Page 19

CHAPTER 19

T he next week, Law’s barstool creaked ominously as he leaned back on two legs, resting his back against the bar and taking in the insanity around him. Of all the ways he’d pictured the girls celebrating their new bedtime victory, listening to blaring Disney metal music while surrounded by Littles in sparkling crowns, tutus, and roller skates while skating around the dance floor at Deep Dive hadn’t entered his mind.

He loved it.

After taking one final pull on his beer, he adjusted the latch on his own skates.

“I know what we planned, but you aren’t really getting out there and skating to this musical abomination, are you?” Hutch had to shout to be heard over the noise.

“Oh, I absolutely am. Best Disney I’ve ever heard in my life.”

Gage strode to the bar, grimacing and shaking his head. “I thought we were safe when we told the girls they could only listen to Disney music. How did we miss this?”

“How did they even know about it?” Connor shouted. “I’m just glad Vivi said she’d babysit. If not, she’d be out there in the middle of them.”

Hutch grimaced. “She’s gonna be pissed. To hear her tell, she was once on a women’s roller derby team. I’ll never hear the end of it tomorrow.”

Law caught movement from the corner of his eye. He tensed as Lovelyn skirted around the edge of the room and headed toward the side door, just like she had done three times already. He’d had about enough of it. “Lovelyn Felina Reese!”

She stiffened but didn’t stop. Did she think he’d let her get away with ignoring him? He might be getting softer with his old age, but he wasn’t getting that soft. “Fairy cat, if you skate out that door to do a lap around the parking lot one more time, I’m going to spank your ass.”

She tried to stomp her foot and almost fell. “Daaaddyyy!” He loved how she could draw his name out into a whine. Loved that she wasn’t shy about calling him Daddy. “I’m not hurting anyone. Nobody is here but us.”

Law skated forward. “You have no idea who’s out there, little girl. Anyone could be lurking about. Not to mention every crazy in the county is at those idiot Taylor twins’ Friday night kegger party. Leaving there wasted must be a requirement. And if you think me spanking your bottom won’t leave you hurting, you are sadly mistaken. So why don’t you skate yourself back onto the rink and stay where it’s safe? Well, safer.”

He wouldn’t say a dozen sugar-crazed Littles on wheels were safe, but at least if she got run over by a friend, they’d all be there to help.

Lovelyn’s shoulders slumped. “Yes, Daddy.” She headed back toward the rink.

Law had been watching the girls for a while. He’d seen Lovelyn wince at the loud music. She’d never been to one of the concerts held in the community park at Arcadian Hills. The subdivision might be DDlg-friendly, but they didn’t have much in the way of volume restrictions.

Since he’d been the one to suggest the music to Georgia, he’d come prepared. Never let it be said he wasn’t there to be a good Daddy to his Little girl and their friends.

They were the sweetest, most mischievous Littles he’d ever met. And he loved every one of them.

“Lovelyn,” he called as he skated her way. When he reached her, he pulled out a packet of earplugs from his pocket. If they were good enough for the gun range, they should be able to handle some Disney music, metal or not. “Try these.”

She opened the packet and put the plugs in her ears. Relief relaxed her face into a broad smile. She threw her arms around his neck. “Thank you, Daddy. You’re the best!”

Grinning, he returned the hug. “Make sure you tell everyone else. Especially Gage. He always has to be the best at everything.”

She laughed. “Will do,” she called as she skated away, working the plugs into her ears.

Law made his way to the rink. Waiting for an open space, he toed his way onto the smooth wooden floor. His brothers would give him shit about “playing” with the girls, but they were the ones missing out on an opportunity to have fun with their Littles. Not to mention the fun of what the chase could lead to later in private if handled right.

Squealing Littles in flight mode, getting a high from all those dopamine and endorphins, could lead to things his brothers couldn’t imagine. Not to mention the thrill of winning the chase and, therefore, the beautiful Little prize who was working her way deeper and deeper into his heart every day.

He skated around the rink several times, making sure all the girls saw him before he pulled out the mask he’d brought for this exact moment. The Littles weren’t the only ones who could play with glow-in-the-dark paint. His mask, the greatest supervillain known to man, well, Little, wasn’t scary at all, but it was still guaranteed to have the girls squealing in mock terror and running for their lives. He’d even added a small electronic microphone with a vocal modifier that gave him the villain’s voice.

His brothers knew what was about to happen. One glance at Hutch and his brother cut the music and the strobe lights long enough for Law to explain the game. “All right, little girls, let’s see who can skate better than Uncle Law.”

He pulled on his mask. Gasps erupted around the rink.

“OMG! Are you Gru?” Breezy asked.

“He is! He is!” Winnie screamed, clapping her hands. “I love Gru. Daddy, can we watch Despicable Me when we get home?”

