Ridge and Talaya spent Friday afternoon at Hyde Park.

They sat on an extra-large red and white plaid picnic blanket in a spot close to the Serpentine Boathouse. The waterside area was gorgeous, especially on such a clear and beautiful day when the sky was its most magnificent blue and the clouds the fluffiest of white. The sun shone brightly adding to the picture-perfect scene. Unfortunately, they weren’t the only ones to believe this was a lovely location for their outing, which meant the security team of eight, who had accompanied them, had a logistical nightmare on their hands.

But when she’d suggested this to Ridge yesterday, he’d assured her that Sage would handle it. And, so far, to Talaya’s knowledge, she had.

They’d arrived a few minutes before two after traveling in what could only be described as their own private motorcade. Three black Escalades on loan from Spades Security because they were already outfitted with all the security required for any travel they did now, whether together, or apart, had driven through the streets of the city. Ridge had already purchased his own vehicles; he wanted something with a classier look, but that still offered the same protection. So, three black Range Rovers equipped to meet all the security specifications Ridge and Sage had come up with, would be delivered to their house by the end of September. Until then, they would continue to use the vehicles Que’s company was supplying for all of them.

In addition to the secure vehicles, Sage had sent a small team to the park yesterday to perform a risk assessment. Talaya hadn’t asked to be in the meeting with Ridge and the rest of the security team when they’d met late last night, instead she preferred taking some time alone in the library to focus on lighter thoughts. But this morning, she’d overheard Sage and Dino going over today’s plan.

“I’ll confirm with the park management that we’ve got the location reserved and send a couple of foot troops over around eleven to get the space cleared out so it’ll be ready when we arrive,” Sage had told him as they stood in the kitchen.

Talaya had been about to go into the kitchen to grab something quick for breakfast before they had to leave when she stopped just before the entrance and listened.

Dino smacked his lips like he’d just finished drinking something. Probably water from that clear tumbler he always kept close. “Got it,” he said. “Talaya’s going to work until eleven thirty, then we’ll head over to pick up the girls.”

“From the hotel on Park.” Sage stated as if they were going down a checklist.

“Yup,” Dino answered. “Installing that car seat for the baby was a bitch, but I finally got it done.”

Sage made a sound, but Talaya couldn’t quite decipher its meaning. “Never thought you’d have to work with one of those, did you?”

“Honestly?” Dino asked then, continued to answer his own question. “Not on this job. Ridge is or I guess was, a playboy. At least that’s the title he liked to live up to, so no, children didn’t play into any of the scenarios I thought I might get into on this job.”

“Me either,” Sage said.

“You think they’re going to keep them?” Dino asked. “The girls, I mean. Both of them?”

“I don’t know,” Sage answered. “I think they both like them. A lot. But that’s neither here nor there for us. Our job is to protect them. Ridge, Talaya, and those kids. Nothing happens to any of them on our watch. We clear?”

“Clear as water,” Dino replied.

Then Sage groaned. “You’re so damn corny, Delontae.”

“Hey, watch it. You don’t see me joking you about your fixation with Method Man or how you only listen to his music when you’re in the shower. And whatever else you do while listening to him in the shower,” Dino told her.

“Because you don’t want to die,” Sage shot back. “And you know what, the next time your goofy ass gets locked out of your own apartment and can’t find your greasy ass landlord to come out in the middle of the night with the spare key, I’m letting you sleep on the streets.”

“That only happened one time,” he told her. “And I won’t be on the streets, Ridge would let me crash here even if I wasn’t on duty.”

“That was before he had Talaya. And before he was considering building a family. A lot of shit’s about to change around here now. Especially with this threat looming over all of them now.” Sage’s tone went somber. “That’s why we gotta be on our shit, D. No goofin’ off, we gotta keep our eyes and ears open. Nothing happens to them on our watch, remember that.”

“You said that already.” He complained. “But you’re right: nothing happens to them.”

Talaya had changed her mind about breakfast and instead turned around and headed into the reception room where she waited for Dino to come out. Then she followed him to the garage and climbed into the back of the truck, her mind on what they had planned for the day and how the life she and Ridge led would ultimately affect any long-term decisions they had to make.

