When they got to the car, I alternated giving them hugs and kisses, then let them go so they could put their stuff inside.
“I’ll call you every day,” I promised, wishing I didn’t have to do this.
Elena rolled her eyes. I’d been fawning over them since I made it home last night, and she was at the point now where she was ready to leave me. It was actually easier that way, since last night she’d protested, asking to come with me to Cade’s instead of going with her dad and Mary.
“They’ll be fine,” my ex assured me. “Right, guys? It’ll be fun … Like an extended vacation.”
“Except we still have to go to school and do chores,” Elin grumbled. He’d been bargaining to miss school while they were gone, but I’d said no way.
When my ex moved closer, my instinct was to move farther away, but I stood my ground and looked him in the eye.
“So this guy, he’s just like a fling, right?”
“What?” I asked, confused by the change in conversation, and that we were having it on the street in front of my place with the children present.
“He’s not your type.”
“My type?”
My ex pointed to himself, and I took in his manicured hands, nice loafers, and perfectly styled hair. Then I thought of Cade, a huge beast of a man with dangerous eyes and luscious hair. The two couldn’t be more different. And not just looks either, in the way they thought, acted, and lived their lives.
I was smiling when I answered, “No, he’s not a fling.”
I waited for him to respond, then watched as his eyes got wide at something over my shoulder. I turned my head to see a big black van barreling toward us. It headed our way and screeched to a halt before making contact. I saw Hector and a couple of men I’d never seen jump out and run at me.
It was so much like a scene out of a movie that I didn’t react at first, I just watched, stunned, as if I were looking at it happen to someone else.
Then, when I realized who it was and that they were after me, I turned back to my ex and screamed, “Eric, get the kids out of here!”
I saw him grab Elin, then Elena by their waists and lift them, one under each arm in a football hold, then take off running.
When I turned back to start kicking, or scratching, hoping to run myself, Hector was already there. Before I could do anything, two man grabbed me, each one holding an arm.
“Hey, Red,” Hector said, pulling my attention to him. He lifted a hand and blew something in my face, dazing me for a second. I shook my head and noticed Eric and the kids had just entered the apartment complex and the door was slamming behind them, but I did so in a fog, not really caring.
Hector told me to get in the van, so I followed him to the open door and climbed up inside. I was seated next to one of the guys who’d helped hold me down. I looked at everyone in the van with disinterest, noting there were three guys with Hector, and that the van smelled like Burger King Whoppers.
“I’ve never really seen how this stuff works,” the guy to my left said. I glanced over at him briefly, noting he was ugly as sin, with a sinister-looking smile.
“Unbutton your shirt,” he ordered.
I lifted my hands and began unbuttoning my shirt.
Things were kind of hazy, almost like a dream, and their voices sounded like they were coming at me through a funnel.
“Stop fucking around. That’s not what this is about; button your shirt back up,” Hector said, and I noted that ugly as sin stiffened next to me, obviously upset that he’d been overruled.
I changed course and began buttoning my shirt back up.
I felt a tug on my hair and turned slightly to see ugly as sin twirling a lock of my hair around his finger.
“Unbutton,” he mouthed, barely a whisper coming out. So I changed course again and went back to unbuttoning my shirt.
This time, I finished my task then waited, my fingers holding the bottom of my shirt.
“Open it,” he leaned down and whispered in my ear.
I spread the shirt open and felt his eyes on me. It didn’t bother me. It didn’t not bother me. It just was…