Chapter 22
AXEL
With my Little girl sleeping soundly in her crib, I grab the baby monitor and head downstairs to the dining room. Gray and the others are already there, each nursing either a glass of whiskey or cup of coffee.
I pour my own whiskey and settle in at the head of the table.
“We need to talk about Lanie.”
Six sets of eyes swing toward me, with varying degrees of alarm. “What’s wrong with Lanie?” Dane asks, his lips turning down in a severe frown that’s mirrored on Eli and Colt’s faces.
“Nothing’s wrong with Lanie,” Gray assures them, her dark eyes meeting mine as she sips her coffee. How she manages to drink caffeine this late at night and still sleep, I’ll never know, but she does. “We ran into Sheriff Donnelly in town this afternoon.”
Leaning back in his chair, Colt grins and waggles his eyebrows in Gray’s direction. “Aw, man. I missed a showdown between Gray and the sheriff?” He elbows his twin in the ribs. “And you didn’t tell me?”
“I missed the good part. Ax and I took Lanie inside to get her away from Reese before she could ask too many questions.”
Colt immediately sobers at that. “Did she recognize Lanie?”
“No.” Gray shakes her head. “But she knows something’s up. You know she’s got a nose for that kind of thing and she’s got Lanie’s scent.”
“She can try to come for her, but she’s going to have a fight on her hands.” Eli already looks like he’s bracing for battle.
“You know we can’t afford an altercation with law enforcement,” I remind him, infusing my voice with every bit of “eldest brother” I can manage.
“We’ve made it almost twenty years without giving them any reason to do more than hassle us a bit, and I plan to keep it that way.
I don’t need to remind you how vital it is that we continue to fly under the radar.
All it takes is one of us being arrested for our entire lives to unravel.
And now we have Lanie to consider, too.”
“Don’t worry, Ax.” Bram lays a hand on my forearm and squeezes, his expression fierce. He might be a good bit quieter than the rest of us, but I know better than anyone he’ll do what it takes to keep our family safe, even if it costs him everything. “Nobody is going to let them take Lanie from us.”
“Who wants to take me?”
Goddammit.
Looking over, I frown at my very awake, very alert babygirl, standing in the entryway to the dining room.
Clad in the brand-new footie pajamas Gray bought for her in town, she looks so fucking sweet it makes my heart trip in my chest as I rise from my chair to scoop her up into my arms. “What are you doing out of bed, little girl?”
“I knew something was up, and I wanted to know what’s going on.” Defiance flashes in her eyes as she jerks her chin up. “I’m part of this family, too, so I deserve to know if something’s wrong.”
Absolutely the fuck not. I have every intention of keeping her as far from any potential danger as I possibly can. “You deserve to get your bare bottom spanked for getting out of bed without permission.”
Worry flickers in her eyes, but the set of her jaw firms. “You can spank me after you tell me why you’re having a secret family meeting without me.”
“This is not a negotiation, little girl.”
“She’s right, Ax.”
Gray’s soft voice jerks my attention away from my naughty babygirl. “Stay out of this, Gray,” I snarl at my sister.
“Hey, now.” Dane narrows his eyes at me. “There’s no need to take your frustrations out on us.”
“And besides, the girls are right,” Colt chimes in, jerking his shoulder in a shrug when I turn my glare on him. “If you really want Lanie to be part of this family, that means she needs to know when we’re under attack.”
“We aren’t under attack.” At least not yet.
Fuck.
“Daddy.” Lanie’s hands cup my face, sinking into my beard, and all my attention zeroes in on the sweet Little girl in my arms. “I may be a Little girl, but I’m also your wife. And that means if something is threatening my family, I deserve to be a part of the conversation.”
Emotion wells in my chest. “You’ve never said that before.”
Her mouth dips down into a frown. “Said what before?”
“The part about you being my wife.”
She blinks twice, and I get the distinct impression she didn’t even realize she’d said it. “Well, I am. You wanted a wife and you got one, so you’re damn well going to treat me like it.”
I pin her with a stern look that has pink rising to her cheeks. “Wife or not, you’re about ten seconds from going over my knee if you keep speaking to me like that, little girl.”
“Sorry, Daddy.”
“Good girl.” Looking around the table, I meet each of my sibling’s gazes in turn, sighing when I find the same determination in my Little girl’s eyes reflected in their faces.
