Chapter 35

I'll Be Watching You

Harold wakes up, and jumps online he watches his house via satellite from his laptop. A knock sounds at his door, closing the laptop, he asks "Who is it?" Janet announces it's her. "Come on in baby girl" Janet comes in and sits on his bed. She asks him if he could do her a huge secret favor. Harold looks up at her. "I don't do secrets from your parents."

Janet gets up off the bed and says "Okay, I can get it from a service. I just thought you would be more you know thorough. Sorry, I bothered you. I mean it's not even that bad, I guess. It's just that if I did it wrong, and they found out they would think I was jealous or something. Especially if I found something. She's my friend and I just haven't seen or heard from him in a really long time." Her uncle looks at her, his features marred with confusion. He asks what she was talking about. Janet thinks about how she would word her response. "I have this friend, and she's like a sister to me, and she likes this other friend and his name is Frederick Hall. He was my friend a long time ago, then some stuff happened, and he moved away. He's like doing lots of stuff and it kind of makes me think he may be doing something or have done something, but I don't want to be wrong. Whether you look him up or not, I have to look him up through a paid site. I found something when I googled him, but I hope I'm wrong it doesn't show a picture or nothing but, what if it's him, she could be getting into something bad." Her uncle pulls a leather booklet looking thing and starts asking her questions. He then asks her to be truthful with him and mentions the fact that the female remained nameless. He then asks in a soft tone was she her friend. Janet smiles "Okay, I have to remember that I'm talking to a person that is employed by the government. Oh and who has a psychology degree says momma. I like myself, but I'm not the female I really do have friends you know." He asks for what she got, saying if she showed hers he'd attempt to find the rest and show her and her parents his. "Fine, here is the page I found and see there is the charge but you can't get the date of the crime, or the age of this person without shelling out $52.95 on a card. I'd rather pay you the $53.00. What if this is just a scam? I mean his name isn't that rare do you know how many Fred or Frederick Halls live in or have lived in Houston?"

Harold had shut down a few of these sites that was on the paper she had. He hadn't seen this one. "Janet how old are you?" She tells him 13 "Yeah going on 24." She smiles "Look. You are right to be suspicious of sites like this. I can't believe I'm going to do this rookie type stuff, but now I see how you have my brother-in-law wrapped around your little finger. Answer me something, you're bright. If you answer truthfully you don't have to give me the $53.00. She says no one wraps her dad around their fingers, but what did he want to know. "When Ian and Natalie was here, did Ian tell you anything, like a secret or something he didn't want me to know about?"

Now that Janet wouldn't have to go to college away from her home to get her dream career she wouldn't have to take Ian up on his offer to hang with her if she got into one of the New York area colleges. The academy would be starting her final test in less than two years. She did want to have extra money for this weekend. "He seemed really angry at you. I talked to him and said that I had the same kind of thoughts for a while, but I told him he had to realize that you were away putting away people that could hurt him and making money that could help him. He just flexed and said no body was going to hurt him. He then tried to teach me how to throw a punch. I stopped talking to him online because when he got home he started doing what some of my friends did and that's saying how did the Undertaker's daughter not know how to throw a punch. I'm not my dad I didn't take up boxing I know some stuff, but not like hitting people." She makes a face.

Harold points at her mom's Casio and then at her hands. "Honey, you're a great little musician, and a dang good up and coming accountant don't you worry about learning to hit people just get through that academy of yours, and then you can pay people to keep you safe." Janet shrugs and says ok. "Janet thanks for talking to him. He may not listen and I'm sorry he hurt your feelings he shouldn't have said that to you in front of his friends no doubt. Since you were truthful with me I'll look this kid up and come back with what I have ok. No charge" She smiles and hugs him. Paula calls out to her to come eat lunch. She yells that she's coming and darts out of the room. Harold re opens his laptop and squints at the screen. His wife had just given his son, that wasn't supposed to be driving, her car keys. He pulls out a device and stops the feed sending the picture to his wife and telling her not to let him drive.

Nat: I won't be controlled from a far, leave parenting to me like you have for nearly 18 years. He has a fencing lesson and I am not going to be his chauffeur just because he sucks in history. He told me what you said to him. He has a lot of you in him, if you ask me.

Harold didn't respond he closed the phone and started searching for the little kid that worried his niece. He hadn't done a random background of someone not already known to be a felon in over twenty years. The kid was clean there was no way he'd committed the crime and was still on the outside. Then, it got interesting.

It was almost Valentine's Day. Angel woke in a cold sweat looking over at Joshua still asleep next to her she places her hand softly on his face, he was alright, they were home in bed together. Her dream was so real she was second-guessing the learning to shoot idea, but afraid to turn it down. She'd just have to see how bad of a shot she was. She remembered shooting Troy and how the bullet or whatever went so wild. They were to meet her dad this afternoon. She gets up kisses Joshua on the cheek and goes into the shower. To think this time last year, Joshua once told her that he'd been looking for a New York home and getting depressed because he'd thought he'd lost his sound, and she'd been hiding from Braden in hotel rooms and would land here in her hometown a week before the holiday, though she wouldn't reveal she was here until Lady wanted to meet for coffee a week later. She used to blame Lady for reveling her presence and blame herself for being fool enough to come home and put Sophie in danger. Now she no longer blamed herself or Lady. Though she would not like to repeat any of the horrible crap that lead her to run. Or the events that were waiting for her. She now knew that in the shape she was in, she couldn't have made it through having a mischarge alone, and Braden would have found her sooner or later, heck she had been ready to go save Alice again, and would have, if it hadn't been for Mark. The truth that she had come to realize was without help, she may have been dead by now. If she had of made it pass 3 months in her first pregnancy, her own mother was hunting her, with help from her boyfriend at the time. She had no delusion that her mother would have left her alive if possible. She had to think about something else. As if he could read her sinking mood Joshua comes in the bathroom and asks was he invited, his way of announcing his presence. She opens the shower door and says sure. He steps in closing the door asking her was she trying to boil herself. "No, I must have been out to lunch there for a minute, it is pretty hot, sorry." She then starts washing up in jerky movements. He takes the puff from her and starts washing her. Some of her tension was leaving her body.

Joshua had awakened when she kissed him, he watched her head into the bathroom she looked like she had a lot on her mind. When 20 minutes passed and she still hadn't reemerged he figured he'd go in and join her. When he walked in, her silhouette in the shower door revealed she was just standing there, not washing up. He'd been right to come check on her. Her shin was already turning red from the heat of the water. "Angel, what's troubling you?" She explains what she'd been thinking about, and how she had a night terror about them. "What about us babe?" She tells him that her dream replaced Scott in the gym with Deon. Only Deon was beating him up and for some reason he wasn't fighting back. and she shoots at Deon to make him stop but missed and shot him. Joshua stops moving, she looks up into his eyes. Joshua didn't want her to not at least try to learn to shoot. When she spoke to him yesterday about having dad teach her, the reasons besides the fact that fucking Deon had put his hands on her, the other reasons were good too. They were going to Chicago for her birthday trip he'd bought her that's where she picked and yes they would be in nice areas but fuck, her office is supposed to only be reached by appointment and members of the band with active fucking key cards. He felt himself getting angry but for right now she didn't need him pissed off. He kisses her putting the bath puff aside. "Angel, it was a bad dream that dredged up and distorted a lot of scary shit. Babe, if I didn't think it was worth giving a try I would have said something last night you already know this." She nods "I love you Angel." She says she love him. She wraps her arms around him laying her head on his chest. He wanted to give her a happier memory of when she first came back to this area came back to him and sang in his club. He turns off the water and starts singing to her one of the songs he'd wrote right after she'd sang at The Davenport. He'd thought he was losing his talent but now his thoughts were that Angel coming back to him lit his fuse again. Though Candy said she hadn't noticed a drop in his skill level, he did, and had started getting depressed about the fact that only Davenport Lighting's 1st CD sold. Later he would find out that it had a lot to do with the company he was with. Jonathon had LEGNA lawyers go to his old company LEGNA now held ownership of his previous material. As a marketing ploy, Jonathon had re-recorded his D- Lightning songs and released two of the same CD's that flopped under his previous company label they were selling now. As he finishes the song he got the gift of her smiling up at him. He loved seeing her smile. He kisses his wife and leads her out of the bathroom back to their bed where he laid her down and made love to her.

Over at Logan's home, Logan woke to the sight of his son standing over him saying that it was day time. Stretching and yarning, he notices that he'd made it to his bed last night, that was a surprise. "That it is Sport." Glenny tells him that Candy let Row out the back door. "Did he come back in?" That answer was giving to him when he hears Candy telling the big dog no in a firm tone. "Let's go save Candy" Logan gets up and walks into the kitchen and is greeted to the sight of Candy and Row in a tug of war over a bag of food. On his hind legs Row was tall as Candy. "Row down" Row gets off his hind legs and back on all fours dipping his head.

Candy puts some of the bag of food in Row's dish and quickly put the rest back in the lockable container. "Thanks, I didn't think he'd know what I was doing." Logan tells her he knows what all of his food looks and smells like. "True, life lesson learned." He explains how Row was trained. She saw the sadness in his memory. He and Glenn were far from the friends that Mark would instruct how to train the baby of his two dogs. Logan stops in mid-sentence and started spelling oh he wasn't mentioning Megan's name just spelling it. He then asks her where Bradley was. "He said the Valentin's called and asked when Connor Construction were going to finish the job. Brad says for you not to worry about it and left an hour ago."

