CHAPTER TEN
COHEN
This woman is a magnet, and she has been drawing me to her since the second I laid eyes on her. Yesterday was wonderful, but today in this old house with Kyla and Laney—well, that’s everything.
But when our quiet morning is interrupted by who I can only assume is the man she was running from, the peaceful day comes to a screeching halt.
Kyla’s face is pale as she turns and looks at Laney and says, “Stay inside, please.”
Not waiting for a response, Kyla walks past me and heads out the door, and I’ll be damned if I let her go out there alone looking like her world just shattered.
Absolutely the fuck not.
I follow her and stand on the porch, allowing her to take the lead but offering her my support should she need it. She has her arms crossed, and her presence radiates tension and dread, but there’s a little spark there, just under the surface.
I see it.
The tall, dark-haired man approaches with a sneer and stops at the bottom of the steps before he speaks.
“Well, isn’t this cozy?” He spreads his arms out as if to encompass us and everything around us. His tone drips with arrogance and condescension.
Prick. Instantly I hate him.
“What are you doing here, John?” Kyla’s voice has a slight tremble, and I fight the urge to comfort her.
“You stopped answering my calls. You took my daughter. Good thing I pay Steve to tail you, or I wouldn’t have found you so easily. I had to see with my own eyes where my daughter was living.”
I hear a soft creak of the old wooden floors behind the screen door, and I know if I turn around, I will see Laney standing there.
“And you are?” John asks, raising his voice as he leans around Kyla to get a better look at me, like I’m hiding behind her.
I oblige him and step up beside Kyla. I sense Laney moving to hide at his raised tone, and it takes everything in me to keep myself from stepping off this porch and showing him exactly who the hell I am.
Don’t beat up Laney’s dad.
“I’m someone that doesn’t appreciate you raising your voice around a woman and a child.”
John scoffs before focusing his ire back on Kyla.
“You took our daughter and left. You think a judge is going to look favorably on a kidnapper running off to fuck a country boy? That screams stability, Kyla.”
My fists clench. This manipulative piece of shit.
He doesn’t deserve Kyla or Laney. I know that he saw her through the door. He knows Laney is listening.
“She is loved. She is safe.” Kyla’s eyes shimmer with unshed tears. I can hear it in her voice. I cannot stand seeing her this upset. I want to pummel this idiot, but that is the last thing the girls need.
Although my cousin Ace can handle problems. That’s always an option.
“That’s not what the court will look at. You’re homeless. You don’t have a job. You don’t have anything or anyone. Everything you own is mine. Laney, too.”
And there it is. This manipulative bastard. He is using everything he can think of to control Kyla. That’s not love; that’s possession.
“John, please. Don’t take her from me.”
I’m done with this. He’s hurt Kyla and Laney enough, and it ends here and now.
“She has both.” I protectively edge closer to Kyla.
His eyes go wide, and he looks at me. “Oh, yeah?”
“She has a stable home. She has support, and if you need to drag her through court to make yourself feel important, we’ll be ready.”
Joh scoffs and smirks at Kyla. “I suggest that you get ready for the battle of your life then, Kyla.” He turns and walks back to the car, and I watch him go.
What a self-important asshole.
Kyla sniffles beside me and turns, wiping her eyes as she heads back inside. I hear her whispering to Laney, who is still at the door. Once the sedan is backing up and turning around, I go in after them.
I find Kyla grabbing their things and putting them into bags.
“You don’t have to leave.” My voice sounds loud amidst Kyla’s sniffles and the sounds of packing.
“Don’t I? I told you, his family is powerful. I cannot put you and your family in the middle of this.”
“But I don’t want to leave, Mommy. Cohen is going to take me to get some pink boots, and I never got to pet a cow.” Laney stands by the nightstand, her blue eyes red from where she’s been crying.
Kyla’s head drops. “I’m sorry, baby. I am.”
Laney’s declaration is like a fist to the heart. I’ll buy her a hundred pairs of boots. I don’t know what to do or what to say. I can’t lose them. I just found them.
“Sometimes things worth having are hard. The choices to get there are hard, but it is worth it in the end. Here is where you belong. You don’t have to run. I’ve got you, Kyla. Whatever you need. However I can help.”
She stops placing things in Laney’s bag on the dresser, and when she looks at me with that scared look in her eyes from years of dealing with a terrible, one-sided relationship, my heart breaks for her.
There’s only one thing I can say.
“Stay.”