31. Matt Wont Go Away

Chapter 31

Matt Won't Go Away

S abre

"What the fuck?" I muttered underneath my breath as I planted my feet and crossed my arms over my chest. I wasn't in the mood to deal with either Matt or Gerry. The only reason Matt wasn't six feet under yet was because I didn't have a plan yet to make it look like an accident or pin it on his cartel buddies. If he suddenly disappeared, there would be too many questions that I wouldn't have suitable answers for. I would not go to jail for his fucking stupidity.

No one said anything as they approached.

"You almost pulled a fast one," Matt said, smirking. "I have to admit, you had me for a second. Grace pissed off the charge nurse, and it all fell apart." He tapped on the glass. "Don't worry, that shit stops now. The charge nurse and I are well-acquainted."

The NICU nurse came to the door and cracked it just enough for her to stick her head out. "Can I help you with something?" she asked.

"Yeah, I want to see my son," Matt demanded.

"You are?" Her eyes bounced between the five of us, as if she wasn't sure whom to trust. I didn't blame her. I didn't trust Matt either, and he'd just confessed to cheating on his wife in front of her father. Grace had tried to tell Gerry at the family dinner, so if he couldn't see what a piece of shit Matt was now, then there was no hope of ever changing his mind.

"The baby's father." Matt tried to push past the nurse, but she stood her ground and closed the door just enough to block his entrance. Wreck shifted so that his body would block Matt if he tried to charge again. Wreck wasn't the biggest brother, but he was enough sometimes to deter trouble.

The nurse's eyes flicked to Wreck, widening slightly at the sight of him. She straightened, but her shoulders sagged a bit, a deep breath escaping her lips. The determined spark in her eyes dimmed, replaced by a wary resignation. We'd won ourselves an unexpected ally.

"Your name is?" she asked Matt, not letting him push her around. There was a bit of a bite underneath her tone. The nurse had better things to do than to ask questions that Matt should have voluntarily offered from the beginning.

"Matthew Montgomery." He tried to walk through the door again, but Wreck didn't move and the nurse would not back down.

She held her ground. "I am sorry, sir, but you're not on my visitation list. If you would like to visit, you will need to speak to a member of the hospital staff so that they can process that for you."

"I am the baby's father, and that's my wife in there. How much is this going to take?" Matt made a show of reaching for his wallet.

The nurse closed the door, but before she could get it to latch, Matt screamed into the opening, "You fat fucking bitch!"

I'd had enough. Grabbing him by his suit coat collar, I shoved him against the opposite wall, away from the door.

"The last time we met, I promised I'd make you a one-ball wonder before I send you back to your little cartel buddies. That's a promise I firmly plan on keeping," I whispered through gritted teeth. I didn't need any of the hospital cameras picking up this conversation. "What do you think they are going to do to when you can't pay, and there's no baby? Your missing dick is the last thing you'll be thinking about."

Matt shoved off the wall, closing the distance between us. "I am the master at this game, and you have no clue what the rules even are."

"I know why you need the baby. Why didn't you just knock up Clara once you realized you had the wrong woman? "

"Clara's too loose. If they wanted loose pussy, they had plenty of blondes that could have gotten the job done. Grace was exquisite the night she hosted the dinner party. The perfect trophy." He laughed in my face. "You think Grace is the prize, and maybe, to your redneck ass, she is. Grace will never be completely yours, because she'll always be comparing the two of us, and you'll always come in second." He smirked, assuming that I would smash his face in. I would. It just wouldn't be here. "Do you realize I can take the baby from you and walk out of this place?"

My voice lowered another octave. "You're on borrowed time, but if you touch a single hair on my son's head, you'll be screaming for your mama." Backing up a step from him, I made a show of smacking his shoulder with my fist as if we were just having a friendly conversation. "Good chat."

Matt flipped Grace off through the window, turned on his heel, and made his way to the elevator. I wasn't sure what his next move was, but I needed to get ahead of this. Quickly.

Gerry was still standing in the hallway, staring through the glass at Grace. "Do you have anything to add to that?" I asked him. I was done, and if he even thought about crossing me, I'd make sure his ass was on a bus south.

"Is she alright?" He didn't direct that question to anyone in particular.

"Do you care?" I asked him.

"She's my daughter," he said, as he tried to make himself appear bigger than reality as he faced us again. "When my wife died, things became chaotic for a bit, but I've always done what's best for my girls." He frowned as his mind slid into the past.

"You continue to push her towards a man who doesn't have her best interests at heart. What are you really doing with him? I don't believe for one second that you're completely innocent in all of this."

Red crawled up Gerry's neck, to his throat and into his cheeks. His nostrils flared, and his eyes shined with anger. "If you're going to accuse me of something, you better have proof, you son of a bitch. "

"I don't need proof when I can see it clearly. What happened? Did Matt come to you the day Grace moved out and ask for your help? What did he promise you? I can't see you needing money." Something in his expression shifted, and I would have never seen it if I hadn't been looking directly at him.

"What did you do? Gamble it all away?" Pretty interjected. He was watching Gerry just as closely as I was.

"That's it, isn't it? You need money," I confirmed.

His knees buckled, and Wreck reached out to steady him. "You don't get to pray for salvation. Stand there and take it up the ass like a real man," he said.

