“I want to see those papers for myself,” I told him.
“Laina, this isn’t something you should get involved in. Let me handle this.” Just based on the way he said it, I could tell there would be no arguing with him about it, no persuading him to see my point of view. He wanted to handle this in his own way; it was a feeling I understood completely, and yet he was so blind he didn’t realize this whole thing still involved me.
Anything with Tessa involved me.
I didn’t trust that woman. I didn’t trust her one bit.
My mind was scheming when I told him, “Okay.” I turned around to leave him be—had to talk to Kieran about this and see what he thought—but my dad called out to me.
“Wait a second.”
I froze right when I reached Mike’s side.
“Did you say you two are dating?”
Slowly, I turned around and met my dad’s eyes from across the room. “Yeah, I did.”
“Does that mean you’re not seeing Fang?”
I forced out a smile. “No, Dad, I’m still seeing Fang. I’m dating both Fang and Mike.” He opened his mouth to say something that clearly wouldn’t be laced with approval, so Ihurriedly added, “It’smydating life. Let me handle my own dating life, okay?” Throwing his words back at him might’ve been a bitchy move, but hey, if I couldn’t say anything to him about Tessa, he wasn’t allowed to say anything about me dating more than one guy.
I didn’t give him a chance to speak. I spun around and marched right out of the house, following Tessa’s lead minutes ago. I stepped out into the midday air and breathed deeply. My dad kind of pissed me off, and Tessa? Obviously, she was right up there with him. Knowing she was in the city somewhere, having a laugh at my expense, pissed me off.
Mike exited the house behind me, and I headed to his car and said, “Let’s go.” I got in the passenger’s seat, fuming.
As he got in, he glanced at me. “Where do you want to go?”
“Fang’s.” I pulled out my phone and called Kieran after I messaged Fang that we needed to meet at his place. “We need to have a group meeting.” Once I talked to my guys, I’d call Lola and see if she could help any. I bet it was her people—or Sylvester’s—that found out Tessa was around to begin with, since Kieran worked for them.
Kieran answered immediately: “Laina. I haven’t figured out what she’s doing yet—”
“I have. I went over to tell my dad and she was there. Guess what? You’re going to be an uncle. Again.”
His voice came out stilted, “Uh… what? What did you, uh, just say? It sounded like you said I’m going to be an uncle, which means Tessa’s pregnant, but I had to have heard you wrong.” He paused. “Please tell me I heard you wrong. Pretty please with sugar on top.”
“Unfortunately, no, you heard me right. Tessa’s pregnant. Can you come over to Fang’s? Mike and I are headed there now.”
“Yeah, give me an hour, and I’ll be there with bells on.”
Even though I didn’t particularly feel like laughing, I still chuckled. “What does that even mean? Why would you wear bells?”
He was unhurried in saying, “You know, it’s… never mind. I’ll see you guys there.”
After ending the call, I set my phone on my lap and tried to calm myself down. My mind was still racing with the news and how it indeed changed everything. All the methods we would have normally used to back up our threats—see: violence—were now off the table.
Mike broke the silence of the car, quite out of the ordinary for him. “So your dad knows about us now.”
“What?” I momentarily forgot I spilled the beans about me and Mike, mostly because Tessa being pregnant was that crazy to me. “Yeah, I guess he does.” I toyed with my phone on my lap and gazed out of the window. “I really should’ve told him earlier, but…”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I don’t know.” That was the easiest answer: I didn’t know. It was the easiest and the most truthful. It wasn’t like I was ashamed of Mike or being in a relationship with more than one guy at a time. I didn’t give a shit about my dad thinking about me differently. Maybe I just wanted to keep it between us, between me, Mike, Fang, and Kieran, because as soon as it became public, it was real, and then it could be taken away.
Tessa could hurt them, and she’d be untouchable. She could take them away from me, and my dad would probably still be on her side. It was like I was nervous to admit to the world that I, for the first time ever, was truly, utterly happy. How sad was that?
Oh, yeah. Kelly knew, but she didn’t count.
We didn’t say anything else during the drive to Fang’s. The drive itself passed by in a blur. I spaced out, my anxieties and nerves getting the best of me, as I had the feeling they woulduntil this shit with Tessa and her baby was done… if it’d ever truly be done, that was. It might not be.
