Twenty minutes later I left the office feeling lighter, happier. I had a horrible UTI, the doctor had told me, but she had told me I could stop taking my birth control pills as soon as I finished this cycle out. I only had a week to go and then Shane and I could start trying for our baby.
Chapter 18
Emmie
I sat back on my heels, examining my art work.
Mia gave me a grumpy look. “Are you done yet, Momma?”
“Nearly,” I assured her as I smeared the glitter on her checks that was too thick in one spot. “Okay, there. Now you are my beautiful flower fairy.”
She clapped her hands together excitedly before turning around to examine herself in the floor-length mirror on the opposite wall in my bathroom. “Oh, I’m so pretty!”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re always pretty, Mia.”
“Aunt Emmie, I’m ready.” Lucy stepped into the bedroom and I stepped out of the bathroom to find a zombie version of Jane Austen standing before me. Shit, that girl was too smart and creative for her own good, but she was freaking adorable. “Nice. Are you ready to go see your parents before I take you to Harris’s house?”
“I’m ready whenever you are.” She grinned. “Think Harris will like it?”
“I’m sure he will relate completely to the zombie, but I’m not sure if he will get the whole Jane Austen thing.” I laughed as I picked Mia up to carry her downstairs to her father. Mia wasn’t up for trick-or-treating. She had told us plain and simple she didn’t like it. So she was going to give out candy with Nik.
“He’s smarter than you think, Aunt Em,” Lucy informed me as she followed me down the stairs. “He reads as much as I do.”
“So he knows who Jane Austen is? He’s read her books?”
“Probably not.”
I glanced at her over my shoulder. “Well, he’s still pretty to look at, huh?” Lucy blushed and I laughed again. “It is okay, Lucy. Even I know he’s a little hottie.” The boy looked just like his dad, so how could he not be hot? Shaggy dark hair that always seemed to be in his aquamarine eyes, and his shoulders were already wider than the majority of the boys his age.
“Don’t tell Dad,” she whispered when we reached the living room. Nik was already pouring bags of candy into the huge black bowl with a pumpkin on the front. “He might kill Harris.”
“My lips are sealed, baby cakes,” I promised as I sat Mia on her feet and she ran toward her father.
“I’m ready to give out the candy, Daddy,” Mia informed her father, sounding very important.
“Who are you?” Nik asked, crouching down in front of the little fairy. “My little Mia is going to be helping me. You’re not my Mia.”
“Daddy, it’s me!” She cupped his face in both hands, her voice serious.
“I’m not sure.” He examined her closer. “My Mia doesn’t have glittery green hair or shimmery cheeks. She doesn’t have pretty pink wings or yellow legs.”
“It’s a costume, Daddy. Really it’s me.”
“Nope, I don’t believe you. But maybe… If you are really and truly my precious Mia then you will know the answer to this question… Who is Mia’s favorite person in the entire world?”
“You are, Daddy!” she exclaimed, hugging him tight.
“What about your momma?” Nik asked, glancing at me over Mia’s shoulder. “Is Momma your favorite too?”
“She’s my second favorite.”
I sighed. “Better second than last, I guess.” I picked up my keys. “I’m leaving now, but I should be back before you give out all the candy.”
Nik stood and kissed my lips. The touch of his lips brought back all the delicious memories we had made the night before and I leaned in, deepening the kiss for a moment longer. When I stepped back his eyes were nearly cobalt. “Hurry back,” he murmured, making me shiver.
“Only if you promise more of last night,” I whispered before turning around. “Let’s go, Lucy. Your dad is going to want to take all kinds of pictures.”
“Bye, Uncle Nik,” Lucy called as she followed me out.
“Bye, Lucy. Have fun, sweetheart.”
“Bye, Lucy!” Mia called from her spot at the candy bowl, already trying to sneak a miniature candy bar.
“Bye, Mia!”