"Bradley is a life saver, he really knows what he's doing as a Foreman. He gets along with my crew and they follow him like they follow me." Candy asks him how was he doing this morning. Logan washes his hands and fixes Glenny a bowl of cereal. "I'm good I needed last night. Heck, I don't even remember going to bed." Candy says that's because he was put to bed. "Enough of that in front of G-L-E-N-N not one of my proudest moments. I do remember you and Bradley talking about old times. I wasn't aware you guys knew each other before he got out, if you know what I mean." Logan watches her blush and look away from him. "What did I miss?" Candy tells him that last night or this morning, Bradley revealed something to her about a past event in her life in high school. "I think he's too old to have went to school with you. I'd take what he says about his younger adulthood with a grain of salt. He's admitted to having memory loss because of what he was ingesting back then."

"Okay, never mind Logan. Now that you're up, I'm going to get going." Candy heads into the living room to collect her things and leave. She had to get out of here and think. There is no way Brad could have heard about her football field incident. Hell, Joshua didn't even know who it was and that was because they weren't that close yet. Last night Brad inserted himself in that scene in her past, and the pieces that were missing he filled in the blanks. He'd been drunk last night, they all had been, but when he thanked her again for repaying a debt to him that he never thought he'd ever be so glad to collect, she asked why and he told her. He was the dark haired stranger that told her to get lost when the Denton boys had tripped her. For someone that claimed to have bouts of memory loss from doing drugs, he remembered her outfit, and her hair length, and fighting with the brothers from almost a decade ago. Logan walks into the living room and says he is sorry if he upset her. She shrugs says goodbye to Glenny and leaves the house heading up to Ivey Mansion.

Lieutenant Ben Valentin came home, kissed his wife last night and crashed out. His damn cousin through marriage, Officer Cody Tanner, had got caught up in the crap with that dealer Denton. Ben already had drug related charges on his record. Not to mention the Davenport kid's counsel was suing the state and him. His aunt had called begging him to meet her for lunch. Because of his current charges he had nothing but time. He then finds out from Henriette that his lovely fucking cousin had fucked up big time. There was a hit out on him from Henriette herself. He'd bought the kid some time Tanner acted like the world owed him something. Now with Henriette's numbers down because of a war that was waged inside the preschool that was her cover. She was calling on him. Over the years she had promised to make his legal trouble vanish. So far he was still being sued, and still out of action. He pulls up in front of his home this afternoon and what does he see the Conner Construction Logo on the side of a van parked in his fucking driveway. Only it wasn't the cop-connected Conner, it was his newest lackey and his team. He'd seen the two vans before. Ben's wife was still sinking his money into this house. He walks in and looks around for the crew. It was probably for the best that the cop Connected Conner didn't show his face. Probably still cleaning himself from shitting himself about his kid yesterday. Ben walks in to where the crew was gutting his living room and spots the lackey, a guy about his height wearing a vest that says Forman. "Your boss can't do the job no more?" The kid turns around, and holy fuck, it had been years since he'd laid eyes on Brad. Back in high school you dare this fucker to do anything and he was all for it, to fit in. Last Ben heard, this guy was doing time for drugs. Ben remembers when they graduated Brad was a joke. Now the fucker stood at 6'2 easy and had a build on him. The Valentin family and the Davenports or at least this one, were a cat mouse team from way back. Ben used to chase this fucker home. He'd heard from his childhood friend Chadwick before he died about this loser finally learning how to fight from using his kid brother as a punching bag. Brad was speaking to him. "Huh I'm sorry Brad the Bad. Were you saying something important? Bonnie you had better count the fucking silverware with this guy on the grounds. Must be nice to get a second chance at living on the outside. Does Conner know your record?"

A few of his men chuckled and tried to cover it with coughs. Bradley wiped the sweat off his face with a towel and walks over to a part of his past. He hadn't known that Bonnie Valentin was married to this piece of shit from his past. "Look, my charges had nothing to do with theft. You get me." Valentin says not yet and smirks. Not rising to the bait Bradley says "You asked had I said anything important. I think so, this wall is a part of the original house if we are taking a piece of it out, it's going to be higher than the original price quoted like Bonnie wanted. Ben accuses him of making up the higher price, and gets in his face. One of his crew walks over and asks was there a problem. Bradley looks Ben in the eye, and says "I don't know, Is there problem Benjamin? If you want to get it done on the cheap from another company that's your choice." Ben reaches out almost touches him, right before contact Bonnie comes in the room and tells Ben to cut it out, saying this was the third company she'd called to put her living room back together from when he and his other family ruined her house. Ben leans in Bradley doesn't move he wouldn't swing first, although he wanted to put the guy on the ground. As if he knew that Bradley was about to swing Ben steps back and says for all to hear that Bradley was to do what the little lady wanted, money wasn't a problem. Bonnie walks over and hugs him thanking him. He still looks at Brad as he says might as well get the best because she was worth it.

Angel, Jonathon, and Joshua return to Ivey Mansion from the shooting range. "Are you sure you haven't done that before?" Joshua says he never said he never shot a real gun before. Jonathon knew why his son would word it like that. Joshua hadn't lied, him shooting Scott with the tranquilizer gun was his intro of using firearms. Today Joshua shot a target more than inches away from the barrel of the gun and did a terrific job. Angel smiles and says that Joshua had an advantage anyway because he used to throw darts. She then says she was just glad she hit the target once. She lifts her large paper up looking at them through the holes. "If done like that, it only takes once. After you got over the recoil, you did a hell of a job Honey Pot." Angel thanks him for taking her, lays down the paper, and hugs him. "Your welcome." Jonathon says as he picks up his paper and head towards the front door and stops. He turns back around and asked his children had they told Chase. Angel shakes her head no and says she told Josh, Candy, him, and Sophie. Josh says he told Cass, he then asks Angel why she didn't tell Chase. "Well whatever your reason you should tell him since he's here."

Chase walks in with Sophie, sees the large bullet riddled paper targets laying over the back of the atrium couch and turns to Sophie asking "Did you know about this?" Sophie goes upstairs saying she wasn't getting in this. Angel and Joshua look at each other trading a look. He addresses Angel. "Angela Rosa, nice of you to let me know you were taking up shooting. So may I ask why all of sudden my youngest has clammed up on the reason my "not so hot on guns" son-in-law and my oldest daughter are standing here with targets from a range?" Angel says she meant to tell him when it happened but the day got away from her. "No time like the present. Tell me what?" Angel tells him what happened at her office yesterday. Chase is beyond pissed. "I'm sorry, he what?" He turns on Jonathon "Your fucking building, is that easy to get into? Homeless looking ex-employees can just whisk themselves up to the 70th floor and attack my daughter?" Jonathon tells him that the person that foolishly gave Deon clearance beyond the 6th floor has been fire and fined. "Oh big whoop you fired them. Was my grandson there in that little room, while that piece of shit was trying to haul you out of the window?" Angel says no Candy was watching him here at the house. Joshua asks Chase to dial it back on the tone, saying coming here screaming wasn't going to fix the situation. "So his girlfriend was watching my grandson that's such a great idea." Chase says with sarcasm dripping from every word. Joshua says Ex-girlfriend in a defensive tone of his own. "So Josh you fired Deon from the club, and the band, he went home dumped Candy and came after my daughter? Angel, you should have dinged security you knew he wasn't supposed to be there. You should have told him to leave, if he refused, you should have called security. It's what I've taught you since you were this high." Chase puts his hand three feet from the ground. Angel runs from the room clearly upset saying she knows. Chase starts towards the back of the house after Angel. Joshua goes after her. Jonathon gets in Chase's path.

"Ivey, It's over, let her be. I get that your angry, we all are, but taking it out on her. You didn't see her last night. You didn't hear her say the same things you just did. I know they should have told you, but losing your hat now is not what she needs. She asked me to teacher her to shoot because she doesn't feel safe anymore. For once she is not willing to just hide away here beyond these walls. I don't want to believe that Deon is fool enough to have went there purely with the intent of attacking our daughter. Should she have dinged security upon seeing him?" Chase says hell yes. "We only say yes now, because of what ensued. You also know that Angel would have tried to make that boy see reason. It's who she is. She said until he mentioned Scott and flipped the desk she didn't feel threatened, she felt more anger than anything. Deon betrayed us all. I watched the footage, she was surprised to see him. Because of what is usually said behind her office door, there is no audio." Chase says he shouldn't have been able to get up there that was a flaw in LEGNA's system. "I've said it once and I'll say it again, I've dealt with it, it is over. I won't be blamed for human error. I have fired and fined the human male that made the error. Deon Baza walked through my building and claimed he forgot his key. I now have a photo circulator in place, like the one here at the house. It will be fully online by Monday morning. We both know no building is completely impregnatable. I can only be reactionary. It pisses me off as well, but it's the truth."

Chase was angry that no one told him. Anger had strained his relationship with Angel before and he didn't want to start that bowling ball back down the mountain. He came here this afternoon to invite his girls to dinner. A thought struck him remembering Amy's home alarm being tripped he asks. "Where is the son of a bitch now? Do you know if Andrew had him sent with his team, or did they just release him to local who seems to be doing a bang up job when it comes to protecting people?" Jonathon says that Deon was bailed out by his mother and has not been seen. "He had better stay away from my daughter, and enjoy his freedom, because it will soon be removed from the equation all together. He won't get away with this shit."

