“Ten. Nine…”
He slapped his hand on the bench but stood up. “I’ll be seeing you again, sweetheart. You can count on that.”
He strode out past the hedges that concealed the park from the street. I watched the top of his head until he turned the corner, then forced myself to sit calmly, despite wanting to put my head between my knees and throw up.
“Hey, Harrison and Ava, it’s time to head home,” I called to them, thankfully blissfully unaware of the creep who had been in their midst. “Time to walk Freddy.” For the first time I was grateful this little park didn’t allow dogs, or Rick might have been able to use him against me somehow.
Harrison looked up at me inquisitively and took my hand on the short walk home. I might have gripped his a little tighter than usual, keeping a watchful eye on Ava as she skipped a few feet ahead of us. After we took Freddy for his sojourn around the block, I got them set up in their big bean bag chairs with snacks and some of the books they were supposed to read before summer was over.
“I’ll check back in with you in a little bit,” I told them with a forced bright smile.
The second my bedroom door was shut behind me I dissolved into tears. I had no more strength. Rick knew where I was, and it was only a matter of time before he found a way to destroy me.
Chapter 17 - Will
It was past eleven when Harrison crept into the doorway of my home office, looking worried and upset. He’d been quiet at dinner, pushing his food around on his plate and twisting his napkin in his lap. I’d chalked it up to normal moodiness, even though those moods had been few and far between since Bailey, but now I knew it was something more.
I closed the past issue ofDream Travelsthat I’d been looking through and put it on the pile with the others.
“What’s up, Harrison?” I asked, pushing my chair back and motioning for him to come all the way into the room. “Are you feeling okay?” I reached for his forehead, but he ducked under my hand.
“I’m not sick,” he said with a scowl. “Why do you always try to check my temperature?”
“It’s in the dad contract,” I said, trying to tease away the anxious line between his brows.
Not even a flicker of a smile. “Today in the park a mean man grabbed Bailey’s arm,” he blurted, his face going from pale to red. I felt myself getting heated at the thought of someone manhandling Bailey. But there was more. Harrison climbed onto my knee, which was unprecedented at his advanced age. Something was really wrong. “He talked to her for a long time and she looked scared. I didn’t go over because she was trying to pretend she wasn’t. But she was. And then after we got back home I heard her crying in her room.”
He looked up at me, expecting me to immediately make things right, and how I wished I could. It seemed I was correct about the bartender from Coney Island being more than she let on and tried to remain outwardly calm for Harrison’s sake. He was already rattled enough.
“What did the man look like?” I asked, expecting him to describe the lanky blond man, but instead he said he had dark hair and wasn’t skinny at all.
Two men bothering Bailey? And this one going so far as to grab her arm? Fury on her behalf built up in me to the point I slid Harrison off my lap, sure he could feel the rage radiating off me. It quickly turned to worry for him and Ava. The two instances had to be related, which meant the first man tracked her down somehow and now this new guy was harassing her.
Was I being paranoid? I didn’t think so. And even if I was, I couldn’t afford to be relaxed when I was one of the richest men in New York. Not if my kids’ safety might be at stake. I forced myself to smile reassuringly.
“I’ll make sure Bailey’s all right,” I promised. “Don’t worry about her. Or me, for that matter. Kids shouldn’t have to worry about grownups, okay?”
He sighed, but his shoulders lowered a little bit. “I’ll try not to, but I hated that jerk.”
“I know. But sadly, the city’s full of jerks. Bailey can handle herself. You were right not to go near him, because even if he was being friendly, he was still a stranger.”
He lightly kicked the leg of my desk. “Yeah, I know not to talk to strangers,” he said, the normal, belligerent tone coming back into his voice. I was glad to hear it, because it meant he was no longer scared.
“Good. Don’t talk to them, don’t go anywhere with them. If they try to make you, run away and scream your head off.”
“Dad!” he said with an eye roll that I thought might need surgical intervention to get them back in the right spot. “I’ve only been taking taekwondo since I was three.”
“I know,” I said, ruffling his hair. “I still stand by running and screaming as a first measure, though.”
He huffed and then yawned. I walked him to his room and made sure he was tucked in. He was asleep and lightly snoring by the time I got to his doorway. I wished my troubles could be so easily swept away. I’d made sure Harrison calmed down and stopped worrying about the guy hassling Bailey, but I was far from calm.
I peeked in on Ava, one of her feet sticking out from under her blankets. I snuck in to pull it over her, seeing the dog curled up next to her, fast asleep on its back with its paws sprawled in the air, completely carefree. I couldn’t say I didn’t envy it a little. I gently patted Ava’s head and against my better judgment gave the dog’s belly a scratch. He snuffled and rolled to snuggle up tighter against Ava, and she put her arm around him.
She looked downright angelic in her sleep, and I just stared at her for a moment. Ever since Bailey had arrived in our lives, she’d been acting pretty close to angelic. Even her therapist was pleased with the reports that she was much more in control of her outbursts. I could tell myself that Ava had miraculously grown out of a bad stage, but I knew it was all Bailey’s intervention. She was the miracle.
I could hardly believe she could be up to something sinister, but my gut wouldn’t let me relax my guard. I thought about confronting her, just asking about what Harrison had seen, but I didn’t want to rock the boat when it was on such beautiful smooth seas if it was just some random guy giving her trouble. I didn’t want her to think I didn’t trust her. But, did I trust her?
With a groan, I pulled out my phone and called the private investigator our family had been using since I was in high school. He knew us better than anyone, and he was definitely someone I trusted to get to the bottom of things and to be discreet about it in case it was nothing.