Page 60 of The Broken Beginning: Part One

“She’s really going to kill you both for that if she hears it.” They just laughed some more. “Now, you want to explain why you have a fucking gator trussed up in the back of your truck when my kid is with you?”

“The thing is, we joked about going gator hunting with Lily before we left, but little man heard it and the whole time we were out that’s all he kept talking about. How we were going to kill and eat a gator. Couldn’t disappoint the little shit, could we?” Robbie asked while trying to look like the picture of innocence.

“She’s never letting you take him camping again.” I shrugged and went to collect my son. “Before you even try it, you know this guy is going to run his mouth about it, so there’s no point trying to keep it from her.”

“Shit!” Boone hissed. “Tiger Lily’s going to come out and rip us both a new one.”

Robbie glared at me for a minute, then grinned widely. “No, I think we got our get out of jail free card right there.” He pointed at me. “I can smell it on you, boy. You screwed up again, and she’ll be too busy being mad at you that she won’t even think twice about this.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You have a huge hickey on your neck, but you just told us you broke it off with that person. So, where’d you get the hickey?”

I rolled my shoulders and tucked my son’s face into my neck.

“You finally got the nerve to do something about my daughter and let me guess, she gave in and then found out about your side piece?”

Was he psychic?

“We already called to tell her we’d be bringing little man home soon,” Boone finally told me. “She spilled the beans because she said under no circumstances were you allowed to join us in dropping him off if we ran into you.”

Well, shit!

Timeless stepped outside then, “Merc! Need you on a run. Pack for a couple weeks, it’s gonna be tricky.”

“Mother fucker!”

“It’ll be good, gives Tiger Lily time to put the claws away,” Boone laughed as he tried to convince me.

18 - Whirlwinds and Letdowns

Merc

Five fucking miserable weeks.

That’s how long I was gone on the fucking run after screwing everything up with Lily, breaking things off with Shaina, and not getting a chance to go set it all right with my wife again. Boone told me that Shaina came around the clubhouse a few times looking for me and didn’t believe that I was actually on a run. He seems to think I’ll have trouble where she’s concerned when I get back, and that’s just fucking fantastic, considering I told her I was done.

I didn’t even stop by the clubhouse when I finally rolled into town. Priority number one was to see my son. Part two of that, was to get shit straightened out with his mother too. One of the neighbors seemed to be having a party, so I had to park down the street and walk to the house, which actually worked in my favor for once.

I let myself into the house as quietly as possible and quickly realized that either my son was napping or he wasn’t home, but his mother was. I could hear her voice up in the loft. She was speaking to someone, and judging by the quality of the other voice, it was a phone call.

“Let me get this straight, this woman comes to your house and delivers pictures proving her happy life with Merc, and then tells you she’s pregnant with his love child on the same day that you found out you’re pregnant again?”

“I think that just about sums it all up. God, Stacey!” Lily whined. “My life is a whole talk show waiting to happen. Jerry Springer is going to call any day and offer us a huge payday to have me sit there and be confronted by all the women Merc has been with since marrying me. I just know it.”

“Girl, while I think that’s a touch dramatic, you really do have the absolute worst luck with sex! I’m sorry I ever pushed you to go there again!”

Lily laughed at her friend’s response, but I was stuck there on the top step, stunned by what I’d just heard. Pregnant? Lily was pregnant again? And fuck me, but that hadn’t been the only pregnancy announcement they mentioned.

Fuck. My. Life.

I’d bet anything, that little visit she got was from Shaina, and I knew without a doubt, that I’d always been double careful with her. She had those implant things in her arm, and I never went without a condom with anyone besides Lily in my life.

“Seriously, what are you going to do?”

“Maybe I can afford a bigger place near you, and we can be roomies for a while?”

What? No! Stacey lived in New York. The fuck if my pregnant wife and son were going to live so far away.

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