Page 35 of Four Cards Exposed

Dom went straight to the kitchen and opened the fridge, gave a happy cry when he saw the quart of milk inside.

“Do you have another glove?” he asked shyly. “Charlie chewed through the old one. She’s a chewer.”

James reached under the sink and brought out a box of disposable gloves. From one of the drawers, he pulled out the scissors.

“I can do it,” the boy said.

James stepped around the boy, pulled out a beer from the fridge, then a bag of peas from the freezer section. Leaning back against the counter, he placed the pea bag against his ribs, wincing, then took a long pull from the beer.

He watched until the boy finished making the hole in the glove and put down the too-large scissors, then pulled himself off the counter.

“Come with me,” James said gruffly to Susan, who hadn’t moved a muscle since she’d set foot inside his apartment. “To the bedroom.”

He brought the beer to his mouth again, then looked back as he heard a strange keening sound. At first, he thought it was the kitten. Then he realized it was Dom. The boy was shaking like a leaf, and every so often that harsh, animal sound escaped his mouth. His eyes looked everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

It looked like he was having some kind of attack.

“Dom? What’s going on?” Jay said urgently. He had no idea how to reach the boy’s mother. He should have—

The boy licked his lips before replying. “You’re … you’re not going to hurt her, are you, Jay?” His voice was a bitter cocktail of fear and hope.

James went very still. “Hurt her? Why would you ask that?”

“The tone you used … it’s the same tone my dad used with my mom. The next morning, her face was always bruised. Like yours is now.”

James cursed. He’d wanted to speak to Susan alone, but hadn’t thought of what it would look like to the boy, when he’d ordered her into the bedroom.

It was Susan who took a step forward. “He’s not going to hurt me, Dom,” she said calmly. “But thank you for looking out for me. You’re very brave.”

“I’m not brave.” The boy’s lower lip quivered. “I never did anything to stop him.”

James’s molars dug so hard against each other he thought one might pop. He approached the boy, stopping when he was still more than an arm’s length away. He kneeled down, palms on the floor, hating the sight of his bloody knuckles. He forced himself to relax his shoulders. Scaring the boy was the last thing he wanted to do.

James thought of how scared he’d been when he’d arrived at Paul Ramsay’s home at age fifteen—it’d been his ninth foster home, and he’d had no expectations at the time that it’d be his last, but Paul had taken him in, had taken care of him … he was the one who had taught James how to be a man. Eventually, he’d given James his name, also.

James wished Paul had lived longer. He sighed. Paul would have known what to say to Dom. He’d always known the right thing to say.

“Dom … sometimes, adults do things they shouldn’t, to themselves or to each other, but it’s never the fault of the kids. You know that, right?”

Dom shrugged his slim shoulders, looking unconvinced. “That’s what my mom always said.”

His respect for Dom’s mother increased a hundred-fold.

“I promise you I’m not going to hurt her. I know it might not be easy to see,” he said, showing Dom his bruised, bloody knuckles, “but there’s a big difference between fighting and hitting. A fight is only fair if both opponents are evenly matched.”

Susan’s hands were clenched into fists by her side. Even dressed as she was, in black fishnet tights and four-inch heels, she looked fierce.

Dom nodded. Though his shoulders still turned inward, he seemed to have stopped shaking.

The kitten meowed, and the boy’s attention shifted. He filled the glove with milk, careful not to spill a single drop, then sat down and dangled it in front of the little cat, who sucked at it greedily, sometimes smacking at the glove with his velvety paws. Soon, he wasn’t going to need the glove at all.

James kept his voice nice and casual . “Does your dad still come by?”

Dom shook his head, but his eyes were full of worry. “Not for a long time.”

It was Susan who spoke up, coming up beside him. “If he does turn up, I want you to come down here and get Jay.”

“I will make sure he doesn’t hurt your mom,” James said, but even as he spoke, he was thinking of what would happen once this job was done and he left. He resolved to find out as much as he could about this man.