At Peace (17 page)

Joe’s eyes moved over my face and he
declared, “He’s gonna go away.”

I licked my lips and didn’t say anything.

“Buddy, he’s gonna go away.”

“He found me,” I was still whispering and I
had started trembling.

Joe’s voice was a lot less tight and scary
when he said, “Yeah, he’s found you. His problem is, you moved to
the right fuckin’ place. Okay?”

“Okay,” I said but I didn’t believe him, not
for a minute.

Joe read that and got closer. “He’s through
dickin’ with you, Violet.”

“He’s pretty powerful,” I whispered, tipping
my head back to look at him.

“He’s a man, just a man.”

“A powerful man.”

“Lotsa different kinds of power, buddy.”

I stared at him, tall, broad, strong,
sinister Joe Callahan and the look on his face made his words
penetrate.

I swallowed and said, a lot more convinced
this time (but not thoroughly convinced, it must be noted),
“Okay.”

Joe held the card up between us. “What’s this
mean, ‘DH’?”

I looked at the card then in Joe’s eyes.
“It’s his initials. Daniel Hart.”

Joe’s torso shifted back, his eyes cut to
Colt and his face wasn’t granite, it was carved from ice, as were
his eyes.

“You didn’t tell me it was Hart,” he said to
Colt.

“You know him?” Colt asked and I stared at
Joe in shock as his one word answer seemed to come from somewhere
ugly in him.

“Yeah.”

“How do you know him?” I asked but Joe didn’t
look at me, he kept his eyes on Colt.

“We gotta talk.”

“Joe –”

“We’ll talk now,” Colt said over me.

I butted in. “Hang on a second, Joe –”

“No, now I’m gonna fix Vi’s wiring, we’ll
talk later,” Joe told Colt, ignoring me.

“But –”

“Gotcha,” Colt said.

Joe looked at Sully. “You deal with the
flowers,” then to Colt, “get her outta here.”

“Hang on!” I snapped but Joe was moving away,
Sully was moving toward the flowers and Colt had hold of my
arm.

“
Party time, Vi,” Colt said softly to me
and I looked up at him as he pulled me gently away, “time to forget
this shit.”

“But, I wanna know –”

Colt’s hand gave me a squeeze then it dropped
to take my hand and he did this all without stopping as he walked
me across my yard.

“Time where you deal with this is over. Hart
brought this to my town, now it’s my problem. We clear on
that?”

I looked at him and saw he looked weirdly
both relieved and angry. I suspected the relieved was because now
he had the excuse to get in my business and sort this, seeing as he
was a cop. I knew that look, that feeling, Tim had it too. Tim
wouldn’t let his neighbor be harassed by a crazy crimelord either.
On the other hand, I suspected Colt was angry because he knew how
this felt, having some creepy psycho sending flowers.

“We’re clear,” I whispered and said a short
prayer of thanks to God that he steered me in the right direction
and let this house in this town be on the market when I was looking
for refuge.

“We get to my house, I’ll give you my numbers
and Cal’s. You program them into all your phones and Kate and
Keira’s. Okay?” Colt told me.

“Okay.”

We hit the street and he dropped my hand but
his arm went around my shoulders and he quit talking.

So I called, “Colt?”

He looked down at me as we stepped up on the
sidewalk on his side of the street. “Yeah?”

“Thanks.”

He didn’t reply except to give my shoulders a
squeeze.

I looked to my feet thinking Tim would like
him. And I thought Colt should know that.

“My husband Tim, he would have liked
you.”

Colt looked back down at me. “’Spect I’d like
him too, seein’ as he had good taste.”

That was nice so I smiled.

He stopped me in his yard, looked back at my
house and then back down at me.

“You’re safe here, Vi.”

I hoped he was right.

“
Thanks for that too.” It wasn’t much but
it was all I had.

Even so, Colt gave me a look that said he
understood I wanted it to say more and he understood what I wanted
it to say.

He gave my shoulders a squeeze and led me
into his house where we stood in his kitchen and he wrote out a
bunch of numbers.

The first thing I did when I got home was
program the numbers into all our phones.

Even Joe’s.

