Withholding Secrets (17 page)

Grabbing her hand, I lifted myself off the ground, the sandy muck slithering into places I didn’t want known, but a shower would just have to come after I had Sky safe and found out where the hell Jordan was.

Limping over to the shadows, I held her tight to the old building as a car drove by. Once that patron rounded the corner to the highway, I urged her on, the sharp pain shooting down my leg. Taking her around the building, we made it past a couple more until I saw the lights from the downtown main street. Getting down to the corner by the old gas station, I pulled her off into the bushes where I staggered over to the smaller tree to brace myself. The sickness was swirling around in my stomach, and the pain was shoving it up in heaps. Hot tears were swelling in my eyes, knowing I would have to send her on to find Kane by herself, but could I let her go on her own?

My stomach muscles resisted my control and my dinner forced its way through my esophagus, burning the tender tissues on its way out. Sky’s hand rested on my back. As the warmth of her filled through my soaked and muddy tank, her other hand was trying to gather my snarly hair for me.  

Wiping my mouth with my filthy hand, I released the storm of tears. “We need to get to the club and get to Kane. I can’t risk having Jordan coming home.”

“What about Mr. Bradford’s?”

“He’s too far out and we will never make it in time.” Taking her hand, I wiped my mouth again and checked for any signs of life. Nothing. My heart picked up speed as I pulled her behind me, tugging her along the way, urging the pain in my leg to intensify. My bare feet were padding the cold, wet concrete, but we finally made it to the neon lights and the packed parking lot. Kane had to be there. I needed him to be there.

“You stay right by me and keep your head down.” The agonizing pain tried to force me back into the fuzzy, twisty, and turning world, but I shook it off and tugged the teenager to follow. With our luck, the bouncer was involved in a few people trying to battle in the parking lot and I caught a fistful of sweatshirt, shoving the petite body through the doorway.

Slipping inside, I pulled Sky tight to me as I shoved through the crowd. Hearing some remarks and catcalls, the adrenaline rushed through me, surging through my blood as the pain subsided for the time being. One kid was missing and the other was in the sights of wandering eyes and grabby hands.

Ignoring the feelers, I wedged my way through another thick crowd and spotted the dance floor with no sign of the larger man who had the black head of hair and those emerald eyes. When I turned around, there he was hunched at the counter, a drink in front of him and the barely clothed women practically drooling all over him. Instead of taking his pick of the litter, he shook his head and picked up his drink. The irritation and the anger was spread across his face as one of the girls in tight leather tried to rub up on him. He swung his body around in that high-backed wooden stool, tipped his head back, letting the amber liquid slide down his throat, and the emerald eyes shot across the room to me, opening wide enough to part the sea of people.

As we shoved through the tightening crowd, some guy reached out and grabbed for my chest. Kane turned so fast, punching the guy straight in the face sending him flying backward. I felt Sky’s hand slipping from mine and I cursed loudly. Kane grabbed the front of her sweatshirt, hauling her over his shoulder before anyone could grab at her. His hand came down on my arm, pulling me in front of him as he shoved us through the crowd to the back where there was a door, a black door that matched the rest of the walls.

“What the hell are you doing here, Keri?” His voice barely blasted over the heavy pounding of the bass in the upbeat song.

“Oh, I don’t know, Kane. I thought that I would bring my daughter to the nightclub dressed in my underwear and a tank top for the night. Thought we could have a mother-daughter moment.
What the hell do you think?
” I snapped hard as he unlocked the door and shoved it open.

His hand came down on my back, shoving me into the darkness of some kind of room. When he flipped the switch on the wall, my heart slammed hard. He closed and locked the door behind us and led us through the small hall to the second door. Going straight to the box on the wall, he punched in a code and slammed the door shut. Flipping that light on, I glanced around at the beautiful modernish apartment. Black leather couches were in a little sunken living room where there was a large, flat screen television hanging on the wall and a beautiful, but not too spacious kitchen that had a bar that separated it from the living room. 

