“Hey, nerd.” I try to break the ice, but he just nods. Something feels off, and then a voice stops me.
“Cowboy, you can’t come here right now.” Butcher’s voice comes through the speaker, and I’m about to bark at him when Striker holds up a hand.
“He has a right.”
“I get that, but she’s really delicate, and I don’t want to make this worse.”
“What are you all talking about?” I say, loud enough to startle my daughter awake. She cries, and I pull her from the car seat and cuddle her to my chest.
“What are you talking about?” Penelope repeats my question.
“Nothing,” Butcher says, and I know he’s lying. “Look, we’re safe here. If this person is watching any of you, it could direct them here.”
“We need to discuss an opportunity that has presented itself for Andi. Can you please just get her so we talk? I don’t know why she’s making us go through all these channels,” her mother says.
“Darling, you know why,” Jon says, and I look between them. “She doesn’t want to talk to you right now. She asked everyone to give her time.”
“That doesn’t matter.” Penelope leans into the table, moving closer to the speaker. “Put her on, please.”
“For fuck’s sake. Just a moment.”
Striker and Amelia walk around the room toward me.
“Can I hold her?” she asks. “I don’t get to hold a baby girl. I have big boys.” She grumbles, and I hand Ria over.
Amelia moves further down the table, bouncing Ria and cooing to her as she walks. I get the uneasy feeling I’m being set up when a click sounds on the speaker.
“I have Andi here, but she isn’t happy with the situation,” Butcher says, and another male voice speaks up.
“Mrs. Durnum, I know why you’re trying to get into contact with Andi, and I’ve already talked to her. We don’t think it’s a good idea at this time.”
“Who the fuck are you to talk about my woman that way?” I hear Andi gasp in the background. “Nymph, who is that man? Tell me before I come wherever you are and not only break his legs, but make him disappear.”
“Stop, Callum.” Andi’s voice quivers. “Ty is my best friend. He’s not interested in me that way.”
There’s a pause on the line, and I’m about to bare my soul to her, but she speaks again. “I can’t do that, Mom. Now isn’t a good time. I’m just not prepared to take that risk. We know my stalker has something to do with barrel racing.”
“Andi, we don’t know that for sure. Besides, if you don’t want to ride, you don’t have to. They just want you to commentate on the current championship. It’s great PR for you if you do decide to go back to racing, or it could be a future position for you instead of finishing your degree.”
My head whips toward her mother. She’s only concerned about Andi’s career, not her well-being.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t agree with this. If her stalker could be linked to barrel racing, why would you put Andi at risk?”
“It could get the stalker to make a move, then we could get them,” Julian says.
This time my head whips toward him, and I grit my teeth.
“You’re not using my woman as bait.”
“Your woman? She’s been gone for how long now? You have a baby, a very young one at that, from someone else. How could my daughter be your woman?” Penelope asks.
I take the deep breaths I’ve been learning to calm my nerves. She doesn’t know my history.
“Let me explain. Ria is my adopted daughter. She was my niece, but my sister passed away, and I adopted her. As for Andrea, she’s been my woman since the moment she looked at me in the Roadhouse back in March. We’re working things out because we had a misunderstanding.”
“Callum, I agree with you,” Andi says. “We’re working things out. But before you make any real decisions, you and I need to talk.”
“Baby, you’re mine, no matter what.”