Booty Call

“You’re quick,” Joe said to Kate and Keira,
sounding impressed and surprised.

Kate looked at her toes. Keira beamed at
Joe.

We were standing in our living room and Joe
was giving us a lesson on the intricacies of our security system
and apparently the girls had picked it up quickly.

It wasn’t rocket science but it also wasn’t
pressing four numbers into a keypad either. We all had remotes that
controlled the system which we could use in the house and others
which we kept in our cars. We also had more than sensors at the
windows and doors but also electric eyes pointing at all sorts of
angles all over the house. And there were camera feeds that fed
into the computer on the desk in the study where, if we thought
someone was out there, we could flip through a bunch of cameras
that were pointed in a variety of directions outside the house so
we could see all the sides of our house. We could even switch these
cameras to night vision if it was dark. Last, we had panic buttons
on the remotes, the new keypads by all the doors, in each of our
rooms by our beds and little ones to carry in our purses that did
double duty since they had GPS so Joe or Colt could lock in on us
(or our purses) everywhere we went.

No joke.

Electric eyes, night vision, panic buttons
and GPS tracking.

My crackerbox house had a system that I was
sure rivaled Buckingham Palace and my girls and I had security that
would make the Queen feel comfy. I figured her guards were no
slouches but she’d take one look at Colt and Joe and say, “You’re
hired.” Therefore for the first time in a very long time, I felt
somewhat safe.

“
Mom, you should make Joe your pork chops
to say thanks,” Keira told me and my mind went from the Queen of
England and my novel feeling of being safe to my nutty daughter who
was looking at Joe and telling him, “Mom’s pork chops are
the
bomb
.
Way
better than her
cupcakes.”

“
Keirry, Mom’s chocolate chunk cupcakes
are
so
better than
her pork chops,” Kate put forward her opinion and looked at Joe.
“It’s the frosting.”

Joe looked at me on the word “frosting”
and my stomach hollowed out which made me miss it when it tied into
a knot. That hollow feeling was much worse. I’d had it since he
ended things. It came usually at night when my mind turned to Joe
and all he’d done to me, all I’d done to him, how much I liked it
and therefore my mind didn’t turn away. In the end, I’d have to
reach for my vibrator which was so not as good as Joe it was not
funny. I didn’t like that hollow feeling when I was alone in my bed
in the dark. I sure as hell didn’t need it standing in my living
room with my girls
and
Joe.

“
You only say that because you like her
seafood risotto,” Keira said to Kate and then to Joe she said, “The
risotto is all right but the pork chops
rock
.”

“Joe should pick,” Kate decided.

“How about we let Joe go home and rest?” I
suggested. “He’s been workin’ on the house a long time, he probably
could use putting his feet up.”

“Yeah, you can come tomorrow,” Keira told
Joe. “Mom usually makes her good stuff on Sunday. The garden center
closes early on Sundays so she’s got time.”

“Can Dane come too?” Kate put in and I
sighed, wondering if I should call Dane’s parents and ask for
partial child support since he was over eating our food so much
and, while doing it, eating so freaking much of our food. My girls
were healthy eaters but the way Dane ate I was glad I didn’t have
boys.

“Dane can come,” I said to Kate, she smiled
big and turned toward her room.

“I’ll call him now,” she announced while
moving, desperate to talk to him even though Dane had left only
twenty minutes ago. Waving at Joe, she called, “Thanks Joe,” then
she disappeared down the hall.

Keira looked from Joe to me to Joe and I knew
that little, devious head of hers was working. I also knew I was
going to have to do something about it I just had no clue what.

“
I’m gonna go listen to music,
not
,” she
assured Joe, “The Buckley Boys. I’m over them.”

“Good call,” Joe said to her and my eyes
narrowed on his mouth because I could swear it was twitching.

Keira leaned in and patted Joe’s arm and I
felt my eyes un-narrow because they rolled. Only Keira would have
the guts to pat scary, sinister, rugged, huge Joe Callahan on the
arm. Marine drill sergeants probably cowered when he walked into a
room. Not Keira, no. She patted him on the arm like he was her
puppy.