“All right,” I concede reluctantly. “You can stay.”
Lanie
My heart feels like it’s about to beat out of my chest when Daddy settles back in his chair with me on his lap.
Uncle Eli disappears into the kitchen, returning a few moments later with a bottle of milk and a small square of the fudge Auntie Gray bought from the candy store.
Daddy glares at him, but breaks off a corner of the fudge anyway and holds it up to my lips.
“We need to prepare for the possibility that even if Sheriff Donnelly didn’t recognize Lanie this afternoon, she may still figure out who she is. And if she does, there’s nothing to stop her from notifying Lanie’s family.”
“If that happens, we’ll be ready.” Uncle Dane looks around the table and everyone nods in agreement.
Everyone, I notice, except for Uncle Ford.
And I’m not the only one who notices.
“Ford,” Daddy says, his voice calm, but in a way that has the hairs rising on the back of my neck. “You’ve been very quiet during this conversation. What’s on your mind, brother?”
Ford cocks a brow. “Does it matter? It seems to me that you've all made up your minds already.”
“Of course it matters.” Steel infuses Daddy’s voice. “We do this as a family or not at all. The way it’s always been.”
“So if I say we should let her go back to her family, you’d actually listen?”
Daddy’s entire body tenses. “Do you think that?”
Lifting his mug to his lips, Uncle Ford locks eyes with Daddy, a silent battle of wills as he sips his coffee. “I think… we should let her decide.”
And just like that, all the focus in the room shifts to me and I struggle not to simply wither under the weight of all that potent dominant energy.
But it’s Uncle Ford I focus on. His dark gaze settles on me, and he smiles ever so slightly, as if silently telling me It’s okay, little one. Do what you need to do.
“We already talked about this, Ford.” Daddy’s voice is strained, and I can’t tell if he’s fighting back anger or tears. “We can’t just let her go.”
“Yes, but that was when we assumed she would be written off as dead once they found the empty van. It’s different if her family knows she’s alive.
We don’t have the right to keep her here if she has a family, a community to go back to.
And if she does tell the authorities we kept her locked up here against her will, well, we deserve whatever we get. ”
My stomach twists, as if I’m about to be sick right there at the table. And I realize with a sudden, startling clarity, that I don’t want to go back.
In all my time here, I’ve barely thought about my family. Sure, I’ve missed my parents from time to time, but I haven’t missed being with them. I’ve found more happiness in the days I’ve spent in this house with the Thorne family than I’ve ever experienced before.
“I want to stay.”
All around the table, everyone goes silent, almost as if they’re holding their breath, waiting for me to change my mind.
“You’re sure?”
Twisting on Daddy’s lap, I smile up at him. “I belong here. With my husband.” I turn back to the others, letting my gaze travel over these people I’ve come to love so fiercely. “And my family.”
Again I lock eyes with Uncle Ford, silently daring him to argue. But he doesn’t. He just smiles and raises his coffee mug as if toasting my decision, and winks.
Okay, then.
“Any further objections?” Daddy asks, though his tone makes it clear he’s ready to wring the neck of the next person who does object.
When everyone shakes their heads, he rises from his seat with me in his arms and grabs the bottle Uncle Eli prepared for me. “In that case, I’m taking my babygirl back to bed. We can talk more in the morning about what to do if Sheriff Donnelly comes nosing around.”
Everyone wishes us a goodnight and Daddy turns to head for the stairs. All at once, it feels as though every ounce of energy in my body has been drained from me and I let my head fall to his shoulder. “Am I getting a spankin’?”
“You certainly deserve one for sneaking out of bed like that,” he growls. “But no. You were right about being included in family decisions and I’m sorry for trying to leave you out.”
A smile curves my lips as my eyes drift closed. “Thank you.”
Back in his bedroom, Daddy settles in the oversized glider, shifting me so I’m cradled in his arms. He lifts the rubber tip of the bottle to my lips and I instinctively suck at the nipple, sighing softly as sweet, cold milk fills my mouth.
And as I drift off to sleep, I feel the bristly hairs of his beard brush my skin as he presses a kiss to my forehead.
“Sleep, little runaway. Daddy’s got you. And I’m not going to let anyone take you from me. That’s a promise.”