"My girls don't need me anymore. I've always been careful to keep the cartel at a distance. I'll take their cases, but I am not overly friendly with them. They kept inviting me to their illegal casinos. When I went one night, that's when they had me. Before I knew it, I was broke, and they owned me." Gerry stared at Grace through the window.

"Do they know about your connection to Matt?" I asked. They had to, otherwise, they would have left Gerry alone, but some sick part me wanted him to confirm it. He'd wanted to tear into his daughters for their sins when he wasn't perfect.

"Yes. I think that's why they actually set me up, and like a fucking idiot, I let them."

"Did they give you any instructions?" I kept pushing for any piece of information that would help.

"They told me to keep a close eye on Matt. They said that he owed them several million dollars and that it would clear my debts if I kept tabs on him. You know, make sure he wasn't in any kind of trouble."

"You can't fucking be serious, Prez. I don't believe that he didn't know about the baby." Wreck squeezed Gerry's arm hard enough to leave a bruise.

"I don't either. You put your daughter and grandson in danger. I originally thought Meredith had been involved because of Brandon. Now, I am wondering if it was really because of you. Last I heard, she's still unconscious. "

"What about the baby?" Gerry turned towards the window. He honestly looked shocked, but he was sweating in fear. It was an odd combination.

"Matt is trying to sell your grandson to wipe his cartel debts away. Why do you think he's here when he normally abandons them?"

"He sold my grandson?" Gerry was trembling as he was trying to reconcile the pieces of information. "I've been watching him so that he could take the baby?"

"How did you know the baby was born today?" I asked.

"I got a message this morning that said I needed to make the trip up here. It was probably from a burner phone because when I went to reverse look up the phone number, there wasn't anything there. I made the trip and got a hotel room to wait out the next message. They only send me one at a time, and it's short snippets of what they want done." Gerry wiped the sweat off his forehead with the sleeve of his dress shirt. "A few hours after that, they messaged me again. It said that Grace was on the way to the hospital, and if I wanted to wipe some debt off, I should call Matt. He answered right away, and we came here."

"Aww, fuck. Are you supposed to meet up with them?" Pretty piped up. This was the longest I'd known him to be quiet in a long time.

"I don't know what the next message will say or when it will appear. They work on their own schedule." Gerry dropped his eyes to the floor and shuffled his feet back and forth.

"Hey, Wreck? Call Twig and tell him he has a package to pick up." I saw Wreck pull out his phone to make the arrangements. "Gerry," I said, "you're on your own with the debt. I will not help you pay it off because the minute you give the cartel money, they will continually ask for more. It will never end." I ran my fingers through my hair and stared at the broken man.

"You have to protect me. They'll kill me," Gerry cried.

"I don't have to do shit. You shouldn't mistake my kindness for weakness because I can flip that switch. When Twig gets here, you're going to be good friends. He'll take you to the club and make sure you have a room. Your phone is going to go to Cyph for processing." I made sure Gerry was looking at me before I continued. "You will help me keep your grandson safe. Consider it the parenting you should have given your daughter."

Pretty and I watched as Wreck wrapped his hand around Gerry's arm and led him to the elevator. Twig would take care of him until Gerry atoned for his sins. It was more than likely that the cartel would come for him. I hoped there was a resolution before I had to sacrifice Gerry for his daughters' safety.

"Wreck wears those jeans so damn well," Pretty said out of nowhere, smacking his lips. "They mold to his ass just right."

My eyebrows shot up, and my eyes widened. "I told you I didn't care, but you're making it weird."

"Eh, it would be weird if I told you all the things I wanted to do with that ass. I didn't." Pretty smiled widely at me. "You needed a break for a second, Drew. It worked. You're welcome."

He was still smiling at me as I shook my head at him and punched his forearm. "What are you going to do, Sabre? You can't leave, and Grizz is in no place to run a church. That's even if you could get him to leave Meredith."

"I have an idea, and Gerry just gave us a way to track the cartel. We have at least five weeks before they release the baby. It'll give us time to iron out our plans."

"Grace will not want to leave the hospital while he's still in here. Do you want me to go across the street and book you a hotel room?" Pretty asked.

"Not yet, but you'll have to book a room for the four of you that are staying. Someone will have to arrange for more clothes. I'll stay with Grace until they release her, and then we'll get a room."

"Would you have still sat next to her if you knew this was all going to head our way?"

"Was I worth it?" The door to the NICU unit was open, and the nurse was helping Grace cross the threshold.

"I should have never let you leave that night, no matter what it would have cost me," I answered her honestly. We'd wasted so much time pretending that the other hadn't existed. I should have just camped out on her front lawn until she came to the same conclusion I had. Now that she was here, I was never letting her go.

"Charmer," she said with a grimace as she tried to shuffle her way into the hallway.

I held out my arm for her to hold and gain some traction. Once she was stable, I leaned down and whispered in her ear, "You shine brighter than any diamond I could ever put on your finger. Everything's going to change because you're mine, and one day, you'll honestly believe me when I say that."

"Do you want to meet him?" she asked, looking up into my eyes.

"I do," I told her. "I don't feel right meeting him without you. He's ours, and that should be something we do as a family. Not one person at a time."

She laid her head on my shoulder as the tears flowed down her cheeks. "He already likes his name, so I'll wait until the day we're reunited as a family."