Bucking Bear (Pounding Hearts #3) (16 page)

I
’m actually
a little glad Max can’t be with me when it’s time to drop Hope off with Carson. Besides the obvious fact that Max hates Carson’s guts, Carson would probably take it as a threat or something and cause a scene in front of Hope.

I wish more than anything I could spare her from all of this. I wish her father could actually put her first instead of being a selfish asshole. I know she has to suspect something is up. She’s four but she’s certainly not stupid. Right now, though, she’s just sitting in the back quietly. Too quietly for her.

Driving her to Carson’s house is killing me inside. Every mommy instinct inside of my body is telling me this isn’t right; she won’t be safe. But my hands are tied. If I don’t fulfill my side of the custody agreement, he could use it against me to take her from me. The lawyer we met with the other day was very clear that I need to continue to honor our agreement and not give him any valid reasons for coming after me.

We could run away… the thought has crossed my mind. But we would be on the run for the rest of our lives, and we’d have to leave everyone we love behind. I don’t think I could run away from my parents or from Max, especially because it’s possible I could be carrying his baby.

“Want me to get out with you?” Mandy asks as I pull up into Carson’s driveway.

I shake my head immediately and sigh. “No, it’s probably best you stay in the car. This should only take a minute.”

Mandy nods and pats me on the hand reassuringly.

I turn and glance at Hope in the backseat. “Ready, honey?”

Her lips purse into a pout and her chin drops as she glares back at me.

She made it very clear this morning she didn’t want to come to Carson’s, she wanted to stay with Max. She knows he’s going to have to his big fight tomorrow and she is convinced he needs her.

She’s probably right. The two of them are kindred spirits, which is hilarious in a way. There’s been more than once since we’ve moved in that I felt like the odd man out. And you know what? I don’t even mind. I couldn’t be more thrilled that the two of them care about each other so much. It just makes it that much easier for me to love them both.

Sighing again, I push open my door and climb out of the car. Glancing towards the house I see Carson standing on his front porch, waiting.

Opening Hope’s door, I have to unbuckle her and try to nudge her out of her booster seat.

“It’s just for the weekend….” I whisper softly.

“I don’t want to.”

“Your father misses you and wants to spend time with you.”

“Carson isn’t my father.”

“Honey…”

“I want Bear.”

Stepping back, I just want to throw my hands in the air. I don’t even know how to placate her because I don’t like the situation either, and I really don’t want to drop her off and leave her here.

“Is something wrong?” Carson asks coming up behind me.

Great, just what I need. I have to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from snapping at him. Exhaling slowly through my nose, I shake my head. “Hope doesn’t want to get out of the car.”

Carson peeks inside the car and says coldly, “Come along, Hope. You know I hate to be kept waiting.”

Hope glances worriedly towards me and then she’s scrambling to get out of the car.

Something about it just doesn’t sit right with me.

Reaching in, I offer her my hand as she steps out but then she clings to my side, unwilling to let go. Carson closes the car door for me and doesn’t even spare a glance to Mandy sitting in the passenger seat.

He holds his hand out to Hope, clearly expecting her to take it.

Hope shakes her head
no
and hides her face against my leg.

Carson’s eyes narrow at Hope. I know I might be acting a little petty by not trying harder to help him with her but I’m a little curious to see how he handles her.

When I make no move to remove Hope from my leg, Carson’s narrowed eyes swing up to me.

“Have you considered my proposal?” he has the audacity to ask.

I’m stunned speechless for a moment before I start laughing.

Carson’s face reddens with anger and his hands fist at his sides. “What’s so funny, Grace?”

When I don’t answer, his lips pull up into a snarl. “You think losing custody is funny? Because that’s what’s going to happen.”

I shake my head, my laughter dying away and look him in the eye. “That’s not happening.”

“Yeah?” He asks, confusing my meaning. “So you’re going to give it a try with me?”

I glance down at Hope and she peeks up at me. I really want to cuss him out, to tell him off, to give him a piece of my mind, but for her sake I’m restraining myself. “No, I don’t want to give it a try with you Carson. We were over in high school.”

“So it’s going to be like that, eh?” he asks angrily.

I spread my hands out helplessly. “If that’s what you want to think.”

“What I think…” His snarl twists into a smirk. “Is that I’m going to win custody and then you’ll be begging to get back with me.”

I roll my eyes upwards, heaven help me. “I don’t want to be with you, Carson. Please understand that regardless of what you try to do to me that’s not going to change.”

