by Jillian Neal
“Yes, sweetheart. I remember it well. I’ll never forget any of the times you told me we were having a baby. And the time or two that I told you.”
He received a small smile from his wife as they recalled the morning they’d managed to make love tucked away in their bedroom while Will and Garrett fixed cereal for their siblings and let them eat in the living room in front of the television.
When Lillian had been under him with their bodies intertwined and existing as one, he’d watched her fevered, swollen breasts dance all for him as he took her reverently. Her body had glowed. Her waist was just a little larger than it had been a week before. Her long, thick blonde hair cascaded out over his pillow and caught the glint of the early morning sun through their windows. Those sky blue eyes closed in the ecstasy he brought her. Her body nursing away every frustration as she’d enveloped him completely. Her rhythms were always so nurturing and so responsive to his own when his seed grew inside of her.
They’d gotten so lost in the magic and the passion they made together that he hadn’t commented until she begrudgingly extracted herself from their afterglow to throw on her robe and answer the timid knock at their door.
“You’re pregnant, again, sweetheart.” He’d forced his body upright and caught her hand as she slipped on her robe. He’d pulled her close again and had run his hand under the robe from her breasts over her belly. “You’re always so beautiful, Lillian, but my God, sweetheart, when you’re pregnant, you take my breath away.”
She’d cried then, too. Tears of joy mixed with a hint of panic due to the fact that she was so busy with their current brood she hadn’t noticed all of the telltale signs. Logan had been born seven and a half months later.
“But with Will, I was so scared. We didn’t have any money, and I wasn’t sure you wanted a baby so soon.” She began her confession again, “You wrapped your arms around me, and I knew it really was going to be okay. I knew that you really would always take care of me.”
He kissed her forehead tenderly. “And we made it through Will, and then quite a few others, and then we adopted Rainer, and we’re going to make it through Miss Abigail, too, Lillian. Together.”
She nodded against his chest. “Just keep telling me that for the next few weeks.”
“Every day,” he whispered.
They talked and reminisced. He kept up constant reassurances that he would be right beside her no matter what life brought their way. He laid his hands tenderly on her round belly and felt his little girl kick and move languidly inside of Lillian when she felt the reverberations of his deep voice and the pulses of his energy.
Several minutes later, he managed to get his wife to stop talking, and to stop worrying. He persuaded her to stop doing anything at all but feeling his hands on her skin and his hungry lips on her beautiful mouth, her slender neck, and points beyond.
Logan and Adeline saw the truck pull into the barn, and they headed out, anxious to get home.
“Mrs. Haydenshire,” Adeline remembered suddenly, “would you mind if I borrowed that sewing book again. I messed up the ruffle on the blanket I was trying to make for the baby.”
“Of course. Come with me, and I’ll get it for you,” Lillian guided her back to the porch.
Just before she followed Adeline into the kitchen, Lillian turned and gave Stephen another sexy grin that said for him not to linger, that there were a few other things she’d like him to take care of before they drifted off to sleep in each other’s arms.
Stephen’s breaths quickened. His body stirred anxiously. Blood surged through his veins. His hands ached to feel the heat of her skin again. His muscles tensed in anticipation. He gave her the same cocky smirk he’d given her when he’d talked her into coming back to his apartment after that Summation challenge, a year or so after they’d begun dating.
“I’ll be right there,” he vowed, making Logan roll his eyes.
“Can I talk to you for a second, Dad, please?”
Parents and Children
“Of course, son. Anytime, you know that.”
Momentarily distracted by his longing for his wife, it took Stephen a minute to realize that Logan was coming apart at the seams. He ran his hands through his hair. His energy was frantic.
“Dad, I swore to her that I’d never let anything bad happen to her. Please, please don’t let her lose her job. You’re the Crown Governor! You’re the freaking most powerful man in the world! Just please.”
Feeling emotion settle thickly in his throat, Stephen put his hand on his son’s shoulder to steady him. “Don’t ever promise her that again, Logan, not ever.”
