“Ma!”
“Oh hush, Wyatt Lane. You’ve had her for days all to yourself. Don’t be greedy. Now, Ellie dear, have you decided what color scheme we’re going with for the nursery?”
***
Wyatt
She’s killing me with her laughter and those deer-in-headlights looks she keeps throwing my way every time Ma brings up the wedding and the plans to revamp one of the rooms in our wing to turn it into a nursery.
Ellie is probably just humoring Ma at this stage while she throws me pleading looks to rescue her from Ma’s clutches, and I decide not to tell her that Jude is more than serious about her future grandbabies.
What good would it do, anyway? Ma would just steamroll right over my baby and she’d end up trying to bolt in sheer terror and the need to survive.
My family is a little intense and overwhelming, it’s true, but they all have good intentions, Ma especially. Well, intentions as good as you can expect when dealing with a woman who’s been obsessed with getting grandbabies out of me for almost a decade now.
I won’t even mention to Ellie that Ma claimed her as her daughter the first time I showed her a photo before explaining to her that I loved her and would move heaven and earth to get her.
“So, have you heard anything from Roman yet?”
I break eye contact with Ellie and look over at Pop as he sits down beside me and smiles at Ma’s constant chatter and Ellie’s very apparent fear of the quicksand that is Jude Lane.
“Miah and Jared said he’s starting to tie things together but that we’ll need to think about entrapping Jerry if we want a rock-solid case.”
How though? I’ve been mulling it over since getting in the car while my brothers kept Ellie busy, and the only way I can think to get him to make a mistake is to use Ellie as bait.
I won’t do it, no matter how much easier it would make things. I’d rather let Miah and Jared loose on the man. Like I said, I don’t want him dead or maimed. I want him behind bars, suffering for years, just like his son made my baby suffer.
“I know exactly what you’re thinking, kid, and though I understand, I don’t think you’ll be able to keep her out of it, entirely. Have you told her everything yet?”
“No, just that Bolton was one of ours,” I admit, smiling at Ellie when she looks over.
I feel guilty about keeping so much from her, but I can’t risk it. She doesn’t love me yet, and I won’t take the chance that she’ll try to leave. I’m not a monster.
Yes, I kidnapped her and kept her against her will those first few days, but the truth is that I would never do anything to hurt Ellie. No matter how much I tell myself that I won’t let her go, in the long run I know that if that’s what she really wanted, I’d do it.
I’d never marry or touch another after the paradise I’ve found with her, but if she wants out, I’ll give it to her. When the danger is over, that is.
“Wyatt, son, take it from your dad. Lying to a woman is never a good idea,” he says, giving me his patented dad look.
I agree with him since the man raised me and I share a lot of his values and skewed logic, but on this one issue, I won’t allow my family to sway me.
Ellie needs more time to love me, and then and only then will I confess it all. Telling her that I am responsible for Bolton snapping and snatching her is one thing, but the other…
I can’t even think about it without breaking out in a cold sweat.
“Leave it alone, Pop. Please. She’s not there yet. If I tell her everything, I have no guarantee she won’t slap me silly and tell me she never wants to see me again.”
“Damn, bro, that’s some depressing fears you’ve got going on there.”
My face is stony as I turn to Jace where he’s flopped down on the sofa beside me, his eyes trained on Ma and Ellie as he smiles indulgently.
“Shut up, idiot, you’d feel the same way if you were in my shoes.”
“Not likely since I plan never to fall in love or settle down,” he quips, pulling a candy bar from his pocket.
The man is a player of the worst kind and always seems to be pulling something out of his pocket to shove in his mouth. It’s like a habit, almost, seeing as Jace hates sugary foods and has since he was knee high to a grasshopper.
His statement makes Pop laugh so hard, the man’s eyes start watering till he’s forced to run an arm over his face.
“You went and cooked your own goose now, Jason, my boy. If a man doesn’t want love and marriage, telling the universe it won’t happen is like sending out a direct challenge to the fates. You’re screwed, and I lay odds that this time next year you’ll be in love and chasing after a woman like a sad little puppy.”