Page 15 of Outlaw

The accusation in his tone only fueled my temper.

I lifted my chin and glared at the dark lenses covering his eyes. “You didn’t leave me a way to contact you. Not even a name. Just a pill.” I tossed out that reminder before he could start in with theyou kept er from mething.

“Which you didn’t take.”

My eyes flared, and I was so close to slapping his face. How dare he! She was standing feet away from us, feeding the ducks.

“I did take the pill,” I hissed at him, hating to even admit it. That pill could have robbed me of the little girl who owned my heart. “It isn’t one hundred percent effective.” Thank God.

His jaw worked back and forth. He knew I was right. Arguing with me about it and throwing out blame were pointless. The marriage we hadn’t known was legal was the only reason I had come to find him—again. The first time he never needed to know about. That was my secret to keep.

“I’ll follow you back to the motel to get your things. Then, you’re coming to my house. We have things to discuss. My lawyer will meet us there at my office.”

His house? Lawyer? I didn’t like that idea. It sounded threatening. He hadn’t wanted a child. He didn’t get to want her now.

“Why?” The franticness in my tone made me wince.

I was trying to act calm, but I was afraid that I was failing.

He cocked an eyebrow. “What did you think would happen? I’d find out I have a four-year-old daughter and sign the papers, then let you leave with her?”

“OH! I’m fowah too!” Stevie said, rushing up to us. “Can I meet huwah? She can come feed the ducks with us.”

My sweet baby girl. The path I had set up for her had just taken a turn I’d never expected. One I had never wanted.

I stared at him for a brief second, then bent down to look at her perfect little face. “Honey, we need to go to Mr. Shephard’s house so Mommy can go to a meeting there. Let’s get our things together, and we will go to the car. You can ask me questions on our way.”

Her eyes sparked with excitement for going back to the house she’d thought was a villain’s castle. I was afraid her description might be accurate after all.

“Yay!” she squealed and bounced on the balls of her feet.

Standing back up, I held my hand out for her to take. More so for my reassurance than hers. She was perfectly happy, and that was as it should be. The weight on my shoulders wasn’t hers to bear. My gaze went back to Linc.

“Our things are already in the car,” I told him.

We didn’t have much, seeing as I hadn’t been planning on the overnight trip. I always kept a change of clothing for both of us in the trunk. It was a habit I’d started when she was a baby and always messing up both our outfits.

“I’ll follow you,” he repeated in a clipped tone.

What did he think, that if he didn’t follow me, I would take off back to Nashville and have the Southern Mafia showing up at my front door? Um, no thanks. But then he didn’t know that I was aware of his ranking inside the Mafia. I’d honestly thought when he read my first and last name on that marriage certificate, it would have dawned on him. The realization of who I was and how he would respond was something I’d played out many ways in my head. None of those things had happened though, seeing as he didn’t remember me at all.

With my hand wrapped protectively around Stevie’s, I walked to the car and unlocked it. She climbed inside and sat in her car seat. The anticipation of going back to the black mansion and getting to see the inside making her bouncy. Taking my time, I buckled her in, then kissed the top of her head.

This would be okay. It had to be. Linc wasn’t a monster. He had questionable morals, and I didn’t trust him, but he wouldn’t want to do anything that would hurt Stevie. I had to believe that much.

Even when he had been a young man, I remembered his struggle at being a father. I’d overheard him talking to Garrett and Creed more than once about how he was failing his son. How he wasn’t cut out to be a dad. He would agree that the best thing for Stevie was Hudson. He wanted to be her father. He wanted children of his own too. His house even had a white picket fence.

Twenty-Eight Years Ago

I huffed with frustration at my dad’s refusal to let me ride the new two-year-old colt that had arrived yesterday from the family in Georgia. Dad thought I didn’t know about the family or who the Hughes were, but I did. It was hard not to hear things, always being here. Adults would talk around me, thinking I was just a kid and didn’t understand. I probably knew more than Daddy did.

Picking up the saddle and placing it on the bench, I scowled at the other tack around me. I wanted a saddle like these. Mine was used and beat up. Garrett’s wife had a saddle with turquoise-blue leather and crystal beads outlining it. I loved that saddle. I’d asked for one this past Christmas, but Daddy had said that was out of his budget. That pretty saddle was never used. It just sat there, making me envious.

“Hey, Ringlets,” the voice I loved above all others said, wiping away my foul mood.

I snapped my head around to see Linc walking into the room. His head tilted, and his eyes narrowed slightly as he studied me. “That was some serious scowling you were doing. Which one of these saddles offended you?”

My heart fluttered, and the giddiness that came from seeing him bubbled up inside me. He had been gone all week. Normally, he stopped by once or twice. I’d missed seeing him. The hand that was behind his back came around to the front, holding a bright yellow daisy.

---