Free MINE 3 by Kristina Weaver Page A

I’ll stand firm and get the answers before making my decision, because I’m stronger than I was before.
    It’s ironic, but he’s given me all this strength to face the same situation he hadn’t been strong enough to face.
    Now I just have to wait and see if my love is worth fighting for, or if the deal of a lifetime is nothing more than Ash on the wind.
     
     
     

Chapter Fourteen
     
    Luc
    The last week and a half have been hellish. Not only did I have to go to Germany to fix a cock up made by one of my top execs—ex-execs now—but I’d been trying to keep my grasping ex-wife away from my family.
    The woman is a greedy, lazy alcoholic, who sees nothing wrong with hitting me up for money despite the massive divorce settlement I’d provided.
    I could have sent her packing and told her to stay the hell away from me and try getting a job, but the bitch had threatened to go to Ashley and make waves, something I won’t abide.
    My love is still fragile and in mommy mode right now, and I will do anything to keep her sheltered from the vipers in my life. So I’d seen that bitch and figured out that my dear mother is behind this shakedown.
    Seems she’s unable to live without the large stipend my father had always provided and now needs money.
    I’d told them both to go fuck themselves and threatened them with legal action if they so much as breathe near what’s mine. Now I’m home and bloody ready to lose myself inside my love, the only place I’ve ever found a moment’s peace.
    The house is dark when I get in, the only sound that of a thin wail. Grinning, I drop my luggage and bound up the stairs, stifling a laugh when I get to the nursery and see my little Jewel wide awake and ready to unleash hell on her poor mum.
    “Shh, love, let Mummy sleep. Daddy’s here,” I croon, holding her close to my chest and breathing deeply of her baby fresh scent.
    And then I get a hit of something decidedly un-fresh, and panic.
    Ash thinks I’m not willing to change princess because I’m squeamish about seeing her girly parts, something I’ve fostered to keep her laughing and off my back. The truth is the little gem is toxic in the nappy area, and whereas I can change Lucky and Cam without batting an eyelash, I just know I’ll never see my princess the same if I have to see what’s come out of her.
    “Love, I need you to wake up,” I whisper a minute later after regretfully walking into the master bedroom and turning on the bedside lamp.
    I love my love, but letting her sleep while I suffer untold horrors is not something I can do right now.
    “Love, Jewel needs a change,” I say louder, hushing the baby when she lets out an unladylike squawk and screws her chubby face up.
    Ashley’s lashes flutter before opening, revealing the gray eyes I’ve missed so much. Something flickers deep in those eyes for the briefest second before she sits up and throws the duvet aside, taking my burden with a muttered curse.
    “Come on, Ju, let’s go do something about that before Mommy comes back to do something about that .”
    A strange sense of foreboding hits me when my previously loving wife throws me a scathing glare and stomps out with the baby, her body stiff and unyielding. She comes back a few minutes later, after I’d listened to her whisper and mutter over the baby monitor while she changed and settled Jewel.
    “Okay,” she breathes, closing the door and prowling my way, her eyes shooting sparks at me.
    “Can I have a kiss?”
    “Huh! Not in this lifetime, asshole,” she mutters furiously, folding her arms and backing away when I reach out to touch her.
    “You have some explaining to do before I let you put your paws on me, buddy. I’m gonna give you one chance to tell me where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing, and if you even think of lying to me I will take my shit and my kids and be gone so fast you won’t be able to blink. You got me?”
    “Uh, yes?”
    “Good. So tell me where you