Page 4 of Like You Love Me

Bianca ended the called and looked up at the ceiling, saying a silent prayer that ended with, “Thank you, Lord.”

Her sister-in-law had been the target of a disgruntled employee. Not only had he stalked her, but he’d also kidnapped her. She and Bianca were leaving the family New Year’s Eve party when Troy ran Bianca’s car off the road, slamming it into a tree. He kidnapped Sheyna and left Bianca unconscious, wounded, and freezing. London, and her brothers, Jace, Jabarie, and Jaden, also known as the three J’s, had done everything to find them in time.

It had been a terrifying night. Tears filled her eyes, but she refused to sit and feel sorry for herself. It was over. Everyone was alive. Life could go back to normal or as close to normal as possible once her wounds had healed.

Bianca watched television and started to relax when her cell rang, startling her. When she looked down at the number, her heart did a shimmy up to her throat. Bianca contemplated ignoring the call before bringing the phone to her ear. “Hello?” There was a silent pause, so she had to repeat herself. “Hello?”

“I heard on the news what happened. Are you okay?”

She closed her eyes and willed for strength at the sound of his low husky voice. “I’m fine, Collin. Thanks for asking. Now, what do you want?”

“You know what I want, Bianca. The same thing I wanted when I called your office two weeks ago.” He sounded anxious. “I want to see Sierra.”

Bianca took a breath to dispel the tension in her chest and said, “You have no right.”

“Yes, I do. Sierra has a right to know the truth.” Collin paused for a long moment. “She needs to know I’m her father.”

It had been the third-worst night of his life.

The first was when his mother died from brain cancer. The second had been when he and his sisters stood over his father’s bed as he took his last breath. The third had been when he discovered his wife was missing. Ever since that eventful night, London had been loading up on energy drinks, determined to stay alert.

He dropped a block of semi-sweet chocolate into a saucepan with water and placed it onto a low flame on the stove. Once warmed, he would add milk and sugar, then the right touch of cinnamon, just like his mother used to make it. While he waited, London removed the plates from the dishwasher. His eyes drifted out the window above a farmhouse sink at the fresh snow coming down, blanketing the large backyard. In the last couple of days, several inches had fallen, and the meteorologist forecasted several more. As he put dishes away in the cabinet, his mind reeled with images of finding his wife’s slumped body in her car on the side of the road. If he and her brothers hadn’t seen her when they had, there was no telling when anyone would have found her.

He clenched his fist around a green coffee mug and worked to control his anger before he cracked the porcelain. He wasn’t sure he had ever been that scared before. Bianca and Sierra were his life. He did everything he could as a man to keep them safe, and the guilt of not being there to protect her clung to him like a second skin. That bastard was going to spend the maximum time in jail if London had anything to do with it. Battery, stalking, kidnapping, attempted murder, and several other charges, the man was going to rot. And when Troy was finally released, the smartest thing was for him to leave Sheraton Beach. The Beaumonts were not one to play with. London scowled. The Browns weren’t a family to mess with either.

Bianca was his woman.

His life.

His wife.

She was beautiful with brown skin, exotic eyes that hypnotize with a single flutter of her lush lashes, and she had sultry lips made to be kissed exclusively by him. He couldn’t imagine living without her and was thankful he didn’t have to find out. And that was why Bianca was going to rest even if he had to take time off from managing the restaurant chain to make sure she did just as the doctor ordered. Luckily for him, he had an excellent management team who could run the restaurants without him.

He was the owner of Clarence’s Chicken & Fish House with locations throughout Delaware, and thanks to Bianca’s cousin Diamere, he had expanded into Philadelphia with two locations.

His father’s batter recipes were so popular, business was good. Good enough that he was thinking about expanding even more. He muttered obscenities under his breath and scrubbed a hand over his face. That’s if he could first get the state to review his file and declare the fire to his New Castle restaurant as something other than arson. Until then, the insurance company refused to pay the claim.

He reached over for a spoon and stirred the cocoa. Lately, he’d had a lot on his plate, but he wasn’t complaining. Ever since his father passed away, he had taken over the responsibility of anchoring the family—Bianca, Sierra, and his four sisters. Three were single. One was married. London tightened his grip at the thought of Caleb Nelson, who had been nothing but a leech to his oldest sister, Mona Lisa, since the day she met him. The middle sister, Denise, was a singer and an entertainment attorney who was too focused on her career for relationships. She was a workaholic that he hoped would take some time off to enjoy her life. The twins, on the other hand, were living life. Maybe living it a little bit too much for his taste, but he figured it wasn’t his business or place. He had been young once and been into the party scene, so he just hoped that eventually Carmen and Camille would tire of the excitement and return to living normal, maybe settled down and meet a nice guy. But that didn’t stop him from worrying. One of them was dating online, which scared him, thinking she would meet someone who would set her up, and he couldn’t get to her in time.

He was stirring the chocolate when the phone in his pocket vibrated. London reached for it, glanced down at the name on the screen, and smiled. He swiped and waited until his daughter’s oval face appeared in the video.

“Hey, Honeybee.”

“Daddy? Is Mommy okay?”

He saw the worry in her large walnut-colored eyes and immediately wanted to put her mind at ease. “She is upstairs in bed watching television.”

“Is she in any pain?”

“No,” he said, reassuring her. “She is fine. Just a little sore, so she needs time to rest.” He watched Sierra’s eyes, so much like her mother’s, brighten at the news.

“Can I stay with Brianna this weekend?” Brianna was her cousin and the daughter of Jabarie and Brenna Beaumont.

London smiled and replied, “Of course, you can, but I’m sure your mother would like to see you.”

Sierra wore her hair in a cute ponytail that bounced as she said, “I will call Mommy in the morning.”

“She’ll like that.”