Page 13 of The Beekeeper

“Can she? Can I stay?” she begged, grabbing my hand.

Shit.

It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Harper. She was basically family, and I knew she helped out her cousins with their kids. I was only frustrated because I wished it was any other woman—any other woman than the one who’d deceived me. Who’d lied as a premise for our relationship.

Any other woman except the one I still irrationally wanted.

But that wasn’t something my daughter deserved to be punished for.

“If Harper is sure it’s okay for you to hang out here for an hour or so,” I said, my voice tight.

Paisley’s head whipped to the side. “Is it?”

“Of course,” Harper answered, laughing as Pais lunged and hugged around her legs.

I rose up, shoving my hands in my pockets. “Thank you,” I said, though it was hard to hear me over Paisley’s squeals. “I just have to meet Wade at the inn, but I shouldn’t be long.”

“It’s really fine. My whole afternoon was planned to be here; I’ve got to check all the hives, and then Nox is stopping by to drop off new glass jars for me, so yeah…I’m happy to watch her. We’ve got plenty to see and do,” she insisted, her cheeks starting to flush.

“Thanks,” I repeated gruffly and headed back to my SUV; the sooner I handled this situation with my brother, the sooner I could come for Paisley.

The bright side? I got to avoid an afternoon in the intoxicating presence of Harper Hamilton. Funny, then, how it felt so damn gloomy as I drove away.

“I can’t fucking believe this.” I drove my hand through my hair and paced another path across the office floor at the Lamplight Inn.

“Nothing we can do about it now except give Ms. Jenkins what she wants and keep moving forward.”

Wade was good like that—not getting bogged down by the emotions that wanted to make you believe nothing was going to change; that nothing was going to get better.

He was even better at lawyering. Dad wasn’t wrong to lionize my older brother; he deserved every accolade for his achievements. Especially for never giving up on me. No matter what storm I threw Wade’s way, he weathered it by my side. He and Mom.

“Have you talked to Mom yet?” he asked like he could hear my thoughts.

“No,” I rumbled, dragging a hand through my hair. “She’ll want to rush back and…hover.”

Joanna Stevens was currently on a European tour with some of her friends, and she’d left not even a week ago. She wasn’t scheduled to return for another eight weeks—a timeline she would decapitate if she thought something was wrong and I needed her.

Mom had always attempted to make up for the way Dad treated me, and then some. In her mind, if Wade was Dad’s favorite, then I would be hers and all would be fair. Except it wasn’t fair to either of us, and it was something that, even after Dad died seven years ago, hadn’t started to heal until recently.

Wade made a sound of acknowledgment like he was okay keeping this under wraps for right now.

“I’ll get in touch with Max for the stills from the security cameras. I already have the ones from Boston and the statement I took from the doorman,” Wade said, focusing on the task.

That was where we’d been first ambushed by the paps. Pais and I walked out of the building one morning right into a crowd of reporters.

I couldn’t even process their words because Pais was screaming and sobbing, the shouting and flashes scaring her as they’d yelled for comments about the guardianship petition—something I hadn’t even gotten the goddamn notice of yet that Angela was filing a suit; it came later that afternoon.

That was how I knew she’d tipped them off. As soon as she knew where to have her lawyer send the papers, she’d sent the paparazzi armed with cameras and questions meant to shock me…and a perception of this case before it even got started: That Degenerate Blaze Stevens wasn’t fit to raise a child.

Even now, my fist curled thinking of that day—those moments, recalling the rage I’d felt, wanting to kill every single one of them for what they’d put Paisley through. But then they definitely would’ve had reason to take her away from me, so I managed to hold back. I was sure Wade was grateful that murder hadn’t been added to the long list of indictments he’d defended me against.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “I should’ve taken some yesterday, but I was so damn shocked to see them…” And my brain was still on the fritz from running into Harper, that I didn’t even think to get evidence of their harassment.

If the GAL thought I wanted to be moving around place to place, she was out of her goddamn mind.

“It’s going to be fine,” he breezed through my worries. “I’m going to send so much evidence of why you had to move, she’s going to regret ever asking.”

I clenched my teeth. “I just wish I had proof it was Angela doing this—starting all the fires she villainizes me for.”