Chapter 17 #2
Cresley was quicker than him, though, and got to Beckett well ahead of Carson. She opened the truck’s door and punched Beckett in the face while Carson ran toward the two, who were now locked in a physical struggle across the street from their son’s school.
Noticing other parents pointing cell phones in their direction, Carson put himself between Cresley and the prying eyes.
“Stop.” He wrapped an arm around her to pull her off Beckett. “People are recording you.”
She froze.
“I’m Julian’s brother Carson.” When Beckett surged toward them, his lip bleeding and an abrasion on his cheek, Carson shoved him back and turned his focus on Cresley. “Let’s get you out of here.”
“I… um… I lost it when I saw him there.”
“I know. Keep your face down so they can’t get good pictures of you.”
She pressed her face into his chest as he walked her back to her vehicle.
He’d no sooner gotten her settled in the driver’s seat than a police officer approached them.
“Ma’am, I need you to step out of the vehicle.”
“Why?”
“We have numerous witnesses claiming you assaulted the man across the street, who’s bleeding from being hit by you.”
“He’s stalking me—and my kid!”
Carson handed the officer his card. “It’s true, Officer. I’ve been watching him all day. He’s been staking out her home and their son’s school.”
“So this is a custody matter?” the officer asked.
“No!” Cresley said. “I have full custody, and he’s trying to extort me for money. My attorney can confirm this.”
“I’ll need you to come with me while we sort this out.”
“I have to pick up my son! He’ll be out any second.”
“I’ll take him,” Carson said. “And I’ll call Julian.”
She looked at Carson and then at the school, where the children were now coming out to meet their parents and guardians.
Carson locked in on the gorgeous blue eyes that’d helped to make her a superstar. “I promise he’ll be safe with me.”
“I can’t be seen leaving with police. It’ll ruin me.”
“Can we follow you to the station, Officer? We’ll leave right from here. She’s a victim of a crime. You wouldn’t want to further victimize a woman who was defending her child from a stalker, would you?”
The young officer was clearly torn.
“Cresley, go get your son and get in the car.”
She took off while Carson kept his gaze trained on the officer.
“The one you should be arresting is him.” Carson used his chin to gesture to Beckett, who was gleefully watching the scene with the cop unfold.
Carson had no doubt that Beckett was the one who’d called the police in the first place. “He’s been following her all day.”
“That’s not a crime.”
“Isn’t it a crime to shake her down for money and use the kid he doesn’t give a shit about as leverage?”
“I’d need more information to determine that.”
“Please make sure you’re asking the right questions and not just assuming that she attacked him out of nowhere.”
Cresley buckled her son into his booster seat in the back of her SUV and got into the passenger seat.
“We’ll follow you to the station.”
“No games.”
“Understood.”
Carson used his key fob to lock his own car and got into the driver’s seat of Cresley’s Lexus SUV, nearly crushing his knees on the dashboard before he adjusted the seat to his height.
Then he navigated a U-turn into traffic to follow the officer to the Hollywood Community Police Station on North Wilcox Avenue.
“Ty, this is Mr. Remington. He’s going to hang out with you for a bit while I take care of some business, okay?”
Carson glanced in the mirror at the child, who was the mirror image of his mother. Lucky kid. “You can call me Carson, buddy.”
“Why are we following the policeman?”
“Mommy has to answer some questions for him, but it’s nothing to worry about, okay?”
Carson looked up in time to see the little guy’s chin quiver and his eyes fill with tears.
“I’m scared, Mommy.”
“Nothing to be scared about, love. I promise.”
When her voice broke on that last word, he reached over to cover her cold, trembling hand with his and noticed her right hand was bleeding. “You got a tissue or anything for that?”
She looked down and gasped at the sight of her bloody knuckles.
Carson withdrew his hand so she could root around in the glove box for a napkin, which she used to clean up the blood.
When they pulled into the parking lot at the station, Carson kept the car running as he handed her his business card. “I’ll call Julian right away. Hit me up when you’re done here, and I’ll pick you up.”
She looked at him. “Thank you.”
“No problem.”
“I won’t be long, Ty. Be good for Mr. Carson.”
“Want to get some ice cream?” Carson asked the boy.
“Sure,” Ty said as he watched his mom get out of the car and go inside with the officer. “Is she okay?”
“She’s fine. By the time we get some ice cream, she should be done with her meeting.”
He texted Julian so Ty wouldn’t overhear. 911—Cresley is in custody in West Hollywood for punching Beckett outside the son’s school. Can you get over there right away?
Julian replied a minute later. On it. She actually punched him?
