“Devon,” I said, nodding. “Go on, climb in.”
He was petrified, and couldn’t move. I couldn’t blame him. So, I pulled him into my arms and climbed in with him. The man holding the still struggling Carly followed us in, but only to throw her in against me. The man with the gun climbed in and slammed the door.
“Go!” he barked. “Before one of these assholes calls the cops.”
I grabbed Carly and pulled her against me from where she had bounced from the toss. “You have to stop screaming, Cars. Deep breath. Please. Tell me who this is.” We were slammed against the back of the seat as the limo took off.
Devon gasped through his panic, “It’s Daddy.”
Fuck.
“That’s right, Devon.” The slime and dishonesty oozed from every pore on this man. “You do remember me. Do you know where I’m taking you?”
Carly started hyperventilating and I held her tight.
“Away from Mommy,” Devon answered.
Gerry’s hand came down and cracked the boy across the face. I pulled him on to my lap and held him against my chest while he wept from the sting.
“All that training is gone. We’ll have to start over.”
“You sent Aubrey the custody papers,” I said. “Why aren’t you just waiting for the courts to work.”
“I need to get my children away from you filthy sodomites. You’ll be helpful for a while, Mister Orback. I can teach them with a direct example of what sins you carry.”
“He doesn’t sin!” Carly threw herself at Gerry, clawing and screaming. “You’re a horrible, terrible father! You let those men touch—”
Gerry slapped her so hard she spun around and landed hard on my shoulder.
I could feel my anger rising at what she had just implied. My eyes grew wide at the panting, red faced piece of shit sitting on the bench.
Carefully I put my hand on the back of Carly’s head and encouraged her to lift her face. “Can I see your face, baby girl? Lemme see?”
She lifted her head, and there was a gouge across her cheek surrounded my red, angry skin. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Gerry spin his ring around a few times. He’d moved it so he’d hurt her.
“Devon, can you get your wipes and hand sanitizer out for me?”
Delightfully he had come back to himself enough to do that, and pulled out exactly what I asked for. He held the wipes as I took the sanitizer and opened it. “This is gonna hurt, sweetie, but we need to do it.”
She closed her eyes and I carefully dabbed some in the bleeding cut. She hissed, and her eyes filled with tears.
“Stop crying,” Gerry said.
“You shut the fuck up right now, you lousy son of a bitch,” I snapped. I wanted to rip his balls off, but I needed to take care of Carly.
Devon handed me one of the wet wipes and I wiped the blood off her face, and wiped all around the cut. A moment later, Devon had another wipe for me and I folded it so Carly could hold it over the cut.
“Thank you, Devon,” I said. “Can you put that all away?”
He nodded.
“You don’t have to listen to this faggot.”
I didn’t even turn and look at him. “Really? That all you got? You’ll have to try harder—I’ve been called worse by lesser men.”
“You want me to punch your face?” he growled.
“Why not? You just punched your own kid in hers.”
