Page 123 of Protected by the Biker (Grim Reaper MC)
“You can sit here and eat,” Hunter reached for my son and placing his large hand on Carter’s back, he led him to the couch. Then he flipped through the channels, till he found some cartoons and helped Carter settle into the middle of the couch.
I was still standing where they had left me, feeling shivers running up and down my spine. I was debating what to tell Hunter. Dealing with Tony was my responsibility. I shouldn’t be asking for Hunter’s help to deal with an angry ex. All I really wanted was for Carter to be safe somewhere while I spoke to Tony. While I tried to talk some sense into the man. If I could. But I had to try. How long was I supposed to live in fear?
“Everything all right?” Hunter walked back to me and there was a dull worried expression in his eyes now as he spoke. He was talking in a softer voice and we heard the sound of Carter’s laugh in the background. I was glad that my son was comfortable here.
Under Hunter’s watchful gaze, I tucked some strands of stray curls behind my ears and tried to force a smile on my face.
“Yeah, no, everything is all right. We got locked out of our apartment and I didn’t really know where to go,” I lied quickly while he looked at me with furrowed brows.
“You got locked out of your apartment?” he confirmed, and crossed his bulging arms over his muscular chest. I felt that familiar tug in my belly. That pull between my legs which said that I wanted him again.
“Yeah, I just need to go wait for my landlord to get back so I can get a new set of keys made,” I said and added a nervous laugh for good measure. Hunter was eyeing me with a look that said that he didn’t quite believe me, but he didn’t protest either.
“So, you’re going to wait here?” he asked, his voice softening a little now.
“Yeah, well no, I know it is a lot to ask, but I was hoping that you wouldn’t mind having Carter here for a few hours. I’ll go wait for the landlord. I know Carter is tired and hungry and will probably want to sleep soon. I didn’t want him waiting with me outside our building for ages,” I said, holding Hunter’s gaze while he studied me again. For a few moments, there was silence between us and I thought he wasn’t going to believe me, then finally he nodded his head.
“Of course, he can. He can stay with me,” he said and I smiled, relieved again.
“Okay, good. I’ll be back as soon as I get the keys made. Thank you Hunter!” I said and rushed past him, to avoid any more questions, and went over to Carter. I placed a quick kiss on top of his head.
“You be good with Hunter, okay? He’s my friend and he’ll take care of you while mommy’s away. Just a few hours,” I said to him and Carter nodded his head. He was enjoying the cartoons and had pasta sauce covering his lips.
“Thanks again, Hunter. I promise, I won’t be long,” I turned to him again, and then rushed towards the door. I could sense that he was staring at me, still trying to figure out if I was telling the truth or not, and then I was gone.
I was bounding down the stairs, starting the car…trying to steady my hands so I could drive safely. I had to put an end to this. I had to make Tony understand that I wasn’t afraid of him and that he couldn’t have my son.
Now that I knew that my son was in a safe place, I didn’t care what Tony did to me, as long as he stayed away from Carter.
CHAPTER 17
Hunter
The closed my apartment door and turned and stared at the kid on my couch. I wasn’t exactly sure how to have a conversation with a little human. I wasn’t lying to Kylie when I said that I liked kids, but only from a distance. They were cute and shit, but I didn’t know what to do with one if I was alone with them. My apartment wasn’t exactly fitted out to entertain a three-year-old.
Carter had dark shaggy hair and dark eyes, but there was so much about him that was like Kylie. He had his mother’s sweet-natured looks and a warm smile that had instantly attracted me to her.
I walked around to him now, while he dangled his tiny legs off the edge of the couch.
“Want some more?” I said and noticed that he still had a sizable portion of pasta remaining in his bowl. Carter looked up at me, smiled and then shook his head.
“I like drawing,” he said out of the blue, which startled me.
“Okay, sure…yeah, I could arrange that,” I said and looked about me manically. Kylie had left me no instructions. What was I supposed to do if he wanted to use the toilet? How was I going to pacify him if he suddenly burst into tears? Kids did that a lot, didn’t they? Burst into tears randomly?
