Lyon's Heart (32 page)

“Colt, you’re being
ridiculous.”

“I’ll deal with your ass
when I’m done with him.” She was getting worse every year with her
smart ass mouth. I pulled my phone on my way out the door. I’m
going to need reinforcements to get my point across. I gave Jared,
Zack, Pete and Tommy a call. That should be enough to get the job
done. We met in front of my parents’ house to get our shit
together. I knew if anything my guys would understand my point,
after all they all had daughters of their own now. It was like an
epidemic. Once Kat and I took the plunge, the other single men
followed suit a couple years later. Now we were all family men and
we took this raising daughters shit seriously. We made a pact,
because these little fucks today aren’t like we were. They’re bold
as fuck, but I find if you put the fear of thunder in their little
punk asses, they learn quick.

“He’s fifteen.”

“Our Caitie’s dating an
older dude?”

“Yes Jared, the little
shit’s fifteen. I’m going to break his fucking neck.”

“You met him
yet?”

“Of course I haven’t met the
douche bag, but Kat has the little sneak.”

“I’m telling you, these
women are sneaky. You gotta keep your eye on them. Especially when
they’re having these little meetings. I told you we should bug the
shits.”

“We’d have to bug all our
houses Zack, you fuck. Look, let’s just go have a chat with this
kid. I gotta get home and straighten out my shit. Who knows what
else they’ve been up to behind my back.” I’d got the kid’s number
from my wife, who at least had the good sense to get the background
info on him. He was expecting me, but I don’t know what exactly he
was expecting. Yes, I was about to threaten a minor. I give a fuck,
this is my little girl we’re talking about here, all bets are
off.

He was skateboarding at the
end of his driveway when we rode up. At least I think the spike
haired little runt was Todd.

He saw us coming and
snatched up his board, backing up almost into the hedges around his
family’s place.

Good, a nice healthy dose of
fear would get him on the right track quick.

We stopped our bikes in a
semi circle around him and took off our helmets.

“You Todd?”

“Yes sir.”

“You know who I
am?”

“Yes sir. Everybody knows
who you are.” Fuck the kid had stars in his eyes.

“You been messing with my
daughter Todd?” He took a big gulp and tried to disappear in the
hedge.

“No sir, we just…I like her
that’s all.”

“You know how old my baby
is, kid?”

“Yes sir, but we don’t do
anything. I promise.”

“You better not even think
about doing shit with my daughter, kid. Now I don’t know what’s
been going on, but it stops now. Caitlin’s thirteen, she’s not
allowed to date.”

“But sir, we really like
each other.” He stepped forward a step, kid had balls.

“Yeah, well come check back
in eight years.”

“Sir…”

“Eight years Todd. You go
anywhere near her again, me and my boys here will be back and we
won’t be so nice next time.” The guys revved it up a bit and he was
back to trying to disappear. Fucking kid looked like he’d lost his
best friend. We rode off and went about our business. Our job here
was done,

The house was like a tomb
when I got back and I was getting the cold shoulder, but I didn’t
care.

“Kat, come in here I need to
talk to you.” She came into our bedroom full of attitude and
flounced down on the bed arms folded, feet tapping.

“What did you do to that
little boy Colton Lyon?”

“Forget that. Now here’s the
thing, I’ve been letting you and your damn kids get away with
murder around here but that all ends today.”

“Oh, so now they’re in
trouble they’re mine?” I gave her a look that had her piping
down.

“Do you know what I caught
your sons doing this morning?”

“Which ones?”

“Aiden and Quint. They were
trying to pop wheelies on one of my bikes.” She thought that was
funny, of course she would, they got that shit from her.

“How were they doing that
with the thing off?”

“That’s just it, it wasn’t
off.” Her face turned sheet white.

“I see I’ve got your
attention; your eleven year old sons were trying to teach their
nine year old brother how to break his damn neck.”

“Uh Colt, you’re the one who
made them all special bikes.”

“Yes, kid appropriate bikes,
not my Lyon Z 999. Where’d they get the keys Kat, and better yet,
where’d they get the idea to do that shit?”

“Umm…”

“If I catch your ass doing
that shit you’re gonna get it. Now, I’ve been going through this
shit fourteen and a half years with your hard headed ass. Now I
have to deal with these bad ass kids. Caleb isn’t too bad yet, but
I’m afraid the other two already started working on him. And don’t
get me started on the baby. She’s going to be the one to do me the
fuck in. Always questioning me and shit.” She was back to
grinning.

“Oh Colt, she’s just curious
that’s all.”

“She’s nosy like her
grandmother. Do you know what she said to me?” Now I think of it,
my kids really were some bad asses.

“What did she
say?”

“She told me she wanted
tattoos like yours and mine. When I told her tattoos were for
grownups, you know what the little shit said? She told me that’s
stupid daddy, paintings and drawings are for kids, not grownups.
Then she proceeded to paint herself with that damn paint set you
got her last year that she’s been using to redecorate a hundred
thousand dollar decorating job that you and Elena talked me into.
It’s not funny babe, you gotta do something about this mess.
They’re out of control.”

“What would you like me to
do?”

“I don’t know. I think we
should have a family meeting.” She grumbled something under her
breath, which I chose to ignore. They all hate my family meetings
because it usually meant they were all gonna get it, from her down
to the littlest one.

“I’m going down to my man
cave, I gotta think.”

I headed down to the
basement where I’d been allowed all these years to keep my little
spot. It wasn’t too long before I heard footsteps coming down.
Fuck, they’d found me already.

“Hi dad.”