“Someone broke into the house, and I had to get her out.” Returning my look to him, I needed to ignore the fact we were standing in a room that would take me twenty years to furnish, and focus on finding Jordan before the kid stumbled into a house where an intruder was.

“Where’s Jordan?” Putting Sky down, he ran a hand over his face as he cursed loudly.

“I don’t know, but I need you to watch her while I go back and—”

His eyes opened wide as his jaw tightened hard. His large bear claw curled around my arm, bringing the burn to the surface and reminding me of falling off the roof. “You
need
to call the cops.”

Tears filled my eyes. Involving the cops would get the kids taken away from me for sure. And I was not going to lose them. I just had to get back to the house and catch Jordan, and it would be easier than trying to keep Sky with me. “I can’t. And tell them what?
My son snuck out of the house before I could catch him. Oh, and there is someone who broke into the house who is probably still inside.
Kane, I need you to watch her just until—”

“I’ll go. I will go, and you better keep your ass right here until I get back. I swear, Keri. You walk out that door and the alarm will go straight to the police station.” He pointed down a dimly lit hall that was just to the right of the large screen on the wall. “There’s a shower and towels and everything in there. I have some clothes in the bedroom. You two—” His eyes went down to my leg, making him curse even louder. “What the hell?!”

“Go find my son, Kane! He can’t go into that house with that intruder there!” I grabbed hold of the sweatshirt and pulled Sky tight to me as the tears ran down her face.

“You keep your ass right here. I mean it, Keri.” He went back to the box, typed in a code, and shot out the door as fast as he could.

“Keri! Jordan abandoned us! How could he do that to us, too?! He left us just like my dad did!” She cried as hard as she could while holding on to me, her fingers gripping my flimsy shirt, trying to hang on me as tight as she could. Tears burst from my eyes from seeing her hurting that bad. If Kane hadn’t locked us in the building, I would go find Jordan myself. The kids were my responsibility, and I failed big time tonight. “I hate him, Keri! I hate him!”

“He will be back, Sky. He will be. Kane will find him.” Straightening up, I pulled her back and cupped her cheeks, looking as deep into those innocent filled doe eyes. “Kane will bring him back here.”

“He ran away from us! He didn’t even tell me or anything! He ran out, and he’s not coming back! Keri, he’s not coming back.” She collapsed into my arms, and I held onto her as I slid down the wall, letting my tears go. Was Jordan that unhappy with us? How come I couldn’t see that he was so unhappy that he would actually run away?

“He will be back, Sky. He would never desert us.” I rubbed her back through the soaked sweatshirt. Closing my eyes, the thoughts of Jordan going back into the house, surprising the intruder, flashed into my mind. I needed to be back at the house waiting for Jordan to show up, if he was going to show up. As soon as the intruder got what they wanted, they would be gone and we could be back in the house. I was the one who urged us to actually leave, and do what? Go to Kane, who wanted to call the cops. These kids deserved so much better than me. Tonight, I made the biggest mistake of them all.

After a while of complete silence and sobs, I gave Sky a nudge and we got up to make our way down the lit hall to where the bathroom was supposed to be. Finding the light switch on the wall just inside the doorway, I flipped it and illuminated the room that was twice the size of ours and a shower that filled the back wall. The glass doors were frosted and lined in brass. The scent was thick with bachelor pad, but a lot cleaner. The stool was tucked into a smaller portioned off section for more privacy and the long counter with the big sink was wiped down and masculine toiletries were neatly arranged in the corner. Some cologne, tooth paste, a brush in a holder attached to the wall.

“We need to fix your leg, Keri.” Her dark glassy eyes looked down at the bloody sandy-gunk covering my thigh and knee. “I’m sorry that I pulled you.”

“It wasn’t you who did this, Sky. I’m fine, and it just scratched me. That’s all.”

“I was scared when you grabbed me. I heard something and I stepped out and…” She wrapped her arms around my neck. “I was so scared lying up there, and I was coming down to you because I just didn’t feel like something was right. You were there to protect me, Keri. I knew that you would keep me safe.”

