Impact (Suncoast Society #32)(28)

Landry’s heart sank. He suspected where this was going.

“I tried to get away from him,” Sofia said. “He threatened to hurt me and the baby.” She pointed at her face. “This is what he did to me when I told him I wanted to leave. I was scared he’d hurt her.”

Nerzino pulled her glasses off again and rubbed at the bridge of her nose. “Why didn’t you ask for help when you were in the hospital and giving birth?”

“Because he had someone stay with me all the time. I couldn’t. I wanted to.”

The officer leaned back in her chair. “Is your cousin going to pay your overdue probation fees for you?”

“I—”

“I’ll pay them for her right now,” Landry said, reaching for his wallet. “How much?”

“I’ll give you a print-out. You can pay it online,” she said. “So where is your new address?”

Landry recited it for her as she typed it in. “But we want to look into getting her moved with us to Florida.”

“I’m confused. I thought you lived here.”

“We have a secondary residence here for business, yes. My wife, myself, and Cris, we all travel here for business, but our primary residence is in Florida. That’s where we spend most of our time.”

“Frankly, I’m inclined to revoke your probation right now and remand you to custody for putting your child at risk.”

“Ms. Nerzino,” Dale said, “I have the freshly minted court order stating that Mr. LaCroux, his wife, and Cris Guerrero are the legal guardians of the infant. They will remain so, at Ms. Guerrero’s request, until she is in a stable situation and able to care for her daughter properly.”

The probation officer tapped on her keyboard for another minute, finally shaking her head. “I’m going to need to run this up the chain,” she said. “There are multiple probation violations here. Associating with a known felon, changing residences without notification, being behind in paying your fees, endangering an infant. If I let you go without so much as a slap on the wrist and something happens—I don’t want that on my conscience. And I need to do a home visit at your new residence.”

Landry put breaking down the spanking bench in the spare bedroom at the top of his mental to-do list.

And hiding their implements under their bed in the master bedroom.

“What about transferring her probation to Florida?” Landry asked.

“I’m not going to give you an answer about that right now. Tonight, eight o’clock, I’ll be there for a home visit. You’d better have your overdue fees paid by then, too. And I want to see a solid plan, either for getting a job or going back to school.”

The woman leaned back in her chair again. “What were you thinking? One of the primary rules of your probation is not associating with criminals, and you were living with two of them? Another violation right there, you changed your residence without notifying me about it. Not to mention you were living outside the area where you were approved to be in the first place.”

Sofia tearfully nodded. “I know. I’m sorry. I’ll do whatever it takes, even if it means going back to jail. That’s why I wanted Cris to have Katie.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked. “Had you told me what was going on, I would have referred you to a shelter. Gotten you help.”

“I was really, really scared.” She pointed at her neck, where dark bruises ringed her throat, then at her blackened and swollen eyes. “I didn’t think I had options that wouldn’t get me or my baby killed.”

“I’ll see you tonight at eight. That’ll give me time to look into this further. I want to know what charges are being filed against this Monroe Cord before I make a decision.”

Sofia nodded.

Dale glanced at his phone when they got outside. “Do you want me to run you home? I won’t be able to be there tonight. But when she gets there, just let her in and let her look around, answer her questions, and call me if there’s a problem.”

“I need a rental car,” Landry said. “If you could drop us off at an agency, I’d appreciate it.”

An hour later, Landry was driving them back to the condo. Sofia had barely said two words the entire time, and had waited out in Dale’s car while Landry went in to get the car rental handled.

He couldn’t blame her. She looked horrible.

“They’re going to put me in jail,” she softly said as they parked at the condo.

“Think positively,” he said, not feeling very positive himself. “Perhaps when she sees where we live and the better position you’re in now, maybe she’ll feel more charitable.”

“I’m lucky she hasn’t revoked me before now. Monroe wouldn’t give me any money. He said if they couldn’t find me, they couldn’t make me pay.”

“Nice. Wasn’t his hide on the line, as they say.”

“I still went. I didn’t tell him. I would take the bus. The last two times I went, I was obviously pregnant and since I was passing my drug tests, she went easy on me since I wasn’t working.”

“We’ll pay the fees as soon as we’re upstairs. But in addition to the rules Tilly gave you, I’m adding another. You do not leave the condo alone until further notice, understand?”