Hustle Him (Bank Shot Romance #2) (20 page)

I looked back at Vessa, who was all smiles. “I can’t do the job without you.”

“Cool! Did you hear that, Mom? I get to help.”

He went running upstairs
, I guess to tell his sister or aunt. I walked over to Vessa and took her back into my arms. “One day we won’t have to hide anymore.”

“I love you for having so much patience.”

“I love you for loving me.” I kissed her nose. She smiled and watched me walk up the stairs.

I didn’t mind waiting for Vessa to get her life situated. What killed me was being alone. No matter how happy I was with Vessa, it got hard being alone still. I was trying hard to move forward, but we were at a stand still
. It wasn’t like I was going to leave her, I just hated this part so much.

Vessa knew how I was feeling. Since we’d been together, for real this time, we promised not to keep any secrets. I was still seeing my therapist and she pushed me to always be open about my feelings. Vessa knew where I wanted her to be. We were so close to being able to make that kind of commitment.

The kitchen faucet was an easy job, especially with a helper like Logan. That kid was pretty damn sharp. I was surprised to find out that he knew the names of his tools. He handed me a wrench and a pair of pliers. In no time at all, we had the new faucet installed. He carried all the old pieces over to the trash and threw them away, while I washed my hands. I was surprised when he walked up and climbed between my arms to wash his hands too. “How come you didn’t come back to go fishing?”

I didn’t know if this was a conversation I was allowed to talk about. “I’m back now and I brought special bait. Why don’t you go ask your mom if we can go.”

She would think it was funny that I was asking, since the last time she’d freaked out so much. She came walking upstairs with a large basket. Instinctively, I took it out of her hands. She got a shocked look on her face. “I could have got that.”

“Pretty ladies shouldn’t have to carry heavy things, right Logan.” I nudged the kid in his arm.

“Did you just call my mommy pretty?” My smile disappeared. I’d stuck my foot in my mouth, but Vessa was going to stick her foot in my ass if I didn’t make it better.

“She’s okay. I mean, I bet she looks horrible in the morning when she wakes up.”

He laughed. “She looks like a monster.” He put his hands up like claws and growled.

“Hey, I’m standing right here you two.”

I grabbed the kid and threw him over my shoulder. He giggled the whole way. “Logan here wants to know if we can go fishing.” I gave him a slight wedgie before sitting him back down. He fidgeted with his underwear and then tried to give me one. Vessa covered her mouth as she laughed at us.

“It’s fine. Just be back in two hours for dinner.”

“Be back from where?” Asha came walking in the kitchen. She gave her brother a dirty look.

“We’re doing boy stuff, Asha. You can’t come!” Logan did not want his sister going with us.

“I want to go, Mom. That’s not fair.”

Vessa rolled her eyes and shook her head. I could tell that she thought I couldn’t handle them both at the same time.

“Why don’t the four of you go? I’ll finish dinner. Go have a good time,” Sue settled it.

While the girls changed and got shoes on, Logan helped me get the fishing equipment out of the shed.
The sun was blazing and it was a perfect day to be doing this. We walked down to the man made pond and all got situated on the pier. Logan wanted to bait the worm on all the rods, since he was fascinated that the worm still moved no matter how many times it was stabbed or poked. Vessa was busy having some girl time with Asha to care what we were doing.

I got Logan situated next to me with his rod. Just like the last time, he swung his legs off the little pier. After making sure the girls had what they needed, I sat back down and cast out my line. At first I didn’t notice it, but with little movements, Logan had scooted himself to be right up against me. He leaned his head on my arm and looked up. “Thanks for being my best friend.”

I put my arm around the kid and held it there while we fished. When I turned to look at Vessa, she was crying. I smiled and tried not to get emotional myself. I’d never want to replace the family just to move on, but being there on that pier felt so right. I had no problem being a part of these kid’s lives, even if it was a small part.

When the sun started to set, we
’d caught three fish. The girls caught two, but they let them go, because they were girls and didn’t want to touch them. Vessa helped me gather everything up and we walked back toward the shed to put everything away. When my hands were empty, I felt little hands grabbing one. Logan looked up at me and smile as we started to walk back to the house. Vessa looked over at me and smiled again, while Asha was walking ahead, doing cartwheels in the grass.

Vessa took Logan’s other hand we started swinging him as we walked. He was laughing and having a great time; we all were, until someone cleared their voice and took our special moment from us.

“What’s this?” From the amount of tattoo’s I took a guess and knew I was looking at Gavin. Vessa turned white as the guy started walking toward us. Logan kept hold of my hand until Gavin crouched down and called him. He kissed him on the top of the head, while looking right at me. “Hey, little dude. Where you been?”

“We went fishing. We caught three fish. Mom threw hers and
Asha's back. Ramsey is teaching me how to gut them.”

Gavin ignore his son and stood up. He never took his eyes off of me. “So you’re Ramsey? The same Ramsey that isn’t fucking my wife, right?”

“Gavin stop!” Vessa put her hands over Logan’s ears. “Asha, take your brother up to the house to wash up for dinner. Stay there until we get back.”

“Is Daddy eating with us?” She asked.

“Please just go to the house, sweetie.” I could tell that Vessa was furious. She waited until the kids were far enough away to get up in his shit. “What the hell are you doing here?”

He looked back at me again, like he wasn’t afraid that I could beat his little ass. “I could ask you the same thing. I thought you said
you weren’t with this guy. Then I come to visit my kids and he’s holding hands with MY son.” He emphasized the word son.

“I don’t
have to answer to you anymore. My relationship with Ramsey is none of your damn business. How did you even get my address?”

“It doesn’t matter how I got it. I see what’s been going on this whole time. Did you meet him online and come here to be together? Is that what you did, Vessa? Did you run right to him?”

