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This is not a man to confide in. The last thing I need is to give someone dangerous any information they might use against me. Except I can’t straight think right now. And there’s literally nobody else for me to tell.

“Yes, sir. My…my girlfriend.”

“Your girlfriend?” His eyebrows lift.

For some reason, I’m losing feeling in my arms. “She… Our daughter…” I lick my lips, and it’s like licking sandpaper. “She gave birth to our daughter day before yesterday. Later, they came in to help us give the baby her first bath, but when Billie got up to get in the wheelchair, she collapsed. Out of nowhere. A blood clot, they said. Now I’ve got a baby upstairs who needs me, and I don’t know what I’m gonna do once they decide she’s ready to go home.”

Fuck. I bite down hard on my lips, trying to stop the way I’m running at the mouth. And the way they’re kind of…twitching.

The man crosses his arms over his chest, pulling the fabric tight around his biceps. He’s shorter than me, but Lord, I wouldn’t want to meet him in a dark alley. Probably not even a good thing meeting him here.

Except, he almost looks like he’s actually concerned. “Anywhere you can go? Any family that can help you out?”

Right now, I’m not sure where to look. The gun he’s wearing is practically in my face and it feels like an important thing not to stare at, but it’s a few inches from his crotch and looking at that definitely feels wrong.

Looking up at his face, though… Well, it’s a scary face. He’s almost pretty in a way, with full lips and that sandy blondish/brownish hair, but his blue eyes are cold, and the bridge of his nose is thick with a bump that makes me think it’s been broken.

Yeah. Should’ve kept my mouth shut. Too late now. My body’s all shaky and my filter’s switched to “off.”

“Can’t go back to the school dorms with a baby, and anyway I’m about to lose my basketball scholarship. I’ve been here at the hospital for the last few days. No family. Well…my daddy, I guess, but if you searched up ‘white trash’ online you’d get a picture of his bald head and his busted trailer.”

My daddy was a good guy once, but time’s changed us all. “Doesn’t matter anyway. He washed his hands of me when I got my girlfriend pregnant. Billie had some savings and a decent job lined up to get us started, but now that she’s gone I can’t ask her parents…”

“Not even for their grandchild?”

When it’s my fault she’s gone? “There’s no way I can put this on them. Her father had a heart attack yesterday. Billie’s medical bills are already piling up,” I babble. “God. It’s not f— She’s the tiniest, sweetest, most perfect thing you’ve ever seen, and her mama’s never even going to get to see her.”

I make a hasty swipe with the back of my hand, for all the good it does. My eyes keep leaking without my permission.

“So, what’s the plan?”

I’m shaking my head. “Wish I knew.”

“Hey. Look at me. How old are you? What’s your name?”

I’m afraid to answer. I’m afraid not to‌. “Dean. I’m, uh, nineteen. Sir.”

This guy may scare the crap out of me, but I know better than to disrespect my elders.

“Sounds like you’d do anything for that little girl upstairs.”

“Anything.” I feel like I’ve swallowed a rock. “Anything in the world.”

One hand slips into the pocket of his expensive-looking pants and pulls out a money clip. Given that the bill on the outside is a hundred, I already know it’s got more money than I’ve seen in one place.

“Maybe I can help.”

“Yeah? What’s that help gonna cost me?” I’m not the brightest star in the sky, but I know this isn’t a man whose help comes free.

He pulls all the cash out of the clip and drops it next to the sink where he washed his hands. “Got a thousand dollars in here,” he says. Then he pulls out a small rectangle of paper. “My business card. You come see me in the morning, I can get you work.”

“And? What’s the catch?” There has to be. There always is.

He puts a hand next to the money he laid down and hops onto the counter next to the sink, legs spread wide. “Stand up.”

Alarm bells ring in my head. Whatever he wants, you don’t plunk down that kind of money for a stranger. He’s probably fucking with me.

But in twenty-four to forty-eight hours my daughter is getting discharged. We have nowhere to go. If there’s any chance at all he’s willing to let me have that cash, I’ll do what he asks.