by Goode, Ella
“Did you want anything else, angel?” I ask Jax, trying to keep my voice at an even keel. He is completely invested in his sucker so he doesn’t seem to notice that I’m upset. I don’t think he saw anything. He’d been behind us when Jonas hauled off and punched Luca. Jax shakes his head no, shoving the sucker back into his mouth.
His eyes widen as he looks around at everyone. His gaze stops on Jonas, who is staring directly at us both. He pulls the sucker out of his mouth, holding it out to Jonas.
“You don’t share suckers, angel,” I tell him, but he keeps holding it out to him.
“What’s his name?” Jonas looks from Jax to me.
“Jax,” I answer. Both Luca and Gia stare at me. Why the heck is everyone staring at me and not saying anything? “You okay, Mr. Ward?” I ask to try and break the weird silence. I still have no idea what is going on or why Jonas hit him.
“Luca,” he corrects me like always.
“Darby.” Jonas says my name calmly this time. When I look back at him, his face is anything but calm.
“Yes?” I answer. I have to look away from his eyes. So many feelings rush through my body. Jax finally lowers his arm, putting the sucker back in his mouth.
“We’re leaving,” he says, stepping toward me.
“What do you mean we?” Gia chimes in.
“As in Jax, Darby and I,” Jonas answers. I go to step back from him but at the same time Jax reaches for Jonas, both his arms trying to grab him. Jonas takes the invitation, plucking Jax right out of my hands. “He’s a little over two?” he asks.
“Darby lives here,” Gia tosses back. I nod yes. Because I can’t seem to speak full sentences when he’s looking at me.
“She is coming with me.” He holds Jax tighter and Jax rests his little head on him. I’m a bit surprised. He shies away from men most times until he gets to know them. Except for Ben, who is like a grandpa to him. He must be tired.
“I don’t know what your deal is, Willits, but this is Ward land. You don’t get to bark orders here or take things like they belong to you.” Gia stands up a little straighter with her shoulders back. “What is wrong with you? You feeling okay? I thought it was weird that you came to begin with but now you’re acting like a crazy person.”
Yes. It’s very weird. Everything about the last few minutes of my life is strange. especially the fact that Gia and Luca seem to know Jonas pretty well.
“Are you drunk?” I ask, putting my hand on Jax's back as he cuddles more into Jonas.
“No.”
“I need to put my son to bed.” I rub my hand up and down Jax’s back. He turns his head a little to look at me. I can tell from his eyes how tired he really is. He’s got his arms wrapped around Jonas’ neck and he doesn’t seem as though he’s planning to let go anytime soon. I still can’t believe this is happening.
Jonas Willits is currently holding my son in the kitchen. I must be dreaming. I reach one of my arms down to pinch myself. Judging by the pain I feel, nope, I’m definitely not dreaming.
“You live here?” he asks.
“Yes, she lives here,” Gia answers for me.
“I work here.” I look down at my outfit. I’m still in my white button-up shirt and black slacks.
“I’ll follow you.” Jax’s eyes start to slowly close. He doesn't look like he wants to let go of Jonas.
“I can carry him.”
“Barely.” His eyes roam over me. “You’ve lost weight.”
“What?” My hand goes to my stomach.
“You don’t comment on a woman's weight.” Luca mutters. Gia snorts an agreement.
“I’ll follow you.” Jonas says again, ignoring them both. He steps back so I can walk by. I look to Gia, whose eyes are bouncing between us, but she isn't telling him to stop. She actually looks more curious than anything.
“Okay.” I sigh. The sooner I get to my room the sooner I can get away from Jonas. At least I think that's what I want. He’s acting weird and I should be concerned, but something inside me tells me that I can trust him.
I head down the hallway. Jonas joins me, coming to my side. I can’t stop peeking over at him and Jax.
“How long have you worked here?” he asks me. I glance over my shoulder, not seeing Gia anymore. I was sure she was going to follow us. Maybe she decided to check on Luca’s eye before she meets me back in my room.
