Page 50 of Promiscuous Lies

I frown.

I’d enquired multiple times who Bentley was, but when she reassured me she wasn’t married, I figured if it were one of her lovers, I’d deal with him soon enough. But this… was not at all what I was expecting.

“What is it?” Eli asks.

I lean back in my chair.

She has a son.

How did I not know that?

How has she kept that from me?

I look around the room at the other men.

“She has a son.”

“And do you think the son has something to do with the connection?” Eli questions.

A protective energy comes over me. I know Eli would never do anything to harm a child, but it catches me so off guard I’m not sure what to do with this information. I only thought about Posie. I was only having fun with Posie. Yet, somehow, this feels like it changes things.

“I don’t know,” I reply.

“It could be that she just pissed the wrong person off and got out before things got too serious. Could’ve had a one-night stand andtada—baby,” Hawke says, tipping the remainder of the chip packet into his mouth.

“So glad you actually know how babies are made,” Ford says, gaze locked on his phone screen.

“Please. Anya gave me the birds and bees talk almost as soon as we moved in, and I started fucking the neighbor’s daughter.”

Ford furrows his brow. “Wasn’t she twenty-four, and you were like sixteen?”

“Yeah, but apparently, I could still get her pregnant even then.” Hawke casually shrugs. “Neighbors were pissed.”

Ford nods once. “I always wondered why they suddenly up and left.”

“Anyway…” Eli says, glaring at them both, but mostly Hawke. “I’m going to smooth this over with Waylon Striker. You sort out your situation with the blonde and determine whether she’s an actual threat. If you’re going to go barreling in like that again, give us a heads-up.”

“As if you ever give me a heads-up whenever you’re about to do shit,” I remind him.

“Touché. But I’d rather not lose the potential of profit here. You, of all people, should understand that.”

And I do, completely.

I continue reading the file after they leave, reviewing it more than once. But every time I see the recent photos of Posie and her son, I think what a great mother she appears to be, and I can’t truly grasp what this shift within me is.

Somehow, it changes everything.

But nothing at the same time.

One thing I have to figure out is whether I have to protect my family from her or if she needs to be protected like my family.

CHAPTER 25

Posie

Aknock comes on my door at dinner time. Bentley runs to open it, and I call him back. I immediately grab for the bat, jerking Bentley behind me with such fierceness that I’m certain I startle him. I don’t mean to, but I’m rattled after the events of earlier today. The main thought going through my mind being, what if someone followed us?

“Who are you?” Bentley asks, and my heart freezes.

---