More Than Forever (Providence Series Book 2) (32 page)

“
Jesus Christ,”
Adam said from beside me. Until now, my brother had been quiet, but his oath was followed by everyone else’s. 

“So, does that mean that if they’re dead by the ‘special Kool-Aid’ that we won’t have any more issues?” Cole queried. 

“At this moment, it wouldn’t be a good idea to
assume
that the threat to you all is over. We haven’t found anything to confirm that they did hire someone to do this, but we’ll be looking into it. So, for the time being, security will remain tight and we will all continue to be vigilant of what’s going on around us.” He looked around the room at all of us making it clear that the ‘us’ included everyone in the room so we all nodded. “We still have to find the bomb maker and don’t know if he was paid to plant more devices in the future or not.” 

I don’t think I was the only one who was struggling to get my head around what we’d been told, because we all mumbled confirmation that we understood, but looking up I could see the same confusion on everyone else’s faces that I knew was on my own. 

“The weddings will go ahead as both Miss Price and Mrs. Montgomery, Christie Montgomery,” he looked over at Dad and clarified, “have made it clear that there will be no cancellations under pain of death. I assume this counts, too.” Shaking his head, Dad muttered under his breath as the rest of us sniggered. “Security will be tight at the venues at all times. For now, we continue as we are.” 

I needed to get up and see my wife, and Dad, Jack, and Ren appeared to be thinking the same thing as they got up and followed me through to the kitchen. I skidded around the corner and came to a stop as I took in the sight in front of me. Maya was mixing something in a bowl, Mom and Linda were measuring out more ingredients and tipping them into bowls, Colette was taking a couple of trays of cookies out of the oven, and Isla was cutting shapes into a dough in front of her. When I was sixteen, I remember going into our kitchen and seeing Mom and Isla baking, and from that moment, one of my innocent fantasies had been to see Isla baking with our kids. At this moment, that dream was almost a reality - we just had to wait for Thing One and Thing Two to be old enough to bake.  

Hurst was the one to break the bubble. “What are y’all making in here? Damn, it smells good!” He walked in sniffing the air and tried to reach for one of the cookies, that were now cooling, but Linda moved quick and smacked his hand hard making us all laugh. 

“No, you’ll wait.” 

“Dammit, woman,” he said scowling and shaking his hand. “Stop hitting me!” 

“Hitting you?” She put down whatever it was that she was measuring out and turned to face him with her hands on her hips. “You almost shot me a couple of weeks ago!” 

“It was the gun’s fault!” 

I think the laughter that followed that was more nervous that humorous because the guy was fuckin’ dangerous and should never be let loose with a weapon.   

“What are you making, baby?” Ren asked walking up to Maya and putting his arms around her from behind. I pushed off the wall that I’d been leaning against and went up to Isla, doing the same thing and nuzzling her neck making her sigh as she leaned back against me. 

“Cookies, Bakewell Tarts, and blueberry and white chocolate muffins.” Maya listed.
Jesus, they all sounded good
. 

“What’s the occasion?”  

The ladies all looked at each other after Ren’s Dad asked that, interesting they were up to something.  

“Mwaaaah,” Cole groaned, with a mouthful of cookie. Sneaky fucker. “These are so good!” 

“Why does he get one?” Hurst whined. Seriously, Cole took after his Grandad completely. Whatever unlucky woman ended up with Cole was gonna be rethinking her choice once she met Hurst because it was blatantly obvious that that’s what he’d end up like in 50 years’ time.
Maybe that’s why he and Ebru weren’t together?
 

“Bad Cole,” Christie said and hit him with the wooden spoon in her hand. 

“Ma, what the fuck?”  

“Why don’t y’all go and sit down,” Christie suggested, turning and smiling at us. “You must have a lot still to discuss. As punishment for stealing a cookie, Cole can help us clean up in here.” Cole turned around with his cheeks bulging with cookie and glared at his Mom. “Unless, of course, you’d all like to help him?” 

