I almost swallowed my tongue.
The officers that were leading Rogan and Hilton coughed to smother their laughs.
“Hey, Rogan?” Nathan called. “Can I have your autograph? I can wait until you get uncuffed down at the station.”
That caused Reggie to snort out a laugh that turned into a cough.
Zach clapped her on the back a few times in response.
On they went until they finally got to my brothers.
Sebastian, who was the first one they hit, reached his foot out and tripped Hilton.
Hilton stumbled and glared, only to come up short when Sam was there when he turned back around.
Hilton came to a stop but didn’t rise to the bait.
“Careful,” Sam said. “You don’t want to get hurt again.”
Sam stepped back, leaving my dad and my mom standing there at the end of the hall.
But it wasn’t my dad who looked the scariest. It was my mom.
The moment that the two men got to them, my mom stepped forward and stared both men down.
They were forced to stop or run right into her.
“I was in prison for a little bit,” she said as she looked from Hilton to Rogan and back. “I saw some things that weren’t always the fairest. I also saw some things that I never want to experience again in my life. And, I thought, I wouldn’t wish those things on my worst enemy.” She stopped, her gaze on Rogan. “But I was wrong. I hope that you experience those things. I hope that you wake up and wonder who’s in the cell with you, about to make you his bitch. I hope that the guards get heavy-handed with their weapons. I hope that you get to experience what it’s like not to eat for days because a guy named Al has decided that you need to be taught a lesson.” She turned to Hilton. “You picked the wrong girl to mess with. Because I will stop at nothing until I’ve used every single contact owed to me to make sure that your stay in prison isn’t a pleasant one.”
Rogan looked like he was about to cry.
“Will they have a long stay in prison?” I asked. “Will Rogan even see a jail cell?”
“Hilton? Yes. He doesn’t have the notoriety or the cash flow just yet to get out of this. Rogan, likely not. But that’s not saying that he will just get a slap on the wrist. Right now, we’re just playing the wait and see game,” Adam admitted. “And I hope that the district attorney can pin some shit on him. Maybe if we’re lucky, he’ll see a couple of months. Hilton a year.”
He sounded bitter when he said that, and I couldn’t help but pat him on his chest hoping to calm him down.
“It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay,” Adam said. “And no matter how many times you say it, it’s not getting any better.”
Zach sighed. “Now, since your sugar is so low, I want you to go grab something to eat. Monitor it closely tonight and tomorrow. Make an appointment with an obstetrician, because this is going to be one of those pregnancies that they’re going to want to monitor closely.” He paused. “I’d say make it with my office, but I’ve taken a step back into the wonderful world of emergency medicine, and I’m finding that I kind of like it here.”
I groaned.
“Of course.”
“You won’t have a problem with it in the long run,” Reggie said as her eyes kept darting toward the man in the hall. “You get to see the baby a whole lot more. And you’ll know that the baby is fine.”
Adam’s eyes met mine.
“It’s going to be okay,” he told me.
I burst out laughing. “That’s my line.”
“Hope you have fun in county lockup, motherfuckers,” came my dad’s deep voice seconds later.
Chapter 23
Who even came up with the term ‘panties in a twist’ anyway?
-Text from Amelia to Adam
Amelia
“Where are you taking me?” I bounced in my seat.
I hadn’t gotten out of the house in weeks now.
Not because I hadn’t wanted to, but I hadn’t physically been able to.
The moment that I’d gotten home from the hospital, the fatigue had hit me hard, and this was the first day, more than two weeks later, that I had enough energy to get out and do daily things without getting tired.
Oh, and today was the first day that I felt well enough to meet with a man in the FBI. Nathan’s father, actually. His name was Wolf, and he’d come to my house instead of meeting me in Uncertain.
He’d been by visiting Nathan when Nathan had told him about me.
Me, being the smart girl that I was, had immediately let him in even though I’d looked like dried up shit that’d been run over with the lawnmower a couple of times.
Wolf had been nice, intimidating, and had offered to allow me to come in and interview formally at the main office. Then he’d shocked the shit out of me by saying that his trip into town wasn’t about his son at all, but me.
Apparently, my name had already been circulating around at the office as a potential new hire, and he’d come to check me out.
“I’m taking you to fly,” Adam said as he pulled into the parking lot that led to my dad’s hangar.
I knew that was where we were going, but he’d been keeping it a secret all day.
“You won’t get paged out like last time, will you?” I laughed lightly.
A week ago when he’d taken me out during the day, we’d flown around for an hour before he was called out for a SWAT call.
He’d landed the damn helicopter at the police station and I’d stayed in it and taken an hour nap while they’d had to go deal with some dumbass trying to steal a boat from someone that his wife had sold it to.
“No.” Adam chuckled. “I’m officially off today.”
So I walked with him, hand in hand, to the helicopter that my dad had started to leave out for him when he wanted to use it.
I got into the seat and waited for him to do his pre-flight checklist and dozed off as I waited.
It was only as the helicopter’s blades were speeding up that I woke.
“You ready?” he asked as we started to lift off.
I gave him two thumbs up and put the headphones over my ears a little better.
And together we flew for what felt like hours.
“You ready to go home?” he asked.
I yawned. “Yeah,” I sighed. “I’m ready. I’m hungry, anyway.”
Something on the ground caught my attention then, and I leaned forward in my seat to catch a better look.
Then I gasped.
“Holy shit!” I breathed.
In the grass way below us, there was a fire.
Only, it wasn’t any ordinary fire.
“I had to get my mom to help me with a few of her friends from the fire station. The SWAT team, your family and mine spent the majority of the day getting this ready.” He paused. “This is on the acreage that I bought last week.”
My breath hitched.
On the ground, written in fucking fire, were the words ‘will you marry me?’