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T he girls drop their bags on the floor as soon as we step inside.

“Stop,” I say in my serious voice, making both girls freeze.

They look over their shoulders at me, and I raise a brow. “Is the floor where your bags go?”

“Sorry,” both girls say in unison.

“I know you’re excited to be home, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to follow the rules.”

The girls come back over to me and pick up their bags, and they place them on the hooks next to the door.

“Thank you. Now do either of you have homework?”

The girls shake their heads. “None today.”

I raise my brow and challenge them. “So when I check your school planners, there won’t be anything?”

Their school has a rule that every night a parent or guardian has to initial the student’s planner on the proper day. It’s their way of ensuring that the parents or guardian at home are paying attention and being active in the child’s life. Is it annoying? Maybe slightly, but in the grand scheme of things, I’m all for it.

Selena admitted to me once that she used to sign for Miranda. It broke my heart. I told them that every single day I would be the one signing. They don’t get to forge any more signatures.

“Nope,” Sienna says while Selena shakes her head no.

“Okay, then you can go play.”

The girls take off toward their rooms, and I sigh. Logically, I know them dropping their bags on the ground isn’t a big deal, but I want them to treat their things with respect. I know Midnight paid good money for their bags, so they should be treated with some level of care.

I head into the kitchen and pull out the casserole I prepped last night. I set it on the counter and start preheating the oven.

“Hey, Lainey,” Sienna says.

I turn, giving her my complete attention. “What’s up?”

“Do you think we can go in the backyard and play?” she asks.

Selena comes into the kitchen with a soccer ball in hand.

“Of course.”

“Yes!” both girls cheer as they race toward the sliding glass door.

“I’ll be right out ” I say as they slip outside.

The oven beeps, and I slip the casserole inside and set a timer. I head outside and shut the screen door behind me, so I’ll be able to hear the timer when it goes off. When I turn to face the yard, I gasp.

The couch that I had been eyeing is here. I know I didn’t order it, and only one other person knows that I wanted it.

Midnight.

I slip my phone out of my pocket and take a picture of the couch. Opening my text thread with him, I attach the picture.

Me: Why…

He texts back immediately.

Midnight: Because it’s more comfortable. Now go enjoy it while you can.

I shake my head and slip my phone back into my pocket. That man is something else, and I don’t know what I’m going to do with him. As desperately as I want to kiss him, I could strangle him.

When I sit on the couch, I sigh. It’s so much better than I thought it would be. I kick off my shoes and put my legs up on the couch, so I’m stretched out as I watch the girls kick the ball back and forth.

Perfection.

This is exactly what I pictured when I saw the yard. The girls are happy and laughing, and I get to sit out here and enjoy a little sunshine in the process.

The doorbell rings, making me frown.

That’s weird. I have never heard the doorbell ring since I moved in.

The girls pause and look over at me.

“Keep playing, I’ll see who it is,” I tell them as I slip my shoes back on.

Stepping inside, I head to the front door. I wish it had a peephole.

I open the door and suck in a breath when I see an army of men in police uniforms and suits in front of me.

“Can I help you?” I ask, trying to hide the shaking in my voice.

“We have a warrant to search the place.” The man shoves the piece of paper into my chest, making me rock back.

I look down at the paper and see that they are at the correct address, and it does have Midnight’s name on it.

What the fuck is going on? I wonder as my heart races.

“Are you going to do this the easy way and let us in, or are we going to have to make you cooperate?” the uniformed officer who shoved the paper at me asks.

“Our children are here, so please be mindful,” I say quietly as I step to the side.

One of the cops scoffs as he passes by.

“Search everything,” the asshole in the uniform demands as the last cop slips inside.

I shut the door and take a deep breath, willing my heart to stop racing.

Everything is going to be fine. Midnight wouldn’t bring anything home from the club with him. He wouldn’t jeopardize the girls like that. The cops don’t pay attention to me when I slip out the back door.

“Lainey!” the twins cry in unison as they run toward me. They hit me, making me stumble back.

“Hey, everything is okay,” I say as I rub their backs.

“I’m scared,” Sienna murmurs.

“I want Daddy,” Selena says.

I want your daddy right now too.

Shaking my head, I pull out my phone and find his number. The line rings once and then twice before he answers.

“Lainey, right now really isn’t a good time,” he mutters.

“Cops just forced their way inside the house,” I blurt out, giving zero fucks about if he has time or not.

“God-fucking-dammit,” he hisses.

I can picture him running his hand through his hair.

“They are here at the shop too. Do you need me to come home?”

“What’s going on, Midnight?”

“Nothing you need to worry about right now. Now answer me.”

I shake my head even though he can’t see me. “Stay there. I got this. Just hurry home when you can. The girls are scared,” I tell him softly.

I look down at the girls and offer them a soft smile, trying to ease their nerves when I see they are both looking at me.

“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” he says before he hangs up.

I slip my phone back into my pocket. “Your dad will be home as soon as he can.”

“Why is this happening?” Selena asks.

“I don’t know, but I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding, okay?”

“Okay,” the girls say in unison before burying their faces into my legs.

I shut my eyes. God, I wish I could hide away from this nightmare too.

When I open my eyes, I see a cop holding their soccer ball they were just playing with in his hand along with a knife.

“Is that seriously fucking necessary? They are just kids,” I whisper-hiss at him.

The cop looks guilty as he holds the ball out. “I’m just doing my job,” he mutters.

“I know, but still have some fucking decency. They didn’t do anything,” I say, looking down at the girls before looking back at him.

He gives me a nod before he heads inside.

Jesus, I don’t even want to think about what the house will look like once they are done.

I run a hand through my hair.

