41. Chapter 40
Carter
G etting to the airport was the number one priority. There was no way I could let Stephanie leave the city with Siobhan’s ex. If I had to kill the guy, then so be it.
Coop was right about needing to do things the right way, so we informed both the police and Lou.
I really regretted going along with the plan to only use our security team for big events rather than for everyday situations.
We were just wasting money by having them trail us around doing mundane stuff like dropping Stephanie off as school, going to set or the rink.
Siobhan was just utterly broken in my arms. Who could blame her for crying, especially after finding out that the person who had put both of us through hell was her ex?
The worst part was that the asshole knew the effect he was having on both Stephanie and Siobhan. Who did that? A psychopath, that’s who.
Coop pulled the truck into my usual spot at the airfield. We both hopped out of the car. I had hoped Siobhan would stay in the car, but she was getting out too. Thankfully, Coop flanked her.
If anything happened to her, I would die.
Coop looked down at his watch and said, “We’re running out of time.”
Instead of running straight into the airport to get to the waiting lounge or even attempting to get onto any of the charter planes, I looked for Lou or the police. Thankfully, I noticed a black SUV pulling into the lot.
Coop tensed and made a fist. I turned toward him. “That’s gotta be Lou. They will at least keep us out of trouble.”
Sure enough, Lou and Daniel, another security guard, hopped out of the SUV.
A moment later, the police cars pulled into the lot. Well, that was going to stop a lot of things. Thankfully, the police hopped out of the vehicles. One of the officers came straight toward us. “Did you call the police?”
I turned to face Siobhan and pulled her tight against me.
I wanted to give her all the comfort she needed.
“Yes. Our daughter was picked up by her dad to go to school, and about twenty minutes ago, we both received SOS texts from her. Using the Guardian app, we overheard her father and his current girlfriend say they were here. We drove here as fast as we could and called you on the way.”
“What does your daughter look like, and do you have any proof that you’re the rightful guardian of the child?”
Shit. I didn’t even think about having to have proof that Stephanie was supposed to be in Siobhan’s custody. I rubbed her shoulders with one hand and pulled out my phone with the other.
“I took a video of Stephanie doing her morning stretches for cheer.”
Then I realized that Siobhan had the perfect proof that she was supposed to have custody of Stephanie right now. The court-mandated app. I whispered that into her ear as the cop looked at my phone.
“Here’s the proof that I am supposed to have custody of her this week, and I was letting him take her to school today since he was going to miss the next couple of weeks.”
The police officer looked at both of our phones before he talked to his fellow officers who were in the airport itself. There was a flurry of codes that went over the walkie-talkies, and it sounded like something had happened on the other side.
Coop grabbed my shoulder and held me in place.
Not only could he apparently sniff out scents like a dog, but his strength was superhuman.
It was freakish how strong of a hold he had on me.
He was fit from lifting weights nearly all summer, but it was another thing to feel it firsthand.
Spence has held me back once or twice, but when he did, I could still move.
Coop only had one hand on my shoulder, and I couldn’t move at all.
I shook my head, trying to telepathically tell him that I wasn’t going to rush in. I wasn’t a fighter, and I would do the right thing even though a huge part of me wanted to pull Stephanie out of there.
Siobhan went slack in my arms, and I held her to me. As scared as I was for Stephanie, I needed to be strong for her.
The hardest thing to do was to do nothing when you knew something was happening on the other side of the walls. But if we did anything besides letting the police do their job, we would get into big trouble.
Eventually, after a lifetime of a few minutes, Stephanie was ushered out the doors, and she just bolted straight for us. The moment I saw that she was fine and unhurt was the moment that I could breathe again.
As Siobhan and I inspected and hugged Stephanie, Coop elbowed me.
I looked in the general direction of the entrance and saw that Russell and a woman were being escorted out of the airport in handcuffs.
The normally handsome and well put-together actor looked haggard and beaten down.
With his low head and hunched shoulders, I could tell that was a man who had his ass handed to him in a fight.
I felt no sympathy for the guy. If anything, I wanted the book thrown at the fucker, but it wasn’t my call to make. But just thinking about charges made me realize we needed to call our lawyer.