“What are you talking about?” Chevelle’s head tilts. “You had my daughter in a stolen car. Cam, I thought better of you.”
“I’m sor—”
“No. Just help me get her out of the stolen vehicle, please.” Chevelle juts her chin. “We’re leaving.”
Camdyn’s nodding to my wife when a two-door sports car stalls in the street. Erika makes the same grand exit from the driver’s side. The dark circles beneath her eyes fade for a fraction of a second. “Mia! Cam!”
My wife sneers, “Don’t say my child’s name, bitch.”
“Damn, they still hate each other,” Cam mutters under his breath.
In a few short strides, I’m at the Lexus. I open the door, press a handle to fold the front seat forward, and watch my sleeping daughter. A soft sprinkling of freckles coats her cheeks. Her curly hair is beautiful chaos, and there are crumbs on the corners of her mouth. My heart swells. I tell myself that I can go on being the only man in the world who will never hurt my wee wean. That she’ll one day grow up to be a gorgeous woman—and I may have to kill a few more men—but I’ll be the one who never breaks her heart.
“Move, Leith.” Chevelle pushes at my side. “You and Erika can make some replacements. This one’s mine.”
“Nae!” I snatch the sword, tossing it into the grass. With a firm clasp of both her arms, I yank her to me. “Listen to me good, hen. Wit ye’re not gonna do is take my bairn from me. When ye’re calm, we’ll talk.”
“Calm.” She struggles against my stiff arm. “Don’t touch me. I hate you.”
“Okay. Ye can hate me now.” I let her go. She smacks my back as I reach into the backseat.
“Chev—” Erika starts, only to be cut off by Chevelle.
“Are you speaking to me, home-wrecker?”
“She’s not, okay?!” I cut in.”
“Och,” Mam comes between us all. The women shout at each other. Mia cries out from the backseat.
Camdyn cocks his thumb. “I’ll grab the tiny human. So, none of you confuse my niece for a rag doll.”
Chapter 45
Chevelle
The entire world is filled with broken people, me included. Ashamed of myself, tears cloud my gaze as I watch Camdyn unstrap the three-year-old from the car seat. Mia rouses awake, her chin on his shoulder. Camdyn’s back is to me.
“Mommy?” Mia’s cerulean gems glow. I can hardly glance her way. It’s just like my dream. The light in my eyes dies because of a man who has the same gorgeous eyes as our daughter’s.
She wiggles in Camdyn’s arms as he heads over to me. My best effort at a smile fails. I place her on my hip.
Camdyn mutters in my ear, “Sis, I’m not sure how my bro fucked up. If this argument is about me taking Mia, I’m so sorry.”
“I’m not angry with you, Cam,” I murmur.
“Will you guys go in the house? Hash it out?”
I shake my head, then press kisses to Mia’s neck as she wiggles about in my arms, happy after a grumpy wake-up.
“Cam, I’m going—” It was on the tip of my tongue to say “home.” Mia jolts in my arm. I stop her from face-planting in the grass in her attempt to climb down my hip.
“Daddy!” Mia shouts. “Daddy’s here!”
I’m usually Mia’s hero, but her dad is a rockstar, a superhero, and now, I’m chopped liver as she uses me to climb down like the cat tree Leith purchased for Mable. Or was he ever at his old roommate’s home? The last few days flit through my mind, warped by the sound of gunshots.
Why gunshots?
I haven’t heard them since my dad took a shotgun to Mom and a closed casket was necessary for both of them.
Come to think of it. Mia was moving faster before. In slow motion, she’s running over to her dad, who is apparently trying to make some sense of this fiasco to his mom. Camdyn springs toward Mia, covering her entire body.
Erika lunges for me, gun in hand.
She’s gonna kill—
My body falls backward with her on top of me. I tumble into the grass. One of her hands shields my face while the other aims to the street. Gaze narrowed, Erika licks her lips and squeezes the trigger.
My eyes widen. Someone’s shooting at us! Shooting at us all!
Erika yells. Though I can’t hear her voice over the fireworks, her mouth enunciates every word. “Chevelle, stay down!”
Her body clambers over mine as the sound of more gunfire rips through the morning. It’s hardly