AllFreeNovel
Share Us
There was the constant chirp of cars unlocking except for one: Carter's.
"Oh, for fuck's sake," he cursed. "Spence, can you drop me off?"
"Sure. But I have something I need to do first."
He looked at me but just threw his shit into my SUV. As we hopped into the car, he looked back, and asked, "Why do you still have a car seat?"
"’Cause I'm a lazy fuck, but it works out since we need to go get Eric."
Everything went deadly silent, and I realized Carter didn't like my plan. "What the fuck are you playing at? You're going there now?"
Yup. He hated the idea.
"He called me, and things are bad. He's scared. I can't leave him behind. Just like you couldn't leave me behind when shit got real."
"And it created a giant ass legal storm for my parents."
Which was what we'd been so careful not to do until now. But I was willing to risk it by taking him. If only for tonight in order to protect him. It was about Eric and Annette's safety tonight.
"I know, and I'm willing to risk it."
Carter shook his head, but he knew nothing was stopping me right now. My mind was made up. I was going to save this kid from his nightmare.
We drove in silence to the neighborhood.
I pulled up to the house, and the police and ambulance were already there.
Thankfully, two police officers were trying to restrain Luke and push him into a vehicle, but he was screaming like a lunatic. "You were sleeping with him again, weren't you? You dirty whore."
We weren't even out of the cars just yet, and he switched his insults, "Oh look, more of your hockey hook-ups are here to play hero!"
Holy shit, this guy was on a tear with his deal about hockey players right now.
As much as I wanted to rip into Luke for slapping Natalie a couple weeks ago, I knew I couldn't touch him. He was already restrained by the police, and if I touched him, I would only undo everything we'd worked on for weeks.
Instead, I focused on looking for the two people who mattered most and trying to stay out of the way of the police since the last thing we needed was to get arrested or kicked off the scene.
That's when a gurney was pushed out of the house by a couple paramedics and a police officer. Annette had been beaten to hell, and you could barely recognize her face.
"Christ." Carter's word choice was perfect in that moment. I wasn't sure if it was a prayer asking for some divine intervention, a curse word, or all of the above.
That's when Eric dashed out of the house and leapt into my arms. "Mr. Spencer. You came."
"Yeah. I told you I was on my way." I held the kid up in a tight hug. While I had no clue what was going to happen with Annette, I knew one thing. She would have been dead if Eric didn't call me and the police. "You did good."
Much to my surprise, Annette tried to say something. It was too hard to make out from our distance, but God, I hoped it was telling the officers that we were okay to be with her son.
Almost immediately, the police officer went to talk to one of his colleagues who oversaw putting Luke into the police car. I just held Eric, hoping that we would be allowed to leave with him.
As he saw his mom going in the ambulance, he buried his head into my neck. He said, "I want to go with Mom."
"I know, bud, but she needs a lot of medical care. But after we get some rest, we'll go and see her since I know you don't want to sit in the waiting room doing nothing."
I didn't tell the kid how afraid I was that they wouldn't let me take him home.
Right when I was about to go up to the police officer to see if it would be okay, the officer talking with Annette closer, and there was that slight moment of recognition of either Carter or me, if not both of us. He asked, "Mr. Suzuki?"
I adjusted my grip slightly so I could extend my hand. "That's me. Nice to meet you."
