Bodyguard's Secret Baby

by Vivian Ward

  “Have you seen the shit these assholes do to people? It’s not real fucking pretty; they like to chop off people’s heads and mount them for fun—and that’s on a good day. It ain’t happening, not on my watch. Come on, let’s get you a bag and get the fuck out of here.”

  She saw me reaching for her a mile away and tried to run. I grabbed her arm and tried pulling her in the opposite direction, but she was too resistant. She was a lot stronger than I had guessed.

  “Get away from me and don’t ever put your hands on me,” she snarled.

  “Julie, come on. You’re being ridiculous. You can’t stay here, and I’m not taking no for an answer,” I went for her again.

  A decorative vase that her mom kept in the doorway between the living room and kitchen came hurling at me. I stepped to the side just in time, allowing it to nearly miss me before it shattered into a million pieces on the floor; but the sound was so heightened that I needed a minute to process what it was.

  It wasn’t just broken glass exploding around me. There was a noise coming from upstairs.

  Something shrieking. A baby. Crying.

  “What the hell? Do you have a kid in here?”

  Her narrowed, angry eyes had vanished in a single breath before they went huge, like giant saucers and she froze in place.

  I started walking toward the staircase as she started stuttering and tripping over her words.

  “Damon, no…wait, you can’t go up there.”

  The baby’s crying was growing louder by the second.

  Who the hell does she think she is? Telling me I can’t go up there.

  I wanted to see what the hell she was hiding. Why would she be hiding a kid upstairs? I bound up the steps, taking them two at a time until I was at the top of them and headed toward the sound coming from the room on the left.

  She tried to come after me to stop me, but she couldn’t catch up in time. She was screaming and yelling at me to stop, but I didn’t listen. I was trying to figure out what had her so upset, why she didn’t want me to come up the stairs, and nothing was going to stop me. I couldn’t imagine what her problem would be.

  Actually, I did as soon as I laid eyes on him, but I had to be crazy, right? There was no fucking way. Life wouldn’t be so cruel to me that she would hide something like that from me…would it?

  I ripped open the wood door and saw a crib in the center of the room with a blue baby blanket hanging over the edge of it. Stepping inside the room, the cry grew louder and then I saw the most familiar face I had ever seen.

  Looking at him was like staring at one of the few baby photos that I had of myself. I was staring at myself more than two decades ago.

  My heart stopped and left my body; it was on a completely different planet. I put my hand back on my chest to see if I was still alive as I walked up to my son to meet him up close.

  Julie stood behind me, hyperventilating through her tears, scared shitless. And yeah, she should have been.

  As soon as I laid eyes on my boy, my flesh and blood, I had already decided what to do with Julie’s ass, but first, I had to take care of something.

  Chapter 7

  Julie

  I thought I was going to die after I forced myself up the stairs and saw Damon standing over Bentley’s crib. I didn’t know if the shock was going to kill me, or if Damon was, but I was standing on a different plane than I was a few minutes ago.

  The thing was, I could handle running the car lot while tending to Bentley, I could handle the shit going on that was buried on the property, and I could handle being a single mom, but the thing I couldn’t handle?

  His huge massive frame towering over his tiny son as they stared into mirror images of each other, trying to figure out who the other was.

  My mind struggled to grasp the reality of everything that was going on, but how could I even start to understand it?

  He knew.

  Damon knew. He knew my best-kept secret, and it only took him seconds to destroy and uncover the truth that I had fought so hard to hide. All thanks to the shattering glass and my baby being startled awake from his peaceful nap.

  How ironic that my secret was ruined by other secrets. The secret of the buried shit on the property, the secret of the son that we shared and the secret kiss that I stole with Lee, his partner. For the love of God, his partner. Who the hell was I? What was I becoming?

  I knew from the get-go that it was all a mistake. I should never have gotten close to Lee like that; it was too risky. Not only could it fuck things up with Damon—for both Lee and me— it could, and did, uncover my biggest secret ever. All twenty-two pounds of it sat up in his crib and cried, waiting to be picked up.

