"Let her go." Kim was surprised to hear Adam's voice. She was also surprised that he sounded so calm, for now.
The shit had been going on all day. Steve started messaging and calling Kim from early morning. Reminding her that he was picking Daisy up at 3 and she better not be late. That his parents' were pissed with her for taking their granddaughter away on Christmas and that Adam better not be with her when he picked her up. She tried to ignore the few other snide comments about Adam.
They had been a Hank's house for their annual Boxing Day lunch. Hank had always hosted the event starting from the year after his grandson Daniel was born. It was tradition now and even though he was well into retirement it was always nice to get them all together under his roof at least once a year. He loved his house overflowing with screaming, laughing happy children and their parents. It was very Un-Voight like, well at least the Voight that the criminals of Chicago knew but he was very much a family man and this was the only family he had.
Kim was seriously starting to doubt Steve's ability to look after Daisy for the next few days. He was so bitter and angry and the messages just kept coming. Wild and erratic, veering from polite to condescending and downright repulsive when he mentioned Adam.
"What's wrong?" Erin had found Kim outside in the freezing cold staring at her phone.
"Nothing." She slipped it into her pocket but could tell by the look on Erin's face that she knew she was lying. "Shit went sideways yesterday with Steve and today he is being a dick. He's been at me all day by phone."
"What do you mean, shit went sideways?"
"He didn't want me taking Daisy to Janet's for lunch. He grabbed her and Daisy was pretty freaked out. He kept telling her that they are not her family and I guess he's jealous of Adam." Kim adjusted her scarf a little, tucking it into the front of her coat to keep the cold out. However much the cold was giving her something else to focus on.
"Does he have any reason to be?"
"Other than Adam is spending time with Daisy, no he doesn't. Nothing is going on with Adam and I." She was getting sick of repeating the same thing over and over again. Why did everyone think she was about to jump straight back into a relationship with Adam? There was a lot of water to wade through and some days they felt like they were swimming with the tide and other days they were struggling against it. People were pushing them and it wasn't helping the situation, if anything it was making things more difficult.
"Well that's a bummer."
"Don't you start! I had enough of it from Amanda yesterday."
"People are just pointing out what is patently obvious to everyone else but you two."
"Erin, please can we not talk about that. Please, I just am trying to deal with Steve. I don't need to complicate it further with Adam. We are in a good place. He loves Oliver, Oliver is happy and that's all I want."
In a good place? Well that was a joke wasn't it? He had kissed her last night, softly and sweetly and she could feel it meant so much more than he was willing to admit. They had slept in the same bed, alone without anyone between them. The only other time they had been in bed together was the night with Oliver but last night he had held her hand and that was it and she was so bloody confused and desperate. She didn't know what it meant for them because he wouldn't talk about, not once he knew about the morning with Steve.
She had left Oliver with Adam while she took Daisy home and waited for Steve. Kim hadn't told Adam about the messages, although he had some idea when she kept checking her phone. Eventually he told her to put it away. She wasn't on call for work; both her children were with her so she didn't need to have it constantly in her hand and it was obviously upsetting her. Kim wouldn't show him any of the messages but it probably wasn't necessary. He wasn't an idiot.
Her hope that Steve would be reasonable faded as soon as he walked through the door almost an hour late. Daisy was busy making "a picture for Adam." And that set Steve off.
"Pack that shit up." He barked at her, grabbing her crayons and shoving them back in the box and Daisy burst into tears. "Hurry up, I am not waiting for you. Stop wasting my bloody time."
"Steve don't talk to her like that please." Kim tried to reassure Daisy and promised to pack it up for her while she told her to go to the bathroom and grab her bags ready to go. As soon as Daisy left the room he started while she tried to ignore his ranting and tidy up Daisy's mess.
"Why the fuck is she making things for him?"
"Because he bought it for her and she promised to make him something."
He was pacing back and forth and Kim could sense that he was agitated and was trying to stay calm and not get sucked in to biting back. "So not only is he trying to suddenly be Oliver's Dad after ignoring him for eight years now he's playing Dad with my daughter?"
"He didn't ignore Oliver, he didn't know about him and he's not trying to be Daisy's father, he's a friend."
"She doesn't need a grown man as a friend, unless he's after her for another reason? If I find out he's been touching her I'll kill him."
"Don't you dare even go there. You don't know Adam so don't you dare even suggest anything like that. Be an adult for a change." Kim saw red; that was a bridge too far. She knew where Steve was going with that and she was having none of it.
"You better not be fucking him in my house?" Suddenly Steve was standing over her and she could smell the booze on his breath.
"Get out." Kim finally snapped.
"Not without Daisy."
