Page 99 of Give Me Forever Love

“Tell your dad he can come out with us. There’s plenty of room.”

“You wanna come with? Bryce says there’s plenty of room.”

She bites her bottom lip, waiting for his response. “You wouldn’t be,” she says. “The place is huge.” She holds the phone away from her mouth. “He’s worried he’ll be intruding.”

I signal for her to give me the phone.

“Mills. Come out with us. Pops has a guest house you can crash in. It’s out by the pool. You’ll be near K and Rylee. It’s a win for us all.”

He’s quiet for a moment, and then he says, “Well, I would like that. Shoot me the address and I’ll get a bag packed.”

“Good. I’ll text it to you.” After he says his goodbyes, we pile up in the truck and head out. K calls Claire on the way, informing her that we want to stay out at the ranch for a little while.

I never told K about Claire slapping me. Turns out, Claire’s had every right to worry about K, but I’d never fucking admit that to anyone.

Danny has promised me he’d take care of this. I’m hoping he does it quickly.

After about thirty minutes on the road, I pull into a gas station to fill up and grab a snack for K. As I’m walking in, I grab my phone and call Ben.

He answers as fast as he always did.

“Boss? How are you feeling?” he asks. He and Simon came to visit us in the hospital. It was weird having a gangster hold Rylee. Simon’s older with gold chains and a belly from a shit ton of beer drinking years. He doesn’t look as scary as the stories I’ve heard about him, but still.

Knowing that a man has murdered someone with the same hands he’s holding our baby with had me a little nervous, even though I know he’s on my side. K kept giving me sideways glances as he made baby noises and grinned down at Rylee. I wanted to laugh, but I could tell she wanted to punch me.

“Ehh, it’s going. I’m taking the girls out to the ranch to stay for a while. I spoke with Danny about the accident. He said it’ll get handled,” I say, lowering my voice as I scroll through the chip aisle.

“Good,” he says.

“Yeah. So, you know anything about a man named Moretti?”

Ben clears his throat. “He’s a kingpin in Jersey. Runs drugs and a lot of other shit.”

I narrow my eyes. “The guy who shot me—he told me to tell Moretti to stay off his turf.”

“Shit,” Ben says.

“Yeah. You know what I’m thinking?”

“That Danny’s working with him and they bought Red to run drugs?” he questions.

“Bingo,” I reply. I grab a bag of Doritos and a bottle of water.

“That makes sense. Moretti must be trying to take over the southside, too,” he says.

“And because I sold my club to them, I’m caught up in this shit.” I wait a moment before I walk up to the counter.

“You’re doing the right thing. Get out to the ranch until Danny has this cleared up.”

“Will you do me a favor?”

“Anything,” he replies.

“Watch out for Mugs & Books. They might think K is there, and as much as she gets on my nerves, I’d hate for something to happen to Claire. I’ll send you a little something for your time.” I walk up to the man behind the bulletproof glass.

“You got it,” he says.

“Twenty in gas,” I tell the clerk. I look out to see what pump we’re in front of. “On four.” I go back to my conversation with Ben. “All right, Ben. I appreciate it. Talk soon.”

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