Total Knock Out / Book Two

Chapter Three: Detailed Blame

Stanford stared at the woman who haunted his dreams last night, ones that had him waking up in a cold sweat with the echos of her terrified screams still ringing in his ears. It had been years since he had nightmares like that, mixing his present with his past and destroying the false sense of calm he had made for himself.

He pulled himself out of his thoughts when Logan shifted in her chair, crossing one leg over the other and looking out of the window. He assumed she was checking on her daughter, a mother's protective instincts on display for everyone in the room. If he hadn't have seen the pictures of her right after the attack he would have thought it was just a clever trick to fool everyone into thinking that she actually cared about the child she had brought into the world.

"Kyle was my high school sweetheart. We were together for five years, and no one ever once thought that he was so vile. I got pregnant with Rori when I was nineteen and was over the moon. I was in love with what I thought was my soulmate and was going to have a child with him. We were going to get married and live happily ever after," Logan said softly, staring blankly at the window in front of her.

Stanford knew that look, knew that she was reliving her past in so much detail that it felt real. He leaned forward, his arms braced on his thighs to show that he was paying attention to her story. Charlie put her hand over Logan's and squeezed, making Logan smile weakly at her.

"A few weeks into my pregnancy, my neighbor came to me and told me that Kyle had been texting her daughter. Her very underage, thirteen year old daughter who was nine years younger than him. I told her that she was wrong and to stop trying to ruin my relationship. I told her that she was jealous that I had someone to love me while she was alone. Fast forward a few days and she came to me again, telling me that Kyle and her daughter had apparently had sex. She had been monitoring her daughter's texts and I still didn't believe her. I didn't want to believe her. So I told her to stop spreading lies and we moved less than a month later. The cycle kept repeating, and the girls just kept getting younger. His last victim before trying to attack Rori was ten years old."

Logan brushed away the tears that had fallen onto her cheeks and Stanford's heart broke for her. No one wants to think that the person they're in love with is capable of something that disgusting and evil. The rage he always felt deep in his bones grew larger, threatening to take him over completely and he took a deep breath to get himself back under some control.

"I should have believed them. It made sense on some level, I just ignored it. I told myself that he hadn't touched me in months because he was scared of hurting the baby and not because he was getting it somewhere else with a fucking child. If I had just listened to them and kicked him out none of this would have ever happened. I'm the reason he attacked my daughter and I will never forgive myself for it," Logan choked, her voice breaking.

Stanford looked at the people surrounding him, his family of choice and love, and noted the expressions on their face. The absolute horror on Darcy's and Charlie's faces, mothers themselves who would destroy the planet if it meant that their children were safe. Lylah's barely contained rage at a wrong that had been done to someone too small to fight back. Maddox, Damion, and Elijah wearing the same murderous expression, their body's tense and ready to fight like this Kyle guy was going to waltz through the front door at any given second. And his own rage, an icy band around his heart that grew tighter with every second that passed. His friends might stop at beating the ever loving shit out of Kyle Harrington, but he knew that if he ever got the son-of-a-bitch alone that he'd kill him.

Logan got up in a flurry of movement, racing towards the backdoor with pretty considerable speed despite the limp that she walked with. Stanford found himself up off the couch and racing after her, knowing that the only reason she would run out of the living room was because something was happening to her daughter.

He came to a stop on the last step, all of his friends behind him, and watched as Logan picked Rori and Zoey up in her arms; turning and dropping them as gently as possible onto the lawn before turning back to the man that had been talking to them. He took a step forward to warn her that it was just Landon's partner, Jaxon, when she sent a kick to his chest; making the kneeling man fall over in the yard.

"Oh, I think I like her," Lylah whispered, grinning at Stanford when he turned to raise an eyebrow at her. If nothing else, Logan had managed to get on Lylah's good side with the kick. Jaxon had been driving her crazy for the last six months and everyone in their small group of friends knew it.

"Logan, honey, as much as I would love to stand here and watch you kick Jaxon's ass; he's one of the good guys. He's Landon's partner," Charlie soothed, moving up behind the other woman and placing her hand on her shoulder. Stanford watched as Logan sagged into the touch before holding her hand out to a dazed Jaxon.

He looked down when he felt a tug on his pants, Rori staring up at him with huge green eyes that seemed to take up most of her face. He obediently picked her up when she held out her arms and looked over at Maddox, completely lost, when she laid her head on his shoulder and shoved her little button nose against his neck. Maddox just grinned at him and took his own child from Darcy's arms, rubbing her back soothingly when she started making fussy noises.

Stanford made his way over to Logan, ignoring the blush high on her cheek bones, and offered Jaxon his free hand; yanking the man up off of the ground. He had to give it to the frightened mother, despite her limp she had managed to kick the man hard enough to send him crashing down. He had fought the 6'6 cop before himself, knew that it wasn't as easy as everyone assumed it would be to make Jaxon tap out. The shattered child he kept hidden inside of himself went wild at the thought of a mother taking on a giant to save her child, even if the said giant was a friendly one.

"Why don't we all go back inside? We have a few things to work out before we decide on where we go from here, and I think Rori and Logan have had enough excitement for one day," Stanford advised, feeling the small puffs of air Rori was letting out against his neck. One look at Logan confirmed that the four year old had fallen asleep in his arms and he found himself cradling her small body protectively against his.

He shook his head when Logan held out her arms for her child, pressing the small body in his arms just a tad but closer to his chest. He turned back to the door, leading everyone in the yard back into the house, and started thinking of where in the hell he was going to put all of Rori's things; because there was no way that he would be leaving her or her mother to fight this on their own.