I clenched my fists and tried to keep my cool. If he kept running his mouth, this wasn’t going to end well.

“I met Ramsey when I moved here. We were friends…”

“Were? So you are fucking my wife?” He asked me directly.

I looked over at Vessa, afraid of doing the wrong thing. Maybe I should have walked away, but his next statement put me over the edge.

“I wanna know if you’ve been fucking my wife. Are you hard of hearing? Is that how she got you to sleep with her? Are you deaf and dumb?”

I knocked that mother fucker on the ground with one punch. He jumped back up and ran toward me, knocking me down and sending us rolling down the hill. His punches weren’t
affecting me as much as Vessa trying to pry us apart. Gavin was swinging wildly, trying to make contact with me. When he fist hit Vessa in the shoulder, I lost it. She moved out of the way holding where he hit her and I never looked back. I took out all of my anger on him as he screamed and yelled whatever he could in between punches.

Vessa threw herself in front of me, wrapping her body around
mine, so that I wouldn’t be able to swing without hurting her. “Please stop! Please Ramsey…just calm down. Just calm down.”

I wrapped one arm around her, keeping my eyes on Gavin’s battered face. “He’s not going to talk to you like that, Vessa.”

He spit out blood. “Fuck you! I can say whatever I want to here. She’s not yours. She never will be. That girl right there has loved me her whole life. You really think you can compare to that?”

Vessa was crying. Her head was against my chest. It was hard, but I managed to stand up and then pick her up off the ground. “You keep thinking that. In the meantime, I’ll be the one she comes home to every night. This is the last time you’ll ever lay a hand on her.”

“Glad you’ll be there to pick up the pieces when I take the kids from her. There ain’t no judge around that’s going to let an alcoholic worn out sheriff near my kids.”

I couldn’t react fast enough to his words. Vessa weaseled out of my arms and went flying over to Gavin, who was just standing up. She pushed him back down on the ground. “I hate you! I hate you so much! Ramsey is a better man than you could ever be.”

“Yeah, we’ll see if you’re still saying that when social services comes for the kids. After they see my face, that verdict will be in my favor.”

She went running into the house. As I went to follow her, I felt him grab my arm and yank me back. I fell on my ass and saw him coming at me. My feet lifted and blocked his cheap blow. I rolled and stood up quickly, ready for his next attack. This guy could come at me all night long. He wasn’t ever going to be strong enough to take me. “This isn’t going to solve anything.”

“Says the guy that’s been sticking his dick in my wife.”

“Where do you get your information from, man? We’re just friends. Neither one of us has ever given anyone a reason to think otherwise.”

“Let’s just say that I know Vessa more than you. She would have come running home by now. I knew she found somebody. I might not have physical proof that you’re screwing, but I know you are. I can see it all over her face that she’s into you. What’s your story anyway? Why do you even want a used up whore with two kids?” I was going to kill him with my bare hands.

“It’s taking everything I have in me not to take four more steps and knock your ass out. I advise you to shut your mouth up about Vessa. You know she’s not a whore and a real man doesn’t walk away beca
use someone has kids. I don’t think you know her at all. You sure as hell don’t know me, or anything about me.”

We were up in each other’s faces again, only until Vessa came running down the hill after us again. She pushed us both apart and stood there between us. “Ramsey, go inside!”

“Hell no!”

“The police are on their way. Go in the house. Please!” She was pleading with me, but I wasn’t about to leave her alone outside with him.

“I’m not going in that house unless you’re with me.” She gave me this look, like I was making this harder for her.

“I can handle this. Just go inside and wait for them to get here. I want them to hear the truth before he tells his lies.
Everyone knows you acted in self defense.” A smile formed out of the corner of her mouth. She wanted to screw Gavin over and this was a good plan.

Except the police didn’t buy it. They took one look at Gavin’s face and put me in handcuffs, like I was a danger to be around. I argued with each of the deputies about who I was, but it didn’t make a bit of difference. Gavin was pressing charges for assault. I spent the night in jail because I took up for Vessa.

The next morning, when I was released, she picked me up from the police station. I knew she wasn’t happy. She looked terrible, like she’d been crying all night long. I ran my hand through her hair that was in a ponytail. “I’m sorry.”

She started talking with her hands, which was never a good sign. “Look, I get that you were taking up for me. I’m not mad about that. He deserved it. What I’m mad about it that you took it to a whole different level
after I walked away. The police took pictures of his face, Ramsey. He had to get seventeen stitches in his head and face.”

“I…I didn’t know.”

“What am I supposed to do now? This is exactly what I didn’t want to happen. He’s going to use this against me. He’s going to claim that I put the kids in danger being around you. I’m going to lose them.”

I started to answer her when my phone started to ring. I knew it was work related from the number, so I let it go to voicemail. “Vessa, what can I do to make this better? I’m sorry. I just lost it when he got his hands on you. I hated what he was saying. You should never be treated that way. He had no right to…”

“Save it. I can’t argue about this right now. I need to do some damage control and you aren’t going to like it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“We need to be apart for a while. I think if Gavin sees that you’re not in the picture, he’ll drop the charges.”

I wasn’t an idiot. “And how are you going to get him to do that, Vessa. You know what, don’t even tell me. I don’t think I want to know the answer to that.”

She slapped me in the chest and pulled the car over to the shoulder. “How dare you think I would do that. I never even considered sleeping with him. Is that what you really think of me?”

“Of course not! I just…”

“I can’t do this, Ramsey. It isn’t because I don’t love you, because you know I do. I just have to protect my kids. You’ve seen what he’s capable of. I wasn’t kidding around. He will stop at nothing until he takes them from me. I don’t know what else to do.” Vessa started crying and there was nothing I could say to make things better. I hadn’t slept. I felt like shit and there was no way I was getting out of the assault charges.