I whipped it open and strode out onto the sidewalk that fronted Ivy Threads. My boots thudded below me, like echoes shouting that I couldn’t escape any of this.
I heard the bell of the door jangle before I sensed the movement coming from behind.
“What’s up with you, man?” Theo shouted at my back.
I didn’t slow. I just gave a harsh shake of my head as I kept going. “Nothin’.”
Theo kept right behind me. “Don’t give me that shit. I’ve known you for a long fuckin’ time, and something is up.”
Fuck.
I fumbled to a standstill. A riot of emotions toiled through me. My worry over that little family, the fact that I would do anything for Daisy, but the truth that she was asking the wrong person.
I couldn’t be a…father.
Isn’t that what she was asking?
Anxiety and grief wound through my being as I stared over at Theo who waited for me to come clean.
“Found a trespasser on my property.” It was all I could force from my mouth.
Theo frowned, knowing it wasn’t all that uncommon with where I lived.
I covered my face with both hands like it could shield me from this reality. Then I dropped them and wheezed, “It’s Daisy.”
Theo reeled back, struck by the name.
It wasn’t like I was a guy who spilled his guts, but one night back when we rode with the Iron Owls MC, Theo and I had been on a run. We’d gotten shit-faced after, passing a bottle of whiskey back and forth, and I’d found myself confessing everything.
I should have kept my fuckin’ mouth shut, but I found I couldn’t do it then, either. “She’s in trouble, and she needs me to marry her to keep her kids safe. What the fuck am I going to do?”
Theo inclined his head closer, his voice dropping to a barb, “The fuck, man?”
My nod was vicious. “Turns out, her ex is a monster. Into some super shady shit that she uncovered. She turned him in, and the fucker got out on a technicality. She’s sure he’s been after her ever since. She took off and ended up here because I’m the only person she’s got.”
The only person she’s got.
It speared through the middle of me the second I said it.
“I should have fucking known.” I gasped around it.
I should have dug.
Should have watched from afar.
Should have known she needed me.
Still, I continued to purge the tension that boiled like a beast. “She wants to know her kids have someone to take care of them if something happens to her, so she’s begging me to do this thing for her. It’s so fucked, man, I can’t think straight.”
Didn’t know how it was possible, but the confession poured out like a sieve.
I couldn’t hold it in any longer.
Disbelief puffed from between Theo’s lips, and he raked a hand through his jet-black hair. “Can think of better ways to handle the situation.”
Violence dripped from his words.
He and I were on the exact same fucking page.