  “The fuck?” he ran his hand through his hair.

  He didn’t sound pissed off…he sounded stunned. For a minute, he looked as though he had just won the lottery as he stood beside Bentley in his wooden crib. I felt numb—emotionally and physically—when he reached into his crib and swooped Bentley up into his arms. He was picking up my son; our son.

  “I can’t fucking believe it. You’re my kid. My son,” he repeated with his back to me as he held Bentley close to his chest. “I’m your dad.”

  If the knot in my throat got any bigger, I swore it was going to suffocate me. Hot tears welled up in my eyes as I watched the biggest badass in all of St. Louis break into pieces as he held his son.

  It felt like a dull fishing knife gutting my insides as I realized I’d robbed him of the opportunity of being a father for more than a year.

  Inching toward him, I tried to form words, but my mouth was as dry as the desert. I wanted to reach out and touch him; touch Bentley, but I couldn’t get over the awe of seeing the two of them together.

  Normally, Bentley was cranky and crying when he woke up from his naps but not now. He was content being wrapped in his daddy’s arms. Mesmerized, I stared in disbelief as he cooed and rested his head on Damon’s solid, massive chest.

  “Damon,” I said, breaking the silence in the room. “Put him down. We can go downstairs and talk about this. Please, and I can explain—”

  “Explain what?” a throaty growl escaped his lips as his gunmetal blue eyes darted toward me.

  Oh shit.

  Not only could I hear the anger in his voice as it boomed at me, but the tightened expression on his face was more than I wanted to see. Slowly, he turned toward me, cradling Bentley tighter against his chest. I opened my mouth to speak, but he wouldn’t allow me to utter another word.

  “I don’t want to hear any bullshit that you’re about to spew. You lost the right to tell me a damned thing when you decided to keep my son a secret from me.”

  The look of disgust and hatred on his face left me speechless. The hot tears that had welled up in my eyes went spilling down my cheeks, but it didn’t help my cause because Damon had already made up his mind that he hated me.

  I couldn’t even look him in the eye. Suddenly, I wondered where those terrorists were. Maybe they could carry me off and put my head on a stick so it’d save Damon the trouble of doing it himself.

  “Please,” my voice cracked as I tried to keep my composure. “Whatever it is that you want to say to me, just put Bentley down. I don’t want to see him upset.”

  He snorted at me. “Bentley?” He looked down at Bentley’s big button eyes. “So your name’s Bentley, huh?”

  It was cute watching him say Bentley’s name to him and seeing him stare up at his dad—until he turned his attention back to me.

  “You think I’d upset him? I’d never do anything to upset my son. In fact, I’d say we’re going to set things straight right now.” His lips curled up into a knowing smile, “I’d say it calls for a celebration of sorts.”

  Shit.

  With the way his eyes were fixated on me, I’d be lucky to hope that the terrorists would carry me off and behead me because the way he was looking at me, there was no telling what he’d do to me.

  My heart had skipped two or three hundred beats befo
re I gasped for air. Yeah, I was so scared that I had forgotten to breathe.

  “I’m so sorry,” I pleaded with him. “So fucking sorry. Please, you’ve got to believe me. It’s not like I had any of this planned out. I didn’t know if or when you would ever come back.”

  “Shut up!”

  I swallowed. Hard. He stepped forward, stroking Bentley’s hair. His soft, fatherly touch contrasted wickedly against his death stare, the one that said he was ready to kill me.

  I didn’t make another attempt to speak; I knew better. Then he headed out of the bedroom, but I was too scared to move and follow him.

  Oh my God. Bentley! What is he doing with Bentley?

  I never thought in a million years that he’d hurt the baby, especially after he had just adored him the way he did but crashing sounds started coming from my bedroom and scared the shit out of me. Suddenly, I went running from Bentley’s room and followed the booming noises.

  “Damon! What the hell are you doing in here?”

