Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
Alice couldn’t believe it was Christmas Eve!
She settled a tray of cookies down on the counter. Lochlan, Joey, and Miles were all coming tomorrow morning and spending the whole day. She had been meal prepping for hours, but she couldn’t stop smiling. Nothing was ruining today for her!
“Right. Time to stop now, baby. Come spend some time with me.”
“Soon, Daddy,” she murmured as she checked the cookies over. They looked so good.
“No. Now.”
Alice glanced up at the growl in his voice. Okay, he was done being patient, then. He crooked a finger at her, then pointed at the floor in front of him. She took off her Christmas apron, another purchase from her travels, and skipped over to him.
She was wearing green stockings with candy canes on them and a soft dress with an image of Mrs. Claus on the front.
“Hi, Daddy! What’s the matter?”
“What’s the matter is that you’ve been doing too much and you need to come and sit with Daddy and watch a movie.”
The tree looked amazing. The guys had done such a good job. Under her orders, of course.
“Of course, Daddy. You only had to say so.” She gave him a sweet smile.
“Sassy as always.” He tapped her nose as he led her to the sofa. But before they could sit, headlights peeked through a gap in the curtains.
“Who the hell is that?” Anson thundered as he walked over to the door.
A weird feeling went through her and she picked up her phone. “Wait!”
But he had the door open and that’s when she heard his voice. Alice swallowed heavily.
No, no, no.
“Where is she?” George demanded.
“You,” Anson spat out. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“Alice! Alice, come out here! Now!”
Anson turned to her. “Stay.”
She nodded. She wasn’t keen to get close to George.
“You need to leave. Now,” Anson told him.
“I want to speak to my wife,” George demanded pompously.
“Not happening. And she won’t be your wife for much longer. You have anything to tell her, go through her lawyer. Otherwise, you’re trespassing. Now, get off my land.”
“Alice, what are you doing here? And with this simple lumberjack?” George demanded.
“Simple?” she spat, anger filling her.
Before she knew what she was doing, she walked over to stand next to Anson. He held his arm out so she couldn’t go past him. But she didn’t want to. She just wanted to see George.
Oh, he looked bad. Tired and wrinkled.
Not like the George she knew.
“Simple? There is nothing simple about Anson. He’s everything you aren’t. Kind, protective, caring. A hundred times the man you are.”
“Really, Alice. You’re being ridiculous. Come on, we’re leaving.” He actually turned around, as though he really thought she would go with him.
“I’m not going anywhere with you, George.”
George turned around and glared at her. The lights from inside the house showed the anger on his face. “Yes, you are. You’re going to get over this temper tantrum and return with me.”
“Temper tantrum?” Anson repeated. “She left your ass because you’re an abusive dickhead. She’s not coming back.”
“Do not speak to me! You backwoods hick!” George lashed out, shoving Anson.
She gasped in horror, but Anson barely rocked. And, to her surprise, he grinned. “Well, this backward hick just landed your ass in jail.”
“What do you mean?”
“You just assaulted me,” Anson told him.
“No, I didn’t, I barely touched you! And you can’t prove it.”
“The video footage from my camera will say differently. Hmm, I wonder how the judge will feel about you shoving a guy with a damaged leg who was in a car accident eight months ago?”
George scoffed. “Good luck with that.” But there was a nervous note in his voice.
“I also wonder how the judge will feel when he or she learns that your wife left you because you were abusive.”
“I never laid a finger on her!”
“You don’t have to hit someone to abuse them, George,” she said quietly.
“Just get in the car, Alice!” he screamed.
She stared at him in surprise. “What is going on? Why have you come after me now?”
“And how did you find her?” Anson asked.
“I hired a private investigator. He managed to track you down to the cabin up the mountain. Only, you weren’t there and there was no car. But when I called the owner of the cabin where you were meant to be staying, he said you were here.”
“Caldwell is a dead man,” Anson said in a dark voice.
“Really, Alice, pimping yourself out to a guy like this? You must be desperate,” George told her.
“You are such an idiot,” she told him. Something released inside her with those words.
“You’re an abuser, George. And you don’t even think you’ve done anything wrong, which is worse.
I’m not coming home with you. I’m divorcing you.
Now, you need to go and never return. Or Anson will turn that footage over to the police and have you arrested. ”
“You need to come home with me!” George screamed.
“Why? So you have someone to clean the house and iron your shirts? Someone to put down and belittle? Poor George, it must be so hard for you.”
“I don’t like this new attitude, Alice,” George told her. “It’s so juvenile and reflects poorly on you and your upbringing, you stupid fool.”
“You speak to my woman like that again and it will be the very last thing you say,” Anson said warningly.
George shot him a nervous look, then straightened his shoulders. “Well, I wonder what the police would think of you threatening me?”
“I threatened you? Baby, did I threaten this dick?” Anson asked her calmly.
“Not that I heard. We could ask the sheriff tomorrow what he thinks of all this. When he’s here for Christmas lunch,” she suggested.
“We could,” Anson agreed. “After all, I’m not the person who turns up on Christmas Eve uninvited and shoves someone with an injured leg around.”
“Yes, I don’t think your boss would like that much, would he, George?” she asked.
“You will regret leaving me, Alice!”
He stormed off into his car and drove off. Anson closed the door. She stared at the door for a long moment, her brain racing.
“Baby, look at me.”
Her gaze shot to Anson’s. The concern and love in his gaze had her immediately seeking his chest and digging in deep. Then she realized she was shaking.
“I won’t let him hurt you, hear me?” he said fiercely. “He is nothing to you anymore. And he won’t be coming back here.”
