Bodyguard's Secret Baby

by Vivian Ward

  “You stay here with her—OUTSIDE of the room,” he commanded Lee. “I’m going back to the car lot and house to lock things up, and hopefully, tell her parents that they can’t stay there. If anything happens to her or the kid, it’s your balls on a fucking platter sent back to Asia so your mom knows she has a daughter now.”

  Speechless and pale as a ghost, Lee’s Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat before he nodded and headed outside of the room.

  “Don’t try any shit while I’m gone,” he said as I peeked around the doorway and saw Lee’s arm. “I’ll be back soon, but I have to make sure your parents don’t go back there.”

  After he had shut the door, I sat on the bed, holding Bentley in my arms as he slept. He looked so peaceful as a small puddle of drool escaped his mouth. I’ve always said this baby drools more than a Saint Bernard.

  “If her or the kid needs anything, you call me. Got it?” I heard him saying to Lee out in the hall once the door was closed. His voice was muffled, so I had to listen closely.

  “We still aren’t cool, but until this shit’s over and we find Bethany, I’ll never speak to you again, and I’ll see to it that Mr. Turner fires your ass for the shit you pulled!”

  Damn. His voice sounded as cold as frozen steel, and I knew he meant every word he said. I leaned back on the bed, stroking my baby’s head as he stirred in my lap; mostly for my comfort.

  Staring at the peeling, discolored wallpaper of the hotel room, I realized that he’d need to be fed soon. I hadn’t grabbed any of his snack foods or favorites from the kitchen cupboard before he rushed us out of the house.

  Soon after, I had fallen asleep, but I was awakened by talking and banging that filled the room. When I opened my eyes, I saw my mom and dad with Damon standing behind them, sitting down the last of their bags. Apparently, he’d convinced them to stay here too; I just hoped it was on nicer terms than the ones he laid out for me.

  “I’ll leave you all here to sleep for the night, and I’ll let Lee know that he’s going to stay here to watch over you while I go back to the house.”

  My mom smiled nervously at me as she sat beside me on the bed while my dad shot me a look of, “I told you so.”

  Returning a sympathetic smile to them, I nuzzled my face against the crook of Bentley’s neck and deeply inhaled his soft baby scent. I could never get enough of his sweet scent, and it helped calm me.

  Damon walked outside of the hotel room and told him to check on Mask and Bethany while he headed back to the woods. It was obvious that Lee felt bad; the poor guy couldn’t look Damon in the eyes.

  He acted like a beaten, old dog who was morbidly obedient to his new master. I felt bad for him, and it made me sick to my stomach.

  I didn’t know how close they were—if they were ever close to begin with—but none of this was Lee’s fault. If anything, it was my fault. I should have known how he would react if he found out about us.

  My father looked down his nose as he stood over me, pursing his lips as he folded his arms.

  “I told you it wasn’t right to keep that man from his son. You should have told him the minute he came back in town.”

  “I know him better than you or mom, and I don’t know what you expected me to do when I ran into him at the store. What should I have said, ‘Oh, by the way, we have a son together, and he’s at home eating dinner right now’? Is that what I was supposed to have said?”

  “Julie!” my father started.

  “Let’s not argue. It’s late, and we might wake up Bentley,” my mother came to my aid. “We can talk about this in the morning. The important thing is that he knows now, and that’s all that matters.”

  Morning came fast and as much as I wanted to sleep in a little longer, I couldn’t. Bentley had started crawling around on the bed and was babbling. He had to be hungry. I didn’t get to feed him dinner before he went to sleep. Both of my parents were still asleep in the other full-size bed; I wondered what time it was.

  Looking at the window, I realized it was still dark out. Glancing at the alarm clock on the night table next to the bed, I saw that it was only 5:08 AM.

  “Bentley,” I sighed. “You hungry?”

  A sweet smile crept across his face as he nodded and said, “I hungy.”