Up in JC's room Angel has their son on the play mat tickling him and watching him react to her soft touches and silly word pattern. Joshua comes in Candy had come out of here, and told him where Angel was he knew she'd find her way up here. She looks up then back down at their son. "I just came up here to make sure you were ok." After another silly string of words that rhymed with JC Angel says she's fine she just didn't want to hear it anymore, she continues with she thought about yesterday and still she didn't see it coming. "Well your track record with talking to him wasn't that bad. Though I don't even want to think about how. It could have been worse if you instantly verbally dinged security. It was like he waited for you to be alone." Joshua comes in the room, sits on the floor, and picks up JC, who still had Angel's finger. Taking her finger away making silly sounds JC starts to giggle he already knew what was coming. Mommy tickle was coming she tickles him and he giggles even more. Running her hand down the side of his little face she says his name. Joshua tries it and JC stops giggling. "Hey there Jonathon-Chase Leonel it's me, daddy." JC starts to whimper. Joshua hands him to Angel who has her hands out already. JC stops whimpering almost instantly. "I don't get it you say it and he coos, I say his name and he acts like I just snatched his favorite toy." Angel says she's been reading up on it since the first few times it happened. "Oh and what's the verdict?"

"Of course most of the materials says no one really knows but JC, and since he can't clearly tell us his needs. I spoke to Paula and Middlebrooks. Who pointed out that as soon as I was able to start breastfeeding after Luke took me off those meds, JC for right now is more content with my scent and voice because I feed him and spend more time with him. Ok that didn't come out right."

"So I guess you are his favorite toy. Does he do that to Candy?" Angel says not anymore because Candy stopped handing him back on the first cry. She bottles feeds him and speaks to him until he calms down. "I give him back, because I don't want him to get upset." Angel makes a motion with her hand that isn't filled with baby for Joshua to lower his voice. Even before JC's birth Joshua had promised her and their unborn child that he would work on yelling since it stresses Angel and could scare JC. Neither of those were or are his goal he would not have his son fear him, or stress out his wife. Taking a deep breath, he says in a calmer tone. "Okay do you still have the stuff you read?" Angel says the book she borrowed from Paula is on the Kindle in their night stand. Joshua gets up and kisses Angel and JC. "It's time for daddy to do some research on his own."

Instead of heading for their bedroom to read what could work. Joshua heads for his music room, pulls up a chat window and starts messaging Mark, who gives him some tips that worked for him with Janet and Katie. He messaged his dad and Michael ribbed him, then gave him some more things that worked for him with Cassandra as a baby. He asked about Bradley, Michael says Cassandra was the harder of the two because he'd owned the club and had spent less time with her. Another thought hit him. He sends Jonathon a message. He'd at the very least been in Angel's life until she was no longer an infant, and JC was half of Angel. Jonathon asked him where he was. He tells his dad and in a few minutes he gets a message to open the door Jonathon and Chase comes in. A half an hour later Joshua has a few ideas and a plan. "Thanks guys" Chase tells him not to expect anything instantly but let it build. "Will do, and thanks." Chase asks is Angel in JC's room right now. Joshua starts for JC's room stops and turns to Chase. "That's where she was. Dad all the stuff you said down stairs can you not continue that. It's bad enough that her own subconscious won't let it rest since Deon mentioned Scott then his actions afterward? If you want to be pissed at someone be pissed at Deon not Angel." Chase mumbles he could be mad that Joshua started this deck of cards falling by firing Deon in the first place. Jonathon says that was low and uncalled for. Joshua says "No let him speak his mind. What would you have done Chase? You a major businessman what would you have done? I gave Deon many chances and he'd get it for a time, then back to his old self this is by far the worse and most unforgiveable. I don't know what the fuck his problem is and after he started putting his hands the ones I love, I don't give shit what his problem is. The save his job wishing well ran out of coins. He fucked up for the last time. I don't regret getting rid of his ass. If I ever see that cock sucking asshole before the court date I'm going to beat the living shit out of him for putting his hands on my wife, my friend, and my brother. If by some chance, the law lets him slip through the massive holes they call the fucking justice system here lately, and he is anywhere near any of them again. I'll put my newest training to good used until he stops moving." Joshua walks away from his son's door towards the downstairs gym leaving Chase and Jonathon looking at each other.

Chase speaks to his son's retreating back. "Joshua, I didn't hear that and you didn't say that." Joshua hit the stairs and keeps going down pass the first floor they soon hear the gym door slam shut. Chase sighs then looks back at Jonathon. "So Jonathon, you still think it's a good Idea for him to learn to shoot?" Jonathon says he didn't teach Joshua anything he's a natural that aims very well. "So what about baby girl?" Jonathon admits that Angel needed work but her shot would at the very least stop a threat.

Chase reaches for the doorknob to JC's room. "Ivey what you said just now to Joshua, that was uncalled for please stop attacking them or you and our children and myself are going to have issue. They are dealing with this the best they know how." Chase admits that he may have been out of line with his comment to Joshua, but he was still a little peeved that they didn't tell him when it happened. "Blaming him and shaming her are not going do anything good. Right now Joshua's so angry if he could he'd turn around and bite himself in the ass. Verbally slamming Angel with the What if and you should have parade, isn't going to do anything but further piss off Joshua, and irritate the hell out of me, because of your role in her life you know Angel won't disrespect you, but she will start avoiding you again. There isn't anything you have said to either of them that hasn't crossed their minds even if it hasn't crossed their lips to you. In short, pick your battles and know your enemy." Jonathon gets an email alert, looking at his phone he rolls his eyes it was from Springer. Opening the message, he reads the first few sentences and says. "Speak of the devil and she shall appear. Tell mi girl I'll be around to take her to the range after the holiday."

Joshua comes in the gym and slams the door. Candy stops the treadmill she is on, and asks him did he want to be alone. He looks at her and tells her no. He asks her did she blame him for getting this shit started by firing Deon. "Where the hell did that come from? No, I don't blame you for shit we spoke about this in the kitchen the night it happened. Wait you were up there with Angel and JC don't tell me she blames you." Candy walks towards the door. Joshua steps in front of it and says no, and even if she did that would be between them. Candy refocuses on her bro. "Okay this came from somewhere so start talking." After talking with Candy Joshua didn't feel like beating the shit out of his punching bag anymore. He says he is going back upstairs to try to bond with his son.

Chase leans against the wall and starts texting Amy who had sent him a message asking him had he asked his girls to dinner tonight yet. He says that may have to wait and tells her what he'd missed and how he handled it. Amy tells him that maybe he should not ask now, that maybe he should just come back to her place and give his daughter and son-in-law some time to cool off. Upon hearing the gym door open Chase tells Amy that he'd handle this his way that way if it backfired in his face, he would have no one but himself to blame.

Getting up to the second floor, Joshua sees Chase on his phone then walking towards JC's room. Joshua comes jogging down the hall and tells him not to start round two with Angel. Chase says they should have told him but he wasn't going in there to upset her more than he already had by talking at her, instead of to her. They both enter JC's room to find Angel and JC laying on the play mat, Angel sits up staring at Chase. Joshua takes off his shoes and gets on the floor with them he picks up JC who starts to whine. Chase stayed in the doorway. He then clears his throat and asks Angel could he speak to her alone please. Angel looks over at Joshua asking about Jonathon. Joshua shrugs.

Chase says "Your dad had some message or something that he didn't want to open in the house but says he'll talk to you later."

Angel says ok. She was happy that Joshua wasn't just giving JC back, he was talking to their son. Joshua says "You guys go ahead JC and me got to have a talk of our own." JC grabs his hair. "Ooow. Hey now let go of my hair." Angel smirks and says a ponytail holder is in the bottom drawer if he didn't want their son to snatch him bald. She then gets up, hands Joshua the hair tie, and walks towards Chase he steps out of the way as he lets her proceed him in to the hallway.

Angel stands in the hall and waits for Chase to close the door. "Look before you start in on me about what I should have done again. I didn't, I can't change it. It happened. Of course if I had known he was going to go full on bat shit crazy from jump, I would have dinged security." Chase says he's sorry she went through that at all. He says she should have told him that's why he was angry. "I called Middlebrooks since I passed out. I got in touch with Joshua because I didn't want him going up there thinking I was going to be there. We were going to meet for lunch. I didn't even call my dad, he went to my office and called me asking why it looked like a storm blew through it. Sophie came in JC's room when she found out I was in there. Usually I don't get home before she does. I told Candy only because she was in JC's room and saw some of the marks he left on me. Bottom line, yes I should have told you last night, but dad, with all the frightening crap running a race in my head, I wasn't feeling all that social. Andrew saved my life. Knowing that Deon will get out I'm afraid of going into my own damn office Monday morning." Chase says it would be very foolish for Deon to come back to her office or around her anymore. "It was insane for him to sneak into my father's building, up to my office and corner me like that, the first time. I don't think he's all that worried about looking foolish. We're going on tour in few short weeks and I will not repeat the Scott thing. I can't. He almost took Brad out the night before he came to my office. Brad weights a lot more than I do, and he's fought more hand to hand than I have. I won't let him take me away for my son. If Deon comes after me again, the last thing he will hear is bang. Is there a way you can expedite our gun permits like you did our passports that time?" Chase walks over to her and hugs her, she hugs him back he says in her ear that he'd handle the permits. "Thanks daddy."

