And now he couldn’t get her out of her mind. Damn her, damn her, damn her.
Through a haze of anger and self-pity, he saw that Cliff and Taylor were hurrying towards him.
He struggled to form words. “Get the flock… Get the frack…” He swayed where he stood.
Then he saw the look on Cliff’s face, and an adrenaline surge sobered him up considerably.
“What?” he snapped.
“There’s a woman from Nevada Child Protective Services at the gate. She says she’s here to take custody of your son.”
Chapter Five
The motel was an hour away from the Mystic Lodge. It was cheap and dodgy-looking. A flickering streetlight leaned drunkenly over a parking lot choked with weeds. The chain-link fence around the perimeter was rusty, the sidewalk at the base cluttered with trash that had blown against it. It looked like the kind of place that rented rooms by the hour. In one of the rooms, a man and a woman were arguing so loudly their curse words drifted to Grant across the parking lot.
Grant’s son shouldn’t be here. But it was Grant’s fault that his son was here right now, and he wanted to punch his own face in, knowing that.
Grant, Chantelle, Mandy, Cliff and Taylor hurried down the walkway. They pounded on the doorway of Celeste’s motel room. There was a pause, and he saw the curtain rustle as she peeked out the window. Then she opened the door a crack, glaring at Grant.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t order a slice of douche pizza. Must have been someone down the hall.”
“We need to talk.” Grant moved forward.
“You need to talk. I need to sleep.” She tried to shut the door in his face. He put his palm on the door and pushed it open wide enough to wedge his foot in.
Behind her, he could just make out a little boy wearing blue pajamas with teddy bears on them, holding a toy stuffed wolf, and his heart leaped in his chest.
My son? My little boy?
Nothing would make him abandon his child. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Lucky me. How did you find us?” she asked him with an unfriendly scowl. She’d booked the room under a fake name.
“I’m rich as hell and I have a lot of resources. It’s really important that I talk to you. May I come in?”
She stood there in the doorway, looking at him with a mixture of contempt, hurt and anger that made him want to either drown himself in a barrel of tequila or go start another pointless fight. But he wouldn’t. He was a father, and it was time for him to grow up.
Celeste looked at the people behind him. “You and all your flying monkeys? No. You had your chance.”
He could force his way in, but that would terrify his son and alienate this woman and accomplish nothing.
“There are some things that you probably don’t know about my son, that are really, really important for his safety. Let me in.” Then he winced at the harsh edge in his voice.
Taylor stepped forward. “Hey, this is Flying Monkey Number One here,” she said. “I just wanted to tell you…Grant’s actually a really good guy. Listen, I’m a mother, so I know how protective you’re feeling right now. My son is one year old. He’s Jeffrey’s cousin. He’s back home with our pa— with our family members, and I’m talking to him on Skype every day for the next couple of weeks, and flying home to visit him every few days. I miss him like crazy. My son is my entire world, and I would trust Grant with him. In fact I’ve forced Grant to babysit him several times, and both of them survived the experience quite well.”
“You were going to say your son is home with your pack,” Celeste said, but she opened the door a little. She still stood there blocking it with her body, though.
Taylor cleared her throat. “Ahem. Yes. So you do know about us.”
“A little. I also know that I overheard you and Chantelle talking about how…” Celeste glanced at Jeffrey “…popular with the ladies Grant is.”
“Hey!” Grant said indignantly to Taylor.
Taylor shrugged. “You have only yourself to blame. You’ve cultivated that image for years.” She glanced back at Celeste. “Believe it or not, it’s actually kind of an indication that Grant is a decent guy. Your sister really broke his heart. He does have one.”
“What has he ever done that would make you think that?”
“Aside from calling his lawyers and rushing here as soon as he found out that he really does have a son? Well, last year he saved a woman from an abusive mate – uh – husband. And Grant was named Alpha of our pack after an unfair contest. It’s a position that comes with enormous money and prestige, and he declined and gave the spot to my mate, Cliff, because my mate was the rightful winner. And Grant donates a lot of money to charity, and when he’s traveling around the world to all of those glamour spots, he’s also sneaking off in disguise to visit the charities and make sure they’re being run properly, and dropping off gifts for battered women and children. Yes, I know about that,” she added to Grant.