  I couldn’t believe my eyes as he ripped open my closet like it was a bag of chips and tore my clothes off the hangers, throwing everything into a pile. All I could do was imagine him having a big bonfire out of my clothes. After all, hiding his kid from him for more than a year might just flip his crazy switch.

  “Stop!” I yelled at him, getting into his face. He pushed me out of his way as if I were weightless, completely ignoring me. “You can’t do this, Damon! Just give me the baby back and we can talk!” He continued to act like I didn’t exist and the cold stare in his piercing blue eyes scared the hell out of me. “What are you going to do with us?”

  “He’s coming with me, and so are you,” he pushed Bentley back into my arms as he continued ransacking my room.

  Holding Bentley in my arms was such a relief. As angry as Damon was, I was terrified that he was going to take my son away from me and never let me see him again. Feeling like it might be the very last time I’d ever get to hold him and feel his soft skin against mine, I knew I had to leave. I had to try to get out while I still could.

  As I eyed the door, Damon must have known exactly what was going through my mind. His big boot kicked the door shut, and he stood in front of it, dominating the doorway. He was waiting for me to fuck up, to do something that would give him another chance to take Bentley away from me.

  “Don’t try any dumb shit and I’ll let you keep holding him.” His eyes were fixated on Bentley. “Here’s what’s going to happen: you’re going to pack all that shit into a bag, and I don’t care if you have to stuff it into suitcases, duffel bags or trash bags. Get your shit together as fast as you can. Now.”

  I swallowed, weighing my options as I projected every ounce of rage that I had onto him. He didn’t care. His eyes shifted toward the pile of clothes he’d thrown out of my closet, nodding for me to get moving.

  Fuck him, fuck me, and fuck everything. I hated the universe at that second. Why did it have to bring him back here? Why did everything have to happen the way it did?

  I sighed as I laid Bentley on the bed next to the clothes and wiped my wet, swollen eyes as I pushed the clothes inside of an oversized duffel bag that I had. A tear rolled off my cheek and onto the floral bedspread, the one my mom bought me not long after I had Bentley, and it reminded me of everything I was leaving behind. I was leaving our home, our things, everything my entire family had ever worked for.

  But I knew if I resisted—even just a little bit—he would take Bentley away from me and never let me see him again. And I also knew by the look in his eyes that he had zero tolerance for me to test him. He’d already had his mind made up before he found Bentley that my family and I couldn’t stay here, but now that he knew about Bentley?

  Packing in silence, I tried not to look at Bentley, the bedspread my mom bought me or anything else that would bring me to tears. An hour ago my life was so different, so simple. Now? It was hell on wheels, and I had no idea where we were headed.

  “Hurry the hell up! I want to be out of here by dark in case they come back.”

  Why? So you can shoot me execution style instead of the bastards lurking around on our property?

  I honestly wouldn’t put anything past him at this point. He’d already taken off for almost two years at the drop of a dime, came back and had taken over our land, the house, our lives and my family.

  And when he found out that I’d kept his son from him, I saw that wounded look in his eyes. The same wounded look a wolf gets when it loses an important member of the pack.

  But on the other hand, dead women didn’t need clothes, and since I was packing the ones he’d thrown out of my closet, I still had a shred of hope. By the time I had shoved the last of my clothes in the bag and looked up at him, he still had the same hateful stare on his face. The one that said he hated me and I’d fucked up bad.

  “What are you waiting for?” he roared. “I said let’s go. Grab the kid and come on.”

  He pushed the door open, holding it with one arm, allowing Bentley and me to pass through the doorway.

  “Before we go, promise me one thing,” I gulped. “Promise me that you won’t take away my baby, and that you won’t kill me; that you won’t put my body out in the woods over one of those bombs and make it look like an ‘accident.'”

  His face had twisted before he bellowed out a low, throaty laughter.

  “Everyone in this room is coming with me alive, and that includes you. I’m not the monster that you think I am, and we’re going to work through our issues. I’ve ignored this shit for way too long, and I should’ve handled things differently. If you had told me that you were pregnant and that we’d be parents, things would have been much different.”