“I know it’s Halloween and all, Nik, but I’d rather our child didn’t have a stomachache from all the candy she’s going to be sneaking…” His eyes lifted from my ass with a frown and saw that Mia had one candy bar in her hand and another in her mouth already. “Damn, she is quick.” Laughing at his mumbled curse, I opened the door. “Love you.”
On the drive to the hospital Lucy told me all about her new assignment for her creative writing class. She was going to do an interview with Harris on what it’s like to grow up as a rocker brat—her words not mine. When I told her she was a rocker brat, she sighed. “Not like Harris is. I wasn’t born into it, so I don’t know everything to expect. Harris is older, has even gone on a summer-long tour with his dad. Oh, I forgot the best part! If my teacher likes my assignment she said that she might let me do a few articles for the school newspaper. They only let older kids do that, never fourth graders.”
My eyes widened not because that was what I thought she expected—because she did—but because I was seriously impressed. Lucy was creative as hell, I knew that, but this was awesome in my book. “Honey, that’s great. I’m so proud of you. Your parents will be too.”
“I’m not going to tell them…”
I was silent until I stopped at the next red light and then I put the SUV in Park and turned to face her. “Lucy…”
“They have so much going on right now, Aunt Em. I don’t want them to have to worry about me too.” She bit her lip, chewing off the makeup she had obviously painstakingly applied with no help.
“You’re right. They do have a lot going on right now. And you’re a big part of that. The twins, they are going to be just fine, Lucy. And Layla is already doing so much better. It’s you that your dad is stressed the most about, baby.” I reached out and stroked her cheek. “He would die if you started keeping things from him now, especially something that he would want to celebrate with you.”
Lucy swallowed hard and sucked in a shaky breath before nodding in understanding. “Okay. I’ll tell them.”
I grinned. “Great.” I put the Escalade back in Drive and noticed that we had sat through a green light and now had to wait since the light was red once more. There was nothing behind us except for an old truck that I just now noticed in the rearview mirror. I probably wouldn’t have even taken a second glance at it if it weren’t for the fact that a truck like that this close to Malibu wasn’t something I would normally see. Even the low key gardeners that took care of some of the lawns drove better trucks than that one. “When do you find out if your teacher likes the assignment or not?”
“Next week. I have the weekend to do the interview and write the paper.”
“As soon as you find out I want to know, okay?” I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel, not really paying attention to anything but Lucy for the moment. “We can all have dinner somewhere special that night.”
“I’d rather just have a meal at home with everyone, including the twins. That would really make it perfect.” Lucy smiled a little sadly. “But since they aren’t likely to come home before then I’ll settle for dinner at Papa Gianni’s.”
A laugh bubbled out of me just as the light turned green and I started to ease through the intersection. “You got it, Lu-”
My words were cut off and a yelp escaped me as the vehicle that had still been a few car lengths behind us suddenly bumped into the Escalade. I jerked forward from the impact and Lucy let out a small cry of distress. My foot pressed down on the brake so I wouldn’t go any farther into traffic and turned my head slightly to glance out the back window.
I couldn’t see anyone. I glanced around us and a shiver of pure fear—the same feeling I would get right before my mother would fly into a rage
—went down my spine. I checked to make sure the doors were locked, and glanced around to see if there was anyone else around that had noticed the fender bender. But we were at a relatively vacant part of the city. There wouldn’t be regular traffic for at least another twenty minutes. The calm before the storm of rush hour traffic.
My hands went straight for my cell phone and with fingers that noticeably trembled I started dialing 911. “I’m scared,” Lucy whispered, glancing behind us too.
I reached for her hand and gave it a little squeeze as the operator greeted me. “Nine one-one. What is your emergency?”
“We’ve just been rear-ended,” I told her, unable to stop the shakiness of my voice. “But the person who hit us is gone…”
“A hit and run, miss?”
“No…” Because I could almost feel the presence of someone else outside the SUV. “I don’t know…”
“Do you require medical treatment?” the woman asked, sounding professional and concerned. “Is anyone hurt?”
