Page 28

CHAPTER 28

Andry

When the nurse brings back the paperwork, I’m the first to reach for it. “Thank you for putting this together. Do we need to return it to you or to the main office?”

My boy looks ready to jump in. I send a look his way telling him to keep quiet.

I hate to put my foot down on this issue; however, I refuse to let this go on any longer. Liam is going to pay for his actions one way or another.

His school record being harmed is the least of what’s heading his way.

That’s a problem for later.

Right now, my attention returns to the nurse’s instructions. “You need to fill it all out in detail. I’ve included my witness statement. Then you’ll take it to the campus police. They’ll record everything else from there. I’ve put in a preliminary report since there’s an injury involved. The photos I took when you arrived will be in the notes.”

“The photos?” Rodney asks. “They’ll see them.”

“Honey, this is needed documentation. Not that you need me telling you how bad it is given the amount of pain you’re likely feeling, but it’s a disservice to you to pretend this is a tiny scrape. You’re lucky you didn’t lose your vision with a blow like that.”

Rage simmers beneath my skin at her suggestion. Had anything permanent happened to him, I’d have burned this fucking school to the ground. Just the thought of losing him has me feral.

I bite my tongue to hold back the threats wanting to come forth. This is not the appropriate place to air out my issues.

I want to hurt Liam. I want him to regret the day he ever looked at my little genius.

“I’m going to take you home and stay the night. I know Ma won’t mind. Tomorrow we’ll figure the rest out.”

“No, Daddy. Tomorrow is moving day. It’s supposed to happen, remember?”

“I know, and it will. We may need to call in reinforcements to help us though. I can’t take care of you and pack up my room,” I admit.

“Don’t forget our bags in the library.” His words come out a bit more hushed than before. I turn to the nurse.

My worry must show. Her hand reaches over to pat mine where it’s still holding onto my boy.

“He’s fine. I gave him some pain medicine when you first came in. You were focused on him so you might have missed it.” She pauses. “He’s really lucky to have someone like you taking care of him. I hope I don’t have to see either of you in this office again. If his symptoms get worse, take him straight to the emergency room. There is only so much I can do here. He’ll need to check in with his regular doctor as soon as possible too.”

I nod, already planning how I’m going to convince my boy to go get a check up done. Maybe while he’s asleep, I can convince Aries to bring in a private doctor to look him over.

Yes.

That could definitely work.

I’m not above being heavy-handed where he’s concerned.

Instead of trying to drive us back, I opt to order a car through my boy’s phone. He has an account set up that he never uses anyway. It’s time to actually take advantage of his brother’s generosity.

Once the car shows up, I assure the driver that I didn’t hurt my boyfriend before he lets us both in. I think it’s great he’s worried, though I don’t like that he thinks I caused this.

I text Ma on the way to let her know something happened and to please have my boy’s room ready. It’s better to plan ahead than to catch her off guard.

When we get to the house, I see Ma standing on the porch, arms crossed as she waits for us. I tip the driver and lift Rodney into my arms. He’s still out cold, whatever medicine she gave him doing its job.

“What happened?!” Ma whisper shouts once I’m close enough.

I shake my head, then tilt it to the door. “Need him in bed.”

She turns to go inside. I follow her upstairs and into Rodney’s room. Ma watches as I lay him down gently and cover him with the blanket. I take a moment to press a kiss to his forehead before pulling away.

“Come on,” I tell her as I leave his side for the first time since seeing his injuries.

As soon as we’re in the living room, she spins to face me. “I need answers, Andry. What happened to my baby?”

My anger returns at her words. The memory of his story makes it hard to breathe. I want to rage and let loose my frustrations.

But first I have to explain.

“The bully — the one who kept bothering him — got to him today.”

She gasps, her hand moving to her chest as she drops onto the chair. I’m thankful she was close enough to one. It didn’t occur to me she might take the news so badly she’d lose her footing.

I remain standing as I keep going. “The guy didn’t actually hurt him how you think. He made threats mostly. Then he…”

“Then he, what? What did he do?”

“He grabbed him,” I spit out. “He grabbed him and when Rodney tried to get free, he fell. It wouldn’t have happened if the guy left him alone.”

“Which makes it his fault! He hurt my baby.”

“He did. As soon as I saw his condition, I took our boy to the nurse. She had us file a report with the campus police. I need help to finish filling it out, then we have to turn it in.”

She nods. “Good. I won’t sit by anymore. I can’t let him get hurt.”

“You don’t have to worry about it,” I tell her honestly.

Her eyes take me in. It’s like she sees my intention without me saying a word.

“You’ll take care of it, won’t you? Because you love him?”

“I do. He’s not going to have to worry about it any longer. No one else will ever put their hands on him like this again. You have my solemn vow.”

Rather than tell me not to worry about it, she gives me a smile. Her hand reaches out for me.

Leaning down, I hold steady as her hand pats my cheek. It’s a gentle touch that has a smile forming to match hers.

“You are a good one. I knew it all along. Thank you for taking care of my baby.” She lets go, then stands slowly. “Now I need to go cook or else I’m going to go stir crazy until he wakes up. You wanna help?”

“No, ma’am. I’ve got some things to plan.”

She leaves the room with one final nod. Once I know she’s out of sight, I drop the smile to focus on the anger still lingering in me.

Grabbing my phone, I open the Daddy Alliance group chat.

Andry: 911. Need backup.