“I don’t like pineapples.” Imani declared, pulling Talaya’s thoughts back to the present. “They make my tongue feel funny.” And with that statement she stuck out her tongue and lowered her eyes as if she could actually inspect her own tongue that way.

“I don’t like melons,” Ridge said from his spot on the blanket where he leaned over on his side, his upper body propped up by an elbow.

Imani sat with her legs tucked under her, the right sleeve of her pink Little Mermaid shirt slipping off her shoulder. The shirt and the aqua colored shorts she wore were a little too big, but Talaya had asked Moriah what size Imani wore and had been planning a shopping trip with the little girl in her mind. She’d asked Moriah so many questions when she and Ridge had met her for breakfast on Tuesday morning. They’d also met with the Diallos later that day. On Wednesday, she and Ridge picked Imani up from school and while Imani had been excited to see Talaya again, the little girl had been a little leery of Ridge. Until Ridge bought her an ice cream covered in chocolate sprinkles. From that point on they’d been the best of friends.

Which is probably why Imani sat closer to Ridge on the blanket today and was now, because he’d motioned for her to do so, pushing her bowl of fruit closer to him.

“They always put a bunch of melons in fruit salads. Especially these orange ones,” he said with his nose crinkled. He plucked the two orange slices out of the fruit bowl and tossed them onto a napkin that wasn’t too far from them.

Imani giggled. “Uh huh,” she said with a nod. “Take the green ones out too.”

When he did Imani thought that was the funniest thing and her wide toothless grin was the cutest.

“First, those orange ones are still considered a melon, but they’re called cantaloupes and second, they’re both good for you,” Talaya told them.

Imani tilted her head and the shoulder length braids with clear beads on the end she wore shifted to the side.

“But the grapes are the best,” Imani told Talaya. “The red ones, not the green ones.”

“My girl!” Ridge declared and held up his palm for Imani to give him a high-five.

When she did exactly as Ridge expected, Talaya grinned again.

This was the first day the four of them were spending time together. Not wanting the size or location of Ridge’s house to overwhelm the girls this soon, they decided to meet at a hotel. They used the same hotel where they’d had an early dinner with Imani after school on Wednesday, to spend time with Khady yesterday. Both Moriah and the Diallos seemed pleased with Ridge and Talaya’s requests to meet the girls and to experiment with them all spending time together. None of them were certain how this would turn out, but from the many smiles and giggles Ridge and Imani had shared in the past two visits, Talaya thought they were off to a good start.

As for Khady, well, the little girl couldn’t be any cuter. Even now as she lay cradled in Talaya’s arms, fast asleep, she looked like a perfect doll baby. Khady’s deep mocha complexion and wide expressive eyes had reminded Talaya of Ridge the first time she’d seen the child when Renata had brought her into the office last year. Of course, before she’d showed up on his doorstep, she’d only known Ridge by all the pictures she’d seen of him during her Google search, but she could’ve sworn there was a familial resemblance between them. Now, after knowing and loving Ridge for ten months and seeing Khady again for the first time in the same length of time, she still thought they looked alike. But perhaps that was because, as it turned out, the little girl did belong to Ridge—even if not by DNA. He’d held her almost the entire time they’d been alone with her in the hotel yesterday. Letting her hold his big finger between her smaller ones, until she eventually tried to stuff his fingers and the sterling silver pinkie ring that his mum had given him for his seventeenth birthday, into her mouth. When he’d refused her that entertainment, Khady wiggled and stretched until he put her on the bed. Then she crawled over to the edge where Talaya sat.

Holding this sweet baby now had a repeat of the swishing and swirling she’d been feeling in the pit of her stomach every day this week that they had either talked to Moriah, the Diallos, Ridge’s attorneys, or each other about these two gorgeous little girls.

“Khady’s missin’ all the fun,” Imani said. “And we’re gonna eat all the fruit too.”

She and Ridge were steadily picking their way through one of the two big bowls of fruit Roya had packed for them. The picnic basket was huge and Jaheem had grumbled about there probably being a whole roasted turkey in there as heavy as it was. Talaya couldn’t even front; there was a lot of food for just two adults and two children. So, she’d offered the guards one of the many sandwiches and sides as well. Sage had frowned, then indicated they’d eat theirs later. The woman’s gaze had been steadily roaming all around the park from the moment they’d stepped out of the trucks.