“You’re cool, Joe,” she told him, her voice
weighty, as if she was bestowing a grave honor on him even though a
blind person could sense his utter coolness.

Joe didn’t answer but Keira didn’t seem to
mind. She turned and disappeared down the hall. Seconds later we
heard music, another crap boy band whose music, if there was any
justice in the world, would be outlawed.

“Your girl’s got shit taste in music, buddy,”
Joe noted and my eyes went to him.

“She’ll grow out of it,” I said this
hopefully rather than confidently because Kate had been into boy
bands until she was around twelve then she’d switched to real bands
but Keira was holding on and the bloom didn’t seem to be going off
the rose.

Joe seemed okay with standing in my living
room which I was
not
okay with so
I suggested, “Don’t you have to go put your feet up?”

Then he made a mistake.

His mistake was asking, “Am I invited to
dinner tomorrow night?”

Seeing as the last time I asked him to dinner
I was naked in his bed thinking that we were starting something
good and he told me he was done with me, I decided that invitation
wouldn’t be voiced twice. My girls could do it then I could renege
on it. This was my right since he fucked me over. He might have put
in a killer security system but I didn’t ask for it so I didn’t owe
him shit.

Therefore I answered, “No.”

His eyes never left my face when he muttered,
“I didn’t think so.”

“
You wanna be involved in this shit, your
call,” I told him quietly so the girls wouldn’t hear. “Anytime you
wanna back out, that’s your call too.” Joe didn’t reply, he just
kept looking at me, so I decided to finish it. “And I’d appreciate
it, you didn’t make friends with my girls, it isn’t
cool.”

“Not me makin’ friends with them,” Joe
pointed out.

“Then it’ll be you who discourages them from
doin’ it.”

“Not gonna be an asshole to your
daughters.”

“You had no problem bein’ an asshole to their
Mom,” I reminded him.

I watched him go from annoyed to angry. He
got close, both his body to mine and his face in mine and his voice
went low.

“Gotta admit, I regretted it, your mouth is
sweet, other parts of you sweeter,” he told me. “The way you
behaved since, buddy, figure I saved myself a world of hassle. You
can be a bitch.”

I felt my body get tight but I inched my face
closer to his and spoke as low as he did. “Thank you for your
service, Joe, you can go now.”

“
There it is,” Joe muttered, “the
bitch.”

“I can’t believe you,” I hissed. “You’re in
my living room callin’ me a bitch.”

“That’s ‘cause you’re actin’ like one.”

“Then I suggest you save yourself the hassle
and leave.”

He didn’t move, he stayed in my face and his
voice was even lower when he said in that way where he sounded like
he was talking to himself, “Wonder if it’d be worth it.”

“What?”

“Breakin’ you.”

I blinked then I repeated, “What?”

He didn’t hesitate handing me his utterly
unbelievable response. “Turnin’ you over my knee, spankin’ that ass
of yours until you break and let go of the bitch.”

I felt my breath catch as my stomach both
hollowed out and twisted into a knot.

“
What?
” I hissed.

“Might not be worth it but it’d be fun doin’
it.”

I clenched my teeth and said through them,
“Get out.”

He didn’t get out. His big hand came up and
curled over my hair at the back of my neck and he brought my face
even closer, to within an inch of his. It was so close I could feel
his breath on my lips but all I could see was his clear blue eyes
which were staring right into mine.

“Make you beg me to stop,” he muttered. “Make
you do anything to make me stop, promise to let go of the bitch and
be nothin’ but sweet to me.”

“Take your hand off me,” I whispered because,
even though his words were pissing me off, for some insane reason I
really wanted to kiss him. I wanted this so much my mouth was dry
and my body hurt from holding it away from the heat of his.

“Play with you while I do it, make you squirm
at the same time I make you beg.”

My stomach unknotted, I felt wetness rush
between my legs and it took everything I had not to move into
him.

“Joe –”

The minute I said his name, his hand
tightened on my neck almost like a reflex action.

“Yeah,” he whispered and I held my breath,
not understanding what his “yeah” meant but the way he said it made
it sound like it meant something important then he muttered his own
name, “Joe.”