Kristen Ashley - Law Man

“Yeah, burritos sound good,” he replied then his eyes flicked up to Mitch again and back to me.

“This is my neighbor, Mitch,” I told Billy.

“Is he gay like Bray and Brent?” Billy asked and I heard and felt Mitch’s chuckle again.

“No,” I answered.

“Is there a reason he’s touching you?” Billy asked straight out and I noticed his nine year old face had gone nine year old boy hard and protective.

“Um…” I answered

“We’re not just neighbors, we’re friends,” Mitch put in.

“Goodie!” Billie cried and did a couple of jumps up and down, shaking me against Mitch. “I like all your friends!” she declared.

“That’s good, honey,” I said to her.

“Bray and Brent and Derek are your friends and they don’t touch you,” Billy, keeping his distance and his hard expression, pointed out.

“Well –” I started.

“I’m not that kind of friend,” Mitch said over me.

“What kind of friend are you?” Billy asked.

“A different kind of friend,” Mitch answered.

“What kind of different?” Billy shot back.

“A good kind of different,” Mitch replied.

What on earth was he talking about?

No, no, I didn’t care. Moving on.

“Let’s get food,” I butted in. “You ready for dinner?”

“Yes!” Billie shrieked, jumping up and down again which meant I moved against Mitch’s body again.

I didn’t know what it meant when his fingers tightened their grip at my hips. Did this mean he was holding me still or something else?

I decided against trying to figure that out. Mostly because I probably never would. Also because, suddenly, I was hungry too.

“All right, everyone out to Mitch’s truck,” I ordered.

Billie let me go and raced to Billy. She grabbed his hand and hauled him with fake, hilarious grunts to the doors all the while Billy dragged his feet and eyed Mitch who still hadn’t taken his hands off me.

They made it to the door and I was about to pull away to follow them when one of Mitch’s hands moved and I froze. I froze because it slid from my hip to my belly and pressed in just as I felt his lips at my ear.

And it was there he whispered, “You jump outta my truck again before I’ve come to a complete halt, swear to God, baby, I’ll turn you over my knee. You with me?”

My chest was rising and falling swiftly. I’d lost the ability to see, everything went blurry and I’d also lost the ability to think.

His fingers at my hip gave me a squeeze at the same time his hand at my belly pressed in again and he prompted, still whispering, “Mara, you with me?”

I nodded.

I got another squeeze and belly press then I kid you not, I felt his lips against the skin of my neck where he murmured, “Good.”

His hands dropped away. My body realized it had its opportunity and it started to take flight. I got one step away before I was hooked with a strong arm, turned before I was hips to hips with Mitch again, this time full-frontal. His arm locked around my waist while his other hand lifted to curl around the side of my neck.

“Now a couple more things we’re gonna get straight,” he said quietly.

Oh God. He was close. He looked serious and he was talking quietly but he was also talking in that bossy voice that was very firm. All of this equaled trouble for me, I just knew it.

I was not wrong.

“Mitch, the kids –” I breathed.

“First, we’re goin’ to Lola’s and giving them a good meal.”

I blinked at him.

Lola’s?

Lola’s?

Lola’s was awesome and had absolutely fantastic food but it was also not what the kids were used to. It wasn’t fancy but it wasn’t Taco Bell either and it wasn’t exactly inexpensive. I hadn’t actually asked Mitch to accompany me but since he did, I thought we’d pop to the nearest fast food joint, go through a drive thru and get the kids home. After, I would do whatever it was I was going to have to do at Bill’s then get home and away from Mitch.

Lola’s meant sitting down. Lola’s meant time. Time spent with Mitch and time Mitch spent with me and the kids.

What man wanted that? Kids he didn’t know and a woman who he thought had her head up her ass.

Maybe he was insane.

“But –” I started and Mitch talked over me.

“I’m payin’ and if you even open your mouth to argue with me, I’m gonna be forced to find a way to stop you speaking and the way I’ll pick means Billy’s gonna get an eyeful of exactly the kind of friend I intend to be.”

My mouth dropped open and I felt my eyes get wide.

“We straight?” he asked.

No. No, we were not. We definitely were not. We absolutely were not straight.

“Um…” I mumbled.

“Yes or no, sweetheart,” he prompted.

“Uh…” I muttered.

He grinned and I swallowed. Then my throat closed when his face dipped closer to mine.

“Um and uh aren’t options, baby,” he told me softly.

“Mitch –”

His grin built to a smile, I clamped my mouth shut and he declared, “We’re straight.”

Then he grabbed my hand, hauled me to the doors the kids were standing at, both of them staring at us with polar opposite expressions on their faces (Billie happy, Billy not at all happy). He led the three of us to the SUV. I opened the door for Billy to climb in. Mitch opened the door and hefted Billie into her seat, something which made her giggle but then a lot made Billie giggle. I got in the passenger side while Mitch folded in behind the wheel.

“We all buckled in?” Mitch asked into the cab.

“Yes!” Billie shrieked.

“Yes,” I whispered.

“Bray, Brent and Derek don’t touch Auntie Mara in any of the ways you touch her,” Billy stated on a clear accusation instead of answering Mitch’s question.

“No, they don’t,” Mitch agreed. “You buckled in?”

There was no response until I twisted in my seat to look at him. He glared at me.

Then he crossed his arms on his chest, turned his glare in Mitch’s direction and grunted, “Yeah.”

