How About No

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  My brows lifted in surprise. “No shit?”

  She nodded once. “No shit.”

  “Then let’s get this over with. What did they say?” I asked.

  I was assuming it was bad because Lina was wincing with sympathy, and Wade looked like he’d rather cut his leg off than tell me.

  “Dear God, just spit it out already!”

  Castiel, who’d been occupying the seat in the corner, was the one to say it.

  “Your father fucked your mother’s sister, got her pregnant, and then didn’t find out about you until your mother died. The only reason your mother allowed you to stay in her house without throwing an unholy bitch fit was due to your sister having a disease that only you could cure with your bone marrow. Since your father was used to the cushy lifestyle that your mother’s trust fund financed and didn’t want to be separated from his sick daughter, he went along with his wife’s demands. Which was, in essence, to alienate you. Your father’s conditions were simple. She couldn’t harm you or tell you that you weren’t hers. As long as you weren’t seriously harmed in any way he was okay with everything else.”

  Wade cursed under his breath just as Castiel cursed.

  I blinked as my sister smacked him upside the head. Lina groaned as she started to laugh at Castiel’s glare.

  I stared at everyone in confusion.

  Then started to laugh myself.

  “Then, let me get this straight,” I said carefully, trying to control my hilarity despite it causing me pain. “I was shot by a grandmother whose daughter burned my house down. A woman who has also been stealing dogs out from under my nose and murdering them when they easily have at least a year or two of good quality life left. My father admitted that she wasn’t actually my mother—my actual mother being deceased. My father allowed me to be emotionally abused, but not physically abused, over the course of my lifetime. My sister doesn’t actually hate me like I’ve thought she’s hated me seeing as she willingly donated me a pint of her blood. Oh, and I’m still married when I thought I wasn’t. All in about a month’s time. Do I have this correct?”

  Almost as if they’d planned it out, everyone in the room nodded—even Pru, the nurse who was standing next to Hoax.

  Why the nurse was there, I didn’t know.

  But she wasn’t actually my nurse any longer.

  She and Hoax were standing side by side whispering about something, small smiles on both of their faces.

  My sister was wiping her eyes with her hands, but a smile was solidly on her face.

  My husband was looking at me like he wanted to kiss me.

  And then there was Hoax, who was looking at me like I was finally getting some inside joke or secret that I wasn’t understanding before.

  “Yep,” Hoax agreed. “That’s what I hear, anyway.”

  That’s when I, too, started to laugh.

  And it hurt.

  Like a mother fucker.

  Chapter 22

  My spirit animal would fuckin’ eat yours.

  -Landry to Wade

  Wade

  I crossed my arms over my chest and stared at the lawyer that was appointed by the state for Mrs. Petty, the woman who’d almost stolen my wife’s life.

  “Your honor,” the lawyer tried to interrupt.

  “I’m sorry, but the doctor has spoken. The jury has spoken. And I have spoken. There’s no longer a choice in the matter. Mrs. Petty is not clinically insane. She was more than aware of her misdeeds.” He slammed his gavel on the desk then stood up. “Case closed.”

  That’s when he stood and walked out of the courtroom, disappearing through a door along the side of the room.

  Moments after he was gone, the officer in charge of the court walked over with a set of handcuffs, which he deftly slipped onto the lying cow’s wrists.

  Moments after that, she was taken from the room as well.

  Landry looked from the now-closed door to me, and then back again.

  “She got everything we’d hoped for,” she whispered in awe.

  I grinned. “People don’t take kindly to cop’s wives being shot at. You’re part of the LEO—law enforcement officer—family. Plus, Judge Painter doesn’t pull his punches. I had a feeling he wasn’t going to go easy on her.”

  Mrs. Petty had received twenty-eight years in prison with a possibility of parole at eighteen years. By that point, she’d be eighty-three, and likely unable to do anything in retaliation once she got out.

  If she made it out.

  Older females didn’t make it long in prison for some reason. Which was my secret hope.

  Not that I’d be telling anybody that.

  “Well, we couldn’t have asked for a better outcome,” my Uncle Jimmy said as he stood. “Now. What do you think….”

  “We’re staying married,” I cut him off at the same time that Landry said, “He’s mine. No one can have him.”

  I grinned at my wife.

  My uncle rolled his eyes. “I was going to say what do you think you want to eat for lunch?”

  I rolled my eyes.

  Landry seemed to seriously consider it.

  “I want a steak,” my father said, sidling up to us.

  “I’d love a good Porterhouse,” Hoax said, his arm around the blonde nurse.

  It’d been a little over two and a half months since Landry had been shot, and during that month, life had changed a lot for us.

  We’d started building our own house in a new subdivision in town, and it was about halfway finished.

  Debbie Shultz had been tried and sentenced to a mental health facility where she would remain until she was stable enough to go to prison for ten years for arson.

  Debbie’s ex-husband, Mal, had moved two states over with his children so they’d be “away from the crazy” according to him.

