Maya Banks - Colters’ Gift

There in the tight hold of her family, Lauren nodded. Her voice was firm and full of resolve.

“Yes. I’m ready. Make the call.”

SWEETIE, you’ve got to stop pacing,” Holly soothed from her perch at the bar. “You’re going to wear a hole in my floor.”

Lauren paused and sighed. “I’m sorry. This is making me crazy. How long can it possibly take to make a phone call?”

“Not just any phone call,” Callie pointed out.

“Come sit,” Lily urged. “All this anxiety can’t be good for you. I know it’s not good for me.”

Lauren plopped onto the stool next to Holly, wanting the comfort and guidance of the older woman.

“What made you decide to stand up to your ex-husband? I can’t imagine the strength it took to separate yourself from the Colter men and be alone through that whole process.”

Holly sighed. “It’s not as courageous as you make it sound. The truth was, I was terrified. I had just been horribly attacked by a man hired by my ex-husband to kill me. Ryan had been shot trying to protect me. I thought he was dead.”

Her voice quivered and pain filled her eyes.

“All I could think was that Ryan had been hurt because of me, and I didn’t want to lose the men I loved more than anything. I also knew that they’d never agree to let me go, so I made the decision for them. I contacted the D.A. in San Francisco. I arranged for him to come to the hospital to talk to me, and then I left the hospital in protective custody and remained so for several months. It was during that time that I learned I was pregnant.”

Her lips turned up into a rueful smile.

“The best and worst time of my life. I was overjoyed at the thought of having their child and devastated because I was isolated from them with no definitive timeline. Thank God my ex-husband pled out, which meant I didn’t have to testify. I was only gone for a little over five months, but I swear it felt like an eternity.”

“I don’t want to be separated from Liam and Noah,” Lauren said in a low voice. She glanced over at the women sitting at the bar. “I don’t want to be separated from any of you either.”

“We don’t want you to go either,” Callie said fiercely. “This will work out, Lauren. It has to. You’ll be safer here with us than in any witness protection program. There’s no way the dads or my brothers or Max and Liam and Noah are going to let someone come into our home and hurt you.”

Lauren sighed again. “That’s a nice thought and it sounds good to say, and I have no doubt that the intention is certainly sincere. But how realistic is it to say that I’m untouchable? We have no way of knowing what Joel will do. As afraid as I am, I could not bear the thought of something happening to one of the dads or to one of Lily’s husbands or my brother.

“Or the men I love,” she added quietly.

“Oh honey,” Holly said, squeezing her hand tightly. “You’ve got to stop taking on so much. You aren’t to blame if something happens to one of our men. That blame lies squarely on the shoulders of Joel Knight.”

“And is that what you thought when you decided to go away from the dads?” Lauren asked pointedly.

Holly flushed, her cheeks going pink. “The point is, I wasn’t thinking at the time. I was scared out of my mind. I’d gone through a traumatic experience and I was acting on instinct. My instinct was to protect them.”

“My instinct is to protect the people I love,” Lauren said.

“We understand,” Lily said. “Really, we do, Lauren. But let them help you. Our strength is in our family. Not one individual.”

Holly beamed at her daughter-in-law. “My daughters are extremely smart women. And Lily is exactly right. Our strength doesn’t come from one person. It’s from our bond. Our willingness to go to bat for one another.”

They immediately went quiet when Liam entered the kitchen, his expression grim. Lauren’s heart dropped to her toes and she reached blindly for Holly’s hand, needing her support more than ever.

Holly grabbed her hand and gripped it with bruising force.

“What happened, what did he say?” Lauren blurted.

“He wants to talk to you,” Liam said.

Her eyes widened. “Why?”

“He just wants to make sure we’re not jerking him around. I don’t think it’s anything to worry about. Just don’t tip your hand in the phone call. No names. He can say what he wants, but keep your responses to the minimum. Yes or no answers are best. If there’s anything you’re unsure of, you put him on hold and run it by us. Okay?”

She swallowed and nodded. “Okay.”

He held out his hand to her. Holly disentangled her hand from Lauren’s and urged her forward. Liam wrapped his arm around her, squeezing her briefly before guiding her into the living room, where the others sat.

Noah was sitting on the couch, his hand curled around a cordless phone. When he saw Lauren, he put the phone back on the base and hit the button for the speaker. He held up one finger to his lips to signal to Lauren not to mention that everyone was listening in. Then he pointed at her to begin the conversation.

“H-hello?” Lauren began hesitantly.

“With whom am I speaking to?”

The man’s voice was sharp and distinct, and it made Lauren instantly nervous.

She glanced up at Liam, who nodded that she should answer.

“Lauren Wilder,” she responded.

“And, Ms. Wilder, would you be so kind as to provide a few simple pieces of information to verify your identity?”

She frowned, her brow furrowing tightly. Noah held up a hand and nodded and then motioned for her to answer.

“Okay,” she reluctantly agreed.

“Can you give us your last known address?”

She frowned harder. Technically her last address was her apartment here in Clyde and no way in hell she was giving this man that information. And before that, there was the apartment that Max had moved her into after she’d left Joel. Again, no way she was giving that out either. But neither of those addresses were ones the police would have any knowledge of, so they wouldn’t expect either.