One to Keep

Chapter Twenty

Stef stretched slightly, trying to loosen up the tight feeling in his ribs. Jennifer turned and cocked a single eyebrow at him. He put his arm down.

“Hah!” Max said from his seat at Rachel’s bedside. He sat in what must be one of the world’s most uncomfortable chairs with a baby sleeping on his chest. “I saw that, Stef. You are just as pussy whipped as the rest of us. That is so good to know.”

“Maxwell Harper, that was rude.” Rachel threw a stare at Max that might actually peel paint off the walls.

Max clutched his daughter and nodded at his wife. “Yes, baby. It was rude. I am so sorry.” He turned back to Stef and pointed at himself. “See, we’re all the same.”

Jen chuckled beside him. “I just don’t want him to pull his stitches. He’s supposed to take me to Paris for our honeymoon.”

“Don’t you have to get married first?” Rye Harper asked as he walked in the room, followed by Callie. Both carried trays of food.

Stef reached out and grabbed a cookie. He thought it looked like one of Laura’s. She was famous for her chocolate chip cookies.

Almost everyone in Bliss had been in and out of the hospital over the last two days. They had come to coo over the new baby or offer support to Logan. They had come to sit with Holly while she held the hand of a man she barely knew, but had saved her life.

“Give them time, Rye,” Callie said, offering Rachel a sandwich.

“It takes a while to plan the kind of wedding Jen wants.” Stef turned to his fiancée. He had heard nothing about an elaborate wedding. “No Vegas, then?”

The smile on her face did funny things to his heart rate. “I suppose we could elope for some quickie wedding we’ll soon forget. Of course, the honeymoon would probably match it.” He snorted. His girl never let her opinions go unstated. It was one of the things he loved about her. If he forced her into a quickie wedding, he would get quickie sex. While he was pretty damn sure he could change her mind about that, he was an indulgent husband-to-be.

His father, on the other hand, hadn’t been willing to wait. He smiled as he thought about the fact that his father was in Vegas. He’d married Stella, and they would come back to Bliss in a week. Stella and his father would live in the manor house. Stella was finally coming home. Yes, he thought, a big wedding was just what they needed. “We’ll pull out all the stops then, love. We’ll have a wedding like this town has never seen.”

“That sounds like fun,” Rachel said, happily munching on her sandwich. She scooted up so Rye could slide in behind her. His arms wrapped around his wife as she leaned back against him. “Callie and I can help.”

Jennifer practically glowed. “You better. You’re my bridesmaids.

I need one more, though. I think I’ll ask Laura. Maybe she’ll teach me how to walk in five-inch heels.”

“Nope,” Stef said, pulling her close. God, it felt good to reach out and grab her whenever he wanted to. “I like you shorter than me.”

“Unless this wedding takes place in the next month or so, I’m going to be a whale.” Callie’s face turned down as Nate and Zane walked into the room. It was getting full fast.

“Never, babe. You’re going to be gorgeous all round and full of baby,” Zane promised, towering over his wife. Zane softened around Callie. The hard lines of his face fell away.

Stef wondered if he looked like that when he stared at his Jennifer.

He thought he probably did, but he didn’t care. She was his. She would be his always. It didn’t matter that he had to wait for the wedding. He already had another ceremony in mind. He’d talked to his friend in Dallas and had a private collaring ceremony planned.

Jennifer would never be a full-time slave, and he didn’t want that, but, oh, they would play. They would play for the rest of their lives.

“You want to see it?” Nate asked as he pulled out a file folder. In his hand was a small stack of what looked like certificates.

Stef felt his eyes go wide. He’d never seen one before, much less a stack. He ran his hand across the bonds that equaled enough money for Pushkin to kill for.

“That’s twenty million dollars?” Jen asked.

“Yes, these are untraceable security bonds. It’s a practice that dates back to the Civil War. It’s the only way to get this much money in a neat, movable pile without involving a bank. The US Federal Reserve is trying to get rid of them, but they’re still out there,” Stef replied. “From what Nate, Zane, and I have managed to figure out, this was payment for a long-lost painting Pushkin sold on the black market to a collector here in the US.”

“The Russian mob is making a fortune on black market masterpieces smuggled out of Germany during World War II. Pushkin used Renard to restore them, and then Renard acted as the middle man. He got the painting to the buyer and then smuggled the payment in bearer bonds to Russia via lesser paintings,” Nate explained.

“Hey!” Jennifer crossed her arms over her chest.

“Nathan knows nothing about art, love,” Stef said, kissing her neck. He loved the nape of her neck. It was soft and always smelled so good. He felt himself getting hard, but then he was always hard around her. “You have to discount his opinion.”

“Sorry, Jen, but he was planning on using your painting.

Apparently, he refused to ship twenty million dollars across two continents. Alexei and the dead guy were supposed to fly back with it.

They couldn’t just put it in a suitcase because airport security does random checks. This was the way he’d found to work it. He just hadn’t counted on you changing the paintings.”

“And that’s why he had me arrested.” Jen put two and two together. “He panicked. He had me arrested so he could search my place and take the bonds back.”