The responses come in immediately.

Aries: TELL ME EVERYTHING.

Bellamy: About to wrap up practice. Can be wherever ASAP.

Leon: Madd and I are prepping dinner. Can come after.

Bishop: Who am I hurting?

Luke: I need my players uninjured. If you need extra hands, let me know before risking one of them.

I smirk at the last message. It figures the coach of the Bears would rather get involved than lose out on his team being able to play.

Aries: Everyone come to my place. I’ll order pizzas for the hungry people. Bring your boys too. Raymond would love to entertain them.

That message gets a bunch of thumbs up reactions. I head into the kitchen to let Ma know I’m going to head out for a bit.

“He’ll be fine. Our boy is real sensitive to medicine. He may not even wake up until tomorrow morning. I can text you when he does if you want.”

“Yes, ma’am. Please do that. I don’t know how long this will take.”

She comes around the corner and plants a kiss on my cheek. “Be careful. Call me if you need bail money.”

I laugh as I leave her place. Aries doesn’t live close enough for me to walk, so I call him to come pick me up. He tells me he’ll be right over.

A few minutes later, he comes to a screeching halt in front of the house. I hold up my hand to stop him from coming over as I jog down the steps and to the passenger side.

Once I’m buckled in, I motion for him to drive. “Let’s get to your place, then we can talk. I want to tell everyone so we can make a solid plan.”

He frowns but does as I ask. We pull into his drive a second before the others arrive. Well, Bellamy and Bishop at least. I suspect the others will take longer since they were eating.

“Everyone inside. Daddy Alliance Emergency meeting time.” Aries rushes in the door, then calls out, “RAYMOND!”

His boy comes running down the hall, his socked feet sliding across the entry floor. Aries grabs his waist to stop him.

“Daddy, why did you yell?”

Aries kisses his nose. “Because your friends are here to play with you. I’ll bring your pizza to your playroom once it arrives.”

Finn and Atlas step up with big smiles of their own. The three of them start whispering to one another as they rush back in the direction Raymond came from.

“Let’s take this to the living room,” Aries tells us.

We all file in the space, the guys taking a seat as I stand in front of them. “Before I start, know that everything is ok. I handled what I could but now I need your help.”

Aries frowns. “What’s ok?”

“Rodney is ok.”

He freezes. “What happened to my brother?”

Bellamy places a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “If you chill for a minute, you’ll find out. Go ahead, Andry. Tell us.”

“Thanks,” I tell him before starting the story all over again. This time, I make it all the way through without interruption. The guys keep it together up until the very end.

Then it becomes chaos.

Aries explodes from the couch as Bellamy pulls out his phone and immediately starts texting someone. Bishop stands slowly, then comes over to me.

His arms wrap around me in what I eventually realize is a hug. “I’m sorry you had to see him that way. Your boy should not have been hurt today.”

“Yes, he shouldn’t have. I wanted to kill Liam for what he did. I still sort of want to.”

“SAME! Let’s do it. Murder is a good option. Who do we know? Surely we can get someone to clean this up.”

Bellamy chokes out a laugh and stops long enough to look up. “We’re not committing murder. There is no need for a cleanup crew because we’re all going to behave.”

“That’s not… we can’t…. I need to get back at him for this. Someone hurt my brother, BB!”

“I know that. And believe me, we will hurt him. But taking his life makes the pain short. What if you could draw it out for years and years? Wouldn’t that be better?”

My gaze locks on the big quarterback sitting patiently on the couch. He’s clearly not as calm about this as I thought.

“This is why I asked you guys to meet me. I need smart decisions. Something that will make him stop and leave my boy alone. I can’t — I won’t let him get away with this.”

“And he won’t. I promise it,” Bellamy vows.

Bishop asks him, “What do you have in mind?”

“We’ve been playing this the petty way by taking out revenge through the public eye. Clearly it worked, though maybe it backfired too. Instead of getting in his face that way, we’re going to pay him a visit.”

Aries rubs his hands together. “Now we’re talking. Tell me I get to hit him.”

“Oh, you definitely will. But we each only get one punch. Then after, we destroy his life. He’ll get kicked out of school, banned from college hockey, and blackballed from even working a concession stand ever again.”

My jaw drops. “You’re brilliant.”

He snorts in reply. Aries claps and kisses Bellamy on the cheek as Bishop nods along.

“Not a genius. Just someone who understands what it means to have to support your boy by whatever means necessary. We handle this the right way, and you won’t ever have to hear his name again. That’s how thorough we’ll be.”

“Persona non grata,” Bishop mumbles.

“Yep. That’s it.”

Looking at these three men, I know I made the right call in accepting their friendship. They care about Rodney as much as I do. They’re invested too.

“I’m in.”

The doorbell rings as Bellamy starts laying out the plan. Leon, Maddox, and Jake walk in carrying armfuls of pizza. Apparently they ran into the delivery driver when they got here.

Maddox looks around, then pins me with a stare. “You called us all here? Everything ok?”

“Not even close. But it will be. Sit down and Bellamy will tell you the plan.”

“Ohhhhh. An evil plan led by my brother. This will be good. Let me just get a slice first,” Jake says as he drops his stack on the coffee table and shimmies into the spot between Bellamy and Aries.

The group laughs at his antics before quieting to listen to the strategy our QB has for us.

Looks like the eldest Bellport is good at calling plays on and off the field.