Page 70 of Enforcing the Rules

“Utah. Baby, what is it?”

“That little girl down there?” I turned to watch her again. “She’s my daughter.”

“You have a daughter?”

I nodded. “I had a one-night stand with her mother six years ago. Just some woman I met in a bar. We meant nothing to each other. She was married and having problems. It was a moment of weakness for her. Correction, I was a moment of weakness for her. She had two kids at home. Guess things had gotten to her, and she’d needed a drink. One thing led to another. It was never supposed to lead to anything.

“Anyway. The condom broke. That had never happened to me before. She went home, and we never saw each other again. Until one day, eight months later, I saw her again walking into a shop on main street. She was obviously pregnant. I pulled over and followed her into the baby store. She froze when she turned around and saw me. I took in her belly and asked if it was mine.

“She tried to brush it off, but I threatened to force a paternity test. She confessed to me that yes, it was mine. She and her husband hadn’t been intimate in months. After that night with me, it made her realize all that she had at home, all that she’d risked for one crazy night with some stranger. She’d gone home and repaired her relationship with her husband. She insisted they were happy now, and she begged me not to tear her family apart.

“I suppose at the time I wasn’t ready to take on a child, or a woman I wasn’t in love with and her other two kids. So, I went along with her. I promised to stay away. In exchange, she promised to send me pictures.

“Was it the right thing to do? I still don’t know.” I stared down at my daughter.

“What’s her name?”

“Mia.”

Kate squeezed my leg.

I gave a heavy sigh. “I just hope she’s a happy little girl.”

“She looks like she is,” Kate whispered.

“So, now you know. It’s a pain I carry with me every day. I’ve never told a soul.”

“Thank you for telling me.” She stared out the window for a long minute, then sucked in a breath. “Chloe is my sister. She had a loser boyfriend named Wes who was into drugs. Much more than Chloe ever was. Anyway, he got in over his head owing a drug dealer named Ruiz for a bunch of heroin. He split town, leaving my sister high and dry at some rundown motel on the outskirts of town. Ruiz came looking for his money and found Chloe.

“Now he wants Chloe to come up with the money. He came after me. I gave him a thousand dollars—that only bought me to the end of the month. Now he wants another thousand. He’s the one who broke into my apartment.”

“The guy I saw you with outside your mother’s café, and again at the Chinese restaurant, right?”

“Yes.”

I shifted the truck into gear and drove us down the hill and to the clubhouse. Neither of us spoke, too deep in thought.

Although I didn’t have all the answers, I knew one thing for certain.

Ruiz was a dead man.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Kate—

Utah led me to his room. We still hadn’t said a word.

He kissed me on the forehead, then stared into my eyes.

“I’ll deal with that asshole. I don’t want you to worry about it another second, understand?”

“But it’s not your problem.”

“Am I your man?”

I stared at him.

“Am I, Kate? Yes or no?”

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