Withholding Secrets (15 page)

“You keep your son and his hands away from her, Marge.” Ben’s angry voice ripped from him as he just held me to his side instead of putting me back down on my own feet. “He’s bullied my daughter, and I’ll be damned if he will bully hers.”

Finally, he carried me over to Kane and put me back onto my feet, taking the extra caution of placing me down gently before taking his seat at the bench again beside his two teens.

Kane’s arm snaked across my shoulders as he tucked his face close to my neck, the heat warming my frosty skin and sending a warm shiver down my spine. “Keri, I am serious. You need to
just
settle
down.
Do not attack like that in the office. I will take care of them.”

“Her teacher is the one who is making the remarks, Kane. What am I supposed to do? She’s not a dumb kid. She’s smart and knows this stuff, but he’s getting her too scared to even think.” I looked over at Sky with her head on Jordan’s shoulder. “What am I supposed to do? Because, apparently
I’m not good at this
. I’m just ruining everything for them, and I just—”

“Keri, just listen to me and don’t blow up. Trust me. If you really want to keep those two, you need to trust me.” He loosened his hold and nodded with his emerald eyes dancing over mine. “Ben knows what’s going on, and he will stand up for you. You need to let him take care of this meeting.” He held up his finger pointing it to my heart. “Calm. Calm, Keri.”

Nodding, my name was finally announced at the heavy door where their trouble maker and his ruthless parents came out. How could I do this? How could I not want to beat the hell out of that teacher, that student, and the principal for allowing this to happen? When a kid says that they are being bullied, those were the people who were supposed to put a stop to it. Not encourage it because of the kid’s background.

Ben escorted me into the office and motioned to the two chairs placed in front of the oak desk that was jam packed with clutter. A computer on one side, a large … something on the other. Papers, folders, a desk planner that spread over some more papers and folders. It was worse than what Kane’s desk looked like when I first saw it. Right on top of the litter or mess, was a paper with Jordan’s name on it and red makings all over it. Once the principal, a man that looked to be in his late forties with the receding hairline and the silvery sparkles at his temples, mentioned something about suspending Jordan because of constant trouble making, my attention snapped up and the age rushed through me again and I scooted to the edge of the chair.

“I will go straight to the school board if our boys are reprimanded. They had no choice except to take matters into their own hands, because you and your staff neglected to do anything against the bullying of her little girl. Now…” Ben vacated the chair fast with enough force it shot backward and across the room. Putting his large fists down on the desk, he leaned three-quarters of the way over the cluttered top of the desk and looked the ghostly man right in the eye. “My daughter has told me how
that
math teacher bullies
that
little girl in the middle of class. Now, you tell me where the issue is and I will assure you that the board will hear their side quite heavily. I will guarantee those two boys will not be the ones punished with suspension.”

“If that is the case, then why
isn’t
their guardian coming to me about it? This is improper parenting—”

“You do not know anything about my children. They are trying their best, but when stuff like this arises, they are doing what they have done in the past to protect each other, because that is all they know how to do. You want to point the finger at me because of our situation, but the finger should be pointing right back at you for allowing that boy to physically harm a little girl.”

Sucking in a deep breath, I stood next to Ben, feeling so very little, but I needed to step in and voice my own concern about my kids before I did have someone come in and look over our situation. All I needed to have was for anyone to find out that Kane filled up our freezer with food because I didn’t have but a dime to my name.

The guy’s beady little brown eyes shifted over me, making my skin prickle like I had hundreds of ants stinging me. “You’re the one to talk. You’re barely of age, anyway.”

“Her age has nothing to do with the care of those children. If anything, she’s a better parent to those two than most people my age are. You are just on her ass because she’s young and single. That’s all it is. Get off her ass and let her do her job at parenting those two, because they need it. And they need her.” His hand came down on my lower back as he walked me to the door. Pausing, he looked back at the principal and gritted his teeth. “This situation is done here, and if I hear any more about it or about anyone harassing that little girl, you
will
have to answer to me. The kids will both be in school tomorrow, and I will be here to pick them up. In the meantime, you better have this situation controlled properly before I bring this to the board.”

We walked out, and the door slammed hard behind him. Looking up at the crimson faced man, a huge lump filled in my throat blocking the ability to swallow all the excess fluid in my mouth.

His strong, anger-ridden face turned to Sky as it eased back instantly. “If that teacher says anything, makes any comment to you or about you, you better tell me when I see you tomorrow.”

“Thanks, Mr. Bradford.” The tears swelled in Sky’s eyes as she wiggled out of Jordan’s hold and actually wrapped her arms around Ben’s wider middle section. He gave her a little nonchalant hug and collected his two children. Passing me a little nod, he spread out his arms and escorted his two offspring out the front door.

Looking over at Kane, I swallowed hard with the shame building in sheets over my eyes. Walking Jordan and Sky to the door, I glanced over at Kane’s tight face. His anger was all because of me and what I ended up bringing into his life because I refused to let the kids go to a foster home. Maybe I made the wrong decision in keeping them, but it was my decision and I was sticking to it.

