Chapter 17 In case anyone hasn't told you today, I'm beautiful. -Text from Creole to Audric AUDRIC I left Creole sleeping in her own bed-in her seriously messy apartment-and quietly closed and locked her door. But not before taking her extra set of keys that would let me into her apartment. My first stop was to my house to shower and change after two back-to-back flights, one to Hawaii, and one back. I caught almost five hours of sleep on the plane ride home, meanwhile she was in desperate need of a solid six hours to catch up after her long ass day. I had no clue how she did it. Her job looked exhausting. I pulled into the driveway to see Gunner and Lottie in the front yard playing with the water hose. I saw him bend down and say something to Lottie, and I saw that sneaky little grin that was all Laney overtake her face. I knew what was coming before I'd even shut the bike off. I managed to slip my helmet off and brace my legs fully on the ground before she was barreling toward me. Her wet little body fully covered in a sopping wet Princess Tiana dress my dad had bought her for her last birthday hit me like a tiny battering ram. "There's my girl." I hugged her close, shivering slightly as the water seeped into my t-shirt. "Looks like you're having fun. What did you do this morning?" "We 'ad pancakes!" she cried. "Ohh, special," I said as I took off toward where Gunner continued to water his flowers. Flowers that he hadn't had until this week. "Were you good for Gunner last night?" "Daddy seep with me," she declared. My head whipped around to stare at Gunner. Gunner's head had whipped around toward us. And we both looked on with surprise in our eyes. "Is that right, Lottie? You know Gunner is your daddy?" "Mama told me!" I frowned. "Mama?" "In my dweams." She nodded ferociously. My stomach somersaulted. "Gunner is your daddy, and I'm your Uncle Audric." "I know!" She wiggled. "Down!" I let her down, and she walked over to some pink flowers. "Look!" I nodded as I walked closer to Gunner. "What the fuck?" "I have no idea. It was just us last night. I never told her..." I slapped him on the back. "Just take the win, man. You okay?" "My fucking heart hurts," he admitted. "I can still hear Jett calling me that in my dreams." He swallowed hard. "Never thought I'd hear it again, to be honest." "Enjoy, man. You got a good little girl on your hands," I said. "She'll cure you of that broken heart. Maybe not fix it, but she'll give you the strength you need to keep going, that's for sure." Gunner cleared his throat again. "I'm taking her to see my uncle today. That's okay, right?" I laughed. "She's yours. You need me, though, and I'm here." "I need you to keep staying here, though," he said quickly. "I'm not ready..." "You're ready," I disagreed. "But I'll stay here as long as you think you need me." He nodded, looking relieved. "Thanks, man." "I'm heading to see Creole's dad today," I said. "But if you need anything, I'll be in town. Not going too far." "Not like heading off to Hawaii at a moment's notice?" He chuckled. I headed toward the door. "That might happen again, but at least not this week. I have some work to finish up at the apartments. And Creole doesn't have another flight out until next Wednesday." His laughter followed behind me as I left, and I was unsurprised to see the neighbors watching with curious eyes as I made my way to my bike. The most curious of them all, the young woman next door who couldn't help but stare unabashedly waved at me. I gave her a chin jerk back as I got on my bike and rode away. I wasn't sure that I wanted to go see Creole's dad. But I knew if I didn't, it would only get harder to face him. I didn't know if he blamed me for what happened to his daughter-and let's be honest here, I blamed myself-but I needed to get my head out of my ass and talk to him. It was the only way that we were going to go the distance, because I knew that her dad only had her left, and would fight tooth and nail for her. The drive to Week's place was all of two minutes. He lived in the same neighborhood as my dad, and I had to pass his house to get to Week's. Coming to a stop in front of his place, I got off and yanked off my helmet. I eyed the house-it hadn't changed much since we were kids-and noticed that all the flowers Joy had planted were still there, just a little worse for wear. I took in the front door, then slammed my helmet down on the seat before marching up the front walk. I'd come up these steps a hundred thousand times over the years, but this time was by far the worst feeling. I'd just made it up to his front porch and was standing between the gladiolas that his wife had planted sometime in our junior year, when my phone rang. "Apollo," I said as I answered the phone on speaker. "What'd you find?" I hadn't liked the look in the good ol' doctor's eyes when