Later that day, Harold had been out in the field upon returning to Paula's place he grabbed his equipment and checked into a hotel. The closer he came to real answers to the questions he needed answers to, the more distance he wanted between him and his family. He didn't know if Mark still associated with the Kinkaid family and the Conner family, there was a lot of them registered with that damn preschool. It was like a cop kid drop off. The more info he found, the more he wanted to wipe the fact that he came to this city and went to his sister's home. When he saw how many cops had their kid registered there he V8'ed himself. Mostly State cops, the local Federals didn't have all their children in one school. He would never knowingly have placed his kid in the same school system as a fellow agent no matter how tight they were. With the way Ian was behaving in his senior year Harold was thinking of sending him to another school. That thought bled into what he would tell his niece and her parents. He was glad he had a no secrets policy. Though Janet's info was for the wrong man. The info Harold collected for the right kid wasn't a walk in the park. Digging deeper Harold found that the kid got pinched for selling Ecstasy and weapons. He got pulled from that foster home when the parents went to prison. The kid got off lucky he got sent to juvenile detention instead of prison. That was at 11 years old the kid was now being adopted at 15. Which was rare, but not impossible. He wondered did the kid still sell and just hadn't got caught again. Harold felt he had to tell his niece and her parents. He has Paula and Janet and the twins meet him in the restaurant down the road from their home. Mark was at his school in Grandville. The look on Janet's face when he told her, was one of shock. Paula tells her that she could forget going to Grandville for Nikki's birthday celebration this weekend. Janet argues that Nikki wouldn't do that and it wasn't Fred's birthday party. "I'm sorry baby girl but you were right, there was something not right about him. Not what you found but pretty darn close." Janet gets up and goes outside. Paula calls after her and says something about making a phone call to her dad. Janet comes back and sits at the table but doesn't touch her food for the rest of their meal. When he is about to leave Janet says she wished she never told him, then she would be able to go see her friend who hasn't done anything wrong. Paula thanks him. and tells Janet that's enough of that. Janet helped put the twins in their car seats and gets in the truck waiting on Paula. "PJ she came to me asked me to run a back ground check on the kid. I did and I don't regret not promising her that I'd keep what I found between just her and myself. I don't enter into agreements like that with children. I never have and I'm sure as hell not going to start with my own niece. I'm not saying the kid is still doing it I'm just saying be careful."

Hours later, Harold pulls up in front of Logan Conner's home. Conner was a new adoptive parent and his young kid was at that school. Harold wanted to know what if anything was the reason behind this guy that seemed above board would put his kid in a place like that. Knocking on the front door he hears something that he would assume was a large dog like the ones at Mark's place. Logan Conner comes out on the front porch and then exits it, closing the door behind him. Harold had his ID up and ready before the kid could asked him what his business was. "You mind if I ask you a few questions?" Conner shrugged and says could they make it quick. "You in a hurry to get somewhere?" Conner just thumbs his front door and asks did that count as one of the questions. "No need to be adversarial."

Logan steps back and leans on his front door. "You'll excuse me if I don't want to roll out the red carpet to you guys. I think my kid has seen enough strange men for a time. I know why you're here, same reason Bobby showed up. To answer your question before you ask, and it may not be in my best interest says some but I don't care. Yes, I went to that damn school, I signed up my kid so he could be around kids his own age. Yes, I took the tour and heard the rules if I'm late to pick him up that they would send him to the nearest elementary school pick up location, and charge me a higher fee. Yes, I found that very disturbing considering his age, I never had to deal with this type of stuff. The only child that I have cared for before my son was older than he is, and was already in a state academy. I rarely picked her up from school, and I didn't know a lot about her school other than it cost a small fortune, and one of the names was Fast Track. I wasn't late yesterday to pick up my son. Oh yeah and the person that, suggested the school in the first place was a relative of mine, that is a state officer that has a kid that goes to that school. I forget what his rank is, but his name is Kevin Kinkaid. Now I have a question for you?" Agent Sean says what's the question. "While you and your merry men are asking me the same questions and I'll probably get one more of you at my door in a few more hours, what's being done to find out what the hell happened at my son's former school? Asking me isn't cutting it, I walked into the aftermath of a fucking war zone. My kid was bound in a closet for Christ sake." Agent Harold speaks to him telling him no one else would be at his door anymore.

Bradley went home and fell into his long missed bed. This had been a rough few days. He thought his life was supposed to get more stable the older he got. That wasn't the case. He quit the frat boy scene and had been involved in a fight. Reminiscing with Candy brought a smile to his lips. Then a frown. What the hell was he thinking? The last thing she would want is an ex-drug addict to what, replace her current one. Yeah he was clean and it shocked more than him. Hell he found out that it was never far from Logan or Candy's mind. Did they honestly think he would say hey here's some insert drug to chill you out boss? Punching his pillow, he gets up. Sleep wasn't in the cards for him right now. He goes downstairs grabs leftovers from a few nights before he went to Grandville, heats it up, then chucked it in the trash when it smelled rank. He grabs a beer and a bag of chips and plants himself in front of the TV, starts flipping through the channels. Ben Valentin almost caught his damn fist this afternoon. He was glad this job was almost over with. After he got back to Logan's house Logan had received a call from Bonnie apologizing for her husband's behavior towards his Forman. That was one of the reasons Bradley was home tonight. Logan told him to take a few days and get his head back in the game. That and he really wasn't in the mood to be around people right now. Hell Joshua had told him he could come back to the house. He hated that he'd made such fucked up choices in his early adulthood. He probably wouldn't have wanted to smash in Ben's face because the choices he'd made in life, lead to the comments that fucker was able to make. Being sober sucked lots of ass that he wasn't getting any of. Tomorrow was not just Saturday it was Valentine's Day, but could he go to a bar and hang out, not unless he wanted to look like an old ass creeper. Saturday his parents were going to celebrate and so were his siblings. Bradley gets up, enough of this shit it was time for him to get drunk and find a woman to fall into, at least to take the edge off. He hit his shower upon coming out, looking at the clock, it was still Friday night he then gets a thought that made him rethink this, then it was gone and so was he, as he finished getting dressed and ran out the door, jumped in his car, chasing the dawn.

Candy is managing The Davenport tonight showing Larry the ropes. He was a quick study, but Joshua wanted someone there because as long as Larry had worked for him, this was a fast change for the ex-marine. Joshua and Vash were home with their wives. Sitting here in the newly built owners office she gained as part of the renovation that the club had went through, she had lots of time to think. She gets an unknown caller on her office phone. "It's a great night at The Davenport. This is Candy how may I direct your call. Hello?"

"I see the Bass player finally proved he's not your type. You deserve much better than to have to hide behind your makeup. When it comes to blondes you're my type." She hangs up. the male pulls at his hair and says "she wasn't supposed to do that." He calls her personal cell he loved Candy R. She answers "Hey, I see I scared you I didn't mean to. Oh how I got your number, that's a secret. How I know what your ex did. Well my Candy it's all over the internet and I will get him back for you. Then we can be together. I see you're still wearing his ring, throw it away he hurt you. I won't." She hung up again. He looks at her on his screen he'd have to trash this computer soon, it was dangerous to be on an Ivey server running a stream like this. If he got caught, he could get more jail time and he hated that place. She was his world, yeah he started out helping a friend "Watch her" but listening to her play the piano or keyboard calmed him, and he liked that feeling. He would not show his face just yet. She'd broke it off with the bass player before then got back with him. The man looks up at his ceiling. Hundreds of cut outs of Candy doing everyday stuff littered his ceiling. He was good with a camera phone. She sounded surprised that she had a trending video of her flying about three feet. It was in a loop created by some dick that thought her pain was funny. He'd saw the original but the looped material was put to music and trending more. He was glad he snagged an original copy before it was touched. The man that hit her and made her cry was going to pay. Right now though he had a computer to sell. He'd hate to be the one Ivey Securities the creators of Interactive Supervisor catches hacking their camera system. His buddy told him money was no object and not to screw up. He couldn't let his buddy down. His other friend that was supposed to help him watch the woman was a real kill joy sometimes. Telling him that he would tell their friend on him if he got weird. He wasn't weird he was in love. Looking at the collage of Candy R tacked to his wall by his bedroom door he stops and touches one of the newest pictures he had of her. He now had a new fake ID thanks to his friend that was paying him to keep both eyes on the blonde prize.

Candy ends the creepy call that came in on her cellphone. She sits at her desk and googles herself, big mistake. She saw the Roman shit, but there were new videos. She sat in stunned silence listening to R Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly" and watching herself get punched hard enough to knock her to the ground by Deon in a running loop to the song. No wonder it hurt so much she'd thought he gave her and opened handed backhand, his fucking fist was closed. Phantom pain stuck her, as she put her hand to her face. She types in another search. Sophie had given her a site and showed her how to look up people since she was going to be helping pick a new bass player. Deon was released yesterday. Fear made her clutch her necklace. Between Deon out there somewhere, and the creepy crawler caller, she wanted more than anything to run, but then where the hell would she run? Joshua and the guys was counting on her, and if she booked now, she would be just as bad as Deon not showing up at all. She was here to make sure Larry knew what he was doing. She flips the camera so she could see the bar, and saw herself. From the camera across the room. Typing in a different angle, she finally lands on Larry. Even if she didn't leave, it was time to get out of her office. Getting up she heads out into the main room then walks behind the bar.

