Page 20 of Back in the Texan's Bed
Ross shoved down the rage, covering it with a sheet of ice. He refused to hand his father ammunition to use against him, to turn around and accuse him of being irrational. “She told you about her relationship with me.”
“You mean, she told me you two were fucking.”
Those red-and-orange-tinged flames licked at his gut. Enticing him to let this consuming anger loose.It’s what he wants. I’m not giving him what he wants.
“But that wasn’t the only thing, was it?”
Again, no answer from Rusty. But the slight flare of his nostrils, the even slighter thinning of his mouth telegraphed his annoyance.
“She was pregnant. And you told her to get rid of it. Get rid of my baby,” Ross ground out.
“So?”
You can’t hit your father. You can’t hit your father.
The mantra spilled through his head, and Ross silently repeated it several more times before he was fully convinced that he couldn’t take that course of action.
“So,” he echoed coldly. “You told her to get rid ofmybaby.Not yours. You had no right.”
Rusty snorted. “The hell I didn’t. You’re my son, and I wasn’t allowing some random girl to trap you.”
“And that baby ismy son,” Ross threw back. “You didn’t even tell me about him, didn’t give me the opportunity to make a choice that was mine, not yours.”
“What the fuck do you mean—is my son?” Rusty asked, voice soft, dangerous, eyes narrowing.
“Yeah, Dad.” Ross nodded, scalding satisfaction flooding him. “Is. As in Charlotte didn’t do what you ordered her to do in that phone call or that phony-ass letter you sent with my forged signature.” Disgust churned inside him. “Despite all your manipulations, she had my baby. My son.”
“How do you know, Ross?” Rusty demanded, slowly rising from his chair. He planted his fists on his desk, leaning forward.
“Because I’ve seen him. Met him.”
“You’re fucking lying,” his father snarled, pounding a fist on the glass desktop. “She didn’t have that baby.”
“Yes, she did.” Ross smiled, and not with a small amount of pride. Charlotte had done what he, himself, had found difficult to do. Stood up to and defied the great and mighty Russell Edmond Sr. “For once, someone didn’t obey your edicts. And he’s absolutely mine.”
“Why? Because some loose-legged girl who you fucked says so? If she opened her legs so easily for you, Ross, who else did she give it up for? Use your head, not your dick.”
“Watch yourself,” Ross growled. “You don’t get to talk about her like that.”
“What? She’s your supposed ‘baby mama’ and now you’re her champion?” Rusty chuckled, the sound mean, dirty. Because his father didn’t know how to fight any other way but down in the mud. “She was thehelp, son. And if you think she didn’t see you as a ripe opportunity to climb into a world she has no business in, then you’re a goddamn idiot. She was a user then, and she’s one now if she’s showing up out of the blue with a kid and trying to pawn it off on you. Do you really believe you were the first one she tried to get under? I promise, you weren’t.”
“Last time, Dad,” he warned, steel threading his voice. “Keep your mouth shut about her. And Ben is mine. I had a DNA test done. And despite your best intentions, I’m claiming my son and intend to get to know him.”
“The hell you are,” Rusty snarled. “I refuse to allow you to tarnish this family’s name by having anything to do with this woman and her baby.”
“Get used to it.” Ross mimicked his father’s pose, flattening his hands on the desk and leaning forward so only inches separated them. “Because I’ve asked Charlotte to move into the ranch with me. Her and Ben. I’m going to be a father to my son whether you like it or not.”
“I forbid it, Ross. This is what she wants, what she wanted when she called up here looking for you years ago. Don’t you see that? You’re upset about the letter I sent her? Well, did she happen to mention the check I included? Ten thousand dollars, son. And she cashed the check. Wake up, Ross, she’s just a gold digger.”
Ross barked out a harsh crack of laughter. “Is that supposed to mean something? Am I supposed to look down on her for that? She was a soon-to-be single mother who’d left everything behind—her family, her home, her job. You really believe I begrudge her using that check for whatever she needed to care for herself and our son?” He shook his head. “And gold digger? That name doesn’t exactly apply since she hasn’t asked me for a damn cent in three years.”
She’s not my mother, hovered on the tip of his tongue. She hadn’t abandoned her child, taken the money and ghosted out of his life. Charlotte might have walked away from Ross, but not their son. He granted her major points for that. “It’s happening, Dad. She hasn’t agreed yet, but it’s only a matter of time.”
“Not under my roof. And let’s not pretend that this house, this land, this company, hell, yourlife, aren’t mine. I own all of it. The lifestyle of cavorting off to different cities around the world to do whatever the hell you want without a care? That’s courtesy of me. The expensive suits and watches you like to flash? Me. All me. And if you go through with this...idiocy of claiming this woman’s son, of trying to move her in here, there will be repercussions. Repercussions you literally can’t afford to deal with. Don’t force my hand on this, Ross. Cut ties with her and this boy. And cut tiesnow.”
“Two years,” Ross whispered, deliberately straightening, his gaze never leaving his father’s.
“What?” Rusty snapped.
