at school, he confronted the kids doing it and told them if they didn’t stop, they’d be sorry.”

Tears welled in Melinda’s eyes, but she chuckled at the image of Cody intimidating the bullies. “Thank Cody for me.”

“I will. If the lawyers come with the papers, will you sign them?”

After a lengthy pause, Melinda nodded.

“Temporary guardianship. Not adoption.”

“Okay,” Nyxie said. “Thank you. I love them with all my heart.”

Melinda frowned. “Onyx, do you have any extra money?”

“I need to pay the electric bill. How much?”

“Can you spare ten?”

Nyxie smiled at her sister. “I already put fifteen on your account. That’s all I had.”

30

Nyxie walked around Declan’s empty house feeling uneasy about the prospect of sleeping alone in his bed. As odd as it seemed, Nyxie realized she’d never slept alone in her life—not all alone—not in a house with no one else there.

She checked the locks on the doors twice, took a shower, then sat down and tried to watch TV. Nyxie chuckled thinking on all the times she wished for a few hours alone, but this was not the kind of solitude she wanted. In her wildest nightmares, she never imagined a situation where she might never have her family with her again.

Nyxie took her phone to bed, assuring herself the volume was all the way up in case the hospital or the girls called. It didn’t take long for exhaustion to pull her into the depths of sleep.

Nyxie awoke with a start when a loud thud penetrated her slumber. As she lay there trying to figure out what kind of noise woke her, she heard more noise followed by men’s voices speaking loudly to one another outside. They sounded as if they were directly below the window.

Suddenly,
she heard another sound coming from inside the house. Declan was scheduled for another thirty hour shift. She knew she hadn’t slept that long.

Nyxie grabbed her phone
and jumped out of bed wishing she could get to the safety of the pantry. She looked around for somewhere to hide and remembered how well she fit in his armoire. Grabbing at the knobs, she quickly realized he locked it. She darted into the closet and called Declan. The phone rang twice before going to voicemail. She hung up and called again, hoping he would realize it was an emergency. When he sent her to voicemail a second time, she texted the number 911 to him.

Within a minute, her phone rang and she cursed herself for forgetting to turn off the ringer which she had set to its highest volume the night before. To her ears, it sounded as loud as an air horn.

“Dammit, Nyxie. This better be a real emergency.”

“I didn’t fucking call you to say good morning,” she whispered. “There’s someone in your house. I’m hiding in the closet.”

“In the closet? There’s a lock on the bathroom door, baby, go in there.”

“I don’t think I can move,” she said as a sound closer than the noises she heard earlier made her jump. “They’re on the second floor.”

“Did you call 9-1-1?” he asked, her anxiety spreading to him.

“No. I don’t even know your address.”

“I’m putting you on hold.”

Nyxie looked for a place in the closet to conceal herself better. Declan was too much of a neat freak to have clutter on the floor to hide behind. She flattened her body against the door wall hoping if anyone stepped in, they wouldn’t turn around.

Fuck. What if someone saw her in those thousand dollars shoes and followed her home. And she’d hidden in the first place they’d look for them.

A phone rang in another part of the house. The stupid burglar didn’t even turn off their ringer—not that they’d made any attempt to be quiet.

Why wasn’t Declan coming back on?

“Nyxie?”

It was a female voice from inside the house calling her name. How the fuck did a burglar know her name? Had they been in the boutique when she bought the shoes and heard Joseph and Treshaun calling her by name?

“Nyxie, I’m Dr. Stryker’s housekeeper,” the voice said coming up the stairs. “It’s okay to come out. I didn’t mean to frighten y
ou. Dr. Stryker’s Jeep was gone so I didn’t know anyone was home.”

The door slowly open
ed and the face of a fifty-year-old Hispanic woman swept around the perimeter of the closet until it fell on her. The woman rivaled Nyxie in height but had a stocky build. She wore a T-shirt with jeans and her hair was a light reddish-brown that probably came out of a bottle.

“Hi,” the woman said with a sympathetic smile on her face.

Nyxie, still holding the phone to her ear waiting for Declan to come back on the line, shrank back.

“You poor dear. You still look terrified.” She reached out for Nyxie’s hand and gently pulled her out of the closet. “What a terrible way to wake up. I’m Sonia by the way.”

“N-nice to meet you,” Nyxie said, her voice cracking as she realized she was safe and Declan wasn’t coming back on the phone.

“He didn’t tell me he had a housekeeper. Do you come in every day?”

“Usually twice a week. The days vary depending on Dr. Stryker’s schedule. He prefers I come when he’s not home.”

Nyxie nodded her head. When she realized she was breathing hard, she took a deep cleansing breath. “Good to know. If you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to the hospital.”

“Do you work there, too?” the woman asked.

“My brother was in an accident,” she said. “I’m just staying here because I live out of town and I don’t have a car.”

The woman eyed Nyxie speculatively. “He said you’re his girlfriend and you’re not in one of the guestrooms.”

She didn’t feel like offering any explanation of their arrangement to the woman. If Declan wanted to tell her anything, that should be his prerogative. “I’m not saying we’re
not
in a relationship, I’m saying, I haven’t moved in.”

The woman cocked her head to one side as if she didn’t understand why Onyx was justifying her presence. “Dr. Stryker texted me a grocery list. Do you need anything, toothbrush, tampons, popcorn?”

“Hangers, maybe twenty or thirty. I’ll get you some money.”

“That’s okay. I do most of his shopping and he’s given me a credit card to use for his household expenses. Do you need anything else?”

“No, I can’t think of anything.”

“You should ask me to buy a few houseplants,” the woman whispered in a conspiratorial tone leaning towards her. “They would really make the place look less stark and I’ve got a real green thumb, you and Dr. Stryker won’t have to do a thing.
”

Nyxie grinned, but was too afraid to overstep her bounds. “Uh, sure, why not? Maybe just a small one in a decorative pot that goes with his décor.”

“Good.”

After the woman went back to work, Nyxie showered and dressed in her old sneakers, a new pair of blue jeans and a lightweight yellow sleeveless sweater. Nyxie carefully folded the matching cardigan and packed it and an old T-shirt to sleep in, in her overnight bag with a change of clothes. Declan was scheduled for thirty hours so he wouldn’t be off until 5:00 AM the next day.

Because Cody would hopefully be waking up soon, Nyxie was glad to have Declan working long hours. If he was at the hospital, she could stay with Cody without him making demands of her other than sharing the residents’ beds at night.

Nyxie had given in about not taking the bus, but she hadn’t implicitly agreed to take a cab. She decided to walk. She’d walked everywhere her whole life and the hospital couldn’t have been more than two or three miles away. Before she left, Nyxie checked to make sure Sonia would lock up. When she walked out, she was surprised to see furniture being delivered to the other side of the townhouse—it accounted for the male voices she heard earlier
and the thud that woke her up.