None of it matters though, because Judge has no choice but to get over his reservations.
We come up to Susan’s house. She’s expecting us, so I rap on the door twice before pushing it open. All the lights are off except for the one in the living room, so we head in that direction. Remi enters the room first and she halts in the doorway, letting out a choked gasp. I push her to the side and step through.
My blood instantly runs cold, locking down my muscles. Instinctually, my arm wraps around Remi, and I pull her behind me. I can feel the shakes slamming through her. Rage, hot and heavy, weights down on my chest.
“Leland,” I hiss.
A sinister chuckle leaves the bastard’s lips and he lifts his eyes our way. The small bundle of light blue blanket in his arms gets pulled tighter to his chest. A tiny pale foot peeks out of the end of the material.
I take a good look at Michael Leland. The years haven’t been kind to him. Or maybe it’s just been the last year that hasn’t. He looks like shit. His hair, which was already thinning on top when I was a kid, is growing in uneven patches. It looks like it hasn’t been cut in weeks. His clothes are dirty and torn, and his pale skin sags on his face, indicating he’s recently lost some weight. His shit brown eyes are the same, and an image of them staring at me as he held me down and raped me as a child filters through my mind.
“Well, well,” Leland drawls, rocking Elijah back and forth. “I’m so glad you could join us, Elijah. Imagine my surprise when I found out my little Remi came to the one place I always regretted leaving.”
“P-please put the baby down,” Remi cries softly.
Leland’s eye flicker to her and they sleazily run up and down her body. More fuel is thrown on the fire already burning in my gut.
“Why don’t you come get him yourself?” Leland suggests, flashing his yellowed teeth.
Remi takes a step around me, and I yank her back. There’s no fucking way I’m letting her near the sick fucker.
“Trouble, please,” she pleads, her nails digging into my skin, trying to push my arm away. “Let me go.”
“No.” I force the word out between clenched teeth. My eyes stay locked on Leland. “Put him down, Leland.”
He drops his gaze back to Elijah. “Nah. I think I’ll keep him right here.”
“Where’s Susan?”
“She got in the way.”
It’s then I see a pair of black shoes peek out from behind the couch. My stomach plummets because I can’t tell if she’s alive or dead.
Leland lifts a dirty finger and touches Elijah’s face. I want to break it, along with every other bone in his body. Remi hiccoughs another sob.
“What in the fuck do you want?” I growl. “Why are you here?”
A crooked smile slides across his face but he doesn’t remove his eyes from Elijah.
“He looks like me,” he remarks quietly.
The fuck he does. That baby looks nothing like the monster who’s holding him.
He finally lifts his head and the look on his face has my stomach barely holding onto its contents. Revolting lust rolls off his body and sits deep in his eyes. It’s taking every bit of will power I possess to hold me back from charging him. Only knowing he could easily hurt Elijah keeps me in place.
“To think of all the fun me and my son could have.” He licks his lips and his eyes flutter closed as he moans. “I could train him from an infant.” His eyes flip open. “Show him all the ways to make his daddy happy. He’ll live to make his daddy happy. And when he’s old enough, he’ll stand beside me as we train his children. We’ll make our own Sweet Haven. Except this time, we’ll satisfy our needs whenever the fuck we want.”
Disgust boils in my veins and the pulse at my temples begins to throb. I’ll die a thousand deaths before I let that happen.
Remi makes a choking sound and her hand flies to her mouth.
“Please, Phillip,” she sobs. “He’s just a baby. Take me instead. Do whatever you want with me. Just leave him alone.”
“What the fuck are you doing, Remi?” I growl in her ear. “You’re not going anywhere with him.” As much as I admire her courage to give herself over for her son, that shit is not happening.
Her arm squeezes mine and she looks up at me with broken eyes filled with resolution. “If it’s the only way, I have to. I can’t let him hurt my baby.”
Fuck no. He can’t have either of them. I don’t know how we’re going to get out of this, but Leland isn’t leaving this house with Remi or Elijah.