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“Got it.” Ericson left quickly.
“Did you hear anything before it happened?” Grant asked me.
I shook my head. “I’d been talking to Patty on the phone.”
“Patty…?”
“Patty Watson. My friend. She and her boyfriend were here earlier when the note came.”
“This is bullshit,” Brad said. “You need to find out who did this. What if that rock had hit Daphne or the baby?”
“These things are usually meant as a scare tactic,” the officer said.
“I don’t give a rat’s ass. A shard of glass landed on my five-day-old child.”
“I understand, Mr. Steel. We’ll do everything we can.” He turned to me again. “Can you tell us anything else that might help? Did you see a shadow? Did you happen to look out the window? Anything, Mrs. Steel?”
“I want my baby.”
“He’s right here, Daphne,” Brad said.
I looked down. Joe was still nursing. Right. “I mean, I want him safe. I… I need to leave this house.”
“This is your home,” Brad said. “Damn it! I won’t be chased out of my own home!”
“I’d advise getting a security system installed right away,” Officer Grant said.
“Out here in the middle of rural Colorado? My father never believed in anything like that.”
“We live in a different time now, Mr. Steel. You’ve had two threats to your child tonight.”
“I want to leave,” I said again.
Brad nodded. “First thing in the morning. I’ll have something top of the line installed.”
“Good. That will help. Mrs. Steel, is there anything else you can tell me that might help us?”
I shook my head.
“All right. If you think of anything, call me right away. I left several of my cards on the table in the kitchen. We’ll be on this.”
“Th-Thank you,” I stammered.
My baby. My precious baby.
I’ll protect you. I’ll die protecting you.
Chapter Forty-Three
Brad
Fear sliced through me like a butcher’s knife through a tender cut of beef.
But the rage outshone the fear.
I was angry.
Really angry.
Angrier than I had been when someone killed Murph at my wedding, and I was raging about that.
Whoever the fuck was messing with my wife and child had incurred more than my wrath.
They’d incurred my unadulterated hatred.
This was beyond even Wendy’s capabilities. She was a mess, but she wouldn’t threaten a baby.
Who would?
Who hated me that much?
I had no idea.
But someone was fucking with me.
Once more, I missed my old man. Not because he and I were ever close, but because he’d know how to handle this. George Steel knew how to get his hands dirty and then clean them to sparkling before anyone was the wiser.
I needed to be George Steel.
I’d vowed to protect Daphne. I’d promised Jonathan.
I could take care of her, take care of Jonah. I had the money to give them whatever their hearts desired.
But could I truly protect them from some outside force that seemed determined to haunt us?
I hadn’t been able to protect Murphy, and he’d paid with his life.
I walked around the bedroom. Shards of glass lay over the carpet. Grant had taken the rock with him as evidence.
But he’d find nothing. Already I knew this in my gut. Whoever was behind this had covered their tracks.
Which made my job all the more difficult.
“Baby,” I said to Daphne, “you and little Joe need to sleep somewhere else tonight.”
“I’m not sleeping anywhere but next to you.”
“Of course. I’ll sleep with you. I need to move his cradle. Okay? Until we get this glass fixed, we can’t sleep in here.”
Where I slept tonight mattered little, because I wouldn’t be sleeping anyway. I’d lie awake all night and watch over my wife and child.
They would never be harmed on my watch.
By noon the next day, I’d contracted someone to install bulletproof glass in all the windows in the main ranch house and the guesthouse, I’d ordered a state-of-the-art security system to be installed as soon as possible, and I’d hired a bodyguard for my wife and son. Cliff would arrive soon. He’d stay in one of our guest rooms and would be part of the household. He’d also be Daphne’s driver.
She’d balk at the intrusion, but their safety was paramount. Until I neutralized whoever or whatever was threatening them, they’d be watched and protected at all times.
Now, I perused the files in my father’s cabinet. He’d whispered the combination to his personal safe to me before he died. In the safe, I found the key to his always-locked file cabinet.
Since his death and little Joe’s birth and everything else that had occurred in the last month, I hadn’t had the time to look through the files. Now? I had to find any secrets my father might be hiding. The Future Lawmakers were not behind this attack on my child. I didn’t believe it for a minute. They were young and greedy, but they weren’t killers. They no longer needed my money, and none of them would hurt a baby. Not even Wendy.
