Page 48 of Hutch (Minnesota Raptors #2)

“Did you listen to any of them?”

“I didn’t want to hear his voice.”

“Good girl,” I praise and lay down, bringing her with me. Time to change the subject and try to calm her down. “What did you do today to keep busy?”

“I cooked and Christa and I binge watched Harry Potter while devouring some of the best pizza I’ve ever had.”

“Potter fan?”

“Who isn’t?”

“My grandma. She doesn’t like the books either.”

“Huh. Nana loved them. I remember she’d go all out and dress up when she took us to the film premiers.”

“You guys didn’t get embarrassed?”

“God yes, but we went anyway.”

I stroke her hair, trying to soothe the tension out of her.

“Did she dress up for Halloween too?”

“Oh yeah. She could do the best Halloween makeup. My friends would always come over just to have her do theirs. She made sure my birthday parties were the event of the year. We might not have had a lot of money, but she made sure we never wanted for important things.”

“I wish I could have met her.”

“Me too. She’d have loved you.”

“Nice to know I’d have passed the family test.”

She snorts. “I didn’t say you’d get through Robbie. He’s rabid now, especially after Joe. He’ll put you through your paces when he comes home next month.”

“Your brother will be home?”

“For Christmas. He says he has a big surprise for me.”

“I will do my best to pass the brother test.”

“He doesn’t know anything about hockey.”

“Does anyone in West Virginia know hockey?”

“Uh, no. We’re football whores.”

“Really?”

“For guys, it’s either football, the coal mines, or moving on down the line.”

“Why?”

“There’s not a lot of opportunities there. Our infrastructure is poor and in order to attract more companies to strengthen the economy and bring more jobs, that needs fixed.”

“Why don’t they fix it?”

“All the politicians make the promise to do just that, but so far, none of them have followed through with it.”

“That’s sad.”

“That’s what happens when politicians let big pharma hook a good chunk of the state on prescription pain pills. They pocket the money and let the state suffer.”

“Is that how your mom got hooked?”

“That’s what Nana said. I don’t really remember it. What I remember is the heroin. Once she got cut off from the prescriptions, she started taking heroin. It became her drug of choice.”

“Has she reached out to you since the last time?”

She nods. “Yeah, asking for money, but I’m not feeding her habit.

Nana tried setting her an account up at a local grocery store in the town she lived to make sure she had food, but we found out she was letting people buy groceries in exchange for drugs and Nana stopped it.

That’s the thing about an addict. They don’t care who they take advantage of as long as they get that fix. ”

“I’m sorry.”

She sighs. “How was your day?”

“Painfully slow. My hand started to cramp after what felt like hours of filling out forms. Then the videos…dear God the videos. I think the words fuck my life echoed in my head over and over. The best part of the whole day was having our uniforms fitted over our gear to make sure everything fit. They also gave us new skates. That took an hour to find a pair that fit right. It was just a long, boring day and it drained me more than the worst day at practice ever did.”

“That sucks.”

“Yeah, but its better now that I have you right here.”

“I’m not good company right now.”

“You’re good company no matter what.” I kiss the top of her head and relax, content to just hold her.

“I kept telling myself all day to just stay busy until you got home and then I might feel safe again.”

Well fuck.

“I was right. I feel safe now that you’re here.”

Fuck yes.

“Go to sleep, baby. We’ll talk more about asswipe tomorrow.”

She nods and it’s not long before her breathing evens out and she’s sound asleep. I stay there until I’m sure she’ll stay asleep and then I slip out of the room to go find Dylan and her phone. I’m hoping she hasn’t set the passcode yet.

He hands it over and Collin looks up, intrigued. “What’re you doing?”

“I’m going to listen to asswipe’s voicemails and see if I can get him thrown in jail. Jenny do you mind going upstairs and sitting with Daisy for a bit? I don’t want her to wake up alone.”

“Sure thing.”

Dylan and Collin follow me out to the patio. Thankfully she hasn’t set a new passcode yet. It’s still the same one I put in there—my birthday. I’m sure she’ll change it eventually.

There is now over three hundred text messages and seventy voicemails.

“What the fuck,” Collin mutters when he sees the sheer volume of texts and voicemails. “Dude’s a phonezilla.”

I’m not sure I’m ready to listen to this, but I hit play on the first voicemail.

His voice comes through and the anger is loud and clear as he demands to know what the hell is going on.

From there, they just get worse and the vile nasty things he says is enough to set my rage on fire.

But it’s near the end we hit pay dirt. He starts talking about everything he did to her and wants to know if she wants a repeat.

He says this time she won’t survive to complain to the cops if she doesn’t drop the restraining order.

The texts are worse. They describe in detail exactly what he’s going to do to her.

Thank God she didn’t see or hear any of this.

I call Cherese.

“Hello?” her sleepy voice is more than a little irritated.

“Sorry to call so late, Cherese. It’s Jonathan Hutchinson.”

“What happened? Do I need to be at the police station?”

“No, but asswipe has left over three hundred text messages and seventy-two voicemails. All of them vile and nasty. He also admits to what he did to her in West Virginia and he’s threatening to do it again if she doesn’t drop the restraining order.

In vivid detail and he says she’s not going to survive this time. ”

“He actually said all that?”

“In text and voicemail.”

“I need that phone. Can you bring it to me? It’s just me at home with the three-year-old twins. I can’t exactly leave.”

“Yeah, I can do that. Just send me your address. Me and C will be right there.”

“Good. Once I have that, I can download everything, file it with the court here and have him picked up there. I know she wanted this quiet, but he’s not getting away with this.”

“How does that work, though? He’s in Texas. Will an arrest warrant from here be honored there?”

“He’s a football rising star. It’s not going to be easy, but if those messages are as damning as they sound, not even the police down there can ignore a direct threat.”

“We’re on our way.”

She says her goodbyes and hangs up. Her text with her address is sent seconds later.

“Dylan, can you and the guys stay alert? Make sure someone’s awake in the basement until I get back?”

“You think he might come here?”

I sigh and look at her phone. “I don’t know. Maybe. You can’t really tell with stupid.”

“I’ll put Mitch downstairs and I’ll be up here with the door open so I can see if anyone makes it past him on their way up the stairs. Jenny’s up there, so I’ll be paying extra attention.”

“Come on, C, let’s go. I want to get back before she wakes up.”

We head out to the car and I hope this is the right move. She said it would only make things worse, but how can it if he’s in jail?

I really hope I’m doing the right thing.