Page 16 of Luke

“I don’t have anything to hide, Paisley. It’s a freeing thought to know that everything is out in the open. You can use my phone whenever you want.”

That was an odd thought. She didn’t have anything to hide either, but she hadn’t thought to give him her phone code. As she texted Catherine, she wondered if that was something she should do. Was that what couples did now? She had no idea.

“She said to come on over,” Paisley read aloud to him.

Luke looked around and shrugged. “I didn’t really feel like unpacking.” He laughed.

“Let me get his stuff.” Paisley started making a list of everything they’d need. She hadn’t taken Garrett anywhere aside from when she was in the hospital, and little thought went into that.

Luke outright laughed this time. “You don’t know Catherine. I guarantee you she has almost everything this little man could want. Just grab the diaper bag.”

Chapter Seven

Luke

Luke looked out of the windows in Ryker’s conference room where he sat with all of his friends and Matt as they tried to come up with the best way to keep his father out of their lives. He was listening to them talk but imagining that he must feel like Paisley did with the house, overwhelmed.

He hadn’t expected his friends to jump in with full support, especially Cade. Everyone had, though. They’d all show up for him and were now trying to find a way to protect all of them and his sister from his father’s wrath when he found out what was happening.

The fact that Luke hadn’t been to visit was probably already enough to tip him off, but nothing had happened yet.

“Here’s what we have. The lawyers said we can bring another case with all of the harassment he’s done to us since being in jail, but it’s not that strong. He can argue that he didn’t have anything to do with Marcus or anything else. I’m here for trying it, but I think we need another plan,” Cade explained.

“I don’t have record of Marcus visiting him and since he’s not around to talk about it, I don’t think that’s a great defense,” Matt agreed.

“There’s him.” Ryker pointed at Luke. “He’s talked directly to him about everything that he wanted to happen.”

Luke shrugged. “I have no problem testifying against him if we can get him to stop this shit.”

Cade shook his head. “Won’t work without implicating yourself in crimes. We could subpoena the videos of him telling you things, especially with your support, but then you could end up in trouble.”

If this had been just a few months ago, Luke would have shrugged at that too. Now he had Paisley and Garrett to think of, and he didn’t want to leave them. It was selfish, but he didn’t.

“No. He’s got Garrett to think of.” Cade made eye contact with him. “And Paisley?”

Luke nodded. “Trying to have her, too.”

Cade gave him a curt nod and turned back to the group. “Let’s look at what Luke has gathered while pretending he didn’t have any friends or family to help him.”

Luke snorted.

Matt sent a new file to the screen. “Here are the main players that Luke has dirt on to help with Ashley. My concern is him finding out about Luke’s newfound family. We don’t know what he will do to prevent that from moving forward.”

“Nothing he can do. I’m not leaving her or making her leave.” Luke was firm on that. There was no chance he was going back to not knowing her or his son.

“We aren’t asking you to. We just need to think of what he will try to do to interfere. If we can stay ahead of him, we can plan for the inevitable, just like you did with Ashley.” Jake stood and paced near the windows. “I know you don’t want to leave her, that makes sense to all of us, but all of us have gone through some shit to keep our relationships working because of him.”

Everyone nodded except Luke and Matt.

“Matt, run a background check on Paisley, see if there’s any dirt,” Cade directed.

“I don’t want to go through her past. It’s intrusive,” Luke defended. He didn’t care what had happened in her past, but neither did he want to go looking through it.

“It’s not about finding bad things about her. None of us will think any different, but we need to know what he could use against her. We can’t help her if we don’t know what we’re up against,” Evan reasoned. “I don’t like it either, but I think it’s important.”

Luke thought it over and knew it was smart to do this. It just didn’t sit well with him that he was doing this behind her back.

“Let me talk to her. I’ll see if there’s anything she can tell us before Matt throws her life up on the screen. At least we can give her the option of privacy on the rest of her past.” Luke pulled out his phone.