We got out of that kitchen as fast as we’d arrived at it and went back through to the living room. 

“So, what do you think we should do?” Ren asked. 

“I think we go with what Coleman and Baz suggest for now. Be wary, be on guard, and wait until we know to act otherwise,” George said, leaning back in his chair and looking at all of us. “I’m disappointed that you didn’t fill us in though. When it comes to family and safety you
never
keep information from us. What if something had happened to your Moms?” 

“Nothing would have,” Brett replied. “We have the best security and they know what they’re doing.” 

“Well, I’m gonna be ready and waiting. I found my old shotgun last night and it’s loaded and ready to go. Those assholes are gonna get the shock of their lives if they turn up again.” Hurst said. We all looked at each other in panic and Jack got up and walked out of the room, hopefully to get the shotgun in question and hide it. The thought of Hurst taking aim with one of those was fuckin’ terrifying. 

Brett looked up from his phone, which he’d been checking and typing on all morning, and was just about to say something when Cole walked back into the room scowling followed by the women. 

“So, you weren’t going to tell us about what was going on? That the bombers might not be the same people?” Linda said, looking pissed surrounded by the other ladies who wore the same expressions on their faces too. We all glared at Cole, what the fuck? 

“Don’t look at me, you’re assholes. They tortured me!”  

“You fucking pussy, Cole. You couldn’t hold up to five women?” Brett growled.  

“You weren’t there,” he snapped back. “You don’t know what those…those…
women
,” he threw his hand out in their direction, “did to me!” 

Jack walked back in at that moment and took in the room. “Shit, I was only gone for five minutes. What the fuck did I miss?” 

“And
you
, Jack Townsend…” Colette leaned in his direction. “All of these years we’ve been married and I’ve never kept one secret from you, and you do this?” The expression on her face changed and went into an almost pout before she whispered, “I trusted you!” 

Oh, she was good and Jack fell for it straight away. 

“Honey, no, I was going to tell you, but…” he faded off and looked for an excuse.
Epic fail!
 

I looked over at Isla to see her glaring at me, too, but I knew exactly how to deal with her and stood up and walked over to her before picking her up. 

“Say goodbye to everyone,
sayang
.” 

“Put me down, Luke!” She was wriggling in my arms trying to get away. 

“Nope and stop moving before I drop you and we hurt the babies.” 

She stopped immediately and crossed her arms glaring at me. 

“And I want some of that baking dropped off at the house,” I said, looking at Cole. “You eat it and I’ll shove one of those wooden spoons so far up your ass that you’ll be using it as a toothpick.” 

“Luke!” Mom scolded while the guys snorted. They wouldn’t be laughing soon, that I could guarantee with the looks on their wives’ faces. 

“Jesus, you’re so combative,” Cole grumbled. He’d be getting the bitch treatment from all of us for a long time after this, so he needed to get used to it. 

“Say bye, Angel.” 

Isla turned and gave them all a sweet smile and said goodbye as I walked out of the door and toward Layla’s house, dropping it as soon as we got outside. 

“You’re in so much shit, Montgomery,” she hissed looking up at me. “I’m so pissed at you.” 

“I know how to work that out of you.” I smiled down at her, and I did. 

“Oh no, I’m not talking to you and you’re not gonna touch me.” 

“I can work that out of you, too.” 

“I’ll scream if you touch me, Luke, I mean it.” 

“Great idea,
sayang
, let’s go make you scream.” The guard in front of the door opened it for us and I walked in kicking it closed behind us and up the stairs. Time to make my Angel scream. 

I
sla
 

Laying back against Luke in the bath,
I giggled as my stomach suddenly moved as the babies went on a tumble mission. Luke reached up and put his hand on them and burst out laughing when one of them kicked him in protest. 

