Page 84 of Renegade

Mike walked in and shut the door softly behind him and I looked back down at my desk. He’d never come to my work before. I didn’t know what it meant.

“Red?” He placed coffee and a brown paper bag on my desk and knelt down. “Hey, look at me.”

I sniffed and reluctantly raised my head. Seeing my face, he stood and pulled me into his arms, crushing me up against his chest. “I can’t do it. That’s why I’m here.”

My heart plummeted through the floor even as my brain tried to gently remind it that a break-up had always been inevitable. “Okay,” I muttered weakly as I tried to disengage myself from his grip.

I sat back down in my chair and looked anywhere but at his face. If I looked at his face then I was going to lose it.

Mike knelt down again, resting his forearms on my thighs, forcing me to look at him. “Like I said, I can’t do it. I can’t just fuck you and then turn it off, okay?”

I looked up, surprised. “What? You’re not here to tell me you never want to see me again?”

He frowned. “You thought I was ending it and bringing you breakfast as a consolation prize? God, I’m not that much of a dick, am I?”

I cocked an eyebrow and he grinned.

“Don’t answer that. Jesus, I’ve made myself crazy thinking about you with someone else for the last week. I don’t like how we left things and I know I have an insane work schedule right now, but I don’t give a fuck. So, what do you say?”

I bit down on the corner of my lip. “What exactly are you asking me?”

Mike rolled his eyes. “C’mon, Red. Don’t make me spell it out for you. I want exclusivity and shit.”

I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing. “And shit? How romantic. Where do I sign up?”

“Fuck. Just listen to me. I want you to be my girlfriend. So?” He rocked back on his heels and eyed me expectantly.

I nodded. “I say... okay.”

His mouth moved, colliding roughly against my mouth. I nipped at his lower lip as my heart pounded steadily. It wasn’t just sex. It wasn’t even just a kiss—it was a possession. I broke it first; panting as I pulled away.

“David. I have to call David.”

Mike’s gaze darkened as I dialed. David answered on the first ring and began shouting at me.

“David, she’s in a cab on her way to the airport in Houston. I’m trying to get her on a flight home. What happened? She didn’t make any sense when she called.”

So, I wasn’t exactly truthful, but when Mike kissed me, I suddenly knew what I needed to do. David got choked up as he told me about the paternity test results.

Seeing Mike’s increasingly confused expression, I moved the phone away from my mouth. “David got the results faxed to his mother’s house. It looks like he is the father. Elizabeth took off when she found out.”

David chimed in, “Lauren, is that Mike?”

I quickly gave him the rundown before adding, “Elizabeth is pregnant and—”

He cut me off. “I know she is. That’s why it makes this so much worse!”

Okay, I hadn’t seen that one coming. “She told you?”

“I think she was getting close to telling me, but I figured it out on my own a few days ago.”

I relayed that to Mike and then told David of my suspicions before asking him to stall the divorce proceedings. I just needed a couple of weeks to prove that Jess tampered with the test results.

“They’re going before the judge next week. He doesn’t think she’ll call it off now.”

Mike leaned up against the door and ran his thumb along his jawline. “Then he’s going to have to file for an emergency hearing to consider new evidence,” seeing my puzzled look, he continued, “She’s pregnant and unless there are extreme circumstances, no judge is going to grant a divorce.”

I could’ve kissed him, but since we were in the middle of helping our friend get his wife back, I settled for a grateful smile instead. “That’s it! David, Mike just found something that could be your saving grace. You’re going to need to get your ass back here and file a motion with the court for an emergency hearing—”

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