what the twinge really was—guilt.
Mama Jo had raised him and his foster brothers, Thomas and Owen, when hell had opened its doors for each of them and the flames of their personal lives had threatened to incinerate them.
He owed that woman more than she could ever know. That was another reason he wanted to get the club running. He wanted to make sure he always had the means to take care of Mama Jo if the need ever arose. He knew he could make a go of things if he was given the chance, but so far, he’d been hit by a shitload of roadblocks. And he was feeling the pressure.
“Hey, I need a favor,” Gage said, interrupting his thoughts. Christian slowly disengaged the weights and stepped away from the machine he was using, suspicion raising his brows at Gage’s request. “I managed to score this date with a girl I’ve been trying to land for weeks now and she finally said yes…”
Christian shook his head, knowing where this was going. “I don’t double-date,” he said.
“Dude, wait until you see her friend. She’s hot,” he assured him but Christian wasn’t buying.
“So why aren’t you going after her instead?”
“I’m a gentleman—”
“No, you’re not. You’re a man-whore. What’s the deal? Is she missing a leg? Got a great personality but has a moustache? C’mon…don’t con a con, man. I know you’re trying to sell me a damaged bit of goods.”
Gage laughed but didn’t deny it. “So, she’s a little on the plump side,” he admitted. “But you’re always talking about how shallow I am so I figured you’d be willing to take a lovely—albeit healthy—lady out for the evening.”
“I don’t mind a woman with curves,” Christian said, shaking his head. “But doing anything that helps you get laid I’m against on principle. I figure I’m saving some woman’s heart from getting broken because after you hit it and then don’t call her back she’s going to cry her eyes out. My foster mother says, ‘Karma is a bitch’ and, brother, you’re headed for a world of hurt very soon the way you’ve been behaving since I’ve known you.”
“Thank you, Ghandi,” Gage retorted with a snort. “Save the morality for when you’re back in the sticks of Virginia. This is Manhattan, my friend, where the women are as tough as the men. Besides, when was the last time you enjoyed the company of someone other than your hand?”
Christian scowled. “You’re a dick and it’s none of your business.”
“Be that as it may…you’d be doing me a solid with this one.”
“And why do I care about the status of your love life?”
Gage straightened and while a smile remained on his lips, there was something serious there, too. Hell, if Christian didn’t know better he’d say that whoever this woman was, Gage was pretty into her for more than just a good time. Christian sighed, hating him self for being a sap. God, his brothers were right, he was a damn romantic at heart no matter how hard he tried to hide it. “Fine,” he bit out. “But just dinner and you owe me big-time for this one.”
Gage’s face broke out into a relieved smile. “You got it.”
Christian sighed and left Gage to shower up. While Gage may have hours to spend at the gym, Christian had other commitments.
It was nearing ten in the morning and his stomach was growling but he didn’t have time to grab a bite before his next appointment.
He jogged the short steps to the well-kept brownstone and rang the buzzer. A minute later a voice inquired about his business.
“Christian Holt. I’m here to pick up Mathias Breck.”
The door buzzed open and he stepped over the threshold as the director of the group home for boys, Sally Hutchins, greeted him with an effusive hug, but there were worry lines bracketing her thin mouth. “Maybe today isn’t a good day,” she said, causing him to wonder what had happened. They’d had this day scheduled for a month now. He was taking Mathias into the Village for Little League tryouts.
“What’s wrong?” Christian asked.
Sally pushed away a lock of fine, graying blond hair and pursed her lips as she shook her head, sadness in her eyes. “I think his visit with his mother didn’t go well. He won’t talk about it.”
“Can I see him?” Christian and Mathias had a lot in common in that they both came from really messed up backgrounds. Christian knew how it felt to sleep with uncertainty, a growling belly and constant fear. Whereas Christian’s mother had checked out of this life unexpectedly with an overdose when he was eleven, Mathias’s mom was still crashing in and out of the boy’s life now and again, most likely when she sobered for a short time, and then disappeared again when her addiction came raging back. It was rough for a kid to see his mom like that. He remembered quite vividly.
Sally closed the door behind him and ushered him into her office, off the main hall. She sighed as she lowered herself into an overstuffed leather office chair. “It was terrible,” she shared, drawing Christian into her confidence. “She came and checked him out for the day and everything seemed fine but when he returned—alone—I knew something bad must’ve happened.”
Christian didn’t need to ask how a boy managed to navigate the city without an adult. Likely, Mathias had done it often enough at a much younger age, another unfortunate commonality he shared with the young boy. “He didn’t tell you what went down?” he asked, curious that Mathias’s mother was allowed to check the boy out in the first place.
Sally shook her head. “He buttoned up real quick the minute he walked through the door. Something tells me it was very upsetting.”
“Did you file charges against the mother?”
“No, she hasn’t broken the law. I did report her to Mathias’s social worker, though. Perhaps they can do something about her.” She shrugged as if knowing the hope was futile, having seen too many similar scenarios before. “But he’s back and that’s all that matters, though he’s not the same kid. So, I don’t know if this is a good idea today.”
Christian wasn’t deterred. If anything, he was more determined to get Mathias back on track and that included things that kids should be doing, such as Little League tryouts. “Can I give it a try?” he asked.
Sally hesitated, clearly unsure if letting Mathias go with Christian was the right decision, but after another lengthy sigh, she picked up her phone and called for Mathias to come down from the rec room. She pinned Christian with a serious look. “If it looks like he’s going to give you trouble, then you bring him right back.”
He knew how to handle a kid like Mathias but he gave Sally the assurances she needed so that he could sign the necessary paperwork involved with a day trip.
Ordinarily, anyone not employed by the state wouldn’t be able to sign out an unrelated minor housed in the group home but Christian had gone through the mentorship program, which enabled him to work with the kids. He’d gone through extensive background checks that included a full physical workup to ensure that he was suitable to work with the kids housed at the home. It was something he felt strongly about and he didn’t mind the hoops he had to jump through as long as he could help some kids out of a rough spot in their lives.
Mathias,