I'd asked him to stay away from my girl. He'd been just a little bit too fake that I knew that he thought he had the upper hand. He didn't, and I wanted to make sure he knew that. "Even more than I'm thinking you thought I'd get." He sounded surprised, even to himself. "So looks like the good doctor has a few sexual harassment charges swept under the rug. He knows a lot of people in high places, so he's able to get these charges cleared and anything that follows his brothers that work at DPD clear it up. He also has a fairly good computer guru sister who helps him clear that up, too, if anything decides to stick. Which nothing has, yet. But there was virtually no record of anything at first glance. So I'm thinking she's done some cleaning up for him. But she's not that good. I was able to find everything, it just took a little deeper digging than I usually have to do." He drew a deep breath and kept going. "This is the most fun I've had in ages. She's pretty damn good, but not good enough. I uncovered all of those charges. Every last one of them. He has eight, by the way. I then went ahead and sent a copy of said charges to the medical board, since I was sure that they didn't have them." He chuckled. "Man, this guy is a fuckin' nut job. After a deep dive, it looks like the women come to him to share their worst, darkest experiences and the doctor plays the good guy act with them. He freaks them the fuck out, so they try to leave. Then he starts stalking them. Showing up at their homes. Their places of work. Their kids' schools if they have any. The women file police reports which go nowhere. Then he continues to stalk them until the next fun plaything comes along and he loses interest. That, or they move away. He's not interested in moving because of his support system here." "Two other things," Apollo said. "Did you see him on the flight y'all were on three days ago?" My brows slammed down. "No. He was on it?" "Sure was. First class even." That flight had been brutal. She'd had so much to tell me, and my mind had been on her, not on the people that were on the plane with us. That wouldn't be happening again. "I have something set up that'll alert me when he tries that one again," Apollo said. "I'm pretty sure you being on that flight surprised him. He was probably on his best behavior when he saw you there." The motherfucker. "Anything else?" I asked. "I dug all through his life, man. And I'm not saying this makes it okay, but it looks like he's only into the psychological torture of his patients when it's convenient for him. If she's out of his reach, he moves on to his next victim. So far, nothing in his past shows that he's a violent person. I'm not saying stalking is all right, but at least he's not going to go and kill her since you took away his toy. He'll just go look for another toy." I guess that was something. But the way my luck went, I'd have to deal with him getting pissed that I warned him off. "I'm going to stick with him, though. Don't worry." He paused. "One other thing." I groaned. "What?" "My sources tell me that your mother has requested to move from her current long-term care facility to a government-run one that is in Oklahoma," he said. "And, on the Combs' front, I was snooping around the lawyer's files, and they're scrambling because they didn't expect for Gunner to fight back. Or Gunner to even be in the picture in the first place. They're trying to find dirt on him, but he comes out looking like a fuckin' Nobel Prize winner with his work for the government and his cash donations to various organizations that help school shooter victims." "So they're not going to be an issue much longer?" I wondered. "Nope," he said. "As far as I can tell, the lawyer suggested pulling out. He said he'd continue to take their money, but it would be smartest to just be nice and ask for visitation instead of demanding it." "Gunner won't let them anywhere near her after the shit they pulled," I admitted. "Nope," he agreed. "But they don't know that." "Thanks, Apollo. I know that you're busy," I murmured quietly. "Never too busy for my family," he hesitated. "One last other thing." I would've laughed if he didn't sound so worried. "What?" "I've been looking for Jordie Goodwin. I can't find him anywhere. He's left no trail at all. That means that he's been erased. And there are only a few people who can erase someone like that." "Who would do it?" "The government," he said. "My guess, he's someone important. He's probably special forces. It won't be easy to get him." I gritted my teeth. "You let me worry about that." "I'll get his location to you as soon as I can find it." I shoved the phone in my pocket, started to lift my hand to knock, and found myself staring at Week through the screen door. He opened it, and I walked inside without an invite. The place looked exactly as