Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Valentino
It took two days to get all our paperwork in order and processed. Those two days that we couldn’t see Davis was torture. It was worse because he was just a five minute walk away. But now he’s home and we’re getting back to normal. My next step is to ask Leigh to marry me, I don’t want to wait any longer.
I head downstairs after grabbing a shower and see Leighton making dinner. She has Davis in his highchair and he’s laughing at her dancing. This is what life is like for me now and I love every second of it. I walk over to her and take her in my arms. I kiss her and dip her while Davis claps at us.
“Mama! Papa!” he giggles and puts his hands up. I pick him up and dance around with him as he squeals.
“Do you think Loraine has given up?” Leigh asks.
“I don’t know, but I really hope so.”
“Are you going to be okay tomorrow while I’m gone? Hollis will be here with you.”
“I’ll be okay, I was thinking maybe we could go to the mall.”
“That sounds like fun. I can meet you there after Isabella’s last class. She’ll never say no to shopping.” I chuckle.
“That would be perfect. Plus I’d like to find some Christmas presents for the family. And I’ll need your help.”
I wait for Leigh to turn away from me. I pull out the ring I got for her and get down on one knee, balancing Davis on my other knee.
“Mama.” Davis giggles.
Leighton turns and gasps.
“Marry me. I’ve never been one to want a wife or family until I met you. Marry me and make us a family.”
Her tears are falling as she says yes. I stand up and put the ring on her finger.
“I love you,” I say as I kiss her.
“I love you, too. “
“We should get married before Christmas.”
“But Christmas is in a month.”
“I know. If I thought you’d let me, I’d marry you right now. But I know you’ll want Lynton here and maybe we can even get Levi home since it’ll be Christmas.”
“That would make it perfect. Okay, a Christmas wedding. I love it,” she says as she kisses me.
There’s a knock at the door.
“Are we expecting someone?” I ask her. She shakes her head no.
I go to the door and open it. There are three police officers standing there and they’re not Lake Renegade or Chicago cops. Their badges say St. Cloud. Fuck. I need to know why no one alerted us. They can’t just come onto the property.
“Officers? How can I help you?” I say.
“We’re looking for Leighton Anderson and Valentino Marconi,” one officer says.
“I’m Valentino, how can I help you?”
“We have an arrest warrant for the two of you.”
“For what?”
“Kidnapping and evading the police.”
I frown as I listen to them.
“Who did we kidnap? And evading the police? I’ve never run from the police.”
The three cops start to push their way into our house.
“We need to make arrangements for our son before you can take us.”
“We’ll take him with us and someone can pick him up at the station.”
“What station are you taking us to?”
“You’ll be staying overnight at the station here in town and tomorrow you’ll be transferred to St. Cloud.”
“I’d like to see your arrest warrant.”
“You don’t need to see it. Now turn around and put your hands behind your back.”
“You have to cuff me? I’m not fighting.”
“We were told to restrain you because you’re a violent criminal,” another officer says as he smirks at me.
Leighton
As soon as I hear the officers at the door, I put Davis in his high chair and text Salvatore and Lorenzo. We’ve had a group chat since all this started.
Leighton: Police are here saying they’re from St. Cloud. They’re going to arrest me and Valentino. Kidnapping and evading the police
Salvatore: What the hell? I’ll be there as soon as I can. Enzo? Can you get there now?
Lorenzo: I’m fifteen minutes from the property. I’m coming
Leighton: Now they’re saying they’re going to cuff Valentino because he’s a violent criminal. I’m so scared. They’re taking Davis too. Going to the Lake Renegade station. We’re to be transferred to St. Cloud tomorrow. How can they do this? We have the signed papers
Lorenzo: We’re coming, Leigh
I take deep breaths and listen to the police talk to Valentino. I can tell he’s stalling, he knows that I’d contact Sal and Enzo right away. We had talked about it, and that was the plan. I look at the clock. Enzo said fifteen minutes. I just hope we can hold them off till then. Unfortunately, we can’t and they cuff Valentino and me. One of the officers takes Davis and he starts screaming. He’s reaching for me and Valentino.
“Please, just let me hold him,” I beg the officer.
