I was about to snap back when I saw Tarin at the top of the stairs. She was staring at us in horror. She looked pale and so sad. “Tarin, we need to talk,” I told her. I tried to get past Bear, but he was blocking the whole doorway.
She shook her head. “No, I think you made yourself clear. You think I'm like my mom and you didn’t want this baby to begin with. I’m sorry. I didn’t think to use something else. I never intended to get pregnant. If you want to have anything to do with it later, we can make arrangements for visitation. I think it’s best if we don’t see each other again. Dad is going to get my stuff and we’re going to leave in the morning. Goodbye, Outlaw. I’m so sorry…” she broke off sobbing and then she ran back down the hall.
I shoved into Bear. He grabbed me and tried to put me in a headlock. I punched him in the kidney. As we grappled, it was Ilara’s voice that got through to us. “Stop it, or so help me, I'll brain both of you! You’re acting like hotheaded boys. Bear, let him in the door. Outlaw, you stay right here and listen to me.”
We slowly let go of each other. I faced Ilara. “I need to talk to her, Ilara. She’s wrong. I do want this baby. I love her. I know I said some mean shit to her, but I was upset. I thought she was going to abort the baby. She lied to me about being pregnant.”
“Yes, she did, and she knows she shouldn’t have, but she kind of panicked. Sit down.” She pointed to the couch. I reluctantly sat. “Tell me what you thought when she said she went to get a pregnancy test.”
“I was stunned. I didn’t know what to think. I wasn’t expecting it, but I was excited. I didn’t want to get my hopes up, so I tried not to show it.”
“Well, you did such a good job of not showing it, that she thinks you don’t want a baby at all. She panicked when she thought that you didn’t want a baby and the test was positive. She was trying to decide what to do. Tell you and hope you’d learn to be okay with it or to tell you and leave when you said you didn’t want it. She wasn’t about to have a baby raised in a house where their dad would be angry or hateful toward him or his mom.”
I groaned as I lay back against the couch. “Shit! Is that why she did it? Fuck, of course I want kids with her. I didn’t think it would be this soon. Goddamn it, I need to talk to her.” I stood up. I was going to go see her even if I had to put Bear on his ass to do it. He stood up and faced me. Before we could get into another tussle, Tarin came tearing into the room. She was paler than earlier and she was shaking as she held up her phone. I shoved past Bear and went to her.
As I wrapped my arms around her, she sagged into them and broke down crying. I picked her up and took her over to the couch, where I sat down with her on my lap. I kissed her cheek since I couldn’t reach her lips. “Shh, baby, don’t cry. Everything will be okay. I’m sorry I caused this. We’ll figure it out.”
She shook her head no. “It’s not that. It’s this.” She held up her phone. I took it and looked at it. There was a text message, and it was from a number I didn’t recognize. It was another picture of her with Mercer. The message read, Daddy’s little girl, so sweet. Only you weren’t his little girl, were you? I know about your real dad. You don’t deserve all that money Merrill left that bitch. If you don't pay me ten million dollars, this and many more go out on the internet. I know there’s a lot of people who’d love to add these to their collections.
I handed the phone to Bear. “Tarin, we won’t let that happen. He’s desperate. I don’t know why, but I’ll find out. In the meantime, he hasn’t said when and where he wants you to give him the money. I think that’s because he wants to toy with you more. He’s obviously getting some sick pleasure out of this. I know you said you didn’t know of anyone he was close to but think.”
“I told you, he was mostly with his work associates and a few buddies from his country club. He had a lot of people he called friends, but none that I saw who were super close. But I wasn’t with him a lot either. It could have been any of them. Oh my God, if he puts these out there, I'll never be able to show my face again. You know he won’t make them anonymous. He'll identify it’s me.”
“Baby, if he does that, it’ll be on those sick sites that pedophiles go to. You’d have nothing to be ashamed of. Those sick bastards do. Do you think they’ll go around showing it to normal people? Hell no. Bear, will you call Smoke for me and ask him if he can start a trace on this number and tell him I’ll be in contact with him in the morning? Right now, I have something more important to take care of.”
Tarin sat up and looked at me shocked. “More important, like what?”
“Like an overdue conversation with my woman about the baby we’re going to have. Come on. I’m taking you home.” I stood up with her in my arms.
“Hang on, Outlaw. Honey, do you wanna go with him or stay here?” Bear asked her.
I was about to growl at him when Ilara stepped in. “Bear, let them go. They need to talk about this without you or I hanging outside the door. If she needs us, she can call us. We’ll come check on her in the morning.”
