Ashleigh got into her car, tossing her bag and purse onto the passenger side seat. There was no point in arguing with him. She wasn’t going to make him understand. As long as he was letting her go, she figured she might as well take the opportunity.
She turned the key in the ignition and backed slowly down the driveway, keeping her eyes focused on her rearview mirror. She wasn’t going to look at Alex. She wasn’t going to second-guess herself.
As she pulled out onto the street, though, she caught a glimpse of Alex standing in the middle of the driveway, looking lost. She saw his expression, and the look in his eyes.
He was furious.
Chapter 17
Ashleigh
Ashleigh scanned the front doors of Penny’s elementary school, searching for any sign of movement. The clock on her dashboard told her that they should have been let out three minutes ago. A quick glance at her phone told her that she still had a minute to go. And she had no idea what clock the school was operating by.
She shifted nervously in her seat. She hated how antsy this whole situation was making her. Despite her confidence that just running out to Penny’s school and heading home wouldn’t draw attention, part of her was still terrified that Alex had been right, that Jasper did have people watching her. Maybe they would follow her home.
She’d kept sneaking glances back over her shoulder on the drive over, trying to keep watch for any suspicious cars tailing her. She shifted between her mirrors too, determined not to miss anything. At one point she’d been certain that a white mini-van was following her. That had set her heart racing. It had followed her every turn without fail, never falling back to be more than a car behind her.
That paranoia had melted away when she’d pulled in front of the school and the mini-van parked behind her in the circle drive in front of the main entrance. She’d recognized the mom behind the wheel.
She was letting her imagination get the best of her, she told herself. Alex had been exaggerating. He’d been trying to trick her into staying with him. As long as she was smart and sensible now, she’d be fine.
Ashleigh heard the bell ring from inside the school—a jittery, piercing sound that announced the end of the day. A few seconds later, the doors swung open and a flood of kids poured down the steps toward the drive where some parents were already waiting for them.
Ashleigh unbuckled and hurriedly got out her car, keeping her eyes on the swarms of children. She tried to pick Penny out, but it wasn’t easy. It was a big elementary school and there were plenty of little girls with red hair. Ashleigh didn’t even know what Penny was wearing, so that was no help.
At last she spotted her daughter walking alongside Katie. Penny’s hair had been braided, and she wore her jean skirt and bright pink t-shirt. Ashleigh breathed a small sigh of relief at seeing her unharmed. Not that she’d expected anything to have happened to her, but still, nothing seemed certain anymore, and it was good to see that her worst nightmare hadn’t come true.
Ashleigh waved at Penny, forcing a grin over her face. She felt so tired. The muscles barely wanted to lift into a smile.
Penny didn’t smile back. She turned and said something to Katie, then slowly picked her way through the crowd over to Ashleigh.
“Hi, baby,” Ashleigh greeted her, pulling Penny into a hug as soon as she was close enough. “How are you doing? How was school?”
“Fine,” Penny mumbled. “Katie said I couldn’t go home with her again.”
“Well, that’s because we’re going home together,” Ashleigh told her.
Penny lit up at those words. “Really? Do you promise?”
“Pinky swear,” Ashleigh told her, linking her pinky in her daughter’s to seal the deal. “I know it’s been a rough couple of days, but I think we’re in the clear now. I missed you so much.”
Penny wrapped her small hand around Ashleigh’s. “I missed you too, Mommy.”
Ashleigh walked her over to the car and helped Penny get buckled in the back seat. “Did you leave your clothes at Katie’s house?” she asked as she situated Penny’s backpack on the floor of the back seat.
“Yeah.”
“I guess we’ll have to run over there and pick them up sometime.” An idea popped in her head. It was a little more risky, she thought, but not too much. And she was too happy to have Penny back with her to be too worried.
It felt like the world had been skewed for days, like she was walking around hollow. But now that Penny was here she felt more at peace. Even her anxiety about the business with Jasper seemed to have been quelled a little.
“So, I owe you ice cream, don’t I?” she asked as she settled into the driver’s seat and buckled her own seatbelt.
She saw Penny’s face stretch wide in a toothy grin. “Can we go to the Whippy Dip?”
Ashleigh couldn’t help but smirk to herself. The hometown ice cream shop was nothing special, really. The only other place in town, Jones’ Creamery, made their own product and had better flavors. But Penny just liked saying ‘Whippy Dip.’ When she’d been younger, the name would send her into fits of hysterical giggles.
“Of course we can go to the Whippy Dip.”
Ashleigh pulled out onto the main road and started planning the route in her head.
“Mommy?” Penny asked from the back seat.
“Yeah, honey?”
“Why did I have to stay at Katie’s for so long?”
Ashleigh winced to herself. She’d known this was coming. Penny was a precocious little girl. She wouldn’t let this just slide. But Ashleigh still didn’t know what to say, or how to justify all the time they’d spent apart.
