Another One Bites the Dust by Lani Lynn Vale Page A

wasn’t raped, per say.  He started to, but then decided that he would need more than one girl.  Therefore, he went to get her friend Amanda, and she just had to sit there and watch.  He gave her something earlier in the night and she didn’t realize it until after she started to feel off, but by that time, she couldn’t do anything about it.”
    “Will she press charges?”  Jack asked.
    “She said she would.  Do y’all know anyone who can come here, someone you trust?”  She asked.
    “Yeah, honey, we do.  James, why don’t you go call Luke and get him to come over here.”
    Luke pulled into the parking lot ten minutes later.  He had his daughter with him, and I felt a twinge of remorse for calling him so late in the evening.  He lifted her out of her car seat, and her limp body fell against his, and snuggled closer.  You gotta love children.  They have absolutely no worries in the world.
    “Luke!”  Payton said excitedly.
    I scowled at her genuine happiness at seeing him.  Luke smiled at her, and I narrowed my eyes at him before placing my arm around Payton’s shoulders, bringing her into my side.  Luke smiled at the gesture, and nodded in acknowledgement at the show of possession.
    That’s right, Lucas.  Keep your filthy eyes off my woman.
    Once he got within reaching distance of us, I leaned over and took the sleeping girl from his arms.  She’d gotten big since the last time I’d seen her.  Heavier too.
    She snuggled up into my arms the same as she did her dad’s and I walked towards the house.  Everyone followed, and when we got inside Payton and Luke went to the room where the girl was.  She was bigger than Sam’s twins, or Gabe’s daughter.  Then again, her daddy wasn’t a slouch in the big department.
    The first time I’d met Katerina, it was in the hospital, the day after she was born.  I’d gone up there to visit her because Sam couldn’t.  Sam’s ex-girlfriend was pregnant with Katerina, when she was killed.  We never learned if she was dead or not when the baby was delivered.  Feeling saddened that his ex-girlfriend’s baby was sitting in a hospital alone, Sam asked me to go since he couldn’t leave Cheyenne.  The baby was waiting for her dad to get home from Iraq, and I felt a kinship, and hoped that if that ever happened to me, that someone would make sure my child wasn’t alone either.  I came back day after day, just to make sure she had someone there with her; even after Luke returned from Iraq.
    Luke wasn’t so sure about me when we first met, but he was grateful to me for being there with his little girl when he couldn’t.  Katerina had nearly quadrupled in size since the last time I’d held her, and it was a sobering thought.
    As I was holding her, I thought about all of the things I wanted to do, and one of those was to have a passel of kids.  I wanted to go out to the park on Sunday and throw a football around with my son.  I wanted to teach my daughter how to ride a bike without training wheels.  All of these scenarios revolved around one thing, and that was Payton being the mother of those babies.
    “Those are some deep thoughts there, Max.”  James said from the couch beside me.
    I glanced at him and saw his eyes resting on the sleeping little girl.  Janie was four now, and by the looks of it he wished he could have her back to this size again.  “Just thinking about babies.”
    “They are a gift, my man.  Don’t waste time.  I wish I hadn’t spent the younger years of Janie’s life deployed.  I missed a lot.  Being with her this past year, watching her grow and change really made me realize what I’ve missed.  What I could never get back.”  James said quietly.
    “You did what you had to do.  Try not to worry so much, James.  We’ll figure this out.”  I assured him.
    Just a few weeks ago, James had been served by Janie’s mother for custody of their daughter.  When Janie was a baby, she’d signed her rights away.