He takes a menacing step towards me and I resist the urge to shrink away.

“You’re making a big mistake, Grace,” he warns me.

I shake my head, totally disagreeing.

He gets up in my face and this time I can’t help but wince. He’s seriously invading my personal space.

My skin crawls as I feel his eyes roaming all over me and his hot breath hitting my face.

“Why don’t you want to be with me?” he asks and looks pointedly down my shirt. “Is it because of that fighter punk you hooked up with? He hasn’t dumped you already? He will…”

Pressing my lips together, I refuse to take the bait and respond.

“A used up, stretched out chick like you?” he chuckles. “Yeah, he’s only with you until something better comes along. Trust me, Grace.”

I move to take a step back but he stops me by grabbing my arm. “Let go of me,” I hiss out between my clenched teeth.

He ignores me. “Is that a hickey?” he growls and then he’s grabbing my face painfully, tipping my head to the side so he can stare at my neck.

“Get your hands off me!” I yell and try to push him away.

“You little whore!” he yells back at me and shoves me hard. I fall backwards, hitting the driveway and Hope falls with me. All the alarms in my head go off when I hear her cry out.

“Hope, honey, are you okay?” I ask, pulling her up to my chest and visually checking over her body.

Hope sniffles into my shirt and tells me, “My knees hurt, Mommy.”

Carson looms over us and screams some more. “I can’t fucking believe you. I offer you everything but you just can’t stop being a slut. What kind of example do you think you’re setting for our daughter?”

“That’s enough, asshole!” Mandy calls out.

Huffing angrily, Carson whirls around to face her.

Mandy waves her phone in the air. “Yeah, I saw what you did and I just called the cops. You better move away from them!”

Carson looks to me, then back to her, then to me again. Taking a step back, I can see him calculating his odds of getting out of this.

Hope starts to whimper and cry against me in earnest. Her little knees are scraped up pretty bad from the fall. I wrap my arms around her to comfort her and protect her.

“Fuck, it was an accident, Grace,” Carson’s face falls as the full gravity of the situation finally hits him. “Are you okay?”

He takes a step toward me and I snap out, “Don’t!”

Jerking back, his eyes widen with panic. He glances towards Mandy and she waves her phone at him again. “They’re on their way.”

Like the spineless coward that he is, Carson takes off running.

I don’t waste another second. Scrambling to my feet, I pull Hope up with me and apologize, “I know it hurts, honey, I’m sorry,” as I carry her towards the car.

Nodding her head, Mandy hops back into the passenger seat and shuts the door quickly. She even turns the ignition for me as I get Hope quickly buckled in her seatbelt.

“They’re not really coming. I didn’t call them yet,” Mandy says quietly. “Do you want me to?”

Just as I hop into the driver’s seat, Carson’s garage door lifts and his black Audi peels out, narrowly avoiding a collision with my car.

Hope is sobbing in the backseat; Mandy is looking at me worriedly.

I’m totally not in the right frame of mind right now to make this call. Calling the cops in could either solve all of my problems or just make them worse. With how good Carson is at spinning things, he’d probably try to put all the blame on me in some way…

“I don’t know,” I say and throw my car in reverse. The one thing I do know is that I’ve got to get us out of here before Carson comes back.

“I have it all on video,” Mandy drops her voice to a whisper and I glance over at her in shock.

“You recorded it?”

“Yeah,” she nods. “I just had a feeling… What a schmuck.”

R
aising my arms up
, I flex them both in the classic bodybuilder pose as I receive my final weigh-in weight.

“Max Harper, weighing in at two-hundred and sixty-four pounds,” the official announces.

I step off the scale and walk over to stand across from Marcellus.

This is it, it’s fully official. We are fighting. Marcellus came in at two-sixty-five. Nothing left for either of us to do but fight Saturday night.

I stare him down just as he is staring me down, our fists are raised at each other.

The camera flashes are almost blinding. This is one of those press moments that seem to take forever.

We separate without saying a word. We aren’t friends and we won’t pretend to be.

I head back behind the curtain where Brett is waiting with Chase and Dale. My weight wasn’t even a question, I checked at home and in the gym with the guys before we drove over to the arena for the official stuff.

Dale has my gear in his hands as he hands me my phone. “You need to call Grace, Max. She called me and asked for you to call her as soon as you can.”

What the fuck?

