The Canon Series
In this continuation of Expanding Steele, Gabriel Castoro is, at long last, behind bars. The Steele's begin picking up the pieces of their lives after Castoro's attempt to destroy them: welcoming their second child, moving into their new home, and working towards making Sophie a permanent member of their family. Will it be smooth sailing, at last? A crisis that could not be predicted makes Laura question the future and a person from the past arrives further roiling the waters.
For the most effective reading, my work should be read in chronological order as many of my one off's are spun into the history of the characters later on down the line. The chronological order of what I've written to date are as follows:
Steele Torn & Trying to Holt On
Cannes Steele be Trusted (co-written with the super-talented SuzySteele)
Steele Forsaken
Steele Mending
Steele Working out the Details
Steele Settling In
Steele Finding Comfort
Steele Holting on To Christmas
Steele Holting on To The Holidays
Holting on to the Moments
Steele Cold Relief
Steele Cloned
Steele Hurdling Obstacles
Steeling the Big Apple
Steele Dying to Get it Right
Holting Steele - Part 1 of the Be Steele My Heart series
Be Steele My Heart – Part 2 of the Be Steele My Heart series
Steele Pursued – Part 1 of the Steele Tested series
Steele Tested – Part 2 of the Steele Tested series
Steele Thankful
Down the Rabbit Holt
Steele in Wonderland
Expanding Steele – Part 1 of the His Holt World Series
His Holt World – Part 2 of the His Holt World Series
Standard Disclaimers apply: I hold no ownership or rights to the series or characters. I simply choose to borrow the characters I love to write.
Chapter 1: Early Arrival
It had been a trying three weeks for the Steele family, to say the least. Clarissa Jensen, former client and the woman Remington had once tried to marry to avoid deportation, murdered. Her three-year-old daughter, Sophia, delivered into Laura and Remington's safekeeping. Sophia's father, Gabriel Castoro, Deputy Chief of the LAPD, not only a dirty cop, but a man who had been running a criminal empire for years… and the man who'd put out a hit on the mother of his child. Jill, one of Clarissa's closest confidents, and also secretly Castoro's lover, turned murderess… then murder victim. A hit, taken out by Castoro, on their own family, forcing Laura to take the children into hiding.
Then, another assault on the Steele's: This time in their home, where Remington currently resided without his family, with only Murphy Michaels to keep him company.
But this time, Laura could only watch the aftermath play out from afar, thanks to Windsor Thomas and the regular special reports broadcast live from the station back in LA. Broadcasts which failed to provide any of the pertinent details, only disturbingly vague ones: a barrage of gunfire, two men with life threatening injuries, one of whom died in surgery.
In the meantime, Remington's mobile phone went unanswered, as did the house phone and car phone when she chanced calling them. A call for help had been finally placed to Monroe Henderson, close family friend and Remington's business partner. When he was unable to obtain any information about the occupants within the Holmby Hills home, he'd announced he'd be going to the warehouse serving as command center for the Castoro investigation.
It had all been too much for a woman who'd sat at her husband's bedside not even four years before, after he'd nearly lost his life protecting Laura and their unborn child from the murderous intentions of Anna Simpson.
"We must believe all will be well," Thomas, Remington's father, insisted. For the briefest of moments, she allowed herself the comfort of his embrace, even as she shook her head against his chest.
"Will it?" she asked forlornly, tipping back her head to look at him, her eyes reflecting every ounce of the fear rollicking through her small frame. She pulled free of his embrace, then thought to add…
"My water just broke."
The room erupted around the pair. Catherine sprang up from the couch, fingertips pressed to mouth to stifle her gasp. Dozer launched from his chair, thoroughly panicked, eyes darting around the room as though looking for the quickest escape route. Tank snatched the mobile phone from coffee table where it lay, quickly punching in Monroe's number. And, in the meantime, Thomas focused on his daughter-in-law before him.
"Are you certain?" he queried, calmly. While he hadn't the honor of being present at his son's birth, and had been rendered unable to father again after a chance illness, he was often present for the foalings at his beloved breeding farm in England. Birth was not an act of nature that rattled this man, he rather relished the new beginnings. With a heavy sigh, Laura looked away, and gave a sharp nod of her head.
"Yes."
"It appears a visit to the closest emergency ward is in order, then," he observed. "Dozer, if you'll be so kind as to fetch Miss Young so she might direct us to nearest hospital, then assist Catherine with watching over the children?" As Dozer gladly left the cabin, Thomas turned to give Tank a directive, then held his silence as the other man spoke on the phone.
"Yes, sir, that's what Mrs. Steele said, alright… No, I'm sure… You best be joking, Monroe. I don't know nothing about birthing no babies… Yeah, not funny man…"
"Gone with the Wind," Laura muttered aloud, to herself. "Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Warner Brothers, 1939." Catherine shook her head at the comment.
"Laura, I don't believe this is the best of times to be watching a movie," she suggested. Laura flicked a hand in dismissal.
"'I don't know nothing about birthing babies,'" she answered, absently. "Prissy to Scarlett. People often get it wrong, saying 'I don't know nothing about no birthing babies'." Catherine's eyes widened, and again she lifted her hand, this time to lay it against her cheek.
"Thomas, I think the strain of all this has been too much for her," she worried. Thomas chuckled, softly.
"All is well, Catherine. In truth, it is a true sign she's my son's wife, quoting movies much as he does," he reassured, then returned his attention to Laura, placing a hand on her arm. "Perhaps it would be best if we get you into the car." She shook his arm off, and paced away.
"I'm not going to the hospital-"
"Laura, my dear, I think it would be best—" Thomas tried again, only to be cut off.
"I'm not having this baby unless Remington's there," she told him, adamantly, underscoring the point by throwing out her arms and shaking her head. A smile quirked at Thomas's lips. He'd seen this stubborn streak of hers when it came to his son as Remington had laid in the ICU after being shot.
"I understand your reticence," he commiserated, "But perhaps you might ask yourself what my son would want for you and his child?" Turning around, she gave her father-in-law a dolorous look. If in her quote of Gone with the Wind she'd shown herself to be Remington's wife, Thomas had certainly just proven himself to be his son's father with such a suggestion.
"I need to change first," she relented.
Ten minutes later, with Billie ensconced in the cabin with Catherine, Tank and the girls, and a nervous Dozer at the wheel of her SUV, they were speeding in the direction of the nearest hospital.