“She’ll eat when she wakes up,” Talaya said. “I’ve got her bottles in the bag.”

“But she’s one now. She’s a big girl and can drink out of cups like me,” Imani announced.

Talaya tilted her head as she stared at Imani. “Not quite yet. In a few months we’ll start giving her a cup to see how she likes it. But she just turned one so she still likes her bottle.”

“And fruit?” Imani dug into the bowl and pulled out two red grapes. “She’ll probably like the red ones too.”

Talaya grinned again. “She might. Do you at least like the strawberries?”

Imani made another face that even though it was supposed to express her distaste still ended up being so adorable it ought to be illegal. For a second Talaya wondered if she and Ridge had made their own biological children if they would’ve managed to be anymore perfect than these two seemed to be for them.

“I like popcorn though,” Imani told her and then looked back at Ridge. “You said I can have my own big bucket when we go to the movies to see The Little Mermaid.”

“And I meant it,” Ridge told her. “You can get your own bucket and I’ll get my own.”

Moriah told them that Imani had been begging to see the movie since it came out a few months ago, but that she and Heathcliff hadn’t been able to take her yet. It was only showing in a few theatres now, but when Imani had talked incessantly about the movie after seeing a commercial for it on the television in the hotel, Ridge had promised her he would take her to see it. He knew someone who could get him a private showing at the theatre where the movie had premiered and as soon as they nailed down a date, he was taking all his girls. That’s exactly how he’d stated it late last night when they were in their bedroom alone. The words had warmed Talaya’s heart, just as much as this outing today was.

“Who’s gonna share with Ms. Tay?” Imani asked him.

She’d been calling Talaya that since the first day they met and Talaya had loved to hear it. Now, though, she wondered how it would sound to hear the girl call her, mama.

Ridge glanced over to Talaya as if he knew exactly what she’d been thinking and he smiled. “We’ll both share with her.”

Imani nodded enthusiastically and Talaya continued to beam at them. It really did feel good to sit here on a warm summer’s afternoon with them. It felt right, like somehow this had been the ending they’d each been running toward. She nor Ridge had said anything to Imani about her and Khady possibly coming to live with them. It was too soon for that, but in her mind, Talaya was already planning. Bedroom makeovers, shopping sprees, schools in their area, daycare centers, pediatricians, any and everything they would need, she was already planning for and she hoped with everything in her that things would turn out the way she planned.

When Imani scrambled up and walked over to where Dino stood, then offered him a hand full of grapes, Talaya looked over at Ridge again. He was grinning at the little girl, a look of pure bliss on his handsome face. “You ready for this?” she asked him even though she knew the answer just by that look he was wearing.

His smile spread as he brought his gaze back to her. “I think I am,” he replied. “Are you?”

She thought about his question for a moment. She knew the answer her heart would relay. It had been telling her since that dream she’d had of her mother combing Imani’s hair. That little girl was meant to be hers and miraculously, so was this sleeping beauty in her arms. But her brain was taking its sweet time getting on board with all the excitement and joy flowing through her system. Questions still rattled around in her mind, doubts, and yes, dammit, fears.

“What are we bringing them into?” she asked Ridge.

It had been her most pressing thought late last night when the reality of her having to ask Ridge if they would be safe coming to the park today had really set in. When she awoke this morning and stood in the mirror reciting her daily affirmations, she reminded herself of that saying that worrying does not take away tomorrow’s troubles, it takes away today’s peace. So, she’d forced herself to stop worrying about how today would turn out, but then she’d overheard Sage and Dino’s conversation and now, sitting here contemplating a future with these girls and then having to look around them, once again to their reality, she was losing the battle.

Sage stood barely ten feet away from them behind where Ridge sat. When Talaya turned around, she saw that Dino had taken up the same position behind where she was seated on the blanket. Even though now the man was happily chewing the grapes Imani had offered him.

Forming a perimeter around them, Jaheem and two other guards were positioned. They’d left the SUVs and the remaining three guards down the street from the Park Lane entrance.

