Chapter Fourteen

This was the first week since the divorce that Sloane hadn't cried. Captain was a huge help in distracting her while Ruger was at his dad's for his custody time. She was feeling more and more like her old self, but also she was discovering a new self she hadn't ever considered.

For the past year, she'd gotten lost. Perhaps it had started way before that. Perhaps she'd lost herself in the years she'd been confused about her value, but now? She could tell she was getting stronger.

Maybe it was the company she was keeping. She'd spent the last four days with Captain, and two of those nights had been spent up at the trailer park he lived at, hanging with the Fastlanders. The ladies there especially were bringing out her old, fun self.

A knock sounded at the door, and she smiled to herself and pushed off the sofa where she'd been writing in her journal. Captain would be standing there with a bag of something. He hadn't said the L-word, but he had an obvious love language, and it was gift-giving.

The smile she wore faded the second she pulled the door open. Ryan stood there.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded.

"Drop-off," he said, gesturing to where Ruger was running from his car, his little backpack bouncing this way and that with every step.

"He's supposed to be in school," she said, squatting to scoop Ruger up in her arms in a hug. "Heeeey, buddy. I missed you so much! Did you have so much fun at your dad's?"

"Kind of," he said, his eyes going serious as he leaned back.

"Ru, go to your room," Ryan said. "I need to talk to your mom."

"No, you don't," she said, setting Ruger down. "You aren't supposed to be pulling him out of school early, Ryan. What are you doing?"

"I figured I would save you the drive and do the drop-off here today. Before your little fuck-boy gets here."

Her eyebrows arched up and her fist itched to bash him across the jaw.

She cleared her throat delicately and looked down at Ruger, who was glaring at his dad. "Hey buddy, can you go in the other room. I'll be right there, and we can make a snack together."

"Journaling?" Ryan asked as she watched Ruger meander toward his room, looking back at her a couple times with a somber expression.

Sloane hugged her journal to her chest and glared at him. "What the fuck, Ryan. You shouldn't call Captain a fuck-boy in front of Ruger. That's not okay."

"Yeah, well—"

"Stop," she demanded. "The divorce paperwork is set in stone. I moved my whole life back here and moved the boundary lines so you could move forward, and I didn't owe you a damn thing, Ryan. But the compromise was we have a set schedule with Ruger, and we are to do drop-offs in a neutral location."

"Well, I don't understand why we had to do that."

"Because you kept hitting on me after our divorce and confusing me, and confusing Ruger, and probably confusing your new wife."

Ryan shoved his hands deep in his pockets and that charming, gets-what-he-wants smile she used to fall for stretched across his lips. "Come on, Sloane. I made a mistake. I realize that now, but I can fix it."

"What are you talking about?" she asked, flustered. "Please leave."

He stepped into her space, and she backed into the apartment as he leaned against the open doorframe. "You remember what we were like in the beginning. We were fire and gasoline, in a good way."

She couldn't find a single intelligent word to respond. She didn't remember it like that at all.

"I got bored. I made mistakes, and I took you for granted," he said low. "I can fix it. We could do it better this time."

He had lost his damn mind. "Yeah? And what about Naomi? Huh? You didn't just cheat on me, Ryan. You cheated for three years, and destroyed my favorite parts of me, and then you fucking married her. Two months after the divorce! Your family is out there. Ruger and I are better off without you here."

"You don't mean that, babe."

"Captain will be here any minute."

"Nah. I made sure to stop by Moosey's. He's still working his shift. Come on, Sloane. We can put our family back together."

"No! We aren't a family, Ryan. I honestly don't think we ever were, because if you had loved me…if you had truly loved me, you physically wouldn't have been able to destroy me!" She jammed her finger toward his car. "Get the fuck out of here. If you show up here again—"

"You'll what? Call the police? Come on, Sloane. We share fifty-fifty parenting time, and it's a drop-off day. The police won't do shit and you know it. I'm within my rights."

"Mmm. If you come to my home, I won't call police. I'll call Captain."

"Whoooo, so scary. He can't do jack shit. The world has a microscope on every move he and his Crew make. It just takes one person to go to the media and expose the person he is away from the cameras. Don't threaten me. I came here out of the goodness of my heart. You don't have to drive out for a drop-off now. You're welcome. See? I can still take care of you."

"Fuck. Off," she said with a dark laugh. "You never took care of me. You took care of you."

"That's bullshit and you know it!" he yelled.

Sloane flinched hard at the turn in his mood.

"Is that what you tell your little fuck-boy? Huh?" Ryan stepped into her apartment, his eyes flashing with anger. "Is that what you tell him in bed? Liar. I did take care of you. For two years, you didn't have to work!"

"You wouldn't let me!"

For every step she took backward, he advanced. In a low voice, he gritted out, "I can't fucking stand the thought of his hands on you— Ack! "

Sloane didn't understand what happened because it happened in a blur. One moment Ryan was advancing on her, and the next he went flying forward and crashed into her kitchen table, and something enormous was on top of him, crushing his throat with his huge hand.

Captain?

The legs of the table buckled and they crashed to the ground. Captain lifted Ryan up and then slammed him down. "What was it you said?" Captain asked. "I can't do anything to you?" He inhaled sharply. "Wrong!" he roared.

