by Carly White
“You’re not going to say anything?”
“What am I supposed to say?”
“Your mom told me Laney when I called earlier. She didn’t mean to, but she told me about the baby. I have to ask, is it his?”
I breathed out deeply. There was a reason for it, more than anything it was nice to have one person that knew everything.
“Yes.”
There was a silence for some time and both of us were trying to figure out something to say. Cassandra had fought me moving back home. She didn’t understand it, but now I knew that she would. It was a relief that I didn’t have to hide it all in now.
“So what are you going to do?”
I shrugged into the empty room. “I already have done what I needed to. I moved out of the city, took a desk job and I have been working on putting a crib together for a couple of days. I should have it figured out in three months when he gets here.”
“How could you not tell me you were pregnant? We have been best friends for years.”
I knew that she felt betrayed in a way or that I didn’t trust her with the information. It was just too hard to talk about, I felt too stupid about what had happened and what I had allowed to happen. I knew it was my fault for having a fling. To be a cop and for him to be a criminal just made it that much worse.
“So I didn’t have to talk about Grady. I messed up bad with him. I take it you ran his name?”
“Didn’t have to, it was in the report. You really went all out bad boy with him. It is one way or the other with you, always the extremes.”
“Yeah, you could say that. But that’s why. Because it is embarrassing, but I can’t tell you how nice it is just to have someone to talk to about this. I have wanted to tell someone. Mom and dad don’t even know who the father is. I know they want to know, but they never were ones to push.”
“I just don’t get it. If he doesn’t know about it, why is he looking for you?”
That was something that I didn’t know as well. I would like to think that it was because he couldn’t stop thinking about me, much in the same way that I couldn’t stop thinking about him. But I knew that it was just wishful thinking on my part. He was the type of man that took what he wanted and then walked away when he was done. I was sure that he was done with me, but when I heard that he had been asking about me, I hated that I had a moment of hope. What was I going to be hopeful for?
“I don’t know why he is looking for me. You have seen what he is capable of, so it doesn’t matter the why. I got out of the city to get away from people like him. Here it is quiet, no crime, well you know. I wish you were here and it would be perfect.”
“I can’t live there Laney, you know that. You were bored to tears right along with me, or did you forget?”
I couldn’t forget the suffocating need to get out of there, but now I was back and it didn’t feel the same way. It was a nice, quiet place to raise my son. Away from gangs and violence that always came in a big city. To keep my son away from men like Grady Berlow, his father, Riley was the perfect place.
Chapter 6: Grady
I knew that she was gone from the city. Her friend had let it slip when I was leaving the police station. It wasn’t much of a surprise to find out that Cassandra was a police officer. I already knew from Renald that Laney was a cop as well. After all of the sleepless night, to find out she was a cop was disheartening. I couldn’t let anyone know about it because then they would worry about what she knew about them. What she knew about us, the Black Angels.
So when Cass told me that she was gone, I wanted to ask where, but my lawyer was pushing for me to leave. He worked for everyone in the gang and it wasn’t the first time I had seen him, but it was the first time that he was worried he wouldn’t be able to get me off. I had been stupid and gotten caught roughing someone up because I was frustrated all the time anymore. I was in a bad mood and it had just happened. But if it meant that I could find out about Laney, it was somehow worth the several hours it had took to get booked.
But Cassandra had not told me much, just that she had went back home. I knew where she was from, so at least I knew where I was supposed to be searching. It had been a couple of times a week for several months that I had been looking for her. Every time I had gotten a chance I had went to the city and to the club where we had met, but she had just vanished. Now at least I had a direction to go.
Loch was not happy. It was a bad time to be taking off, but after he saw the way I wasn’t backing down, and chose not to turn the battle into a war. I hadn’t been the same since I had woken up alone that morning after and he told me to go get my head right. I was embarrassed that a woman had done such a number on me, but there was no way to deny what I felt for her. Fool or not, I needed to see the blonde-haired beauty again. It had become something of an obsession with her and I knew that I had to find her.
With a destination in mind and a few addresses of what I hoped and assumed were her family, I made my way west to the small town of Riley where Laney was from. It had been months since I had seen her and after trying unsuccessfully to forget about her, I knew that it was time for me to find her and bring her back with me. She was mine and I had decided that I wasn’t going to take no for an answer.
***
“No sorry. I haven’t seen her today.”
“Today, so you have seen her recently?”
“She was over for dinner last night. Her mom makes some of the best meatloaf and Laney is always over when she makes that. With her in her condition, she can’t get enough of it.”
I was confused, not sure what her condition was, but it didn’t matter. Everything after she was there the night before was kind of murky. I had missed her by a day and this was her parent’s house. Almost sure that she would be staying with them, I was surprised to hear that she had her own place on the other side of town. After giving me the address, her father offered to call her and have her come by, but I told him not to. I didn’t want the first time we met again to be with her father.