Larry looks over at the little blonde that managed the club mostly on Thursdays and Fridays now. Something was up she usually looked a lot happier. She wasn't even wearing her trademark neon colored clothes. Most of the time she looked like she'd just jumped out of a crayon box. He walks over maybe this was one of his tests. He had more than the 5 grand limit in the rolling vault. "Hey Candy will you watch the bar while I." He points to the device under the bar. She nods and tells him he needed to watch that. "What do you guys do?" Candy tells him she'll discuss that behind closed doors later. "So was it ok for me to ask you to watch the bar at least? Joshua may need to get somebody else, hell I work the bar and bounce idiots that's about it." Candy tells him he's doing great and gives him a smile. "Okay let me get pass you, I think I have the pleasure of working with Vashon tomorrow night." Candy asks him did he think he was ready for solo. "Not on your life. Hell if you hadn't of reminded me I wouldn't have turned down the house lights which means the cameras would have not been on." She laughed then winced and that look was back, he couldn't place but it just didn't seem to belong on such a usually happy person. He rolls the safe to the back and unloads it in to the money reading safe in Joshua's office.

Candy kept busy asking the people were they having a good time, it was getting close to the last set of the night. it was open mic night tonight. A trio walked up on stage and Candy signaled to cut power to the microphones. The hell she would let Alice and Troy and the other guitarist Darren from Angelic Impression perform anywhere near that stage, let alone on it. She was part owner and knew in her heart that when Joshua put the Troy guy out during their first all call to replace Scott and get another guitarist, he meant as in don't come back. Candy didn't care what they were calling themselves now they weren't preforming on her stage. She radios security and walks up on stage. The other keyboardist looked up from her stand then back at Darren that was serving as their lead singer. This was the chick that Braden had used to keep Angel in line. Alice was also the female that was in Angel's condo fucking Braden when he drugged Angel. Darren uses one of Angel's nonverbal start signs and only they could hear the music. They quickly stop when they realize that the mics are turned off. Darren walks towards her as she stands downstage left. He says either get their sound shit working or give them their deposit back. Candy puts up a hand and says "No problem Darren Clash" She walks to the entry booth, grabs their deposit, and walks back up on stage. He asked her did they know each other. "No" Troy asks why all of a sudden their money wasn't green enough to play for their fans. "Troy you were told to leave this venue and to not return." Troy walks toward her saying that was almost a year ago. Darren turns on him and tells him to cool it. Pointing to the line of security men and women that were now standing behind Candy. She hands the money back to Darren.

Bradley had drove all the way back to Grandville but still wasn't in the mood to go hang out with his siblings and their mates. The bar that was near his house was a no go. He must have been really plastered the last time he was there. The place had no real action. If Cassandra hadn't of got up and started dancing with Rapture's big goofy ass. Bradley found out tonight that people usually just sat on their asses. He thought this new dating scene was weak as fuck. Who paid a 10 buck cover charge to go dress up and sit on their ass in a crowed bar? The music was shitty and some of the guys kept yelling shit at him, he didn't know if it was about Jail Bait but he wasn't sticking around to last call to get jumped either. He pulls up at The Davenport in the owner gated area. This was just another perk of him and Josh getting along, that floored him every time at how far they'd come as a family. He could park back here in a spot that literally had his name on it. Looking around he spotted Deon's spot and walks over, takes screws out of the metal sign that held the fucker's name. Holding the name plate in his hands he whips it like a Frisbee into the recycling bin. He sits at the bar until he sees Candy come from out of the back office area. Brad then heads over to the pool table section. He wasn't here to bother her. Heck he didn't know she was going to be covering. He wanted to ask Josh why he would send her here alone at night. But he'd got enough for poking his nose into other's business. The bands were hot tonight. Until the last one was called. Candy made a beeline for the stage. What was going on now? Play Pool Bradley or this tourist is going to walk away with your money. His mind taunts as he lines up his shot. Ending the game, he collected his win, and moved over towards the stage. Candy never seem to stop amazing him. Even though her outfit was darker than usual she had added more color to her hair that had got longer since Joshua's wedding. The amazing part came, when she marched up on stage and told the band they had to leave. He hadn't been watching her or so he would tell himself, the music had stopped and he saw her dart across the room towards the stage. Still folding down his pool cue, and walking towards the stage he broke out in a dead run when the guy with the Mic started belting out as loud as his voice would carry "I Believe I Can Fly" then threw the money she'd gave him in her face. Candy started screaming get them the fuck out of here. Before Bradley got close to her, the big ass bartender hopped the bar like it was a foot tall, instead of 5 feet and him and the Security team grabbed the band and "escorted" them out. Candy does a thumps up at the woman in the Booth and her voice can be heard through the now abandoned mic telling everyone "Since that group was the last group I'll be back shortly with the winner." Putting the mic on the stand she storms off stage towards her office.

He wars with himself about whether to go after her and lost the battle, before he knew it he walks up to her door, puts his hand up to knock, the door opens and Candy walks out and tells him she was glad he came even though she didn't know why. She looked like she'd been crying. Bradley blocks the doorway, blocking her from view of people shuffling to the bathroom. "Hey what's wrong." Wiping her eyes, she says nothing, and walks further into the office. Bradley made sure to close the door before he started speaking. "Okay that's why your cheeks are wet and your eyes are red? You were awesome out there. Did I miss something?" She tells him who the band was and why she put them out. "Okay that explains that, but I meant with you, why were you crying just now?" She tells him about the video and the song, and the fact that the lead singer was fucking with her about it using the song. "Well if it's any consolation nobody saw your tears. That guy's a jackass." She says she'll be right back he walks to the door and watches her walk out in the main room, cue the mic and announce the winner.

Over at Ivey Mansion, Angel walks to JC's door and peeks in not saying anything. What she saw made her smile. Joshua sitting in the recliner playing guitar and singing to their son, as he happily made sounds and swung his hands. She then recognized the song. Joshua was singing the song he hummed to her after he found out she was pregnant. She'd woke to Joshua humming it and then recognized the song when he'd wrote words to the melody a few months before JC was born. The words spoke of his awe that he was going to be a husband and father, it also explained his fear and love for them both. Ducking back out into the hall she walked away from the door to let Joshua have his daddy bonding time. Humming the tune, she enters their bedroom and gets ready for bed. Chase had invited them to dinner for Valentine's Day dinner at one of his favorite restaurants after they'd talked. He said he had a surprise of his own for her and Sophie. She texts Sophie trying to figure out what Chase could have to surprise them with, and to ask was she going. Sophie said she and Luke were going. Angel texts back that she'd ask Joshua and maybe see her tomorrow night. Sophie sends a sleeping winking emoticon and tells Angel goodnight. Angel smirks and texts back goodnight. Curling up in bed and turning on the baby monitor she listened to Joshua finish his song and talk to their baby. When JC started to whine she sits up about to go get him, but then hears Joshua put down the guitar, rustling can be heard, Joshua starts doing something she hadn't heard in forever he started singing a song she heard before she even met him. A happy auditory memory of her dad walking her around her room she had to be about two or three, singing to her after a bad dream. The song she'd always called the "My Angel" song. She'd found out that her dad had did his first cover walking her around her bedroom. The song was really entitled "Best Friend" by Harry Nilsson. Jonathon would always replace the line "My best Friend" with "My Angel" hearing Joshua sing it to their son was such a special moment for her. Once again the old lyrics went out the window and JC would probably refer to it as the "Johnny-Chase" song one day. Soon she feels Joshua slide in beside her. She hadn't realized she'd fell asleep.

Joshua was happy that tonight Angel didn't come running in the room to grab JC. He saw when the monitor was activated and just knew that when he stopped playing his song he'd wrote after finding out Angel was pregnant "My World Right Here" and JC started to cry, he just knew Angel was going to run in and snag JC. Since he'd played guitar for about 2 hours and 45 minutes straight he now knew his son liked the sound of his daddy's playing, but Joshua also knew he couldn't keep it up all night. It was getting late. So when Angel didn't come flying in the room, Joshua followed some advice from Jonathon that worked like a charm. While playing the real song in his ear buds he found out where to change the refrain and he now had a cover of the song "Best Friend" as a lullaby for his little boy. When JC wouldn't stop crying Joshua picked him up and started walking him around the room singing to him, and after about two good times JC quieted down and started to fall asleep right there in his arms. After one more time for good measure with the song, Joshua laid a dry, sleeping, JC in his crib, and went to find his wife. Upon entering their room, he crawls in beside her and discovered that he'd woke her. He didn't know she was asleep since she was tucked around her pillow and didn't have the covers pulled up. She turns around and hugs him. They talk for a time and she tells him she remembered her dad walking her around her room singing that song to her when she was little. "Yeah dad said it used to put you right out." She tells him that even when her dad went back to Ireland after the divorce she used to rock herself to sleep humming the melody. Joshua kisses her and tells her that was probably why she liked some type of noise stimuli when going to sleep. She says could be on a yawn, and then says he provided enough noise with his snoring. Chuckling he says "I do not snore." She tells him no not loud, but loud enough. "well I can always tell when you're really wiped out, because when you're really tired you hum or talk. Though you mostly talk when you're stressed." She asks him was there any songs he remembered from his own childhood. "No." Leaning up her on elbows looking at him at his abrupt tone change. He hadn't meant for it to sound so grr, but the only song he remembered from his birth parents wasn't something he'd ever sing to anyone he loved. Joshua's Idea of a lullaby wasn't belting out anything his old man used to sing after a couple of drinks. A particularly unfavorable song title that James loved to belt out in the middle of the night while Joshua lay in his bed pretending to be asleep was "RINGO" by Ted Reinhart. A fucking song about some Billy the Kid type guy. Angel strokes his goatee pulling his attention back to the present. She asked what he was thinking. Doing a mental exercise, he puts that unfavorable memory back in the box and replaced it with the image of his son in his arms, as he sang to him. He tells her about the song James sang or tried to anyway. She asked had Sally or Michel ever sang to him. "Nah, I think that would have just given Bradley something else to be pissed about back then." He chuckles. The smile soon falls from his face as a memory suddenly invaded him of Sally singing something to him when she'd came to check on him in the hospital the night she'd saved his life by calling the police after hearing his parents beating the shit out of him. To calm him down after he woke up in a strange hospital with a bunch of adults asking him all types of questions. She got him calm enough for the doctors to treat him by singing what would be the first song he learned to play on the violin. Looking up into Angel eyes he smiles and says, "Thank you, there was one song Mom sang to me. As you know I already knew her by she being my teacher." Angel nods "Well, when I woke up in the hospital she, and Michael were the only adults I recognized. I was hurt, and freaked out, Sally started singing a song we'd had to sing for music class the year before. The fourth graders had to sing it in English and the fifth graders had to learn it in Spanish." Angel asked what was the song. "Somewhere" Angel says she knows that he used to play it a lot when he was Jr high band. "Wow, I was horrible back then." She says but he can now play anything he wants on mostly any stringed instrument. "Okay, now you buttering me up for something." She mockingly pouts, then asks him did he make any plans for tomorrow night. "If you're talking about Valentine's Day, I have a few aces up my sleeve." She tells him about Chase asking them to dinner for a surprise. "Oh boy, well, if you want to go we can go, as long as it's after 6pm. This is going to be our first Valentine's Day together as man and wife, and I aim to make it memorable." She asks him what he had planned. "Wouldn't you like to know?" They soon drift off to sleep curled around each other after she figured out that he really wasn't going to tell her what he had planned.