“They’ll need their own security team eventually, won’t they?” She continued when Ridge silently sat up and found the top to the bowl of fruit he and Imani had been sharing. “What will their life be like with security guards following them around all the time? Will they be able to make friends? Will people judge them because of who their parents are? You, the rich playboy and me, the serial killer’s daughter?”

“Are you finished?” he asked, his tone brisk. His brow was furrowed as he put the bowl into the picnic basket and let the top slam closed with a snap.

She tightened her arms around Khady and stared down at the still sleeping angel with her thick curly black hair and chubby cheeks. “Yes,” she said quietly.

“First, don’t ever let me hear you refer to us in that way again,” he said sternly. “I am not a rich playboy. I’m a grown ass man and a damn good one. My bank account does not define me. Just as who and what your father was doesn’t define you.”

She’d kept her gaze on Khady, rubbing a finger lightly down the girl’s arm to her little hands. It shouldn’t have shocked her when Ridge tucked his finger under her chin and lifted her head. He’d moved over on the blanket until he was close enough to do so and now, she stared into his steely eyes. She rarely saw him look like this, hadn’t since the night of the accident when she’d first regained consciousness and she opened her eyes to see him staring down at her.

Then, his glare had been through no fault of her own. He’d been raging because of whoever had slammed into them and the fact that she was taking a long time to wake up. Now, though, she’d said those words and she’d known the moment they fell from her lips that he wasn’t going to like them.

“We deserve happiness, Talaya,” he told her. “And so do these two little girls. Life can be cruel and unfair, but it can also be fantastic and adventurous.” One corner of his mouth lifted on those last words. “My mum used to tell us that right after my dad passed.”

She sighed at the grief that was still so evident whenever he spoke of his parents. There was such a deep love and reverence there, she could understand why he missed them so much. As for her, well, she’d felt absolutely nothing when she learned her father had died in prison. Not relief, not pain, not regret, nothing. And when she’d found her mother’s body, she’d felt sorrow and a piercing loneliness that she thought she’d never overcome. Yet here she was having a picnic in the park with the man she loved and the two girls that they wanted to bring into their lives. She should be elated, she should be hopeful, and on some level she was. But on another level, she had to be honest with not only herself, but with Ridge as well.

“I hear you,” she replied. “And those are encouraging words. I just want us to be absolutely sure, Ridge. I don’t want us to act solely on what we want. We have to think of them, of all that comes with living in our world. I know they both need a family, but—”

“They need us,” he said, interrupting her. “These two children who for various reasons have been left alone in this world, need us. Two adults who have these gaping holes inside us from the trauma we’ve endured, but who have also decided that despite that trauma and all the myriad of reasons why we should shy away, keep all our emotions on lockdown and live in despair, choose to live in love instead.”

He moved his fingers from her chin until his palm cupped her cheek. “We can do this, bae. And whether the girls will continue to need security all their lives or can one day get in a car and drive to the mall on their own to sneak meet boys—which I don’t even want to think about right now,” he added and a flash of panic lit his eyes. “They’ll have our love and support and all the things we plan to teach them about being good human beings and being a part of a big loving family.”

“That last part. I never had that,” she said softly. Then, when he was about to say something else, she shook her head. “I agree with everything you just said. Especially that part about the big loving family. I want that for them. I want it for me.” She smiled.

“Then I’m going to give that to you and to my girls,” he said and she realized this was like the third or fourth time he’d referred to them as such this week.

“Your girls?” she asked with an arch of her brow.

He grinned and leaned in to touch a kiss to her lips. “Yep. You, Imani and Khady are my girls now and nothing or nobody will ever change that.”

While she loved how that sounded, she said, “We still have a process to go through before that’s totally true. I mean, before it’s all legal. There are court documents to be filed and ruled on, rights to be terminated by the Diallos, because Aida was initially only asking you to take Khady temporarily. Then, as Suri and Willow keep reminding me, we have a wedding to plan.”

“You mean, you have a wedding to set the date for?” He interrupted her again and raised both his brows this time. “And the rest, the lawyers will figure out. Everything is going to work out for us, Talaya. I believe that in my heart and in my soul.”

His words sounded so earnest and heartfelt that there was no way she could counter them with another question or issue. All she could do then was smile and nod. “I feel it in my heart and soul too.”

