Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
“Um. No thank you,” I told Kira as she attempted to hand me Layla and Kevin’s newborn daughter.
“What do you mean, no thank you.” Kira laughed as she curled the tightly wrapped baby closer to her chest. “You don’t want to hold Savannah?”
In what universe did Kira think I wanted to hold a baby?
“No offence to Savannah, but I’ll pass. Bring her back when she’s not breakable. Or better yet when she’s five so I can teach her how to annoy her father.”
“Give me, give me, give me,” Nebraska chanted as she barged into the hospital room, her husband Easton following closely behind.
Nebraska went straight for Savannah, Easton peeled off to say hello to Layla who might’ve been lying in a hospital bed but looked like the picture of happiness.
Kevin on the other hand looked like he was ready to tackle whoever took possession of his daughter next and toss them out. This after he rescued his baby first.
“He’s giving off Zane vibes.” Jonas jerked his chin in Kevin’s direction.
“And here I thought we were done hearing about boob juice,” I noted.
“But with Zane two-point-one giving off scary dad vibes and with the rest of them knocked up, I have a feeling I’ll be learning more about breast…
” I stopped and shook my head. “Nope. Can’t even say it.
Breasts and milk just do not go together. ”
“I hear that. Though I suppose I’m gonna learn—”
“No shit? Derrika’s knocked up, too?”
Jonas glanced around the room before his gaze settled back on me. “Yep. Just found out, you’re the first to know.”
Well damn.
“Congrats brother,” I told him honestly then gave him more honesty. “Better you than me.”
“You say that like you having a kid is a possibility.” He chuckled.
The mere thought made me shiver.
“Listen, I think since Ivy and Zane are done reproducing, she’s decided everyone else needs to do their part and fill the office with kids. I’m afraid she’s contaminated the water. It is not normal to have this many pregnant women in one room. I’m not taking any chances.”
Not that I’d had sex since Stella.
Shit, maybe I needed to get laid.
Speak of the devil.
Ivy walked in with Zane behind her scowling.
“Christ, it’s like these fuckers don’t listen to me,” he muttered.
“I feel you, boss. Kira, Nebraska, Aria, and Bridget.” I named the known pregnant women in the room. Leaving out Jonas’s secret.
I heard Jonas clear his throat. Which was a tactical error on his part. Zane didn’t miss it.
“You, too?”
“Yep,” Jonas proudly confirmed.
With a shake of his head Zane didn’t bother looking at me. There was no stupid ‘wrap it before you tap it’ jokes sent my way.
I would forever be the fun uncle.
And for the first time in my life I wondered what it would be like to actually want a kid. To not be so fucked up you spend months doctor shopping for someone to give you a vasectomy because the thought of having a child sends you into sheer panic.
I didn’t want children, but for some reason right then, I wanted to want them. I wished I was a different kind of man, one who didn’t have a tractor trailer load of abandonment issues.
Before I could stop myself, my mind wandered to Stella. She said she didn’t want kids, but I wondered if she’d ever change her mind. If she’d find a man, fall in love, settle down, and have children. As crazy as it sounded, she’d make a great mother.
The protective lioness. Oh yeah, I could totally picture her stabbing someone in the throat if they stepped out of line with her offspring.
“I’m not sure what’s going on but I haven’t seen you smile in damn near seven months and whatever’s happening with your face right now is pretty scary,” Jonas jibed.
I hadn’t kept track, but I was pretty sure I’d smiled in the last seven months.
Maybe.
Even with Penny now in my life and getting to know her there wasn’t much to smile about.
Sometimes it still didn’t feel real. After that first day, we hadn’t talked about the past. Penny was all for starting a brother-sister relationship in the here and now.
Some days she felt like a sister, other days, like a new person I was getting to know.
There was no familiar pull, no twinge of awareness we shared blood, but there was a hint of protectiveness.
It was an entirely different kind of remorse knowing you gutted a woman entirely undeserved.
Then there was this nagging guilt, worse than anything I’d ever felt that she’d run—not only from me but from the mission.
I couldn’t stop thinking about how badly I’d hurt her, how much it would take for a woman like Lore to bolt instead of staying and fighting.
Lore didn’t back down.
She gave as good as she got.
But she’d run.
I forced a smile and gave Jonas a weak, “Fuck off.”
“Dude even your comebacks are garbage,” Jonas continued giving me shit.
He wasn’t wrong so I ignored him and changed the topic. “Graham’s done with clean up?”
“He says he is,” Zane returned. “Obviously, he didn’t lay out all the details.
And thank fuck because I don’t wanna know.
I want no part of that. The only assurance I wanted was the nuclear power plants were secure and he’d locked down the power grids.
How he did it, not my problem. The big fat check he gave me cashed so as far as we’re concerned it’s over.
He has Maddon’s blueprint, he has all the intel, supposedly he’s got people working through the rest. The only thing I know as fact is this won’t be the last time someone tries to take us down.
I wish I could say when that happens it won’t be our problem, but for some reason, it always seems to land in our laps.
What I do know, is next time the fee triples.
Graham didn’t bat an eye and told me he’d note the increase in my file.
Something I asked to see, something he refused. ”
Yeah, I’d like to read the file POTUS had on Zane.
“So we’re done?”
“For now.”
A strange unease settled over me.
My brothers were all happily married, and all popping out kids. The good news was, I didn’t have to attend another wedding and the bickering between the men about who was getting married first and dates had ended.
As much as I joined in with Zane and bitched about all the wedding discussions while we were in the middle of shutting down the Chinese and Russians from causing any more damage to the US, I was genuinely pleased for everyone.
I still was, but there was this uncomfortable feeling in my gut. Not jealousy or envy but like something wasn’t right, maybe even missing.