Down the hill in her very own bedroom Nikki surprisingly gets a late text from Janet. She could hardly wait to spend some much needed girl time with her best friend. Fred was working tonight. She didn't get why he had to work so late. The only time she worked late at The Davenport was when there was a concert that Joshua would let her do sound for, and either him or Candy were managing.

Janet: Hey are you asleep?

Nikki: Nope still putting up posters in my room. I still have your Angelic Impression poster that you brought when you were hiding your stuff from your aunt it was in my footlocker at my old house. I can give it to you when you get here and you can take it back with you.

Janet: Keep it, I can't come this weekend. (Sad face emoticon)

Nikki: but why not your dad said he'd bring you since he was working at his school here.

Janet: Nikki I looked for something and well I think I should be the one to tell you. Fred used to sell drugs and weapons.

Nikki: um he told me he did it when he was in his first foster home. He doesn't do that stuff anymore he just works a lot and goes to school. But what does that have to do with you coming to see me?

Janet: My uncle Harold is who found out for me and then Momma said I couldn't even come to celebrate your birthday. I'm sorry.

Nikki: Wow so let me get this straight, you hired your uncle to look up my boyfriend. Why would you do that? I thought you said you guys were friends. If you were looking for a way to ditch me, you could have done something a lot less sneaky. So did you have you Uncle look me up too?

Janet: It wasn't that I wanted to ditch you. Fred was my friend long time ago. When you said that you guys snuck into that movie theater. It made me wonder how much he'd changed since I last knew him. It turns out a lot. I was worried. No I didn't even mention your name why would I?

Nikki: I don't know Jan. It's not like I have anything to hide. I've told you any and everything. I thought this was going to be my best birthday weekend ever and now My boyfriend is working all weekend, and my best friend isn't coming because she decided to play Jr. detective. My program big sister is barely even speaking to me. I wish I knew what I did. I get my mom back and now all of a sudden none of my friends have time for me or can't come over. I left Candy's house on my birthday and I'm lucky if I get a message back from her.

Janet: I get it that you're mad but Nikki if the roles were reversed and you knew something didn't seem right you wouldn't you do the same for me? I was worried about you. Sneaking into places and sneaking out of Candy's house after you were supposed to be already there and asleep. You told me a day after it happened. When you told me that, I got scared because what if something happened to you the only person that would have been able to tell them anything is Fred.

Jonathon read the email sent to him via Angela's cousin Gathon Springer from Sierra Springer. He wanted nothing to do with his ex-wife's mother. She sent an impassioned email his way about how they should meet before it was too late for her to meet her great grandson and make amends with her granddaughter. She'd supposedly come to realize that maybe the horrible tales her daughter had told her of Angel and himself weren't true. Jonathon didn't buy for a second that she'd finally woke up. His years of trying to prove himself to Sophia's mother were long over. He knew she wanted something and her persistence even after being told to leave Angel alone did not appear to be that of a woman that just wanted what was best for her kin. He knew Sierra had better stay away from his child and grandchild, or she wouldn't have to worry about such things as time passing her by. He'd sent her a lovely email telling her exactly what she could do with her meeting that she was insisting on. He went on to tell her to leave his kin and he alone, or they would have a major issue. As he walks into his home Gloria asked how everything went. He tells her about Angel, and Joshua shooting, and how Chase reacted to not being told. They soon have dinner and go to bed. He makes love to her into the early morning. Once she is completely sated, John holds her until sleep claims her. "Happy Valentine's Day my love." If someone had told him last year that he would be laying in his family home back in the states, with his recording partner as a lover, he would have had them tested for drugs. Life was funny. Jonathon soon drifts off to sleep with a smile on his face.

The Wolf quick sold a few of his properties here in Texas after the preschool war took place. The young was safe, the bitch and the dealer were now cold. He knew the federals would be crawling around if he took such a stand in a school that most of the police force had their children enrolled in, but he didn't like failure, and to lose to a female don was not how he saw himself passing down the reins of power. When the time came his number one would rule the den, Unlike Valentine, Maxwell knew his men would never fully be led by his daughter, no matter her last name. Either way he would not hand over his empire with a loss so shameful on record. The female Don had gone far underground. There were even murmurs that she was dead. He hadn't seen any proof, so he would assume she lived. Salvatore Fenny Paradise, his number one knocks on his door. Wolfe saw him walk into the house on his camera. "Sal, I called you here to personally congratulate you for serving as a major player in the preschool operation. Most of her people were identified." Sal says he was just doing what he was ordered to do. "Well, I have another job of a sensitive nature for you. It's about McBride. I would do it, but right now, we both know that would not be wise of me." Sal says he's had McBride followed and is on top of the situation. "Jonathon is protected, more so than his business. His newest love interest, Gloria Shannon? The only reason she breathes, is because she sucked her ex's husband's estate dry before the hit was completed. She cost me a whole cell of people If I worked for free or would have liked Mr. Shannon in the slightest, she would be a dead woman. She seems to have captured McBride's attention. I want you to tell Shannon If she tries to ruin McBride as she did her ex. I'll make it my business to kill her. He's had some close calls with women and two of them are cold." He meets his Number one's eyes. Sal nods his head curtly without saying another word. "Dismissed" Sal briskly stares at him. Max raises an eyebrow, Sal then does and about face and leaves the room.

Salvatore was so pissed he could barely see straight. Max had never dismissed him, not like that. What the hell was going through his "boss's" mind? When Max congratulated him that was a first, and it sounded like a set up. Would Max try to send his ass down the river for the Daycare war? When he said he was only following orders Max changed the subject. Now Max wanted him to go talk to McBride's female. What did Max take him for a funky little message boy? If the Den was a legit business, he would be the assistant boss not in the fucking mail room. He'd been a high-ranking capo for some years now. Driving towards Grandville he asked himself why he was so pissed and seemed paranoid even to himself. Had Max picked up on the vibe and baited him? Was this some kind of test of his true loyalty? Salvatore Fenny Paradise was the product of defiance. His mother liked Italians a lot. He was the darker white meat. The black sheep of the Fenny family. He became a member of the Den months after his blooded aunt was killed. His uncle was a lush and a gambler that lost everything and then took himself out to escape Wolfe. Wolfe was watched for months for his mother's sister's disappearance and supposed death. They never found the body, and the case against Wolfe went into the cold case file. Sighing he drove down to Cherry Lake, McBride's home was right on the other side of this lake. It had been a long time since he'd personally laid eyes on any of his blooded family. He drives home, tonight wasn't good, he was in a mood and he would not just show up at the man's home in the middle of the night.