I didn’t want to have to ask. I really didn’t want to have to ask but there was a waiting list at Lola’s. They said fifteen minutes and I had to ask.

Mitch was standing at the hostess station. I got as close to him as I dared, went up on my toes and with my mouth near his ear I whispered, “Can you do me a favor and look after Billie while I take Billy outside for a chat?”

His neck twisted, his eyes leaving the hostess who was staring at him like she wanted to pounce which was probably how most women stared at him (including me). I’d only ever been in public with him this once. I wasn’t looking forward to it and that was one of the many reasons. He tipped his head down and his eyes caught mine. Then they scanned my face. Then he nodded once.

“Thanks,” I murmured, moved away and looked down at Billie. “You stay with Mitch. Billy and I are going outside for a sec.”

“Okay,” she agreed readily, skipped to Mitch immediately and grasped his hand.

I watched with utter fascination as his big, strong, attractive hand closed around her little girl’s hand without even an instant’s delay. Then my eyes lifted to his as I felt something warm slide through my insides.

His eyes caught mine and when they did they went warm like I felt inside right before he gave a gentle jerk of his head to the door, prompting me to do what I needed to do.

I nodded, tore my eyes from him, shoved the warmth resolutely aside and looked down at Billy.

“Got a second to talk, buddy?” I asked.

Billy was glaring at Mitch. He kept glaring at Mitch even as he approached me and grabbed my hand. This surprised me. He hadn’t grabbed my hand in a while. He looked away from Mitch to tug me down the ramp that led to the front door. When we were outside, I took over the lead and we went to a bench. I climbed up it so I was sitting on the back, my feet on the seat and Billy climbed up too and settled in beside me.

“Talk to me,” I encouraged gently.

“Dad’s a dick,” Billy replied.

I closed my eyes. This was true but nine year olds shouldn’t talk like this. Sure, with their friends they could be naughty but not with adults and not so casually. Billy talked like this because Bill didn’t rebuke him. In fact, Bill egged it on because he thought it was funny.

“Billy, buddy, do me a favor, don’t say that word,” I said softly.

“You know he’s one, Auntie Mara,” Billy returned and he was right.

“What did he do now?” I asked and looked at my little cousin to see his eyes were pointed angrily at the road in front of us. His jaw was set.

“He’s still got that guy comin’ over all the time and I don’t like him. He’s a creep. And I don’t like him around Billie. He’s sugar sweet to her and it freaks me out. Gives her candy. Tells her she’s pretty. It’s weird.”

Billy had been telling me about “that guy” for a while and Billy had good instincts so I figured whoever “that guy” was, he wasn’t a good guy.

Billy kept talking. “And we didn’t have any food. And he was passed out. And he didn’t have any money in the whole house so I could go get us something to eat. Billie was hungry.” His eyes turned to mine. “We have to eat.”

“Like we talked about last time, you don’t have food, you need something or you get freaked out, you call me,” I reminded him.

“Yeah, right, I’ll call you but on what phone? His cell didn’t have any charge and he hasn’t paid the bill so even if it did, it wouldn’t work. And they turned off the house phone months ago. You know that.”

Shit. I did. Damn. I knew about the house phone, though it was news about Bill’s cell.

Damn again.

“I’ll get you a cell phone,” I told him. “You can hide it and –”

He straightened, looked me right in the eye and I braced for what he was going to say next because he had that look about him that always made me brace. “Auntie Mara, Dad steals from us. You know that locket you gave Billie for her birthday last month?”

Oh no.

He read my face and nodded. “It’s gone. I didn’t want to tell you because I knew you’d be upset but it was gone like the next day. Dad convinced Billie she lost it and she cried for like an hour. She loved that thing. Said it was the prettiest thing she had.”

It was the prettiest thing she had. Bill barely kept the kids clothed. All the clothes they were wearing, including their shoes, I bought them before school started months ago. And I had noticed both of them were growing out of them.

I clenched my teeth and looked away.

“He stole it,” Billy went on, “because he’s a big dick.”

I looked back at him. “Billy –”

He suddenly and uncharacteristically lost it, slammed his fists into his knees and shouted, “He is!”

My heart started beating wildly, my eyes filled with tears I blinked away and I lifted my hand to curl it around the back of his head.

I knew how he felt. God. I knew exactly how he felt. I hadn’t felt it in a long time but if you knew that feeling, you never forgot it.

I knew that feeling. It lived in me.

I pulled him to me as I bent to him and rested our foreheads together. Shockingly, he let me do this but I figured he did because he was suddenly breathing heavy and concentrating on fighting it.

“Billy, honey,” I whispered.

“I hate him, Auntie Mara,” Billy whispered back. I heard his breath hitch and I understood the breathing heavy. He was close to tears.

“I know.” I was still whispering.

And I did know.

“I hate him,” he said quietly and passionately while his breath hitched again.

Oh God. God, God, God.

I knew what I had to do.

God!

“You know I love you?” I asked him.

His eyes slid away. He pushed against my hand at his head. I let him move away but I wrapped my arm around him anyway; slid him across the back of the bench so the side of his body was pressed against mine. Shockingly, he didn’t fight this either and leaned into me.

“I know,” he replied.

“And you know I love your sister?” I asked.

He didn’t answer. His eyes were again on the street and he just nodded.

I looked to the street and made my decision.