“Why?”
Shaking his head, Stephen tried to think of a way to fill his son’s head with wisdom and understanding that would take him half a lifetime to gain. “Because that’s not a promise you can keep, son. Just promise her that no matter what happens that you’ll be with her. Promise her that you’ll never leave her, that she’s never alone. But don’t promise her that you won’t let anything bad happen, Logan, never promise that.” He felt the raw pain he knew his son was experiencing.
“She knows all of that, Dad.”
“Tell her, Logan. Tell her over and over again. Whether she knows it or not, just keep telling her.”
Adeline reappeared carrying one of Lillian’s old sewing books.
“Okay, I will,” Logan agreed in a terrified plea as he took her hand and led her home.
~Logan Haydenshire~
The phone gave a shrill alarm at 6:00, and Logan switched it off. Neither he nor Adeline were asleep. She cringed into him. Her energy spun in knots of terror that rose under her skin like jagged knives.
“Hey,” Logan soothed, “No matter what, I will be right there, baby, the whole time,” he carefully followed his father’s advice. She nodded against him as he held her tightly. They needed to get going. They were supposed to be in the Non-Gifted courthouse at 7:15 to meet Mr. Stariff.
“I just want this day to be over with,” her voice trembled in her terror.
They showered and donned the clothes Mr. Stariff had instructed them to wear. Logan guided Adeline into the kitchen, where Emily and Rainer were making breakfast and smiling at them nervously. Adeline’s steps held the cadence of a death march.
“I made pancakes,” Emily offered sweetly.
“Thanks, sis,” he took a plate, complete with sausage and syrup.
“Adeline,” Rainer offered her an identical plate with a kind smile.
“I’m sorry. I just don’t think I can eat.”
A knock sounded on the door. Adeline winced every time knuckles rapped against the steel. Furrowing his brow, Rainer moved to answer it.
With a heavy sigh, Lucas moved into the kitchen. “I thought maybe I’d come see you before we leave.” He studied Adeline with concerned glances.
She forced a slight smile. “That was sweet of you.”
“Pancakes?” Rainer gestured to the batch Emily was taking off of the griddle.
“No, thank you. I don’t think I could eat anything.”
A genuine smile of understanding eased the tense worry that had sharpened Adeline’s features.
“Little nervous, dear?” Lucas took the seat beside Adeline, leaving Rainer and Emily to eat at the counter.
Adeline nodded and reached for Logan’s hand. He let the pancakes fill him while he supplied her with calming energy. “How about a Dr. Pepper, baby?” Logan thought the enhanced soda might give Adeline a little energy and that the soda might help soothe her stomach.
“Thank you,” she nodded as Rainer removed one from the fridge and handed it to her.
“Lucas?” he offered.
“Sure, I suppose.” Lucas didn’t look like having Dr. Pepper for breakfast was something he was particularly accustomed to.
“I think I’ll just take my book with me in case we have to wait or something.” Adeline rushed back to the bedroom.
For most of her life, books had always been Adeline’s security bla
nket. Logan understood that they were really getting somewhere in their relationship the night that she left her book at home and clung to him instead.
Since she’d been able to check books out for free from the library, Candy could never find anything wrong with Adeline’s obsessive reading as it cost them no money. She often escaped the cold cruel world of her childhood by drowning herself in far grander worlds, created for her by her favorite authors.
Logan had never cared much for reading. He’d spent his childhood playing outside in any available capacity, but he’d always enjoyed watching Adeline devour books. They delighted her.
After they’d been dating a few months, he would frequently buy her books as small reminders of his love. He brought them to her like some guys brought their girlfriends flowers.
Tears of overwhelming gratitude would prick her eyes whenever he presented her with a new one, like he was somehow touching a part of her heart that she’d never let another person see.
When Garrett, Patrick, and Levi had returned to her mother’s apartment after the night Adeline had been attacked to bring her things to the farmhouse, the relatively small collection of books that Logan had purchased for Adeline had been one of the first things Candy had thrown in the dumpster. They had been what Adeline had sobbed over for hours, despite Logan, Governor Haydenshire, and Rainer’s offers to buy her more.
