Page 72 of Single Teddy
“I was just trying to get my homework,” Valentin whined as he came down the stairs, and I stared at the little boy.
But he had his homework in the living room. And when he’d brought it down earlier, I hadn’t heard a peep.
“I’m sorry I woke you up.” Niko pouted and dipped his head in submission in front of his father.
“I’ve told you a hundred times to keep quiet. And you’re not supposed to wander upstairs.”
I glanced at the top floor..
Was that where everything was? Was that where they operated from? Had Teddy and Joey heard that?
“I’m sorry. It won’t happen again,” Valentin said, and Barnes glanced at me before dismissing his son.
I dreaded to think how he’d have reacted if I wasn’t there, but I was glad I was.
“Why don’t we return to the living room and continue studying?” I wrapped my arm around Valentin and dragged him away before the brute of a man changed his mind.
I could feel Barnes’s gaze on the back of my head like a hundred pin pricks, but as soon as we disappeared into the living room, Barnes returned to the kitchen.
“Are you okay?” Valentin whispered.
I looked down at the boy in shock. He was concerned for me when he had been about to get a beating.
“I’m fine, sweetheart. Why are you asking?”
Valentin didn’t answer, just shrugged and sat next to his brother again, and I was left stumped.
Stumped and horrified.
Had Valentin caused unnecessary mayhem to rescue me from his dad? And what exactly would Barnes have done if Valentin hadn’t gotten his attention?
TWENTY-ONE
TEDDY
I’d been tapping my foot since Wesley walked into the house, but when things started escalating and I detected the note of panic in his voice, I all but put my foot through the floor of the car. It took a miracle and Joey to keep me at bay, as well as planning how many ways I would twist Barnes’s neck if he so much as laid a finger on Wesley.
When he came out of the house, Joey drove down the road like the last time, and I watched the beautiful teacher with a heart of gold practically run down the street as if his life were on the line. My guts twisted watching him, and something rose in my chest, something familiar that I hadn’t felt since the last time I was in the field. A need to protect.
Joey came to a stop around the corner, but instead of waiting for Wesley to jump in the back, I rushed out, took him in my arms, and channeled all my warmth to him, hoping it would offer him as much comfort as it did me.
“You’re okay now. You’re okay,” I repeated over and over again, if not for him, then definitely for me.
“I’m okay,” he said, and just as I leaned back enough to kiss his forehead, my lips met his instead.
It was brief, barely a touch, but it had the spark of a thousand suns.
“I’m sorry,” he muttered and pulled back from my embrace.
I felt empty without him in my arms. I wanted to be wrapped around him again, but before I did something silly, Joey spoke up.
“I don’t want to interrupt…whatever this is, but do you think we can get out of here before we’re seen?”
That snapped me back to reality, and I opened the door for Wesley before I jumped in the front seat and we got the hell out of there.
“Are you all right, Wes?” Joey glanced at him through the rearview mirror.
Wesley nodded.
