Page 79 of Worth the Vow

“Ten thousand,” Savannah stammers.

“Christ, Savannah. What the hell were you thinking?” I ask.

“I wasn’t thinking! I figured I’d take the money and run, be long gone. But the fucker put a tracker in the bag, and followed me across the state. I told him I didn’t have it. That I didn’t even have family to get it from. He asked about husbands or boyfriends. I must have hesitated, because he latched onto it and made me tell him about you. He Googled you, Dom. He knows you’re rich.”

“I am not rich!” I say, rubbing the bridge of my nose.

“You’re richer than the rest of us. And Tony wants his money, plus interest,” Savannah whispers.

“Interest? On top of the ten grand?”

She nods. “It’s twenty total.”

“I don’t have twenty thousand I can give you, Savannah. Not even including the kids savings accounts.”

She looks down at the ground. “He knows about the kids, Dom. He said —”

Dread fills my stomach. “What the fuck did this guy say about my children?”

Savannah begins to cry as she admits, “He said he’ll take Sienna. Then I don’t owe him anything.”

“What do you mean he’ll take me?” Sienna shouts from the hallway, tears pouring down her face as she stares at her mother with a crestfallen expression. “Did you sell me to pay off your debts, Mom? After I begged Dad to let you stay here, this is how you repay us? What did you mean? Who is taking me?”

I push Savannah against the wall and go to Sienna, pulling her into my arms. “No one is taking you. No one. Do you hear me? I will never let that happen.”

Kate clears her throat as she walks down the hotel hallway with two police officers. Her confused expression becomes anger when she hears my words. I turn to the officers and sigh, grabbing the bridge of my nose and pinching in an attempt to rid myself of the tension headache barreling toward me. “Officers, we may need some more assistance. My ex-wife has put myself and our children in danger.”

I step to the side, catching Kate as she tears down the hallway, ready to rip apart Savannah’s face. “What did you do, you stupid bitch?”

Leaning down to Sienna, I whisper in her ear. “Go get Aspen and Carter, and go find the chef, okay? Tell him I said you all can have ice cream sundaes. Everything is going to be fine. I promise.”

Sienna inhales carefully, the sound staccato as sobs shake her lungs. “You better call Uncle Alex.”

As she walks away, I nod affirmatively. “I’m calling the whole fucking family.”

By the following morning, after Kate and I took turns sleeping so the other could stand watch over the kids, all the available Santo’s arrived, ready for battle. Savannah was taken in for questioning, including how she admitted she drugged me the night she got pregnant with Aspen. I still haven’t wrapped my head around possibly not being Aspen’s biological father.

The doorbell ringing a little after eight makes both of us stand in alarm, and Kate starts to giggle.

“What is so funny?” I ask.

“I highly doubt a criminal would ring the doorbell.”

“Better safe than sorry,” I murmur as I bring up the doorbell camera video. “Oh, it’s Alex.”

Letting my brother in, I wait a moment, then look at him in confusion.

“I put them in a summer camp this week. I’ve got appointments all week anyway,” Alex explains, recognizing my confusion due to his children not being with him.

“Oh? Everything okay with you?” I ask as we walk back to my kitchen.

“Well, you might as well be the first to know. I’m retiring from the Guard, and I’m going to become a police officer for Eternity Springs.”

I stop suddenly, forcing Alex to run into my back.

“Jesus, Dom,” he mutters. I turn around, staring at him in shock.

“I couldn’t have heard that right. You’re retiring? I thought you couldn’t retire until you’d been in for twenty years?” I ask.

---