Lyon
Chapter 145

Kat’s up to some f**k again, I don’t know what it is yet but I’ma f**k it outta her. One hard stroke and she’d tell me anything, but I’m biding my time. Char and her shit got me thinking. Every year we have a big shindig at the house. Usually my crew and Mallory and his kids would drop in, but I never thought to invite Law and his people, maybe this year I would, we could all do with some merriment after the last few weeks of bullshit.

I found her and ma in my kitchen whispering about who knows what when I got home one evening and braced myself. Not for nothing, but there’s hardly ever a time when these two are huddled up that my a*s doesn’t end up in the middle of some shit I want no part of.

“What’re you two up to now?” The way they jumped apart told me all that I needed to know. “Okay what is it let me have it.” I folded my arms and leaned against the wall staring down the both of them. They shared a look and twiddled their thumbs. “Speak now or forever hold your peace ladies, Kat.”

“Uh, well, we were trying to come up with a way to give Caitie a nice Xmas. As you know Todd’s leaving the day after and she’s been very despondent lately.” How did I know this was about that damn kid? I wondered why my little girl had stopped moping around and bugging me about him, now I figured it was because these two had told her they were gonna work me.

“She’s not going.”

“Yes we know, you’ve told us about a hundred times already, but since you’ve had the kids on house arrest for the last few weeks and they haven’t really had time to say goodbye, we figured you’d be a little lenient. But, knowing how hardheaded you are, we thought maybe we could invite him and his family here instead.”

Elena gave me her best mother’s look like that shit was gonna sway me. Since I knew the two of them wouldn’t stop until they got something outta me, and truth be known, I wasn’t as worried about the little shit as I was before seeing my baby in that damn book, I was feeling a bit magnanimous.

“Tell me something, what is it with you two and this kid?” I left my post on the wall and pulled up a chair next to them. Kat got all nervous and shit and Elena studied me like I was in the interrogation room. There was a lot of throat clearing before either one of them decided to talk.

“Well Colton, since Caitie knows that you go into an epileptic fit when it comes to her and boys, she tells me things.”

“Things, what kinda things?” My growl had them both sitting back hard.

“You see, there you go, I’m trying to explain something to you and already you’re ready to jump. Just listen okay, and don’t get all bent out of shape before you hear the whole story.”

“Okay, keep talking.” Like I don’t have shit else to do around here.

“Okay, so do you remember that first time when Todd stood up to the bullies? Well there’ve been other things since then. Colton” My face must’ve looked like a thundercloud. “What other things and why am I only now hearing about them?”

“Well Colton, son, the fact that you’re gripping that chair arm hard enough to break it should give you an idea.” Elena gave me a stern look like I was five and she was two seconds from sending me to time out. I give a f**k. I’ve had about all I’m gonna take when it comes to my kid. They couldn’t know that I’d decided that the next motherfucker to even look at my little girl cross-eyed was gonna get f****d.

“Tell me Katarina.” She wasn’t looking too sure now but the bull was out the pen and there was no putting him back in. “Okay um, you know a couple months ago Todd went away for the school trip, they were gone for two weeks?” Yeah I remember, I remember having to run my kid off the phone at all hours of the damn night because of the time difference where he was or some shit.

So what the little f**k was smart and got to go off somewhere or the other to show off his brain skills, he still wasn’t good enough for my kid.

“Well while he was gone something happened.” I could feel the red haze covering my eyes. Not because something had happened, but because my wife hadn’t told me about it.

My stare got her to pick up the story again. “These boys sorta kinda cornered her, not really it wasn’t like that COLT” I was out my damn chair like a shot, my heart was beating the f**k outta my chest. I hit the stairs running and headed for Caitie’s room.

She was sitting on her bed with headphones on listening to music while leafing through a book. Why is this shit happening to me? Why can’t these f***s leave my family alone? I started to go in and ask her to tell me what had happened, but she looked so young, so happy, I didn’t wanna spoil that.

She’s so damn beautiful, is that why? It had taken days before I stopped seeing that flesh rag every time I looked at my little girl. Now everything that involved her was magnified in my mind. I can’t forget what happened to her mother when she was just a little older than she was now herself, and though I don’t hold anything against Drake, I’ll be f****d if anything like that is gonna happen to my kid. Not on my f*****g watch.