Page 127 of Wicked & Wildflower

“Wouldn’t worry about that, sir.” I smile, watching Jason’s eyes blow wide. “I fucked all those daddy issues right out of her pretty head.” Knowing it’ll twist the knife further, I add, “The only man she’ll be calling daddy from now on is me.”

I hang up the call, tossing the phone to the ground at Jason’s feet.

“How’d you know he was involved?” Jason asks, looking up at me.

“You’re not smart enough, nor do you have the motive, to show up here on your own and try to abduct a child.”

“I warned her not to fuck with her dad.”

“How much did he pay you?” I ask.

He’s quiet for a moment, staring at his feet. “Look…yeah. At first, it was about the money. He paid me off a little here and there to call and fuck with Dahlia. He thought if I gave some notion that I was interested in being part of the kid’s life, she’d come back to Kansas. I don’t know.” He shrugs. “But I drew the line at this. I didn’t want to be involved. I didn’t want to come out here. I tried to warn her, and she didn’t listen.” He shakes his head. “The man has connections. He has shit on me too. I didn’t have a fucking choice.” He looks at me, and I see a flash of sincerity in his eyes. “I never would’ve hurt Lucille. All I was going to do was take her to her grandparents. That’s what he asked of me. Drive her back out there so the girls would follow.”

I squat down so we’re face-to-face. “Here’s my friendly piece of advice: don’t ever come back here, and don’t ever bother my family again, or I will actually kill you. If I were you, I’d take your sweet time heading back to Kansas and do what you can to cut all connections to Dane Andrews, because I’m going to end him too.”

I don’t wait for his reaction. I don’t wait for a response.

I stand straight, spinning on my heel and turning back toward the school to pick up my kid.

43

Wildflower

Family That We Chose

“Baby, listen to me.I need you both to leave the flower shop right now and go home. Call my brother and have him meet us there.”

“Everett.” I sigh. “They delivered thewrongflowers. We’re having to swap out everything at Honeysuckle with the fucked up flowers we received from the vendor into make-shift arrangements for a wedding taking place in less than forty-eight hours. We’ll probably be stuck in here until tomorrow morning.”

My fingers are numb from plucking stems all goddamn day.

“Dahlia,” Everett says with deadly calm. “It’s an emergency. I just dropped Lou at my parent’s house, and I’m heading to your place right now. You need to get Darby out of the flower shop and meet me there.”

My breath gets lodged in my throat, a sickening feeling coiling in my stomach and snapping tight. “Is Lou okay?”

“Yes. She’s with my mom. She’s fine.”

It loosens just slightly, but the urgency in Everett’s tone has all my atoms on edge. “What’s going on?”

“Meet me back at the house, okay?”

He hangs up before I have the chance to ask another question, so I place the roses in my hand back into the bucket of water I found them in and turn to my sister. “Everett said there is an emergency, and we need to head home now.”

Darby turns to me, nostrils flaring with undiluted frustration. “I don’t think Everett wants to talk tomeabout emergencies right now. If he has something he needs from us, I greatly invite him to come organize some goddamn flowers here.”

“I know, Darbs.”Bridezilla has arrived.“He seemed really concerned, though. He said we need to get out of here and go home, and that we need to get Leo too.”

She groans, throwing her bouquet in a bucket. “Fine. Butheis the one coming back here later and finishing these arrangements. I need a bath.”

“Alright,” I say, placing my hand at her back and ushering her out the door. “We’ll let him know.”

We grab Leo from Heathen’s and pile into Darby’s Mustang, since I’d gone with her to work this morning, taking the week from work to help her with wedding prep. We’re back at their house within ten minutes, but Everett’s Jeep is already parked outside.

We all find ourselves huddled around the kitchen island, Everett pacing back and forth across the floor, wringing out his hands. His entire body appears to be trembling with tension.

“What’s going on?” Leo asks.

Everett turns to face the three of us, jaw tight and eyes wild. He says nothing as he rounds the counter and closes the distance between him and me, grasping my face between his hands and kissing me roughly.

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