Standing with his arms crossed over his chest, Reid shook his head. “Not tonight, Tinkerbell. It will be too late by then. But we can watch it tomorrow.”

“Yay! Movies at my house tomorrow!”

Law needed to get the girls refocused. He activated the voice modulator so that he sounded like Gru. Once he had their attention, he went over the rules. “If I tag you with a white sticker, you’re frozen until someone else tags you with their blacklight to unfreeze you. Got it?” Once they were all nodding, he continued. “Everyone, find your Daddy and make sure your helmets and pads are all tight enough. We’re gonna have fun, but we’ll do it as safely as possible.”

Little’s scattered in all directions. His heart skipped a beat as Lovelyn headed straight for him. Even though it had only been a week, she was like a different person. Her smile came easier, and her nightmares were coming less frequently.

He couldn’t help but grin at the shirt she’d worn that day. A cartoon cat riding a unicorn decorated the front and read, “Giddy Up! There’s Chaos To Spread.” Between that, her rainbow elbow and knee pads, and her helmet that had holes in the top that allowed her two ponytails to fly in the wind as she skated, she was the belle of the ball. He could be biased, though.

She loved all her quirky t-shirts so much he’d gotten her a heat press with all the bells and whistles so she could print her own. With his help, of course. She’d made shirts for all the Musketiaras.

Little speed demon that she was, she didn’t even slow down as she approached. He didn’t disappoint, grabbing her hips and using her momentum to spin them around until she clung to him, squealing for him to stop.

Once they slowed, he kissed her good and hard. Unplugging her ear long enough to tell her a few of the deliciously naughty things he wanted to do to her, he then knelt to make sure her laces were tight and out of the way.

Once all the girls returned to the dance floor, which had been transformed into a skating rink for the night, he checked to ensure everyone had their blacklight and repositioned his mask. “Are you ready?” he shouted.

“Yes!” all the girls shouted back.

“Are you sure?” he asked, knowing how excited they were.

“Law!” they shouted.

He held up his hands. “All right. Get set.” He added one more dramatic pause, then shouted, “Go!”

The most adorable shrieks bounced off every wall. Littles scattered in every direction. If they could see his smile, the girls would say the grin that spread over his face was Grinchy. If that meant his heart grew three more sizes, then it was true.

Let the games begin. He made sure to tag everyone three times.

Thirty minutes later, twelve very tired and sweaty Little girls settled at the table their Daddies had set up and sucked down bottles of water and juice. Then, everyone feasted on hot dogs and chips with glow-in-the-dark snow cones and cotton candy for dessert.

Law coasted back to the bar, pulling off his mask. His senses were alive and firing. He loved a good chase. Not knowing what his prey would do to get away, or how they might fight back, was a heady thing.

He was tired, sweaty, and happier than he’d been in months. All thanks to Lovelyn.

And that was why it had taken him to the age of forty to find a Little to call his own. No Little had wanted to be prey. And he wouldn’t have asked them to. They’d have been terrified. He’d wanted a unicorn, something, or in his case someone, who didn’t exist.

Until his little fairy cat came into his life. Until Lovelyn, he’d had to settle for being the “fun” uncle who played games with his brother’s Little ones. But now he had a Little of his own who accepted him as he was.

Hutch handed him a fresh bottle of his favorite stout. He loved the, “You want to tell us how you knew in advance Lovelyn would need earplugs tonight?”

It was hard to take a swig of his beer while grinning, but he managed. Sometimes, life just worked out in his favor. He’d had a lot of that lately.

Deke groaned. “You’re shittin’ me. Really? You brought them for yourself? You realize we’re all going to be listening to metal Moana from now on, right?”

Neither confirm nor deny. That was Law’s policy. “You’ll survive.”

Gage clapped a hand on Law’s back. “Payback’s a bitch, brother. You have a Little of your own now. That means we’ll be able to make your life miserable, too.”

Reid didn’t join in their banter. He had something on his mind, and Law was willing to wait while the closest thing he had to a little brother worked it out.

Law could see so much of Reid’s father in him. Sarge, as everyone had called him, had been a great man. He’d saved Law. Sarge had taken him in and taught him what it really meant to be part of a family. Because of Sarge, Reid made sure Sabre felt like one big family, too.

It took a few minutes, but soon enough, Reid brought everyone up to speed. “Raleigh Stevens called me today after you left with Lovelyn. First of all, he said thanks for bringing Lovelyn over, by the way.” Reid looked at Law. “He thinks your Little girl is going to be a tremendous help and showed up at the perfect time. She and Gabi hit it off well, too. But then he brought me up to speed on things.”

“I’ll let her know.”

