Protecting His Secret Son

by Laura Scott

  “Dad, we need to get you back to the hospital.”

  Her father, along with everyone else, ignored her. His gaze never left Stoltz’s. “If you cooperate, I can make sure you get sent to a prison where no one knows you. It’s better than you deserve for all the people you’ve killed.”

  “I didn’t kill Max Callahan,” Stoltz protested.

  “You may not have pulled the trigger,” her father agreed sardonically, “but you’re the one who ordered the hit.”

  Shayla noticed a hint of surprise in the older man’s eyes.

  “Yeah, that’s right. We’ve figured it out, down to the last detail. And we’ll prove it, too. We already picked up your prints at the Callahan home. Do yourself a favor and tell us what we want to hear.”

  Stoltz’s shoulders slumped in defeat. “Fine.”

  “Who pulled the trigger?” Mike asked abruptly.

  There was a long moment of silence as all gazes landed on Stoltz.

  “I need to know,” Mike insisted. “Tell me!”

  Another long pause, then finally Stoltz shrugged. “Eddie Jarvis.”

  “And he did it on your direction, right?” Mike persisted.

  The older man shrugged and looked away.

  Her father sagged against her. “Daddy? Are you okay?”

  Instantly, Margaret Callahan hurried over. “Ian? Didn’t I hear something about you having open-heart surgery? Shayla is right. You need to go back to the hospital.”

  “They were going to discharge me tomorrow anyway,” he groused. But Shayla noticed how her father’s gaze lingered a bit on Margaret Callahan with a spark of interest.

  She hid a smile as she turned toward Mike. Brodie was wiggling in her arms as if tired of being held for so long. She wanted to hand the child over to his father.

  But it was too late. Mike had turned and walked away.

  EIGHTEEN

  Mike couldn’t hear anything beyond the loud roaring in his ears. He’d been so wrong. About Ian and Duncan O’Hare. About who’d been responsible for his father’s death. About his plan to investigate his father’s murder all by himself like the lone wolf his family had dubbed him.

  His narrow-minded, pigheaded stubbornness had almost got everyone he loved killed. And that didn’t even include the three years he missed of Brodie’s life.

  All this time it had been Kirk Stoltz. Sure, Jarvis had pulled the trigger, but he knew that his father’s friend had been the one to give the directive. Two men he’d known for years.

  How had he got it so wrong?

  “What’s going on?” Marc asked as he walked toward him wearing a blue FBI windbreaker. Mike could see the apartment building wasn’t as far away as he’d first thought. “Someone get hurt?”

  Mike pulled himself together. “No, except for Shayla’s brother, Duncan. He looks pretty beat-up, but he’s moving okay. Probably should have one of the paramedics look at him. Otherwise, everyone’s fine.”

  “So why the long face?” Marc asked, perplexed. “You look like you lost your best friend.”

  I did.

  For a moment he was worried he’d spoken out loud. But Marc’s quizzical gaze never wavered.

  “I appreciate your help in getting the feds involved in the raid,” he said, changing the subject. “Mom and Nan are fine. Good thing you found the van or he may have got away with it. There was a secret tunnel that didn’t show up on Mitch’s blueprints, which must be how Stoltz and the other Dark Knights were getting in and out without being seen. How long will you be tied up here?”

  “A few hours yet,” Marc admitted. “We’ll need to take statements from everyone involved, including you.”

  “Yeah.” Mike understood from the academy that law enforcement always included a lot of paperwork. To be fair, being a private investigator wasn’t that different. He often wondered how things might have been different if he’d taken a job as a Milwaukee cop. He pulled his thoughts to the present. “Is there any way you can expedite the statements from Mom, Nan, Shayla and Brodie? They’re exhausted and have already been through a lot. The little guy needs to eat soon.”

  “Of course.” Marc’s puzzled expression remained. “Come on, bro. Spill. What’s bugging you?”

  Mike shook his head, feeling helpless. “It’s my fault. All of it.”