3am Saturday morning Deon walks down to The Davenport. That pissed him off he had a parking spot but since he was not an employee he once again had to park down the street. He'd tried to pull in the gated area and use his card, and like he'd thought the system ate his card, and warned him to move his vehicle, before the authorities were dispatched. His mom had helped him out. He was still disinherited, but after much begging, his mom came through for her only son and struck a deal with his father. He at the very least still had his car which his dad nor his sister wanted, and his home. He would have to be out of the house in a month or start paying $1,750.00 dollars in rent plus all utilities. His home was in a very nice area and his dad was going to put it on the market until his sister came back to Texas to live. He had to get his life back. Being in his home alone wasn't how he expected to spend today. It was Valentine's Day today, a magical day for couples. If he could get back in Candy's good graces he'd at the very least not have to worry about being homeless when the month was over. He'd just move in with his queen. He'd seen the video that his own boy Jason had put on the internet. He knew he'd went too far by striking her, but she had to know he'd never do it again. He'd thought he deleted it but he hadn't. Fighting Jason just gave that fat fuck a reason to put it on the internet. He'd went back to his home and slept until tonight. He'd woke tonight alone and took a few hits of weed and drank some moonshine to feel like himself. He walks behind the club to see who was managing tonight since Joshua didn't have him to run a Friday/Saturday. Through the gate he saw Candy's car and Bradley's car. Narrowing his eyes, as if on cue he watched as Candy and Bradley walked out of the back entrance of the club. She got in her car and Bradley got in his car. Deon quickly tried to run back to his car down the sidewalk. He tripped, and the sidewalk came up and kissed him. Deon lay on the cold hard ground trying to make himself get up. Seeing Candy head towards home and then seeing Bradley head that way was Deon's fuel to rise. Deon makes it to his car. He had to think, he had to get Candy alone or he could really lose her. He knew she was mad at him, but what if she'd started fucking Bradley Davenport already? Maybe he was jumping to conclusions. That's what got him in this mess in the video with Candy. Taking a deep breath, he had to chill out on blaming her for shit that popped in his head. He gets his car started and heads up the hill. He had to get his queen back.

Up at Candy's home she heads in, Bradley flipped on his bright lights pointing at her house so she could see if there was anyone behind her bushes near her porch before she got to her door. He offered to walk her in but she didn't want to send him any mixed signals. He'd been really nice to her. She walks up on her porch and stops, her porch light didn't come on. Looking back at Bradley's car she points to the porch ceiling fan. He gets out because of the screened in porch, his lights would only hit parts of the interior leaving large spaces of the closed in porch in shadow. There was still five feet to the front door. The plan was for him to shine his lights at her home until she got on the porch then her porch light was supposed to come on. It was motion sensitive. She'd even waved her hands at the sensor, nothing even clicked. Bradley walks pass her as she hands him her keys. He enters her home and turns on the living room light. There was a bucket of cheap liquor sitting on her floor where the broken coffee table had been with a note. Candy walked back outside. Bradley tells her he'd check out the rest of the house. She tells him she'd do it tomorrow she didn't need him getting hurt on account of her if someone was still here. He tells her not to be stupid he can handle him, before she could say something about him talking to her like that, he moved his jacket revealing his gun, and walked further into the house. After 10 minutes of standing at the front door waiting on him and hearing no fighting, or gunfire, Bradley walks back down the stairs and tells her the house is clear. Bradley asked her was she calling the cops since it was obvious someone had been inside her home. She tells him no and that she is just going to chuck the crap. He offers to stay with her. She tells him he doesn't have to but thanks. He tells her then it's settled he'd go park his ride and come chill out he added that she would be doing him a favor since he lived 2 hours away and it was already near 4 in the morning.

Jogging out the house to his car, Bradley gets in and suddenly Deon is standing at his window. Bradley pulls his gun, let's down the window and puts his piece to Deon's forehead. "Go home boy before I send your ass to hell." Brad watches as Deon's eyes bug as he stares down the businesses end of Bradley's 9mm and backs away from the car, and gets back in his. As Deon pulls onto the street he flips Brad off. Brad didn't give a shit, at least the little fucker caught the fucking message and was leaving. After watching Deon drive back down the hill, Bradley walks back into Candy's home, locks the front door, and sits on the sofa. Looking over at Candy in her swinging chair he asks. "Do you have anything to drink?" She fixes his favorite drink which was easy for her to guess, since he always ordered it. She mixes him a shot of Snakebite. He used to drink it all the time when he was younger. Canadian whisky and a lime, was an easy find, when you hung with the people he used to hang with. She holds it out to him, as he reaches for it, she smiles and downs the harsh concoction. Candy starts coughing and making faces. After she regains her breath, she then makes him one, and hands it out to him. He takes the drink from her hand and jokingly says "Thanks. I think the snake bit you." She admits she didn't think it would be that strong. She fixes herself a Jägermeister and Gatorade combo and knocks it back. "Maybe you should slow down." She says she's fine and smiles at him again over the rim of her glass that she'd filled for the third time.

Candy blinks and at Bradley asking her to slow down. "You sound just like Joshua when you said that. He's always been there for me. I can handle my liquor." She purrs the last words and gets up to pour herself another. Something tripped her and the next thing she knew, she was being held by Bradley. She puts her hand on his chest and says. "Thanks" She looks up into his whisky colored eyes and leans up to kiss him.

Bradley caught her before she made friends with her floor, now this pretty little blonde with her sexy drunk ass, was trying to kiss him. Holy hell, another part of his anatomy started making itself known. "Maybe it's time for you to go to bed." he says trying to keep control over his erg to rip her damn skin tight black halter dress off, and plant her little ass in the couch. She moves her hand from his chest and gropes him. Tilting his head back and groaning the word fuck. She felt too damn good. Her next statement, was his last straw. He'd hurt her feelings he could see it in her eyes. When she drew back away from his face she looked into his eye, and asked him if he could fuck her no strings attached. He'd went out tonight with the intent of getting laid by some nameless female, this one had a name and very new ex. One last time he tried to dissuade her. When she stops with a look of pure sadness on her face something registered in her gaze moments before she covers the side of her face that fucker had belted her on, and started crying that she was sorry that she didn't look all that great right now. He stopped her hyper chatter crying and sealed his own fate, when he kissed her and damn did she taste just like candy. She starts pulling at his jeans and he undoes her bra through the design in the back of her dress. He then pushes the dress off her shoulders, and the dress took the bra to the floor. She stood bared before him. "Holy shit" she looked better than any image he'd imagined. When she went to cover a scar on her chest he grabs her hand puts it on his shoulder and dips in kissing the scar. He then runs his tongue down her flat torso. He wasn't much on words, Joshua was the song writer not him, but he knew how to make a woman feel good. He liked hearing her moan, and moan she did. When she grabbed his hair It was one of his things. When he picks her up taking her towards what he knew was her upstairs bedroom, she shakes her head no and points into the guest room on this level. He carries her in and lays her on the bed taking off the rest of his clothing, he climbs in and continues making her moan. First with his hands, then his mouth, when she was as wet as she was going to get, he enters her and soon sends them both over the edge. He never imagined, he would even think that he would find better sex than his art student. The moves Candy laid on him, Half-drunk off her ass, made the art student look like a beginner's course. After a few repeat performances they both finally fall asleep.

Across the street at 9am Jonathon wakes and just watches his mate sleep for a time, as he strokes her hair. Sliding out of bed he heads into the bathroom. Looking at his reflection on his way out, he notices a new patch of grey that had appeared at his hairline. He walks out into his bedroom to find Gloria not only awake, but watching him. "Did I wake you?" She shakes her head no getting out of bed she walks over to him and kisses him on her way to the bathroom. He heads over to his dresser and pulls his first set of gifts out of his underwear drawer. Gloria emerges from the bathroom in nothing but a red thong with red heart shaped candy over her nipples. She says happy Valentine's Day. Jonathon drops the Card and gift box on the bed and stalks towards his lover. They meet in the middle of the room and she kisses him that was his fuse he loved the taste of his woman. They are soon against the wall with her legs wrapped around his waist, as he drives into to her and nibbles and kisses her candy covered breasts.

Up at Ivey Mansion, Sophie wakes to the sight of Luke backing into the room. "What are you doing?" He turns his head only, as he keeps something in front of him. Sophie pulls the covers back he tells her to please stay where she was. Closing the door, he backs to the bed. Sophie wondered what he was holding in front of him.

Luke turns around with a mid-sized moving box in his arms. When he sets it on the end of the bed. He says "I was going to wrap it, I even tried my hand at it, but I now know why I had the gifts I bought in the past wrapped professionally." She jokingly says it would be a crime if he was this good looking, smart, and could wrap gifts, something had to give. "Well my total-package wife-to-be happy Valentine's Day." He watches as she opened the box and pulled his phone when she pulled out the dress she had been thinking of buying to wear at their wedding. He wasn't dense. He knew she still had lingering fears that buying the dress she truly wanted would somehow end like it did with her ex. He knew that he could verbally proclaim all he wanted, that he was nothing, like Julius and she had nothing to worry about. He figured he'd show her more than tell her. She covered her face with her hands dropping the dress across her lap. Remembering he was still standing here with his phone in his hand he puts it away. "Sophie, please talk to me. No cameras see." He holds his now empty hands up away from him. When she looked up and had tears in her eyes. A fear that he had fucked this all up pushed his words and actions from him like a sling shot. He was beside her in seconds holding her. "Please talk to me babe. This is the one you were looking at when we went to Paris for that weekend right?"

Sophie had been expecting candy, or some jewelry, not her 25-thousand-dollar dream dress. Many emotions warred for control of her tongue. "You didn't have to do this." He looked hurt but also confused. He says he knows that but when he saw the look in her eyes in that little shop he went back that same day and bought it while she was on her conference call. There were only three of these dresses in the entire world and she had one. She didn't know what to feel. This dress was ten times better than the 10 grand dress she'd picked for her first wedding. Now her lover had gone and bought her dress that if she was honest with herself she would have picked it up if the fear that in some way this was going to end like with Julius. She was excited but still afraid of being this close and getting too expectant and excited that she, Sophie Elaine Ivey would soon claim her "Happily Ever After" Reclaiming her composure she whispers "Thank you, it is just as beautiful as when we saw it in the shop."