Grabbing my phone, I see two messages for me to call her as soon as possible and two missed calls. What the fuck happened?

Dialing her number, it barely rings once before she picks up. The guys are all surrounding me, and out of the corner of my eye I see Brett making a phone call. He peels away from us as well.

“Max?”

“What’s going on, baby?”

“Can you come home?” she asks and I can hear a crying Hope in the background. What the fuck? Hope is supposed to be with Carson right now.

“What’s wrong? Why is Hope with you?”

“Please come home, Max. Hope has been crying for you and won’t stop.”

“Let me talk to her?” I ask softly.

I don’t know what happened but shits not good. I nod to the guys as I walk towards the door. Brett is striding right beside me though. He has a really pissed off look on his face and I bet he is talking to Mandy. Hope first then I will get the story.

“Be…Bear…I got hurts… He pushed me and…and Mommy down. I got lots of cuts.” Her words aren’t nearly as clear as they should be, that’s because of all the tears and sniffling I hear.

Hope is normally extremely well spoken, I rarely if ever have to have her repeat words.

“I’ll be home soon, little bear. Can you be really strong like me and give your mommy a hug?”

“Yeah. I don’t want to leave again? Okay?”

“Leave? What do you mean?”

“I don’t want to go to Carson, he hurt us bad.”

“I’ll be right there, baby. Put Mommy on the phone.” I don’t want to promise something I can’t deliver to her. No matter how much I want to make it so, I can’t endanger Hope. She needs Grace as her mother and home.

Looking behind me, I see all the guys surrounding me as I am about to get in my SUV. Brett is disconnecting right as Grace says, “Thank you, she has been so upset.”

“I’ll be home as soon as possible.”

“I love you, Max. Please drive carefully.”

Disconnecting the phone, I look to Brett. “What’s the story?”

“Carson got pushy with Grace. Apparently he was pushing way too hard to get Grace to get back with him. He saw a hickey or something and went ballistic. Pushed Grace down, and Hope was hanging onto her leg and fell with her.”

At this he looks at me. “They are okay, but Hope is freaking out. Grace is in full mommy mode and Mandy is trying to get the sharpest knife she can to castrate the fuck.”

“Got it.” I swing into the SUV and tell them. “I’ll call you guys in a bit. I need to get home and take care of Hope and Grace.”

“No doing anything stupid, Max.” Dale says quietly. “After the fight we will go hunting for the fuck, but not now.”

Shrugging my shoulders, I say, “He hurt my girls, Dale. I’ll be smart but I can’t promise anything.”

Chase waits until I have the door shut before he knocks on the window. Rolling it down, he waits until I nod. “I got some spots back behind my house.”

That’s it, nothing else. He just turns away from me and walks over to his black Impala.

Brett nods to me. “I’ll see you at the house.”

Dale looks to the sky. “Lord don’t let us catch him till after the fight.”

I watch as Dale and Chase get into the black Impala. Brett gets in his truck and he is waiting for me. Pulling out we head home.

I
hear
the girls in the kitchen as I enter the back door of the house. There is a quiet sound of whimpering as step in.

“It hurts,” Hope whimpers as Grace is bending in front of her. I can’t see much but Mandy is sitting down beside Hope, her arm wrapped around her tiny shoulders.

“I’m so sorry, honey, I have to clean…”

“Bear!” Hope shouts as she wiggles free of Mandy and jumps past Grace. She flies across the kitchen to leap up into my arms.

Sweeping her up, I hug her tight to me for a long time. She is crying silently in my arms for most of the time. I just stand there hugging her, trying to squeeze all my love and care into her little body.

“My knees hurt, Max,” she whispers.

I nod my head as I pull back. “Can I fix ‘em for ya?”

“Can you make it stop?”

Nodding my head, I say, “Yeah, Uncle Dale showed me how to fix booboos.”

She looks at me reluctantly for a long moment then solemnly nods her head. “Okay.”

Looking over to Grace, I see she has tears on her cheeks. I stretch my arm out as I pull her tight into my side.

Hugging her as hard as I can, I say “I love you, baby, let’s go get little bear fixed up.”

Nodding her head, she says, “He went too far, Max.”

“That’s what Brett says.”

Looking to Brett, he is standing there, staring at me. His eyes are on fire right now. He must be getting close to the rage I feel.

“Can you make some bacon for us? Maybe some eggs?” I ask him. He first looks at me like I have two heads, but nods his head anyway.