This is a fucking disaster and my worst nightmare all rolled into one. I’ve worked my ass off for years to keep the shop and the girls separate from the club. Even with the best intentions, that didn’t stop these motherfuckers from raiding both my place of business and my home.

God, the fear in Lainey’s voice when she called.

Tara hisses next to me, and I look over at her shop. I watch as a cop tears one of her books in half. My fists and jaw clench. What I wouldn’t do to lay that asshole out. There is absolutely no reason to destroy her inventory. If they are doing that to her shop, who the fuck knows what they are doing in mine.

“It’s okay,” Tara says, more to herself than me.

“I’m sorry this is happening,” I rasp.

Tara looks over and gives me a sad smile. “It’s part of the life.”

I grunt in agreement. Just because we knew it could happen someday doesn’t lessen the blow.

“I overheard you on the phone. They are at your house too?”

“They are fucking everywhere.”

“If you need to go, I can watch both shops and handle cleanup.”

I don’t know how Wrath did it, but he managed to nail down a good one when it comes to Tara.

“Thank you, but Lainey said they were fine. They know I’ll be home as soon as I can be.”

Tara hums, making me look down at her.

“What?” I ask when I see she’s biting her lip.

“So what’s going on with you and the nanny?” she teases.

I look around before looking back at her. “Do you really think now is the time to be snoopy?”

She shrugs a shoulder. “I mean, what else do we have to do? I’d rather talk about your love life than watch our stores be fucked up by some careless assholes. So tell me, what’s going on between you two?”

I run a hand over my face and shake my head. “Nothing is going on between Lainey and me. She just works for me.”

“Right…” she drawls out.

I’ve known the girl for years, so I know the signs that she has something to say. “Spit it out.”

“If she was merely an employee, you would have said fuck the shop by now and headed home to take care of the twins, and do you know what that tells me?”

“What does it tell you?”

“That you trust her.”

I scoff. “Of course I do, otherwise, I wouldn’t leave the girls with her.”

Tara rolls her eyes. “That’s not what I mean, and you know it. You trust me and the guys, yet you keep the girls as far away from us as possible. You have a different level of trust with her, and dare I say, maybe even a little bit of a crush.”

“Tara…”

She ignores my warning and keeps going. “I’ve seen the way you look at her when she’s not paying attention. You have feelings for her, and if I had to hazard a guess, she feels the same way.”

“Nothing can happen, and even if I was willing, do you think I would want to bring someone into this shit show? We have enough going on right now,” I say as I wave my hand between our two shops.

“Hey, you can’t plan falling for someone. It’s going to happen whether you want it to or not.”

“Tara…”

“Midnight, you deserve to be happy, I just don’t want you to miss out because you are too scared to pull the trigger. If you want her, fucking make it happen. Either use your words or do that thing with your tongue,” she says, making me cringe.

Before Tara and Wrath got together, she was a sweetbutt, one I had hooked up with. Usually it’s something that we don’t talk about, but every once in a while Tara will say something just to make me squirm and make her old man glare at me for a fucking week and force me to sleep with one eye open.

The cops that handed us our search warrants meet between our shops, and we watch as they have a heated discussion.

“They’re pissed they didn’t find anything,” Tara says under her breath when they start walking our way.

“We’re done,” the cop who raided my shop says, jaw clenching.

“And let me guess, you didn’t leave either business how you found it,” Tara deadpans, making me pinch the bridge of my nose.

Wrath is going to paddle her ass red when he hears about this. Fucking brat.

One of the cops grunts and narrows his eyes. “We’ll be watching you two.”

We watch as they turn and walk away, taking their little foot soldiers with them.

Thank fuck this is over.

“Go home, Midnight. Check on your girls,” Tara says as she starts walking back across the street to her shop, and for once I listen to her.

I jump on my bike and head home. I know cops are swarming the area, so I do my best to maintain the speed limit. The last thing I need right now is to be cuffed and forced to spend the night in jail.

When I pull into the driveway, it’s right as the last cop car leaves. I don’t even pull the keys out of the ignition as I race up the steps.

“Why did they do that Lainey?” Sienna asks.

“Why did the one cop say Daddy was a bad man?” Selena asks.

I stay still, wondering what Lainey’s answer will be.

“They said that because they don’t know your dad. What you guys are too young to understand is that sometimes people judge others based on who they are friends with and what they do. Your dad is covered in tattoos and rides a motorcycle. As far as the cops are concerned, that’s two points against him and makes him a bad person, when that couldn’t be further from the truth. Right?”

“Daddy’s the best,” Sienna says, making my heart ache.

“Exactly. From what I understand, the cops got some bad information that said your dad did something when he didn’t. They didn’t know that, though, so they had to do their jobs to make sure, okay? Your daddy and the cops did nothing wrong.”

“Okay,” the girls say in unison.

“We always wanted to live with him, you know? He’s way nicer than Mom,” Selena says, making me suck in a breath.

“Yeah, she wasn’t very nice,” Sienna says quietly.

I rub a hand over my heart. Jesus fuck. All the signs were there, but my hands were tied. I can’t go back in time and change anything, but I can sure as hell make sure I do everything possible to make the future better for them.

I need to hold them. I need to see with my own two eyes that all three of them are okay.

Taking two quiet steps back, I start walking forward loudly, making my boots thump against the hardwood floor. All three girls turn, and when they see it’s me, relief fills their eyes.

The twins rush me, and I pull them into my arms.

“Are you two okay?” I murmur against Selena’s hair.

“We’re okay,” they say in unison.

Opening my eyes, I watch Lainey wipe tears from her eyes. I fight the urge to pull her into my arms and comfort her.

“Thank you,” I rasp.

“You’re welcome. Now how about we start putting this place back together?”

“Sounds like a plan. Doesn’t it, girls?”