Impact Read online

  “I already checked,” Cris said. “Online records. He was booked this afternoon.”

  “Excellent,” Landry said. “That’s one less worry.”

  “Not exactly. I paid for a background check on him. He’s been arrested over thirty times and has spent a total of fifteen years in jail. He’s twelve years older than Fi.”

  “Terrific,” Tilly said. “Thank god he’s not Katie’s biological father.” She cuddled the baby just a little closer.

  “Sofia is really ready to move to Florida?” Landry asked Cris. “I recall how it broke your heart before when she wouldn’t.”

  “Yeah. She’s worried about her probation officer and then getting a job in Florida because of her arrest record, but she’s done with all of this crap out here. The baby snapped her out of it, finally. Better late than never, I guess.”

  “What about her parents? Your aunt and uncle? Her brothers? Should we notify them?”

  Cris shrugged. “Why?”

  “They do have a newborn granddaughter and niece,” Landry pointed out.

  “So?”

  “Cris, you are no longer a teenage boy your uncle can use as a punching bag. Perhaps we should allow Sofia the chance to reconcile with them.”

  “Uh, no offense, Lan, but no. I don’t want her staying here in LA if probation gives her permission to move to Florida. And she specifically said she absolutely does not want her parents or her brothers getting custody of the baby. She’s afraid they’ll never let her see Katie again, even after she’s got her life straightened out. Not to mention she remembers how her father used to beat me. She wants us to have custody because she trusts us not only to raise Katie right, but to not screw her over later with giving Katie back when Sofia’s ready and able to take care of her.”

  “And they would try to get custody of the baby,” Tilly darkly muttered. “People like that don’t give a shit about others.”

  Landry looked at her. “Well, that would be rather foolish on their part, wouldn’t it?” He smiled. “I suspect no sane person will pry that baby from your arms before you’re ready to relinquish her, my vicious little Redbird.”

  “Damn straight.”

  Normally, on a night when all three of them were together again after time spent apart, they’d make love. At least two of the three of them usually would.

  Not tonight.

  And tonight they all wore some sort of clothes to bed. Tilly wore one of Cris’ old T-shirts, which hung past her ass. The men both wore boxers to bed.

  Tonight, Landry would be in the middle with Tilly on the left side of the bed, where Cris had set up the portable crib.

  After getting the baby safely tucked in, Tilly stood there for a moment, struggling against the prickle of tears trying to well up in her eyes.

  The men gathered behind her, their arms around her, their chins on her shoulders.

  “It’s all right to cry, love,” Landry whispered. “It doesn’t make you weak. It means you’re strong enough to care and mourn.”

  “Let it out, sweetheart,” Cris gently said.

  She held her arms crossed tightly over her chest. “It’s not fair,” she whispered. “It’s not fucking fair. Even a fuckup—no offense, Cris—like her can have a gorgeous, beautiful baby. And because some fucking asshole raped me when I was a kid, I went through a lifetime of misery and my dream of having kids was taken from me. It’s not fucking fair.”

  They made her turn, her face pressed against Landry’s chest while Cris pushed in close behind her, their arms around her.

  “I know, Redbird,” Cris said. “That’s the one thing I always wished I could give you and couldn’t.”

  “It’s not fucking fair.”

  Landry nuzzled his chin against the top of her head. “Take comfort that because you answered the phone, you might have saved their lives.” He made her look up at him. “Are you sure you don’t wish to consider adoption?”

  She shook her head. “No. It’s not like a car where if you don’t bond with it right away you can take it back. I won’t do that to a baby.”

  “You seem to be bonding rather well with Katie.”

  “This is different. She’s family.”

  “You love Lily,” Cris said. “And Kenny.”

  “And even Laurel,” Landry added. “That beautiful, blessed little hellion.”

  “Molly,” Cris said. “All our friends’ kids, you love them.”

  “That’s…different.”

  “Are you so sure?” Landry asked. “Truly?”

  She sniffled. “I think so.”

  “Maybe once life settles down a little,” Landry said, “we should look into adoption.”

  “Or a surrogate,” Cris said. “That’s an option, too.”

  She took a deep breath. “Sorry, guys. I’m just overwhelmed today. I’ll be okay.” She kissed Landry, then Cris. “No, we don’t need to rush out and do something. I just…need to recover from today.”

  Once they were snuggled in bed, the lights off, Tilly wedged herself against Landry, who’d spooned against her. Cris, in turn, spooned along Landry’s back.

  “I love you guys,” she whispered into the dark.

  “Love you, too,” they said in unison, followed by chuckles from them.

  Chapter Seven

  Tilly was no stranger to nightmares. She’d experienced them the majority of her life, ever since the nighttime visits to her bedroom by her step-father started.

  They had, however, come fewer, and farther between since her life had settled into what now passed for normal in their household. Rare was the night she didn’t have one or both of her men in bed with her.

  That went a long way toward keeping the nightmares at bay.

  No doubt it was the day’s events that triggered this round, the first series of nightmares she’d had in months. Her sleep was plagued with visions of what might have happened had Sofia’s ex showed up while Tilly was trying to rescue her and Katie. What would have happened had Tilly resorted to her makeshift blowtorch.