“I told you, there was a break-in at the bakery and I had to take care of it.”
“But Katie’s mom said that it would only take a day to fix. I stayed with Katie for a really long time. Katie’s mom said I could have come home with you a lot sooner.”
Ashleigh tried to think. What could she say? Mommy didn’t have time for you? Mommy couldn’t take you home? But she detested lying to her daughter more than anything. Every lie she told now, no matter how necessary, put another crack in the foundation of their relationship.
She’d learned that from her own parents. Her mom had struggled with addiction, and her dad had been unbearably religious and strict. Both had lied to her on too many occasions—her mom mostly to deny her problems and her dad to get his way and scare her into behaving how he thought she should behave. When Penny had been born, Ashleigh had promised herself that the relationship she built with her daughter would be open and real, even if it was imperfect.
Ashleigh gripped the steering wheel tightly. Maybe she didn’t have to lie. Maybe she could just tell Penny that she was too young right now to know.
“I can’t explain. I need you to just trust me. I’ll tell you everything someday, but now all you need to know is that I love you more than anything in the world, and I would never, ever leave you.”
Ashleigh caught sight of Penny’s wide, innocent eyes staring up at her from the back seat.
“You’re scaring me, Mommy,” she said.
Shit. How the hell was she supposed to handle this? She was sure talking to your daughter about drug kingpins with vendettas wasn’t covered in any of the childcare books.
“No, baby, there’s no reason to be scared,” Ashleigh soothed her. “Everything’s fine. Things are just going to be a little different for a few days, that’s all. And then everything will go back to normal.”
“But why can’t things be normal now?” Penny demanded.
They were at the Whippy Dip. Thank God. Ashleigh pulled in and parked quickly. She jumped out of the car before Penny could ask her any more questions. Hopefully ice cream would prove to be enough of a distraction. She opened the back and reached in to help Penny get unbuckled.
“So, what are you going to get?” Ashleigh asked Penny as she climbed out of the car.
“You didn’t answer my question,” Penny accused her. She folded her arms o
ver her chest and stood stock-still, glaring up at Ashleigh with surprising intensity for a six-year-old. Her bright blue eyes reminded Ashleigh so much of Alex at times—a connection she did her best to block out. But now, with him back, it was easy to see how Penny’s tenacity mirrored her father’s.
Ashleigh sighed. She loved how stubborn and strong her daughter could be when she put her mind to it, but at times it was incredibly frustrating. “Penny, the only thing that’s going to be different is that I’ll be staying home with you. I’ll drive you to school and pick you up. No daycare, no going over to Katie’s.”
That seemed to placate her a little. “Oh. What about your bakery?”
“It’s going to have to stay closed for a bit. Come on, let’s go get our ice cream.”
“But why does it have to stay closed?”
“Because some things got broken during the break-in and now they have to be fixed.”
That seemed to be enough for Penny. She uncrossed her arms and took Ashleigh’s hand, and together they started to walk up to the window.
“So? You never told me what you’re going to order.”
Penny seemed to contemplate her choices for a moment. “A brownie sundae,” she announced, grinning up at Ashleigh.
“A whole brownie sundae?” Ashleigh repeated in mock disbelief. “All by yourself? No. Way.”
Penny giggled. “Yes way! And with extra whipped cream too.”
Ashleigh thought she heard the roar of a bike from behind her. She flinched a little, her thoughts turning instantly to Alex. But she fought the urge to turn and look down the road. She was just paranoid, she told herself. She’d been on edge all day, and now she was assuming that Alex was the only guy in the world who rode a motorcycle.
Ashleigh shook herself from her thoughts and forced herself to turn her attention back to Penny. “And sprinkles?” she continued. “You’re not going to have room for sprinkles—“
“Ashleigh!”
Ashleigh froze in her tracks. Penny stumbled beside her, caught off guard by Ashleigh’s sudden halt.
No. What was he doing here? Hadn’t she told him to leave her in peace?
Ashleigh whipped around only to find Alex dismounting from his bike, striding purposefully toward her from across the parking lot.
Penny’s hand tightened around hers. “Mommy?” she whispered. “Who’s that?”
“No one,” Ashleigh muttered, turning back around and pulling Penny toward the line in front of the window. So he’d followed her. Well, she didn’t know what he wanted and she didn’t care. She wasn’t going to give him the time of day.
“Ashleigh, get your ass back here! We need to talk!”
Some of the patrons in the line turned to cast dirty looks at her and Alex.
Ashleigh ignored them. This wasn’t her fault. He was the one choosing to make a scene here. He was the one acting like a complete ass in front of her and her daughter.
Alex closed the distance quickly. Ashleigh briefly contemplated trying to slip away from him by heading back to the car with Penny, but she didn’t want Penny to think there was anything to worry about.
