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  “Please, everyone, have a seat.”

  Cash did his best not to fidget as he waited for everyone to get situated. He wondered who was going to take the lead; he’d never been in a situation like this, and to say he was nervous was putting it mildly.

  “I take it you’re Cash and Harper.” The man behind the desk smiled at them. “I’m Damon, and I’ve known Meredith for a couple of years. I’ve done some work for her, for CRISIS. She told me a little bit about your story, and I have to say I’m intrigued.”

  He didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t like the attorney had asked him a question, he’d just made general observations.

  “Why don’t you tell me a little about you,” Damon prompted, his gaze never faltering from Cash.

  “My name’s Cash Montgomery, and I love my little brother.”

  Those were the only words he could think of; the extent of everything that had lead them to this point.

  “Why do you feel like he shouldn’t be with his mother?”

  Running his hand through his hair, Cash tried not to let his agitation show. He hated talking about things, especially the past, and he wasn’t one to blab. There were certain things he knew he was going to have to deal with during this process, and he knew this one was probably going to be the hardest.

  “Because I’m her oldest son, I know how she is.”

  Meredith leaned on her crossed thigh and glanced over at Cash. Very gently, she spoke. “Why don’t you explain to us what you don’t want Remy to be a part of, Cash. We’re all here for the same goal. We all want the same thing—Remy to go home with you.” She cleared her throat. “I know this can’t be easy for you. It wasn’t easy for me to talk about my rape for a very long time, but in the end, I had to. It made me feel better in the long run, just like this is going to make you feel better.”

  Would it? He wanted to ask her. Or would it give people ammunition to hurt him? Those were always the thoughts he weighed in his head when it came to being honest. Was it really worth it? He felt Harper reach over and take his hand in hers. In the end, it was her strength that allowed him to open his mouth.

  “I was twelve when Remy was born. At twelve I became the man of the house because I didn’t want him to grow up the way I had.”

  Immediately he saw Damon grab a notepad and a pen.

  “How was that, Cash?”

  Telling the truth doesn’t make you weak. He had to repeat that to himself as he opened his mouth to tell his story. “Before Remy was born, I bounced around a lot. Teachers had good intentions on getting me into a better living situation. If I would come to school dirty, they’d call CPS. If they asked me how long it had been since I’d eaten and I was honest, they’d call CPS. When Remy was born though, I knew someone else needed me. I knew I had to be strong for him. I knew my mom couldn’t be. Hell, she couldn’t be strong for me.”

  “So what did you do?” Damon asked the question again, his pen poised.

  “I made sure I was clean. I learned how to do laundry in a bathtub if need be, and I did it, no matter where I was. Clean clothes meant someone cared about you. If I was hungry, I didn’t tell anyone. A teacher asked me when the last time was I’d eaten, I would always say I had breakfast at home before I came to school. I knew they would take Remy and me away from her, but I didn’t know where they would put us. I didn’t know if they would put us in the same home.”

  He stopped, took a breath, and collected his thoughts.

  “Off and on, I’d be put into a temporary living situation, and that could be either good or bad. Eventually though, I would be given back to my mom. I would fall through the cracks,” he explained. “But I knew the reports were piling up, and at some point, they weren’t going to give me back.”

  Damon stopped him. “What was her issue? Unfit mother? Drinking? Drugs?”

  “Drugs, mostly.” He thought about it for a few minutes though and shook his head. “You know, looking back on it though, I don’t wonder if there was some prostitution too. Random dudes would show up at our apartment or house at weird hours of the night. The next day, she could get high again.”

  “All of the CPS visits are documented?” he asked, flipping his legal pad over to a clean page.

  Meredith cleared her throat and reached down into the bag she carried. “I have the reports here. With Cash’s permission, I used a friend of mine at the office, that way we don’t have to wait on them. I wanted us to come prepared,” she explained.

  Cash hadn’t seen the reports, but now his eyes bugged as he saw how thick the folders were. She wasn’t able to hand them to Damon in one trip; it took three.

  “Okay.” Damon breathed through his nose as he took a look at the pile she had just placed on his desk. “Here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to need my retainer today—that’s going to be three hundred dollars. For each hour of work I do, I normally bill at three-hundred-and-fifty dollars an hour.”

  “Fuck me.” Cash groaned, leaning his head back against the chair he sat in.

  There were some hushed giggles, and a smile covered Damon’s face.

  “I said that’s what I normally charge. Make no mistake about it, Cash, I am very good at what I do. Ninety-eight percent of rulings are in my favor. I am expensive, but I know Meredith and I know Tyler, and looking at the thickness of your case file—I can tell no one has ever done what they were supposed to do for you. You should have been removed from your mother well before your brother was born.” The statement was made truthfully, and he let it sink in.

  “With that being said, I’m prepared to help the two of you. It’s not going to be easy; this is going be long, arduous, and it won’t be cheap. I’m prepared to charge you fifty dollars an hour, because I believe in this. I don’t want Remy to live the life you did.”

  Cash didn’t know what to say, so he pushed some words passed his tight throat. “Thank you.”