  Had she showed up too late and found Sofia and the baby dead.

  Those visions were the worst.

  Around four a.m. Thursday morning, Tilly gave up trying to sleep. Soaked to the skin with sweat, she carefully got out of bed, discarded the T-shirt in the hamper, and pulled on a clean one. When she went to check on the baby, she found her lying there, eyes open.

  “You’re a quiet one, aren’t you?” Tilly scooped her up and carried her out to the living room. There, she changed her and then got her bottle ready. Sitting on the couch with the early-early morning news show playing at a barely audible level, that’s where Cris found her when he awoke at five.

  He settled onto the couch next to her. “I never heard you get up, Redbird.”

  “That was kind of my point,” Tilly softly said. “I didn’t want to wake you guys.”

  Katie was working on bottle number two. Tilly hoped the pediatrician would give the baby a clean bill of health despite Katie being slightly underweight. Tilly’s instincts told her to let the baby eat as much as she could right now, to catch up.

  Cris draped an arm around Tilly’s shoulders and pulled her close, nuzzling the top of her head. “Nightmares?”

  She let out a long, deep sigh and nodded.

  He kissed her forehead. “I’m sorry, Redbird.”

  “Not your fault.”

  “She’s my cousin.”

  “Still not your fault.”

  He rested his head against hers and reached in, stroking the baby’s hand with his. “She’s beautiful.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’m sorry I can’t go to the doctor with you today.”

  “Well, even if your schedule allowed it, you’d be going with them to the hearing and the probation officer. I can handle the doctor appointment.”

  “It’s not fair to dump all this on you.”

  “At least we’re in a position to afford it. If you’d seen that shit-hole apartment…” She suppressed a shu
dder. “This worked out as if it was supposed to work out like this. I got the call, I was able to reach her. Let’s be honest, you would have called the cops.”

  “Yeah, I would have.”

  “And Katie would be in state care right now, and Sofia would be in jail.”

  “She still might go to jail.”

  “Better later than before we could step in and help with Katie. Are we really not going to contact her family?”

  Time for him to let out a sigh. “I don’t know yet. My gut instinct is no, because it will cause more problems than it will solve. They won’t want Sofia to leave the state with Katie, and might fight us for custody.”

  “That’s a moot issue once Sofia designates us guardians, isn’t it?”

  “That’s what I hope, but people can sue for anything. I’d rather not drag our private lives through the mud.”

  She snorted. “Says the man giving me a hard time about not renting a car.”

  He arched an eyebrow at her. “You’re just banking those punishment swats, aren’t you?”

  Tilly threw in a little pout. “Landry said he’d talk to you about not punishing me.”

  Cris smiled. “I think I’ll need some persuasion on your part.”

  She stared up into his brown eyes. Those sweet, handsome eyes she fell in love with what felt like a lifetime ago. Two lifetimes. Hell, three, if she counted their time together, their time apart, and him and Landry coming back into her life.

  “If it involves BJs and other…things, I’m in.” She grinned.

  A soft chuckle escaped him. “I never could wholeheartedly punish you, baby.”

  She tipped her head onto his shoulder. “And how I loved you for it.”

  * * * *

  Of course he’d heard Tilly get up. He just didn’t want her to feel guilty about him waking up.

  He was so attuned to Tilly’s moods that he couldn’t not awaken when he heard her leave their bed, change clothes, and get the baby. She’d had a restless night, tossing and turning, and he’d awakened several times, unable to comfort her without awakening Landry in the process.

  This was going to be a long, damn day, Cris knew that already. As he gave Tilly one last kiss and rose from the couch to start his usual morning routine, he tried not to think about his uncle.

  The last person he wanted to contact was that man.

  He damn sure didn’t want Katie raised by anyone in that family. Considering Fi’s poor track record of having an inability to stand up for herself, he feared getting his aunt and uncle and cousins involved in this before they legally had the paperwork filed and finalized would open a can of worms.

  Especially if his mother got word of it. She’d most likely jump in on her brother-in-law’s side.

  His inclination was to wait until they were all safely back in Florida to track his family down and notify them about Sofia’s whereabouts and new-mother status.

  Even if that meant waiting several months to untangle legal paperwork snarls to get Fi moved to Florida.

  If then.

  There really wasn’t any reason to tell them about the baby. Sofia had reached out to her parents while she was pregnant and didn’t even get much info out before her parents shut her down and threw her out.

  Why should he go out of his way to let them know about a baby?

  The sadist in him toyed with the idea of waiting, and then maybe when the baby was two or three, sending them a series of pictures of Katie’s landmarks, like her first Christmas, first birthday, all of that.

  Torture them with what they missed by shutting Sofia out of their lives.

  Once the coffee was burbling, he started scrolling through his phone for any overnight e-mails needing his immediate attention from the Florida office. He hated the split time zones, but it couldn’t be helped.

  He’d missed Florida after returning to California to be with Landry. He preferred Florida to Cali, and not just because of Tilly. Because it had actually felt like home in a way Cali never had, even during his first tenure with Landry.

