"What if he knows where we live? It’s easy enough to look up all that now that he’s found me. He… He knew aboutyou—" April's voice cracked. "He knows everything, Shane."
Shane pulled her into his arms, and she went willingly, pressing her face against his chest. His heart was pounding as hard as hers.
Over her head, She felt Shane looked at Sonny. "Where is he?"
"Left right before you got here. Silver rental car, headed east. I got the plate number."
"I'm texting Kyle,” Gabe said. “We'll pull traffic cameras."
"What do we do?" April pulled back to look at Shane. "He said he's going to court. He said?—"
"We get you a lawyer. We document everything. We fight this." Shane's jaw was set in that way that meant someone was about to have a very bad day. "But first, we need to get Kevin."
April's heart skipped. "Kevin. Oh God, What if he knows where Kevin goes to camp? Kevin?—"
"He's safe. The camp is the other direction." Shane's hands were steady on her shoulders. "But we need to pick him up. Now."
She nodded, trying to pull herself together. "Okay. Okay, we go get Kevin."
"Waylon, Elias—you're with us." Shane looked at the rest of his brothers. "Gabe, Bear, Ben—find that rental car. I want to know where he's staying, who he's been talking to, everything."
"On it," Gabe said.
Shane looked back at April. "Ready?"
No. She wasn't ready. She would never be ready to tell her son that the man who'd wanted him dead before he was born was now demanding visitation rights.
But she nodded anyway. "Let's go get our son."
They tookShane's Watchdog SUV. Waylon and Elias followed in Waylon's truck, still in their EMT uniforms. April sat in the passenger seat, her hands twisted together in her lap.
"We should shield him from this," April said. "He doesn't need to know yet. We could just?—"
"April." Shane's voice was gentle but firm. "We talked about this. Remember? We decided we weren't going to lie to Kevin. Not about the important stuff."
"I know. But?—"
"It won't work anyway. Kid's too smart. He'll know something's wrong the second he sees you."
April looked at him. "Is that why you brought backup? So he'd know something was wrong?"
"I brought backup because if Vince knows where Kevin is, I'm not taking any chances." Shane's hands tightened on the steering wheel. "But yeah. Kevin's going to know. And we need to tell him the truth."
"What if he wants to meet him?" The words came out small and scared. "What if he thinks?—"
"He won't."
"You don't know that."
Shane reached over and took her hand. "I know Kevin. And I know he loves you more than anything in the world. He's not going to choose some stranger over his mom."
"But Vince is his biological father?—"
"And I'm his dad." Shane said it simply, like it was fact. "Kevin told me so himself. Biology doesn't change that."
April squeezed his hand, unable to speak past the lump in her throat. That was almost exactly what her dad had told her.
They were both right.
