Page 45 of Landon

“Stop,” Pamela shouted, her gaze darting around the room, finally landing on a tearful Penny. “You’re upsetting your sister!”

“No, Mom,” Penny jumped in. “Tad’s just telling the truth.”

Pamela threw her arm out at Noel and narrowed her eyes. “What have you been tellingmykids?”

“Stop it, Pamela,” Mike roared, his face red and mottled. “You and I know the truth. Stan shared it all with me. How you thought you could keep it from Tad and Penny, I have no idea.”

Noel stepped between Mike and Pamela while placing her hand on Tad’s shoulder and reaching for Penny with her other hand. “Penny, show me where your room is. Tad, you, too. I can help pack while you shower, and then we’ll leave.”

At her instructions, the kids moved in unison toward the stairs. Pamela opened her mouth, but Noel got there first. Leaning in, she added power to her words. “Your children have been traumatized. You don’t get to call the shots. This isn’t about you.” She looked up at Mike. “It’s not about you, either.”

He clamped his mouth tightly shut but nodded before walking over to where Landon, Frazier, and Devil stood. As her gaze moved to Landon, he winked, and her lips twitched. She dipped her head before following the kids up the staircase.

Once upstairs, she followed Tad into his room, pulling Penny along with her. Once inside, she turned to face them. “Guys, I know this is an emotional homecoming. My advice is to step back from your mom’s drama. Whatever is going to happen isn’t going to happen right now. Landon will report to your dad, and when we get back to Montana, you can talk to your dad about your feelings concerning the custody. But right now, you need to take care of yourselves.”

“Mike never liked Mom,” Penny said, her voice low.

“You can’t worry about that now,” Noel advised. Once she’d gained nods from both kids, she looked around. “I see you have your own bathroom, Tad. Do you have one, too, Penny?”

“Yes. And there’s lots of hot water,” Penny enthused, offering the first smile on her face since they’d arrived back at the resort. “You can use my bathroom and take one, too.”

“I’ll offer mine to Landon as soon as we’re finished so you both can shower,” Tad offered.

Noel blinked at the thought of her and Landon taking a shower… of course, her mind was filled with the image of them showering together?—

“Noel?”

“What?” she blurted, then blushed, seeing Penny’s gaze on her. “Sorry, I was just… never mind. Um… you two get cleaned up.” She followed Penny into the bedroom across the hall. It was filled with cream furniture, turquoise bed linens, and cream curtains blowing from the open balcony door. As Penny showered, Noel busied herself with placing the girl’s suitcase on the bed.

Hearing voices from outside, she moved to the balcony. Peering down, she observed Landon speaking to Mike.

“I want to know who the fuck had those kids kidnapped,” Mike growled.

“My people are monitoring the situation and reporting back to Stan,” Landon replied. “What you need to focus on is to stop arguing with Pamela. You said that your purpose on this trip was to provide a familiar face for the kids to trust when we showed up to take them back to Montana. That plan went to shit when they were kidnapped, and they now trust me and Noel. But they still have that connection with you. What they don’t need now is you getting in their mom’s face.”

“I know, I know,” Mike moaned, his fists landing on his hips as he shook his head slowly back and forth. “She just makes me so goddamned pissed. She thinks the kids don’t know what’s going on. But they’ve known for years that their mother was a mercenary bitch?—”

“That,” Landon bit out, his forefinger waving toward Mike’s face. “That right there needs to stop. You can feel how you feel, but don’t let that out to the kids after all they’ve been through.”

“Did she sign the paperwork and take the money?”

Landon sighed. “What do you think? With everything that’s happened to Tad and Penny, she’s playing with their sympathy. And your arguing with her isn’t helping. So, no, she just informed me that she’s not signing her rights over. She thought she could do it secretly, and the kids wouldn’t know. She also assumed she’d still see them when she returned to the States and was willing to sign anything to get the money. Now? She’s not going for it until she talks to Stan again.”

“She wants more money,” Mike growled.

“You’re probably right. But let me handle this, and then I will turn it over to be dealt with between Stan and Pamela and their attorneys.” With that, Landon walked back inside the house, and Noel heard the door close.

She started to walk back into Penny’s room, but her attention was snagged on Mike when he moved down the path a little ways and pulled out his phone. Curiosity had her listening to his side of the conversation.

“The kids are back and safe. Yeah, they seem to be as good as possible after their ordeal. I’ll take care of things here right before we leave.” After a long pause, Mike said, “I waited until the kids got back so that I could stick to our original plan. I’ll contact you as soon as it’s done and we get on the plane to come home. It’ll be good to get back to Montana.”

After another pause, he said, “Yeah, it’ll also be good to take care of this once and for all. No more wondering what the hell might come up next.”

With that, Mike stood for a few minutes, staring at the beach. Finally, he turned and took a step toward the house when his body jerked, and a gasp escaped his lips. His hand shot to hischest, his face contorting in pain. The color drained from his skin, leaving it an eerie gray. With a strangled cry, he dropped to his knees, and his body pitched forward, collapsing onto the wet ground.

“Mike!” Noel screamed, her voice slicing through the air. Without thinking, she bolted out of the room, her heart pounding in her chest. Halfway down the stairs, she collided with Landon, who was racing up, his expression hardening at her panicked face.

“It’s Mike!” she gasped, clutching at his shoulders. “I saw him on the patio… he clutched his chest and collapsed!”

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