“Is she awake?” Daisy asks, her voice soft and soothing.
“No,” Jax whispers, his voice cracking.
Daisy nods to herself. “Okay, good. That’s good. We will be there soon, okay?”
We race down the stairs, both of us pulling on our shoes. I grab my keys from the bowl and then we’re jogging toward my truck.
Jaxon texts me his address and we stay on the phone with him the whole time. Daisy does an amazing job of keeping him calm, giving him as much reassurance as he needs while not giving him the sameeverything’s going to be okayspeech.
Because let’s face it, everything is not going to be okay. This poor kid has spent the majority of his life just trying to survive. He’s grown up fending for himself and has spent the last couple of months working his ass off to keep food on the table for himself and his little sister.
He should be off in college, throwing parties and getting drunk with his friends, earning a degree and securing his future. He should be meeting girls, having fun and living his life like a fucking teenage boy should. But instead, he’s raising a child he didn’t sire, paying bills hecan’t afford and taking on responsibilities he shouldn’t have.
And now… fuck, I don’t even know. I don’t know what he’s seen. I don’t know what to expect when we get to his house. Whatever it is, it’s not good. It’s the type of shit that sticks and has the power to mess a person up for life.
How does a mother do that to her children?
It makes me fucking sick.
I pull onto Jaxon’s street and am immediately greeted with blue lights. They light up the sky and the surrounding neighbourhood. People stand on their porches, watching with curious eyes and hushed whispers as emergency service personnel trek in and out of the run-down house.
I grip Daisy’s hand as my truck comes to a stop behind a police vehicle. “I don’t know what we’re about to walk into here, Dais.”
She swallows, her eyes wide and so incredibly fucking sad as she looks between me and the scene unfolding ahead. “I know.”
“You don’t have to come in,” I assure her, but she shakes her head.
“There are two children in that house. I’m coming in.” Without further ado, she opens her door and climbs out. I take a short second to compose myself before following.
She takes my hand as I round the truck, and we approach the house together. A police officer with greying hair and hard eyes meets us at the bottom of the steps, stopping us from going any farther.
“Are you Killian?” he asks me and I nod.
“Yes, sir.”
“And you’re the boys boss?”
“Jaxon’s boss, yes,” I correct him, slightly irritated that he doesn’t even have the decency to use his name.
“Hmm,” he hums with a nod. “Were you aware of the dire conditions your employee has been living in?”
Is he fucking serious? What kind of fucking question is that?
I haven’t even stepped foot inside yet, for fuck’s sake.
My jaw clenches. “No.”
He pulls a notepad from his breast pocket and flicks through the pages. “From the information I’ve gathered from him, he has been taking care of a minor for the past three years. CPS are on their way. They’ll be taking both of them into their custody.”
I open my mouth to respond but another officer steps onto the porch, clapping a hand on his colleague’s shoulder. “Thank you, Henry. I’ll take it from here.”
The new guy dismisses the asshole with a flick of his chin and waits for him to leave before turning to me and offering me his hand to shake. “I’m Deputy Clark. Killian, right?”
I nod, returning his handshake. “And this is my wife, Daisy.”
“Nice to meet you both. I’m sorry it’s under such unfortunate circumstance.”
Daisy and I return his greeting with solemn expressions. “Can we go in there?”
