Longing For The Beach Billionaire Daddy
Chapter 235

*Michael*

I stared down at Thomas as he greedily drank from his bottle, milk dribbling out his mouth and down his chin. I wouldn’t ever get tired of looking at his or his sister’s innocent faces. They gave my life a purpose I never knew was missing, and I’d be damned if Lane Henderson, or anyone for that matter, tried to ruin what I had built.

I used my free hand to shoot Bruce a text to let him know we were alright. He responded almost instantly and said he was glad to hear it, but he’d like to meet with me sometime today if it was at all possible. I replied and let him know I’d send a car to get him in two hours and to be on the lookout. Now that I had spoken to Bruce, Reggie, and Lauren, I needed to reach out to Delaney and get the ball rolling on a few things.

I dialed his number and waited as the phone rang. Just when I thought it would go to voicemail, Delaney answered. “Hey, boss,” he said gruffly into the phone.

“Delaney, those shits burned our house down,” I said.

“I saw, and I’m already on it. Thankfully, the cameras we installed to watch the property are very high resolution. The quality is extremely clear and state-of-the-art. I have some stills I need you to look over. Once we hang up, I’ll go ahead and send them over.”

“I should have known you’d already be on top of things,” I chuckled. “You never let me down, you know that?”

“Enough with the sentiments,” Delaney said, clearly uncomfortable from the praise. “I sent the stills I’m sending to you over to the FBI. They should be reaching out to you soon to discuss what’s going on. Also, I still haven’t found the SUV from the incident with Shelby’s boss, but I’m combing through hours of video footage around the area. There are many different angles, and I know something had to have picked up a license plate number or two. As soon as I have something, you’ll be the first to know.”

“Thanks, as always. I’ll reach out if I need you before then.” I said goodbye, hung up the phone, grabbed Amelia’s bottle, and headed back into the living room where Shelby was saying goodbye to Lin and Aubrey.

“I love you guys so much. You know Michael won’t let anything happen to us, and as soon as this s**t is over, we’re going out to have a much-needed girls’ night. I promise.”

She said goodbye and hung up the phone. She still looked shaken up, but talking to her friends had lessened the severity of the shock she was feeling from seeing our home on fire.

“How are you holding up in here?” I questioned her as I passed her Amelia’s bottle then swooped in to pick our big girl up and place her in Shelby’s lap.

Shelby began to feed Amelia and stared off into the distance while she thought about how to answer my question.

“Well, I’m upset. I’m mad, frustrated, and very f*****g pissed off. They have no idea what they’re up against. Do they think we’re going to roll over and let them threaten us into submission?” she said.

Her voice shook with quiet rage, and I saw a light in her I hadn’t yet seen before. This person sitting before me was a mom who’d had enough of people messing with her and her children’s lives. I hated seeing her upset, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t impressed.

My wife was a damn badass.

“They will soon realize they should’ve been the ones to roll over, trust me. I just got off the phone with Delaney, and I’m waiting on him to send me some stills from the video surveillance we set up to watch the house while we were here. He already sent them over to the FBI, so I’m also waiting on them to reach out as well.” I paused to check Shelby’s facial expression and saw a modicum of relief etched into her face.

I continiued, “He’s also still combing through the different cameras from where your boss was attacked. He’ll be reaching out to us as soon as he finds something.”

Shelby held Amelia up to her chest and patted her back in a repetitive motion, attempting to get the baby to burp. She had reflux that made her spit up pretty frequently, and if we skipped a burp session, we could almost guarantee projectile vomiting about thirty minutes after she ate. In a split second, I saw fury flash across Shelby’s face before she almost shouted, “Did you call Miss Constance back? Is she okay?”

“We already called her, my love. She’s safe now. The police have her in a hotel where they can monitor her, and I told her to take a paid vacation while we figure out what the hell we’re doing here, okay? Our main focus right now is handling this s**t. Bruce is coming over in two hours, and we’ll go from there,” I walked over and sat next to Shelby, rubbing her arm as I spoke.

