Rugged Daddy

“Your assumption?”

“Hudson called me very early this morning before I called you. He told me I had to stay extra vigilant and keep laying low. Keep Audrey from school. Only go into town when necessary. He wouldn’t give me specifics, but my gut is telling me that’s what’s going on. I think this investigation and this mounting case has led the Mafia straight to me.”

I felt sick, not morning sickness kind of sick, but aching in my heart kind of sick. This was not the conversation I’d expected to have, not even close. Now, the conversation I’d been afraid of having was the conversation I wished would’ve taken place. I pulled my phone from my back pocket and opened it up, ordering an Uber to come and get me. I wasn’t staying here. I wasn’t staying in a cabin in the woods with some man I didn’t know who was being hunted down by the Mafia. If that was even the truth. He’d lied about everything. His vacation. His name. Everything.

I heard his feet crossing the floor, and I immediately took two steps back.

“Heather.”

“Stop,” I said.

“I know it’s a lot, and I know you don’t want to hear this, but you have to believe me, and you have to trust me.”

“Trust,” I said sarcastically. “Sure. Yeah. Okay.”

“You’re in danger, Heather.”

“What the hell were you thinking?” I asked.

He stopped in his tracks as I slid my phone back into my pocket.

“The only thing I can think about right now is the first time we ever met. The coffee shop. When you told me your name and your daughter’s name and fed me all these stories and anecdotes and … and things about you. Was any of that true?”

“The only thing that’s changed is my name, Heather.”

“And the fact that you’re being hunted. You didn’t think that was important to take into consideration before bringing an innocent unborn child into the mix?”

I saw him wince like I’d slapped him across the face.

“Are you really that selfish?” I asked. “Or are you simply that thick? Because no well-adjusted man in his right mind would ever dream of bringing another innocent child into his family—surrogate or not—with the Mafia on his tail. Now, I’m in danger because I’m connected to you. Intimately. And not once did you stop to think about how this would affect me. About how having a child with me would affect my world if all of this came crashing down around you. Did you ever consider that, Andr—Cameron?”

I curled my lips between my teeth. I couldn't even argue with him without calling him by someone else’s name.

“It doesn’t change that you’re in danger. You’re carrying my child, Heather, which means it’s my responsibility to protect you,” he said.

“Well, if you think I’m staying cooped up in this house with you, then you’re wrong. I don’t even know who you are. You’re a stranger to me.”

“Nothing’s changed about me. I’m still the same man.”

“Are you? Because the man you just described isn’t the man I know at all.”

I heard a car pulling up in the distance, and I watched Cameron tense. His shoulders pulled taut, and his head whipped around to look out the window. Clearly, he’d been living under the gun, or threat of one rather, for too long. He was seeing danger that wasn’t there.

I shook my head and walked over to the table, grabbing my purse. Maybe it was the pregnancy that had him so sensitive, exaggerating the extent the Mafia would go—and over a beating? He hadn’t killed anyone or stolen from them. He’d said himself it had been over two years. The danger had to be in the past by now or at least extremely far-fetched. No one had any reason to find out about me, but if there really was danger, it would only increase the more I stayed around Cameron.

“I need you to stay here until I know who that is,” he said.

“It’s my Uber,” I said. “I’m going home.”

“Heather, you can’t. It’s not safe for you any longer.”

“And who’s fault is that?” I asked. “I need you to leave me alone. Stop calling. Stop texting. Just give me some time to process the absolute insanity you’ve thrown my way.”

His hand came down on my wrist as I opened the front door, but I yanked away from him again.

“Let me at least drive you home,” he said. “To make sure you get there safely.”

“I’m good,” I said. I hesitated only a moment, thinking of Audrey, but she’d been with him all along, and she was safe. I had no doubt he’d protect her. It was just too bad she needed protection more from the way she had to live than from some distant fear of Mafia backlash.