“How do you know? He knows where I am now.”
“Because he’s going to find himself in a world of pain soon. He’s been skimming money from the company he works for.”
“What?” She drew back and gaped up at him. “Not George. He’d never do that. Do you know the lecture I once got for getting a speeding ticket? That’s when I lost the rights to the car unless he needed me to drive him somewhere.”
A low growl erupted from him and she winced. Yeah, she felt like an idiot for letting George rule her life for so long. Why had she let him dictate to her like that?
“That’s the image he wanted everyone to see,” Anson told her. “But he really was skimming off the top. For years.”
“How do you know that?” she asked.
He grasped hold of her hand and led her to the sofa. Then he sat and tugged her down next to him.
“Lochlan has people on retainer who are experts on discovering people’s secrets.
Now, something like fraud would usually take longer than a week to discover.
But when Lochlan’s guys started looking into George, they hacked into his home computer and found spreadsheets of information.
George might be smart in some ways, but he was dumb in others. ”
“He kept a record of the money he took?”
“Yep. They sent the information anonymously to his boss. Who, apparently, had already been suspicious and has had a forensic accountant looking into things.”
“Oh my God. That idiot.”
“So his boss would have gotten to the bottom of George’s fraud eventually. Lochlan’s people just helped him get there faster. When he goes back to San Diego, he’ll probably find himself being placed under arrest for fraud.”
“Holy Christmas bells,” she muttered. “That is so much to take in.”
“All you need to know is that he’s not ever going to be a problem for you again. Although, now that George is taken care of, I’m going to move on to Caldwell.”
“What?” She gaped up at him.
“He was already an issue, now he’s made himself a bigger one. I’ll get Lochlan’s guys onto him next.”
“You don’t need to do that,” she told him.
He grasped hold of her chin. “What if you’d been here alone when George turned up? What if he’d pushed you?”
Alice swallowed heavily and realized he was right. George had never gotten physical with her before but he hadn’t been in control tonight.
“Nobody fucks with my baby and gets away with it. Caldwell needs to be punished for what he did. After we’re through with him, he won’t be living in this state anymore.”
She wanted to feel bad for Caldwell, but she just couldn’t.
“And don’t think I’ve forgotten that I told you to stay put and you didn’t.”
“It’s Christmas Eve,” she protested. “Surely I get a pass, right?”
He just grinned.
Oh. Yeah. She was in trouble.
Alice woke up feeling disoriented.
It was still dark out and she glanced around, waiting for her eyes to adjust.
She was in bed. Alone. Where was Anson? Wait. Was it Christmas yet?
Sitting up, she ignored the tenderness in her bottom. She still thought it was unfair that she’d gotten a spanking on Christmas Eve!
She checked the time on her phone. Hmm, it was just before midnight. She’d only been asleep a few hours. Was Anson in the bathroom? Maybe she should check on him.
Throwing off the blankets, she tiptoed over to the bathroom.
But Anson wasn’t there so she headed toward the living room.
She stopped suddenly as she saw movement by the Christmas tree.
They’d left the lights on and they twinkled merrily, providing enough light for her to clearly see the man standing by the tree.
Dressed in a red jacket and pants.
Santa?
He placed a gift wrapped in gold paper under the tree, then turned so she could see his profile.
Wait. Was that Anson?
No, she must be seeing things. She rubbed her eyes. Anson didn’t even really like Christmas.
Turning around, she walked quietly back to the bedroom. She didn’t want Santa to catch her out of bed!
Alice lay in bed, waiting for Anson to return.
“Daddy?” she whispered as he climbed under the covers.
He drew her against him so her head rested on his chest. “You should be asleep.”
“I woke up and you weren’t here.”
“Sorry, just had something I had to do.”
Hmm.
Should she ask?
Actually, maybe she’d rather not know.
“Go to sleep, babygirl,” he told her gruffly, patting her back. “Before Santa comes and realizes that you’re awake. Then you’ll be in trouble.”
Eek!
She closed her eyes. She didn’t want to get into any more trouble.
It was Christmas!
Alice stared at all the gifts around her in wonder. She couldn’t believe that Anson had done all of this for her.
Two hours ago, Joey, Lochlan, and Miles had turned up with gifts and food. Joey had still been in his Christmas pajamas. Both of them still were.
Unfortunately, Anson insisted they all have breakfast before opening gifts. Boo!
But now they were all sitting around, opening gifts and eating cookies. And she couldn’t be happier.
It had been so long since she’d had a family. And she couldn’t believe she’d had to come to the Colorado mountains to find them.
To find her.
Her man. Her life.
Her very own Daddy.
“Alice, come here, baby. There is one more gift for you,” he told her, patting the sofa.
“What? You’ve already given me so much.” There were things for her Little like onesies and tutus. Some coloring books and pens. A really soft blanket. And even some mouse slippers.
She didn’t have as many gifts for him. But she had convinced him to let her go shopping on her own in town to get things for everyone.
But she sat next to him and took the gift he handed her. It was wrapped in gold paper. She sucked in a breath. The one she’d seen last night. What was in it?
“It only arrived with Lochlan yesterday. I had to wrap it quickly.”
Pulling off the paper, she opened up a small velvet bag, gasping as she drew out some jewelry. “Mom’s jewelry. How . . . how did you?”
“Anson asked me to get someone to go to the pawn shop and get it,” Lochlan told her. “They sent it to me. We were lucky to get it in time.”
“Thank you,” she told Lochlan before turning to Anson. “I can’t believe you did this. I can’t believe I have it back.”
“I’d do anything for you, babygirl. Anything and everything. Forever.”
THE END