Page 14 of The Beekeeper

“We’ll get there.” Be patient was a caution he’d given me countless times during my youth, and I never listened.

I was starting to listen now.

Wade and I had always butted heads because we were so different; he, the golden boy, and me, the black sheep. But when we’d both become fathers, that was a bond that seemed to make all our other differences fall away like dust on the breeze.

“What else?”

Wade flipped through his notes, double and then triple-checking everything we’d gone over.

“I think that’s all I need for right now. I’ll let you know if Ms. Jenkins comes back requesting anything else.”

“If she talks to Angela, I’m sure she will…” I grumbled, and when Wade shot me a pointed stare, let out a deep sigh. “And what about the paps? What else can we do? The warning they got won’t keep them away for long.”

Really, I didn’t give a shit about what the GAL needed from me, the only thing I cared about was removing my daughter from this nightmare that kept following her around.

“My hands are tied, Blaze,” he said, his voice carrying the familiar frustration of a hammer unable to hit a nail. “Is the back entrance not going to work?”

“They’re like fucking roaches—they’ll figure out where to find me.” I ran my hand along the back of my neck. “I don’t know what to do. I feel like I should move us somewhere else, but I just…” I let out a pained exhale, unable to finish that statement.

“How many times are you going to move to hide from them, Blaze?” He shook his head. “And now that the GAL is questioning your moves, I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“I don’t care what she thinks. I’m going to do what’s best for my daughter.”

“Blaze…”

“What other choice do I have?” I interrupted him, unable to remove the edge of anger from my voice. At least Wade would know it wasn’t directed at him. “I can’t stay someplace where Pais is afraid to walk out the front door.”

“What if you rent another house in the area? Something with more land so they can’t get close?”

“I looked, but there’s nothing available.”

“Tourist season,” Wade muttered.

“Yeah.” I kicked a rock with my foot. “I’m going to have to look for something farther away…” and then looked up when Paisley’s laughter floated through the trees.

Farther away from my family—from the semblance of normal she’d had for the last four months.

And from the first thing that had brought her true excitement.

“What about buying a place?”

I hadn’t lived in one place for more than the span of time it took to make a film since high school, and even then, I’d always spent more time at friends’ houses than at my own. It was hard for a place to feel like home when you were so obviously the one who didn’t fit in it.

And after decades of living on the move, it wasn’t even that I didn’t know how to plant some roots; it was that I was so damn afraid of planting them in the wrong spot.

Was it better for Pais to live back near Megan’s parents? Was it better for her—for us to be here close to my family and all the help they could provide? Was it better for us to be in a city where there was always something to do and a better selection of schools and activities?

Fuck. I drove my hand through my hair.

“I’ll have to figure out something.”

“We’ll figure out something,” Wade corrected, and I drew a deep breath, grateful that my brother had never left my side or stopped having my back, no matter how many times I’d fucked up and turned mine on him.

“Yeah,” I said weakly and checked my watch. “Shit. I need to go.” How the hell had it been almost three hours?

Pais would be okay with Harper, I wasn’t worried about that; Harper had told me to take the time I needed, but dammit…I hated imposing. Especially on her.

“So Pais is…with Harper?”