  “Funny,” Marc said. “I thought for sure the Dark Knights were responsible. I’ve just learned that Kirk Stoltz was the leader of the pack and your old acquaintance from the academy Eddie Jarvis pulled the trigger.”

  Mike stared at his oldest brother, wondering how the family would feel if they knew everything he’d done. How he’d pushed Shayla away when she was pregnant and alone. How he’d selfishly helped himself to their evidence, then managed to miss key clues that could have uncovered all of this so much sooner.

  How this only proved what he’d always known. That he was the worst son in the Callahan clan.

  His vision blurred and he realized there were tears in his eyes. He turned and blinked them away, walking blindly, aware only of the need to get away.

  “Mike? Michael!” The use of his full name, usually only said by his mother when he was young and had got into trouble, made him pause. He swiped at his eyes and glanced warily over his shoulder.

  Shayla was struggling with Brodie while trying to catch up to him. Even knowing how much she must resent him, he couldn’t ignore her. “Something wrong with Brodie?”

  “Yes. He’s heavy and I’m afraid to put him down with all the cops milling about.” She huffed a bit as she joined him. “I need you to take him.”

  He hesitated, surprised by her request, and she mistook the pause for unwillingness.

  “What, you thought that you’d only get to do the fun stuff?” She sounded cranky and out of sorts. Frankly, he couldn’t blame her. “It’s your turn. Where are you going anyway?”

  “Nowhere. I just—” He shook his head. “Never mind. I’ll take him.” He reached for his son. Brodie wasn’t thrilled with being carried anymore. He wiggled and kicked, trying to get out of his arms.

  “Lemme down,” Brodie demanded.

  “Have you changed your mind?” Shayla asked, eyeing Mike warily.

  He didn’t follow her question at first, until she lifted her chin toward Brodie. He realized that while losing Shayla was like losing his arm, he still had his son.

  Too bad, he wanted more. He wanted them to be a family. He loved Shayla. But didn’t deserve her.

  “No, I didn’t change my mind.” He straightened his shoulders. “I’m sorry, Shayla.”

  “For walking away from me just now? You should be.”

  “No.” He winced. “I mean, yes, that, too. But more for believing the worst about your father and your brother four years ago.”

  She nodded thoughtfully. “You were wrong to do that, Mike,” she said honestly. “But I thought we’d moved past that already. I thought...” Her voice trailed off and she looked away.

  “Down!” Brodie said again. Both parents ignored him.

  “It’s not just that,” Mike said, trying to read her body language. For a cop turned private investigator, he had trouble figuring out what was going on behind her deep brown eyes. “All this time I wasted. With you, with Brodie. I want to go back in time and kick my younger self to knock some sense into him. I made so many mistakes.”

  She dragged her gaze up to meet his. “We both made mistakes. But they don’t matter anymore. Weren’t you the one who taught me to have faith? To believe in God’s plan? We’re safe, Mike. You and your brothers saved us. That outweighs your past mistakes in my book.”

  A flicker of hope caught in his heart. “You mean that?”

  “I do.” A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “Walk back with me. I’m still worried about my dad—I can’t believe he checked himself out of the hospital. I want to t
ake him home, but apparently we can’t leave yet.”

  “Stop right there,” a voice from behind Mike said.

  He froze when he felt the nose of a gun poke into his back. He wanted to turn and look, but didn’t want to make any sudden movements that might cause the guy to shoot. Especially since he was still carrying Brodie.

  “What do you want?” Mike asked.

  “You and the kid are going to help me get out of here.”

  Shayla slid closer to him, so that Brodie was between them, and he wanted to scream at her to get away. But he knew that would be useless.

  She wasn’t going to leave their son.

  “Turn a bit to your right and start walking,” the voice said. “Do anything funny and I’ll shoot you here and now.”

  “Who are you?” Mike asked in a vain attempt to stall for time. There were dozens of cops and FBI agents swarming the place. How was it that no one noticed the guy behind him?

  “Come on, Mikey. I’m hurt that you forgot all about me. Didn’t our time at the academy mean anything to you?”

  The use of the nickname he hated had the identity of the guy clicking into place. “Eddie Jarvis.”