Cass had been at LEGNA Friday and got a chance to talk to Mark alone. He wanted more commercial time on the LEGNA Network. When he'd mentioned that his class size was lower than he expected. She asked him if he had got all of the letters out. He rubs a hand over his face and pulls her to the side. He asked her what that was supposed to mean. She kept her cool and asked him to be straight with her. By the end of their little talk she found out two things. The brick of time he'd paid for was to announce the second class. She threw professionalism out the window and asked him why he was jerking Rapture around. Mark first looks confused then tells her Rap never showed up for his first day of class. Cass says he didn't get a congrats letter. Mark first jumped on the defensive saying maybe Mr. Sloan had misplaced it. That's when she found out the second nugget of information, Mark had personally signed all of his contracts and sent them to his first round picks for his first class and Rap Sloan was fucking number 2 even with the late paper work. She told Mark how Rapture had heard about the others getting their letters but had not got one of his own. He pulls his phone and ask for her code to her printer. When he handed her the letter she looked at the fact that it was dated for over three weeks ago. He says he would get to the bottom of this but to give that boy the letter.

Today Cass was going to be the bearer of good news for a change. Smiling to herself, she gets up and walks downstairs, puts the letter in the frame she'd bought. She sits it in front of Rapture's place setting. "Rap." She'd heard him in his home gym. The metal stops clinking together as he answers her. "Come have breakfast with me babe. It's Valentine's Day." He walks in the room and sits where he usually does. He'd been really pushing himself, he was drenched in sweat. She pulled her phone and aimed it at him. He reads the standing letter then meets her eyes. she wasn't expecting anger. He accuses her of writing a fake. Keeping her camera trained on him she tries for a calm tone. "Babe, it's real that Mark's signature. Look at the date for Christ sakes. Damn It if you don't want it you tell him I have stuck my nose in way too much as it is." He re reads the letter and holds it up in front of his face telling her in a gruff tone to put down the camera. She stops record and puts the camera down. "Rapture?" He tells her to give him a minute. Walking over and looking over the frame he had tears in his eyes. He looks up and wipes his eyes and thanks her. Putting the frame down he grabs her pulling her to him. Since he was sitting down he put his face in her chest and just held her. She knew he'd been working so hard to make himself marketable and get even a part time job. He'd even asked if he could prove to Josh that he could run The Davenport. Joshua had told him he had someone in line for that position for right now. At first Cass got pissed until she heard what was behind Joshua's decision to not employ a person that he would have issue with firing if he didn't work out all because of the guy's relationship to his sister.

Rapture was slow to read the letter the second time, and things listed, and the program notes she wouldn't have known to put in. At first glance, he'd thought it was like a fake for today. The more he thought about it, she wouldn't have known what his ranking was. To get this chance no matter how it came about, to know that his girlfriend had went to Mark and personally asked the big man what was the hold up. That, he didn't see coming. This having someone that truly gave a shit about him. knocked him off his feet every time she showed him how much she cared. He'd been feeling like more and more of a useless fuck his money was running out. At least with the school he was guaranteed a stipend for accomplishments. "Are you going to be okay here alone while I'm away? The first few weeks we're housed at the school because of the schedule. I mean I'm already a week behind everyone else, I'm going to have a lot of work ahead of me." She tells him that she'll be fine and for him not to worry about that, just go and claim his spot so he can get his chance at what he wants. "You're unbelievable you know that. Somewhere along life I did something good and gained you."

Candy eyes pop open her major sense of foreboding eases, when she figures out she's in her guest room. She had one hell of a dream, then she feels an extra source of body heat. Turning around and her pulse quickens but for a different reason, Bradley lay in her guest bed looking so serene. His long lashes resting on his tanned skin. It wasn't a dream she'd slept with Bradley. Trying to think of how this could have happened she remembered drinking his drink and fixing her fav, but from there it all kind of merged in a dream like slide show in her head. She gets up, wow she was sore but that had more to do with past medical stuff. She gets in the bathroom once she's done, she turns on the shower and steps in. One positive that came from the fire was that this bathroom had been completely redone. The hot water was helping. Taking the sprayer off the wall she thoroughly cleanses herself. A knock sounds at the door "Just a Minute" Finishing her shower she climbs out, wraps herself in the guest bathrobe she had stored for Nikki when she spent the night. Bradley had not only seen her naked but they had sex.

Brad woke in an empty strange bed. When he realized where he was he smirked, that little blonde had rocked his damn world. He gets up and goes to the door when he hears the shower running. Knocking she told him just a minute. He wondered if he should just leave. He'd knocked because the door was locked. That wasn't what he expected but maybe they'd just used each other as human sex toys and it was good while it lasted type of thing with her. Making up his mind he starts finding his clothes and putting them on. This was him making it easy for her, he didn't want her to try to think up away to get him to leave. He heads out to his car FUCK he'd forgot his keys. Walking back to the front door he knocks because he'd locked the door since he didn't want her in the house in the shower with her front door unlocked and him not there to protect her.

Hours away at Mark's home, Mark sits on his back deck watching Janet swim from one side of the pool to the other. She'd been kind of moody here recently he knew she still wanted to go see Nikki but what Paula told him made, him agree with his wife. Janet didn't need to be anywhere near that boy if he was still doing the things he'd been pinched for. "Honey it's about time to eat go get changed for breakfast." Janet swims over to him and tells him she's not hungry. "Okay but we are going to be out most of the day, and I would like it if you come inside and have breakfast with us. She rolls her eyes and comes up the stairs of the pool. "Come here," She walks over and plops down on the deck chair facing him. "You have been in a foul mood ever since I got home last night. Mind on telling me what's wrong?" She launches into it doesn't matter, nothing matters because she will lose anyway mode. "Look Jan, walking around moping and being just shy of rude, isn't going make this weekend easier on you. In fact, if you don't straighten this little attitude out your looking at no phone for a week." Janet says fine and asks can she just go to her room. "No, go get cleaned up and get to the table it's time we all have a talk." Janet pops up and powerwalks into the house. Her Callaway was in rare form today. Paula comes on the back deck and sits on his lap in the newest outfit he'd bought her and given to her this morning, as part of his gift for Valentine's Day. She says maybe they could compromise and Nikki could come up if it's ok with her mom. She continues with she doesn't have an issue with Nikki just that Fred she is hanging with. "Janet is showing her ass and thinks that's the best way to get her way. From what you said I don't want him near her. Harry said there hasn't been any new activity since it last happened but that don't mean Fred is not still doing something. Janet wouldn't go into detail on why she wanted him checked out just that she wanted him checked out." Paula says well she was behind his decision. "thanks darling."

"It can't be true. He is a child. He wouldn't know who I am." Henriette says as she paces her hideout apartment in Houston. Her nephew Ben was her only eyes right now within Grandville South. Going back to her listed addresses even the one's in her husband's name was not safe. The Wolf and his den wanted her dead. One of her younger members in the family had given away her location to The Wolf. That was how he'd found her the first time. She was extra careful this time. Her husband's mistress Carla her pet was presumed dead. She called in members from her homeland to replace the ones that were killed in the Preschool War as the news was calling it. "Just make sure your family is secure. You are my only hope of taking back what is mine. If the little crumb snatcher ratted me out there is no telling what all he said and to whom. I want that young." Ben says what is in it for him. "Same as always, money, and since for now you are the face of my operation get this resolved, and you will have a leading role in the family." He says will do.

Harold hits stop on his recorder when he hears confirmation of the younger inside agent's story. The person that they were watching wasn't Henriette. Apparently she was in hiding like the kid said. He'd been given this cop's name and a few others. Local IA was going nuts. Since usually small departments were hesitant to work with the federal government, he hacked the officer's phone. During his surveillance, he saw Bradley Albert Davenport enter Valentin's home with a local construction crew that was branded under Logan Conner. He was going to need to send someone in to that house as a part of the crew. Riding along Cherry Lake he stops just under the dock. Another SUV pulls alongside his. After visual conformation, the passenger door to his Hummer is opened and Ben Valentin gets in. "Thanks for meeting me. Like I said I can maybe get you a deal make some of your harder charges more manageable."

Ben hated this, but saw no other way to keep his own ass out of the fire, he'd been identified both at the jail releasing the drug dealer. He was also awaiting a trial date about battering the band lead's face into his truck. His aunt had just told him that she was moving him into position to be not only a "Made guy" but the second in command, so when she got whacked, or he sold her ass up the river, he would step into her boss shoes, and run his family if he played this right. "No prison time and we can talk. If you can't get me that, then I'm out of here."

Harold wasn't about to let this jive time asshole think he was going to just walk on all the shit he did. "Look, I'll tell you what, you start talking and you don't serve the 20 plus years that is waiting for you via your own fucking captain, they have a hell of a case. Right now, your only way to see your children and your wife outside of prison walls, is to work with me. Oh and if you think of playing me, I'll know, and your ass will "accidently" be placed in general population, if you catch my drift. Your home is coming along nicely. I'd hate to have to stop it by shutting down all of your access to money. I know this a lot to take in, so here's the deal, get back to me with an answer within 24 hours. If it meets my needs 5 years. If you decide not to cooperate, I'll tack on what I have on you, and it will appear in the DA's hands." Ben asks what he possibly has on him that his office didn't already. "Let's just say It will be really hard to take your aunt up on her offer, serving a life sentence or two. Please make no mistake about it either way, I'll be watching you."

Authors Note: Thanks for reading. You Rock yes you. My readers are the best and I just saw that we have new countries that have never read my work before are now reading. Please review it helps a lot :End note