My mom always told me that a promise was a promise, and after seeing Jordan practically in tears for doing something he had to do all his life, I was not going to stop at anything in proving everyone wrong. I just hoped I had enough in me to keep this charade going. All it took was the wrong person to bring down an empire.

We won our next game, and it was because of Jordan and Andrew. Swapping Jordan to left wing worked out perfectly. It didn’t help that the left winger was out with the flu, so I had no other choice, but we ended with four to zero and still had a chance at the playoffs.

Sitting in my office, I looked out the open door having a clear shot of where Keri was talking to Ben
again,
with both of the girls sitting on the benches to the right of the entrance doors. How in the hell couldn’t I have seen the connection there?

Ben liked her far too much, and I’d never seen that man blush to the point where I could feel the heat burning from inside him. But she had to show up in that little tight dress jacket that molded to her tiny waist and a short black shirt where the bottom hem ended at her fingertips. With the front of the jacket coming down to a V right where the slightest hint of cleavage was, I damn near had to lock myself in the shower and turn the cold water on. Since she walked in the rink today after work, even being on the ice wasn’t enough to cool me down. With Ben hovering over Keri now, my blood was beginning to boil when I saw him.

She nodded, tugging the jacket tighter to cover the white cotton shirt. She called last night and told me that she had to work until noon, so I picked the kids up and brought them to the rink, hoping like hell she made it to watch Jordan play. I didn’t need that guilt building on her shoulders as much as the bank troubles were. Even though she didn’t mention anything, I could see, deep in her gunmetal grays, that it was still bothering her every second that money wasn’t in her hands.

With all the calls I made, I still hadn’t figured out who was accessing her account. And even my friend wasn’t being any help in the crucial investigation. Coming next Friday when her check was going to be deposited, I would be able to find out … maybe … but I was paying quite the bit for the team player I hired.

Just as I pushed myself up from the desk, she rose to her tippy toes and her arms went around Ben’s neck. She was hugging him.

Rage surged through, withdrawing the blood from my extremities leaving them cold and numb. My knees quaked and threatened to give out if I dared to move. It shouldn’t have been something that I even cared about, because Keri was off limits anyway. Completely off limits, and she was better off with a guy who wouldn’t love her and leave her like I would. And Ben was a damn good man, who would cherish her for everything she was. An angel.

Besides, Ben had two kids of his own and a farm with over four hundred acres. Not that it mattered to me who she went with. I was just a coach and I helped her out with a cart full of groceries to feed those two kids. That was it.
And
, he was old enough to be Keri’s dad and that wouldn’t look too good. But when I heard him screaming inside the school’s office, I was shocked. He wasn’t a man that was easily riled up. She was better off with him, anyway.

“Can I talk to you for a moment?” Keri’s soft voice kick started my heart again. If she only knew what she did to me, she would stay the hell away and I would be able to fulfill my needs with an actual woman for a change. This long of a dry spell was really ruining my weekends of being at the club and making the most money by flirting with all the available women.

“I put him as a winger because that was where I needed him.” I picked up my pen and made it look like I was writing something down in the book that I had Sky use for taking my notes. Lately, she was staying at the school, and my notes were really suffering. Anything that I wrote down was scribbles, and by the time I made it back to my office, I couldn’t read the damn mess.

“Ben filled me in on everything.” She stepped in and took a seat on the couch, keeping her knees together, afraid to show anything more than what she had to. “It was a really good game.”

“It was.” I rested back in the chair, the ache getting more intense along with the tightening in my jeans. What was I expecting? Buy her some groceries and she would open her legs for me? But why did I just jump in and help her when she had no reason to keep those two kids?

Because of the fact that I hadn’t been able to get her out of my mind, and those two kids were so hungry for good attention in their lives. They were damn good kids, and I could see right through both of them and read their stories.

Whatever the reasoning was behind my grocery shopping, it was because the three of them were already dug deep down inside of me, and it was ruining my life. “What’s going on, Keri?”

“Um…” The tears filled in her eyes as she finally made eye contact with me. The pain was deep, and it was killing her to be sitting there. “You were right, Kane.”

“I know that, Keri.” That damn jacket hung a little lower in the front as she reached down to brush a little scuff off her black, plain, heeled knee-high boot. When her attention shot back to me, the pain washed the color away from her face, leaving behind the porcelain skin to glow under the fluorescent lighting. “Playing will help keep his attitude in check—”

“No, Kane.” She quickly brushed a tear away as she looked at her boots again. Her fingers curled around the hem of the skirt and she gave it a little quick tug to make sure it was covering her assets. Dressed in that shorter skirt, that jacket, and those damn boots, this weekend was shot to hell already. There would be no way I could leave my attached apartment at the club to scout out a willing participant. Keri would be burning a hole in my mind again, dressed in nothing but those boots. But her wearing something so … unlike her threw a bunch more questions into the mix of lust. “I was wrong to keep them, but I just had to…”

Jumping from my chair, I closed the door quickly and turned back to her, knowing the fight with the missing paychecks was weighing on her. It was an issue, but the people I hired to handle it, would. She just needed to give it time. As for those two kids, they were both trying their hardest to stay with Keri. Breaking them up now would only scar them more than if she would have just sent them away in the first place. She was the best one to have those two, and I was the one who was wrong. “No. You are what they need, Keri.”