I went over to my bedroom and rummaged in the drawers and found a crumbled-up sheet of paper. With no crayons or markers around, I brought him a blue pen and the paper and Carter hungrily took it from me.
Then he started drawing circles on it, and arrows and some more lines and I could sense that there were going to be pen marks on the couch once he was done. Within minutes, he had completed his masterpiece and stuck the page out towards me.
“These are fruits,” he said with enthusiasm and I took the page from him and stared at it in confusion. These fucking things looked nothing like fruit. They looked like rubbish. What was I supposed to say to him?
I looked at him and smiled.
“I want to eat them, they’re so good,” I said and Carter found it fucking hilarious. He was rolling around on the couch, clutching his belly as he laughed.
“You’re silly. More!” he squealed with joy and I looked around me again.
“Okay,” I said to him and then went over and got him a roll of kitchen paper towels. Carter took them from me and tore off a square sheet.
“Can you draw?” he asked, his dark eyes shining brightly as he looked up at me.
“I can try, but you’re so good!” I found myself saying. I was surprised that I was even being able to carry out a conversation with this kid.
“Mommy says pwatis!” Carter said encouragingly and I guessed he meant practice.
I sat down on the carpet, my face now at level with his on the couch and I tore out a square sheet of paper myself. We took turns in using the pen, drawing absurd shapes for cows and dogs and pots and the TV. Within minutes, Carter and I were both laughing as we drew. I was actually having fun. I was having fun with a fucking three-year-old! I couldn’t even wrap my brain around this.
“We will show mommy!” he exclaimed and I noticed how everything he said was joyous. He didn’t care that his mother had left him alone with a stranger in a strange house and that he didn’t have any of his toys around. Carter was a happy kid and I could see now why Kylie was so protective of him. I already was, even though I had barely spent a few minutes with him alone.
“C’mon, let’s find something to watch,” I said, getting off the floor and sitting down on the couch beside him. I turned the volume up on the cartoons and sat staring at the screen and laughing with Carter.
Within a couple of minutes, he had shimmied over to me, settling himself down on my lap and resting his head on my chest. I could sense the connection. Carter was seeking out the company of a man in his life, and he had quickly chosen me.
T
his was again a new feeling. I hadn’t realized that I could feel this protective of a kid I had just met. I sat there, frozen to the spot while Carter watched TV, thoughts rushing through my head.
I hadn’t had a chance to give much of a thought to Kylie after she turned up here, but now I was. Where had she gone? I knew instantly that she was lying about the key. What was so urgent that she had taken the risk of leaving her son with me? She had looked nervous, almost afraid…I was beginning to believe that this had something to do with her ex.
Carter’s cackling childish laugh snapped me out of my thoughts. He was snuggling into my arms; his eyes were growing heavy as he watched the cartoons and I realized that I had never pictured this for myself. Even though I had been fantasizing about Kylie all these days, picturing nights with her, imagining her laugh…I hadn’t actually imagined what it would be like to have her son in my apartment. And now that he was here, it seemed normal and weird and nice.
I laughed with him again. The cartoon was silly, but I was laughing at myself. So much had changed in a matter of days. Who would have thought that I would be watching cartoons in my own apartment with a three-year-old kid, belonging to a woman I barely even knew? But I knew Kylie, I knew what she wanted. She wanted to be safe and happy and for her son to be safe and happy. And that was what I wanted for her too.
CHAPTER 18
Kylie
I took in a deep breath as I stood in front of Tony’s house. Nothing much had changed about this place. The light bulb in the porch wasn’t fixed, the mesh door swung open, the porch steps were littered with beer cans and cigarette butts and Tony’s Harley was parked outside, next to his beaten up green truck.
I thought I was prepared for this. Prepared to come back but with every step I took, my mind whirled with flashbacks. About how miserable I had been in this house, how pathetic my life had been, how Carter would have turned out if I had stayed.
