Red (Black #2) (12 page)

I click then, at what he had said. My head snaps to Liam. I pick up Jake’s gun and aim it at Liam.

“You fucking shot me?” His head cocks to the side.

“Rose, his weapon is on, don’t tempt him.”

I look down to his hand, his finger is on the trigger, the gun in our direction. “You going to shoot me, Liam Black?” I taunt him and he lowers it.

“You were in my way of who I wanted. I injured you to get what I wanted.”

I drop the gun and walk to him, then slap him hard across the face and leave.

I watch as her tight ass walks off. She makes me want to pick her up, throw her over my shoulder and do things to her, bad things. Jake’s in the fridge, a piece of the shirt he tore off wrapped around his hand. He puts the end of the bottle to his mouth and downs it, and drops it in the sink then looks at me and shakes his head.

“You know how to piss the best of people off, don’t you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“That woman…” he points to the door that Red just left out of, “…would never be angry with you. Not in a million years. God, she wasn’t even angry when she found out you were fucking some whore.”

“She had no right to be angry with that, but what’s it to you? You fucking her? I saw how defensive you are with her.”

That makes him angry, he steps up close to me, right in my face. “I am
not
fucking her. I made a promise to you, you piece of shit. I held up that promise.”

“You love her…”

He takes a step back, the truth written across his face.

“Do you even know what love is? What do they call you now? Trace?”

“Love is just a word, Jake. It’s just a word…”

“Yeah, you keeping telling yourself that.” He walks back to the fridge, grabs another drink and downs it straight away.

“The boys will be here later, you better play nice.”

“Boys?”

“Yes, my boys. No guns, Black.”

“Is this not my house?”

“It is, but most of it is mine.” He’s a cheeky prick, a sneaky smile always on his face.

“Oh, I suggest you start by trying to win Rose back. It won’t take much, but you need to apologize. Now, I need you to fuck off so I can fuck.”

“Not in my bed.”

He flips me off when he walks out the door and stops when his phone lights up. Then he turns to face me again. “Rose needs me to go to hers, I can’t, and you owe me for shooting my motherfucking pimpin’ hand. I mean, do you know how much the bitches love to be spanked with this hand? And you just shoot it with no care in the world.”

“Back to me going somewhere, Jake. Enough with the spanking.”

He eyes me now. “You seem... never mind, go to hers,
now.
”

Her face is anger, it’s getting redder the longer we stand still at her door. I have no idea why I’m here, wishing I’d never listened to Jake, I should’ve just shot him again.

“You need to go, I’m too angry at you.”

“Jake sent me.”

“Fuck,” she says then covers her mouth with her hands looking behind her. A little boy runs up, the same one with the attitude from last time I was here. “I needed him, he knows I have to go to work.” She shakes her head and picks up her phone, walking away from the front door, and I follow her in. She talks fast, then gets flustered and rings someone else. I get the gist of what she’s saying. She needs someone to watch her son because Jake was meant to. She finally turns to me when she hangs up the phone.

“You…” I give her a blank stare, “…you shot me. You can babysit, Liam.”

“Nope, no kids.”

She shakes her head picking up her bag. “Too fucking bad. I need to work, you
will
watch him. It’s not for long, and he can do most things himself, you just need to feed him.”

“I don’t do kids.”

She steps right up to my face. “You will do this. You may find you have a lot of things in common, your attitude for one.” Then she walks off, kissing her kid on the way out.

He stands there just watching me. “Mister, who are you?” He walks up to me and pulls on my shirt when I don’t answer, his little green eyes stare up at me. “Mister, didn’t you hear me?”

“I heard you kid.”

“Well, what’s your name?”

“Liam.”

He smiles brightly. “That’s my name, now tell me yours?”

“Black.” He nods his head and walks into the sitting area, grabs the iPad and sits down. He starts to watch adults building toys, then kids doing pranks and he does all this without talking or moving from his spot for a good thirty minutes. I sit there like an idiot, watching everything he does, and wondering how the hell he can watch this shit consistently.