Jonas can’t be too bad if she’s letting me go off with him by myself. I guess they are closer than I thought. I didn't even know she knew Jonas Willits until his name was brought up tonight.
“A few years. I’ve never seen you here before.”
“No. I’m not big on parties.” I bite my tongue from bringing up his yacht party in Hong Kong that was splashed on the cover of a gossip magazine. “But you know who I am?”
“You’re Jonas Willits.” He stops walking. “Everyone knows who you are.”
“Right.”
“I’m just over there.” I point to the side door that leads outside to the walkway. “I stay over the garage.”
“You live over the garage?” He starts walking again. But not before I see the tick in his jaw.
“I’m sure you’re accustomed to much better living conditions, but my little apartment is more than I could have asked for.” I am and will always be grateful for it. It is cute with two bedrooms, a little kitchen and living room. It is more than enough space for Jax and me. It is nice to be so close to the Wards, too.
They aren't family by blood but they were here for me when I had no one else. That’s all that matters in my book.
“I didn't mean it like that.”
I open the door, holding it open for him. “It doesn't matter.” I wave off his comment, making my way down the walkway and up the stairs. I fish my keys out of my pocket and unlock my door. I turn to take Jax from him.
“He’s asleep. I’ll put him in his bed.”
I reach up, pulling the sucker out of Jax’s mouth. He is indeed fast asleep. “I can take him. He’ll probably wake up when you try and put him down anyways.”
“You’re right. I’ll let him sleep a little longer.” He steps into my apartment and glances around for a moment before heading for my sofa, where he sits down. “Lock the door behind you,” he tells me. I stand there for a second taking in what my current reality is.
Jonas Willits is in my home. He’s currently holding my son. I step inside, shutting the door behind me without protesting. I’m not sure what good it would do at this point.
“I’m going to change. I’ll only be a minute,” I tell him before I dart into my bedroom, shutting the door behind me. Jonas must be crazy. I must be more crazy because I just left my son with him.
Though I know neither Gia nor Luca would have let Jonas hold Jax or walk me to my room unless they trusted him. I trust their judgment, which in turn tells me I can trust Jonas.
Yeah, I am definitely losing it. Wait. I’d almost forgotten that no one had introduced us. How the hell does he know my name?
Chapter 7
Jonas
I have a son. I have a son. I have a son.
The phrase swims through my head, drowning out every other thought, like why is my fiancée living on the Ward estate above their garage? Why is she pretending she doesn’t recognize me? But most of all, why the fuck has she kept my son from me?
This is the fruit of my damn loins. Despite my recent actions, I don’t consider myself a particularly violent person. I wasn’t the type to get into useless fights as a teenager and my weapons these days are my bank balance and connections. It’s easier and cleaner and more fulfilling to ruin someone’s life while sitting in my office on the fiftieth floor of a high rise in Hong Kong overlooking one of the busiest and richest harbors in the world than running around punching people in the nose.
Yet there’s a dark current snaking its way through my veins. He has eyes as blue as my own. The urge to punch a hole through the wall is nearly overwhelming. Darby hid from me for almost three years. Tha
t’s bad enough but she kept my kid from me? I never got to touch her belly and feel this boy’s first kick. I didn’t get to sit in the doctor’s office and hear the thwump thwump thwump of his heart. I didn’t get to see him being birthed, listen to his first cry, see him take his first steps.
I was robbed of this and it makes me want to bend metal. I get my phone out.
“I want the plane to be ready in twenty minutes,” I instruct the pilot. “Add two passengers to the manifest: Darby Harris and Jax…” I pause. I bet that woman didn’t put my name on the birth certificate. “Harris,” I spit out. The first thing that is happening is I’m changing his name. This is my kid. He has Darby’s oval shaped face and her dark brown hair, but his eyes, his smile, his nose—it’s all me. I don’t need a paternity test. My DNA is all over his face.
