13. Brady
CHAPTER 13
Brady
W alking into the office, I didn’t know what I was expecting to hear, but it’s safe to say that what I heard was the last thing I thought I was going to hear. I tried to keep it under wraps, tried to push it down, but my mouth had other plans, roaring out, “He’s fucking suing you?”
Her head snaps to look my way, and I see her face streaked with fucking tears, more fucking tears than should be shed for such a piece of shit. “Brady.” My sister’s tone comes out as a sort of warning, and I should heed it, but I don’t.
“He’s suing you?” I ask again, watching her face turn ashen. “I must have heard wrong, right?” I look at her, not taking my eyes off her. Waiting each fucking second, I get angrier and angrier, my body going so tense.
“You did not,” she whispers. “He wants sole custody of Wyatt.” I can see her hand shaking.
“Are you shitting me?” I ask, looking from her to Autumn, whose eyes look like they are about to come out of their sockets as she tries to give me a look to tell me to relax. “He’s been over twice in the past couple of weeks, and he’s done it blitzed out of his mind.”
“Brady,” Autumn mumbles, getting up to her feet now and walking around her desk, “you are scaring her.” I look down at her as she puts her hand on my arm. “Can you relax, please?”
“Explain how this is even possible?” I ask Harmony, and she just shrugs.
“I don’t have a lawyer,” she admits, sounding fucking defeated, “and the last one I had wasn’t that good. And, well, they have all the money and, well, I don’t.” My head tells me not to get involved, but my mouth has other plans. Obviously.
“I have a lawyer,” I inform her, and I don’t even know if my lawyer can help her. “I’ll get the number and text it to you.” The pit of my stomach is burning.
“Thank you.” She avoids looking at me. “I have to go and get Wyatt at school.” She looks down at the paper she was filling out and then back to Autumn. “This looks like it’s all done.”
“Thank you,” she says softly to her. Then she steps around me to walk out the door, making sure she goes the farthest she can from me. I move to the side, giving her a chance to walk out of the room even though everything inside me wants to pull her in my arms. She stops at the door, looking back at us. The tears filling her eyes are destroying me. “I know out of all the people in the world, I never thought you would want to step up and help me.” A tear runs down her cheek. My hand moves to wipe it away, but Autumn stops it. “Especially after everything they did to you and your family.” Her eyes stay on Autumn’s and not mine. “But he’s all I got. All of him is good, and I needed to break free before he became just like them.” Her voice is broken, her eyes look like they have never shined before. She walks out of the room, not once looking at me.
Only when I see her walk out of the door to the bar does Autumn let her hand fall from my arm. “What are you doing?” she asks, and I turn to look at her. “We literally just got over one thing with them, and our business is finally working.” She walks back to her desk, sitting down. “It’s one thing hiring her, but now you are going to get a lawyer for her.” She picks up her fork and sticks it in the cake she was excited to get when she walked in, taking a bite. “Now you want to poke the bear?”
“I’m not doing anything I wouldn’t do for anyone else who was working for us,” I tell her, and she tilts her head to the side. “I would do it for anyone,” I finally say, hoping like fuck if I was put in that situation, I would do just as much as I’m doing for Harmony.
“But would you?” She points her fork at me.
“They want to take her kid away from her!” I finally roar, and her eyes go big. I close my eyes to get my pulse in check. “Like, you know how they are.” My voice lowers. “You of all people know how fucked up those people are.”
“I do,” she confirms before she picks up her cell phone and puts it on speaker. The sound of ringing fills the room, and I wonder who she is calling. I look out at the distillery before I hear Charlie’s voice.
“Hey, baby,” he answers, and I can hear horses in the background.
“Hey,” she says, looking at the phone. “I was wondering if you wanted to have lunch with me.”
I look at my watch and see it’s just after three in the afternoon. “I’ll be right over.” He disconnects the phone, and she looks up at me.
“What did you do that for?” I ask, but I don’t wait for her to answer me. “Was it necessary to call him over here?”
“Um, yeah,” she says. “We’re going to need him, and you’ll see why.”
I shake my head, walking out of the room and going to the side where we keep a stash of the new whiskey blend that is my favorite to date. Bringing the glass to my mouth and downing the shot. The crisp taste of apple hits my tongue at the same time as the warm whiskey. Looking over as the side door opens and Charlie comes waltzing in. “Did you stop what you were doing to come over here?” I look him up and down, seeing him still wearing his cowboy boots and dirty jeans with a matching dirty shirt. Pulling the bottle back again to take another shot.
“My wife wants to have lunch with me.” He walks to the office. “I come and have lunch with her.” He walks around the desk and waits for her to tilt her head back before he bends to kiss her lips, his hand going to her cheek. “Hey, baby.”