  Kourt, after finding out all that had gone down with Landry, had understandably been suspicious of Lina’s motives and had set about proving her wrong.

  All he’d done was prove her right, especially when he’d snuck into their parents’ place and found a few stray letters that Lina had written to Landry stuffed in her mother’s jewelry box.

  It was only a matter of time now until those two were fucking each other.

  At first, I’d thought that she and Castiel would possibly get something going, but it quickly became apparent that Castiel and Lina were more of a brother and sister type relationship rather than romantically.

  Landry’s parents had made zero attempts at reconciliation with either of the two girls.

  Which worked for me. If they never came back, I’d be happy.

  Especially since, now that the two crazy people after my woman were gone, we were about to start the next chapter of our life.

  We’d also started looking into adoption.

  At least, I had.

  Landry was scared shitless and wanted nothing at all to do with it.

  I, on the other hand, wouldn’t allow her to be ruled by her fears.

  Which had been why I’d started to discreetly inquire about adoption loans, because goddamn was it expensive.

  I’d succeeded in securing one that was meant for law enforcement families seeking to adopt, and the next step was actually contacting an agency.

  I just had to convince my wife to take that step.

  “The steak place is open,” Kourt suggested, coming up to stand next to Lina, I suspected, just to annoy her.

  “Ohhhh,” Pru groaned. “The rolls from there are divine. And the sweet tea. Oh, and the macaroni. Now I’m starving, and we have to go there.”

  Landry snorted and stood up. “You had me at rolls.”

  I grinned and pulled her to me, placing a soft kiss on her forehead.

  “You okay, baby?”

  She nodded at me, looking like she was free of chains for the first time in a long time.

  “Yeah,” she agreed. “I’m perfect.”

  Before I c
ould say another word, she buried her face in my armpit and continued to walk, effectively putting an end to our conversation.

  “Y’all don’t mind if my sister comes, do you?” Pru asked. “She’s crazy busy these days, and I like to make sure that she eats.”

  “No problem,” Hoax said. “We can swing by and pick…never mind. We’re on my bike.”

  “I’ll do it,” Bayou offered.

  “I’ll go pick Izzy and the baby up, and then we’ll meet you there,” Rome said as he slapped me on the back.

  After returning the slap, he left, and the rest of us followed.

  It was then that I realized that life was back to normal for me.

  I’d returned to work last week—on regular duty.

  My leg, although still healing, was finally showing improvement now that the infection had been controlled. There were still days that it ached, but I could run on it. I could pivot and stretch. Hell, I could even fuck Landry in the shower without dropping her.

  In my book, that counted as a win.

  “Let’s go eat, babe.” Landry poked me in the side.

  I blinked, unsure when I’d stopped.

  We were standing at the top of the courthouse steps, and there wasn’t a single person around us anymore. They’d all walked toward their respective bikes and had started off.

  I dropped my gaze and turned my head so that I was staring into her eyes.

  And I knew that later, I’d broach the subject that she’d been avoiding.

  I just hoped that I didn’t hurt her in the process.

  Hours later, after a good meal with family and friends, I finally worked up the courage.

  And what I got in reply to my question wasn’t the one I was hoping for.

  But it was the one that was real.

  Which was what I wanted. What we needed.

  “I’m just not ready yet, Wade,” she whispered to me later that night when I yet again raised the issue. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready.”

  I dropped my mouth to hers, deepening the kiss so that she realized that I wasn’t upset about her insecurities. If we never had kids, that was okay.

  As long as I had her, it would be enough.

  And I showed her that with my body.

  With my mouth worshipping every inch of her skin. With my tongue lathing her breasts, and her pussy.

  With each and every hard, rough stroke of my cock.

  With each caress and squeeze.

  And when we came together long minutes later, both of us breathless and replete, I knew that it was all that mattered.

  Here. Now.

  Her.

  Epilogue

  I didn’t ask who put it there. I said pick it up.

  -Things I repeat eight million times a day to my kid.

  Wade

  “I don’t know what to do with them, man,” someone said softly.

  I looked over to find Castiel, a sleeping two-year-old against his chest, staring at me like he was about to be sick to his stomach.

  Me, with a newly born baby girl resting on mine, was feeling the exact same thing.

  The baby that I was holding had been delivered only two minutes before—by me and Castiel.

  Medics hadn’t even had a chance to arrive yet.

  “Have Landry meet us at the hospital,” I said softly. “CPS—child protective services—said that they’d be here in an hour and a half. You can call them and tell them that you moved both kids to the hospital to be checked out. The CPS chick knows Landry. She won’t mind.”

  Castiel looked relieved to finally have a solution.

  Me, on the other hand, I was on my way to the hospital with the mother and newborn.

  Unfortunately for the mother, she’d fucked up. Big time.

  How had she fucked up?

  She’d thought it was the greatest idea in the world to rob a bank with her boyfriend while her two-year-old sat in the car waiting for them to come out.

  In the excitement of robbing the bank, she’d gone into labor.

  A car chase had ensued, and when the car had wrecked and been too fucked up to keep driving, the man had bailed.

