Page 95 of Hold

Megan covered Benji’s ears, but he was fighting her now and crying. Thea took in a great, gulping breath, and ran over to him herself. Hugging him close, she could still see the men though the window behind the couch.

Kane said, “Jesus Christ, man, have you no self-respect? No thought for your son, who’s in there hearing every word you say?”

“Don’t tell me how to be around my son!” was all Gabe had to say. “You set them against me from the beginning!”

“You managed that all by yourself,” Liam said. “Go home, Gabriel. Go get some anger management counseling.”

“You don’t even get to talk to me,” Gabe said, though he took one more step down the stairs. Kane took two corresponding steps forward.

“If I hear that you’ve been around Thea or your children in this kind of rage again,” Liam went on in that calm voice, “I will have a restraining order put out against you. Now, if you mean it when you say you want a relationship with your kids, you’d better leave now and sort out your priorities.”

Gabe sneered, and Kane said, “No. I want to kick his ass some more.”

“I’ll have you for assault!” Gabe shouted.

“And Thea will have you for abandonment,” Liam said. “Deserting your wife and kids is a felony in this state, buddy.”

She hadn’t known that. Liam was standing a little behind Kane but square on to Gabe. His words, combined with Kane’s banked anger, finally drove Gabe off the stairs. As he went, he dragged his hand down the stair-rail. “Shit!” he yelped, as a sliver jammed itself into his palm. Suddenly, Thea loved that stair rail.

He reached the bottom of the stairs, sucked on his palm, and looked up at them all. “She won’t sue me,” he said. Damn. Nothing cowed him. Thea cringed at his conviction, at his confidence that she was so weak she’d let him get away with anything.

“She doesn’t have to,” Liam said. “I just have to tell the cops you left her and the boys with no support, and they’ll have your hide in jail by tonight.”

There was a long, long silence.

“But if you agree to a no-fault divorce,” Liam went on, “and you give up any rights to her money, maybe I won’t make that call.”

“That’s blackmail.”

“What was that cop’s name that Jake talked to last night?” Liam asked Kane.

“Fuck.” Gabe walked backward down the path and into the mailbox before righting himself.

“Bye!” Kane called, sounding much more cheerful, and he waved at Gabe’s retreating back. “We’ll be in touch!”

Thea hadn’t realized she was shaking so much. Benji was crying into her chest, his sobs muffled. When she looked up she saw Megan’s and Cat’s eyes were both wide, their mouths half-open in shock. Ellen was shushing the baby, who had picked up on the mood and started crying too, while four-year-old Libby pressed in close to her side, sucking on a finger Thea supposed was sticky with donut sugar.

Jake was in the door to the kitchen. His hair was sticking up all over, his face dominated by hisscared blue eyes. “Jake,” she breathed, but he was still staring at the front door.

Kane and Liam walked back inside. Kane was saying, “How did you know about the abandonment?”

“I heard about it back when I was going through my divorce. I looked up the details last night.”

“And he could really go to jail?”

“Yes.” Liam came farther into the room, around Ellen and the kids on the floor, to stand in front of Thea. “I’m sorry, Benji,” he said.

Benji turned his hot, wet face to him. “Is Daddy going to jail?”

“No, honey,” Thea said. What would it help the boys if she called the cops on him?

“But he doesn’t have to know that,” Liam said in a low voice.

“No,” she agreed.

He was there, after almost a week of not being near her, and Thea’s heart was thumping out of her chest, despite holding a bedraggled six-year-old. Every line on his face, every hair on his beard was known to her, was precious to her. And he’d gone out of his way to help her in so many ways, even when she’d pushed him away. More importantly, he’d given her the confidence to have confidence in herself. He’d respected her opinions and reminded her to respect herself.

“Thea,” he said. Almost without realizing she was doing it, she stood, turning to give Benji to Megan. Now she was at his height, and she could take in the breadth of his shoulders and remember the strength in his arms when he lay above her at night. When he held her son. When he stood up for her other son.