There were many questions the more he told me, but all I needed to know was that she was supposed to be home and she was only a couple of miles away from me. Driving over to her townhouse, I was nervous for the first time in my life. It was the first time I cared what happened with a woman and the very idea of her telling me that she didn’t want to be with me, scared me to death. I would make her, I told myself. She had to be mine.
I got out and rechecked the address on the paper. This was the place. Taking a deep breath I locked the rental and walked down the cobbled walkway up to her front door. I could hear music blaring on the other side of the door, a slow Blues song that I had never heard before. It sounded mournful and it made the hand poised to knock stop for a minute. It was strange to think of how much she was on my mind, yet how little I actually knew about her. Laney liked the Blues it appeared.
My hand was still inches from the wooden door. Why was I so damn nervous? I needed to get a hold of my damn self if I was going to win her back. Finally I knocked, louder than I had expected. The area was just so quiet that the sound seemed to echo outside. The music was still blaring and I heard her yell for me to come in. It wasn’t what I had expected, but I pushed the heavy door in and peered inside.
The door opened to a small foyer and then a large set of stairs, as well as a living room that went to the rest of the downstairs. I didn’t see her and for some reason, I didn’t call out. I just walked towards the music. There was a small room to the side that I looked into and I saw rainbows and clouds on the walls. There wasn’t any furniture but the feel of the room stopped me in my tracks. I opened up the door a little more and new that it was a child’s room, maybe even a baby. Did she have a kid and I didn’t even know it? Since we had not done much talking at all, it was possible, but it wasn’t in Renald’s report.
“Casper, is that you?”
I stopped and remembered she didn’t know it was me. I wondered who Casper was as I walked towards the sound of her vo
ice. Now that part I remembered well. The way she moaned and whimpered underneath me was not something I could just forget so easily.
“Who’s Casper?”
She was sitting down with her back to me and several pieces of wood in her hands. She dropped them before she turned around. “Grady? What are you doing here?”
I smiled at her smugly. “You are not an easy woman to get a hold of Laney. You realize that right?”
I stopped when I got around to the other side of her and I saw the changes in her body. It was clear then that she didn’t have kids when I met her, but she looked like she had one on the way. My mind reeled, but I hadn’t put together the fact that it could have been my baby. I was waiting for Casper, the husband or boyfriend to come in and make that moment even more awkward.
There was nothing to say, I couldn’t have said something if I would have wanted to. It was clear that I had waited too long to see her. It had taken too long for me to find her and now she was someone else’s. That is what I thought as I looked at her, but the next moment I still was there to take her back. I didn’t care if some schmuck loved her, she was mine and I hadn’t come all this way and waited all this time for my plans to change.
I could see the box she was looking at was for a crib. It must have been for the baby room that I had passed on my way in. Laney couldn’t look me in the eyes and her hand went to her stomach like she was warding me away.
“What are you doing here Grady?”
Kneeling down, I moved to take her face in my grip. She pulled back for a minute and then Laney leaned in to touch my lips with her. It was just for a second before the door opened and closed in the front. The man that she had been expecting was there and I stood up, steeling myself for a fight. I would do what I had to do to get her back, even if I had to hurt a few people on the way.
The man was just as surprised to see me there as Laney was. He wasn’t very big and I towered over him. I looked back at her, questioning if that was who she was with now.
“Casper, can you give us a minute please?”
The blonde headed man looked at me for a moment like he was trying to size me up. It was laughable and I flexed a little as he scurried off. “I always thought you had better taste than that Laney. So this is who you are with now, that scrawny guy?”
“Who I am with is none of your concern Grady. What do you want? How did you find out where I was?”
She was standing up and the curves that I loved so much were only exaggerated even more. Her tits were much larger and I dreamed of burying my face in her chest. Laney’s stomach was definitely bigger. The last time I had seen her, it was flat, but now it was clear she was pregnant. How far she was, I didn’t know. But still I didn’t think it was mine. I was already agreeing to take her pregnant and all. I didn’t care who’s it was, I just wanted Laney back.
“It wasn’t easy to find you Laney. I will admit that. It wasn’t almost like you didn’t want to be found. Found out some things about you along the way, but I didn’t hear about you being pregnant.”
“Well I am. That still doesn’t tell me what you are doing here.”
“And you still haven’t told me who the hell that guy was.”
“He’s my boyfriend. Now you.”
“I am here to take you back with me.”
Chapter 7: Laney
I must have heard him wrong. It was the only explanation for such nonsense coming out of his mouth. What in the world was he talking about taking me back with him?
“Didn’t you just hear that I had a boyfriend?”
“I did, so what. He is not your type.”