  The mother had at least stopped to grab the two-year-old, but she hadn’t made it far before we’d caught up to her just as her contractions had taken her down.

  We’d found her so quickly because we’d been hot on their tails— they weren’t exactly a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde.

  The other cruiser had followed the boyfriend while Castiel and I had stopped to help the mother—who’d been in the middle of an intersection with cars all around her and a two-year-old scared out of his mind.

  And, before we could even move them out of the street, she’d started pushing.

  I’d been aware enough to catch the baby before it’d fallen to the hot ground.

  “Landry will know what to do.”

  ***

  When I got home hours later, well past dark, it was to find Landry on the couch watching television with Capo resting against her feet in the cushion that was normally my spot.

  The newest addition—a sixteen-year-old sheepdog named Tooter—rested against the wall in the foyer.

  Stepping over the old pup, I walked directly to Landry and leaned over her to drop a kiss on her mouth.

  “I’m going to take a shower.”

  Minutes after stripping out of my clothes, I was under the spray of the water, trying hard to figure out what in the fuck had just happened.

  The mother had given up rights to both of her kids, signed them away as if they were nothing more than inconvenient pieces of trash.

  “Wade?”

  I swallowed and opened my eyes to find her staring at my worriedly.

  “You okay?” she asked softly.

  I shrugged. “That mother just gave her kids up like they were Pokémon cards to trade. The DA offered it as a joke, and she took it.”

  Landry’s eyes went hard.

  “The boy? He was covered in bruises. He was malnourished. There were so many scabs, cuts, and scrapes on him that I would’ve called CPS myself had he come in as one of my kids. She wasn’t a mother to him. It was the best thing that could ever happen to him—her giving him up.”

  I looked down, letting the water cascade over the back of my neck.

  “Here we are, unable to have kids, and wanting them so badly that our hearts hurt. Then there’s her. Having them easily—apparently, she’d had five abortions before, she was happy to point that out—and doesn’t even want them. How is that fucking fair?”

  Landry walked into the shower, clothes and all, wrapping her arms around me.

  “I don’t know, Wade. I just don’t know.”

  ***

  Landry

  It was two hours later that I made the call.

  “Hey, Shiloh,” I said softly. “I need to talk to you about a couple of babies.”

  ***

  Two days later

  “Where are we going?” Wade grumbled. “Fuck, but I just wanted to sleep in.”

  I felt my lips twitch.

  “Oh, we just have to go pick something up,” I murmured, heart pounding.

  “At the hospital?” he asked warily. “What in the hell would be there that I would need to pick up?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Why can’t you just drive me there?”

  “And why did we have to take the truck?” he grumbled. “I hate driving the truck when it’s such nice weather outside.”

  I sighed in exasperation. “Seriously, what in the fuck is your problem?”

  I knew what his problem was.

  He’d been in a bad mood since the delivery of that baby a few days ago. He’d been acting like an angry bull ever since.

  “Nothing,” he grumbled, going stoically silent for the rest of the ride.

  I kept my smile in check and directed him where to go.

  “There,” I said, pointing. “Where that c
art and all those balloons are. With the big box. There.”

  Wade did as I said.

  “What’s in the box?” he asked, pushing the door open.

  I looked out the open car window to see Shiloh Allen, the CPS agent that I knew well, standing there smiling wide.

  “A car seat,” Shiloh answered him.

  I got out of the car at the same time that a mini-van pulled up behind us.

  Minnie and Porter.

  Perfect timing.

  “Mom?” Wade stopped beside all the flowers. “What the fuck?”

  That’s when the screaming of an infant broke the quiet morning air, causing us all to turn and stare at a nurse who was rolling out a baby—who was being held by Castiel in a wheelchair.

  Wade frowned.

  “I don’t know what’s going on right now.”

  “You’re being deliberately obtuse, son.” Porter strolled around the van and opened the car door. It was then that the two-year-old, with his healing bruises and a cup of chocolate milk, was revealed. “And I think it all has to do with the fact that you’re too afraid to hope.”

  Wade turned to me, and a look of such hope and pleading entered his eyes that I felt like a big piece of crap for thinking to deny my man anything because of my insecurities.

  “Landry,” Wade whispered.

  I smiled as I felt tears form in my eyes. “We’re only their foster parents for now, but Shiloh has already started on the paperwork for the adoption process. In three to six months, they’ll officially be ours.”

  Wade dropped his head and contemplated his feet for a few long seconds before lifting it back up and staring at me with unaltered happiness in his eyes. “This is the fourth best day of my life.”

  I smiled.

  “What was the first?” Castiel asked as he stood up, eyes wide and a little freaked out.

  Bayou, who’d come from somewhere in the parking lot, started to rip into the box that was holding the car seat.

  In a matter of moments, he had it all unwrapped and headed to our truck.

  “The day that I married her,” Wade answered. “And before you ask the next two, it was the day I met her, and then the day I found out that we were still married that fill out the other two.”