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I bit my bottom lip, trying not to smile as everyone looked our way.
Storm was glaring at Thatcher, and I could tell King had tensed up. This needed to be defused. The two of them did not need to get into a fight in Maeme’s dining room.
“It did work out okay for him in the end,” I said, speaking up.
Storm shifted his gaze to me, and it softened immediately.
I shrugged. “I’m here, aren’t I?”
There was more than one amused laugh around the table, and Storm’s entire body relaxed.
“See now, that’s a much better conversation,” Maeme said approvingly.
Luella leaned forward and looked down the table at me. “Did he really have someone shoot at you?” she asked.
Storm’s grip on my leg tightened again.
I covered it with my hand. “Yes, he really did.”
She shook her head, wide-eyed.
“Don’t judge the boy. It’s not like some of the others haven’t done stupid things for love,” Maeme said over the rim of her coffee cup.
“Please don’t, Mother,” Ronan said with a warning look.
Jupiter grinned and turned to look up at her husband. “What? You don’t want to talk about how you put holes all in the condom just to knock me up?”
Ronan frowned. “Not really.”
“I wasn’t even gonna bring that up,” Maeme said. “I was actually thinking of the time Stellan kidnapped Mandilyn.”
“I did not kidnap her,” Stellan corrected.
Maeme gave him a pointed look. “Is that so?”
“You broke into my parents’ home in the middle of the night, gagged me, tied my hands together, and threw me over your shoulder, then took me to the lake cabin, where you kept me for three days,” Mandilyn said with an amused gleam in her eye.
“You wanted to be there,” Stellan said.
She laughed. “Maybe after a while. But, no, sir, I did not want to be there. I had a date with Kizer Horton the next day.”
Stellan scowled. “Kizer Horton is a pussy. Was then and is now. You should still be thanking me for that.”
Storm leaned down to my ear. “Maybe I should have just gone with the kidnapping angle.”
I turned to look up at him as a smile tugged at my lips. “I don’t know. Yours had a bit of danger to it. More exciting.”
He pressed a kiss to my lips. “Let’s go home.”
I nodded, and Storm started to push his seat back.
“Let’s just hope whatever is going on with Thatcher has nothing to do with a female,” Mandilyn said as she glanced at her husband.
Storm’s eyes locked with Sebastian’s again. They seemed to be worried about something. Was it a woman? I couldn’t imagine Thatcher getting serious with any female. I’d seen him at the party.
“What do you two know?” Wells asked, shifting his gaze from Storm to Sebastian.
Sebastian shook his head. “Nothing.”
“Bullshit,” Wells replied.
“Language,” Maeme scolded him.
He gave her an apologetic look, then turned back to Storm. “Y’all know something. Why was I left out? I wanna know too.”
“It’s nothing,” Storm said, standing up and holding his hand out for me to join him.
“If there is something the two of you know about Thatcher, I need to be told,” Stellan said, his brows drawn together.
“It’s nothing, Dad. At least, I think it’s nothing,” Sebastian told him. “But just to be clear, JB quit, right? I mean, you spoke to him. He didn’t just stop showing up to work?”
“The stablehand?” Stellan asked.
Sebastian nodded. “Yeah.”
Stellan shrugged. “I don’t know. You’d have to check with Miller.”
Sebastian glanced at Storm again, and I stood up beside him.
“Do I need to check into this?” Stellan asked his younger son.
Sebastian shook his head. “No, it’s fine. I’ll stop by the office when I get to the stables and speak with Miller.”
“Is there a reason I should be concerned that Thatcher has killed a man?”
“Technically, he’s killed hundreds,” Wells piped up.
Stellan ignored him and swung his gaze to Storm. “Is there?”
Storm sighed. “Let’s hope not.”
• Twenty-Nine •
“Naughty girls got spanked.”
Storm
Watching Briar sleep was one of my favorite things to do. She made the cutest fucking faces. I zoomed in to see her lips as they puckered. God, I loved when she did that. I touched the screen, brushing my finger over where her mouth was.
“Fuck, man, you’ve still got the cameras on her?” Sebastian asked me.
I snapped my head up, irritated that he’d interrupted me. “You look at my goddamn phone again, and I will dig your fucking eyes out of your head.”
He held up his hands. “I didn’t see her. I just know that the psycho grin you had on your face meant it had to be Briar you were looking at.”
I clicked the camera off and shoved it into my pocket. “I don’t see why I had to come,” I snarled, wanting to be home and in bed with Briar. Not on a fucking clean up Thatcher’s shit mission.
“Because we don’t know what he’s done and it might take all of us to handle it,” King said, glancing back at me from the rearview mirror as he drove. “You think I want to be doing this bullshit? I want to be home with my girls.”
