Chapter 29
Twenty-Nine
G unner whistled as he poured coffee into the mug Lily had given him that morning. World’s Best Dad. Fuck, that woman knew how to make him emotional. She’d even had Sage’s little feet stamped onto the back of it in a heart shape. His girls were now his in every way.
The last week had gone by in a blur. But every night, after they got Sage to bed, he’d worshiped the hell out of her body until she passed out in his arms. The time they spent exploring each other’s bodies just felt right. Gunner had made it his mission to find how many ways he could make Lily orgasm. And he loved it because he hadn’t failed a mission yet.
“I think he’s broken.”
Gunner turned to see the team all standing in the doorway, mouths gaping at him.
“Maybe he’s sick? Are you sick? Dying? Did you die and come back to life?” Hawk guessed.
“What are you idiots going on about?”
“You’re whistling. It’s weird,” Mae laughed. “And you just smiled while looking at your coffee.”
“I’m fine. I smile sometimes.”
“He’s sick,” Nash said.
“Maybe I should share what Lily sent me in a text this morning so that the team can get a clue about your suddenly sunny mood this week,” Mae said mischievously, with a twinkle in her eye.
Gunner growled.
“Don’t worry, I would never betray Lily like that. But I found it surprising that you’re ticklish.”
“Mae…” he warned.
“Oh. My. God.” Hawk’s laugh bubbled over the others. “Mae, I will give you five hundred dollars right now to let me read that text.”
“Nope.” Mae popped the word as she walked back to her desk.
“A thousand.”
“No.”
“A thousand and I’ll do the dishes for a week.”
“You already do the dishes, idiot.”
“Fine, a thousand and I’ll clean the bathrooms, too.”
“So tempting, Hawk, but I said I wouldn’t do that to Lily, and I won’t. No matter how much the scowl on Gunner’s face is making me want to.”
“Let me see the text,” Gunner said. Mae just stared at him. “It’s only fair I know what I need to punish Lily for, isn’t it? You wouldn’t want me edging your friend for hours when really all she needed was a quick slap on her ass. Because she will be punished, Mae.”
“Holy fuck, she wasn’t lying. I mean, Jesus, Gunner, you’re turning me on right now.”
“Mae!” Stone barked, his face bright red.
“And on that note, I think we need to separate Mae and Gunner and get to the meeting we were supposed to start five minutes ago,” Gage gestured to the empty conference room.
Gunner pulled out his phone and shot off a text to Lily.
I know what you told Mae, Lily. Naughty girl. I’m going to lay you over my knee and spank that pretty pink ass of yours when I get home.
Gunner! I know there is no way Mae told you what I said.
Three dots appeared, and he laughed as he thought about how red her face probably was while she typed.
But I’ll gladly take that punishment.
Fuck. How the hell was he going to concentrate on his meeting? Gage better get through the info quickly, because he was going to be going home for lunch right after, and taking the rest of the day off.
“Oh, fudge.” Lily stopped pushing the grocery cart and turned towards Gunner. They were supposed to be hosting a dinner for the team that night, and she’d completely spaced about picking up things from the deli as they walked by. Gunner had surprised her by coming home early for the day and he’d properly scrambled her brain while Sage was down for her nap.
“Fudge? As in the ice cream topping or a substitute for a very adult word?”
“You know I’m trying to be better about naughty words around Sprout. Her first word is going to be something mortifying if we don’t.” She covered Sage’s ears, even though the baby was fast asleep in her carrier.
“Lil, the little goober has a long way to go before she says anything,” Gunner said as he pulled Lily’s hands away, locking his fingers back through hers.
“I don’t know. If she takes after me, she’ll be talking in no time. It was the one skill I was advanced in as a baby. My parents spent my entire childhood telling me how horrible it was, but I can’t wait to hear her little voice.”
“I bet it’s going to be so cute. But if she takes after me, she’ll be too busy trying to walk before she crawls to tackle talking.”
Lily’s heart melted into a giant puddle. Might as well call a cleanup on aisle…she looked up and down the aisle for an identifier…three. There was never a moment after the night he helped her leave James that he didn’t refer to Sage as his daughter, and it was so beautiful. She was theirs, nothing but Lily and Gunner.