Stef knew what had happened. Renard had waited too long. “But I got there before he could. The minute I heard she’d been arrested, I had people at her place, packing her up to get her back to Bliss. Nate and I were there just a couple of hours later. Renard tried to be clever.”

He didn’t like to think about what could have happened to her. He was damn grateful Renard had chosen the path he had. He could have just killed her and taken the untraceable bonds the mob required as payment.

“It’s all right,” Jen said, as though sensing his thoughts. Her hand came up and smoothed across his cheek. “Everything is fine now.”

“The feds are coming for Alexei tonight.” Nate leaned against the wall. The long hours he’d put in the last few days showed on his face.

Callie reached for his hand, and he pulled it up to his heart. The three of them were connected and content to be so. “They’ll take the bonds into evidence and clean out our makeshift morgue. Is our doctor staying, or did we run him off with our latest clusterfuck?” Max’s eyes came open, and he put a hand over his sleeping daughter’s head. “Will you watch your language, Sheriff? There is a child in the room.”

“Sorry. After the way I heard she came into the world, I didn’t suspect she would have delicate ears,” Nate shot back.

Rachel wasn’t at all embarrassed. “I did cuss a blue streak.”

“And threatened grievous bodily injury on me and Max,” Rye added.

“Well, I was in a touch of pain. But the next one, I doubt I’ll even go to the hospital. I’ll probably just squat, have the baby, and then get back to work. I’m like a pioneer woman. I don’t need a hospital. I’m only here because Caleb made me.”

Rye and Max had both gone sheet white. “Don’t you even think about it, Rachel Harper,” Rye said.

“You’re going into the hospital the minute you get pregnant. I won’t have our next baby born in Stella’s,” Max said, patting the baby’s back. “My poor little princess.”

“I see Max got over the shock of having a daughter.” Jen chuckled as she watched the huge badass man with a tiny baby girl.

“No, he hasn’t,” Rachel said with a sigh. “He’s just moved on to paranoia mode. He’s talking about setting up a defensive perimeter around our place.”

Max gestured toward his daughter. “Well, look at her. She’s gorgeous. Men are going to come sniffing after her, and I have to be prepared to kill them all.”

Callie was grinning at the sight, too. “Wouldn’t it be great if we had a boy and he and little Paige Stephanie got married?”

“That is not going to happen, Cal,” Max shot back. “Paige is going to be a nun.”

“We aren’t Catholic, Max.” Rachel turned to look at her more reasonable husband. “Tell him, Rye.”

“Max and I talked it over, baby. We’re converting. Paige is definitely going to a nunnery.”

Rachel shook her head and sighed. “And, I don’t think we can scare Caleb off. He’s too interested in a certain someone to leave.” Stef thought about the way Caleb had saved Alexei. His efforts had been heroic. He simply wouldn’t give up on the big Russian.

Alexei was alive because Caleb had willed it so. Stef had a bad feeling that Caleb might rue the day. Alexei seemed crazy about Holly, and Holly was obviously grateful, if not simply interested in him. Alexei had a long road to walk, though. He might be in prison.

Stef had promised to do what he could to help. He owed the man his and Jennifer’s lives. Alexei would go with the feds and answer their questions, but Stef would try to make sure the man didn’t spend the rest of his life in prison. If he wanted to go home, Stef would try to get him there. If he wanted to come back to Bliss, well, there was always room for one more.

“I’m glad the doc is staying. But Callie needs to beware. Don’t let Doc do a sonogram,” Max complained. “He can’t tell the difference between girl parts and boy parts.”

“And how is Logan?” Rachel asked, changing the subject.

“Healing,” Stef said carefully. Logan’s body was starting the process, but Stef didn’t like where his head was at. He’d been silent and sullen and utterly unlike Logan. He hadn’t flirted with the nurses.

He’d sat in his bed, and Stef could see he was building a wall around himself, letting no one, not even his moms, inside. Zane had tried to talk to him, but he’d been rebuffed. Stef would have to keep an eye on him.

King Stef. He was doing it again, but now he didn’t feel bad about it. Jennifer could tease him all she liked, but he was the King of Bliss in some ways. What he’d come to realize was that he hadn’t earned the title by throwing money around. He’d earned it by loving this town and all of her citizens. He loved them even when it was hard. He would love them until the day he died, right here in Bliss.

“I’ll make sure he has a nurse on call when they’re ready to release him. And Nate, don’t forget to have Hope file his paperwork.

Anything he needs outside of what the county can pay for, just send me the bill.”

Jennifer turned her face up, and he knew what she was going to say. “You really are good, King Stefan.”

“And I’ll be even better with a queen at my side.”

“Forever,” Jennifer said, going up on her toes for a quick kiss. “I think I’ll like being queen.”

“So, let’s plan a wedding!” Rachel said with a happy smile on her face.

Jen joined her friends and started planning the biggest day of his life. He would have his father at his side, and the woman who was his true mother would be there, too. He would have his family and all of Bliss.

The women planned, the baby slept, and the men talked about the events of the day. Stef sat back and watched, utterly content.

All was right in his kingdom.