“Truthfully, I’m not certain if I’m more nervous about meeting her mother again or about the outcome of the trial,” Lucas admitted.
“Candy’s a real piece of work; trust me,” Logan spat as Rainer and Emily nodded their agreement.
A few minutes later, Logan was loading Adeline and her father into his truck and driving into downtown Arlington while Adeline clung fiercely to his hand. Thinking that reminding her of everything she already knew might be helpful, Logan tried to calm her rhythms with his own.
“So you know everything that Jack’s gonna ask you, and you know all of the drug tests came back negative. This is going to be fine.”
“All but one.” Adeline looked nauseous as she pointed out the hitch in the plan. “And all of those pictures from that party.” Her head dropped with each word she spoke. They seemed to crucify her.
“Dear, you’d just had surgery. Certainly any jury in the world will understand that you had pain medication because you were in pain,” Lucas tried to reason.
Logan gave him an appreciative smile in the rearview mirror, but truthfully, no one knew what the jury would decide. It all depended on Candy’s lawyer’s ability to vilify Adeline.
“But I don’t know what her lawyer might ask me,” was her next terror filled plea.
Her was the kindest term Adeline had used for her mother in the past few weeks, Logan thought with a slight grin. She needed that fight today, more than ever before.
“Jack’s the best lawyer in the Realm, baby. He’ll be all over him if he tries to pull anything.”
Logan circled around the block several times before locating a place to park. He wrapped his arm tightly around Adeline as they made their way into the old Arlington courthouse.
Stariff met them in the vast entry hall. If Adeline squeezed the book in her hands any harder, she was going to leave fingerprints in the binding. Logan began rubbing her arm, keeping her cradled against him.
Fierce determination set Jack Stariff’s jaw and shoulders. He looked somewhat concerned over Adeline’s obvious nerves, but not dissuaded.
“All right, we’ll just step in here until it’s time to begin.” Jack guided Lucas, Logan, and Adeline to a small waiting room outside one of the courtrooms.
Lucas was to remain there until the last minute. Jack was planning on him making a dramatic appearance in the courtroom with Adeline. It would be apparent quickly that he was most certainly her father. So much of Adeline’s physical make-up came from him. She even matched a few of his mannerisms.
Logan was going to have to go and sit with everyone making testimony on Adeline’s behalf, so this was Lucas’s chance. He was going to have to be Adeline’s stronghold until she was taken into the trial.
A knock sounded on the door and tears began to leak silently down Adeline’s delicate face. She knew it was time for Logan to go. He hugged her tightly.
“I’ll be right behind you. You can do this, and I will be there the entire time. I love you so much. Let’s just get this behind us, and tonight we’ll celebrate.”
She shivered and convulsed in his arms. Logan shot Lucas pleading looks.
Lucas stepped in willingly. “Let him go, sweetheart. You have so many people that love and care about you, and he has to go join them so we can all defend you. I’ll be right here with you.”
Adeline nodded and with tear-filled eyes and a trembling chin, she fell into her father’s arms letting him soothe her. Lucas was visibly overwhelmed as he cradled her tenderly, promising that everything would be all right.
Vicious nausea knotted Logan’s stomach. He deeply regretted the pancakes he’d eaten. He felt like his body and his heart might actually be severed from one another as he left Adeline under Jack’s insistence and travelled into the courtroom.
Opening Statements
His father stood as Logan approached the bench seating for the witnesses. Vindico did as well. They both offered him consoling pats on the back as he took the seat beside Rainer.
“She’ll be fine as soon as they bring her in here, and she can see you,” his best friend knew precisely why Logan looked like he was going to be violently ill.
Fionna offered Logan her kind, soothing smile from the benched area set aside for spectators. It was nice of her to come. Vindico was a lucky guy. He wondered if his boss knew what kind of woman he’d been handed when he was given a second chance at life and at love.
