Free One More Shameless Night by Lili Valente

words meant something.
    For years, she’d believed her sister was dead. She never ever wanted to wake up to another morning like that again.
    “I’ll call Clay,” Jackson said, pulling his phone from his back pocket. “He contacted me earlier. Maybe he has his phone with him, and they left Harley’s in the room.”
    “Thanks, babe.” Hannah wiggled her toes nervously in his lap while his call connected and the phone rang and rang.
    “Voicemail,” Jackson said with a frown before leaving his message. “Clay. Call me. It’s urgent.”
    “Don’t say that!” Hannah said as he hung up. “He might think there’s something wrong with the kids.”
    “Good. Then he’ll call back faster.” Jackson stood and leaned over to scoop Jasper into his arms. “I’ll tuck this one in. You want to go feed Will his bottle?”
    “Yes, oh man, I didn’t ever hear him.” She leveraged herself to her feet, grabbing the monitor, which was emitting snuffly, grunty, baby sounds, the fussy precursor to a full-fledged hunger wail. “Help him brush his teeth, Jackson,” she called after her husband. “He shouldn’t go to bed with all that sugar on his teeth.”
    “On it,” Jackson said, evidently meaning more than brushing Jasper’s teeth.
    By the time Hannah finished feeding and burping Will, changed his diaper, and rocked him back to sleep, Jackson was standing in the living room with one of his friends from work. One of his very big, very scary-looking friends, who divided their time between bulking up at the gym and serving as bodyguards for visiting dignitaries. But she knew from experience that Neville was a gentle giant. The only thing truly scary about the six foot five Polynesian was how good he was at cards. He took her for her entire jar of pennies every time the security firm boys came over for poker night.
    “Hello, Neville. Good to see you,” Hannah said, running a hand through her wild hair as she shifted her gaze to Jackson. “What’s going on?”
    “Neville is going to stay here with you and the kids while I go check on Harley and Clay.”
    “Oh no, you don’t have to do that,” Hannah said, even as relief and gratitude spread through her chest. “I’m sure they’re fine. We can just keep trying to call.”
    “You’re not sure they’re fine,” Jackson said. “And neither am I. Clay and I have been working on something behind the scenes and it’s been coming to a head the past few days. There’s a chance it could have put him and Harley in danger.”
    “Working on something.” Hannah propped her hands on her hips. “What kind of something, Jackson?”
    Jackson exchanged a loaded look with Neville, before crossing the room and drawing her into the kitchen. “The kind of something I don’t have time to tell you about right now,” he said once they were alone.
    “You’ve had plenty of time before,” she insisted, folding her arms across her chest. “Why is this the first I’m hearing of this secret project? Which I’m sure is dangerous and probably illegal?”
    “It’s not illegal,” Jackson said, meeting her challenging gaze with an unflappable one. “And it’s the first you’re hearing of it because keeping you safe is my number one priority. And that includes keeping your blood pressure down and your worry level low while you’re carrying our children.”
    “That’s a bunch of crap, Jackson,” she said, fighting to keep her voice down. “I’m pregnant, I’m not a child.”
    “No, you’re not, but you’ve been fighting high blood pressure this entire pregnancy. The last thing you needed was more stress, especially pointless stress. There is nothing you could have done to improve the situation Clay and I are dealing with. Therefore, there was no point in you being informed.”
    “This isn’t the playroom.” She frowned harder, hating the helpless, out-of-the-loop feeling throwing her off balance. “You don’t get carte blanche to decide what’s best for