“It’s the magic food, remember?” I say to him. He must get what I am hinting at as Mandy pokes his side.

“Oh yeah, bacon and eggs make the booboos go away.”

“Yep,” I say as I nod my head.

We walk out into the hall and go up the stairs through the house to the bathroom attached to Hope’s bedroom. Inside, I sit her down on the cabinet and start grabbing wash rags from the closet, then the bandages from the medicine cabinet.

Kneeling down in front of her, I gently clean off the dried blood. The scratches, while many, are thankfully shallow, but I have no doubt they hurt as much as she feels they do.

“Why is Uncle Brett making bacon, Bear?”

“Because it’s magical food. It makes the pain better, especially after we take some medicine for the pain.”

Putting Ninja Turtle bandages on her knees, I kiss each one and stand up. Picking her up in my arms, she snuggles up to my neck. I smile at Grace and stare at her for a long time. I love this woman and right now even more. I am so thankful it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I wish more than anything that it didn’t happen, but I now have all the ammunition I need.

“Does mommy have any booboos I need to look at?” I ask.

She smiles and shakes her head, “No, none that I care to show.”

Grinning, I say, “Good. I will take care of those tonight.”

Nodding her head, she leads us back down the stairs. I can see dirt smudges on her jean clad ass. Her elbows have some scratches too. She is in full mommy mode though and I bet they don’t hurt yet.

Entering the kitchen, I smell the heavenly scent of bacon and fried eggs. I guess I am cheating tonight. Glancing over to Mandy, I set Hope down on the counter next to Grace. I lean down and hug Mandy tightly for a moment then pull back.

“Thanks for protecting my girls, Mandy.”

She nods her head and says, “I can’t believe he went crazy. He is so…”

Shaking my head, I nod towards Hope. “Let’s focus on better things right now. Like how bacon tastes so good no matter what meal you have it with.”

B
rett and Mandy
leave a couple hours later. Brett asks me to tell him when I am ready to go hunting.

Not going to right now, this is personal.

Thank goodness Mandy got the video. She sent it to me and Grace both. We made copies on the computer, and I am guessing this is checkmate on the whole custody issue.

Grace curls up beside Hope on her bed as they watch cartoons, and not even twenty minutes later they are asleep.

I stare at them from the door for a long time.

They are my world now. For them I would give up anything. I would walk away from everyone and everything for them. I would leave fighting behind this instant if I had to. For them I would turn this world to ashes to kill the man who hurts them.

I am ready to burn the whole world Carson has built up down.

Down to the fucking ashes.

I walk away from them sleeping peacefully in Hope’s bed. They are my loves.

Getting into my Escalade, I put the windows down as I pull out of the garage. It’s hot out but I don’t give a shit. I need fresh air. Right not the rage in me will not accept comfort, it wants heat and damage. It begs to be released.

To destroy.

I am pulling down my driveway when I see Dale is waiting at the end of my drive. He is leaning against the hood of his car, staring at me.

Stopping next to him, he comes up to the passenger window. “The girls okay?”

“Yeah. Hopes got some good scratches but she’s okay now.”

He opens up the door and climbs in. “Let’s go have a look around.”

Nodding my head, I shift and drive towards the main part of the city, where Carson works and lives.

L
ast night was
a long fucking night. We drove around for hours and then just sat in Carson’s driveway until almost midnight.

Grace texted me a couple of times but I couldn’t answer her beyond saying I was not in trouble and that I love her.

How was I supposed to just let shit like Carson pulled go unanswered? I couldn’t.

Dale stayed with me the entire time. I don’t know what he would have done if I had found Carson. Would he have been the good angel on my shoulder or the bad?

Eventually we stopped the watch. Today I have to fight, and as much as I want to hurt Carson, I have to move on until I do find him.

I slipped into bed last night behind Grace. She wasn’t asleep like I thought.

When my arm wrapped around her, she quietly asked, “Did you find him?”

“No.”

“When you do… don’t kill him. Hope and I wouldn’t make it well without you in our lives.”

I laid there a very long time thinking on what she said, then said, “I won’t.”

“I love you Maximilian Harper.”

“I love you Grace Harper.”

She rolled over to me. “What’s that supposed to mean? You haven’t proposed yet.”

“I will though. You’re mine and so is Hope. I won’t do anything that will put you two in jeopardy.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

We slept last night like that, face to face, our hearts beating for each other.

Yeah, even to me I think that sounds corny as fuck, but it is what it is.