Officially Over It - Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,43

“I just heard that you were married. I hadn’t heard all of this.”

I smiled weakly, my headache still pounding full force.

“So how will this work? Will you be able to get custody?” Ford, another of the SWAT members, asked. “Is this something that you even want?”

I opened my eyes for that one.

“Yes,” I said, sitting up straight. “I want this kid. What I don’t is this kid’s mother.”

“Amen,” Reggie muttered, her arms crossed in anger as she thought about Eerie. Then, her eyes narrowed. “And we haven’t even gotten to the best part. The baby’s name…”

Then she went on to explain about the baby’s name, its correlation with my biological father’s killer, and Eerie’s smug face when she continued to call the baby that horrid name.

“You’re fucking shitting me,” Bennett, our SWAT team leader, said. “That’s just fucking sick.”

Bennett was a man of few words. With age came wisdom and silence according to Foster, our other team leader. He didn’t offer much to say unless he felt his input was needed. For Bennett to speak up about this meant that Eerie really was as bad as I felt she was.

“My lawyer is working on the name change now,” I admitted. “She’s working on a lot of things. Since we’re not sure that this has ever been done before, we’re running on a lot of what-ifs. As of right now, we’re just working on the custody issue. We’re speed tracking it through the system now.”

“Let me know if I can volunteer Rowen,” Dax, another member of our SWAT team, offered. “She’s at home, bored to tears, with the baby. She has the time to help if you need her.”

I looked over at my friend.

But before I could tell him thanks, but no thanks, Reggie was already inputting her own suggestion.

“You know what,” Reggie said, sounding determined. “That actually would be quite perfect. We’re using this lawyer that specializes in criminal defense. I’m not saying that she isn’t good. She’s the best. But we really could use all the help we could get. If we can get help where Eerie is concerned, we’ll take it.”

When Reggie put it that way, she made a whole lot of fucking sense.

I nodded my head in agreement. “I can ask my lawyer to share with her.”

Dax nodded his head as he pulled out his phone and started texting away.

“I’ll text her and see what she has to say,” he said. “She’s family law now, as you know. If anything else, she can help with the custody aspect side of it. Help get you what you need there. The rest, Eerie paying for what she did? That can come later. I think charges of some kind need to be filed.”

I agreed.

I just wasn’t sure what kind of charges needed to happen, or where to even bring something like this. My father was thankfully looking into it, but since he had an obvious conflict of interest in this case, it wasn’t like he could pursue it all the way.

“I called my dad.”

I turned to see Amelia, Adam’s woman, standing in the doorway.

Her dad, Silas Mackenzie, was ex-CIA. Or so everyone told me. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what he was. Though, an intimidating bastard was definitely one of the key words that I’d use if I had to explain anything when it came to the older man. Even at his age, I still got a chill that raced down my spine when he was in the same room with me.

And poor fucking Adam was marrying his daughter.

Talk about intimidation.

Amelia moved, and that was when I saw all the women at her back, all of them ready to rally around and help in any way they could.

When I looked back, I had all of the men’s attention, too. They were all staring at me with various shades of anger, all of it aimed at the woman that had fucked me over.

This.

This right here was what I’d wanted when I’d joined the SWAT team. Though I had a camaraderie of sorts with my baseball team, it wasn’t this. The feeling that I knew that I’d be okay. That Reggie and my child would be okay. No matter if I was there or not.

They would always have my back.

I swallowed hard, overcome by the emotions that were rolling through me at the sight of all these men and women coming together to help me with my son.

My son.

Holy shit.

I hadn’t said that before.

I hadn’t allowed myself to think about it, honestly.

I hadn’t