it did when we were teens. "I heard what you said," he said. "My girl finally decides to talk, and the guy is a total fucking douchebag?" "Yep," I confirmed. "I have Apollo keeping an eye on him, but he thinks that he's going to keep his distance. We're going to take him down, but we are doing it the only way that Creole will be able to live with. And that's the 'right' way, not the Truth Tellers' way." Week tilted his head. "What if I'd feel more comfortable with the Truth Teller way?" I thought about my answer before I said, "I have other people I'd rather treat to the Truth Teller way." His eyes stayed zeroed in on me for a few long seconds before he said, "I told her you would never do that." I closed my eyes in relief. "It was a bad look," I admitted. "But I walked in." I shook my head, my stomach churning. "I saw her hair, and I just...fuck. I reacted. Left. Took off and didn't look back. I thought she..." He jerked his chin toward the kitchen. I followed behind him and took a seat at the bar, nodding my head in thanks when he handed me a beer. I didn't point out that it was barely nine in the morning. I just took the beer and twisted the top off before bending the lid in half and placing it gently on the counter. "The day that she told me that she was hurt..." He looked up at the ceiling. "I wanted to tear this world apart." I could imagine. "Then she found out she was pregnant," he sounded ravaged. "I thought I'd despise that kid. But it turns out, all I could see in him was my baby girl. And I loved him like I loved her." "Damon was a really good kid," I agreed. "I wish I'd gotten to know him better." "You missed out on the entire world." His eyes were intense. "But you won't miss out on anymore, will you?" I was already shaking my head. "No." "Good." He leaned his hips against the counter. "What's your plan with Goodwin?" I smiled. "It's probably best that you don't know. So you don't get implicated." His eyes were alight. "If you fucking take this away from me, kid, I'll refuse to give my permission for you to marry her." I chuckled. "You could withhold it, but she'd marry me anyway." "You're so sure?" he asked. I nodded. "You asked me that two months ago, I would've told you that you were fucking crazy. But she's given me everything now, and I'm done staying away. It's what we both want." "But you'll let me still help, won't you?" "As soon as Apollo finds him, yes," I confirmed. "Though, he's having issues. Apollo can't find him. He's thinking that the military erased him. He's probably special forces, or high in the government. Someone who has the power or ability to erase that kind of information never means good things." Week grunted in reply. "Also, what does he do that he has to have that kind of information erased? Yeah, I'm not thinking good things, either." He looked sick. "I've been looking for him since it happened." That had me freezing. "I've paid almost a hundred thousand dollars looking into this kid," he said. "That fucker's parents have hidden him well." I clapped him on shoulder and said, "You let me handle it from here. I'll bring you in when I'm sure we won't get caught." Week's grin was harsh as he said, "Don't have a wife. Don't have a grandkid. Know my kid is safe with you..." He looked at me so seriously then that I had trouble breathing for a second. "That's why you came here, right?" I didn't beat around the bush. "Yes." "You have my permission," he said. "She's had a thing for you since she first saw you riding your bike down the road in front of our house." My lips twitched. "I was a menace on that bike." "I know." He leveled me with a quelling look. "You took out my wife's begonias with that bike. I had to spend all damn weekend replacing them after you did that." I grimaced. "I was an asshole." "You were," he agreed. "But that assholish behavior got you on my girl's radar. And I can't say that I'm complaining about it right now, seeing as you're set on righting a wrong I haven't been able to yet." That sobered me up quickly. "Creole's always meant the world to me, you know." "I know." He crossed his arms over his chest. "Only a man who's hurt bad disappears on someone he loves." "You knew I loved her?" I grinned. "You don't hide your feelings for Creole well." He opened the door when I moved to head that way. "But I don't think that's a bad thing, not being able to hide your feelings from the woman that's supposed to mean the world to you." No, I didn't think so, either. "Just don't go to jail," I said. "I have a good lawyer, but she's busy right now with my shit." His laugh was loud and sudden. "I'll do my best. No promises, though. She's the only thing I care about anymore." I shook his hand and headed back to my bike, then headed for the job site. I worked until she called me to tell me she was awake, then I invited her to my sanctuary.