So he’d tailed her to her daughter’s school, making sure to keep his distance, and then across town to the little ice cream place. He’d planned on hanging around the area rather than confronting her in public.
But his plans went out the window as soon as he saw Ashleigh’s daughter. His daughter.
He was having a hard time finding words for Ashleigh.
“Alex, get your hands off me,” Ashleigh repeated. Her voice quavered a little now, though. “This changes nothing. You’re not her father just because you knocked me up. She didn’t need you in her life six years ago, and she doesn’t need you now. And you’re scaring her.”
Cobra tightened his grip on her arm. Like hell he was going to let her walk away now. “You owe me a goddamn explanation,” he spat. “I had every right to know that I have a kid. What’s your excuse, that I wouldn’t be good for her? How the fuck would you know, Ash? You never even gave me a chance.”
“Mommy, I want to go home,” the little girl sobbed.
Cobra tore his eyes away from Ashleigh to look down at her. She was peering around at him from behind Ashleigh, her eyes wide and already wet with tears. Shit. He hadn’t meant to scare her. He dropped his hand from Ashleigh’s arm and backed up a little, trying to de-escalate things a little.
“Your mommy and me are just talking,” Cobra told her, trying to make his tone as gentle as possible.
She cringed back anyway.
“Shh,” Ashleigh soothed her, reaching down to run a hand over her daughter’s hair. “It’s okay, Penny. Everything’s fine.”
“No it’s not!” she sobbed.
Ashleigh’s livid eyes darted back to him. “You asshole! Look what you’ve done. I don’t know where you get off—“
“I didn’t want this,” Cobra cut her off. “But you’re going to explain to me why you kept this from me. It’s not a fucking request. You can both come back to my place—“
“There’s no way I’m going anywhere with you.” Her gaze shifted briefly to the concerned customers that were trying their best to discreetly keep tabs on the argument unfolding between him and Ashleigh. “And unless you want one of these nice families to call the cops on you, you’re going to let me just walk away. I’m going to take my daughter home, and we’re going to keep to ourselves for the next few days while you figure things out. And after that, Alex, after you do what you have to do, I want you out of our life.”
That last bit was what put him over the edge.
“Fat fucking chance. She’s mine, Ash, and I’m not going anywhere. I don’t care if I have to follow you around for the rest of your life. You’re not keeping me from my daughter.”
Penny continued to cry and cower behind Ashleigh.
Ashleigh’s fierce expression wavered a little. “We can’t do this here—“
“You’re right,” Cobra cut in. “You’re coming back with me. Because I want some answers, Ashleigh. I mean, what have you even told her about me? That I didn’t care about her enough to stay? That I’m some kind of a fucking monster—“
“Not here,” Ashleigh bit out, her words half-command, half-plea. “Listen, just calm down, okay? I’ll go back with you. We can talk this out. But I’m not bringing Penny with me.”
“She’s my daughter!” Cobra hissed. “I’m not going to hurt her, Ash. I would die before I hurt her—“
“You’re hurting her now! You’re hurting both of us! I gave you a chance to explain yourself, didn’t I? So you owe me the same. But Penny…I’m going to drop her off at my friend’s. That’s not negotiable, so take it or leave it.”
Cobra met her sharp gaze with his own, waiting for her to falter. But she didn’t.
“Fine,” he conceded. “Go ahead. But I’ll be following close behind. Don’t think for a second that you’re getting out of this.”
One of the dads waiting in line, a heavy-set, balding man with a bloated face, started to approach them, a look of concern on his face. Cobra cursed under his breath. He didn’t need this kind of attention, not now.
“Excuse me, ma’am,” the man began tentatively, “but is everything all right here?” He glared pointedly at Cobra. “Is this man giving you any trouble?”
Ashleigh didn’t even turn to look at the man. “We’re fine,” she stated, still glaring daggers at Cobra. “Come on, Penny. We’re going.”
Cobra watched, seething, as Ashleigh towed his daughter back toward the car.
The man who’d tried to intervene cleared his throat. He looked uncertain of himself, but he forged on ahead anyway. “Listen, sir,” he began, “I don’t know what you think you’re doing here, scaring a nice young lady and her daughter like that, but I suggest you cut it out before you get yourself into real trouble.”
Cobra cocked a brow at him and took a menacing step forward. “Oh really? Hang on a sec, I think I’ve got something in my pocket here for you.” Cobra pretended to rummage around in his jeans for a second before pulling his hand back out, middle finger fully extended and directed at the flustered man.
Several of the parents with young children watching the unfolding spectacle either covered their kids’ eyes or forcefully turned them away from Cobra’s gesture.
“Have a nice day, pal,” Cobra called, still flipping the man off as he strode off toward his bike.
Cobra stayed in the parking lot for a little while, idling on his bike, keeping his eyes on Ashleigh. She sat in the car for a moment, phone pressed her ear, as she made a phone call to who he assumed was the friend who was supposed to watch Penny. From what he could see, she looked pretty upset, maybe even embarrassed. The phone conversation lasted for a few minutes, and it looked like Ashleigh was pleading desperately for most of it.