“Do you have a daddy?”

“Why?”

“I want a dad. Jake is kind of my dad, but not.”

“Who’s your dad, kid?” He shrugs his shoulders, then flicks the iPad back on.

He ends up wanting an apple, I find one buried in the fridge and give it to him. He hands it back asking me to peel it. I find the peeler then once that’s done I give it back to him. He looks at it and gives me a look that basically says I’m an idiot.

“You need to cut it, too.” So I cut it, then give it to him. He looks at it, hands it back. “Cut it smaller.”

“Kid, eat the apple.”

He shakes his head, no. I sit it down in front of him, he doesn’t touch it, and it starts to go brown. I cut it again and bring it back to him.

“It’s brown,” he complains. That’s it, it’s going in the bin. I walk back out, pick him up dropping the iPad to the ground. He squeals from the loss of his iPad. I place him on the kitchen bench.

“Tell me what you want to eat? I’m not doing that again.”

“Sandwich.”

“With?”

“Peanut butter.” Once it's done, he shakes his head at me. “Cut it into fours.” I swear to God if this kid could feed himself I would walk out that door.

“Your weird, Mister,” he says after he finishes his sandwich. “You don’t talk much.”

“Not everything that goes through your head needs to be spoken, kid.”

“You don’t even smile.”

“What’s there to smile for?”

“You don’t even laugh.”

“There’s nothing funny to laugh at.”

“You’re weird.”

“You're weird,” I retort back to him.

“My mom says you make her heart pitter patter.”

“Does she?”

He nods his head, then yawns. We go back to the couch to the stupid iPad. I end up falling asleep watching some stupid Lego thing.

Liam is crawled on top of Liam, his little body looks so small on his chest. They’re both sleeping exactly the same. Mouth slightly open, a slight snore leaving both. Isabelle walks in not even noticing Liam is here, she stops when she sees him, and I wonder if she recognizes him. She didn’t know him well though she has never taken to anyone as fast as what she did to him. Even with Jake, it took her a bit to warm up to him.

“Mom, that man looks so familiar,” she says a bit too loud. Liam opens his green eyes and looks to Isabelle. He blinks a few times when he sees her, unsure. Then looks at me, then down at his chest. Little Liam is snuggled in and not planning to move by the looks of it. My heart jumps, I have to put my hand on my chest to contain it. It’s everything I’ve ever wanted and more. Then he opens his mouth, and it disappears.

“He’s impossible,” he says, looking down at him, then back to me “How do I move him?” I step forward, and Isabelle stands there watching not saying a word, which is very unlike her. I bend down to pick him up, Liam’s eyes bore into me. I try to look, to see what he’s seeing—a woman who hasn’t washed her hair in days and I stink. I’ve been running around all day. Not to mention I don’t have a drop of makeup on, and my skin is breaking out.

“He looks like you.” His breath is on my face. I don’t look, I can’t look into his eyes.

“He looks like you,” I say, once I pick him up.

“I was wondering if you were going to tell me?” This time, I look at him.

“You know?”

“I am not dumb, Rose. I put two and two together. Five years… isn’t he almost five?” I nod my head, he is. “You wouldn’t leave your son with a stranger. You thought since I was the father, I would look after him. I’m going to tell you this now, don’t do that again.”

He stands, turns to look at Isabelle, her face is in shock. “Liam,” she says like she somehow remembers him. She runs to him and wraps her arms around him. He stands stock still, she hugs him tightly then let’s go when he doesn’t respond. He doesn’t look to me or to any of us as he walks out the door.

“Why did he leave?” Isabelle says. “He’s been gone so long.”

“He needs time to think, hunny.” I kiss her head and carry Liam to his room, next to his bed sits a photo of Liam—his father.

I spend the next few days with no contact at all from Liam Black. He hasn’t been to his house, and no one has seen him. He’s ignored all my calls, much like the old him used to do.