“Are you thinking about rescuing her?”
Thinking about his sisters, he knew exactly what he needed to do. If it were one of them, he would take the next flight out to New York. Perhaps he should do the same for the mother of his child, even though he didn’t want her anywhere around Tommy in her current drugged-up state.
“She’s still Tommy’s mother, Dee.”
“What? After all she put you—”
“No, I meant to say, she’s still officially his mother. I don’t want her to bring her troubles on our doorstep. So I’m gonna fix that by giving her papers to sign away her rights. And then I’ll see if I can help her out of this mess.”
“If she’d let you. I’ve seen a lot of cases similar to this, Keen. Oh, man. That’s going to be something else. Let me go with you,” Declan said.
“I can’t ask that of you. You’d have to leave Bree alone with the twins for a few days.”
Declan urged, “At least take Don and Ro with you for back-up. You know who we’re dealing with. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“I don’t like this, Keen.”
He gave his sister a watery smile. “Me neither, Dee. But I can’t sit around and do nothing. I can’t let her rot in the hell she’s been living in. You know that’s not me.”
“What about Ryleigh? Where does she fit into all of this?” Deirdre said.
“I’m not taking her to see Evangeline, Dee.”
“Duh.” Deirdre rolled her eyes at him and he gave her a soft smile.
“I meant, where is she? I figured as your girlfriend she would be here, supporting you and Tommy.”
“We got into a stupid fight.”
Deirdre cocked her head and said, “About…?”
“I just found out that Derek had got to Evangeline and that they’d probably met at one of Ro’s fights. Derek was the one that got her hooked on drugs, so I may have blurted something about not wanting her to go to attend these underground fights.”
As he was retelling their fight, the shame of his earlier outburst crept over his cheeks. She’d accused him of taking out his anger on her, and it was a fair point for her to make. But he also still stood behind his wish to keep her away from that dangerous environment.
Couldn’t she fight in legal fights? In a regular competition? Why put yourself in danger by surrounding yourself with criminals and other lowlifes? She must have known he only was looking out for her.
“I guess Ry didn’t share your opinion?”
He nodded at his sister. “I just found out my ex cheated on me, had secretly been doing drugs, and left my son to start a new life with her drug dealer. I thought about how Ry surrounds herself by the same kind of people at her fights. And when I thought about Ry and Tommy… If something would happen to Ry… it would break whatever the fuck’s left of his heart.”
“I know. And I’m sorry. But you never answered my question. Where is she?”
“I tried to call her…”
“How many times?” Dee lifted her obstinate chin, knowing she would have him there.
After clearing his throat, he said, “A couple of times.”
“How did you leave things between you?” Declan asked.
“I kinda gave her the ultimatum that it was us or fighting.”
“Why…?” Deirdre drawled the world with as much condescending possible.
“Because I was having a mental breakdown, that’s why.”
Deirdre swallowed a gulp of beer and waited a beat before she said, “Did she share with you the reason she even started to fight?”