  “Guess you’re smarter than you look. Keep walking.”

  Mike did as he was told, although he wanted to do something, anything, to draw some attention to them. The man who’d killed his father was attempting to escape. This would be a good time for Brodie to put up a fuss, but the child had turned quiet the minute Jarvis had sneaked up behind them.

  “You’re a mean man!” Brodie shouted, and abruptly burst into tears.

  Several things happened at once. Duchess came flying toward them, leaping at Jarvis at the same time Shayla pulled Brodie out of Mike’s arms. Free of the child, he was able to spin around, using a roundhouse kick to clip Jarvis beneath the chin.

  Jarvis went down to the ground, dropping his gun and screaming as the K-9 growled in his face.

  Matt rushed over and picked up the weapon. “Hold him, Dutch. Hey, how in the world did he get hold of an FBI jacket?”

  Marc ran toward them, his expression furious. “I just heard over the radio that one of my men, a guy named Calderone, was knocked unconscious, and his jacket taken. Jarvis must have been the one who hit him.”

  “Are you sure you have all the bad guys put away?” Mike asked dryly. “For real this time?”

  “Yeah. Call off your partner,” Marc told Matt. “I’ll take it from here.”

  Mike turned to Shayla and Brodie. She was doing her best to soothe the distraught child.

  “He was the one who grabbed us at the cabin,” she told him. “Brodie must have recognized him.”

  “So did Duchess,” Matt agreed. “She went wild. It took me a minute to figure out you were in danger in the middle of all these cops.”

  “That was close.” Mike shuddered, thinking about how they’d all almost died for the second time that day. This was getting old and he was done with the madness. “Listen, Marc. I’m taking Shayla, Brodie, Mom and Nan to Mom’s house. You can meet us there for our statements, okay?”

  Marc finished handcuffing Jarvis before glancing up at him. “Go ahead. I’ll smooth it over with the brass.”

  “Thanks.” He turned to Shayla and once again took Brodie into his arms. “We’re out of here.”

  * * *

  Shayla was exhausted, but since Margaret and Nan were still going strong, she tried to keep up. Her dad had refused to go back to the hospital, but had agreed to come with them to the Callahan matriarch’s home. Duncan’s friend Ryker Tillman had agreed to drive him and Duncan there.

  After calling the hospital to talk to Dr. Torres and getting her father’s prescriptions and follow-up appointments squared away, she returned to the kitchen to find Margaret fussing over her father.

  The FBI investigators had thankfully come and gone. They’d found plenty of evidence to substantiate their story, blood from Duncan’s wounds and crumbs from Brodie’s fish crackers in the basement. Duncan’s blood was also found outside Peter Fresno’s home, corroborating her brother’s side of the story. The FBI claimed that several of the cops, especially Scarletti, had begun to talk in the hope of getting a lighter sentence. Jarvis had been arrested, too, and would stand trial along with Kirk Stoltz for killing Police Chief Max Callahan.

  The danger was over, but Shayla still didn’t know what her and Brodie’s future held.

  “Oh, Shayla, I’m glad you’re here. I’m heating up a batch of my famous homemade soup. Would you and Brodie like some, too? Everyone else is joining us,” Margaret said.

  “That would be nice, thank you. I’m sure Brodie is hungry.” She’d found it difficult to look Mike’s mother in the eye, worried what she and Nan would think when they discovered the truth about Brodie being Mike’s son. No one held shotgun weddings anymore, did they? Nah, but she still didn’t want to see disappointment or disapproval in their eyes.

  Mike had pulled out toys for Brodie to play with, which had helped keep him busy. The rest of the family began to arrive—Lacy and her son, Rory; Kari and her two children, Max and Maggie; Paige and her daughter, Abby, and her son, Adam. Mitch’s new wife, Dana, came with Maddy and Noah and, from the way Noah was hovering over his wife, she suspected the news about the baby was out.

  Even Duncan had been welcomed. When Lacy finished patching his wounds, her brother stood next to Ryker Tillman, the two men watching the interaction between the family members with bemusement.