Her best option was to give him the cold shoulder. She knew how he operated. He might cause a scene, but eventually he’d get frustrated enough that he’d just ride off and leave her in peace.
Alex inserted himself in front of her and Penny, cutting them off from the rest of the line with his bulk. His burning eyes were fixed on her. “We need to talk,” he spat through gritted teeth. “Now.”
She looked right through him, doing her best to pretend he wasn’t even there. She hoped that Penny would just follow her lead.
“Mommy,” Penny whimpered, pressing closer to her side, “who is he? What does he want?”
Alex’s lips twisted in an ugly snarl. “Yeah, mommy, who am I?”
Ashleigh’s blood turned to ice in her veins. He couldn’t know. There was no way. She’d been so careful.
She couldn’t ignore him anymore. That wasn’t going to work. So she glared at him with as much hate she could muster and in a low, threatening voice, she commanded, “Leave.”
Alex took a step forward, positioning himself so he was just inches from her, towering over her. “If you think I’m just going to ride off, Ash, you’re fucking delusional.”
Penny shifted so that she was behind Ashleigh, hiding from the stranger in front of her. Ashleigh held her hand tight, trying to reassure her through that contact that everything was under control.
Ashleigh could feel the eyes of several onlookers. God, she thought, why did he have to do this here? Why did he not seem to know the meaning of the word tact? He could have called her. He could have waited until she’d finished her outing with her daughter since he was already stalking her anyway. He could have just followed her back to her house and they could have ripped into each other in private.
But no, he didn’t care what anyone thought of him. Of what his behavior made people think about her. He’d always been selfish and self-centered, and that hadn’t changed over the years. So what if he embarrassed her. So what if he caused a scene, scared her daughter—their daughter. None of it mattered as long as he got what he wanted.
“You didn’t tell me.”
She was glad he at least kept his voice quieter now, though that did nothing to soften its sharp edge. “I didn’t tell you what?” she demanded.
“Cut the shit, Ash, and quit playing fucking dumb. It doesn’t suit you. You know exactly what I mean.”
No. She wasn’t going to do this. She turned sharply and started stalking back toward the parking lot, pulling Penny with her.
Alex followed. He caught up to her and grabbed her by the arm, stopping her.
“Get your hands off me,” Ashleigh snapped. “You have no right—“
“No, you had no right,” Alex hissed. “You should’ve told me. You should’ve introduced me the instant I showed back up. You had no right to keep something like this from me.”
Ashleigh fought to remain in denial. She refused to deal with this. “Let go of me. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Alex’s grip tightened on her arm. He leaned in close to her, and in a low voice that only she could hear, he growled, “I know she’s my daughter.”
Chapter 18
Cobra
Cobra leaned back from Ashleigh, watching the shock play over her face. His whole body was taut with rage.
He’d known the instant he saw the little girl. Ashleigh had never told him how old her daughter was. Hell, she hadn’t even told him her name. And as soon as he pulled up at the place he saw why.
Maybe it was the way she looked, maybe it was her age that gave it away. But as soon as he laid eyes on her he just knew, deep in his core, that he was seeing his daughter for the first time. The bright red hair—that had Ashleigh written all over it. But he saw himself in the blue eyes, in the shape of her cheeks, and the set of her mouth.
But it was more than just the way she looked. It was something deeper, too, a connection that he couldn’t name or describe. In a way it was similar to how he felt about Ashleigh, but so much stronger. He hadn’t even spoken to Penny, but he knew he’d do his damnedest to give her the world. He’d bring her the moon if she asked him.
He’d missed six years of her life. And if were up to Ashleigh, he’d miss the rest of it too. He was her father, for fuck’s sake. Where did she get off pretending otherwise? If she didn’t want him around, if she thought that he would be a bad influence, fine, so be it. But to not even tell him—that was another level entirely.
God, it was a good thing he’d decided to follow her. He’d hesitated when she’d first taken off, thinking that she’d come to her senses and come back eventually. He’d even thought to himself, after he’d gotten his initial anger under control, that he had acted like a complete ass, and that a half-hearted apology wasn’t going to smooth things over.
But knowing that Jasper’s guys could have been out there, just waiting
for a chance to get Ashleigh alone so they could haul her off and torture the location of the stash out of her, he decided that he wasn’t going to take any chances. He figured he’d follow her and her daughter home and ask for a chance to explain himself.
He would have tried to reason with her. But this whole situation was too delicate, and if he’d been unable to convince her to go back home with him, he knew he probably would have had to coerce her into going somehow. He wasn’t going to lose her, not again. He’d given up his whole life to protect her once, and he wasn’t about to stop short now.
BAD INFLUENCE: A Dark Bad Boy Romance Page 41