Confirm. He’d been following her all day and should be the one charged. I’ve got her son, taking him for ice cream. Let me know when she’s released.
You’ve got her son?!
That’s what I said. Get her out of there!
Exasperated with his brother for making a thing of him taking care of Cresley’s kid, Carson used his phone to find an ice cream shop close by and headed in that direction, hoping Cresley wouldn’t be held for long.
Julian was right to question him watching Ty.
What the hell did he know about kids, anyway?
Not one thing, but he figured he was about to learn real fast.
Turned out, Ty was a trip, with keen observations about everything they encountered during their outing, from the ridiculous number of steps involved to pay for parking to the guy busking for tips on the street to the ninety-two varieties of ice cream he wanted to sample before he chose his flavor.
Normally, Carson would’ve been annoyed to be spending an afternoon with a kid, but this kid was funny.
“How old of a man are you, anyway?” Carson asked as they sat across from each other and ate their ice cream.
“I’m seven, and I’m just a kid, not a man.”
“Huh, I thought seven was a man these days.”
“You don’t know much about kids, do you?”
“Nope. What should I know?”
“That we’re not men—or women—until we’re eighteen to start with. Weren’t you a kid before you grew up?”
“Yeah, but that was a long time ago. I don’t remember.”
“How old are you that you don’t remember being a kid?”
“I’m thirty-six.”
“That is pretty old.”
“Hey! No, it isn’t.”
His belly laugh cracked Carson up.
“Only old people eat coffee ice cream,” Ty said, wrinkling his cute little nose.
“That is not true.”
“Is too.”
“It’s coffee crunch, I’ll have you know, and at least I didn’t sample ninety-two flavors before I got boring old strawberry.”
Ty smirked. “Who got the most ice cream? Me or you?”
Carson sat back, eyeing the kid with new respect. “So that’s a racket you’ve pulled before?”
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
“You missed your calling as a con man.”
“Still a kid over here. I’ve got time to become a con man.”
Carson chuckled. The kid was awesome.
“Could I ask you something?” Ty said in a more serious tone.
“Sure.”
“Is my mom in trouble because she hit my dad?”
“You saw that, huh?”
“Yeah. I’ve also seen him hanging out by the school the last couple of weeks, but I didn’t say anything because she doesn’t like talking about him.”
“I think she’d want to know you’ve seen him around.”
“Yeah, probably. I don’t get why he sits outside the school watching me on the playground but never tries to hang out with me or anything.”
“I don’t know why he does that, but he’s missing out. You’re fun to hang out with.”
“I know, right?”
Carson laughed.
“Are they going to put her in jail?”
“My brother is a really good lawyer, and he’s taking care of it. Try not to worry. Even if she gets charged, it’d be a minor thing. And there’s a case to be made for him following you guys around.”
“So he’s following her, too?”
Shit, I walked right into that… “Yeah, he has been.”
“How do you know that?”
“That’s a long story, but it’s part of my job to know what’s going on with clients of our law firm.”
“Are you a lawyer?”
“Nope, but my five brothers and three sisters are.”
His big blue eyes widened. “You have… nine kids in your family?”
“I do.”
“And they’re all lawyers?”
“The last one is still in law school and has to pass the bar exam, but the other seven are lawyers.”
“Why aren’t you?”
“Didn’t want to go to school that long.”
“How long is it?”
“Three years on top of college, plus months of preparing to take the state bar exam that makes you officially a lawyer. I had better things to do with my time.”
“Like what?”
“Surfing, basketball and chasing girls, to start with.”
“I’d love to learn how to surf. It looks like so much fun.”
“It is. I’d be happy to give you some lessons if you’d like to try it.
” The words were out of his mouth before he could take even a second to consider what he was saying.
If there was one thing he remembered from back in the day, it was that it wasn’t cool to promise a kid something and not deliver.
Plus, he needed to ask Ty’s mom if it was okay with her.
“You would? Really?”
“Sure.”
“I can’t wait to tell my mom! Do you know how much longer she’ll be there?”
“Let me text my brother.”
Julian wrote back a few minutes later that Cresley was going to be released with a court date the following month on a misdemeanor assault charge. I’m calling in a friend in criminal law to help make it go away, and I’ve got Jackson requesting an RO to keep Beckett away from her and Ty.
Tell Jackson I’ve observed him following her and sitting outside Ty’s school and can testify to that if needed. I’ve got photos. Ty told me he’s seen him lurking at the school the last couple of weeks, but he didn’t want to tell his mom that.
Good to know. I’ll tell him.