* * *

“Shit!”

Scowling down at the bottom of his shoe as he stood near his car, Cordell cursed again. But this time, he didn’t state the obvious. Somewhere between the nicely concealed spot where he’d remained crouched down between a group of bushes in Hyde Park for the last two and a half hours and the parking lot, he’d graciously been able to return to at a little after four in the afternoon, he’d stepped in dog poop.

The stench was revolting and there was a stain he knew would leave a mark on the bottom of his relatively new gray and white Jordan 1 tennis shoes. As delicately as he could, he dug into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out his car keys and unlocked the doors. Then he opened the back door on the driver’s side. He set his camera bag on the seat then slammed the door closed. Still grumbling because he was hungry but now the smell coming from his shoes was making him feel nauseous, he moved to the back of the car and opened the trunk. He untied and removed both shoes and tossed them in before closing it.

He wasn’t about to track that shit into his car, so he’d just have to drive in his socks. Frowning, he slipped into the driver’s seat and closed the door. In seconds, he was pulling out of his spot and heading out of the lot.

He’d snapped over a hundred pictures in the last nine days. Some at the penthouse in Nine Elms last Sunday, although he’d only been able to get as far as the lobby. Still, he’d managed to capture the Donovan siblings on their way in and out of the luxury apartment building.

He had pictures of each guard that walked with them. And pictures from Roark Donovan’s new home on Morris Road, the one that had been converted from a warehouse to a lavish living space. Likely to make room for the new son that now resided there. The younger one, the only girl, afforded him plenty of picture opportunities as she often stepped out to enjoy London’s nightlife. One evening he’d followed her to and from three clubs where she barely stayed more than an hour, and then to a modest little flat in a part of the city that would have had her family going ballistic if they knew she’d visited. She’d stayed there for the duration of the night, leaving at dawn looking well-fucked.

But here was the prize. Ridge Donovan—the one who Michelle had dubbed the not-too-smart brother. The one they’d been trying to bring down since last year when that little tramp, Renata, popped up pregnant. She’d wanted a bigger and better life and sleeping with a rich man should’ve brought her that victory, but she’d gone and gotten herself killed after they’d paid her all that money to try and trap him with a baby. Truth be told, they would’ve been happy with news of an esteemed Donovan marrying a two-bit-whore because he’d fathered her baby being broadcasted all over the world. But Renata getting ripped to shreds and dumped by the docks had worked out even better because a mighty Donovan going to jail for murder was a juicier headline.

He turned a corner and sighed as his thoughts continued to run like a movie trailer in his mind.

Seeing Ridge Donovan hauled off in handcuffs and charged with murder hadn’t come to fruition. And trusting yet another slut—albeit a more polished one this time—to cause trouble for this particular Donovan by breaking up his strange new love affair in the hope of getting him to revert to his unstable ways of street fights and lewd behavior, had also apparently failed. Yolanda had been blowing up Cordell’s phone for the last week yelling some shit about not even being able to get a good facial because she had the stupid restraining order against her. He didn’t know what the hell she was complaining about, she’s not the one who got their ass kicked this week.

No, that had been him because he’d tried to take matters into his own hands. He’d thought the car crash would handle things once and for all and that she’d finally be happy. It had been a long time since anything he did had made Michelle happy. Not even giving her the dick the way she liked it had worked, she’d complained about that too. But the Sunday before last, she’d done more than complain while the news outlets reported that Ridge Donovan, his girlfriend and a member of his security team had walked away from the accident, instead of dying like he’d planned. Michelle had watched, with a sadistic smile on her face, as that three-hundred-pound goliath she paid to protect her beat Cordell like he’d stolen something from them. He’d been on the dirty floor of an abandoned parking garage writhing in pain when big man’s steel-toe-boots rested on his fingers and he leaned all that weight onto Cordell until Cordell could hear his bones screaming in agony. Almost two weeks later, and Cordell was still in pain. He stared down at his bandaged hands on the steering wheel, snarled and mumbled, “Bitch!.”

Michelle was an evil, heartless bitch. But she hadn’t been that way when he’d fallen madly in love with her ten years ago. Cordell had always craved her like a drug, obeyed her like a puppy and feared her in a way that made him feel like the bitch. That thought had him slamming his right hand on the steering wheel then crying out as pain radiated from his fingers down to his wrist and up his arm.