“Shut up and get in the damn car,” the officer says.
I notice that there are three cars and none of them are police cars. They take Davis to one that has a car seat in it. They put Valentino in the second car and me in the third. Why are all these cars unmarked? And why is there a car seat in that one?
I try to keep an eye on the other two cars, but I lose sight of the one with Davis in it. I start to panic. When we get to the station, they yank me out and I stumble, hitting the ground.
“You fucking asshole!” I hear Valentino yell.
The officer with him slams him against the car and tells him to shut the fuck up. Since when do cops act like this? One of the Lake Renegade deputies comes out.
“What’s going on?” James asks.
The officer drags me with him.
“We’re with the St. Cloud police and we’re here to take these two fugitives back with us. We’d like to use your cells to hold them till morning.”
“I’ll need to call the sheriff, also do you have their paperwork?” he asks as he looks at Valentino and me. It’s like he’s telling us not to resist. That it’s going to be okay.
The officer holding onto me shoves some papers into James’ hands.
“Are you going to show us to the cells? We need to secure them,” the other one barks.
James nods and holds the door open. He then leads us to the cells.
“We only have one cell back here, so they’ll have to share one.”
“Fine. But make sure they stay cuffed.”
They shove both of us in the cell and James locks it.
“Sal’s on his way, just sit tight,” James says to us.
“Don’t talk to our prisoners,” one cop snaps at James.
“They may be your prisoners, but they’re my friends. We all live here in Lake Renegade and these two are far from dangerous. Are the cuffs really necessary?”
“Stay out of it, this is St. Cloud business. The real cops. Nothing to do with you baby cops. Now we’re going to go eat. Don’t let them out or talk to them.”
We watch them leave.
“What the fuck is going on? And where is Davis?” I start sobbing.
“What do you mean? You didn’t leave him with your parents?” he asks us.
“No. They took us and Davis. They said that we could have someone pick him up here. But the third car never showed up,” Valentino says.
James gets on the phone to call Salvatore.
“Hey Sal, so the third car that has Davis in it never showed up. And now the other cops are gone.”
“Did you look at the paperwork?”
“It looked legit, but I’m going to call St. Cloud now.”
“Okay, I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. Lorenzo should be there now.”
As James hangs up, Lorenzo comes bursting into the station.
“Lorenzo! Davis is missing,” Valentino says to him.
Valentino rattles off the license plate numbers for two of the cars and the badge numbers for the three cops.
“As soon as Sal gets here, we can go look for them.”
“Do you think they were lying and weren’t actually cops?” I ask.
“Those uniforms were real, but I’m calling St. Cloud now. Give me a few,” James answers.
We tell Lorenzo what happened while we wait for James to come back.
“It has to be Loraine,” Valentino says to us.
Lorenzo nods. “But how would she get the police to help her like this? Are there any cops in their family?”
“Not that I know of. But I never met anyone outside of Kayla’s parents.”
James comes back over to us.
“Well those three cops are real cops. One of them is Anthony Moss, I looked him up and he’s the brother of Loraine Moss. And that’s the woman you have the restraining order on. I remembered her name.”
My body goes numb. Loraine is behind this and now she has Davis.
“I called the State Troopers and they’re on the lookout for all three cars leaving the area.
Salvatore finally shows up.
“James caught me up on the situation. We’re going to check the town now. There’s a few places still open for dinner and we’re going to check the hotel and see if any of them has checked in there,” Salvatore says as he lets us out of the cell and uncuffs us.
“Give us something to do. I can’t just sit here while they’re out there with our son,” Valentino says.
“I need you to stay here. That warrant they gave you is real. I don’t know how they did it, but it’s real and if you’re out there and they see you, it’s only going to make it worse. You can call your mam and papa and have them come down if you want. But I need you here. There’s also the fact that they could think that we’re that dumb and would go along with them without questions.”
“What if they’re already gone? They have a head start and we don’t know where they’re taking Davis,” I sob.
Valentino wraps his arms around me.
“We’ll get him back. Don’t worry about that.”
Salvatore and the other deputies head out to search the town. James stays back with us. We call Valentino’s family and they all come down to be with us. Some of the club brothers head out to look too.