Page 40 of Taming Raptor

Thanks to my inability to breathe for a minute, I actually saw black dots. Needing to collect myself, I spun on my heel and sucked in a ragged, stuttering breath.

“Give me a few, then bring him back,” I instructed Phoenix, before I stormed to my office and jerked the drawer open. After a rummaging through all the crap I needed to go through, I pulled out the silver flask, removed the stopper, and took a few hearty swallows. My brain was absolute mush. There was no way—was there?

Gator entered my office. “Bro—”

I held up a hand. “I need a minute.”

He respectfully nodded and leaned back to rest on the wall. The entire time, he watched and waited.

“P, are you okay?” Phoenix asked, drawing my attention to where he leaned on my doorframe. It was still weird to hear myself called that. Every time someone said P or Prez, I looked for Venom. Hell, maybe I actually wished for him, because I sure as hell never wanted this. Except, it was better this than not being able to be a Royal Bastard at all.

“Yeah,” I replied before taking another swallow, then capping the flask and tossing it back in the drawer. “Bring him back.”

Phoenix nodded, then his boot steps echoed down the short hall. The clubhouse here on the outskirts of Dallas wasn’t as big as the one we’d had in Ankeny, but it still boasted quite a bit of land. At the moment it was overrun with fucking cedars, but we were slowly clearing them. On top of trying to find a few prospects. And get our reacquired businesses off the ground.

We were busy as fuck.

Now I had more shit to deal with.

“Raptor, I think you need to look at this before that boy comes back here.” Gator was obviously tired of waiting. I nodded and held out my hand. He placed the folded page in my hand, and I opened it. Memories assaulted me as the birth certificate in my hands became hard to read thanks to my shaking. Not that I needed to see the words—I recognized it. What I couldn’t believe was what it still said.

“Prez, you ready?” Phoenix asked. I lifted my gaze and nodded. For a moment Phoenix tried to gauge the truth in my nonverbal reply. Then he reached out into the hall and dragged the boy—Sam—into the room.

“Sit down,” I told Sam and the boy immediately complied, but he crossed his arms and stared up at me with anger and defiance.

“Not happy to see me, Dad?” Sam sneered. The pain was akin to a knife being shoved through my ribs and twisted in my heart.

“Sam, I’m not your father,” I finally told him, a chill skating through every cell of my body. The words were as much a dagger to the heart as they were when Falina had said them almost twelve years ago.

He frowned and appeared confused, but still tried to hang onto that attitude that he’d barged in with. “That’s bullshit. So, you’re telling me that’s a lie?”

“Yes.”

“You’re a liar!” he shouted as he shot out of the chair. “It’s not bad enough that you didn’t want us, but now you have to lie? Your name is right there!”

I palmed my face, using my thumb and middle finger to massage my temple. This shit was giving me a headache. “I wanted you more than you’ll ever know,” I whispered behind my hand, then dropped it to my side. I debated how much to tell him. He was seventeen, but he was still a child. One who had obviously already been lied to and hurt more than was remotely fair.

Fucking Falina.

“Does your mom know you’re here?” I asked him.

“My mom doesn’t give a shit about what I’m doing. She’s on a vacation with her husband down in Brazil. Then they’re going to wherever his new business venture is supposed to be. Supposedly they will be back sometime at the end of next week. But hell if I know when they’re coming back.”

“Where’s your brother?” I asked with a frown, asking myself why it mattered to me.

“At home with the nanny.” He huffed.

“Nanny? He’s….” I had to do the math. “Almost fifteen.”

“So?”

Exasperated at the level of hostility emanating from the lanky kid, I shook my head and heaved a sigh. “You believed I was your father, so you barged into my clubhouse. Did you come here to be belligerent, or did you have a purpose?”

“I didn’t really have a plan,” he reluctantly admitted. His jaw worked.

“Okay, how about why? After all these years, why did you choose now to seek me out?” I tried again.

He swallowed hard and glanced away.

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