"You are not taking her, you've been drinking. You are not putting her in your car." It was then that he grabbed Kim by the wrists, squeezing her so tightly that she actually thought he might break them. It was the first time she actually feared for her safety.
Neither of them had heard Adam and Oliver come home.
"I said let her go." When he didn't let go the first time Adam's voice suddenly lost its calmness. Oliver bolted into the lounge room and Adam had to try to stop him but he slipped past quickly. "Oliver, go find your sister." He put his hand on Ollie's shoulder and he had to grip him more firmly than he liked when Oliver didn't stop. He was grabbing at Steve's arms and Adam was desperate to get him to stop before Steve turned on him. Kim was begging him to stop as well but Oliver wasn't listening. He was so wild with fear and Adam had never seen him so angry and he certainly didn't like it.
"No, let my Mom go. Don't hurt her. I hate you." He screamed and Steve turned and glared at the both of them and time stopped momentarily as they both feared that Steve was going to hit Oliver again and Kim was terrified of what Adam would do if he did, he might just kill him.
"Why don't you both just get out of my fucking house?" Adam saw Kim wince as he still had a tight hold on her wrists and he'd had enough. He stood between Ollie and Steve and again asked Ollie to leave. Kim also begged him to go find Daisy and reluctantly he stepped back.
"I won't tell you again. Get your fucking hands off her." Rather than reach for Steve, which he knew from his few years dealing with angry men could make him snap and instead put his arm across in front of Kim and manoeuvred his body between them. Finally he let go of her wrists. "Get out." He stepped a little away from Kim and forced Steve to take a backwards step.
Kim's eyes darted towards the doorway when she heard Daisy crying. Ollie was trying to hold her back from running into the room; he didn't want his sister to get hurt. His eyes were wild with fear and Kim dashed towards them and ushered them out of the room.
Steve, too stupid or drunk to care took a swing at Adam who was easily able to duck out of the way of his slow moving hand. Steve however wasn't nimble enough to avoid Adam's fist as it slammed into his face, not once but twice. "Don't you ever lay a hand on Kim or my son again." He stood over him as he crashed to the ground. "If I hear you even have so much as looked sideways at them again it'll be the last thing you do."
"You're some big fucking hero aren't you?" Staggering to his feet he felt for the blood trickling down his face from a cut just about his eye and lunged at Adam who grabbed his arms and in an instant he had slammed him face first into the floor and had a knee in his back and had his hands pinned.
"A bigger fucking hero than you are. You touch them again, I swear it won't just be me you'll need to answer to." That long buried anger had spilled over. He had wanted to hurt this guy for a long time and the punches had been blissfully satisfying in that regard.
"Fuck you." He spat out.
Adam let go of his hands and hauled him up to his feet, his fingers biting into his shoulder making him gasp and stagger just a little. "I'm calling you a cab."
"I can drive." When he fumbled for his keys and waved them around Adam snatched them from his hand, which bought another round of expletives spewing out of him.
"While I don't particularly care if you chose to kill yourself, you have a daughter who loves you and needs you and I really don't want you killing anyone else." He really just wanted him gone, the sooner the better.
"Where is Daisy? She's coming with me."
"No, she isn't." Adam grabbed him by the arm, twisting it behind his back and forced him outside. "Fucking sit." He pointed to the porch while he called a cab.
"Why should I listen to you?"
"Because if you don't I will fucking lay you out and you'll be leaving here in an Ambulance. Either way you're leaving."
"How about we call the cops and I charge you with assault?"
Adam swung around, his eyes spitting fire; he stopped with his face inches from Steve's. "And we can tell them that you gave my eight year old son a black eye so you are fucking lucky you are still breathing. I suggest you shut your fucking mouth."
"I'm not scared of you."
"You wanna test me?" Adam taunted him just as the cab pulled into the driveway. Adam dragged him up off the step and pushed him towards the car. "Fucking get out of my sight."
Kim was sitting with Oliver and Daisy, it was nice to see Oliver's arm around his sister but he hated to see that they had all been crying. Kim flicked on the TV and motioned for Adam to follow her into the kitchen.
She reefed open the freezer door, grabbed out a packet of peas and tossed them across the table towards him. "For your hand."
He laid the cold bag on his swollen knuckles, which were throbbing nicely but strangely he quite liked the pain. It was satisfying "Are you okay?" He asked when she said nothing.
"Yes."
"Are Oliver and Daisy okay?"
"Daisy's upset about not going with her Dad. Oliver has just shut down." Kim busied herself so she didn't have to look at him. "I guess now I will have to deal with Steve again tomorrow."
"What can I do?"
