Page 108 of Derecho

“I don’t believe a word you are saying! Greg has been nothing but good to me. You tried to take him from me! And you have to pay for that. You know that, right? You broke the sanctity of my marriage, and you have to answer for that. You’ll tell the courts that you lied.” Jasmine took a step closer to me, and I wrapped my arms tighter around Reid and the carrier. “You’ll tell the courts that you don't want the baby any more. Or, we don’t even have to go that far! You could hand him over to me right now. I’ve got a car seat in my car. I hadn’t thought this would all work out, that you’d be here waiting for me, but it’s a sign. A sign that you are meant to hand him over to me today. You don’t have to put my family through the distress of going to court to fight this. Put someone else first for a change. Let your son have the life he’d never, ever have with you.”

“You’re insane,” I cried. “Don’t take another step toward us. I will never let you touch my son. You bat shit crazy bitch!”

Danny cleared his throat, stepping between Jasmine and where Birdie and me stood. “You.” He pointed straight at Jasmine. “Take ten steps back that way and close your mouth. We need to be working on getting out of here. It’s awfully hot, and I’m worried about the babies.” He pointed to Jasmine’s belly and Reid on my chest. “I left my phone out in the truck, so one of you girls is going to have to round up the guys. They’ll come running when they hear what happened.”

Danny was right. And I needed Lachlan here. I was losing the grip on my nerves.

“My phone is on the coffee table,” Birdie sighed.

“Shit. Mine too,” I groaned.

“Nice to know that’s the type of language you’ve been using in front of my son. I’ll be sure to document it for the court.”

“I—”

Danny turned to Jasmine. “Unless you have a phone, I would think the best thing to do right now would be to stand there, again, not saying a word. I don’t like people who threaten my family.”

Jasmine folded her arms. “Lainey has done nothing but threaten my family. She’s a homewrecker! You don’t know who she is! You shouldn’t want her anywhere near your family. She’s trash, vile, immoral! She⁠—”

“Enough!” Danny roared. “Lainey is a Ford, in every way that matters.” Oh boy. There went the last bit of hold I had on my emotions. “Which means I will not have you standing here on my family’s land, treating her like this! Threatening her! You better believe that when we get out of here, the first person I’ll be speaking to is my son, who I am sure you know is a Clarence County deputy. I’ll be pressing charges for trespassing, harassment, and whatever else we can fucking think to add to it. Unless, you’d like to change your tune and be a decent human for a moment? Do you have your phone on you? Yes or no?”

“Yes.”

He held out his hand, waiting for her to hand it over. As soon as she did, he handed it to Birdie. “Call Beau. Now.”

Danny turned back to Jasmine. “I don’t know who the hell you think you are, lady, but my grandson is not yours to take. He has a mother and a father who love him, and an entire family who will stand in your way from even getting close to him or his mama. Now, I imagine the best course of action from this moment forward is for everyone to just take a breath, and for anyone not in the Ford family to keep their damn mouth shut.”

“…Cowboy. Please come up to the safe house and let us out. Okay? We need you.” Birdie pulled the phone away from her face, shaking her head.

“He didn’t answer?” Danny asked.

“He usually won’t if he doesn’t recognize the number. But he’ll listen to the message.” She looked at the door. “I’m sure he’ll listen to the message.”

“Try Colt. I want him here anyway when we get out. I’ll bet there are some tools out here I can use to get the door open. Nobody panic. We’ll be out of here in no time.”

“What the hell kind of place is this?” Jasmine groaned. “We can’t get out of the garage because of a faulty knob? This can’t be up to code…You’ve put two children directly in danger today. My team of lawyers⁠—”

“Shut up!” I yelled. Reid fussed on my chest. My shirt was starting to soak through with how hot it was getting.

Jasmine’s face fell. “Do you smell that?” she asked.

“What? Going to try and sue us for a bad smell?” My sister rolled her eyes.

“No. It’s not…It’s smoke. I smell smoke.”

Lachlan

“Whose calling?” I asked, watching my brother’s eyes drop to his phone.

“Dunno. Some number I’ve never seen before.” Beau slipped his phone back into his pocket.

“You’re not gonna answer it?”

“Nah. They’ll leave a message if it’s important. Besides, we need to have a brotherly check-in. What happened last night?”

“I don’t think I should share that information with you.” I chuckled.

“I left Juniper with Jessie for a reason. And we all know what you were hoping last night would lead to.”