40. I Passed?

FORTY

I Passed?

Rus knocked, used his keycard and walked in.

He rounded the corner and was pleased, on the way there, he’d girded for what he knew he’d see, because he saw it.

First, the dad looked like James Brolin. He’d be vital, virile, and riding the high of skimming clouds until the day he died.

And he still chopped his own wood, absolutely.

Then there was Jaeger Rhett.

Thick black beard. Overlong black hair. Maybe two inches shorter than Rus, but with the build of a middleweight fighter. Heavily tattooed. Hazel eyes.

His first look at Rus, he wanted to rip his head off.

Yeah, he was still in it for Lucinda.

Madden saved it by running to him, crying, “Mr. Lazarus!”

She threw her arms around his hips.

He ran his hand along her hair, looked down at her and murmured, “Hey, honey. Good visit with your dad?”

She looked up at him. “I know how to make hot fudge sauce now, so when we go home, I’ll make some for you.”

He wasn’t sure her dad teaching her something and then her giving it to Rus was good for this situation, but it was how they were going to have to roll.

“Sounds awesome. Can’t wait,” he replied.

It was then he realized Indira was there too.

“We’re going to Rus’s room to watch TV,” she announced, holding a hand to Madden.

Madden turned to her grandmother.

“Why?” she asked.

“Because your mom, dad, granddad and Rus have something to talk about,” Indira explained.

Madden wasn’t stupid and proved it.

She knew her dad was in the same room with the man her mom liked. So, with both suspicion and that vibe kids get when they didn’t want to be left out of the loop, she asked, “What do they have to talk about where I have to be in Mr. Lazarus’s room watching TV?”

Indira went from sweet grandma to stern grandma in a blink, and for the first time, Rus saw the retired CEO make an appearance.

“If you were permitted to know that, you’d be in here while they spoke.”

As noted, Madden was not stupid. She was also a good kid and she’d pushed it as far as she was allowed, so she didn’t push it further.

She took her grandma’s hand but looked up at Rus as they moved to the door.

“Can we watch another movie tonight?”

“That’d be great. When I go back out, I’ll pick up more popcorn.”

He dug his keycard out of his wallet and handed it to Indira.

Madden shot him a smile, looked over her shoulder at her family, then disappeared out the door.

“Rus,” Lucinda called. “This is my dad, Darragh Sexton.”

Rus approached James Brolin with hand raised. “Sir. Zachariah Lazarus. Everyone calls me Rus.”

The man’s attention was sharp on him as they shook, his grip was stronger than it needed to be, but not in a competitive way, he just had a strong grip, and he said, “Rus.”

“And this is Jaeger, Madden’s dad,” Lucinda continued when he and Darragh broke off.

He turned to Jaeger, hand raised.

“Jaeger.”

Now that grip was strong to make a point.

Rus wasn’t immune, and he gave as good as he got.

“Rus,” Jaeger grunted.

They broke.

“Jaeger feels that he should take Madden back with him to Portland,” Lucinda announced, Rus’s skin immediately started itching and his eyes went back to Jaeger as Lucinda continued, “I’m trying to allay his fears.”

Shit.

His attention returned to Lucinda.

He could tell by looking at her she liked putting him in this position even less than he liked being in it, which meant either Jaeger pushed it so she didn’t have any choice, or Jaeger and Darragh double-teamed her, again, making her feel she had no choice.

Though, Indira might have made the decision for her, leaning on his authority to end the debate, but in doing so, throwing him under the bus.

However it went down, there was nothing he could do.

“I’m sorry, baby,” he said gently to her.

The baby was in-your-face and claiming.

What could he say? He had a dick. It had to happen.

Her lips quirked.

Yeah.

She liked his dick.

But when he turned to Jaeger and Darragh, it was all about being a dad.

“There’s nothing I can say to allay your fears,” he admitted. “Even if there was something, I’m a father. I get it, and nothing anyone could say when shit is going down like this would allay my fears. I can tell you the people we’re looking for have no interest in children. I can tell you I’ve communicated the danger to Lucinda, and she’s taken steps, including staying here, where there are always people around, they have security and I’m down the hall. However, the people I’m seeking are not healthy or functional, so I can’t predict their behavior. And in this conversation with you, I wouldn’t try. If I were you, I’d be worried. And nothing, even knowing everyone involved is doing everything they can to stay safe, would stop me from being that.”