And I had a fucked-up suspicion what or who was missing was Stella.
She was lost to me in a way I could never get back. She’d made that clear when she disconnected her phone. Not even Nebraska could find any of her old aliases and Lore hadn’t been active in any of her old circles since the day she’d left.
Lore’s dead.
I could of course set Kira, Garrett, and Shepherd Drexel on her but that felt like a serious invasion of privacy, and not to mention stalkerish.
On that thought, I needed to get out of this hospital, find the nearest bar, drown my thoughts in a bottle, and find a woman to bury the memory of Stella.
This shit was ridiculous.
I wasn’t this man.
I lived my life free of commitment. I fucked who I wanted when I wanted. I didn’t brood or wallow in stupid shit like memories or feelings.
Christ, I kinda hated myself at the moment.
My phone vibrated in my pocket. When I pulled it out and checked the screen I didn’t recognize the number. I almost rejected the call but then remembered Penny was on her way.
Was that brotherly? Taking a call from an unknown number because your sister was driving and shit happened, which meant the call could be important.
Yeah, I hated myself, or at least this feeling in my gut that wouldn’t let up.
“Hello?” I grunted into my phone, preparing to hang up if it was a telemarketer.
“Cash?” I heard whispered in a voice that sounded like a child.
What the fuck?
“Who is this?”
“My name is Cara Phillips. My Lolo told me if something happened to her to call you,” she rushed out, sounding on the verge of tears.
Cara Phillips?
I gritted my teeth, never more thankful for my inability to father children. Whatever game this kid’s mother was playing, giving her my last name and phone number wasn’t going to work.
Before I could ask the kid to hand the phone off she went on. “Lolo said if I called you, you’d come get me.”
That broke on a sob.
And as much of a total asshole I was, there was no denying I didn’t like this kid crying. But there was no chance I was going anywhere to get some random kid so the mother could suddenly appear and try to pass the kid off as mine.
“Listen, sweetheart, I don’t know who you are or who Lolo is.”
I didn’t finish before Nebraska gasped. “Lolo?”
I glanced over my shoulder to look at Nebraska. Without delay, she passed Savannah to Ivy and started making her way to me.
“Who’s on the phone?” she asked.
“Who’s Lolo?” I returned instead of answering.
“That’s Lore’s nickname. But only Charlie called her that and…” she trailed off and shook her head. “A friend of hers, but I can’t remember his name, I met him a long time ago.”
I shoved aside the jealousy that there was a man out there who’d called Stella Lolo and focused on a new feeling of dread that was filling my chest.
“Cara, is your Lolo’s name Stella?”
“Yes. Lolo said to call you. Are you coming to get me?”
I nodded to Nebraska and asked the little girl, “Do you know where you are?”
“Two-two-five-one Paris Oaks Road Ownings Maryland two-zero-seven-three-six.”
Thirty minutes. Stella had been thirty minutes away this whole time.
“Are you alone? Is Stella there?” I asked as I walked toward the door without a backwards glance. “Cara?”
“I’m…Lolo told me to get into our special room like we practiced and told me to call you.”
Special room?
I took off in a jog down the corridor.
“Are you safe? Can you hear anyone?”
“I can’t hear anything,” she whimpered.
Once I was in the stairwell, I took them two at a time, hearing boots crashing on the steps behind me.
“Are you safe?”
“I don’t know.”
I hit the lobby and debated calling the police. But the police might hinder our next steps depending on what we found.
I tried a different approach. Knowing Lore, a special room would be a panic room.
“Are you safe in your special room?”
“Lolo said, no one can get in and I had to stay in here until you came to get me. The King, The Dove, or The Snake. No one else is allowed in. You’re the King, right Cash?”
Jesus fucking hell.
I felt a crack in my heart and the air leave my lungs and it had nothing to do with the exertion running to my truck.
“Yes, sweetheart, I’m the King. I’m on my way.”
“Okay,” she cried.
“I’m coming to get you, Cara. Don’t open that door for anyone. Not anyone but me. When I get there and I’m at the door I’ll call you back.” I bleeped my locks and yanked open the door. “Do you know what a code word is?”
“No.”
Shit, she was back to whispering.
“It’s a special word. When I’m at the door, I’ll say Cash is King and you’ll know it’s me. That way if someone else tries to get you to open the door you’ll know they’re not me unless they tell you the code.”
The passenger door opened. Jonas hefted into the truck and slammed the door. I heard the back doors open, grunts, then they slammed as well.
“Okay,” Cara said.
Why did the soft whisper hurt my heart worse than the kid crying?
“Is your phone charged?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, sweetheart. I’m in my truck. I’ll be there as soon as I can. It won’t be long. Sit tight for me.”
“Okay, Cash.”
Fuck. I couldn’t hang up with her, not when she sounded so scared.
“Are you sure your phone is charged?”
It took her a moment to answer but when she came back she told me, “It says ninety-eight.”
That was plenty for a thirty-minute drive.
“I’m going to stay on the phone with you.”
“Thank you.”
Christ, this kid was killing me.
I put the call on mute, turned to Jonas, and ordered, “Call Garrett and Shep. I want everything they can find on Stella. And see if they can figure out who Cara is.”
“This could be a trap, brother,” Smith said from the backseat.
He was right. I could be heading straight into an ambush, towing my brothers right along with me.
The King. The Dove. The Snake.
Me, Nebraska, Zane.
The three people Lore would trust.
Cash. Nebraska. Zane.
I didn’t need to get ahead of myself. If our numbers were programmed into a phone, my name would come up first and a scared little girl would start at the top and work her way down if I hadn’t answered.
But there was no denying I was happy Lore had included my number.
“It’s not. Something has happened to Stella.”