Knight In Black Leather by Gail Dayton (ebook reader ink .txt) 📕

want, but you can call the Pittsburgh morgue. They'll tell you."

The woman's scowl intensified. What did she have against him? Besides the leather and earrings. "How do you plan to care for the child?"

"I got a place. A house. In Pittsburgh." Fed up with all the questions, Eli plucked his papers out of the woman's hands. "I want to get back to Pittsburgh tonight. With my son. I want to see my friend before I go. You got a problem with that?"

"Where is this house of yours?" she said, "And yes, I have a problem with turning any child loose into the care of someone who might have been abusing him."

"What?" Eli recoiled. He'd never touched Pete. Not like that. And he could swear Teresa never--

"He's been in the system. Reported by a teacher because of bruises on his body."

Rage flared through Eli and he fought it down. "Pete, come here a sec."

"What?" He didn't budge.

"Come here and I'll tell you."

Sullenly, Pete got up and dragged his feet back toward Eli. "What?"

"Why didn't you tell me Tee was hitting you?"

"She didn't." Pete wilted quickly under Eli's glare. "Not much, anyway. It didn't hurt."

"Then where'd the bruises come from?"

"I said it didn't hurt. I don't--" Pete stopped yelling at the look Eli gave him. "It was only once. She never did it again. Really. She just--she was mad cause I wouldn't give her the money you sent. She'd been out partying and she was mad."

"God, Pete." Eli yanked him into a hug, careful to hold back with the rock-hard cast. "Why didn't you tell me?"

The woman spoke up. "You told the social worker it was your mother's boyfriend who hit you."

"Yeah, it was." Pete spoke from inside the circle of Eli's arm. "Him, too. But mostly it was Tee."

"This isn't your mother's boyfriend?"

"Eli? Fu--uh--heck no. He's just Eli. He's--" Pete looked up at him with a funny look on his face that morphed slowly into a grin. "He's my dad."

Forgiven so easily? Eli hoped so. "Anything else? Can I take my son home now?"

"What home are you taking him to?" The woman wasn't giving up so quickly.

"Yeah, it's--" Eli looked at Marilyn again. She didn't have her head in her hands any more. She was sitting up, staring blankly across the room, not so pale as before but still not quite...right. "Marilyn?"

He turned back to the Child Services woman and Pete. "Give me a second here."

Eli clumped to Marilyn's side and sat down beside her. She didn't look at him, didn't look at anything but whatever she was staring at across the room.

"Marilyn? Hey--" Eli touched her shoulder and she slowly drew her attention from the far wall to him. "You okay?"

She blinked, some animation coming back to her face, and she smiled. A faint, feeble, mockery of a smile. "I'm fine."

"You sure?" She didn't seem fine to Eli.

"Of course." Marilyn blinked again, seeming to become more aware of her surroundings. "Are we ready to go?"

"Not quite yet. Child Services wants to know about the house I'm taking Pete to."

"Oh." She stood up and smiled, this one more real. "Of course."

Marilyn shook hands with the social worker woman, introduced herself and explained about her house, giving the address and briefly describing it and the neighborhood. It sounded like one heck of a house to Eli. Just the kind of place a kid should grow up.

"You're renting it to Mr. Court?" the woman asked.

"No. I'm--" Marilyn looked at Eli, then at Pete, like she didn't remember deciding already, like she wasn't sure what her answer would be. "We'll all be living there together. Eli and I are in a relationship."

"A...?" The woman's eyebrows climbed her forehead.

"He's my boyfriend." Marilyn sounded exasperated. Eli hoped it was with Ms. Child Services and not him.

He was getting fed up with the woman himself. If not for the security guard near the door, he'd have grabbed Pete and left a long time ago. Eli noticed Pete giving Marilyn a good once-over, head to toe to head again. What was the kid thinking?

"Do you have children, Ms. Ballard?" the woman asked.

"Not at home. In college."

Now Ms. Child Services was giving Marilyn the once-over, and then looking over Eli when she was done with that. It annoyed the hell out of Eli, the way people reacted to knowing they were together. So what if he was younger? So what if he was the punk-biker type and she was the suburban-housewife type. If they didn't care, why should anybody else?

Finally, the woman took a deep breath. "All right, Mr. Court. Take your son home. I'll notify the Pittsburgh office. They can check by in a few weeks and see how things are going."

Eli let go a gust of breath. "Great." He hooked his good arm around Pete's neck, putting him in a playful headlock. "Come on, squirt. Let's go find out if they'll let us see Fitz before we have to go."

Then he noticed, as the social worker vanished through a door, how Pete was still staring at Marilyn. And Marilyn was staring back.

"I guess we can take a minute for formal introductions." Eli leaned on his crutch, getting closer to Pete's eye level. "Pete, this is Marilyn, my lady friend."

"Hi." Pete gave her a shy wave of his fingers.

Eli straightened, took Marilyn's hand in his. "Marilyn--" He paused for a deep breath. "This is my son. Peter Samuel Howell."

Pete frowned. "If you're my dad, doesn't that mean I'm Peter Samuel Court?"

Blood thundered through Eli's brain. Pete wanted to be a Court? "Yeah," he said. "Sure. If that's what you want."

Marilyn smiled and held her hand out to Pete. "It's very nice to meet you, Mr. Court."

Pete shook her hand, his grin so big it was about to take over his face. "Call me Pete. Everybody does."

She laughed. At least Eli thought it was supposed to be a laugh. It sounded a little like a ... sob?"

"And how old are you, Pete?"

"I'm nine and one-twelfth. But not exactly, since