His Baby Agenda

“You said something earlier.”

“I said a lot of things earlier.”

He was being flip. She wished she could let this go. But then what? Would she just walk away and leave? The eighteen-year-old Gabi would have done that. But she wasn’t that girl.

“Stop it. You know I want to talk about your quest for revenge.”

“You know that I want to find the person who framed me and Hunter.”

“I do. But finding him and getting revenge are two very different things,” she said.

“I expect you to feel that way. Don’t worry about my wrath. It won’t hurt you.”

How could he say that? “You don’t really believe that, do you?”

“Yes.”

“You’re wrong.”

“How do you figure? Once I have found the person I will alert the authorities and expose them for what they did.”

That didn’t sound so bad. “What exactly do you mean?”

“They lived free of the accusations and scrutiny that Hunter and I did. They have been walking around without any consequences while Stacia’s murder has gone unsolved. I want justice for her. I will do whatever I have to that person. Once we find out who it is—”

“If you do that, Conner will live with the consequences,” she said. “There’s no way for you to do that and keep the source of the leak from the media.”

“And I guess I’m supposed to just—what? What do you think would be the right choice? I’m happy to listen. But I am tired of living with the stigma of something I didn’t do.”

“Then let it go. Put it behind you.”

“How can I?” he asked, rolling out of bed and striding over to his closet. He pulled on his robe and then turned to face her. “You had a small taste of what I put up with when the commissioners didn’t want my money for the playground. But that’s just part of it.”

“I know. I’m sorry. But how will getting revenge help?”

“It will make me feel a hell of a lot better,” Kingsley said.

But she doubted it. “Whoever it is...”

“We don’t know yet. Chuck remembers seeing our coach at all of the parties where the women were drugged. And Hunter has been trying to talk to him but he’s sick. Coach Gainer—he wouldn’t have been drinking at the parties, so he would know something. He used to stop by to congratulate us when we won.”

She put her head in her hands. This had been a mistake. Why couldn’t she just have stayed quiet?

There was a chance that Kingsley wouldn’t get his revenge at all, because finding out who had killed Stacia was proving harder than they’d ever anticipated. And she’d been looking for just a short time. He’d been doing this for years.

“Come back to bed,” she said. “I’m sorry I started this tonight.”

“I’m not. I know it’s on your mind,” he said.

He stayed where he was.

“You have a point about the past. Maybe we should end this now. Before you are affected any more by it than you already have been.”

She was tempted to say yes. To get out of his bed and walk out the door. It would be easier. But the truth was she’d been affected by that incident for her entire adult life. If Stacia hadn’t been killed, and Kingsley hadn’t been arrested, they would have dated and probably broken up. She would have graduated and gone to do something else. Without that incident, without that one night that had changed everything, her life would be different.

Not better.

Just different.

“I don’t want to leave.”

“Are you sure?”

There was something in his voice that warned her things were about to change.

“Yes.”

He didn’t move and she got out of bed and padded lightly over to him. In her heart she knew that she wanted to fix this, but was beginning to believe that she’d never be able to.

He had to let go if they were going to move on.

She put her arms around him and rested her head against his chest. He stood there stiffly for another minute and then wrapped his arms around her. He rested his head on top of hers and she thought that this should feel more like coming home, but in her heart of hearts she knew the truth. This felt like goodbye.

* * *

Kingsley’s dreams were troubled nightmares where he was left alone. He rolled to his side and jerked awake when he felt Gabi next to him.

Everything was unraveling out of his control and he knew it was only a matter of time before she left him. He couldn’t see a future for them. In fact, he never had. Not really. Only now could he admit it.