''You can stop talking." She threw the dishcloth back in the sink and stormed from the room.
Kim didn't speak to him again until the kids were in bed; dinner had been a pretty quiet affair and no one really felt like eating. She had spent a lot of time with Daisy and that was okay. Making sure her kids were okay after witnessing that was her priority. That she was pissed off with him was annoying but he assumed that she just needed time to calm down. Adam talked to Oliver in his room for a bit, the past two days had to be tough for him.
"I'm sorry you had to see that." Adam sat on the edge of his bed.
"Why does he want to hurt Mom?" Oliver didn't care about himself; he cared about his Mom. Again he had been willing to stand in between them to protect her.
"I don't know Ollie, but I won't let that happen."
"What about Daisy?"
"We all need to look out for Daisy. Your Mom, you and me."
"It's because of me isn't it? Why he hates Mom?" Adam stopped him.
"No Ollie, it's not because of you. Don't ever say that. Steve has a problem with drinking and that's all his fault. It's not your Mom's fault; it's not yours or Daisy's. Just promise me, if I am not around that you won't get involved if Steve is scaring you. You call the cops or me or Al. Anyone. Don't let yourself get hurt, your Mom doesn't want that. I don't want that."
"I want to protect her." You had to admire the kid for that, his need to protect his mother. Adam loved that about him, how much he loved his Mom and his sister. Kim had raised a good boy.
"I know you do Buddy and that's great and I am proud of you, but we don't want you to get hurt either."
"Are you going away?" He looked a little panicked and Adam wasn't quite sure where that had come from. "I don't want you to go."
"No, what makes you say that?"
"You just said if I am not around."
"Ollie, I meant if I am at work or something. I can't always be here. I promise you I am not going anywhere." Oliver threw his arms around Adam's neck, holding on tightly. He kept reassuring him that he was always going to be here until he was happy to settle down to sleep.
Kim was waiting for him when he came back down and she looked pissed. Usually he had a drink waiting for him but tonight he had nothing. "Is Oliver alright?"
"He's worried about you and Daisy."
"Great." She barely looked at him. "You can go now."
"Kim, come on. What did you expect me to do? Let him go? He was hurting you and your children were terrified."
"So hitting him solves all the problems."
"Do I need to remind you that he was hurting you? Oliver tried again to protect you and Daisy was hysterical. Also, just so you know Oliver blames himself. He thinks that Steve hates you because of him."
"It's not Oliver's fault."
"I know that, you know that but that boy.." He pointed upstairs. "..he doesn't understand and he is so desperate to protect you. He was willing, once again to put himself in danger for you. Someone had to do something, would you rather it was Oliver?"
"No, of course not but using violence to solve the issue is not teaching Oliver anything. I don't want him to be scared of you."
"He's not scared of me. He's scared that I won't be around next time."
"Please don't get involved."
"Stop fucking saying that." He pressed his fingers to his temples; the pressure building behind them was starting to intensify. "I am involved. Like it or not Kim, I am involved and I am not going to ignore what's going on. And you seem to have forgotten that he took the first swing. Not for the first time though is it, I mean how many times has he taken a swing at Oliver? Our eight-year-old son. He's a loose cannon."
The room wasn't that big but Kim was pacing around it like an animal stalking its prey. Adam knew that right now he was the prey. "I know all that. This doesn't help though does it? You think he's going to come back here tomorrow and be all apologetic? Do you think he's suddenly going to be happy about you being here?"
"You know what, Kim I don't really care. I care about you; I care about Oliver and Daisy. He was hurting you. I could see the fear on your face. I am not going to stand back and watch that, I am not going to let your children see that."
"I asked you to keep out of it. To keep your hands to yourself."
"Kim, Jesus." He threw his arms up in the air. "What did you want me to do? Grab a beer, pop my feet up on the couch and watch the show? Turn and walk out?"
"Adam." She sat down finally and looked defeated.
Thumping his chest with his hands he was surprised by the overwhelming pain he felt and he hoped that when she looked at him she could see that. He wasn't walking around with his chest puffed out like some proud male who had just killed off the opposition, he was suffering because he wanted to protect the people he loved and he was being punished for that. At least that's what it felt like. "I was protecting you. I was protecting my son and your daughter. And I would do it again in a heartbeat." He grabbed his car keys and phone and stopped by the door, giving her one last chance to stop him leaving but he got nothing. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I care about you." Pausing with his hand on the door he looked at her sitting on the couch. She was obviously hurting but had made it clear that she wasn't about to seek comfort from him and that felt all too familiar. "If you want me to stop caring just let me know. Just make sure you tell me the reason why this time, you know I am not good at figuring these things out."