I started to speak, to tell her no, we were fine. Lucy’s scream locked up my throat, however, and I nearly dropped the phone. Her eyes were on whatever or whoever was behind me. I could hear the operator speaking as if the voice was coming from a long tunnel as I slowly turned my head and found the thing of nightmares standing at my window with a crowbar in his hands. Not just anyone’s nightmares, but my own. I was transported back to a time when all I could see were glazed-over high eyes glaring down at me with hate. A time when I wondered if this was it. Was I going to die this time?
I had seen that face before. Those dark eyes so identical to the little girl sitting beside me. But the rest of him was nothing like the beautiful creature I had come to love like a niece. His eyes were glazed with a look I knew well, because I had spent the first fifteen years of my life seeing it daily. He was high, raging, and mean. Just like my mother had always been.
Suddenly I was a little girl again and I knew that I was going to be hurting before this was over. “Please,” I whispered into the phone as the crowbar hit the driver’s side window the first time, cracking it, “please, help us.”
The next swing and the glass exploded all over me. I was torn between wanting to protect my belly and the child growing inside, and Lucy. That fear made my mind fuzzy. When I should have just shot the SUV into Drive and hit the gas, I panicked instead. Shaking with fear I unfastened my seatbelt as fast as possible and reached for her. “Run!” I commanded.
Lucy only paused for a moment before she unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the door. She had barely jumped down and I was trying to jump out behind her, my phone forgotten in my fight or flight mode. For the moment I was solely focused on flight and the need to get Lucy as far away from the kind of monster that I’d had to live with growing up.
“No you don’t, bitch,” Vince Grady growled as he caught my foot, tripping me as I climbed across the seats. “She’s mine.”
I kicked out at him, trying to dislodge his hold on my ankle so that I could run after Lucy. “She’s ours!” I yelled at him. “You can’t have her. Jesse will kill you if you even try.”
“Oh, he can have her back,” he snarled, pulling me across the console and closer to him. The stench of something smoky, stale and sour turned my stomach and I nearly gagged even as I fought him to get free. But in his drug-induced state he was freakishly strong. When he caught my kicking foot, trapping both feet in his hands I knew I was in serious trouble. “As soon as he pays enough.”
I turned and tried to see out the windshield, praying that Lucy was far, far away from all of this. My heart dropped when I saw that she was only a few yards away, having realized that I wasn’t with her any longer. Her brown eyes were wide with fear in her pale face. Tears rolling down her cheeks. “Emmie!” she cried.
“Run!” I screamed at her. “Run, Lucy!”
Vince pulled harder and the back of my head hit the console hard, but I barely felt the pain. Adrenaline was rushing through me and I tried to sit up. Maybe if I could just hit him, or grab the crowbar I would be able to get free. Lucy needed me. I couldn’t let her down. I couldn’t let this evil monster take her.
“I’ll pay whatever you want, right now,” I told him, trying to distract him. Money was all he wanted, just as I had first assumed when Jesse told me that this man wanted his daughter. All he wanted was payment for his little girl, and then he would go away… Until he needed more money. I knew Jesse would hand over every penny he had to his name for Lucy. She was his baby, his since before Layla had even said ‘I do’. “I can get you the money. As much as you want.”
“I don’t want your money. I want his,” Vince assured me.
“I have full access to Jesse’s money.” I had access to all the guys’ money. I paid their bills, invested for them, made sure that their millions were safe. And now I would fork over an ungodly amount so that Jesse could keep his daughter.
It was what I had planned on doing anyway. Having him found, his signature put on the bottom of the paperwork that would relinquish his rights over Lucy forever. Then paying him off and making sure he never bothered my family again. But with the craziness of the last week I hadn’t put as much effort in having this man found like I should have been doing.
Instead he had found me, and this was going to end in one of two ways. He would calm the fuck down and let me get him the money, or he would hurt me—maybe even kill me—and use Lucy as ransom to get the money he needed. No doubt so he could snort it up his nose or shoot it into his arm. I had to keep my head, had to fight through the fear that was trying to swallow me alive so I could make sure that I didn’t end up dead… Fuck, I had to keep calm for Lucy who could end up in a body bag if I didn’t.
