Like Jamie suspected, about an hour after he arrived at work Christina started calling and texting him, wanting to pick up their son. Jamie made the mistake of being a decent person. He texted Christina back and told her he was at the office. And that he would call her when he got out of work so she could pick Jay up. She was unreasonable with him more often than not. But his polite refusal to drop everything including the prep for an important and time sensitive court case really seemed to put her over the edge. And Christina went what his father would have described as hog wild. She blew his phone up with texts and calls demanding to know where the boy was and who was watching him. One text after the next after the next until Jamie had to put her on mute so that he could get his work done. And when he stopped responding, she called the police. An entire unnecessary drama that could have been avoided if she simply worked out a schedule with him like he asked her a million times. Or answered his many calls that morning when he was trying to get her to pick the boy up so he could get to work.
Two uniformed police officers came to his office. Jamie explained the situation, showing them the now hundreds of calls and threatening texts. And they left shaking their heads and probably wishing they weren't the ones that were about to have to explain to Christina that Jamie wasn't doing anything illegal by leaving his own son with a babysitter while he worked. Jamie wasn't as familiar with family law as he was with corporate and real estate law. But he wasn't stupid. He knew before they even showed up that the dispute between himself and Christina was a civil matter and the police weren't going to get involved. Especially given the fact that if he really wanted to he could probably have their jobs with a few well placed phone calls.
After dealing with his personal crisis of the day, Jamie was able to buckle down and get his work done. He kept checking phone. But he was watching for texts from Rachel. Not his ex. She finally sent one, about halfway through the day. It was a picture of his dad leaning back in a chair with his eyes closed and little Jay asleep on his chest. It made Jamie feel a strong pang of guilt and regret. He should have known that John would accept his son regardless of the circumstances surrounding his conception. And now his father had missed out on a lot of time with the boy. Almost a whole year. Just because Jamie was afraid of his disapproval.
With his more pressing work done, Jamie had a personal matter to attend to before he headed back to the ranch. He stopped at a coffee shop, sliding into a seat in the back across from the best and most discreet private investigator he knew. The man was also the most expensive. But in this case, Jamie was happy to pay the premium price. The man didn't look like much. He was average height, a little on the thin side, and had a slightly receding hairline. He was someone people tended to pass by without noticing. Which, Jamie supposed, was what made him good at his job.
"You want the usual?," the man asked. Jamie nodded.
"Where he lives. Where he drinks. Where he gambles. Who he buys his drugs from. Anything else you can dig up," Jamie confirmed. "Make sure there's no paper trail."
The investigator nodded. He knew what that meant. The man he was investigating for the Duttons was most likely going to meet some unfortunate accident. And that was if he wasn't paid extra to make the accident happen himself. Though the man knew from experience that this particular family usually liked to take care of that part of the job themselves.
"There's just one more thing I need," the investigator said, grinning slightly as Jamie slid a manilla envelope across the small table towards him. "Well that too," he chortled, glancing at the envelope. "But you still haven't given me your friend's name." Jamie nodded, biting back a laugh himself. He supposed the identity of the man he wanted all this information on was a necessary piece of information.
"Daniel BlueThunder."
The man's name echoed in Jamie's head as he made the long drive back to the ranch. He already hated Rachel's ex. But now that his feelings for Rachel had grown, the image of her ex-husband choking her bumped around in his mind, bringing about even stronger feelings of detest. The sooner that piece of trash was removed from the earth the better. Jamie knew he wouldn't be able to sleep well until he knew for certain that Rachel was safe from the man. He knew she had plans to start working on her new bakery location soon. And she was already attacked there once. The distinct possibility that the man might hurt Rachel again had Jamie feeling a strange mixture of worry and rage as he pulled up outside the ranch.
"Have anything you'd like to tell me?," his father asked. The man at least let Jamie pour himself a drink before he spoke. Which meant he wasn't as mad as he was probably trying to pretend he was. Jamie lowered himself into the leather chair opposite his father, taking a large gulp of his drink before he responded.
"I got my campaign manager pregnant," Jamie said, shrugging his shoulders. The situation was what it was at this point.
"Is there some reason I'm just hearing about this now?," John asked. Jamie kept his face neutral. But inwardly he was grinning from ear to ear. So that's what he's mad about, Jamie thought. Not because I had a child out of wedlock. But because everyone else knew about it before he did. His dad always liked to be the one with the information. He hated being out of the loop.
"I was trying to keep it quiet until after the election was over," Jamie said. It wasn't exactly the whole truth. He had other reasons to keep the child from his father. And there was the whole horrible situation with his biological father. Jamie didn't want to think about that. And what could have happened to the people he loved because of his childish desire to win the disgusting man's approval.
"I don't like secrets," John scolded. Jamie nodded, taking another gulp of his drink. He wasn't sure how much of his love life his father wanted to be informed of. But he quickly decided to err on the side of oversharing rather than keeping another secret.
"I'm sleeping with Rachel," he announced.
"That's not a secret," John replied with a roll of his eyes. "Beth's been bitching about it for two days straight." Jamie snorted out a laugh before he tipped his glass back and finished his drink. He moved towards his father, setting his hand on the man's shoulder. He couldn't remember the last time he touched the man. It felt better than he expected.