“That hand better be clean.” Her own hand comes up to his cheek, teasing him. But I know even if it were dirty, she wouldn’t give a shit.
He gives her a smirk before kissing her lips again. “You taste like cake,” he observes, looking at her desk and grabbing her fork. She protests by gasping out when he sticks it in her cake and takes a bite. “That’s good,” he mumbles with a mouthful.
“You’re lucky you’re hot,” she grumbles to him between clenched teeth and grabs the fork from him, “and I love you a little bit more than I do this cake and that I’m carrying your child.”
He laughs at her as he sits at the edge of her desk. “I thought we were having lunch?” he asks her.
“That was a lie,” she confesses to him, and he folds his arms over his chest. The grin on his face goes to a huge smile. “Not that.” She shakes her head.
“Oh.” His smile dashes. “So are we going to eat?”
“Do you know my brother has a new neighbor?” she asks, then looks over at me as I sit in the chair Harmony sat in not too long ago.
“Oh, you told her?” he says, and I close my eyes.
“Hold on a second.” She holds up her hand to her husband. “He told me?” Autumn questions him. “Wow, you knew?”
“I mean…” Charlie says and looks over his shoulder at me. The look of love he was giving my sister is now gone from his face, and in its place is a glare.
“I told him yesterday,” I tell my sister. “I told him to let me tell you.”
“Interesting.” She leans back in her chair, putting her hands on her stomach. Charlie leans over and places his own hand on her baby bump. She glares at him but lets him leave his hand on her stomach. “So what else did you guys share with each other?”
“I’m not answering anything,” Charlie declares. “I’m just going to be here listening.”
“Well then, I’ll talk.” Autumn moves her hand to put over his. “I called Harmony to come into the office today because I forgot to have her fill out a paper.” She looks at Charlie and not at me. “She came in with her face blotchy from crying and?—”
Charlie interrupts her. “She was crying?” He looks over his shoulder at me as if I’m the one who made her cry.
“Fuck you.” My voice fills with anger. “Why the fuck would you think I would make her cry?”
“Just a question.” He turns back to Autumn.
“The Cartwrights are trying to take her boy away from her.” Autumn skips over a couple of parts and gets to the point of the story. “And if that is not bad enough, no lawyer will take her case.” I can see Charlie’s jaw get tight. “Well, no lawyer that she knows, and she called every single one of them. But the last name can either open all the doors or get the door slammed in your face. In her case, it was slammed in her face.”
“That’s why she got served.” Charlie looks over at me. “Classic fucking Cartwrights.”
“Well now.” Autumn doesn’t even wait for me to answer Charlie before she talks. “Brady over here”—she points at me—“offered her up his lawyer.”
“What?” Charlie gasps.
“Yup.” She nods. “And forget the fact that he has no fucking lawyer.”
“I have a lawyer,” I tell her. “I just don’t know if he’s still practicing.”
“Jesus, Brady,” Charlie swears, “this isn’t something to fuck around with.”
“You think I’m fucking around with this?” I stand. “You would think fucking wrong. They want to go after her son. Not because he wants to be a good father but because he hates to fucking lose.” Charlie just stares at me. “Those fucking assholes raised two fucking spoiled-rotten brats who grew up to think they are above the fucking law.” My voice goes higher. “I was with this kid for maybe ten minutes, and I could see he is nothing like them. I also know his father hasn’t seen him in over two months and could fucking care less. So right now, my guess is that Mommy and Daddy Cartwright are frowning at him and letting him know people in town are talking, because they are. You hear it.” I point at him. “I hear it. Fuck, you know they will stop at nothing to make sure they get their claws into him, and I’m not going to let that fucking happen.” I run my hand through my hair. “Over my dead fucking body.” The last part comes out in a hiss.
Charlie glances back at Autumn, and the two of them share a look. “So that’s why you called me over here?”
“Ugh, no.” Autumn rolls her eyes. “Can’t I miss my husband?”
“Um, no,” Charlie says, taking his hand off her stomach and reaching for his phone. I watch him touch a couple of things and then put the phone to his ear. “Hey,” he starts, “need a favor.”
He laughs at whatever the person says. “Can you send me your sister-in-law’s phone number? Sounds good, see you soon.” He hangs up, and his phone beeps with a text, and he hands me the phone. “Here,” he offers, “you need the best, and from what Pops says,” he mentions his grandfather, “she’s the best there is.”
“Do you think she would take the case?” I ask, grabbing his phone.
“Only one way to find out. Call her and tell her the situation. My guess is she’ll love the challenge.”
“What’s her name?” I ask, writing down her number.
He smirks as if he knows more than he should. “Ryleigh Richards.”