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“Babe.” I was the one soothing as I tugged on his arm. Now that I had what I’d come for, I was considerably calmer. “We should go.”
“Yes,” Hadley sneered as the lawyer made his exit. “Take your stupid legal papers and go away.”
I tugged my husband toward the door then turned to face mother and son once again, my smile returned. “I hope you’ll forgive me. All of this has been very stressful for my family, which, of course, stresses me out, and when I get stressed, I have to be doing something continuously or I’ll do something stupid. Like slash your tires or burn down your house. Or, my personal favorite, drag your creeper son into the desert and tie him to a cactus. Leave him there and let the coyotes eat him for days and days.”
“Nat, you’re getting a little manic again, my love.”
“Right. Sorry.” I waved the papers back and forth. “Now that I have these, we can all relax a little for the moment, but while I was tirelessly working away, I did a little digging and found out that Holden has been accepted into his father’s alma mater. But only because Peyton donated enough money to the university to build an entirely new library.”
Hadley’s face flushed. “That’s none of your business.”
“I made it my business. Just like I made it my business to contact the chancellor at the university and let them know that your son is a predator. He may not have been eighteen when he seduced Madalyn, but she was still only fifteen when it happened. Sounds like a predator in the making to me. Especially since he likes them young. Last I heard, he was sniffing around Ali St. Charles. A bad, bad idea, by the way. Between her cousin Bentley and then Sixx…” Just imagining both of those boys ganging up on Holden was enough to give me manic laughter again. Manic laughter was fine on Halloween when I dressed up as a witch to hand out candy. Any other time, it made me seem like a supervillain, and I wasn’t the villain. No, that role was solely Hadley’s to play.
“Anyway, I just made the chancellor aware that he had a potential predator accepted for the fall semester, and he agreed that it would be in his female students’ best interest if Holden found somewhere else to get his higher education.” I winked when Hadley shrieked. “And then I made sure every Ivy League school across the country was aware of the possible dangers as well. From there, I went to every potential college that might be interested in young Holden. I can get a little hyperfocused when something keeps me from sleeping.”
“You couldn’t possibly have contacted every college and university in the country!”
“Of course not,” I scoffed. “I left a few community colleges off my list. I’m petty, but I won’t keep the boy from getting a college education. There are three or four that I thought would be a good fit for Holden. I’ll email you the list later.”
While Hadley screamed her rage, Devlin and I walked out the Renchfords’ kitchen door and made our way across their yard and into our house. No sooner was the door shut and locked behind us than Dev grasped me by the waist and lifted me onto the island.
“That was so fucking sexy.” He tangled his fingers in my hair as he jerked my head back so he could nip at my throat. “My dick got so hard at all that vindictive, petty, smoking hotness that I nearly nutted right there in front of that banshee.”
My laughter was anything but manic when it left my throat. “I went one step further, babe. I had Mieke send emails to every parent of every girl Hayat told me Holden has been rumored to have hooked up with over the last seven months. She suggested to them that they get their precious daughters tested for various STIs and then linked his social medias so they could see the little scumbag who has been sowing his wild oats while our granddaughter suffers with morning sickness and the hard decision of whether to keep Avalyn or give her up for adoption.”
“Luckily, Trinity and Jarrett want to adopt little Avalyn.” Devlin brushed his lips over my collarbone. “Now, no more talking about our little ones. I want to focus on you for the rest of the night.”
“I’m all yours, Dev,” I husked, looking up at him through my lashes.
“Damned right you are.”
~The End~
Book 6
Chapter 1
Piper
With a few spritzes of perfume, I readjusted my necklace, so the pendant was perfectly in place. A quick glance in the mirror showed my panty line was still causing an issue even though I’d changed from the bikini briefs to a thong. Smirking, because what Cannon didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him, I slipped off the underwear and tossed them in my hamper before smoothing the skirt of my dress over my hips once more.
After months of tirelessly planning our wedding, we were now in the home stretch. In exactly one week, Cannon and I would stand before our nearest and dearest and make unbreakable vows. I knew they were unbreakable because if he so much as thought about breaking them, I would break him.
And not in the fun way he enjoyed so much.
Our wedding planner only had a few last-minute details to put in place, but during that time, we could relax and enjoy the moment with our families before leaving for the month-long honeymoon Cannon had arranged. He said it was a surprise, and while I still wasn’t the biggest fan of Baby Cage and his surprises, I was looking forward to four weeks of being alone with my new husband.
Just the idea of that word made me smile. It wasn’t something I thought I would ever want. Marriage hadn’t been on my list of priorities. Casual sex was fine, but long-term relationships hadn’t been worth my time. The irony that my first and only one was with my childhood bully and adulthood frenemy wasn’t fully lost on me. There had always been a pull between us, but we’d fought it our entire lives.
Until Cannon decided to grow a pair and fight for us.
That had been two years ago, and we’d been living together for the majority of the time since then, engaged for nearly a year. Planning our wedding while on our latest summer tour had been interesting but finding the right person to help had made things considerably easier. Other than a couple trips back to LA for a few things, like picking out our cake and choosing the caterer—not to mention finding the right wedding dress—everything had been done through Zoom calls and emails. The pressure was still there, but our wedding planner, Francesca, had been a godsend.
At the sound of the doorbell, I grabbed my purse and phone off the bed and walked through the apartment. Cannon was already at the door, speaking to whoever was on the other side. We were having separate, small get-togethers tonight. Nothing dramatic enough to be labeled bachelor or bachelorette parties. Just a little bit of fun with our friends and a few family members to unwind and catch up with those we hadn’t seen in a while, before the chaos of the wedding itself overran our time and kept us from hanging out with the people we loved.
“I thought Jagger was picking me up,” Cannon said as he frowned at the two guys standing on the other side of the threshold.
“Jagger is picking you up,” I reaffirmed as I walked up behind him. Putting my hand on his waist, I glanced around his wide shoulders to find Cannon and Jagger’s drummer, Smith, and to my surprise, my brother, Asher.
