Page 88 of Bobby

I wait a beat and see the rest of the team I came up with enter the room. But we don’t move until Danny speaks over all our interlinks. “Go out the front. I have a team waiting to take you back.”

No word on if they found Trevor or Jessica. I heard a scream earlier, but that doesn’t mean it was one of them. All I know is Danny is happy enough that the place is secure for me to take Ivy and Marco to gather Lily in his arms and have us walk out the front door without either seeing a mess of blood or bodies that would cause the girls any psychological harm.

Danny dealt with that shit at a young age, and it’s one of his triggers. He’ll keep it from the innocent whenever he can, no matter their age.

Despite that, I still cover Ivy’s eyes and Marco does the same for Lily as we exit the room and head downstairs on quick feet.

As we hit the ground floor, we double-time it to the front, but a scream pulls my attention. I move Ivy to one of our men’s arms and take aim in the direction the noise came from as they keep going out the front.

There, crawling toward me, is Trevor. There’s blood covering his face as he shuffles away on what look like broken legs.

But I don’t fire. Even if everything in my gut, my soul, demands I do. Vinny made a promise to the Strays, and it’s their man, Liam, who I see grabbing Trevor’s legs and pulling him back into the room with more glee than a child being given a puppy.

I stay but a moment, just long enough to match eyes with Danny before he shuts them back in whatever made-up torture room they’re in, before I move to the front door.

I trust my brother to take care of it. And seeing a man crawling away, begging for mercy, gives me enough satisfaction to pocket my gun and get in the back of the SUV.

As soon as I’m in, I gather the girls close to me and note that Marco took the front passenger seat as we begin to drive away. Once we make it to the main gate and start down the road, I give them space to look around if they wish.

Not that they do. They just huddle closer to me, holding me as tightly as I hold them, and I remind them that they’re safe. Promise them that they will always be safe.

And I mean to keep my promise.

If I find out he touched them… did anything to them… I will ignore Vinny’s orders and go back and kill Trevor myself.

Him and everyone he ever knew.

Chapter 31—Willow

This is the hardest moment of my life. I thought losing my parents was bad. Or when I caught Trevor cheating. Or even the call he made to me saying he had kidnapped my girls. But all that pales in comparison to this. Waiting for the man I love to bring my girls back to me.

Falling in love with Bobby was easy. So many things about him were easy to fall for. The least of which was making sure the girls had everything we could ever want. To include having people to rely on and trust.

The hard part is not being sure if he feels the same way.

He has to. I don’t know if I could survive if he doesn’t.

Why else would he help with all of this if he didn’t feel something for me and my girls? Something strong.

Trevor told me he loved me too easily. He said it as if it was what he needed to say to get me to sleep with him. Did it help? I guess. I slept with him because I wanted to, not because of what he said. And after that first time, he said it often enough, but it never felt real. More like it was simply an excuse for his actions. “I can’t come to the baby appointment, but I love you. I have to stay at work late, but I love you. You forgot to do something, but it’s okay because I love you.” He said the words, but there was zero feeling behind them. And they became three words that meant nothing during our time together.

When Bobby says it—if he does—then it will mean something. For both of us.

I’ve said it before, obviously. I thought Trevor was my everything at one point, until my girls came along. Then I realized what love really was, and I knew what I felt for Trevor at the start was just a desire to be with someone. To not be alone. Trevor was too self-involved to even notice that I stopped saying it. Or he just didn’t care.

“Your turn.”

“Huh?” I look up at the man who sat across from me when almost everyone else got off the plane after we landed. He hasn’t spoken to me, or at least I don’t think he has before this. I’ve been so lost in my own thoughts that he could have told me his entire life story, and I would never have noticed.

“We’re playing poker. How many cards do you want?” He motions to the cards in his hand and the ones on the table.

“I don’t know how to play poker.”

He tilts his head like a bird does when it hears a noise, and then his eyebrows bunch up as he grabs my cards.

“Full house. You’d have lost to me anyhow.”

“What did you have?”