  I loved how he still couldn’t pronounce some of his words; it was the cutest thing in the world. He was so innocent and pure and didn’t have had a care in the world what was going on. He didn’t have a clue that I’d kept him secret from his dad or that his dad had found out and was ready to kill me. My baby was just happy to be awake, crawling around on the bed while he waited for some food.

  “Okay, shhh,” I put my finger to my mouth. “Mama and Papa are asleep so we gotta be quiet. I’ll see about getting us some breakfast.”

  He cracked a big grin and imitated me, “Shhh.”

  “That’s right. Come here, baby,” I picked him up and nestled him against my breast. “Let me get you changed and then we’ll eat.”

  What we were going to eat, I had no clue. I grabbed a diaper and the wipes out of his bag and changed him before tossing the diaper into the tiny wastebasket that was next to the dresser. Picking Bentley back up, I pulled him onto my hip and opened the door.

  As I pulled the door open, I jumped back as Lee fell backwards onto my feet.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, giving him space to get up. “I didn’t know that you were sleeping against the door.”

  He blinked his eyes open and rubbed the sleep out of the corner of them. “Nah, it’s all right. No need to be sorry,” he climbed fast to his feet, disoriented.

  “Where is Damon? The baby’s hungry because he didn’t get a dinner last night with everything that,” my cheeks felt hot as I thought about the kiss that we shared. The kiss that got us busted and ruined my big secret. “With everything that happened,” I picked up where I had left off.

  “Uh,” he looked around, keeping his voice low. “He didn’t come back last night. I know he’s pissed off at me, but I haven’t heard from him,” he checked his phone.

  “I don’t understand what’s going on. I heard him talking about a Bethany and Mr. Turner, but neither of those names rings a bell. Why are you guys here?”

  He looked around the room and saw my parents sleeping in the other bed. “I think the hotel starts breakfast in about a half hour, let’s take a walk and get the baby some food.”

  I started to follow him out of the room, but he stopped mid-step and smacked his forehead. “I’m sorry, can he even eat regular food? I didn’t think about him being a baby when I said that.”

  “Yeah,” I nodded, “he can eat table food. I’m sure I’ll be able to find something for him.”

  We took our time walking down to the breakfast area of the lobby as we talked but it wasn’t easy. Bentley wanted down; he didn’t want to be held, and he was hungry. The young man who was setting things up noticed that Bentley was starting to get loud and invited us to come early.

  “Thank you,” I said as we entered the breakfast room. “He’s starving, and I appreciate it.”

  “No problem,” he replied. “Help yourselves. Everything is included in the price of your room. The juice is over there, cereal is over there, or we have bagels, donuts, and muffins over there,” he pointed around the room. “But if you want hot food like pancakes and waffles or scrambled eggs, you’ll have to wait about ten more minutes until all of that is ready.”

  “Sounds good,” Lee said, waving the young man away.

  After we had our food, I peeled back the liner around the muffin that I’d gotten for Bentley and began feeding him small pieces.

  “So you think Damon is at my place? On the property?”

  “It’s hard to say, but I’d suspect that’s where he is.”

  I hadn’t noticed him carrying a laptop, but one magically appeared from the seat next to him as he opened it on the table and started pecking away at the keyboard.

  “What are you doing? Emailing him?”

>   “No, I wish,” he shook his head. “I’m checking to see about any new leads on Mask or Bethany. This is the longest they’ve ever evaded us, and it just doesn’t make sense.”

  “Mask?” I asked. “What the hell is going on?”

  “I don’t know if I can tell you,” he blew out a deep breath. “Look, I’m pretty sure that I’m not even supposed to be talking to you, let alone telling you our business.”

  “Nothing is stopping you from sitting here having breakfast with us, so I doubt that you’re not supposed to talk to me.” He puckered his lips; he knew I had him on that. “I know Damon, and while he might like his privacy, I’m also the mother of his child, so I think I deserve to know what’s going on.”