She’d said she was giving him one last chance to prove to her that he was the man she’d married, the man she’d loved. And as fucked up as Cordell knew it was, he wanted to impress her. Needed her to look at him the way she had when they’d first met. To look at him like she needed him, worshipped him. He wanted to get that back. So, he’d snapped even more pictures. This time of Renata’s daughter and another little girl as they’d run in the park chasing butterflies and geese. But he had no idea if Michelle’s next plan was going to work any better than the others had. Actually, he had no idea what her plan really was. She hadn’t told him everything, she never did. And he’d convinced himself that the lack of trust in this regard didn’t bother him, especially not since the money always showed up in his account on time. But she was getting anxious, he knew that for a fact. Impatience was making her edgy and the way she’d stood by and watched as that beast almost killed him, he knew that if she didn’t soon get what she wanted, that edginess would shift to something a hell of a lot more dangerous. He also knew there was only one person who could stop her and that knowledge was his get out of jail free card.

It actually made his dick hard thinking about it…or her.

Talaya Richmond was the sexy ass social worker who Ridge Donovan had picked this time around. Cordell couldn’t say he blamed the guy, she was fine as hell with her pretty brown skin and those sweet looking lips. He’d wanted to fuck her the moment he saw her leaving Ridge’s house last year with her professional little bag and wearing that tight ass skirt. Donovan definitely knew how to pick ‘em.

And one night when Cordell ran into his ex—Shelly Forbes—from the States, he fucked her right there in the alley behind that club where some other fine ass chick had been singing. Talaya had been in the club that night, and the singer had joined her at a table with another woman. When he’d been balls deep inside of Shelly, Cordell had imagined he was fucking Talaya. And, the next day, when he’d been parked across the street from the Addison Agency hoping for another glimpse of Talaya, he’d almost peed his pants when he saw Shelley walk out. That’s how he’d found out who Talaya really was. Shelley was also obsessed with her, but not for the same reasons that Cordell was. And after Shelly had talked so animatedly about how Talaya’s father had killed all these women and let it slip that she admired dude, Cordell had gotten the hell away from her crazy ass.

He was just about to turn down the street to the basic ass hotel Michelle had rented them a room in, when his phone buzzed from his front pocket. It took a minute to get his hand into his pocket without yelling like a fuckin’ baby from the pain, to grab it. He needed a bottle of scotch and some pain pills. Holding that damn camera and staying in that crouched down position for hours today had him suffering.

“Yeah?” he answered after glancing at the number on the screen.

“Where are you?” Michelle asked in that snappy tone she often used. Her husky voice was still sexy and the hard-on he’d gotten from thinking of Talaya stayed and he hopefully shifted his focus.

“Three minutes away from the hotel,” he replied. “You waiting for me, baby?”

She gave a dry chuckle. “You’re late and we need to go over the plan for tomorrow.”

“I said I’m three minutes away,” he repeated, but this time with a frown.

“You should already be here.” She huffed. “Just hurry up. We’ve got a lot to do.”

She hung up before he could say another word and Cordell tossed the phone over to the passenger seat. Wife or not, Michelle and her moods were getting on his damn nerves. No amount of money was worth this back and forth shit he’d been going through with her, especially since in the last week she’d started withholding the pussy. Yeah, he was getting real tired of her ass.

And he wanted someone new.

He wanted Talaya Brennan. He liked her birth name better than the one she was using now. Not only did he want to fuck her pretty ass, and he wanted to do that bad as shit. But, knowing that the daughter of an infamous killer was in his purview, he decided it would be much more beneficial for him to have her on his side. Especially after the beat down he’d incurred for acting on his own and botching the car accident. He wanted revenge before he walked away from this bullshit gig, and Talaya Brennan, with her tainted DNA was just the one who could get it for him. And really, how hard could it be to convince Talaya she needed to kill or be killed? Hadn’t she done it before?

So, for the last time because he needed to be done with this shit by Monday when he planned to be on a flight back to the States, he pulled out the new phone he’d purchased earlier today and sent a final message: Death becomes you.