Page 59 of Tripp

As I opened my mouth to say God knew what, she turned on her heel and fled toward the clubhouse, rushing inside and disappearing as my world fell down around me. For the first time in my life I was happy, genuinely happy. It figured my contentment with life wouldn’t fuckin’ last.

All because that bitch at the gate decided she wanted to swoop in and ruin everything. Anger tore through me as I finally lost my temper and hauled ass toward Rachel.

“Open the fuckin’ gates!” I roared, shoving past whoever stood in my way. “Now!” The creak of the steel fueled my rage, the match to ignite the inferno swirling around inside me. Once I stepped foot on the other side I came face-to-face with her.

“Tripp!” I heard Stone shout, but my name was muffled. My only focus right then was ripping the truth from her filthy, lying mouth if it was the last thing I did.

“You better tell me right now that you’re lying,” I seethed as I towered over her. Rachel was selfish, proving it when she fucked around on me. She didn’t care about me then and she sure as hell didn’t care about me now. Rachel was only there because she didn’t have anywhere else to go, no one else she could think of who’d help her. If the kid turned out to be mine then I’d have no choice but to step up, but if I found out this was just a ploy of hers to wriggle back into my life, she was gonna regret it for sure.

Her shoulders shook. Her body trembled. Her eyes filled with tears, though I highly doubted they were genuine. Rachel had always been good at playing upset to get my attention. I’d fallen for it in the past, but not anymore.

“I’m not lyin’,” she muttered. “He’s your son.”

My eyes scoured the length of her. She didn’t look like she’d had a baby, but then again she had always been conscious of everything that passed her lips—with the exception of dick, of course. My fury heightened and it wasn’t from the memory of her fuckin’ someone else. I didn’t care about that. I didn’t care about her. I cared that she was messin’ with my relationship with Reece by just being there.

“Where is he?”

She remained silent and pointed toward the back door. The muscles of my jaw ached from clenching so hard, but my expression was enough to make her move out of my way as I reached for the handle.

As soon as I ripped the door open, I saw a tiny baby sitting in a car seat, his eyes wide and staring right back at me. His lower lip quivered, so before he started wailing, I looked behind me to search for someone I could trust to help. I didn’t want to touch the little guy for fear my anger would transfer to him and scare him more than I was sure he already was. But I needed to see him up close, and I sure as shit didn’t want Rachel handing him to me.

I caught Sully’s attention and motioned for her to come over with a simple jerk of my head. Marek released her hand but he didn’t look happy about it. Rachel never objected as Sully brushed past her. She knew I’d shut her down or make her leave before I’d even seen my so-called son.

Sully silently reached inside the car and pulled the baby from his seat. The infant wasn’t even strapped in, nor was the car seat securely in place.Careless bitch.

Cradling the baby in her arms, Sully held him out to me. Still Rachel said nothing. All she could do was fidget next to me.

“I can’t.” I just wanted to look at him up close, but under the illumination of the security light I couldn’t determine if he truly belonged to me or not. All goddamn babies looked the same at that age.

Speaking of which, I asked, “How old is he?”

“Three months.”

“Three months? How in the world can you possibly say he’s mine? You got knocked up months after I left you.” I took a step to the side and stood so close I pinned her against the car. “Did you think I couldn’t add? That I was so fuckin’ stupid I’d think this kid was mine when there is no humanly way possible he could be? Unless you saved my cum and had someone inject it inside you months after I took off. Is that what you did?” Before she opened her mouth to lie, I yelled over to Adelaide, interrupting her conversation with Stone. “Addy, how long is cum good for?”

“What?” she shouted back, confusion written all over her face. She started toward me, Stone hot on her heels.

When she was near, I repeated, “How long is cum good for?”

“If you’re asking how long semen is viable, the answer depends on what’s being done with it.”

“Stop it,” Rachel shouted, slapping my chest with both her hands. I didn’t move. She’d always hated when I intimidated her by standing so close, but I’d only acted that way whenever we really went at it. I’d never laid my hands on her, my presence enough to shatter whatever shit she’d tried to lay at my feet. Whether it was coming home drunk dressed like some kind of whore, smelling like men’s cologne, or high as a kite, stumbling into our place in a daze I thought she’d never come down from. I excused her behavior and I think deep down I knew not to trust her. When I caught her cheating, it was more of a shot to my ego than anything else, but I took the opportunity for what it was and finally walked away. And what happened afterward set the direction of my future. I couldn’t blame Rachel solely for me getting piss drunk, jumped by the Reapers, and shot to all hell, but I held her partly responsible.

“Stop what?” I shouted right back.

“I have nowhere to go,” she cried, a few dramatic tears escaping and falling down her cheeks. “I can’t take care of him by myself. It’s too much.”

“It’s only too much because you’re still addicted to that shit.” It was an open-ended statement. ‘That shit’ could be anything. She’d tried it all, her dilated pupils and sunken skin proving she’d engaged the devil just hours prior. Cocaine was her favorite, though. No doubt if I searched her purse there’d be a vial in there.

“I’m tryin’,” she lied.

“You’re not,” I countered. “And now I want you to take your kid and get the hell out of here.” Lowering my face to hers, I said, “And if you ever come back, youwillregret it.”

“Please,” she begged. “Please just take him.” Whatever light had been hidden somewhere inside her had been completely blown out. Her blank stare worried me, not so much for her safety but that of her kid.

“I’m not takin’ care of your son, and I sure as hell ain’t raisin’ some other fucker’s kid.” I turned my back on her, the sight of her sniveling pissing me off. She had no right to just show up out of the blue, claim the kid was mine, when he clearly wasn’t, disrupt my night, let alone my relationship with Reece, and then beg me to take her baby off her hands.

What the hell is wrong with her?

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