She leaned her head against my shoulder and let out a sigh of relief. “You’re a genius for setting up those cameras, Michael. And I still haven’t thanked you for making sure you got all of our sentimental belongings out of the house, so thank you. That means so much to me that you were thinking ahead like that.” She paused and then asked, “Do you think they were dumb enough to have their faces caught on camera?”

I thought about her question for a beat then said, “I don’t want to make assumptions until I see the stills myself, but Lane Henderson has a lot of money. I can’t imagine he’s hiring the kind of amateurs that get caught red-handed like that.”

“One would think, but in our case, I hope they were i***t criminals on their first job,” Shelby thought aloud. As she finished talking, my phone began to ring. I checked the number and realized it was an incoming call from someone at the FBI. I showed Shelby and hit the answer button.

“Hello?” I spoke into the phone.

“Hello, Mr. Astor. I hate to be speaking on bad terms again, but this is Special Agent Ramirez. I’m here with Special Agent Johnson. We wanted to set up a meeting because of what happened with your house. Would you be available today?”

Ramirez’s voice traveled through background noise filled with chatter and chaos, which led me to believe he was probably in the office surrounded by other agents. “Yes, would three hours from now work out for the two of you? We can head to my office and meet in a conference room three,” I told him.

“We can make that meeting. We’ll see you then. Again, I’m sorry we even had to make the call, I had hoped your life would be settling down by now. See you soon.” He hung up before I had a chance to respond, and I turned to Shelby who was leaning in close enough to have heard the entire conversation.

“We were hoping our lives would be settled by now, too,” Shelby said sarcastically, then she chuckled darkly to herself. “Seems like we’re magnets for insane people with criminal intent. Only this time, this is entirely my fault. I brought this on myself, you, and our children.”

I hated hearing her voice sounding so detached and miserable. I needed to get that level of anger back that she had had earlier when she was out for b***d and justice.

“Listen to me, Shelby. The only thing you did was work a case where you could help people and make a difference. The only people to blame here are the assholes working for Henderson and Henderson himself. They’re the ones who have been hurting people for years, they’re the ones who hurt your boss, and they’re the ones who burned our house down. Don’t you dare blame yourself for the actions of horrible, immoral men. You are amazing.”

I felt my face get red with passion as I told Shelby who exactly was responsible for our most recent troubles.

“I know they’re at fault, but it’s so hard not to blame myself. Had I just waited to go back to work like you wanted me to, we wouldn’t have danger knocking at our door.” She rocked Amelia back and forth, and I could see the tiredness and regret in her eyes. Seeing the toll this was taking on her, the anger I felt at Henderson and his cronies heightened to new levels.

I took Amelia from Shelby’s arms and moved her to the pink and purple play mat on the floor. Then, I moved Thomas to his play mat. Both babies began happily cooing and grabbing their chubby feet, so I turned my attention back to Shelby.

I walked over to her and took her cheeks in my palms, then leaned down and aggressively pressed my lips to hers, trying to will every ounce of strength I had in my body into hers where our mouths touched.

When I broke away, I said, “There’s no reason to punish yourself for wanting to work and help people. You’ve never been dishonest about the fact that you wanted to earn your way in the world, and it was always selfish of me to try to keep you from that. You’re an amazing person with an incredible eye for detail. You were destined for this line of work, and I’ll be damned if I let you beat yourself up because you have passion.”

Shelby g*****d and let her head fall back against the couch before she said, “What would I do without you, Michael? You always know what to say to make me feel better. Thank you, thank you, thank you.” She punctuated each thank you with a soft k**s against my lips, and I kissed her back eagerly.

The buzzer went off, letting us know someone was calling our apartment from downstairs. With a sigh, I released her and answered. It was the doorman. “Sir, you have a visitor in the lobby. Do you want to come down and get him, or would you like me to go ahead and let him up?”

“I’ll come down and grab him, thanks,” I said into the intercom.

Then, I turned around to look back at Shelby and said, “That has to be Bruce. Nobody else knows we’re here. That being said, I’m still going to walk downstairs to be sure. If there’s one thing we have to do to see this thing through, it’s take every safety measure and precaution we can.”

Shelby nodded, and I walked out the front door toward the elevator to begin the descent to the lobby, hoping I was right and it was Bruce. If it was anyone else, our problems were just beginning.