  “Fine,” he closed the lid of his laptop, taking a long sip of his coffee before he finally continued. “We’re here on a mission of our own: to find and return our boss’s daughter. Her name’s Bethany, and she’s running with a real bad guy, the kind that likes to sell a lot of dope and run sex trafficking rings to collect as much cash as he can.”

  The look of shock on my face must have betrayed me as he continued talking.

  “But that’s not all he’s into. He runs a few drug rings and has business overseas.” He stopped, taking another long sip of his coffee while I fed the last of the muffin to Bentley. “He’s got Bethany with him—willingly—but just because she left willingly, doesn’t mean she’ll go that way once she figures out he’s his next fix for quick cash.”

  “Jesus. Where are they? And if you guys are helping me, doesn’t that put you behind?”

  Not that I valued what was going on at our house any less, but I felt bad for their boss, and his daughter. I imagined what I’d do if Bentley were running with the wrong crowd and I was scared for his safety; it made me shiver.

  “Not exactly. We don’t know where they are. The last I knew, they weren’t far from here but once they got to Missouri, they went off the grid, and we can’t find them.”

  “Oh God,” I said, thinking about what must be running through the father’s head.

  “You’ve got that right, and our boss isn’t too happy with us. Course, I haven’t told him all that in that exact fashion, but he knows we’re at a loss for where to find them.”

  I pulled Bentley closer to me and hugged him tight as he sipped on some juice. Suddenly, I wanted to help them find her; maybe I wanted to do it because it would make me feel good to reunite a daughter and father, or maybe I was trying to get on Damon’s good side and make things up to him. Either way, I wanted to see her safely returned to her dad.

  Chapter 8

  Damon

  As much as I wanted to let her have it, I knew that it wasn’t the right time. There was too much going on, and I needed to focus on taking care of business.

  It was the only thing that was keeping me sane. Concentrating on the task at hand kept her in the far recesses of my brain, just far enough away to keep her safe.

  Her and her little secret—my son—had changed my life overnight.

  I spent the next couple of nights sleeping out in the woods, keeping an eye on her property while I tried to sort through the shit that was swimming in my head. It was so hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that I was a father now, someone’s dad.

  My old man hadn’t been there for me, and it left a scar on me. I’m not sure which was worse: the scar on my soul from my father or the scars on my back from my mom’s boyfriends putting their hands on me. And here Bentley was, almost a year-and-a-half old, and he had no idea who his old man even was.

  The thought of my boy—my boy—my flesh and blood, alone in the whole world out there, not knowing who his daddy was made a poisonous blood pump through my veins.

  There’s no way in hell that I would ever let my boy be a bastard. I’d be the father he needed, raise him as I saw fit and knock down anyone who stood in the way of preventing me from doing that.

  When I saw my son in his crib, there were two emotions that ran through me.

  The first was love. The instant our eyes met and I saw a mirror image of myself; my heart melted into a red puddle of wax. Call it instinct or fate or whatever bullshit they say, but I knew that boy was mine. I didn’t need Julie or anyone else to confirm it.

  All I wanted to do was swoop him up—and I did—and hold him forever, let him know that I’d be there. Unlike that son-of-a-bitch father of mine who bolted out of the door so damned fast that he left a lightning streak on the door on his way out.

  I’d be there for my boy forever. Nothing would ever stop me from being his dad or loving him. It’d be a cold day in hell before anyone—including Julie—would ever separate us again. My flesh and blood belonged with me, with his family.

  The other emotion was hate. When I realized I’d been robbed of him entering the world, his first birthday, that shit lit my ass on fire. I should have known, and I should have been there! I would have been there if she had fucking told me. All she had to say was, “I’m pregnant.” That’s it.

  Instead, she hid my kid from me and the rest of the world. For some fucked up reason, I hated the fact that I still loved her. I hated how foolish I felt and how ashamed I was that I’d been gone for the better first year of my boy’s life. I didn’t know what he liked, didn’t like or what the hell he even ate.

  And for Julie? If she were a dude, I would have kicked her ass and put her six feet under for hiding my son from me. Hell, every time she gave me that smirk, that ‘fuck-you-look’, my hand twitched and I wanted to yank down her pants, lay her across my lap and spank her bare ass until it was candy apple red.