“So, what was that ‘oh fudge’ about?”
“Oh, I told Mae and Hawk that we’d pick up some sandwich meat for the cookout tonight, but we walked right past it.”
“Okay. I’ll go take care of it while you finish shopping here.” Gunner kissed the top of Sage’s head. “Make sure you get some barbecue chips. Those are my favorite.”
“I know they are. You think I never saw you sneaking into the kitchen for them when you thought I was distracted with Sage?”
Gunner tipped his head back and laughed. “Guilty as charged.”
She placed her hand on his chest and stood on her tiptoes, tilting her face towards his. Gunner’s response was immediate, capturing her lips in a searing kiss .
“Maybe we don’t need groceries for this week,” Lily giggled.
“Good things come to those who wait, Lily Kate.” The wink he gave as he walked away branded the best sort of anticipation across her heart.
Lily strolled the rest of the aisle leisurely. She didn’t want to walk too far from Gunner, but she needed to keep moving, or else Sage would wake every few minutes. A table full of pies and cookies at the end of the row caught her eye. She would love to pick up a blackberry pie, although Dolly might get mad if she got one from the Save More instead of her diner.
“Oh, Paul, look. She’s beautiful.”
The familiar voice that came from behind Lily flipped her stomach. They couldn’t be there. They couldn’t have found where she’d moved to. Silver Springs was her safe place, the place for her to start over and forget the nightmare that the last few years had been. Placing the pie she’d picked up from the small display back onto the table, Lily turned.
Right then and there, she realized her greatest fear was coming true. In front of her stood James’s parents, evil smiles spreading across their faces.
“What are you doing here?” Lily asked as she took a step back and swept a protective hand over Sage’s back, who thankfully was still fast asleep in the carrier wrapped around her body.
“Seeing our grandchild, which we know we could never do if we didn’t track you down in the middle of some dilapidated grocery store. She’s been in the world for months and you didn’t think to reach out to us? To let us know where you were with her? Honestly, do you really think this town is the best place to raise a Callahan?”
“My baby is not a Callahan. She’s a Brooks.” Gunner was her father, and she wouldn’t let anyone take that from Sage. Ever .
Corrine rolled her eyes. “We’ve been talking with your parents, Lily. They want to know the baby. They want to get to see her grow up and be a part of her life.”
“They lost that right when they cast me out like trash.”
“The truth hurts sometimes, darling,” Paul sneered.
“Look, I don’t know what you are doing here, but you need to leave. My husband won’t take kindly to you being here, let alone threatening me.”
“Oh goodness, we aren’t threatening you, Lily. You’re always so dramatic. We can’t possibly fathom what James saw in you, other than the ease with which you spread your legs open for him. Is that what Gunner saw in you, too?”
“How dare you?” Tears pricked at Lily’s eyes, but she would not dare let them fall in front of James’s parents.
“It’s not up to you anymore. A judge will see that the baby ends up with us. It’s what’s best for everyone involved.”
“A judge?” Her heart flooded with worry as she recalled the words Corrine yelled at her in the hospital. They were going to take Sage.
“We’ve made a formal petition to transfer permanent custody of the baby to our care. You’ll be required to travel back to Connecticut. This paperwork explains everything.”
Paul held out a large, legal document sized envelope towards Lily, but she couldn’t bear the thought of reaching out to take it.
“Of course,” his hand pulled back slightly. “We’d be willing to pay you one hundred thousand dollars right now for you to sign over your rights without a fight.”
Lily stared at them.
“We know it’s quite a large amount of money, and honestly more generous of an offer than you deserve, but you could really get yourself established with funds like that.”
“Y-you want me to sell you my daughter?” her shrill voice was an entire octave higher than normal. Where was Gunner? She needed his strength to tell them exactly where they could shove their generous offer .
“Think about it this way, Lily. You’re a mother now. You owe it to your daughter to give her the best life possible. We all know that the best life she could have is not with you.”
“You need to go.”
Paul set the envelope in her shopping cart, and she couldn’t help but stare at it like the ticking time bomb it was.
“We’ll be seeing you soon,” Corrine crooned at Sage as she ran her finger down the baby’s face.