  “They are going to come at both you and Harper with whatever they have. I’m going to need the two of you to be honest with me, but that’s going to be at our next session.”

  They nodded.

  “Go on out to the lobby and pay your retainer. I’ve had a contract drawn up so that you know you’re only going to be charged fifty dollars an hour, that way you don’t have to worry at the end you’re going to have a huge bill. You can pay on it as you like, as long as it’s paid in full three months after this case is settled. It’s spelled out in the contract.”

  The group stood up, and Tyler and Cash shook Damon’s hand. “I don’t know how to thank you,” Cash said.

  “Thank me when we win this case.”

  ‡

  Chapter Eight

  Harper stood in the lobby with the rest of the group, waiting on Cash to sign the paperwork that would hire the attorney. In the back of her mind, a thought niggled. Would the past she shared with her dad hurt this case? Should she come clean about it? It wasn’t something she openly talked about with many people, and it brought back memories she wasn’t ready to face yet. The last counselor she’d seen had once told her she may never be ready to face those memories, and it was a place in life she had grown accustomed to and felt safe in.

  “Do you have the money?” Cash asked as he turned to her, holding his hand out.

  Snapping herself out of it, she reached into her purse and pulled out the envelope. They had agreed that every bit of his winnings from the Trail the night before would go towards this. She watched as he counted out the cash to the receptionist.

  “There’s three hundred for the down payment, and we want to go ahead and pay seven hundred towards the hourly services, if that’s okay.”

  Harper watched as the receptionist eyed him. Everything about the body language she was throwing at him said it was okay. It was more than okay; she’d like to get to know him without the clothing on his body. The look in her eyes said he could pay her with sex and she’d be perfectly fine with that. Harper had seen it before, especially from some of the girls they went to
school with. It straight up pissed her off. Feeling a little threatened, Harper stood closer and put her arm around him. When she did, he stepped back so they stood side by side, and he leaned in, kissing her temple.

  Petty as it was, her heart danced a jig.

  “Here’s your receipt.”

  Harper grabbed it from the woman and stuck it in her purse, letting her know the two of them were going home together and there would be no reason for him to hang on to the receipt himself.

  “Can you tell us when our next appointment is?” she asked, emphasizing “our”.

  “Damon wants to see you in a week. When would be good for you?” The woman looked up at Cash.

  “Do you have school next Friday?” he asked Harper, trying to go through both their schedules in his head.

  “One class, but it’s early morning. If we do afternoon, I can be here before I have to be at work,” she explained, hoping he did want her there. She wanted to be there every step of the way, and she wanted the receptionist to know that she would be.

  “Then we need an afternoon appointment,” he told the woman, making it clear that he and Harper came as a couple.

  Their voices died off as they got everything straightened out, and Harper convinced herself that Cash wasn’t interested in the receptionist.

  *

  “Thanks for coming with me,” Cash said quietly as they got in the car, and he moved to put the keys in the ignition. It meant more to him than he would ever be able to tell her.

  Harper’s head whipped around as they sat in the car outside the attorney’s office. “Where else would I be?”

  Cash shrugged. There were a million other places she could have been, there were a million other things she could have been doing, but she’d chosen to come with him and be a part of his life. “I know you didn’t have to, and I know it’s probably not how you imagined your life would be at nineteen. All I’m saying is I’m thankful and grateful. So damn grateful.”

  “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be,” she assured him. “I know it sounds odd, but my life wasn’t my life before meeting you and Remy. I wasn’t doing anything that made any kind of difference in anyone’s life. I was existing, but I can’t say for certain I had a purpose. I have a purpose now. I’m thankful you were brought into my life.”

  “Remy and I were blessed.” He grabbed her hand and brought the back of it to his lips.

  “Funny, I think I was blessed. We all needed each other in a different way, and I think we got it. We’re lucky,” she pressed on. “We’ll just have to remember that when this gets hard, because it will get hard.”

  He knew that without a doubt, and he hoped with everything he had that Harper was different from everyone he’d ever met before. When the going got tough with everyone else, they were gone. They never stayed. He was a pet project for a while, and they worried about him, sure; they wanted to help him, sure. As long as it didn’t interfere too much with their day-to-day lives. Harper had become his day-to-day life, and it scared the shit out of him to think about what would happen if she were no longer there. He refused to think about that.

  “Life is hard, Harper. We aren’t two kids who are star-crossed into believing that life will work out the way we want it to just because we want it to. The both of us understand hard work, determination, and making our own luck. The only thing that’s ever been handed to us is opportunity, and damnit, we’ve taken it with both hands, held on to the fucker, and dared it to knock us off. We make the most of what we’ve got. Fuck everybody else.”

  He wanted her to believe in him, but he didn’t want her to believe to a fault. Once the expectations far outgrew what either of them were prepared to deliver, they would be fucked. He wanted this around for a long time, even if he couldn’t say those words to her. Even if he couldn’t admit it.

  “So we’re in this together?” She grinned over at him, the dimple in her cheek showing.

  “We have to be, sweetheart. Nobody else is crazy enough to be in this with us.”

