Listen, Pitch (There's No Crying in Baseball 3)

“But, Rhys,” Henley whispered, looking broken.

I’d done that to her.

I’d ruined her life.

I’d put that look on her face.

“No, baby.” I shook my head. “This isn’t going to happen. This is going to end, and for that to happen, I need to know that you’re safe.”

Henley looked sick to her stomach.

“But I don’t want to go,” she whispered, a lone tear tracking down her cheek.

I felt my heart break.

“I’ve ruined your life.”

She shook her head. “No, baby. You’ve made it.”

With that, she gave me one more kiss on the cheek and walked away.

The surrogate had left hours before, and I hadn’t felt the devastation—knowing that my kids would grow without me seeing them—that I experienced the moment Henley walked away.

Once I knew they were safe, I turned my every waking moment on finding the son of a bitch and yanking his life away from him.

Sadly, I wasn’t able to do that before the sudden birth of our twins just a couple short weeks later.Chapter 30Register for a blender on your baby registry. It drowns out the crying and makes really awesome margaritas.

-Parenting tip

Rhys

Two days later

The broker—the man that was responsible for looking after my inheritance and ensuring that I followed each rule to the letter—stood up as he walked toward me, his hand extended.

“Rhys, I can’t say it’s a surprise that I have found you here,” the broker said, sounding deliberately neutral.

“Joker.” I nodded my head. “I will give you half of everything that I inherit—more if you wish it—to make sure that my family lives.”

Joker blinked.

“Why would you want to give away that kind of cash?” he asked, sounding much more interested in the conversation now.

“Because,” I replied huskily. “I love my family more than anything else that that money could give me. I now see why my sister was willing to give away everything to make sure that he stayed away from her.”

Joker blinked. “I need a reason. I can’t just take a side in a situation like this.”

He was telling the truth.

Part of what made the broker so good was that he was a neutral party in every situation. Someone would have to have broken a law—one of our laws—for him to step in.

“Killing my child wasn’t enough?” I asked, sounding just as sick as I felt.

Joker’s eyes flared. “I apologize for your loss, but no. Unfortunately, I don’t have any say so in who kills who. Life doesn’t work like that. I only clean up after it’s finished.”

He was telling the truth.

I smiled. “I found something out, but it’s not anything against the ‘rules’ as you might put it.”

“And what’s that?” He was back to sounding bored.

“That girl that you’ve tried so hard to hide from everyone?” I asked. “Michael and Pablo have forced her into servitude.”

If there was one thing that I knew about Joker, also known as Lynn, also known as so many other names that I’d lost count, it was that there was one woman in this whole universe that could make him break—and that was a girl no one, not even me, was supposed to know about.

“You know this how?” he asked, his entire demeanor becoming still as stone.

I swallowed. “You weren’t as careful as you thought you were…and I know a couple of people that are so good with computers that they didn’t even need to leave their house to find this information out.”

Though, I hadn’t known them in truth. Tyler, Henley’s brother, had known the woman. Which just so happened to be how I’d gotten the name of the corporation that made it their life mission to help women in need.

“This will be done free of charge,” Joker said, sounding deadly. “Because I made a promise that’s beyond you. I’ll be taking care of your problem for you.”

I stood up to leave.

“Within the hour I’ll have names.”

He was right.

He did.

And three of them pointed directly at the doctor’s office. One the doctor that had performed the in-vitro fertilization, and two surrogates who just so happened to be willing and ready the moment that we needed them.

I placed two calls.

One to a friend of a friend who was a police officer and could look into the matter of the doctor. The second call was placed to the organization that was hiding the surrogate. Extra security was provided for her. But little did our surrogate know that the security wasn’t for her well-being, but to ensure that she didn’t do anything stupid or hasty and endanger the lives in her womb.Chapter 31Before. B-E-F-O-R-E. Not B4. We speak English, not Bingo.

-Text from Rhys to his sister

Rhys

Four weeks later

They were born early—so fuckin’ small that it physically hurt to look at them—and they struggled to live.

I watched them over the monitors that were installed in their makeshift hospital room.

I’d hired the best of the best to take care of my children in case this very thing happened. They had state of the art equipment to help them get well, also.