Blinding Trust (Mitchell Family, #7)(20)

She never looked away from her book. “You should be.”

I smiled, knowing she was literally giving me the cold shoulder. “I need to talk to you about somethin’.” I grabbed the Kindle out of her hand and finally got her attention. “It’s important, darlin’.”

She folded her hands and cocked her eyebrow. “Did you buy something?”

We had an agreement about buying major things without telling each other first. “No!”

“Is it good or bad, because I don’t feel like having anymore bad news today, Colt. I know you think this is some phase, but it doesn’t hurt me any less.”

I put my hand over hers. “I need you to hear me out, Savanna.”

She shook her head. “Oh God! It’s bad!”

“Would you just calm down and let me talk?”

She threw her hands up. “Fine! Just tell me.”

“You already know that I had a piss poor day, but you only know half of why that was.” I got her attention. She turned and looked right into my eyes. “It seems that our visitors last night weren’t happy with how things went. Zeke took it upon himself to contact his lawyer about having visitation rights.”

Savanna jumped off the bed like it was on fire. “Are you shitting me?”

“I’m not!” I laughed at her using that word. She rarely cursed. “Keep your voice down so we don’t wake up the kids.”

She got back in bed and got close enough so we didn’t have to talk loud. “How do you know he called his lawyer. Did he call and threaten you about it?”

“No. His lawyer called me, when I was dealing with the bullshit in the chicken houses.”

Her eyes were huge and I could tell that she was scared. “What happened?”

“He was goin’ on and on about Zeke bein’ legally entitled to get to know Noah. I wasn’t listenin’ that well, on account of bein’ so damn mad about it. I gave him Mike’s number and hung up.”

She readjusted herself. “So, that’s it? Did you call Mike and ask him if he heard anything? Is Zeke going to try to take Noah away from us? Colt, I can’t lose him.”

I grabbed at her hands again, squeezing them inside of mine. “Mike called me.” I hesitated telling her what Mike gave as advice. She wasn’t going to be happy. In fact, I saw her firing my family’s long term attorney over it. “Before you freak out, just listen to what I have to say.”

“You’re scaring me, Colt.”

“We’re goin’ to have to let Zeke get to know Noah. There’s no way around it, without things gettin’ real ugly.” I hated saying it out loud. Her face went from concerned to stunned in a matter of seconds.

“No judge will let that happen.”

“Mike said that with Zeke’s money and who he knows, there’s a chance things would get ugly and we would lose. I don’t want Noah dragged through magazines. I don’t want him bein’ some paparazzi’s story.”

“What are you saying?”

“I talked to Zeke tonight on the phone. He’s agreed to drop everything if I allow Noah to come see him at his house, once his tour is over.”

“That is not happening, Colt! Over my dead body am I going to put our son on a plane and just let him go.”

I appreciated how devoted she was. “He ain’t goin’ alone. I’m goin’ with him.”

“You have to run the ranch. You can’t just leave. If it has to be done, I will go.”

“Savanna, I love you and you are the best mother to all three of our children, but you aren’t Krista. I think it’s best if I take Noah. Zeke is goin’ to want to talk about her and since she and I shared a past, it’s better that Noah knows that I did care about her. Right now he thinks I wished her dead. I need to fix that.”

I knew it hurt Savanna. She got quiet and refused to reply. She shook her head and got up out of bed. I even tried to reach for her, but she walked out of the room with tears in her eyes.

Ever since the day that Noah came into our lives, she’d been his everything. I knew her heart was broken. How was I supposed to choose my wife’s happiness over my son’s safety? What kind of father would I be if I just didn’t care about Noah or where he went. She had to know that I was trying to do the right thing for our family. My job was to protect them and that was all I was trying to do.

It was obvious that my wife didn’t want to be near me. Maybe I should have went and looked for her. I honestly didn’t know if she just wanted to be alone, or she was expecting me to run after her. Women were complicated and they played too many head games. Sometimes, I just wished she would have spelled things out for me.

I expected her to come back to bed at some point during the night, but she never did.





Chapter 9


Savanna


I was more than hurt.

I was angry.

I felt betrayed and like I was losing my hold on my own family. It felt like I was being pushed to the side, after devoting my whole life to being Noah’s mother. The pain ripped through my heart, leaving me feeling so alone inside.

I sat out on the porch, in the dark, for the longest time. Colt wasn’t too keen on me getting overemotional. He said that I needed to stop wearing my heart on my sleeve and grow a backbone. I couldn’t help that I was a sensitive kind of person.