“No deal, bitch.” His fist connected with my jaw and I saw stars for a moment. “I want to see his face. I want to see that fucker’s face as he hands over the money. If he loves the girl he will bring it himself.”
“Leave her alone!” I yelled at him as I lifted. He screamed in pain as my nails raked down his face. “He will kill you and I will help him bury the fucking body,” I growled as I caught the crowbar from his slackened hands and swung it at his face.
It connected, but not with as much force as I would have liked. Damn, I was hoping to knock him out, instead it just dazed him enough for me to get free. I scrambled across the seats and out the door. I saw Lucy a ways down the street. “Keep running,” I called, running toward her.
“EMMIE!”
That was all the warning I got before I was tackled to the ground. My heart stopped, thinking about my baby as I landed hard on my stomach…
And then I couldn’t think at all as blackness suddenly surrounded me. I felt something wet slide down my face as he hit me again just before the world disappeared.
Chapter 19
Jesse
Layla’s private room was full of family. Drake and Lana sat at the window, one wrapped around the other. Shane sat in the only other spare chair with Harper on his lap. All of them were laughing with Layla as she attempted to feed Luca. He was being particular though, having gotten so spoiled with me feeding him over the last few days. He knew my scent, my touch and was looking for it.
I didn’t move from where I was standing holding Lyric, who had already had his dinner and then some. My little warrior’s appetite had picked up today and he had sucked down his bottle and cried for more after he had been burped. The nurse had rushed to get another bottle for Luca because Lyric had inhaled half that bottle too.
Layla was doing better emotionally since she had gotten to spend a little more time with the boys earlier in the day and now she was getting to actually feed them. She was smiling, her tears miles away. Now all we needed was for Emmie to get Lucy here so that my family would be complete.
For what was probably the fiftieth time I glanced down at the watch on my left wrist. It was just after five, but Emmie had assured me she would have Lucy here by four-thirty. I wasn’t happy with her going off with Harris t
onight for trick-or-treating, but Emmie had arranged for one of the security guards to follow the kids tonight, offering me that safety net that I needed.
Emmie was rarely late, and when she was she always called me. I felt off, my heart starting to race with anxiety. Then I brushed it off. Em and Lucy were fine. Of course they were…
I was so lost in my musings that when my phone buzzed I jerked, making Lyric protest. Pulling the cell from my pocket I saw that it was Emmie and breathed a sigh of relief. I handed the baby over to Harper who was the closest to me and then answered the phone. “Hey. Where you at?”
“D-da-daddy?”
My heart stopped at the sound of Lucy’s voice. In that one broken word I heard a million different things. The fear that made her voice wobble is what broke me, though. “Lucy?” I breathed her name.
“Da-daddy, I’m sorry!” she cried before she was cut off.
I heard a male voice I didn’t recognize snap something I couldn’t understand and then his voice was coming loud and clear through the phone. “Jesse Thorton?”
“Yes,” I snarled. “Who the fuck is this and what the hell are you doing with my daughter? Where is Emmie?”
The room around me seemed to freeze and I didn’t even notice as Drake and Shane stood and flanked me. I was too lost in rage because even though I had no clue what was going on, I knew that this man had hurt Lucy… and probably Emmie too!
“Emmie is where I left her… Or maybe not. I’m sure someone has found her by now. Don’t worry, she was still breathing when I last saw her.” My vision actually narrowed at his words and I nearly stumbled as I reached for something to steady me. It was the end of Layla’s bed and I gripped it with my free hand so tightly I thought I heard the thick plastic crack a little. “As for your daughter… She’s not. She’s mine. But you can have her if you want… If you’re willing to pay for her.”
“Grady.” I spit the name out, tasting bile.
“You’re a smart man, Thorton. So, do you want her back or not?” Vince Grady’s voice was hard but full of what I thought might be boredom. What the fuck? He was asking me if I wanted my little girl back as calmly as if he was asking if I wanted extra cheese on my pizza.
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