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“Aww, Zo.” Cal wrapped a consoling arm around her. “This isn’t on you. You know that, right? The guys who did this had probably been planning it for a while.”
“But they wouldn’t have been able to if I was watching!” she wailed.
“Or, they would have hurt you in order to get to them.” Cal grasped her by the shoulders and looked her square in the eyes. “It wasn’t your fault, darlin’. Okay?”
In response, Zoe burst into tears.
When she had finally quieted down, Zoe took Abigail and Chloe by the hands and led them downstairs, with a tearful backward glance at all of us.
Cal turned to me. “Jesus, this has been a hell of a day.”
“You ain’t kidding. How you holdin’ up?”
“You mean other than trying to figure out how I’m gonna tell Andi about all of this without giving her a heart attack?” He chuckled darkly. “Not great, I gotta admit. More than anything right now, I want to take those assholes into a dark alley and beat them to death. I fuckin’ hate that we had to let the law take over on this.”
Normally, our club takes care of our own shit. We got our own version of the law. An eye for an eye. The fuckers who tried to steal Cal’s children would never have seen the light of day again, if it was up to me. But since the hotel security and staff were there to see what happened, the Stone Kings couldn’t take care of Schipper and Dogson ourselves before the cops arrived on the scene. We had to let them arrest those two assholes, and Cal’s gonna have to press charges. They wanted him to come right away, but since Cal’s wife is the lead singer in one of the most famous bands in the country — and the final concert in their tour is tonight — they let him wait until the next day. The fuckin’ irony of one of our won going down to the cop shop on the right side of the law wasn’t lost on any of us.
“I know you’d rather take them down yourself, Cal. Hell, we all would.” I clenched a fist. “But those two pieces of shit are gonna be headed to prison. And when they get there, we’ll have guys on the inside, waiting for them. They’re gonna wish they’d never been born when we’re done with them.”
Cal’s face transformed, spreading into an evil grin. “Merry Christmas to us.”
Pretty soon it was time to round up everyone and head to the concert. Just like Andi promised, there were limos waiting downstairs for us to take us to the arena. We all piled in, and when we got to the venue, security met us there — complete with a wheelchair for Seton so she wouldn’t have to walk on her fucked-up ankle.
They led most of our party to a private elevator, which would take them to a fancy luxury box, like the ones where the corporate fancy-pants assholes hang out for NFL games. But Cal, Seton, and I and our kids were taken back to the green room so that we could say hello to Andi before the band went on stage.
“Mommy!” Abigail and Chloe chorused as they burst through the doorway to the green room toward Andi. She was dressed in tight leather pants, high boots, and a shimmery black tank top, with dramatic makeup that accentuated her features. Even though she was my sister-in-law, I had to admit she was goddamn gorgeous. Kendall and Wyatt ran in afterwards, and I wheeled Seton through in her wheelchair.
“Hey, everyone! You made it!” Andi hugged her little girls, picking up Chloe and setting her on her hip. Her gaze turned to Seton. “What happened to you, See?” she asked, wide-eyed.
Seton flushed pink. “Um, it’s a long story,” she stammered. “I’ll tell you later, after the concert.”
“Mommy, you look so pretty!” Chloe exclaimed, fingering the sparkles on Andi’s top.
“Thank you, baby!” Andi kissed her on the forehead. “Did you have a good time at the rest of the party?”
“Yeah! Except Santa Claus never took us to see his reindeer!” Chloe pouted.
“His reindeer?” Andi asked in confusion.
“Yeah,” Abigail shrugged. “He put us in the basket and covered us all up, but then he went away!”
“I don’t… what?” Andi looked quizzically at Cal.
“Uh, we better get out there and let you guys get ready,” he said, grabbing Chloe from her. “I’ll tell you all about it later. Get out there and break a leg, Doll.”
Andi’s face cleared. “Thanks, Romeo.”
Call kissed his wife, then plastered a smile on his face. “Okay, let’s get outta here.”
We all filed out, and the security guys escorted us to the luxury box where the others were already waiting. The warmup band had just left the stage, one of the guards told us. Hard Candy would be starting any minute.
Eva, Cherish, Seton, and even Zoe got the kids settled in. Cal and the other men grabbed some beers and spread ourselves out in the stadium seats. I I lifted Seton out of her chair and put her at the end of one of the rows, then slid in between her and Cal.
Cal let out a deep, tired sigh. “Damn. I don’t say this very often, but that is enough fuckin’ excitement for one day.”
“I’m inclined to agree with you, brother.” I lifted my bottle in a toast and took a drink.
“So, what do you think those sons of bitches were gonna do with your kids if they had managed to nab them?” I asked him. “You think this was more about revenge on the Stone Kings, or more about money?”
