He scowled. “Well, starting tonight, I’m going to take her with me every other weekend like I’m allowed. We’ll see about the rest when it happens. Where is Rowen?”
Every cell in my body screamed at me not to allow her to go, but there was a court order that said Weston had Rowen every other weekend, and each Wednesday afternoon. If he wanted her, I had no legal recourse to keep her. Not unless Weston terminated his rights.
Which I should know, because I’d researched the hell out of it, not wanting her to go with him. I’d been told by a lawyer friend of mine that if I tried to keep her away from her father, I’d be held in contempt of court, which would not look good if Weston started doing what he’d just threatened to do.***Which led me to now, hours later, trying to work out into oblivion.
That was the only way I’d get my mind to turn off.
I had a billion things swirling through my mind, and I wished it wasn’t a holiday weekend. Otherwise I’d be able to call and talk with a lawyer tomorrow, instead of four days from now.
Slipping the gloves from my hands, I tossed them on the freezer beside the punching bag and slipped through the garage door, and then out the gate.
It was dark, and I was glad. I was crying, and I didn’t know how to stop.
Once my feet hit the pavement of the road beside my house, I started to run, no real designation in mind.
I just knew this was about to turn into a disaster. A huge, clusterfuck of epic proportions.
There was no way I could let Weston have her half the time. I wouldn’t survive.
Not to mention she’d have to go to two different schools in two different states.
Would they make me move back to Shreveport if he was able to get half custody?
Would he have to move here?
Would the judge make it to where half the year she was with me, and half the year she was with him?
That sounded god-awful.
I’d never been away from her for more than a day at a time since she was born five years ago.
I kept my pace, running hard, full out. Feeling the burn stretch my muscles.
Somehow, I wound up in town, nearly two and a half miles from my house.
I kept my pace, running along the sidewalk until I wound up at a dead end in front of the playground that I took Rowen to on the weekends.
That’s when I stopped. Or more like collapsed.
My knees hurt, letting me know I wasn’t eighteen anymore, and doing this to my body wasn’t a good thing.
I sat on the park bench, bending forward until my elbows rested on my knees, gasping for breath.
I couldn’t tell if it was because I was tired, or because I was crying. Either way, though, I was being really loud.
I hadn’t been aware that anyone was there with me until I heard the crunch of the pea gravel under the soles of someone’s feet.
I whirled, coming face to face with the man I’d seen respond during the movie theater fiasco a few weeks ago.
Nico, is what Luke had called him.
He looked no less fierce tonight than he had then. In fact, in the twilight sun, he looked even more intimidating, and I decided that the name Nico suited him perfectly well.
“Hey,” I said, wiping my tears.
He never took his eyes off of me. “Yo. You okay?”
I nodded, embarrassed that I’d had the police called on me. “Yeah. Been a rough day.”
I stood to leave, and walked past him, or tried to. His arm shot out and stopped me once I made it to the chain link fence.
“Where are you going?” He asked.
His hand felt warm against my skin, and I realized that it’d gotten chilly in the last half hour since the sun started to set.
“Home?” I asked questioningly.
He scowled at me. “I’ll take you.”
I don’t know why I went with him so easily. All I could say is that I’d had a long ass day, and I was tired of fighting it. To be truthful, it was nice to have someone to talk to that didn’t care if I cried or not. My family would’ve asked questions, and I just didn’t want to talk about it. Not yet, anyway.
He tilted his head towards the cruiser that was parked at the street behind me, and I shrugged.
My legs did feel noodle-ish.
Except when I got in the car with him, he didn’t take me home. He took me to the station.
“This isn’t my house,” I observed as he pulled up to a back door I’d never seen before.
He gave me a level look, but didn’t say anything.
Instead hopping out and punching a few keys into a keypad at the back door.
When he gave me a look, I ascertained that he wanted me to follow him.
I looked down at the black capri pants and sleeveless white t-shirt that declared me a ‘Beta Kappa” and shrugged.
I was curious, though, where he was taking me.
And I had my answer short moments later when he led me through a maze of hallways, stopping at a door that I couldn’t quite catch the name on before I was unceremoniously shoved into a room.
The door slammed behind me, and I stared in shock at Luke, whose eyebrows were raised high above his eyes in surprise.
“H-hey,” I said.Chapter 9Scream. Yell. Pinch. Kick. All of that is fine. Just don’t cry. If you cry, then I start feeling punchy. And nobody likes it when I start feeling punchy.
-Luke to Reese
Luke
The scanner at my desk squawked, and I listened as a call went out about a woman sounding distressed in a park.
That one should be fun.
Not.
However, anything would be better than sitting on my ass like I was doing now.
“I’m beyond fucking tired of listening to this. Either let me get back out there, or not. But make something happen. I’m tired of being in limbo,” I spat through clenched teeth.