Cease Fire (Blackbridge Security 9)

“I don’t need to hear about the ways you take advantage of your woman,” I mutter, pinching the bridge of my nose in frustration.

“I’m not taking advantage,” he says with a smirk as if he’s recalling some memory.

“Puff’s suggestion doesn’t seem like it leaves much room for consent,” I grumble.

His smile grows wider. I swear this guy is kinkier than any other man I’ve met, and I get the feeling that Whitney is his perfect other half.

Silence fills the room as Wren turns back to his computer. His fingers work over the keys, and I’m waiting, wondering just what he’s going to pull up to call me out on my lie.

Instead of some video footage or transaction, it seems he’s just getting some work done.

“If that’s all you needed,” I mutter turning back toward the door to leave.

“Brooks has been busy with Bremen, and I meant to ask him, but you’re here.”

“What?”

“How’s Baby Morgan?”

He keeps his back to me as he rips my heart from my chest and stomps it into the floor.

I hadn’t even considered the ramifications of Jules’s lies.

If Brooks Morgan is seen as the baby’s father, it would only make sense for the child to have his last name.

“The baby is fine,” I say before tugging open the door and leaving his office.

I, on the other hand, am not fine. I’m anything but fine.

I feel like my chest is caving in as I cross the breakroom, not making eye contact with any of the guys there, and bolt from the room. My office doesn’t offer the same sanctuary it did in the past.

My child is going to have another man’s last name.

If the lies continue, my child is going to call another man daddy.

Secrets are one thing, but this truth has the power to fucking destroy me.

I’ll be on the sidelines watching instead of being the one my child reaches for.

I’ll be fucking Uncle Kit.

I won’t coach T-ball or attend parent/teacher conferences because it would be weird for Jules’s best friend’s brother to do such things.

My heart is pounding in my chest.

I’m mad, livid actually.

And I was at the farmers’ market when she shoved me away like I was some drunk creep in a bar, hitting on her after she’d already told me no a dozen times as well, but that pain doesn’t compare to my newest revelation.

I’ve put distance between us because of her actions, a punishment of sorts that I have no doubt has landed on deaf ears. It gets me no closer to my end goal. I’m hurting myself by not going to her house. I’d adjusted to the routine of seeing her every day, and I haven’t slept well since last Saturday. I’m lovesick, and I can admit to it. I’m not ashamed for loving her despite the way she treats me. I felt a hint of the same coming from her despite her quickness to cover it up.

I woke to the woman crying on my chest, her pain soaked up by my t-shirt. She’s not an emotionless, evil woman. She’s just torn between telling the truth and her fear of Beth hating her.

I’m not sure of many things regarding this situation, but I do know that I can’t be upset if my kid ends up with another man’s last name because I gave up.

If I go down that way, I’ll be swinging in the fight until the very last second.

I sure hope Jules Warren missed me because she’s about to have all of my fucking attention.

Chapter 24

Jules

Mondays usually suck, but I spent so much time after talking with Beth on Saturday getting work done, today was actually laid back.

I used my job to replace all the thoughts I had of Kit, but now that I’m caught up and even a little ahead, I’m left in the same predicament I was over the weekend, sitting here wondering how I could get the man over here without looking like a desperate wench.

I know I need to apologize to him. I know exactly why he’s mad. I’ve known him long enough and been around to understand why he thinks he has a right to be mad. He knows we can’t tell anyone. Had Becca and Jason suspected there was something going on between Kit and me, the entire family would’ve known before we drove out of the parking lot.

I may be in the family text thread, but I know they’d start a separate one just to gossip about what I’ve done. They’d all decide as a unit that I was persona non grata, and then I’d lose them all.

Kit would possibly fight for me for a while, remind them that I’m family, but Anders, probably still pissed about the dental issues I caused, would remind him that blood is thicker than water, and Kit would cast me out as well.