Page 57 of Live Love Steal
“Just… go.”
A million questions hung on my lips. Are you going to be okay? Will you be ready for court in the morning? Who is going to take care of Noah while you’re there? And more urgently, I wanted to blurt out something really stupid. It was way too soon to feel anything like that, let alone say it. But my heart was bleeding for him. I wanted to step in and catch him so his life wouldn’t be difficult anymore. I wanted to be his and Noah’s cheerleader, so they both could realize their potential.
And I didn’t want to abandon him. Not when things were so awful. My bad day had bled into his, making it his bad day. It was my fault his world had gone to shit. If I could stay and make it a little easier, I’d…
“You have work in the morning. The pitch… go.”
That was an order.
Adulting sucked.
I packed up my computer and told Noah goodbye. Then I picked up Sketch’s arm. I drew a small set of lines and a circle on it. It matched the lines on my wrist. “Now you’re iron… good luck in court tomorrow—today.”
14
Maintenance - Sketch
Noah didn’t have dress clothes at my place, and my suit was wrinkled from spending the better part of yesterday crumpled in a heap at the foot of my bed. And I didn’t have time to fix that, but I managed to get us fed, clean, and dressed in the time between getting released from the hospital at four a.m. and our meeting with the lawyer at nine thirty. I’d gotten about two hours of sleep somewhere in there. In contrast, Sharon looked well-rested and fucking chipper. And her clothes were new. My eighty dollars did that.
She breezed through the security checkpoint.
Noah did as well.
My wallet set off the alarm. Then my belt buckle. Through it all, I let them wand me and all the other bullshit so I could get upstairs.
Sharon and Noah took the elevator.
I was just getting my shit straightened out when some poor asshole behind me set off the detector. They’d made the crucial mistake of hanging onto their cellphone.
The guard stopped them and said, “You can’t use your electronics in the courtroom.”
I smirked.
Then took the stairs to the seventh floor.
My lawyer was waiting with Sharon. Noah leaned on my ex, still feeling wiped out from the night we had. I wished for the millionth time that I had someone who could take care of him when I needed to do bullshit like this.
But that wouldn’t be a problem after today. Last night was a wake-up call. My life was too volatile to be a full-time dad. I’d come so close to losing everything yesterday. And, despite being a horrible person, Sharon had a point. Eventually, being a Destroyer would get me arrested. So, I begged her for one last night with Noah. She agreed too quickly and took off, leaving her son with me at the hospital. You’d think I’d be used to that treatment by now.
“Are you ready to go in?”
My lawyer held out her arm to lead us to one of the side chambers. I stopped at the door and asked her if she could hang back for a moment.
Briefly, I explained the situation at the hospital last night. “I wasn’t there for him yesterday. And I’m willing to compromise, if she can just make more time for me to see him.”
My lawyer frowned. “Now is not the time for cold feet. You want full custody, don’t you?”
Someone cleared their throat behind us. Jackson stood in the hall with Bear at his back. Griz and Wolf filled in behind them.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
Jackson stepped forward and handed off a folder to the lawyer. “We cleared the release of his holdings information, and you will see our proposal in there as well.”
She flipped it open. On top was a check. I grabbed it to look at the zeroes. “Ten grand?”
Jackson nodded. “There’s another one written for twenty-five. Our max to offer if she’ll walk away.”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t work that way.”