“Do not touch my daughter,” Lily growled through clenched teeth.
“Honestly, Lily. This behavior is exactly why we’ve had to take such extreme measures. You’ve done this to yourself. If you hadn’t left, James wouldn’t have been drinking himself into a hole. He wouldn’t have been out that night, and he would still be alive. This is all your fault.”
Lily’s entire body froze. “What did you just say?”
“That’s right. My son, my only child, died because of your selfishness. He never even got to meet his daughter. But we’ll make sure she’s raised to carry out his legacy. You can falsify documents as much as you want, but she’s a Callahan through and through, and she will be raised in our family.”
“Your daughter is precious. How old is she?” Gunner didn’t look away from the deli counter. He didn’t care if he was being rude to some random woman, he just wanted to get his order and head back to Lily and Sage.
“Thank you. She is.”
“Was that your wife with her?”
Gunner’s head swung around from the deli counter and looked at the woman talking to him. Tall, slender, with harsh facial features, minus the smile that was spreading across her face. It didn’t feel welcoming. It felt like a warning.
“I don’t talk about my family to strangers,” Gunner said bluntly.
The woman didn’t look taken aback by his tone or confrontational stance.
“No, I didn’t expect you would, Mr. Brooks.”
The pit in his stomach churned.
“Who are you?”
“The family I work for is powerful, Mr. Brooks, and they don’t like how you’ve interfered in their personal business. They’ve asked me to come here and, well, make it clear that you are to back down and find a different project to dedicate your time to. Nothing they’ve done in the past seems to get that message across to you, so I’m here to make sure that it does.”
Gunner’s face remained blank as his mind ran wild. The Santoro family had sent someone to talk to him. What was their goal? Was something going down somewhere else that this woman was distracting him from seeing? The intense need to get back to Lily and Sage overwhelmed him.
“Honestly, I’m surprised they had me come here at all,” the bitch in black continued. “Normally, I would think the warnings they sent would be much more effective. But with your wife and daughter, well, you know just how valuable those lives are. If you want to keep them safe, you’ll walk away from this.”
Those fuckers. The message was obvious: give the Santoros a pass to expand their trafficking, or Lily and Sage would be taken. If they even tried to put their hands on either of his girls, he would burn the entire world down. He didn’t care about anything else. Only their safety.
The woman looked down at her watch, smiling.
“I think you’ll find that your wife needs your help. She’s just had what I can imagine was a rather upsetting encounter. You’d hate to not be there when she crashes from the adrenaline I’m sure her unexpected run-in caused.”
“If you hurt a fucking hair on her head…” Gunner stepped close to the woman.
“I wouldn’t waste precious time threatening me, Mr. Brooks. I did nothing today except deliver a message. Just know, this is your last warning. Walk away, or they’ll be forced to take actions you will not like.”
Gunner’s head whipped around, trying his hardest to spot Lily and Sage. He couldn’t see them from where he was standing, and when he went to question the woman, she was already gone.
Shit. He took off running, his heart pounding in his throat as he weaved in between shopping carts and shoppers, who seemed oblivious to his need to find his wife and daughter.
He just wanted to get both Lily and Sage back to Montgomery Defense. He needed to brief the team about the threat; they would not go down without a fight, but he also wouldn’t risk Lily and Sage.
Gunner found Lily standing next to a display for pies, Sage’s little feet kicking around in the carrier, and the tightness in his chest eased just a little. He didn’t want to scare Lily, so he needed to wait until they were back at the apartment to tell her what had happened.
“Hey, those pies look good. Thinking about picking one up?” He slid a kiss onto her neck as his hand found its way to the base of her back. She was shaking.
“Lily? What’s wrong?” It was only then that he got a good look at her. Her face was pale and her eyes filled with unshed tears. “Hey, Lily Kate. Look at me.”
When her eyes snapped to him, she lost it. Her arms flew around his shoulders and she buried her face into the crook of his neck, hot tears tickling his skin .
“Baby, what happened?” He moved, so Sage had more room between them.
“They were here.”
Fuck. That bitch hadn’t been lying. She’d used talking to him as a distraction. His muscles ached to run after the woman and drag her back to his team for answers.
“Who?”
“James’s parents.”
