Page 13 of Outlaw

I tore my eyes off her and stepped inside so that Burl could follow me.

“This is Dr. Burl,” I told her, closing the door behind him.

When I didn’t say more, Burl moved farther into the room.

“It’s nice to meet you,” I heard him say.

“Uh, yes, I’m, uh, Branwen Hester, and this is my daughter, Stevie,” she replied. Her voice reminded me of a smooth, expensive whiskey.

Her last name was bothering me. It was familiar, but I couldn’t place it. When I had read it on the marriage certificate yesterday, I’d paused and tried to think of where I had heard it before. Not that it mattered. Highly unlikely the two were connected. It was just a surname.

“What is a swab?” Stevie demanded.

I smirked at the way her expression suddenly looked fierce.

“It won’t hurt,” her mother quickly informed her, bending her knees and lowering herself until her eyes were level with her daughter’s. She took the girl’s hands in hers. “I promise. This is quick and easy. When it’s over, we can go back to the park we found yesterday. Have another picnic and feed the ducks.”

The little girl looked from her mother back to Burl. “But I’m not sick. Why is a doctow hewah?”

The pink tip of Branwen’s tongue came out and licked her lips quickly, and she took a deep breath. I assumed she was trying to think up a lie to tell the kid.

“You’re right. You aren’t sick. But…” She paused, and the fear in her eyes gave away shit that only made me question this.

I could stop it. Let them go and forget about all of it. Sign the fucking papers. Never know.

There was only one reason she would be scared. And that reason would change my life. Immediately. It would change theirs too. If I let it. That was up to me. Branwen had already made it clear that she had no problem not knowing who the father of her child was. That, or she knew and wanted to keep it a secret.

It was going to shock the hell out of me if the kid was mine, and she knew it. Coming here and not demanding money from me once she had my name and could track me down wouldn’t make sense. Unless this was about the fiancé. He might be rich. I hadn’t taken the time to read the full background check that Wilder had pulled on Branwen. I got as far as the girl’s birth date and did some math. That was the main reason I’d wanted this test. The date of conception was spot-on with the time we’d fucked.

“It’s a test to see if you have more family. If there is someone else who might want to be a part of your life. Or just know aboutyou.” Branwen’s eyes flickered to me briefly, then back to her daughter.

“I got mowah family than you and Hudson?” she asked, her voice going up an octave.

Hudson wasn’t her family. Not yet. Annoyance hit me—that her mother had let her think that he was her family—and Ihad to unclench my teeth and force myself to calm down. This kid might not be mine. That man was going to be her future stepfather. I had no reason to get pissed off because she thought that he was family.

Branwen bit her bottom lip. “Yes, baby, you do. Family that I couldn’t find before now.”

I held my breath as I narrowed my gaze. My eyes locked on her, as if I could draw out the fucking truth myself. That response sounded an awful lot like she knew who the kid’s father was and had looked for him. For me.

“Let’s get this over with,” I barked.

The little girl jumped, startled by my sharp demand, and her eyes swung up to my face. She studied me through her thick lashes. I rubbed my jaw, wishing I hadn’t been so damn harsh. But, fuck, I wanted to get this done. I was tired of all the what-ifs.

“You got tattoos on youwah fingaws,” she stated, studying my hand.

I dropped it back to my side. “Yeah, I do.”

She pulled her hands free of her mother’s and walked over to me, her attention captured by what she’d seen. “Mommy has a tattoo, but Hudson don’t like it. He said tattoos awah twashy and she’s gonna get hewahs taken off.”

My gaze lifted from the girl to see Branwen looking slightly pale as she stood back up. The tight smile she gave me didn’t meet her eyes.

“Let’s not talk about tattoos, Vivi Lu, okay? Let’s just get this swab done so we can go to the park.”

A faint memory of a tattoo on her body came back to me. It had been on her hip bone. I was pretty sure I’d licked it on my way to eat her pussy. What was it?

“But, Mommy, he’s got thwee fingaws tattooed. I just want to see them.”

Her tone sounded so damn pleading that I found myself fisting my hands so she could see the three tattoos on my fingers. She didn’t ask her mother as she quickly made her way closer to me to look at my ink.

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