“Hi son.” Aiden was the
older of the twins by five minutes, but he liked to run shit just
like his old man. Though my boys were identical, I could tell them
apart easy, it was their demeanors. Aiden was like me, he likes to
boss around his younger siblings, while Caitie bosses all of them.
She’s a piece of work too, the way she does it. She has my glare
and her mom’s sneakiness, a deadly combination if you ask me. Quint
is more laid back than his twin. He kinda reminds me of Daniel,
he’s a brainy little fuck too. Looks like he’s going to follow in
the pothead’s footsteps and go into medicine, while Aiden is all
about bikes and the crew. Anything to do with the crew he wants in.
Sometimes there’s a tussle between him and his mother when we’re
taking long rides as to which one of them gets to be on the back of
my bike. My woman always sits on the back of my ride and Aiden ends
up riding in the car with Cy or one of his grandparents, but that
doesn’t stop him from trying. Like I said, he’s like me. I’m trying
to teach all my sons to be men. To stand firm and say what the fuck
they want to say regardless. So it was obvious to me he had
something on his mind. Now the strange thing about my kids is that
they all look like me, except sometimes they look just like their
mother, or they’ll do something that is pure Katarina Lyon. Like
now, this one is sitting next to me with his mom’s
stare.

“Something on your mind
son?”

“I was just
thinking.”

“About what?”

“Dad?”

“Yeah son?”

“Did you know that some of
the kids at school use to tease Caitie?” The hairs on the back of
my neck stood up and my gut tightened.

“What do you mean tease,
Aiden?”

“You know, like that
bullying thing they teach us about at school.”

The fuck? I don’t care who
thinks what. Some little fuck mess with my kids, I will kick their
ass, boy or girl. Right before I go beat the shit out of their
parents for raising fuck stupid assholes. Calm down Colt, you don’t
even know the whole story yet and already you’re fucking up
people’s kids.

“How do you know this son,
you seen it?”

“Kinda, and sometimes she
comes home and cry in her room.”

“What do they tease her
about?”

“Well, because she’s taller
than most of the kids in her grade, and sometimes the popular girls
tease her because she dresses like a boy.”

Fuck that hurt. So what my
kid likes to wear a Henley and Jeans with Doc Martin’s. What’s
wrong with that?

“Is that why she started
wearing dresses?”

“I don’t know, I
guess.”

“Does your mom know about
this?”

“I don’t know, Caitie said
not to say anything. That she could handle it herself, but they
just kept getting worse. But guess what dad.”

“What?”

“One day, this kid Todd beat
up on this douche named Brian, he’s the ring leader and he’s older
too. But Todd wiped the floor with him. He got suspended and
everything, but he didn’t care because guess what?”

Fuck me. “What?” Please
don’t let me like this kid.

“When he came back, he
warned everybody not to mess with her or he doesn’t care if they
throw him out of school for good, he’ll kick their butts. Now
nobody messes with Caitie anymore and Todd walks with her in the
halls on breaks and stuff and they sit together at lunch and guess
what else dad?”

“What?” I am so
fucked.

“He even got his friends on
the football team to watch out for Caitie when he was out. He said
that since Quint, Caleb and me are her brothers, that we’re under
their protection too. So now, no one in the school dare mess with
us.” I didn’t say anything for a long time, it’s not everyday I get
humbled by a kid.

“Thanks for telling me son.”
I waited until he was gone so I could think about my next move. It
was obvious what I had to do, but fuck.

I finally went upstairs and
knocked on my little princess’s door.

“You got a
minute?”

“Hi daddy.” I know she was
pissed at me, but my girl was still sweet to her old
man.

“Baby, why didn’t you tell
me the kids at school were bothering you?”

She started pulling at her
comforter and avoiding my eyes.

“Caitie bear?”

“I don’t know daddy. I
thought I could take care of it myself. I didn’t want to make a big
deal about it…”

“Did any of them ever put
their hands on you?”

“No daddy, I promise. I
would’ve told you or mom.”

“Okay then, who did you
tell?”

“I told the teacher, but she
said it was nothing, that they were just playing
around.”

“You want to tell daddy what
they were saying to you?” I sat on her bed and hugged her shoulder.
It fucked with my head that this had been going on and I knew
nothing about it. That shit was scary. It reminded me of all those
books I used to read when she was first born. All the shows I used
to watch about the fucked up shit people were capable of doing to
each other. I promised myself back then that I would have the kind
of relationship with my kids where they could always come to me. As
far as I could tell, a lot of that shit could’ve been avoided if
parents were more approachable and kids had more strength of
character. Two things I’d thought I’d been on top of, but I was
obviously very wrong.

“They called me names, you
know…”

“No I don’t know. I wasn’t
there and you didn’t tell me.”

She finally caught on to the
tone in my voice, and her eyes flew to mine. Just like her mother,
as soon as she thinks I’m mad at her about something, she tears
up.

“I’m sorry daddy. I just
didn’t want to worry you and the teacher said it was
nothing.”

“Caitlin, I’m your father. I
was your father before you ever set foot in a school. I’ve raised
you to trust me but obviously you don’t, because you didn’t come to
me with this and that worries me. How am I supposed to trust you?
It’s give and take princess. If I know that you will come to me or
your mother with any problem you have, then I have no problem
giving you more freedom. But if you’re gonna start keeping things
from me, then I can’t trust you. Don’t cry. Come ‘ere.”

“I’m sorry daddy, I didn’t
mean to make you mad.”

“I’m not mad, just a little
hurt that you didn’t think you could trust me.”

“I won’t do it again, I
promise.” I looked down at her wishing I could fight all her
battles for her, knowing that I couldn’t. That’s what the books
can’t teach you, how to feel.