Page 68 of Fallout
“No. I…” She sucked in a breath. “I don’t know how to say—”
“Just spit it out and leave.”
Closing her eyes briefly, she forced the words through her constricted throat. “I just got a message from my lawyer. I don’t know how, and I plan to find out and have the decision reversed as soon as I can but Renee was released from the psychiatric facility into her mother’s care this morning.”
“What?” Mazey stepped closer, her arms reaching, her hands gripping Mallory’s arms, squeezing. “What the fuck?”
“What? What’s going on?” Alyssa—a woman Mallory only knew through photographs—came at them. “What’s happening?”
“Please. I don’t know everything yet. I literally got the message as I knocked on the door. Let me call Davis, find out the details. But before that… Where is Maddox?” He had to be here. There was nowhere else for him to be, no one else Jacob would trust with him.
“He’s in the other room with Penny and Zane.”
Mallory nodded. She knew Alyssa had a teenage sister she cared for. “I don’t know where she is, but I don’t trust Renee not to try to make contact even though she signed over her rights to Maddox. Those papers aren’t something she would let stop her from getting what she wants, and what she wants is money.”
“Didn’t you pay her millions?” Mazey asked.
Nodding again, Mallory said, “Yes. Sixty. But she still believes if she has Maddox, she has access to his.”
“What about you?” Alyssa asked. “You’re worth billions when you add in the company that’s yours.”
She jolted. She hadn’t expected them to know about the family foundation. “I… Yes. But there’s no way for her to get that.”
“Maybe not, but she could get you,” Alyssa said.
Mallory looked between the two women. “What do you mean?”
“She could come after you. Hurt you.”
“No, she’ll want—?”
“Listen, I know all about crazy family members,” Alyssa interrupted. “And believe me when I say it isn’t only Maddox we need to protect. She’s likely to attack anyone she feels has stopped her from getting what she wants.”
She knew Alyssa was right. Even if she didn’t want to consider it. “Okay. Okay.” She stepped away, paced a few steps, then turned back. “All right. I need to get a security team together. For everyone Renee might go after.”
Digging her phone out of her pocket, the first person she called was Davis.
He answered right away. “I’m on it. I don’t know what shit she pulled to get this to happen but I think your stepmother had something to do with it.”
“No doubt. But I need something else. I need a security team. Several. She’s going to want revenge. I know that. Besides, when I saw her last week she promised to kill me.” She ignored the gasps behind her.
“You didn’t tell me that!”
“I didn’t think she’d have the chance.”
“Well, fuck, Mallory. I’m calling Clark. He’s still in San Francisco.”
“I know. I left him an hour ago at the house, packing. His flight out is later tonight.”
“He’s not getting on it now.”
“Okay, what do I do?”
“Nothing. Keep your phone on you. Where are you now?”
“I’m at the Hyatt Regency.”
“In the restaurant?”