  “Damon,” I lowered my voice, allowing myself to sound submissive in an attempt to show him that he was in charge. “I didn’t find out I was pregnant until after you left.” I was afraid to ask the next part, but I forced myself; I had to know the answer. “And what are you saying? Work through things?”

  He backed me against the wall in the hallway, slow and deliberately.

  “I’m saying you’ve got another chance—only one. We’ve got history, and you’ve kept my son safe. I’m not blind. You might have been the biggest bitch to me, but that’s not a death sentence—at least not yet,” he leaned down, putting his mouth next to my ear and lowered his voice. “Cross me one more time, though. I dare you.”

  His hot, sultry lips brushed the tip of my ear, and I trembled.

  “We’re going to be one big, happy family—or I’ll do this all on my own,” he glared at me. “You’ll learn how to smile and be a good housewife, running around barefoot and pregnant.” He paused, “Oh, and I hope you packed something to make my dick pulsate on our honeymoon.”

  Housewife? Barefoot and pregnant? Honeymoon?

  The whirlwind effect that his words had on me sent me quivering down the wall, where I sat as he pulled out his cell phone and called Lee, of all people.

  Twenty minutes later, Lee pulled up in Damon’s jeep to pick all of us up.

  Damon’s nostrils flared as his eyes burned through Lee before his face curled in disgust and he nodded at him.

  “This ain’t over, and I’ll deal with you later, but right now we’ve got to get them out of here.”

  Lee nodded back as though his life depended on understanding Damon and he pretended I didn’t exist. I didn’t blame him for being terrified; hell, I was because Damon had a temper and a mind of his own. He turned his attention back to me for a minute.

  “You and the kid will ride in the back,” he said lifting Bentley’s car seat off the ground and strapping it into the backseat. “I’ll check us into the hotel where Lee and I were staying until we figure out something better. I’ll call your parents when we get there to let them know that it’s not safe to go back home.”

  “I don’t want to stay where your girlfriend hangs around,” I spat at him.

  The last thing I wanted to see was that tramp parading around the
hotel.

  “You don’t have a right to say anything, babe. She was never my girlfriend, and you’ll stay where ever I take you.”

  “There’s got to be another option. How about The Frampton? We can stay there,” I suggested.

  “At this point,” he glared at me in the rearview mirror, “you’re lucky that you’re sitting in the backseat with my son.”

  I didn’t think he was ever going to take his eyes off of me as a cold shiver ran down my spine. I sat in silence until we got back to the hotel, not daring to provoke his anger any further.

  I didn’t have a clue what was about to happen next, but I was pretty sure the worst chapter of my life was about to start, and it wasn’t going to be an easy one.

  Damon and Lee carried mine and Bentley’s bags into the hotel, checking us into an ‘extended stay.' I didn’t like the sounds of it, but I wasn’t exactly in the place to say anything.

  Not after the way I’d hid his son from him and betrayed him; he was liable to do a whole lot more than just check me in for an extended stay. My fear? He’d put my body out on the property somewhere and say the terrorists had done it because I stuck my nose where it didn’t belong.

  It would fit and make perfect sense, and it didn’t help that he was smart and savvy enough to pull it all off.

  He could take Bentley and be gone in a flash while my parents searched for my body. I tightened my hold on Bentley, gripping him a little tighter as the woman behind the desk handed him key cards for the room.

  I thought about trying to run, but I wouldn’t get very far very fast while carrying Bentley. Before I could make up my mind about what I wanted to do, he picked up Bentley’s diaper bag and nodded his head.

  “Come on; it’s time to go.”

  Glancing over at Lee, he refused to make eye contact with me. I quickly noted that just looking at his friend pissed Damon off. His jaw tightened as he gripped the bag tighter, making his knuckles turn white. Scurrying to his side, we walked to the room where he tossed the bag onto one of the full-size beds.