  If it wasn’t for the size of their company and their extensive business network, he’d gladly move everything to Florida and be done with California for good. A majority of their clients were along the East Coast now.

  Several of their programmers had opted to move to Florida, easing the strain a little, but the bulk of their staff and contractors couldn’t afford to, or didn’t want to. Some of them could telecommute, thankfully, but the bottom line remained they had to keep a physical presence here.

  Cris fixed Tilly a mug of coffee and took it to her, then one for Landry. Landry opened his eyes when Cris carried the coffee in to him and set it on the bedside table before he knelt next to the bed. Landry rolled onto his side and rested a hand in Cris’ hair, gently ruffling it.

  “Good morning, boy,” he said, his voice still thick with sleep. “I take it our Redbird has been up for a while?”

  “Yes, Sir. Nightmares. She finally got up about four. I thought it best to let her have a little alone time.”

  “How’s the baby?”

  “Already had one bottle, and working on a second.”

  Landry sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. Cris leaned in, resting his head against Landry’s legs.

  “Sorry our usual routine is disrupted,” Landry said. “I’ll make it up to you at some point.”

  “I understand, Sir. Thank you for being so understanding about all of this.”

  Landry made him look up. “Cris,” he said, his tone tinged with disbelief, “why wouldn’t I be?”

  “Because I know your feelings about my family.”

  “That is irrelevant when we’re talking about the health and welfare of a baby.” He stroked Cris’ head again. “Are you really going to punish Redbird?”

  Cris let out a playful sigh. “I told her I’d probably be willing to let her…persuade me.”

  Landry grinned. “That’s my good boy. Let her sweat a little about it. See? You did learn well.”

  “I learned from the best, Sir.”

  * * * *

  Despite what his wife and slave might both think, Landry had already decided, as soon as he’d learned about the situation, to toss protocols out the window.

  An infant trumped all.

  Which was something he never thought he’d ever have to deal with, but it wasn’t exactly an entirely unpleasant situation.

  “Let’s go get our shower,” Landry said. “I’m a little too tired this morning to feel playful. Then we can watch the baby while Tilly gets ready, and you can fix us all breakfast.”

  Landry stood and held out a hand to Cris. Once they’d finished that, they dressed and emerged to find Tilly dozing on the couch with the baby on her chest and the empty baby bottle on the coffee table.

  Landry, who’d grabbed his phone, held out a hand and stopped Cris from waking her up. He took a couple of pictures first, then nodded for Cris to go ahead as he set his mug on the coffee table.

  Tilly looked so beautiful, so at peace, he’d wanted to capture the moment.

  He might get few like that again in his life.

  Tilly looked a little disoriented when she awoke, but she relinquished the infant to Cris without argument. Landry took her from Cris, resting her against a burp cloth on his shoulder.

  “Go get your shower, love,” he told her. “Cris will make our breakfast and awaken Sofia.”

  Tilly stared at him for a moment. “Can I get a picture of that?” She pointed at him, a smile on her face.

  Cris grinned, held up his phone, and snapped a couple. “No one’s going to believe this.”

  Landry feigned shock and dismay. “Why is it everyone assumes just because I’m a vicious sadist that I wouldn’t have a soft spot in my heart for a precious, tiny little bean such as this?”

  Cris and Tilly exchanged a look before snorting with laughter. Tilly stood and kissed Landry. “Yeah, exactly. Vicious sadist.” She reached up and stroked the baby’s head. “She
’ll probably need another diaper here shortly. And don’t be surprised if she burps again. I got a couple of really good ones out of her before she fell asleep.”

  “Yes, love. Go shower.”

  The men waited until Tilly closed the bedroom door behind her.

  Cris grinned. “I want that one blown up and framed, suitable for hanging.”

  Landry lowered himself to the couch, mindful of the infant. “Go fix breakfast and awaken Sofia, boy. I’ve got this under control.”

  He smiled as he heard Cris chuckle as he left the room.

  Stretching, Landry reached for the remote and changed the channel to a different news program. This was going to be a really long, stressful day.

  He reached for his coffee. “Oh, and Cris? I’m ready for a refill.” He held it up.

  Sure enough, from behind, Cris walked in and took it. “Yes, Sir.”

  “Good boy.” Landry smiled.

  Who said he had to give up all his protocols?

  * * * *

  Tilly’s mind shifted into work mode as she woke up—again—in the shower. No time for a workout this morning, obviously. She’d have to juggle a ton of stuff around on her calendar for the rest of the week.

  It also meant they likely wouldn’t be returning to Florida late Friday, either.

  Dammit.

  She’d been looking forward to dinner at Sigalo’s and time spent with her friends on Saturday.

  This was, admittedly, way more important.

  As she stood there, she caught herself wondering if Sofia would end up in jail, her probation violated. Ashamed to admit she almost hoped that would happen, Tilly shoved the thought away.

  It was wrong to think that. It wasn’t like the woman had committed murder or something.

  Although allowing the abuse to go on even two weeks, in Tilly’s mind, was two weeks too damn long.

  Let herself get used as a human punching bag, that was Sofia’s choice.

  To stand by while the asshole stole Katie’s formula?

  Unforgivable.

  Jail might help her get her head screwed on straight.