  “You wanna play wif me?” Brodie asked Max. Max was a year younger, but the two boys didn’t seem to care.

  It hit her then, that these kids were Brodie’s cousins. Not all by blood, since she’d learned through conversation that a few of the children had been legally adopted, but they were Callahans just the same.

  Her chest went tight and she quickly jumped up from the table and headed outside.

  “Shayla?” Mike’s voice came from behind. “Are you okay?”

  No, she wasn’t okay. But she reluctantly turned to face him. “We better tell your mother and grandmother the truth about Brodie. They deserve to know they have another grandchild.”

  “I don’t want to talk about my mother, grandmother or Brodie,” Mike said, stepping closer. “I want to talk about us.”

  “About how we’ll manage our cocustody arrangements,” she said with a nod. “I understand. Seeing Brodie with his cousins made me realize that it’s best if I move back to Milwaukee.”

  “Shayla, I’m thrilled you’re considering that, but I want you to know that I can just as easily move to Nashville.” Mike’s expression was serious.

  She was touched by the offer, but her father and brother were here anyway, as well as the rest of Mike’s family. “I’ll move back. My job can be done remotely, so it’s not a big deal. Besides, it’s better that I keep an eye on my dad. He’ll work himself to death if I don’t.”

  “So where does that leave us?” Mike asked, reaching out to capture her hand. “I know I don’t deserve you, and that I’ve messed up, but I was hoping you’d give me a second chance.”

  She eyed him warily. “Are you sure you’re not just saying that because of Brodie?”

  Confusion flickered in his eyes. “What do you mean?”

  She waved a hand at his mother’s house. “It’s obvious that family plays a big role in your life. I suspect that if we didn’t have Brodie, you wouldn’t be standing here, asking for another chance.”

  “That’s not true. I’m asking because, despite how badly I messed things up, I love you. I haven’t been out with anyone in the four years you’ve been gone.”

  “Really?” She could hardly believe it. She’d gone out on a few dates, but none had worked out. After a year or so, she’d given up dating, period.

  “Yeah, really.” The truth was in his eyes. “I don’t blame you for needing time, es
pecially after the way I treated your family. But I’ll do anything to make it up to you.”

  “As I said before, we both made mistakes.”

  He tugged on her hand, bringing her into his arms. “My mistakes were far worse. I’ve been thinking of becoming a cop, if they’ll have me. Being a private investigator doesn’t offer me the benefits I’ll need in the future.”

  There he went again, mixing his duty of being Brodie’s father with the potential of a relationship.

  As if he read her mind, he tightened his grip on her hand. “I love you, Shayla. I love Brodie, too, but I wouldn’t ask for a second chance if I didn’t love you. If you want to know the truth, I’ve always loved you.”

  He had? The truth shimmered in his eyes, so she wrapped her hands around his neck and smiled, believing him. “I don’t need time, Mike. Because I love you, too.”

  “Are you sure?” His gaze was full of hope and wonder.

  “Kiss me,” she said, tugging his head down to hers.

  He readily obliged. When they finally came up for air, he cradled her close. “We’re going to do it right this time,” he whispered in her ear.

  “We are?” She leaned back, looking into his eyes.

  “Yes.” He smiled broadly. “Shayla Louise O’Hare, will you please marry me?”

  “I’d be honored to marry you, Michael Jerome Callahan,” she said with a smile.

  “I’m glad.” Mike kissed her again, sweetly. “No secret courthouse plans this time. I want to marry you in our family’s church, with both of our families in attendance.”

  The picture that came to her mind made her sigh. “I’d like that. But we have to wait until my dad is healthy enough to walk me down the aisle.”

  “Agreed. But not too long, Brodie needs a younger brother or sister.”

  The idea of more children with Mike made her smile. “I want Brodie to grow up believing in God. And maybe we can work on my dad and Duncan along the way.”

  “I’m up for the challenge,” Mike agreed.

  “By the way, did you see how your mom seems to be doting on my dad?” Shayla asked.