We’d come home and he’d carried me straight up to our room. It had been a week since we’d been able to do anything because of my arm and the bed rest that I’d been put on by Doctor Conlan. Stripping us both down, he’d laid me out on the bed and climbed over me, caging me in with his arms and legs and holding my head gently between his hands.  

“I would never let anything hurt you, you know that, don’t you?” He looked anxious as he said this and I wondered about what information we hadn’t been able to get out of Cole. 

“Of course, but why are you asking me this?” 

He had let out a deep breath and closed his eyes as he lay his forehead against mine before saying, “We had to do stuff which means we can’t involve the FBI to get information out of the two guys that we tracked down Angel;
I
had to do stuff. I needed to know everything so that I could protect you, but after they got into this house, I failed you and the babies.” 

He looked so tortured by all of this and I didn’t realize that I was crying, until I felt the tears running down my temples into my hair. 

“What did you have to do?” I couldn’t raise my voice louder than a whisper because his pain was cutting me to the bone. The worst thing was that I didn’t know what the pain was to take it away for him. 

“The guy who shot you.” His eyes moved to the bandage that was still on my arm covering the wound that no longer had stitches in it. “He wasn’t talking…” he trailed off and looked over my head at the wall, but I wanted his eyes on me, so I reached up and turned it back toward me. “I hit his leg with a baseball bat and basically shattered his knee.” He swallowed audibly and then whispered, “I needed to know how to protect you, Isla…” 

I had known my husband for most of my life and in all of that time, yes, verbally and mentally, he had been hard, but physically? Never, and I knew this had to be eating him up.  

“You did what you had to do, what you’ve always done - made sure that I’m safe. Someone
shot
me honey, it wasn’t just harsh words, it was a bullet. Making that decision was hard for you, but you did the right thing and if I was in your shoes, I’d have done it, too. The bomb being delivered here…” I shook my head never losing eye contact with him once. “That wasn’t on you either nor could you have done anything. You’ve not been sleeping Luke, I know that, and it’s because you’re afraid that it’ll happen again and they’ll succeed this time, but they won’t.” 

“I have something else to tell you.” I gave him a nod and waited for him. “Jodie and Calista are dead,
sayang
. They were found today in a motel three hours out. And they were the ones who planted the box with the bomb in it in here, we think. 

Calista was seen buying the shit needed.” 

I didn’t know what to say to that. I’d struggled with them for years and they had been cruel and evil in ways that damages people for life, and the only person who had protected me from them was the man in front of me and his family and my Gram. I could feel sad that they were dead, but then they had apparently made a bomb that could have killed us and the babies or the people who were around it when it went off in the field. I didn’t care about what they did during my childhood, I had a better life without them in it and it brought me closer to my husband. But I did care about the bomb, and because of that I felt no sadness or remorse at this news. 

“I’m glad they’re gone. Does that make me a bad person?” I whispered. 

Shaking his head, he leaned down and brushed his lips across mine. “No, it doesn’t. They weren’t good people who lived life decently, Isla. The only emotions I felt about this news were toward you and how you would take it.” 

A thought hit me. “How did they die?” 

He raised his head up and gave me a half smile. “Cole reckons it was the ‘special Kool-Aid’.” 

It was an inappropriate moment to laugh, but I couldn’t help it; he was so bang on with that. They were like a cult, the two of them, so drinking the poisoned Kool-Aid would be pretty apt.  

“Does my Dad know?”  

“Coleman was going to tell him, but I don't doubt that seeing as they were still married that the police would visit your father to break the news to him.” 

“They were horrible people Luke, evil. The things they did…” it was hard to remember all of the hell that they’d put me, through, but even harder to voice it out loud. “Why did they hate me so much?” 

He stroked the hair off my face and said seriously, “Jealousy. People love you, Isla, they meet you and instantly see your personality and inner beauty as well as your outside beauty. You never had to flirt with guys to get their attention,” he looked angry at this. “You never caked on makeup like a mask because you don’t need it and you never had to give head to get ahead, as crude as that sounds. They did!”