My eyes shoot to the closed bedroom door. Darby’s been quiet in there for far too long. I hoist Jax a little higher and stomp over to the door. “Let’s go,” I order.
No child of mine is living over a garage. There’s a slight shuffling noise and then a tentative, “Go where?”
“Home.”
“This is home.”
I glance around the space. It has a small but clean kitchen that flows into a living room with a brown leather sectional. Between the two sits a table with a highchair pushed up close. There are three doors down this short hallway which I presume leads to a bathroom and a couple of bedrooms but the whole place could fit into my penthouse living room. “Not much of a home.” Not good enough for my son, that’s for damn sure. ”Where’s the car seat?”
I’m taking my son home whether Darby agrees to it or not.
The door jerks open and my fiancée appears with her hands on her hips and a suspicious look pasted across her face. “Why do you want to know where the car seat is?”
“Because you’re leaving, or I should say Jax is leaving and if you want to continue seeing him, you‘ll come, too.”
“You can’t keep me from my son!” She tries to reach for Jax but I’m far taller than her and quicker.
“Why not? That’s what you did to me. You’ve kept my son from me.” I head for the door. She lives over a garage, which means somewhere there’s a car with a car seat.
“I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know,” she wails and the cry sounds genuine enough that I hesitate but reason kicks me in the gut. How can she not have known? Had she been fucking another man? My gut tightens at the thought. My Darby with someone else? The concept doesn’t compute. She’s mine. She’d been mine since the moment I laid eyes on her. No other man should have laid a hand on her. I blow out an angry breath and try to corral my temper. Jax is curled up in my arms with his little nose burrowed into my neck. I’m not going to ruin this moment so I keep walking.
I obviously don’t know shit about Darby. The woman I loved wouldn’t have kept my son from me. We’d talked about having children. It was something we both wanted and because of that we never used any protection. It was always skin against skin. That she hadn’t become pregnant earlier or sooner is some kind of miracle since we were fucking two to three times a day. Sometimes more. What is the shock is that she got in that accident and never came home. That she made me believe she was dead and kept my son from me. It’s unforgivable.
“Wait. Jonas, please listen to me.”
The amount of money I would have paid to hear her sound out my name could have bought every car in this garage a hundred times over. Now I just want to find the car seat and go. Jax is the key anyway. Wherever he goes, she’ll go. Of that, I’m confident. I find the small car at the end of the garage. In the back is Jax’s seat and conveniently there’s a set of keys in the center console. I tuck Jax into his seat and buckle him in.
“How do you know how to do that?” she demands.
I look up to see her watching me again with that wary eye. It irritates me because I’m the one who should be wary and suspicious. I decide not to answer. Instead, I bark out an order. “Get in.” I point to the passenger door.
“I’m calling Luca,” she declares.
“Go ahead.” I’ll punch him again. This time I won’t stop until his face looks like raw meat, either. He must be the man she’s been sleeping with since she left me. The joke’s on her, though, because he’s not going to marry her. “If all you think you’re worth is a garage apartment and secret fucks, then be my guest and stay, but I’m going and I’m taking my son with me.”
Chapter 8
Darby
I stare at my son’s sleeping face wondering how I got here. He’s been out like a light since we got on the plane. I don’t even know where we’re going. I should ask but does it really matter? He is trying to take my son from me. I’d go anywhere as long as I was close to Jax.
I don’t have to look to my right to know Jonas is staring at me. He has been since we all got settled into his fancy plane. I don’t know if I want to scream at him or burst into tears. Sleep. That’s what I really need. To fall asleep and wake up back home from this crazy dream. Because that’s what this has to be.
“Do you want something to drink?” he says, breaking the long silence. I shake my head, unable to look at him. I’ve got too many emotions swirling inside of me. I know once something crosses your lips it can never be taken back. I fight myself on how I would react if someone told me I had a two-year-old son I’d never known anything about.
