Ew. The words Gus and honeymoon did not sit well next to each other. “I don’t care what you have to do but find him and tell him to turn this damned plane around!”
Another chuckle. God, when she saw Jace, she was going to throttle him. “Grandpa told me to tell you, if you made contact, to pull on your big-girl panties and suck it up.”
“Find. Him. Tell him that this isn’t funny, that we want to come home!”
“Are you mad? You’ve been sent off to stay in a luxurious house on a private island in the Caribbean. It’s windy, wet and cold here in Texas, and our grandfather is getting more action than I am. My heart bleeds for you! As I said, big-girl panties—”
Screw big-girl panties, she was going to take off her thong and strangle him with it! “Find Grandpa,” she muttered, death in her voice. “Tell him what I said.”
Alex disconnected the call and rubbed her forehead with her fingertips. “It looks like we’re going to Matt’s island.”
“Looks like?” Daniel snapped back, his expression blank but his body radiating tension.
Alex sent a wistful look at the champagne bottle. “Don’t you think this warrants a little champagne? For medicinal use only?”
“No, you’re pregnant. No alcohol.”
Daniel narrowed his eyes at her, pushed the intercom and ordered a whiskey, straight up. He looked at Alex and his small smile was just shy of evil. “But, as you said, this situation warrants alcohol.”
Alex responded to his smirk with one of her own and deliberately, swiftly kicked him again.
* * *
After playing Daniel’s voice message to Gus, Rose lifted her eyes to meet his. His body, like hers, was older and they didn’t have the energy they once had. But his eyes were still those of a young man’s, with the power to stop her in her tracks. And underneath the layer of mischief, she saw his grit and determination, his rock-steady calm. Gus did what he needed to do and always stayed the course.
“He is not a happy camper,” Gus commented.
“I’ve seen him lose his temper and it’s not pretty,” Rose admitted, pushing her phone away. She picked up her coffee and took a sip.
Gus was silent for a good twenty seconds. “Would he hurt her?”
“Hurt Alex?” Rose demanded, horrified. “Good God, no!” When Gus still looked skeptical, she placed her hand on his arm. “No, honey, he would never hurt her. He witnessed his mom being slapped around, beaten up, and he’d never hurt a woman or a child.”
Gus’s eyes softened with sympathy. “His rough childhood must have done a number on him.”
Rose nodded, not bothering to hide her sadness from her man. They were married, so she could share anything, and everything, with him. “Stephanie... God, Gus, she was so wild. I couldn’t tell her a damn thing—never could. She hit thirteen and entered self-destruct mode.”
“I don’t know whether she’s alive or dead. When she lost custody of Daniel, she refused to have any contact with us.”
“And that happened when he was twelve?”
Rose released a quavering breath. “He spent the summer of that year with me, and when Stephanie came to fetch him, he told her that he wasn’t going back with her. Neither would he let me pay her to let him stay.”
Rose knew that her chin was wobbling. “He told her that he was staying with me, that he was going to go to school in Royal. That if she made trouble for him or me, he’d go to the police and detail every drug deal he saw, finger every dealer she had, tell the police about every ‘uncle’ who lifted a hand to him.” She released another breath. “She had a choice—she could leave him with me without a fuss or he’d make life very, very difficult for her. Stephanie chose to leave him with me.”
“And he never spoke to her again after that?”
Rose shook her head. “Neither of us have.”
She ran her finger around the rim of her cup. “I can’t help thinking that if I’d done some of this and not that, loved her more, disciplined her more, gave her more time and energy, she would’ve turned out better.”
“Sometimes there is no better, Rosie.”