“I just … it’s so hard, Kane. And that fight at school … told me that I wasn’t doing the right thing for them.” Her eyes found mine and bore a hole straight into my heart. She didn’t want to give them up, but the fear of not being there for them when they needed was the issue that was bringing her to this. The rumors were digging under her skin, getting her to think more about how she could care for them even more. But, to those two kids, she was the only thing that either one of them wanted. And they would give everything up if it meant to stay with her. 

“You are doing the right thing by them. Letting them go now will only destroy them,
and
it will destroy you. You know that it will.” Slipping into the empty spot on the couch beside her, I rested my elbows on the black dress pants that covered my legs. The itch in my hands intensified as I wanted to just reach out and hold her hand into mine to assure her that she was doing great, but the contact would only make matters worse. Just being seated beside her, catching the slightest linger of a floral perfume began to stir more heat inside my gut and pass it straight down to the neglected member.

“How can you say that? How can you say that I am good for them? I have no money.
None
, Kane.” Wrapping her arms around her smaller frame, the tears trickled down her cheeks, one by one, each leaving behind a piece of her shattered heart and gluing together more of mine. “They need someone who can love them, protect them, and give them everything that I can’t.”

“
Really
?” The half-starved crazed lust monster in my pants stirred from being too close, and all I wanted to do was to kiss her until she couldn’t breathe. Just a minute ago, I was mad she had her arms around Ben. No; I wasn’t mad. The jealousy grabbed hold of me and shook me around until I couldn’t even see straight. I wanted that to be me. I wanted her to want me just as much as I wanted her. But she wasn’t at all what I needed in my life. My life was mine, and as soon as this season was over, it was complete playtime for me. No strings attached, hanging out with real hockey players, and maybe even getting a little ice action in for myself. “You don’t love them like crazy? You don’t give them what they need?” I nudged her leg with mine, sending the roaring fire into a blasting inferno throughout my body. “You
are
what they need, Keri. You called Sky your daughter yesterday when you were about to attack Marge.”

The tears gushed down her face in waterfalls. “She’s such a good girl.”

“Do you know how that made Sky feel? She started crying because she felt loved for once by a mother,
her mother
. She loves you. Jordan loves you. You love them, and it doesn’t matter if they are really yours by birth. You are doing everything that those kids need. Just hang in there and we will get through this.” I put my arm around her and smiled, the comfort settling right in with having her petite body molded right with mine. Content was washing all the green blood out of my system and replacing it with something I never felt before with any other woman. Peace. “You would protect those kids with your life, and that is exactly what they need. Don’t give up. Don’t let this town beat you down. Keep doing what you are doing and no one will be able to touch you.”

“Kane, it hurts so bad to not be able to do things with them like I should. I want to take them places, but I can’t. The bank isn’t giving me the money back, and they keep telling me that—”

“On Monday, talk to your boss and tell them that your bank account has been hacked. Have them use an account … a different account, to deposit your check.”

“I could have them use one of the kids. Then, the money should be—”

“Wait.” My chest tightened as I jumped up, heading across the office to my desk where the landline phone was. “You have an account for the kids?”

“We set one up with the money they have been earning from you.”

Grabbing the phone, I dialed the bank’s number that I found out where she was doing all hers at. It was afterhours, but the recording could check their accounts. I waved her over and turned the phone to her. She punched in a number and waited. When she scrunched up her face at the zeroed out dollar amount, she hung up and I dialed again. She punched in the other number, and that one was dry also.

Slamming the phone down, I cursed with the lust dying out and the anger replacing it. Grabbing my notepad, I wrote down a number and handed it to her. “Use this. Do not put a cent into any of those accounts. I will give you some money to use for the week. Just make sure they change the account at work. I will switch some stuff over so that you can use this one. It’s mine, and no one can access it except me.”

“Their … money…” The color fell from her face so fast that I caught her before she stumbled backward and landed on the concrete flooring. “They got the kids’ accounts, too?”

Anger rolled through me, and my muscles in my chest and back were contracting like a snake coiling around its prey. “Do not fret. I will be taking care of this.”

Her fists balled tightly as she bit her bottom lip. “When I find out who took their money, they better pray that the cops take them away before I get to them.”

“And you think that they are better off with someone else?” I rolled my eyes, thumbing through every contact I had in my mind. Someone was personally attacking Keri, and it was because of those two kids. I needed to get her to trust me enough to release all of her secrets so I could have every bit of her past dug into. “I will find out what’s going on. You just take care of them and keep doing what you are doing.”

Getting her calmed down and helping her clean up her tear stained face, I finally let her walk out when her composure was intact. Something was going on, and I had to figure it out. My guess was it had to be the kids’ dad or whoever Keri was married to. He was the only one who would have access to the account like that. I just had to get to him before Keri did. I had to protect her from doing something stupid. She would be the kind who protected those two with her life before she let anything else happen to them. And if he was still around, which I was taking that he wasn’t, she was holding a strong vendetta against him. One that would end in blood.