“Always, Sky. No matter what.” I squeezed her back and released her in order to find a towel for her to use. She needed to get cleaned up and warm before she caught a cold, or pneumonia.

“The kids tease me at school and say that I don’t have a mom. I always dreamed of having one like you, Keri. I love you so much.”

Choking back the tears, I looked at her and smiled, though the thick, pasty lump of heaviness was filling back up, fast. “I love you, too. And you will always be my little girl. Now, you get in the shower and clean up. I will find you something dry to wear.”

“I don’t know why he would want to leave us.”

“Hey. Jordan has always protected you. I am sure that he wouldn’t run out on you like your dad did. Kane will find him for us. If not, I swear I will not rest until I find him myself.” I pointed at the shower. “Go ahead. I will be right out the door, and I will find you something to put on.”

“Keri, Coach Kane would never hurt me. I know that he won’t. He’s good. He’s a good man.”

“He is, isn’t he?” My stomach clenched harder. When Kane saw us in the club, that look was enough to make me want to vomit again. There would have been no way that we would have gotten out of the house if I had Sky change into something else. We never would have gotten out in time. What else was I supposed to do? It was me in underclothing or her, and I wasn’t going to let a little girl run around in hers. Especially not Sky. Maybe it was wrong to come to Kane, but I didn’t really know the neighbors, and everyone’s lights were off. Besides, the people in the town were really talking bad about us, seeing as
I had a kid at ten
. They couldn’t even get the age right. I was twenty-five … and a half.

“I think he likes you.” She tugged the sweatshirt over her head, careful not to get any mud and dirt all over. “He’s really nice to us. Do you think that I could get some of my money to get him a gift for Christmas this year?”

My heart double assaulted my chest again, as the guilt clenched my stomach tightly. Kane probably wouldn’t be talking to us by Christmas. And Christmas wasn’t something that I thought about yet. It was still a couple months away, but I knew that once Halloween arrived, Christmas would be right around the corner. Besides, there wasn’t any money for her to buy Kane a Christmas gift even if we could.

“I would like to get him a nice calendar book that he can keep better track of things. Do you think that he would like that?”

“I am sure he would like anything that you give him, but I really would like you to save your money that you earn. If you would like and you see something that you want to get him, then I will give you the money for it.” How could I look her in those soft brown eyes that were still scared and tell her that her money was gone? I would just have to figure something else out and sneak the money back into their accounts before they found out.

“We never had a Christmas. Do you think that we can this year? Can we have a really nice dinner and a tree that we all can decorate?”

“Of course. We have a little while to think about it, so…” Keeping the smile on my face, I reached in the shower and twisted the brass handle until the water spurted out through the brass showerhead. Closing the front glass door, I tried to swallow the thickened lump, but the guilt was adhering it to the walls of my throat so I couldn’t. Christmas. Their money. The money Kane was tossing my way to help me out. How in the hell was I ever going to get caught up?

Walking out, I went to the bedroom next to the bathroom and looked at the king sized bed with the black comforter. The bed was made and the dresser top was cleared off. The room was white, and the furniture was black and simple. There were nightstands on both sides of the bed with black based lamps and white shades. Simple, like Kane was. But I wondered how many women had been in that bed of his and if it was clean or not.

Once I found out where the hell Jordan was and if the intruder was gone, I had to get the kids home. We had someone in our house, and now I had to think of how I would make it even safer for them. Maybe I should move Jordan upstairs with Sky just in case I had to get them out again.

I checked all the neatly packed dresser drawers in the one bedroom and found a red sweatshirt and a pair of gym shorts that had a drawstring in the waist yet. Putting them in the bathroom for her, I slipped into a dry t-shirt that came down to mid-thigh and paced the living room floor for that door to open. Kane did punch in some numbers on the pad by the door, and I was sure if I did try to open it, the cops would be there instead of searching my place for the intruders. For now, I just had to wait.