Logan smiled at Patrick and Lucy, Will, Levi, Sarah, and Connor who were seated with Fionna. Brooke was watching the twins and Lily Ana at the farmhouse, as Mrs. Haydenshire was seated on the witness benches next to the Governor.
Logan noted her air of determination as she moved to him and gave him a hug. Feeling an overwhelming sense of love and of what his family meant to him, Logan smiled as Tad and Nathan slid into one of the bench seats behind his brothers. They were followed by Logan’s Nana and Paps.
Nana gave Logan her sweet, reassuring smile. His Grandfather gave him the wink he gave all of his grandchildren whenever they needed a little encouragement.
Logan glanced towards Vindico. He felt the air take on an icy chill. The hair on the back of his neck stood. Vindico’s massive body had pulled taut. His chiseled muscles seemed to visibly throb. His eyes were narrowed hatefully.
Following the path of his rancor, Logan’s eyes landed on Paulo Ramirez, Candy’s pimp and one of Wretchkinsides’ mid-level thugs.
If Candy was arrested and sentenced per Adeline’s testimony, he would be arrested as well, to stand trial later. Logan’s eyes noted two Non-Elite Iodex officers that had followed Ramirez in. They’d been sent to make certain that if things didn’t go his way that he wouldn’t be making any quick getaways.
An ominous hush fell over the room as a rather short, mustached man with beady eyes dressed in a cheap suit guided Candy Parker into her seat.
Logan wanted to vomit as he took in his mother-in-law. She was dressed in what he supposed must have been her attempt at a conservative dress suit.
She’d missed the mark slightly as the suit she’d picked was an odd seafoam green color and the skirt appeared to be made of plastic.
After seeing Adeline with her father for the past few weeks, Logan was struck again by how little she resembled Candy.
Candy gave Logan a sneering scowl. She was smacking bubble gum because she couldn’t smoke. When her lawyer suggested that she spit it out, she pulled it from her mouth and handed it to him.
Governor Haydenshire looked appalled as Rainer and Logan gave each other horrified grimaces.
“Unbelievable,” Rainer whispered as Logan nodded his agreement
.
Candy’s baleful glare turned back to Logan who gave her a confident smile. Rainer chuckled under his breath, but then Candy shot Logan a bird discreetly. Her lawyer’s eyes goggled as Logan shook his head.
Glancing nervously at Governor Haydenshire, her lawyer began a heated conversation with her in threatening whispers.
Well, he clearly knows who my dad is, Logan thought wryly. Emily was fit to be tied after seeing the gesture, but Rainer calmed her down by reminding her that Candy was effectively digging her own grave.
~Dan Vindico~
Dear God, could this be any more ridiculous? If Dan rolled his eyes once more they were likely to lodge upward against his skull. He’d been putting criminals behind bars for the last decade, and he’d never witnessed someone so desperate and impudent as Adeline’s mother. His biceps tensed again.
So Nic obviously doesn’t give a shit about the outcome of this. He sent her a lackey lawyer. Ramirez has obviously been moved so far down the Interfeci chain he no longer matters. This trial isn’t going to do a damn thing. We’re all going to sit here and defend a perfectly innocent woman that has no business being in a courtroom at all.
Adeline Haydenshire belonged at Georgetown Hospital where she was quickly moving up the ranks to being named one of the top Gifted Obstetricians the hospital had to offer.
The fact that Dan, and most of his top officers, were going to sit there and be dragged through every scenario Wretchkinsides’ lackey lawyer could come up with to try and prosecute Adeline, instead of actually working and nailing Wretchkinsides and every ridiculous excuse for human waste that worked for him, pissed him off.
His eyes and his body sought Fionna. She gave him a quick, discreet smile as she scooted further down the bench where she’d found a seat.
She was trying to get away from Paulo Ramirez. The dark energy he possessed was affecting her. Dan’s heart ached. How many times was he going to have to drag her into situations where she would be exposed to that level of evil?