What kind of emotion would that spark in me? If I were Jonas and the shoe was on the other foot, what steps would I take to make sure that I never missed out on another moment? All of these things run through my mind. While the thought of Jax having a dad in his life fills me with joy, the thought of Jonas taking him from me chills me to my core.
Clearly Jonas is Jax’s father. No wonder every time I would see him in the magazines something seemed so familiar to me. I always thought their eyes were so much alike but I never thought too much about it. The more I think about it now, the more I can really see how much they resemble each other. Still it’s hard to wrap my mind around the fact that I was once with Jonas Willits.
The man I’ve read about here and there in tabloids. The one that parties on yachts. The one who comes from a royal line of ancestors. Who the gossip rags try to marry off each week to someone new. How the heck did I get tangled up in such a world? If only I could remember. But since I’ve had no recollection in years about my past, I don’t expect any of it to come to me now.
“Are you sure? I have pink lemonade.” I jerk my head to look over at it. “It’s Country Time.”
My favorite. I’m starting to think Jonas and I weren't a fling. I bite the inside of my mouth to fight the tears that want to break free. The fact that he knows these intimate details about me and I don’t is a lot for me to handle.
“Where are we going?” I ask, pulling my eyes away from his handsome face.
“Home,” he says again, like I know where home is. The only place I’ve ever known is the hospital and the Ward estate. That is my home. At least the only one I know of. I drop my head to look down at my hands. Jonas Willits. I still can’t wrap my mind around this. The man is richer than God. I’m not sure I have much of a choice when it comes to listening to him. He could take my son away from me.
That realization hits me hard. I know he’s taken him already. I had to chase after them. But he could really take him from me. A tear slips down my cheek.
“Please don’t take him from me. He’s all I have.”
Jonas lets out a curse. He’s out of his seat lifting me into his arms.
“Don’t cry, bunny.” The word bunny bounces around in my head. The way he said it sounds so familiar. Like I’ve heard it before. I drop my face into his neck, hiding there. “I won’t take him from you but he’s going home. Where he belongs.” Where he belongs. Not where I belong.
I close my eyes. The smell of Jonas is familiar, too. So many questions swirl around in my mind. How close had we been? Why did I wake up alone? Did I hate this man and run fr
om him? I try and fight the questions off.
The reality of them is scary. Sometimes I wonder if my mind made me forget things to protect me. I read about that many times when I was trying to figure out why I couldn't remember.
“Promise it. I want your word. You’ll never keep me from him.”
“I’d never do that.”
I can hear the anger in his words. I relax a little. I know he thinks I’ve been keeping Jax from him. How is this possible? It is too much of a coincidence that Jax is his son and I work for the Wards. A family that he seems to be familiar with.
His hands move up and down my back. Even in his anger he is trying to soothe me. I keep my eyes closed, my body starting to feel heavy. I can’t be tired. Too much is going on. But as he holds me close, I feel sleep try to take me. I jerk awake when I feel my body move.
“Jax.” I open my eyes to see where my son is.
“He’s still asleep.”
I pull my head back to see Jonas has me in his arms as he makes his way down the stairs of the plane. I see a man in a suit has Jax in his car seat. He’s still out as the man carries him gently down the stairs behind us, doing his best to not wake him.
How long have I been asleep? I wonder.
“It was a short flight,” Jonas answers, making me realize I’ve spoken the words. It’s still night out.
“I can walk.” I try and put my feet down but he’s got them hooked over his arm.
“We’re here.” He stops walking and slowly puts me on my feet. “Take Jax around.” He motions to the man that’s holding Jax. “In.” He nods at the open door to the SUV, where another man in a suit is standing. They are everywhere.
I climb in as the other door opens, allowing the man to put Jax’s car seat inside. In record time he has it strapped in. It’s faster than I ever could have done it. I sit down next to Jax and put my hand on him, needing to touch my son. Jonas gets in beside me.