Page 13 of Hunter

Sleeping?Anger rippled through me in a heavy wave. All I had heard about her was “good mother this,” and “good mother that.” What good mother would let her son run around naked where he could slip and trip down the stairs?

Without a word, I scooped Adair up into my arms and marched toward their door.

When I was about to step inside, I felt a sharp tug on my hair as Adair tangled his fingers into it and pulled until I looked at him.

“What?” I asked, my voice gruff and perhaps a little harsh, but Adair didn’t seem to care.

“Don’t wake Mommy.” He gave my hair an extra tug, as if to add emphasis. “Mommy’s sleeping with Papa.”

“Papa?” I repeated, certain I had misheard him.

Adair nodded, not helping me understand until he added, “Papa’s giving Mommy cuddles.”

The kid didn’t have a “papa,” which meant there was someone playing that role right now … under my roof. How dare she bring another man into my home!

I thought what I felt before had been anger, but what I felt now, that was anger. It was hot and aggressive, and made me tear down the door before I even recognized I was moving.

Adair began crying when the door bounced off the wall, and Mallory shot up from bed. Her bleary eyes jumped around the room in a panic until they landed on Adair, and then met mine. The panic fell as she took in the situation, developing into anger.

“What the hell are you doing?” she snapped, pulling the sheet up to her chin. “Why is Adair naked?”

I didn’t say a thing. Anger clogged my throat as I made a sweep of the room, placing Adair on his made bed before dropping to look underneath it. When the underside of both beds turned up empty, I moved to the closet, then to the bathroom.

Empty. Empty. Empty.

“Where the hell is he?” I demanded, turning around to face her.

“Who?” Mallory asked, eyes now jumping around, looking for the suspect. She had moved to Adair’s bed, cuddling him close to her chest.

“The man.”

“What man?”

“The man Adair was talking about.”

Mallory looked down at Adair, who hugged his stuffed toy tighter against his chest. The old thing with beaded green eyes had yellowish fur spewing out cotton from a dozen tears.

“There is no man,” Mallory insisted.

“Adair told me you were having ‘cuddles’ with ‘Papa’.” I watched the realization dawn on her face.Oh, yeah, I knew. “Considering Adair doesn’t have a papa, where the hell is the guy you decided to bring into my house?”

Mallory was quiet for long seconds, looking at me, her bottom lip trembling. Then she burst out laughing.

My rage stuttered to a halt as I saw her cripple over, hugging her waist as she gasped for breath between fits.

“Oh, my gosh,” she heaved out. “I can’t believe you thought …” She continued to laugh some more, and I felt my irritation rising.

“What?” I snapped.

“This,” she said, taking deep breaths as she pulled the stuffed toy from Adair’s arms and propped it up on her lap, “is Papa.”

I stopped dead in my tracks, looking down at the fraying doll, then at Adair, then at Mallory, who seemed to be having a hard time keeping her mouth closed.

“Thatthingis Papa?” I asked. I would have been lying if I said I didn’t feel the heat of embarrassment flush across my face. “But why is Adair naked? And why were you sleeping instead of watching him?” I countered, looking at the still naked child crooning at his mother’s affection.

“I don’t know why Adair’s naked. And because you don’t have any locks, I propped my suitcase …” She stopped when she saw the open door, and then the suitcase laying on the floor. Then she turned to Adair. “Baby, did you open that door?”

Adair cradled the teddy bear against his bare chest again. “No,” he mumbled, refusing to look her in the eyes.

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