Jaeger and Darragh looked at each other.

They turned back to Rus when he kept speaking.

“That said, life goes on, and as I understand it, the situation is this. Lucinda doesn’t want Madden taken out of her routine, but Jaeger, you do. It’s Lucinda’s turn to have custody. I don’t deal in family matters when it pertains to the law, but it’s my understanding, if you two disagree on this strongly enough, you need to get a judge involved.”

On that, Jaeger turned to Lucinda. “How about this? I check into the hotel, and you got more coverage?”

Fabulous.

The ex on the scene.

Rus’s phone vibrated again.

“I can’t stop you, Jaeger,” she replied. “So, if that’s what you feel you need to do, do it.”

“You take her to school, I’ll pick her up,” Jaeger started bargaining.

“That works, but she has plans tonight with Rus and I.”

Jaeger’s beard jumped at his jaw.

He didn’t like that.

Rus beat back laughing again. He’d been in your face and claiming already, laughing would take it over the top.

“Fine,” Jaeger bit out.

“Is there anything else you need from me?” Rus asked.

“Thanks for the honesty, Rus,” Darragh said.

Knowing Rus had things to do, Lucinda’s father reapproached with his hand up, firmly putting an end to this. This meant it might have been a double team, and Rus figured it was, but he’d gotten what he needed from Rus, hopefully in more ways than one.

Rus took his hand, shook it, offered his to Jaeger, who did the same.

“Thanks for coming around,” Jaeger said.

He was in it for Cin, but he loved his daughter. He saw what was happening with Rus and Lucinda.

And Rus was relieved he wasn’t going to be a dick about it.

He jerked up his chin to the man.

“I’ll walk you out,” Lucinda offered.

She took his hand when she made it to him, which was good, since he was going to take hers.

She walked him to the elevator.

“I’m sorry I had to take your time with that,” she said. “You have much more important things to do. But to them, other things are more important.”

He totally got that.

“This is part of my job,” Rus assured. “I’ve never been sleeping with one of the locals when I’m trying to keep others who have concerns calm. Other than that, I’ve been here before.”

She shot him her sly smile, but it faded before she replied, “It was escalating to an argument. Dad was worried too. I sensed he was going to side with Jaeger. I don’t like arguing in front of Madden. I thought you might be the easiest way to end it, and I’m afraid I used my new guy’s position of authority to do that.”

They stopped at the elevator, Rus tagged the button and replied, “I think we’ve established I’m there for you when you need me. There’s payback to be had for candlelight dinners and blowjobs, and I’m here for it.”

She laughed softly.

“I had to be honest,” he told her.

“Of course you did. But if you’d given them a song and dance about how you had everything handled, not only wouldn’t they believe you, they’d not think very highly of you.”

He grinned. “So I passed?”

She leaned into him. “You passed.”

He kissed her.

The elevator doors opened.

He kissed her again quickly, let her go and walked in.

He winked at her as the doors closed.

She was still smiling.

He pulled out his phone to check the text that came in, and saw it was Moran.

Know you’re doing something important, but soon’s you can, get back to the station.

That had already been his plan, so he’d asked the valet to keep his car close.

He drove to the station, did some greetings to deputies as he walked through, and hit Moran’s office.

Dickerson was in there with him.

Moran didn’t even say hello before he flipped his laptop to facing Rus and shoved it closer to the top edge.

Rus felt something he didn’t like crawl up his spine.

There was a black and white still on the screen.

He stopped in front of the desk and saw it was an angle from behind a register of what had to be a sex shop, considering on the counter was a ball gag, the boxed dildo medical staff extracted from Michael Mitchell’s ass, and a few other things.

“Hit play,” Moran said, his voice strange.

Rus didn’t even look at him.

He hit play.

The man on the other side of the counter had a baseball cap on.

Washington Nationals.

Rus’s team.

His face was obscured.

Then it wasn’t when he reached up, took off the cap, set it on the counter, then looked, dead at the camera, lifting his hand…

And he gave Rus a salute.