  The problem with that? I’d enjoy it. I’d enjoy it because I wanted to inflict the pain I felt on her, but at the same time, my sadistic mind would love every fucking minute of it. I still remember the way her pussy would instantly get wet at the slightest slap on the ass, and I could only imagine how wet she’d be if I gave her a full-fledged spanking.

  But the worst part of it all? Every. Damn. Time. I saw her, my cock throbbed and fought like hell to get unleashed, and I had to tell it to settle the fuck down anytime I looked at her.

  I hadn’t been laid in days, not since I threw the slut out of my room the night that she walked in and saw us. My balls ached, and my dick begged for release.

  We were going to work this shit out, even if I had to ruin every damned pair of panties that she owned, shredding them until there wasn’t even a thread of fabric to stop me from burying my cock deep inside of her whenever I fucking pleased. I’d fuck her so hard until she was numb that she wouldn’t care about anything else.

  Things were going to be much different than they were when I was growing up. My boy was going to have a mom and a dad, even if it killed her.

  I’d drag her to the altar and make an honest woman out of her. Call it what you want: mom and dad, prisoner and captive, husband and wife. It was all going to mean the same damned thing.

  I’d make her mine and watch her slide down to her knees, my fist in her hair, moaning and begging to suck my cock. It’d be like the good ole days before she betrayed me and lied to me, but this time, she’d be my wife.

  I would make an honest woman out of her. It didn’t matter to me if it took us years to break down before we fucked again, I’d never let another man try to lay his claim on her.

  But first, I had to get her out of that damned hotel. It wasn’t right to keep her and her parents caged up there like a bunch of rats.

  As far as I could tell from the last couple of days, nothing was going on in the woods around her property. Whoever the hell was behind burying an arsenal of weapons on their property hadn’t shown their face to pick it back up.

  It was only mid-morning, and the sun was starting to burn so brightly in the sky that I was already breaking out into a sweat as I walked back to my Jeep. Before I could even turn the key in the ignition, my cell phone started to ring.

  “Hey, I know you’re busy, but I had to tell you that I finally got a hit on one of
Mask’s charge cards.”

  “Yeah? What is it?”

  “It was a third party vendor, but I’m running an analysis on them right now to see who they deal in business with so we can narrow it down to a few places and go from there,” Lee said.

  “Cool. How’s everyone on your end?”

  “The parents don’t like being here one bit, and she’s struggling with the baby to keep him happy. He’s fussy, and she says he’s bored.”

  “I’m on my way there right now. Have you called Mr. Turner and told him about Mask yet?”

  “He doesn’t know anything right now. When I called he was in a meeting, but he’ll call me back later, I’m sure.”

  “I’m sure he will.”

  I was glad that Lee was able to find something on Mask, but there was no guarantee that Bethany was still with him. He could’ve sold her a dozen times over as long as they’d been off our radar, but if we could find him, it would eventually lead us to her.

  I’d hate to be him if she wasn’t with him. Mr. Turner gave me orders to keep him alive so that we could find her, but he didn’t say anything about how far I could torture the sick son-of-a-bitch.

  Walking into the hotel lobby, I saw Bentley with Julie in a small play area. I hated to admit it, but she was damned good with that kid. He was grinning and laughing as she helped him down the slide.

  I still couldn’t get over how much we looked alike; though, he had his mom’s nose. Admiring them playing for a few minutes was a painful reminder of how much of his life I had already missed out on, but I wasn’t going to miss out on another minute. Not anymore.

  “Hey buddy,” I said, walking up to them.

  The smile on Julie’s face faded, and she stepped away, observing us together.

  “Are you having fun with mommy?” I glanced up at her. “Here, I brought you this.”

  On my way to the hotel, I stopped by a toy store and bought him a brown teddy bear wearing a pair of blue jean overalls. It was the only thing I figured he could have as small as he was.