I walked over to Hunt to look at his phone, and sure enough, he was right. Titus King’s face looked euphoric as Banner ran across the field toward him.
How sweet.
Banner was in the military. A SEAL. He hadn’t been home for a long time.
“Okay,” I breathed. “We’ll see you in the morning.”
CHAPTER 23
Not going to lie, I’m a little bit of a pain in the ass.
-T-shirt
SIN
Morning came with our house brimming to the gills with people.
My brothers. My niece and nephew. Blaise’s parents. Blaise’s brother and his family. Blaise’s grandfather and grandmother.
Lynn and Six, Trouper and Beckham, Swayze and Trick, Hunt and Wyett, Zach, Laric and Bruno.
They were all there, new family and old, waiting for Titus King to show his face.
Which he was doing right at that moment.
“He looks scared as fuck,” Lynn mused as he watched with me as a big behemoth of a man walked up the length of the path toward us.
The rest of our family was at our back inside, while Blaise, Lynn, Shiloh, Tatum, and I were on the front porch with the little girl.
The moment Titus’ eyes landed on the girl, he froze solid.
His eyes were enraptured as he stared.
Then, I shit you not, he placed his hand over his heart and pressed there as if it was actually hurting.
I didn’t blame him.
If I’d learned that I was a father after such a long time of that baby being on this earth, I would feel sick at heart, too.
He swallowed hard, then bridged the gap between us.
It’d been two days since the two of them were tested for DNA, and just this morning the results had come back.
Titus King was Annabelle’s father.
He hadn’t wasted a single second getting here.
In person.
He’d even missed a game to do it.
When he got close, Annabelle lifted her head and stared at her father.
That’s when the biggest man I’d ever seen started to cry.
• • •
“She sold her own daughter?” Titus asked quietly, trying not to wake the baby in his arms. “What kind of person does that?”
“According to her,” Tatum said. “She fell into the wrong crowd when she moved here. Got hooked up with Thelma and Harold Barnes. An elderly couple that kidnapped children and sold them to the highest bidder. They were small-time, not very big in the grand scheme of things, but the moment that Ames met them, she became just as entrenched in the filth as they were. Even if she didn’t do much besides doing the transporting, or so she claims.”
“And the two people that were going to traffic my kid. What of them?” Titus sounded calm, but the way he was swallowing every three seconds as if trying to get it past a lump in his throat was telling.
“Going to be charged with at least two counts of kidnapping of a minor under seven. Felonies in their own rights. As well as a slew of other charges that’ll get them the rest of their lives in a penitentiary.” Tatum paused.
“That’s not enough,” Titus growled, making the girl in his arms stir.
“No,” I agreed. “But look at it this way. Prison isn’t kind to people that hurt kids. There’s not much that is frowned upon there, but anything to do with children? Let’s just say their lives won’t be kind.”
I’d seen proof of that with my own fucking eyes.
Ever seen a man’s dick chopped off using a sharpened spoon? I had.
And I’ll tell you what. That was one crime that I hadn’t had a problem with.
Titus met my eyes. “Good.”
• • •
“I’m tired.” Blaise all but fell into me as she curled up into bed beside me.
I grinned and pulled her close.
“A lot of excitement for today,” I agreed. “And we haven’t gotten much sleep in the last forty-eight hours.”
“Agreed,” she mumbled, rubbing her face against my bare chest. “Our baby growing up in a world like this terrifies me.”
I tightened my arm around her, then turned so that I could look into her eyes.
“Do you know how many men are sleeping on our living room floor right now that would be willing to tear this world apart, piece by piece, for that little baby growing inside of you?” I asked.
She sniffled. “Yeah.”
“I’m not going to say that everything will be perfect for our kid, but I can guaran-damn-tee you that she or he will never be harmed. There are too many men that’ll move hell itself to make sure that doesn’t ever happen,” I told her.
“You can’t make promises like that. But I see where you’re coming from.” She ran her nose along my pec. “I’m just scared. This world is scary.”
“Life is scary,” I agreed. “But we’ll make it safe for her. I promise you.”
“Her?” she teased.
I shrugged. “I have a feeling.”
My feeling was proved correct four weeks later when our sonogram confirmed it. It turned out that I couldn’t wait for our baby to be born to find out the sex afterall.