“You took her knowing that I didn’t want her to go there!”
“She did fine,” Joyce replied proudly. “It was Trevor’s birthday, and seeing her meant the world to him.”
“I don’t give a damn about Trevor or his damn birthday!” I gave Cat one more squeeze, then looked down at her and said, “Why don’t you go up to your room and play for a bit while I have a word with your grandmother and the nice officers?”
“Okay, Momma.”
She didn’t even look at Joyce when she turned and headed up to her bedroom. I didn’t blame her. Joyce was a conniving, two-faced bitch who put her son’s wants above those of her granddaughter. As soon as I heard Cat’s bedroom door close, I stepped over to Joyce and snarled, “You had no right to take her there today. You’ve crossed a line, Joyce, and it’s unforgivable. You will no longer be on Cat’s pickup list. In fact, you won’t be seeing her at all.”
“What? You can’t do that!”
“I can, and I will!” I turned to the officer. “I want to press charges, and I want an immediate restraining order put into place to make sure she doesn’t come anywhere close to Cat ever again.”
“You sure about that, miss?”
“I’m positive.”
“You selfish bitch!” Joyce shouted. “You can’t keep Cat away from her family. You can try, but we’ll do whatever it takes to make sure that doesn’t happen!”
“We’ll see about that.”
11
VIPER
After dealing with Camden and Mia, I felt like I’d been to hell and back. I’d completely checked out and didn’t want to deal with any more bullshit. Hoping it would help take my mind off things, I threw myself into the club and spent every waking minute going over inventory, preparing for our next big run with our Carolina chapters, and checking in with Dax.
I needed to know if he’d heard more about the Broken and was displeased that he hadn’t. It seemed their entire club had completely fallen off the radar, and Dax had no idea why. He was looking into it further, and I was eager to hear back from him.
Even with everything going on, it still wasn’t enough to distract me from all the shit flying around in my head.
The last thing I needed or wanted was to get a call from Rebecca saying that her mother-in-law had taken Cat to see her father. She sounded absolutely distraught, and remembering our conversation about her dad, I could only imagine how Cat was doing.
As soon as I ended the call, I headed straight to her place. When I pulled up, the police were backing out of her driveway, and there was someone sitting in the back seat. I hoped that was a good sign as I parked and headed towards her front door.
I knocked, and moments later, Rebecca opened it with a relieved expression on her face. “She’s home.”
“Thank God for that. So the grandmother finally brought her back?”
“She did.”
“How’d that go?”
“Not great. She had the nerve to act like it was no big deal that she’d taken Cat out of school and to see Trevor.” Rebecca shook her head in disbelief. “I think she truly believed she hadn’t done anything wrong. Thankfully, the police officers didn’t see it that way and arrested her.”
“Well, thank goodness for that.”
“Yes, I was very relieved.” I could tell she was still pretty wired as she quickly added, “I started the process to get a restraining order put on her, so she can never do anything like this again.”
“That’s smart thinking.”
“I hate to do it, especially since she’s Cat’s grandmother, but after today, I just can’t trust her.”
“Don’t blame you one bit.”
“I am a little worried, though. No matter what I do, I don’t think Trevor is going to stop trying to see Cat.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Well, Joyce all but threatened me and said they’d do whatever it took to ensure he got to see Cat. She and Trevor are both pretty stubborn. They’ll fight me tooth and nail to make it happen.”
“Today doesn’t exactly help their case.”
“It doesn’t matter. They’ll drag us into court and put Cat through all kinds of hell just to prove a point.”
“This Trevor guy is a real asshole who needs a good ass-kicking.”
“He most certainly does.”
“Maybe things will work out better than you think.”
“I certainly hope so.”
It seemed oddly quiet in the house, so I asked, “How’s Cat making it?”
“I’m not sure.” Rebecca glanced behind her as she said, “I just went to check on her, and she’s up in her room watching Frozen for the millionth time. I figured I’d give her a little time before I pressed her to tell me more about what happened today.”
“Probably not a bad idea.”
“I’ve already called her counselor and booked an appointment for tomorrow just to be safe.” She stammered for a moment, then asked, “You, uh, want to come in? I was about to make some dinner and—”