Cobra resisted the urge to go over and tap on her window. He could straighten her friend out real quick, he thought to himself. Ashleigh was too nice about these things. But he knew that she would never hand her phone over. So he just watched in agitation as she finished up by, from what he could tell, thanking whoever it was profusely.
At last Ashleigh pulled out onto the street. Cobra followed behind her, keeping her close but not too close. She didn’t seem to be trying to lose him at least, he thought grimly. She navigated the streets of the small town relatively calmly, keeping within the posted speed limit and signaling all her turns in advance.
Probably because she knew that things would get ugly if she tried to pull anything with him. He would have sped across town like a maniac, breaking every traffic law there was to break if he had to.
# # #
He had a daughter. The words were powerful to him. It was a sentence he never thought he’d put together, even in his head, and it echoed emptily in him. He didn’t know what to make of it yet or how it would change him. What the hell was fatherhood anyway? What the fuck did he know about raising a kid? Maybe Ashleigh was right. Maybe Penny was better off far away from him.
But that didn’t sit well with him. He didn’t know exactly how this changed things, how this would change him, but he knew with certainty that his life had split again into another distinct chapter, and this one began the moment he saw that darling little redhead who had his blue eyes.
Cobra followed behind Ashleigh all the way to a little suburb in a well-off area. She parked in front of one of the pristine houses—a two-story home with a wrap-around porch and a manicured lawn. Cobra snorted to himself. Of course she’d be dropping Penny off with some well-to-do soccer mom.
He pulled over to the right side of the street in front of a driveway a few houses down. He was far enough away that he was sure he couldn’t be seen from the front door, but close enough that he could still keep an eye on Ashleigh and Penny.
Ashleigh looked nervous. She was restless as she stood before the door. She knocked a few times, then rang the bell before stepping back. She shifted from foot to foot as she stood waiting, constantly glancing back behind her and over toward him.
Penny still looked shaken too. She clutched at Ashleigh’s
arm with both her hands, clinging to her mom like she was drowning and clutching at a lifesaver.
Shit. It wasn’t fair that the first impression he made on Penny was of him yelling and cussing at her mom and coercing her into coming back with him. He should have waited. He should have just kept with his original plan and followed them back to her place, where he could have pulled Ashleigh aside and demanded his explanation without causing a scene.
But he’d never been good at reining in his impulses, and the flood of raw emotion he’d felt in that instant had been like a tidal wave. He doubted he could have stopped himself from acting as he did.
That was just how he was. He didn’t waste time with bullshit, trying to be diplomatic and civil. He told it straight. He let everything out. And maybe that wasn’t a bad thing.
At last someone came to the door. She was heavier than Cobra had imagined she’d be. He’d expected a skinny lady in yoga pants, but the woman who answered the door was an older blond who looked like she’d just swallowed a lemon.
He watched as Ashleigh launched back into what he could only imagine was another round of thanking her for taking Penny on such short notice. God, he thought, couldn’t Ashleigh leave her with someone else? Someone who might actually enjoy having their daughter around?
The woman looked like she asked Ashleigh a question; Ashleigh’s response was to cast another nervous glance back toward him. The blond woman followed her gaze, and as soon as her eyes landed on him, her expression changed from sour to mortified.
Shit, what was she telling him? He could only guess. That he was her scary ex who’d come back to town to harass her, and now she needed a safe place for her daughter to stay again while she dealt with him? Ashleigh probably even believed that wasn’t far from the truth.
He wanted to march straight up there and set the record straight, to tell her that she was the one who’d fucked up this time, that she was the one keeping secrets and trying to cut him out of his daughter’s life.
She hadn’t even let him say one word to Penny. Fuck, he could have written her a note or left her a voice message or something, anything at all. It was better than nothing. Better than her not even knowing that her father was still around. That he might want to be around for her growing up.
No, Ashleigh was defaulting to the story about the deadbeat dad who’d stripped her of her cash and left her on her own. She was painting him as the bad guy when the truth was that he’d done what he’d done for her—to keep her safe and give her the best shot at a good life that he could at the time.
She hadn’t even given him a chance. Hadn’t even thought about it. She’d written him off without a second thought. Well, that wasn’t going to fly anymore, he thought.
Ashleigh hugged Penny tightly before the blond woman ushered their daughter inside, glancing nervously back in his direction. Like he was going to charge after her or something. Cobra shook his head to himself.
Ashleigh squared her shoulders and headed back to her car. Cobra kicked off and rode out behind her, this time keeping the distance between them tight.
They arrived at the house. Cobra barely took the time to stand his bike up before stalking over to her car, fists balled at his side.
Ashleigh slid out of the car, deliberately not looking at him. She hurried up the walk, eyes focused ahead of her, and entered into the house. Cobra wasn’t far behind her.
