Page 56 of Secret Baby Daddies
“Who’s first and what are we doing? Also, Dominic said to mention your girl’s car is still in the lot. Said he’d scrap it if he thought his girl would be driving it for a second.”
I sat down and opened my shirt, revealing the bunny Harley drew. “And therein lies the reason Dominic doesn’t have a girl. Some things can’t be controlled.”
He was silent as he studied the bunny but his eyebrows rose. He probably believed the same thing as Dominic. I had until Harley.
I cleared my throat.
“She loves the fucking car, apparently. If it’s as bad as it seems, I’ll fucking bronze the thing before I let her drive it but scrapping it is not an option.”
Nothing else needed to be said. He was fast and our tattoos were simple. Seeing his lack of judgment over the tattoos, he’d seen and done stranger. The whole thing was over in under an hour and then the house was our own again. I was in a rush toget back to my room but there was one more thing I needed to tell them before I did.
“Harvey was eager to meet with us so we have a meeting at nine tomorrow.” I clenched my jaw as anger flushed through my body. “It’s time to get some answers and cut ties.”
Harley wasn’t in my bedroom or her own when I got upstairs. Before I let myself panic I went back downstairs and to the pantry. Sure enough, there was our girl, passed out on her stomach in a pile of food wrappers. My chest ached for her. The way she snuck away to eat in private worried me. I’d seen kids do it in the system after going hungry for a while. It all fueled my need to sort out the shit with her father.
I scooped her up off the floor and carried her like I’d carry a toddler up the stairs. One hand under her ass to support her and the other arm across her back. She groaned and nuzzled her face into the crook of my neck, damn near tripping me up as I climbed the stairs.
“Let’s get you back to bed, baby.”
Maddox met me at the top of the stairs and frowned.
“Pantry again?”
I nodded.
“Tomorrow. We’ll figure something out tomorrow. I just need to get her in bed right now. She needs rest.”
He hesitated and I could tell by the strain around his eyes and his clenched fist that he couldn’t ask for what he wanted. We were in uncharted territory when it came to Harley. Sex was easy. We shared at times. At times, we didn’t. She was asleep, though, but he wanted to be close to her anyway. Just like I did.
I nodded towards my room.
“Coming?”
His shoulders relaxed and he looked five years younger. Only once we were in bed, surrounding Harley’s sleeping figure did he speak again.
“Thank you.”
Morning came too fucking fast with a rude awakening from Bubbles licking my forehead. I groaned and tried to gently push him away but he stepped on my throat and nearly took out my eye with one of his back claws.
“Come on, man, I don’t want your shitty paws in my eyes. I know what you do in your litter box.”
Giggling distracted me from the choking sensation and I opened the eye that wasn’t in danger to see Harley watching with a wide grin on her face. My body reacted to her closeness automatically and I tried to reach for her but Bubbles slapped my hand and leapt on the bed between us. He curled his body against Harley and stared back at me, his bald little head tilted in what looked a hell of a lot like a dare.
Harley giggled again and petted him. His ladybug outfit didn’t seem to scare her like the alien one had. “I’ve always wanted a cat. My step-mom always claimed to be allergic so it wasn’t allowed. At one of the boarding schools I went to there was a cat. It was a giant thing with the worst shedding. I rubbed my sweater all over him and wore it home to dinner with her. Not a single sniffle.”
“That bitch.” I was deadly serious but Harley laughed like I was joking.
“That was just my first murder attempt.” She blushed and bit her lip. “Clara, the housekeeper, found me pouring dish soap into Vic’s smoothie one morning. I could tell she was tempted to let it happen but she protected me. She dropped the smoothie so when Vic came into the kitchen for it she found Clara on her knees, cleaning up an oddly bubbly smoothie.”
I brushed her hair out of her face and appreciated the way the morning sun coming in from behind me made her hair shine like there were strands of gold weaved in.
“I didn’t realize we were with such a criminal.”
“When I was six I tried to hire the gardener to take her far, far away. Far enough that she wouldn’t be able to find her way back.” She closed her eyes and her face grew tense. “Clara wasn’t there to protect me that time. Vic punished me by making me watch her destroy every stuffed animal my mom had ever given me.”
Maddox lifted his head, letting us both know he was awake. His face was a hard mask of anger.
“Say the word and I’ll make her disappear, sweetheart.”
