Colorado followed me, Simon on his tail, and then sat on the sofa opposite, barely fitting into the space. Simon was wide, Colorado tall and broad, and both had delineated muscles, although Simon was brawn and Colorado was corded strength. Madeline wouldn’t take the bottle at first, but it wasn’t quiet. Simon had an issue with a death wish that Colorado appeared to have, and Colorado had an issue with someone called Mark who in his words, was a fucking asshole. They both talked under their breath, but there was so much feeling that I worried for this Mark guy’s life.
Finally Madeline took the bottle, one hand batting at mine, the other curled into a fist. She closed her eyes briefly, and then opened them and I got the full force of the biggest blue eyes I’d ever seen in a baby. Along with that, she had an adorable head of fine dark hair, and I thought she couldn’t have been more than a month old. As soon as I felt I could look up I did.
“Start from the beginning,” I said in my softest tone, then placed a finger over my lips to encourage whispers.
Colorado glanced at Simon and they had a silent chat about god knows what, until Simon stood and with a huff, he left me with crazy-eyed drug-fueled Colorado.
I can handle this.
“Madeline was left on my doorstep two weeks ago.”
“Where are the parents?”
Colorado went pale, and pointed at himself, and I followed the finger to see it land in the T of the word ‘chaotic,’ I couldn’t make out the second word at all, lost to too many washes, and the way the material stretched across his muscled chest. “I’m her dad. It’s official, the blood tests said so.”
He sounded so in awe that part of my initial hatred and distrust for whoever this man was and what he’d probably done to get this mansion, was chipped away. Only a tiny bit, not enough for me to want to leave Madeline with him.
“And her mom?”
Colorado collapsed in on himself; I’d never seen something so utterly wretched as this big man slumping over his lap, his head in his hands. “Gone. I don’t even know who… I have no idea…”
“Okay, I don’t need details, what I actually need to do is call Child Services.” I tilted my chin then, waiting for him to argue. Just because Colorado was Madeline’s dad that didn’t mean he could look after a baby. “This house is chaos, and you—”
“It wasn’t. My boss organized cleaners to come in, but then I was away and when I came back it was to all of this—the Furballs had a session and there was beer and…” He waved a hand around him. The man at the counter woke with a snort and nearly fell off the stool, then yawned, and glanced around before padding toward us in boxers and a T-shirt. I cradled Madeline protectively, because if I thought Colorado was a drug dealer then this guy was one for sure because he came complete with white powder on his shirt.
“Col, dude, you’re home!”
“Go away, Buick.”
“Hey, sorry ’bout the crap.”
“Fu—go away, ass—idiot.”
Colorado glanced up at the other man, stared at him for the longest time, and then drug-dude gave a shrug and wandered back to the counter in the kitchen, cursing up a storm about something, before Simon got him in a headlock. They disappeared, and I heard some distant shouting before the slam of the front door. Simon strode back into the kitchen, and over to us, slapping a key to the small table next to me.
“He doesn’t come back in,” Simon snarled.
I was missing something here, a dynamic between Colorado and Simon, almost as if despite the arguing, that these two had a connection of some sort.
“You can’t call Child Services,” Colorado said after a short while.
“It’s my duty as a responsible adult to report—”
“Child Services already visited me.”
“I’m not surprised with the drug use—”
“What drug use—?”
“Your friend at the counter was covered in white powder, you’re clearly taking something,” I waved a hand between him and Simon, “and whatever your relationship there is something seriously messed up in this house, and I will report it.”
“Relationship?” Colorado glanced up at Simon. “With him?”
“In your dreams,” Simon said on a sigh. “Look, kid, I’m the court-appointed Colorado-whisperer-stroke-security the Craptors arranged for this situation.” Colorado shoved him away, and made this face that was all ha-fucking-ha.
God knows what I’d landed in but this Craptors gang sounded like the kind of shit I’d spent my entire life avoiding. I could leave now, and not cause a fuss, and there was a real fear inside me that I might not see Natalie and Emma again. I didn’t know much about rival gangs in Tucson, but they must be big if Colorado had a house this size.
I could leave Madeline and go. Call the cops, social services, get her away like that, after time. Or I could do what my heart told me, and grow a backbone because this tiny scrap of humanity depended on me. I stood, adjusted the bottle, and grabbed the cloth I’d picked up in case she was sick.
“I’m leaving, and I’m taking the baby,” I announced, and took a step toward the counter.
Colorado and Simon both scrambled to stand.
“What the hell?”
“Give me my baby!”
I held Madeline closer, smooshing her tiny face into my neck where she would be safe. If there were guns then I’d cover her and hope she at least made it out alive. Hysteria grabbed at me but I managed to form words.
“I don’t care about the Craptors, but a gang dealing drugs, guns, prostitution or whatever, is