He sputtered, but he didn’t get in the way. Tarin didn’t protest, so I took that as a yes. I walked out the door, after telling them goodnight. As we started for our place, she wiggled. “Put me down. I can walk, even with this boot on.”
“Nope, you can’t. It’s dark and you might fall. I’m not letting you hurt yourself or the baby. I’m so damn sorry I didn’t give you a chance to talk earlier. I jumped the gun. I was pissed.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth.” I carried her into the house and up to our room where I sat her on the bed. I kneeled to take off her shoe and her walking boot. She continued, “You didn’t react the way I expected at the drugstore. You didn’t look happy at the thought I might be pregnant. It got me thinking that maybe you weren’t ready to be a father or maybe you didn’t want kids at all even though you mentioned them. When you went straight to your meeting, I couldn’t wait. I had to know. Then I saw the results, and I panicked. I didn’t know what to do. Should I tell you and hope you did want the baby or should I leave and raise it alone? I would have told you about the baby, just after I’d left. I didn’t want you to ask me to stay out of guilt. However, I never once thought of aborting or giving up my baby! That stupid heading on the list was just a what are three options that a woman would have in this situation. Not what this woman would do. Does that make sense?”
I tugged off my boots and socks then got on the bed with her. I cradled her close to me. “It does, in a weird way. It was a kick in the gut when I saw the test strip then found the paper. I couldn’t believe you’d do something like that. I didn’t understand why you lied to me.”
“I’m sorry. The thought of you staying with me out of obligation killed me. When you said what you did and stormed off, I knew it was over. So, I called Ilara. She came over to talk to me and convinced me I needed to talk to Dad. She kept telling me she thought I was wrong about you not wanting a baby. Dad didn’t know for sure. He saw your reaction in town then you told him something else. He told me we could leave for a while and I could decide what I wanted to do. He’d support my decision.”
I groaned. “Jesus, we sure screwed this up. We need to communicate better, baby. Stop thinking we know what the other person wants or is thinking and just ask. I’m sorry I said you’re like your mom. You’re not anything like her. I said it to be hurtful. As for the baby, I didn’t want to get my hopes up in case you weren’t pregnant. We haven’t talked about it, but I do want kids.”
“But isn’t it too soon? Look at the mess I have and we’ve only been together for a short while.”
“No, this is par for the course when it comes to Warriors. I should have expected this. You not being pregnant right away would have been abnormal. Your dad getting Ilara pregnant like he did wasn’t abnormal either. I think all of us have in both chapters gotten our ladies pregnant within a few months of being together.”
“Jesus, doesn’t anyone know what birth control is?”
I laughed. “Like us? In some cases, they didn’t care, in others, things happened like with you. Or in your Dad’s case, he didn’t think he could have kids. Whatever the reason, it happens and not a single one has ever regretted it. I love you, Tarin. I’ll love any kids we have together, but we’ll raise them together. I shouldn’t have said I’d lock you up and then keep the baby either. I might have locked you up, but only until I convinced you to stay with me.”
Her face went soft, and she smiled. I couldn't resist, I had to kiss her. I took control of her mouth. Our tongues dueled as our teeth nipped. When we stopped, we were both a little breathless, and I was sporting a hard-on from hell. However, I needed to get this all fixed before I took her to bed and made love to her.
“No more holding back or not asking questions, from either of us.” She nodded. “Okay, so first thing in the morning, I’ll call to get you an appointment with Dr. Foreman. He’s who the ladies around here see when they’re pregnant. We need to get you in to see him. Once that’s done, I’ll get to work on the pictures, the phone number, and the note.”
“Damian, the doctor won’t be in his office tomorrow. It’s Sunday. I can work on that on Monday. You just worry about finding who is doing this. I can’t think about relaxing until he or she is out of the picture and those photos are destroyed.”
“Baby, I’ll do my absolute best to destroy every single one of those photos, but there is no guarantee we’ll find them all. He could have shared them with others or put them up on a site, though I think that’s less likely. He’d have been recognized if he did that. However, I promise you, we will find whoever is doing this and make sure they’re never a threat again.”
“I hate the idea of any of these out there, but I understand. I just don’t want this person hanging over our shoulder. What if they find out about the baby? A sicko like that might want our baby!” she exclaimed.
I shushed her. “Shh, that won’t happen, Tarin. I have countless guys at our backs who will make sure that never happens. Now, why don’t we take a nice long shower and then you let me make love to my woman. I need to show you how much I love you and this baby.”
She gave me a tender kiss then nodded. “I’m ready when you are.” I didn’t waste time getting her into the bathroom and undressed.