  She laughed loudly, throwing her head back against the seat. It was in that moment he fell in love with her; his heart squeezed tightly in his chest from the emotions he felt pouring over him. Her shoulders shaking, her dimple showing, her blonde hair spilling out over the leather of the seat of his car. This was his Harper, and no one would ever take her away—not if he could help it.

  Although, admitting it to himself and telling her were two totally different things. Like he did everything else, he had to do this in his own way.

  “You don’t have to worry about that receptionist, you know. I didn’t even get her name, can’t even tell you what she looked like. I’m looking at nobody but you.” He reached over and cupped her cheek in his hand.

  She stared at him for a long minute before she smiled slowly. It wasn’t a never-ending promise that they would be together forever, but it was something, and she would take it.

  “I’m not looking at anybody either.” She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek before settling back in her seat as he started the car and they took off towards home.

  ‡

  Chapter Nine

  Harper stifled the yawn behind her hand, discretely checking the watch she wore as she stood in the corner at her catering gig. It had been a long day. While Cash had worked the morning shift at Walker’s Wheels, she and Remy had done housework, laundry, and finished up the homework they’d had. Cleaning the ten-year-old’s room had been a lesson in patience. He liked organized chaos, and she liked when everything had a place. Her watch showed eleven o’clock. Hopefully within the next few minutes the hosts would send everyone packing, that way the catering crew could get home at a decent hour. She wanted nothing more to lie in her bed, plastered against Cash’s chest as they slept.

  “I am so ready to go,” Nat said as she came to stand next to her friend.

  Natalie wasn’t a regular on the catering circuit, but sometimes when she needed extra money, she helped them out. Not to mention it was a good way for them to catch up, now that most of Harper’s time was spent with Cash and Remy.

  “Me too. I have some things to do before the school week starts again,” Harper whined, moving her head around in a circle on her neck.

  “How are things going with Cash?” Natalie asked, curiosity getting the better of her. She didn’t always ask because sometimes Harper was tight-lipped about her relationship with the former ladies’ man, but tonight, she couldn’t help it.

  “Things are going as well as can be expected. We met with the attorney about Remy, and we’ve kind of gone over some options. It’s going to be expensive, of course, but the attorney thinks we have a good case. That’s what we wanted to hear. If the attorney thinks we have a good case, then maybe we have a good shot? I don’t know. I’m hopefully optimistic, which is more than I was before we met with the attorney.”

  Natalie grabbed her around neck in a quick hug. “That’s great! I was worried when you didn’t let me know that things had gone badly.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t let you know. Things are different now; I can’t share everything that I used to. There are so many things I want to tell you all the time, but I feel like you’ll think I’m crazy,” Harper admitted, pulling her bottom lip in between her teeth. “I feel like such a different person than I was a few months ago.”

  “You are,” Natalie reminded her. “A few months ago, you were living at home with your aunt, Cash Montgomery had yet to steal your parking spot, and you weren’t mothering a ten-year-old. Your life has done a complete 180, but you’ve done well in adapting. I wondered if you’d be able to do it, and you’ve held your own.”

  How did she explain to her best friend that she had no choice; she was in so deep with both Cash and Remy there was no way she would ever be able to dig herself out. “They’ve both touched a place in my heart I thought was dead. They came along at the best time they could have.”

  “Well, no matter what I initially thought, or what I may think in the futur
e, just know that this looks good on you, Harper.”

  “What does?” She was confused as to what Natalie was trying to tell her.

  “This look of contentment and love. It looks good on you. If you’re being honest, I think you may have been searching for it for a long time.”

  Love? Harper wouldn’t say she was that far yet, but she did feel things she never thought she’d feel for another human being when it came to Cash. Deciding just to take the compliment, she grinned. “Thanks, I appreciate you understanding.” Because the fact of the matter was, she knew most people wouldn’t even begin to understand.

  *

  “C’mon, fucker, hit me harder.”

  The sounds in the gym were brutal. Liam watched as Layne and Cash went head to head inside the boxing ring. He and Remy sat on the outside of the square and winced as the two of them hit each other, neither holding back. Tyler stood off to the side, offering advice when he saw one of them doing something wrong.

  “I hope he doesn’t hurt my brother too much.” Remy worried his bottom lip between his teeth where he sat next to Liam.

  “Nah, they know what they’re doing when they get in there. It’s what they want; neither one of them are gonna hurt each other. You know that, right?” Liam watched the younger boy’s eyes follow his brother as he bounced from one foot to the other, ducking Layne’s blows.

  “He hit my dad like that before, but I think he meant it.”

  Liam knew without a doubt Cash had meant it. What he wanted to know was, what did that mean to Remy? “What was your dad doing before he hit him?”

  “Being mean to me, and he made me cry,” Remy admitted, looking down at the ground.

  “You know your brother would do whatever he could to protect you, right?”

  “Yeah, he’s always protected me.”

  Liam didn’t know what else to say; this was a heavy conversation to have with a ten-year-old. If it had been his son, Drew, he’d scoop him up in his arms and never let him go, but he wasn’t sure where this kid came from, what kind of background he had. “Does that bother you?” He got the distinct feeling it did bother Remy that Cash protected him.