I’d said I was going home, and in a sense, I was, but not the way I knew my family would want me to. When the guys and I got on the plane, panic began to sink in. All the what ifs circled through my mind over and over.
What if I had a nightmare and scared the crap out of not only the adults but the kids too? What if I couldn’t contain the anger that sometimes got the better of me when the thought of my teammates being tortured and then killed reared its ugly head and I lashed out at those I loved? What if I had to stare at the pity or worry in my family's eyes at every turn?
And what if Patience cried?
All of it would hurt me, but the sight of tears when they fell down Patience’s face was my undoing every time and had been since the first day I’d met her.
As fucked up as it was to even consider, the torment inflicted on me would be easier than seeing the sorrow in her eyes.
But I wasn’t going to get off easy, was I?
My hands went to my hair, and I yanked on the strands in frustration. I’d already hurt her, and I knew that I deserved nothing but a monumental amount of shit, whatever she wanted to dish out, for that. Patience pissed off was something I’d take over seeing her sad any time.
Needing coffee, I swiped my mug off the granite countertop and brought the piping hot liquid to my lips. The special, dark roast, fancy blend—no doubt supplied by one ofthe ladies of the group—slid down my throat, warming my insides.
There were decisions to be made, and the answers were not coming to me on a semi-functional brain. If there was an IV caffeine drip available, I might actually think of using it right about then.
The information that Lyric and Gyth made me privy to on the plane had me hot under the fucking collar. Who the fuck did Chaz think he was? He’d texted Patience several times, telling her he was going to get custody, that she had nothing to offer the boy, and nobody would deny their family what was theirs.
Champ wasn’t a piece of fucking property. He was the best damn kid on the planet! Rage swooped in, a fire flaring to life inside me, threatening to incinerate me where I stood.
I’d been searching for a solution all night.
One I hadn’t come up with.
After downing the remaining contents of my cup, I placed the mug back on the counter and began to pace the floor once again—if there was carpet, I’d have put a hole in it by then—racking my brain for the right answer.
That bastard, Chaz, thought he and his rich daddy could just waltz in, requesting that his son be placed with them on a permanent, full custody basis. And not just them, but Chaz’s stuck-up, evil, pristine, new wife.
But she wasn’t exactly new. While they may have been recently married, they had history from back in high school. Nope, I remembered Sloane all too well.
Lyric, Gyth, and the others had been doing their homework.
And these rich assholes seemed to think that because of money and their united front as a full family unit, they could win.
I stopped dead in my tracks.
Family unit.
Another text jumped into my head, one where Chaz had told Patience he and his wife were a family, something far better than a single mother would be in the court’s eyes. I didn’t know that it was true, but shouldn’t we have done everything we could to squash any chances they had of ever being around my little man?
Mine.
I knew he wasn’t truly mine, but in my heart, he felt like he was.
The thing was, we had the most amazing family. Not only with Gramps, Ruby, Lyric, Autumn and Tristan, but also our circle of friends. But they were talking about a dad, a mom, and what they could provide. I knew Champ was well taken care of; Patience had been doing that herself—with a tad bit of help—since the day Griffin came into the world.
But it was the other piece.
And suddenly the answer came to me.
I knewexactlywhat I had to do.
Chapter Seven
PATIENCE
Jett was back.
