"She named her kid after your favorite vacation destination?"
"I know, I know. The whole situation is a little strange."
The coffee pot blinked that it was done. Sarah poured them both a mug. "I'll go talk to her. It'll be good to see her again."
"Don't push, but if the topic comes up, get all the dirt."
She fake punched his arm. "I'm a chick. I know how to get gossip."
"Are you taking back over the baking now that you're home?"
Sarah rolled her eyes. "I know, I suck at keeping up my end of the tasks around here. But yes, I'm home for a bit, so I'll be doing the baking."
"How long is a bit?"
"Don't push it, Ty. I'll go talk to your girlfr... to Valerie. I'll let you know what she says."
He put his mug in the sink. "Thanks."
"Oh, there's a price."
He cut his eyes at her. "Isn't there always?"
"Keep Colton off my back for twenty-four hours."
He snickered. "Why twenty-four hours?"
"Because by then he'll have calmed down about me being gone and the lecture won't be so bad."
"Deal." He left feeling slightly guilty that he had just encouraged Colton to talk to her. What she didn't know wouldn't hurt her.
It was close enough to feeding time that he headed for the barn. He had filled the grain buckets on the first few stalls when he heard talking. He paused and listened. The sound was coming from Legacy's stall. He set the buckets down and without a sound, walked the length of the barn to where his horse had the end stall.
He peeked over the door, surprised that Legacy wasn't standing there to greet him as normal. Instead, the mighty stallion was lying on the floor with a little girl snuggled up as she reclined against him. Her head was back against Legacy's side, and she was just chatting away. He had never seen his horse so docile, but he guessed that Londyn had that effect on everyone she met. Neither of them had noticed him, so he backed up a bit so he could listen.
"And I don't really care that Daddy doesn't like me because I'm a girl, at least that's what I heard Mommy say. He never really had much to do with me, so I never got attached to him anyhow. I have Mommy, and I know that she loves me more than anything. But I hate it when Mommy cries because Daddy won't let her see bubby. I love my little brother, but I never get to see him, and it makes me so mad when Daddy's mean to her. I know Mommy didn't want to leave bubby, but I'm pretty sure that she was afraid Daddy was going to kill us so we had to run away."
Tyson's blood boiled. There was way more to the story than he had ever expected. Her next words made him suck in his breath.
"Mommy says that Ty is the only one that can help us." Londyn whimpered a little bit. "I hope she's right because she thinks that Ty can get bubby back for us."
Chapter Nine: Chapter 9 Title
Valerie Blanchette Kenway
Valerie tossed her cell phone from hand to hand as she paced in front of the bay windows. Every ounce of her body wanted to leave it off and never turn it on again. Common sense told her that she couldn't avoid turning it on. Randall had her son. And she wanted him back. And ghosting Randall was too dangerous, even though it was exactly what she wanted to do.
She held her breath as she held the button to power up the phone. The carrier flashed across the screen, and she resisted throwing it on the floor and smashing it. "Here we go. It's now or never." Since Londyn was helping Vinia bake cookies, it was the perfect time to get the inevitable over with.
The phone rang almost immediately, even before it had completely booted up. It startled her, and she almost dropped it by accident. She stared at the screen. Randall must have been trying to call every second for him to get through that quickly. With a shaking finger, she hit the answer button.
"Where's my money?"
She almost laughed. No, where are you, or where's my daughter. Nope. He went straight to the money.
"I learned from the best how to skim off the top." She didn't want to antagonize him, but she knew she couldn't deny it either. "I just wanted enough to get me and Londyn to safety."
"Where are you?"
