“Fuck!” Shane muttered when he saw the cut on my head. He turned green and I could see he was about to lose it. Harper grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the room before he started throwing up at the sight of my blood.

“Harper said Grady called you. Tell me everything.” He swallowed hard, gripped my hand tighter and told me exactly what Vince Grady had said. I felt tears burning my throat when he told me how scared Lucy had sounded, how she had told him that Grady had hurt her face, and that I had been bleeding when she last saw me. I didn’t want her to have to go through any of this. Lucy was such a sweet, good girl. Nothing bad should ever touch her.

“I need your phone,” I told him when he was done. He looked ever more destroyed now, with his eyes wet and his face bleak. Drake, who had been standing behind him didn’t look much better, but there wasn’t much I could do for them except for what I always did. Take charge and get shit done.

“I can’t stitch this up with you moving around so much,” Doctor Prescott grumbled as he put the second stitch in.

I slapped his hand away. “Can’t you see I’m busy? This can wait a little longer. Go do some actual doctoring while I deal with this. And send the stupid cops back here while you’re at it.”

“Grady said no cops,” Jesse protested.

I shook my head. “Jesse… We have to tell them what’s going on. If we pay him off and yet he still tried to get custody…” I wanted this on Grady’s record. No judge would ever give that man custody if he knew about this, and it wasn’t like they would just take my word for it. “We’ll get her back, Jesse. I swear.”

His jaw flexed but I could see that he understood that I was right. Finally he nodded and handed over his phone. “Do what you have to do.”

The bank was my first call. Two million was a lot of money, but it would in no way break the bank. The branch manager I normally dealt with decided to be an ass however, so I had to go over his head and call the bank’s president. It wasn’t hard to reach him at home. Nik had played golf with the man’s son a few times. When I told him how much money I needed he was speechless for a moment before I assured him that if I didn’t get the money I needed in the next two hours I wouldn’t find it a chore to take all the Demon’s Wings money that sat in his bank somewhere else.

“That won’t be necessary, Mrs. Armstrong,” The man rushed to assure me. “I’ll meet with you personally at the bank and we can take care of that for you.”

“I won’t be able to do that.” There was no way I was getting on my feet unless I absolutely had to. “Jesse Thorton and my husband will be there to handle it. I’m sure you will find dealing with them just as pleasant as dealing with me.”

I actually heard him swallow hard before he let out a nervous laugh. He had met both Jesse and Nik and knew that neither were pleasant for the most part. “Of course. Of course. Let’s say an hour from now?”

“They will be there.” I hung up without a goodbye and punched in the number for Brad Horton. It took me ten minutes to tell him what was going on and what I needed him to do. No way was Grady going to just take that money and then try this shit again.

I had barely hung up with the lawyer when the door opened so suddenly and with such force that the door slammed against the wall. Stupid tears filled my eyes at the sight of Nik with Mia in his arms. He looked wild, more so than I had ever seen him. His eyes were bloodshot, filled with tears of his own. Mia clung to him, obviously scared and not knowing what was wrong with her father.

Drake stepped forward, taking Mia from him. She went willingly, wanting some space from the craziness of Nik. I bit my lip, taking all of him in when he just stood there. Those ice blue eyes looked haunted, and I couldn’t help but remember the night I had found out I was pregnant with Mia. Our lives had changed so much since that night. He was shaking from head to toe and I held out my arms for him.

In the next second I was in his arms, being held tightly but gently against his chest. His hands were all over me, making sure that I really was there with him. His lips in my hair, on my cheek, then devouring my lips. “I’m never letting you out of my sight again,” he choked out. “I’m was scared to death.”

“I’m okay, Nik,” I promised him, blinking back my tears. It wasn’t until I had seen him that I had realized how much I had wanted him with me. Holding me like this because he was everything I needed in the world. In his arms I was safe, as I had always been. He had protected me from the scary, high monster that had been my mother and he would protect me from the same one that was Vince Grady. “I’m okay, now.”

Chapter 21

Drake

I hated cops. I had no use for them, and really they only made things worse. Ever since my mom’s death I’ve hated them, and that wasn’t likely to change now.

A skinny little twig of a man in a cheap suit stood beside Emmie’s hospital bed, asking her questions. His partner, a chubby jerk of a man with a seventies porn star mustache and an attitude watched Jesse, Nik, and me as we stood watching them. All they were doing was taking the report, nodding their heads every now and then and irritating the fuck out of Em.

Mia wrapped her arms tighter around me, eyeing the skinny cop a little warily. I kissed her forehead, bringing her attention back to me and giving her a reassuring smile. She snuggled closer. “Is Daddy okay now?” she whispered.

I glanced over at Nik, who had a death grip on Emmie’s hand. He had stopped shaking for the most part, but that wildness in his eyes hadn’t dimmed even a little. If I put myself in his shoes, and it was Lana lying in that bed, I was sure that I wouldn’t have been anywhere close to as calm as he was now. “Yeah, Mia. Daddy is fine now. He was just worried about Momma.”

“Momma has a boo-boo. Daddy hasn’t kissed it yet.” She looked worriedly at her mother. “It’s bleeding.”

When I glanced back at Emmie I saw that Mia was right and the wound on Em’s head was bleeding again. I stepped forward. “Can we hurry this along? The doctor needs to get her stitched up.”

Chubby raised a brow at me. “I would think you would be more concerned with finding your niece, Mr. Stevenson.”

“I would think you would be just as concerned, dipshit,” I growled at him, adjusting Mia in my arms so I didn’t drop her. “Shouldn’t you be out there looking for her right now?”