He shoved Ryan's face to the side, angling it at Ruger, who was standing against the wall, holding Sloane's phone. His eyes were wide as saucers.

"It's okay, buddy," she said, rushing to him.

"My dad shouldn't be here," Ruger said, holding the phone out to her.

She frowned as she saw the screen. It was on speakerphone on a call connected to Captain. What the hell?

"I got scared and called Cap," Ruger said.

Captain stood and took Ryan with him. Gripping his shirt, he shoved him straight through the room to the open front door and set him outside. "This is the territory line," Captain growled, drawing an imaginary line across the threshold. "Inside this line, this is mine. You fumbled it. Outside of here, you can spin your stories and charm your friends, but here? That shit won't work. She said no. Go back to your wife."

Captain shoved Ryan hard. It looked like it took zero effort from Captain, and Ryan went flying into the grassy yard in front of her apartment door.

"No more scaring your boy's mom, and no more scaring the boy. You keep your manipulation shit out there. It has no place here." Captain stepped out of the apartment and canted his head. "Leave before I lose myself."

Ryan scrambled up and bolted for his car. He got in and peeled out of his parking spot, nearly hitting Captain's truck that was parked in the middle—still turned on, door hanging open.

Heart pounding, Sloane fell to her knees and hugged Ruger up. "You shouldn't have seen that."

Captain shut the door softly and then righted one of the chairs that had fallen over on its side.

"Come here, boy," he said softly.

"Captain, I don't like him around any of this," she uttered, shaking her head at him as she hugged Ruger closer.

Captain's facial expression was somber and cold. "I need to talk to him."

She didn't want to let him go. She wanted to take her baby into his room and snuggle him until he felt safe again, but her boy wiggled out of her embrace and made his way to Captain, gripping the straps of his little school backpack.

"How did you know how to use mommy's phone?"

"I watched her do her password. It's her lucky number two times. Ten-ten."

Captain's eyes darted to her. "Ten-ten?" he asked, but she didn't understand the change in his tone.

"It was the number on my jersey when I played soccer in high school."

"Okay, so you called me. On your dad. Why?"

"Because he was being really mean about mommy this week, and then he wanted to see mommy, and he was coming inside when she said no."

"You were protecting mommy?" Captain asked, too-bright silver eyes boring into Ruger's.

Her boy nodded jerkily, and Captain's face went through a slow transformation. A slow smile took his lips, and he nodded. "Good boy. You don't need hugs right now. That wasn't a little-boy thing to do. Protecting your mother is a young-man thing." He clapped him on the shoulder and nodded again, and Sloane could feel it—her son puffing up with pride.

"Do you want to talk about what I did to your dad?" he asked.

Ruger shook his head no. "You got him out of here."

"No one is allowed to make you or your mom scared, okay?" Captain asked.

"I know," Ruger answered. "That's why I got mommy's phone and called you. I'm not big enough."

"Not yet, but you will be." Captain lifted his chin and looked down at Ruger. "You're going to be just fine, aren't you?"

"He's probably mad at me."

"He'll be fine by the time you go back with him," Captain said. He sighed. "What do you want for dinner?"

Chicken nuggets , Sloane silently guessed, utterly touched by his and Captain's moment together. Ruger always wanted chicken nuggets as a comfort food, so she was surprised when he looked at Captain and said, "I want meat."

Captain's bright-silver eyes glanced to Sloane, and back to the boy. "What kind of meat?"

"Meat that bears eat."

Sloane couldn't control her smile even if she wanted to. She pursed her lips to try, but failed. Captain was holding a better poker face. "Well, my favorite is steak. Do you want to go to the store and pick one out, and we can cook it?"

Ruger nodded.

"Okay, well go on and put your backpack where it's supposed to go, and then we will go to the store."

"Mommy too?" he asked.

"Of course mommy too," Captain agreed.

Ruger double-timed it to his room to put his backpack away, which was probably the first time that child had ever put it anywhere but the place he tossed it when he came home after school.

Sloane was still kneeling, half-stunned by what had happened.

"Come here," he rumbled.

Releasing a huff of a breath to relieve the tension inside of her, she pushed up and sauntered unsteadily over to him. She sank into his arms and sat on his lap, buried her head against his shoulder as he hugged her up tight. "It's okay."

"Sorry," she murmured.

"Stop apologizing."

"I thought it was you at the door."

"He's not going to hurt you. He just didn't know his place yet."

"If he goes to the media, I'm so sorry."

"I don't give a single shit if he goes to the media," Captain said with a laugh. "I dare him."

Okay, so Captain had no fear of anything. Hot.

"I'm going to park the truck and move the booster seat over to my rig," he said as she stood.

"Oh. Okay," she murmured, eyes tracking him as he headed for the door.

He turned and came back. He leaned down and kissed her lips, his hand gentle on the back of her neck. "You're okay," he rumbled, and then made his way out the front door, leaving her staring at his broad back and thinking her heart was going to race right out of her chest.

That man…

Oooh, that man…

He had shown up at the right time, had probably gone a hundred miles an hour to get here when Ruger had called. He'd just known by instinct how to talk to her boy, and then had taken control of the situation so she didn't have to think or scramble. And now he was going to spend quality time with her and Ruger, and take away the sting of the strange situation Ryan had caused.

Captain as a shifter was very complicated, but Captain as a man?

She'd never respected one more.