“That’s a good fucking plan, I haven’t had pizza in forever,” Noah steps in. “We could even open the fire pit later, do some smores.”Ah, now I get it.It’ll help sell our plan for dividing the group so that we can talk to the guys and have a reason to invite the brothers over.
“That’s a fantastic idea,” Cecilia chimes in. “We don’t often get a night together without the kids, let’s make it wild.”
“I mean, we do have two reasons to celebrate, or three actually.” Emma grins at Greyson, but within seconds her smile drops. “Ugh! But I can’t drink,” she whines.
“Hey, neither can I. So, you won’t be alone,” Morgan says.
“We’ll get you some non-alcoholic bubbly stuff if you want,” I offer them.
“Ooh yes! I want to pretend to be drunk so that Wolf can unleash his beast on me tonight.” Emma waggles her brows at Greyson, which only makes us all laugh.
“How about we make you take that test first to see if you really can’t drink? You boys go before these pregnant ladies get hangry,” Ronnie says, taking Emma by the arm as they all head toward the bathroom, already picking out baby names.
“She’s gonna be worse than Minnie pregnant, you know that, right?” Silas laughs and slaps Grey on the back.
“Remember when Cece had her meltdown during her baby shower?” I tell them while chuckling.
“Oh God! Please don’t remind me…” Ford’s eyes widen.
“That really was scary to watch.” Clay looks equally terrified.
“Well, you both are about to live it. Better stock up on tissues while we’re out. You’ll need it. And if she tells you she wants freaking Chinese food at four in the morning, get her the damn Chinese food.” Silas goes on to give them advice as we all walk out of the house, Clay and Greyson getting more worried with every word that leaves his mouth.
This is going to be epic.
We all climb into Emma’s seven-seater SUV and buckle up. Ford and Burkley up front, Noah and I in the middle row, and Hayes behind us in the last seat. We’re pretty big guys, so even in a five-seater car, we don’t fit very well.
The minute the car pulls out of the driveway, Noah wastes no time to broach the subject we desperately need to acknowledge. “Guys, we have a situation we need to discuss. Gabe and I already took the next step, but we think it’s best if the women aren’t aware of what’s going on. Of course, Veronica and Aubrey are in the know, since they were there when the problem showed up. But they won’t say a word to the others.”
“Is this why we were all forced out of the house when only two of us could have gone to get the food and drinks?” Clay smirks smugly.Ever the Mr. Know-it-all.
“Yes, it is. It’s a delicate subject, and the girls might get freaked out if they know about it,” I tell him.
“Okay… so what’s going on?” Greyson looks up in the rearview mirror quickly with a worried expression, then focuses back on the road.
Noah and I glance at each other, not really sure how to say it without freaking them out either. Finally, he sighs and speaks. “Veronica has a really bad ex who won’t leave her alone. And when I say bad, I don’t mean an asshole who doesn’t understand they’re over, like Emma’s. I mean a dangerous criminal.”
“He’s been threatening her, and now he’s taking pictures of the girls,” I finish for him.
“WHAT?!” Silas shouts in my ear with rage.
Greyson quickly pulls the car over to the curb, shutting off the engine, and turns in his seat to face us at the same time as Clay. “Explain. Because I’m seconds away from losing my shit,” he says sternly.
“Look, I won’t go into details about Veronica’s story because that’s her business. But the guy was abusive, and when she found out he was involved in criminal things, she helped the cops take him down. Things went south, and he didn’t get caught, and Veronica has been hiding out since,” Noah begins to tell them.
“But now he’s back and has been stalking her. He’s clearly not happy about what went down and wants her to pay. Today she received a box with photos of all the girls that were clearly taken within the last week. Some of them coming out of our homes.”
“I don’t fucking like this one bit,” Clay mutters.
“You’re telling me someone’s stalking our girls, and we just left them at the house,ALONE?!” Greyson barks.
“Are you two fucking kidding me? Ford, get us back to the housenow,” Silas instructs him.
“No, wait! It’s fine.” I place my hand on Greyson’s shoulder, stopping him from starting the car. “The girls already have security watching them.”
“What do you mean,they already have security watching them?” Clay frowns.
“I got in touch with Julian Storm. He has someone watching them right now from the outside, and he and his brothers will be over later to discuss everything. Veronica and Aubrey already know to keep the girls distracted while we talk,” Noah says.