God, he thought, he was going to give her hell. He couldn’t understand how she could be so selfish, so cruel to him. It was one thing to try to keep him away, but another entirely to pretend that he wasn’t the father, to deny him any place in Penny’s life.
He couldn’t think straight.
Ashleigh moved into the kitchen, lingering over by the table, though she didn’t sit down. Cobra stood across from her, the table separating them.
She didn’t say anything. She just stared fixedly at the surface of the table in front of her, arms folded tightly over her chest, lips pressed together into a thin line.
“So?” he burst out at last. “What the fuck is your answer, Ashleigh? Why didn’t you tell me you were pregnant? Why didn’t you tell me she was mine?”
She lifted her head slowly, her body trembling with rage. “Because,” she snapped, “you left. Because you didn’t come back. You didn’t try to get in touch. So how the fuck was I supposed to tell you, Alex? How the hell was I supposed to know that you even still gave a damn about me?”
Cobra tried to find words for her—angry words that would make her understand just how pissed he was that she’d kept this from him. But he couldn’t find any. He had no explanation.
Chapter 19
Ashleigh
Ashleigh stared at Alex, trying to read his answer in his face. At least he looked a little ashamed, she thought. At least some part of him recognized how this was his fault.
She didn’t want to be here, back at his place. Not after how he’d just acted. All she could think of was the terror on Penny’s face. Her poor little girl didn’t know what was going on, and Ashleigh didn’t know how to reassure her that everything was going to be fine soon. She didn’t know if she believed that herself anymore.
Between the possibility of being captured and tortured to death by some drug lord and dealing with Alex now that he thought he could swoop back into her life as super dad, her future wasn’t looking too optimistic.
And Nancy. The woman had taken one look back at Alex and assumed she knew everything. She thought he was an abusive ex back in town. She even had the gall to suggest she go to the police. And when Ashleigh had tried to explain that it wasn’t exactly like that, Nancy had shut down on that front and promised to take good care of Penny for as long as she needed her to.
That had gotten under Ashleigh’s skin a little. Not only did she feel like Nancy was judging her for letting a guy like Alex back into her life—or for associating with him in the first place—but she resented her snap judgment of Alex. He wasn’t perfect, sure, but he wasn’t a monster.
Not that not being a monster came anywhere close to meeting the criteria for being allowed around Penny. The bar for that was set much higher, and he hadn’t even begun to prove that he could meet her standards.
Alex drew a deep breath. “I told you,” he said through gritted teeth, “I did what I had to do. I ran to keep you safe. I didn’t come back because I didn’t want to chance involving you with Jasper—“
“You stayed away. Fine. But you didn’t even try to contact me once in six fucking years. You couldn’t try to look me up, pass me a message about what had happened? Or did Jasper have all the phones tapped? Oh, or maybe he controls the mail? I mean really, don’t you fucking tell me that there was no way to get in touch. You’ve been gone for six years because you chose to stay gone. Any other excuse is pure bullshit.”
Alex slammed his fist down on the table. “That’s not true. That’s not fucking true. I didn’t know if Jasper was still looking for me—“
“You told me yourself you had guys keeping tabs on things!” Ashleigh shrieked, losing her temper. “You told me the War Devils kept their ears to the ground for you! You couldn’t have had one of them look for me, try to tell me that hey, you weren’t trying to be a complete dick, things just escalated and you had to skip town? Christ, you didn’t even try. What am I supposed to make of that?”
“I didn’t know if you were even here still! I figured you’d moved on. That you had better things to do than waste your life in this small town.”
“Yeah, well, that’s the point, Alex. You didn’t know. You didn’t bother to try to find out. You just assumed and moved on with your life. And I moved on with mine. I had to struggle on my own for years. You know what it’s like to raise a little girl when you have no money, no skills, no family? When the whole town knows your sad backstory? When half of them look down their noses at you because single mothers are welfare leeches and dumb sluts who went out and made poor decisions? You weren’t here for any of that. So you couldn’t kno
w.”
Alex looked away, his shame becoming more and more palpable. “You’re right. I should’ve tried to get in touch, to tell you what had happened. And I don’t know what you went through. But I didn’t know you were fucking pregnant, Ash. I didn’t know I was leaving you to raise Penny all alone. All I knew was that Jasper couldn’t find out about you. I was running for my life. I didn’t know what he was and wasn’t capable of, and I wasn’t taking chances just to get back with you. I thought the only sure thing I could do was disappear. Make a clean break, you know.”
Ashleigh closed her eyes lightly. “You made your choice, and whatever the reasons you had, the end result is that you’re a stranger to our daughter. There’s no going back, no changing the years you weren’t there. The best thing you can do for her, for us, is what you’ve been promising to do for the last week. Figure out where Jasper stashed his shit and give me some peace of mind, so I can sleep at night without having nightmares about some thug with a switchblade laying his hands on Penny.”
BAD INFLUENCE: A Dark Bad Boy Romance Page 42