Jamie left his empty glass near the decanter before he headed up the stairs. Rachel's door was cracked open. And he peeked inside, smiling at what he saw. On one side of her bed there was a solid wall of pillows. And she was lying on the other side, blocking his son from rolling off the edge. Jay was positioned in the center of the bed, covered in only a light throw blanket. And Rachel was on her side, her arm outstretched so that he could hold into her finger while he slept. They both looked peaceful and sweet. Jamie rubbed his hand over her back lightly, not wanting to startle her or wake the baby. Her blue eyes blinked open as she looked up at him.
"I wasn't sleeping with the baby, I swear," Rachel promised, covering her mouth as she let out a big yawn. "Dakota's been googling all day. She said you're not supposed to sleep in bed with a baby anymore like I did with her when she was little."
Jamie smiled, lowering down onto his knees next to the bed. He wasn't totally sure about the questionable safety of napping with a baby. He always put his son down in a crib to sleep. But lying next to Rachel certainly didn't appear to be hurting the boy in any way. He looked peaceful and relaxed. Rachel gently pulled her finger loose from his grip and rolled towards Jamie. She cupped his face with her hand, her thumb stroking back and forth across the newly formed stubble on his jawline. When he leaned in to kiss her, she yielded to him instantly. Parting her lips slightly, she hummed as their lips met. Jamie felt the pull in his groin almost immediately. But the bedroom door was open. And his son was asleep a few inches away. He broke the kiss, sitting back onto his heels.
"How was your day?," Rachel asked, keeping her voice low to avoid waking the baby behind her. Despite the wretched day Jamie had, her inquiry made him smile. It felt good to have someone care how his day went. And he fought his initial urge to fake a smile and say his day was fine.
"Well, my ex freaked out because I wouldn't meet her in the middle of my work day to give her Jay back. And when I wouldn't tell her who was babysitting him, she called the cops," Jamie lamented. Rachel sighed and shook her head. Lots of people said their exes were crazy. But in this case, it appeared as though Jamie's ex actually was slightly unhinged. She was certainly thirsty for Jamie's attention, be it negative or positive.
"What did she think the cops were going to do?," Rachel asked, laughing when he held his hands up and shrugged. Rachel turned, glancing back over her shoulder at the sleeping baby behind her. She thought about her own daughter and how upset she would be if she didn't know where Dakota was. And unhinged or not, Rachel felt a swell of sympathy for Jamie's ex. "Should I wake him up? Do you need to take him back to his mom right now?," Rachel asked.
Jamie didn't answer right away. Mostly because he wasn't really sure what to do. His first instinct was to get his son back to Christina as fast as possible so that she would stop throwing the epic fit she'd been carrying on with all day. But with how next level crazy she was acting, he was honestly a little nervous to see her. And even more nervous to turn his innocent son over to her. At the very least, she was going to refuse to let him see the boy for a while. To punish him for not giving in to her every demand. And a little part of him was worried that she might do something even worse. Like take her anger and frustration out on their son.
"I'm not sure," he admitted.
Pulling his phone out, he opened Christina's muted text thread and handed it over to Rachel. Her eyes widened as she scrolled through the messages. The only thing worse than the sheer overwhelming number of messages was the content. Christina threatened to kill him several times. She threatened his family. And to expose his family. But for what Jamie had no idea because Christina really didn't know anything that wasn't public knowledge, other than the fact that he was adopted. And that wasn't likely to cause a scandal.
"Why didn't she just come get him this morning if she was this worried about it?," Rachel asked. She wasn't really expecting an answer, but more just thinking out loud. This woman was acting like Jamie was going to hurt the boy. But she was the one that showed up unannounced in the middle of their dinner plans and dropped her son off. It wasn't like Jamie went to her house and took the boy by force. In fact, the more horrible messages Rachel read from the woman, the angrier she was getting. She didn't care if this woman was crazy. No one was going to talk to her man like that. Especially when he hadn't done anything wrong.
"What time do you need to work in the morning," Rachel asked. Jamie thought about it for a moment. He needed to be in by nine. He had a ten o'clock meeting he needed to prepare for. "Okay," Rachel said, typing out a message to Christina on Jamie's phone. He raised his brow when she sent the message without showing it to him first. But he didn't make any objections. There was nothing Rachel could do to make the situation any worse.
"What did you tell her?," Jamie asked.
"That you'd meet her at the police station in Bozeman tomorrow morning at eight with the baby," Rachel explained, handing his phone back. "...And that if she made any more threats you were going to call the police and file for emergency custody and a restraining order."
"Damn," Jamie said, looking over the carefully worded message Rachel just sent. "That's not bad. Are you sure you're not the lawyer here?" She laughed. She didn't need to be a lawyer to know how to deal with crazy. She learned that from real life experience.
"I think we should stay here tonight," Rachel added. "She's probably gonna show up at your house." Jamie nodded. Staying at the ranch wasn't the worst idea. He needed to talk to Rip without making it too obvious that they were conspiring together. And that would be easier if he was already here.