His whole body froze.
“T-they touched her, then gave me this paperwork. They’re going to take her from us.”
“How the hell did they even find out we live here?”
“I don’t know. But they can’t have her, Gunner. They can’t.”
“Of course not, Lil. Don’t waste a single second thinking about them. It’s all going to be okay.”
Gunner slipped his hand into Lily’s and walked through the cereal aisle and out of the store. One arm stayed wrapped around his girls while the other pulled his phone from his pocket and typed out a message to the guys.
“Gunner, we just left our cart back there. The food for dinner?—”
“I’ll have something delivered to the apartment, or one of the guys can pick up whatever we need. I just need to get you both home.” They walked up to the car, and Gunner opened the rear door to access Sage’s car seat. A small whimper came from Lily, and he hated to see how she was biting down on her lip. “Are you okay?”
“Take Sage,” she gasped, handing the baby to him as she bent over. The wheezing sound coming from her had Gunner securing Sage fast before gripping both her arms and forcing her to the ground.
“Slow your breathing down, Lily Kate.”
“C-can’t. ”
“You’re breathing too fast. Slow down.” Gunner placed Sage and her car seat on the pavement as he stepped behind Lily, sitting down with her between his legs. He wrapped his arms around her, tight enough to provide support, and then began drawing in long breaths. “Like this, baby. Long and slow. Just follow me. Look at Sage and just focus on breathing for her.”
They sat there for a few minutes until Lily finally got her breathing under control.
“They weren’t supposed to find us,” she whispered.
Gunner locked his eyes on the car seat where Sage’s bright eyes were open, watching him. No one would hurt his girls, and that included not only the Santoros, but James and his fucking parents, too.
“Don’t think about them right now, Lil. Just stay right here, in this moment, with me and our daughter.”
She pressed her head over his heart and the pit in his stomach finally went away as her breathing slowed.
“James died,” she whispered, her eyes meeting his.
“Jesus. How?”
“I don’t know. They didn’t say, but Corrine blamed me.”
Fuck. Gunner didn’t like these revelations one bit. It felt all too convenient that James would die around the same time his parents found out where Lily had moved to. And add in the Santoro messenger…no, he didn’t like it one bit.
“Gage can look into it for us. I’m so sorry, Lily.”
“Why?”
“He was Sage’s dad.”
“No. No, he wasn’t,” she shook her head back and forth. “Before you came back into our lives, sure, he was the biological component that created her. But he’s never been her dad. That’s one thousand percent you, and she is always going to know that.”
Gunner pressed his mouth to hers. The kiss was meant to comfort, but above everything, it was also a promise to keep her and Sage safe.
“I’m never going to let anyone hurt you or our daughter, Lily.”
“I know, Gunner. I finally felt safe, and I know you won’t let anyone take that away from me.”
“I think we need to tell the guys about James and his parents.” Gunner watched Lily set Sage down in her bassinet as he walked into the room. “They’re going to be here in a minute and I want them to know everything that just happened.”
“What? No. I don’t want them getting the wrong idea about us.”
Gunner wrapped his arms around Lily’s back and pulled her into his chest, pressing a kiss into her hair.
“There is no wrong idea, Lil, because the only idea they’ve ever had is that I’m madly in love with you and that I’m Sprout’s dad. It’s still the same. But we need to explain to them how we came to be a family, so that they know about all the threats facing us right now. I can’t ask them to keep you safe, to stand up against these assholes with me, if I don’t give them all the information.”
Lily worried her lips between her teeth, and fuck if the vulnerability in her eyes didn’t rip at his chest.
“I just don’t want them to think less of me.”
Gunner grabbed her chin between his thumb and pointer, lifting it up so she was looking into her eyes.
“If anything, they’re going to be pissed at me for not making sure you were safe from that family, permanently. But they’ve already got you on a pretty high pedestal, Lil, and you aren’t going anywhere. I promise.”
“Okay,” she squeezed her arms around him and he felt her face press in over his heart. “Maybe just tell them when I’m busy nursing Sage in here.”
“We’ll do it together, beautiful.”
“Stubborn man.”
“Stubborn woman.”
She laughed, slipping her hand into his before walking towards the kitchen.