It didn’t surprise Law. Lovelyn had a way of making everyone feel needed and loved. He just hoped his girl would rub off on Gabi rather than the other way around. He could see the two of them getting into all kinds of mischief if someone wasn’t watching them.

He grinned. That just meant more fun for him.

Deke focused more on the first part of Reid's comments. “If it was about the General, it’s about damn time. I should have ended him when he almost killed Suzi four months ago. I could have saved the taxpayers of Tennessee a lot of cake.”

Law agreed. Men like Alexander Boucher never got what they deserved through the system. No, he ran the system and had the connections to make all his problems disappear. The only reason he’d joined his brothers in trying to pull Deke off Boucher was the price Deke would’ve had to pay. Deke and Suzi had been through enough.

Zane pulled out the chair next to Law and sat with the men. He’d been skating with the Littles all night. “What are we talking about? Oh, Hutch, I’ll take one of whatever Law’s drinking.”

Law huffed a laugh. “Nice try, kid. I figure, best case, next week, you’ll still be three years away from that. Maybe by then you’ll have what it takes to drink one of my stouts without puking it back up.”

Connor shook his head. “You’ve been drinking that stuff ever since I met you. Don’t feel bad, kid. I’d be puking that rot gut Law calls ale up, too.”

And just like that, Law’s night went south. He’d met Connor and Jaxon Ruiz eight years earlier. Because of the General, Jaxon had been behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit for the last six. It was what had brought all of them, the men he now thought of as brothers, back to Darling. They’d come home to find a way to prove their friend innocent.

They were closer now than they had ever been, but still way too far. Jaxon was almost halfway through his fifteen-year sentence.

“Anyway.” Reid’s voice held the anger they all felt as he glared at them. “Raleigh said Boucher’s trial has been set to start May 23 rd . Lovelyn has been a godsend with all the knowledge she’s accumulated over the past four years. But knowledge isn’t proof. Whatever proof the Society has, we need to get our hands on it before they destroy it all, trying to cover their asses and protect the General.”

Gage shook his head. “We’ve been through Boucher’s house so many times I could walk through it blindfolded. I’ve taken Breezy back over there, and we’ve checked everywhere. She doesn’t remember there being any hidden safes or anything. Sawyer even measured the actual footage of each room against the blueprints to see if there were any hidden vaults or anything. If he has any incriminating documents, they aren’t in that house.”

Sawyer was studying his tablet. “He’s out at the Graceview Retreat Center. It looks like he’s turned in for the night. Thankfully, I can’t tell if he’s alone, just that he’s in his room.”

That caught Zane’s attention. Law hadn’t thought anything could pull the kid’s eyes from his phone. “Woah. How do you know what room he’s in? ”

Sawyer smiled, but it was the coldest smile Law had ever seen. “He’s wearing an ankle monitor so the police can track his whereabouts. I hacked the signal. There was no way I was going to let him be off my radar and put Suzi, Breezy, or any of the other women at risk. I know exactly where that fucker is every second of every day.”

“Holy shit,” Zane said. “That’s so cool.”

Hutch scowled. “Not as cool as it will be when it shows him in a maximum security prison on death row. We know he killed Crash and that he tried to kill Suzi, but I know there are more.”

“Of course, there are more.” Law had looked the man in the eye, and there was nothing but evil there. “He’s behind framing Jaxon, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he gave the go-ahead for every victim we found in the pond by Winnie’s cabin. That makes him an accessory, at the very least.”

“Oh, he’s more than that.” Deke's voice was deep and deadly. “He’s one of the masterminds and has been since his daughters were in high school. The Society put him in power, thinking they could control him. I don’t think they believe that anymore. I’d be willing to bet he’s got dirt on all of them. They can’t afford for the skeletons he’s collected to come to light.”

Hutch nodded. “The fact that he’s still alive after his latest round of fuck ups makes me think he’s got that information on some kind of automatic release if something happens to him. If not, the Society would have put a bullet in him by now.”

“Let’s see if we can capitalize on that,” Reid said. “Sawyer, I need you to find a way to make it look like we’ve found all those skeletons, and we want to deal. Maybe we can draw him out.”

Law doubted it, but he kept his opinion to himself. Nothing rattled men like the General. They believed they were invincible. The only way to stop a man like that was a bullet to the brain.

“Three. Two. One. Happy New Bedtime!”

Confetti shot everywhere, blanketing the air with minuscule bits of paper and glitter. Not Going to Sleep Tonight blared over the speakers as each Little found her Daddy for a kiss, celebrating their new bedtime extension. Including him and damn that felt good.

After one more dance, Law took Lovelyn home. His girl had had a big day. It wasn’t every day you got a new job and attended your first Musketiara party. She needed her rest because Raleigh wanted them to come back the next day so she could do more training.

But before that, he had some training of his own that he wanted to do. And for that, he needed to get her home.