Page 97 of Silver Linings

“Who are you?”

“The family I work for is powerful, Mr. Brooks, and they don’t like how you’ve interfered in their personal business. They’ve asked me to come here and, well, make it clear that you are to back down and find a different project to dedicate your time to. Nothing they’ve done in the past seems to get that message across to you, so I’m here to make sure that it does.”

Gunner’s face remained blank as his mind ran wild. The Santoro family had sent someone to talk to him. What was their goal? Was something going down somewhere else that this woman was distracting him from seeing? The intense need to get back to Lily and Sage overwhelmed him.

“Honestly, I’m surprised they had me come here at all,” the bitch in black continued. “Normally, I would think the warnings they sent would be much more effective. But with your wife and daughter, well, you know just how valuable those lives are. If you want to keep them safe, you’ll walk away from this.”

Those fuckers. The message was obvious: give the Santoros a pass to expand their trafficking, or Lily and Sage would be taken. If they even tried to put their hands on either of his girls, he would burn the entire world down. He didn’t care about anything else. Only their safety.

The woman looked down at her watch, smiling.

“I think you’ll find that your wife needs your help. She’s just had what I can imagine was a rather upsetting encounter. You’d hate to not be there when she crashes from the adrenaline I’m sure her unexpected run-in caused.”

“If you hurt a fucking hair on her head…” Gunner stepped close to the woman.

“I wouldn’t waste precious time threatening me, Mr. Brooks. I did nothing today except deliver a message. Just know, this is your last warning. Walk away, or they’ll be forced to take actions you will not like.”

Gunner’s head whipped around, trying his hardest to spot Lily and Sage. He couldn’t see them from where he was standing, and when he went to question the woman, she was already gone.

Shit. He took off running, his heart pounding in his throat as he weaved in between shopping carts and shoppers, who seemed oblivious to his need to find his wife and daughter.

He just wanted to get both Lily and Sage back to Montgomery Defense. He needed to brief the team about the threat; they would not go down without a fight, but he also wouldn’t risk Lily and Sage.

Gunner found Lily standing next to a display for pies, Sage’s little feet kicking around in the carrier, and the tightness in his chest eased just a little. He didn’t want to scare Lily, so he needed to wait until they were back at the apartment to tell her what had happened.

“Hey, those pies look good. Thinking about picking one up?” He slid a kiss onto her neck as his hand found its way to the base of her back. She was shaking.

“Lily? What’s wrong?” It was only then that he got a good look at her. Her face was pale and her eyes filled with unshed tears. “Hey, Lily Kate. Look at me.”

When her eyes snapped to him, she lost it. Her arms flew around his shoulders and she buried her face into the crook of his neck, hot tears tickling his skin.

“Baby, what happened?” He moved, so Sage had more room between them.

“They were here.”

Fuck. That bitch hadn’t been lying. She’d used talking to him as a distraction. His muscles ached to run after the woman and drag her back to his team for answers.

“Who?”

“James’s parents.”

His whole body froze.

“T-they touched her, then gave me this paperwork. They’re going to take her from us.”

“How the hell did they even find out we live here?”

“I don’t know. But they can’t have her, Gunner. They can’t.”

“Of course not, Lil. Don’t waste a single second thinking about them. It’s all going to be okay.”

Gunner slipped his hand into Lily’s and walked through the cereal aisle and out of the store. One arm stayed wrapped around his girls while the other pulled his phone from his pocket and typed out a message to the guys.

“Gunner, we just left our cart back there. The food for dinner?—”

“I’ll have something delivered to the apartment, or one of the guys can pick up whatever we need. I just need to get you both home.” They walked up to the car, and Gunner opened the rear door to access Sage’s car seat. A small whimper came from Lily, and he hated to see how she was biting down on her lip. “Are you okay?”

“Take Sage,” she gasped, handing the baby to him as she bent over. The wheezing sound coming from her had Gunner securing Sage fast before gripping both her arms and forcing her to the ground.