I tried to stand up, but struggled form my seated position. I was just starting to have trouble getting up and it was embarrassing in front of him, but I hated how he was standing over me. His hand came out and pulled me up. I thanked him, but moved away quickly. His touch was something that was hard to deny and I didn’t want to get dragged in again. I was not prepared to see him and I could already feel my body trembling with the memories.
“You have no idea about my type Grady. He is a good man.”
“Just because you got knocked up by someone, doesn’t mean that you have to be with them.”
“I completely agree. Now I am sorry to tell you this, but I am not going anywhere with you. I am busy and in no condition to be fighting.”
“After I came all this way, you are not even going to hear me out?”
I could tell he was surprised by the way I was reacting. “I am busy Grady and we are from two very different worlds. It never would have worked out.”
“Is it because you are pregnant?”
“Yes Grady. I don’t want our child to grow up in your world. It’s too much, so I moved here. I will take good care of him. I promise.”
I stopped with the look on his face. It occurred to me then that he had not known about him being the father. I guess I had just assumed he would figure it out. It was clear in that moment that he hadn’t. He just looked at me slack jawed, waiting for some kind of punch line.
“It’s mine. He?”
Closing my eyes, I could see Casper in the doorway. He was trying to see if I was okay, but he was more than likely terrified of Grady. He was looking very rugged that day, in his black leather jacket and sunglasses. His dark eyes glowered at me and then his face changed and he smiled. “Well this is good news!”
I looked at him incredulously. Surely he could see how it was a catastrophe. It wasn’t good news, not in any way, shape or form.
“Casper can you please give us a little while?”
He was still looking at me and I hated to admit it, but he was aggravating me by how scared he looked. I bet if Grady had made any sudden movement towards him, he would assuredly have flinched. Closing my eyes to the pain in his, he asked me if it was what I really wanted. He wasn’t talking about just leaving for the moment. “You really want me to go?”
“Please, just for a while. I know this is awkward and I can’t ask you to stay.”
Casper wasn’t sure, but he left. “Wow, he’s a winner. Where did you find him?”
“I work with him.”
“Ah yes, you are a cop as well. So I have to know, were you investigating me. Is that why you left with me to the hotel and then were gone in the morning?”
I became aware then that he was studying my body differently. After he had seen I was pregnant, his eyes had looked at me as if I was ready to pop the child out right then and there. Now he was looking at my chest and licking his lips like I was to be his next meal. It was alarming to say the least, but I was no less turned on. As he moved towards me, I took a step back.
“I didn’t know who you were until later. I thought about going to the dark side again, but you are a criminal and I knew I couldn’t be seen with you. I am a cop and you are in a gang, it could never work. I never figured I would see you again Grady. I know what a girl like me, means to a man like you.”
“And what is that?”
He was walking towards me and I had nowhere else to go, the couch blocking my retreat. “Nothing.”
“What about our son?” His hands were soft on my stomach. I felt the baby kick inside of me, like he knew that it was his father’s hands and voice.
His words, our, hit me hard. I had stop thinking about him in any other term but my son. I didn’t want to share and even though I was shaking because he was close, I knew that I had to stand my ground. I couldn’t, we couldn’t. It was just not possible.
“Grady, you probably have plenty running around that you aren’t worried about, why worry about mine?”
It seemed logical, a man like that had many children with many women, but by the way he looked almost shocked that I would say it may me wonder. “I don’t have any children. I always use protection.”
“Not always.”
“With you it was different, I lost my head.”
“You don’t have to make it like it was more than that. We had a great night, but that was a long tim
e ago. Things change.”
“It doesn’t change anything for me. Now I just have more of a reason to take you with me.”
“And where will we live? Above the bar? While I wait at home for you to do your drug runs? It’s impossible and you know it. You know what I am and I know what you are, it can never be.”
I turned away and waited for him to leave. The writing was on the wall and there was no way that it was going to change. “Can you please leave?”
“You can’t mean that Laney.”
I didn’t, that was why I couldn’t look at him. I needed to keep my distance so he didn’t touch me and I needed to keep my eyes from meeting his.
His hand went to my jaw, tilting my face up to look at him. “Is that really what you want?”
The dark brown in his eyes was almost taken over completely with the black. I felt like he was going to engulf me right there. I didn’t know if I could speak and he didn’t let me. Grady’s lips moved down to mind and I sighed against him. For all the fighting that was done, my heart wanted it to be him. My mind could think of all the what-ifs, but my heart had yearned for him since the first time he had touched me.
Chapter 8: Grady
I knew once I heard the soft moan against my lips, that she was mine. There was something in the surrender, as before, it was complete. She had brought up good points, ones that we would have to talk about later, but for now, I was happy to just feel her against me again. It was almost surreal. The amount of time that I had been yearning for her was too long to seem real.
Her lips were soft and her body molded against mine. It was different, not the way I remembered it, but she was so much more to me now. She was going to have my son and the thought of them anywhere else but with me, did not sit well. I had to have her.