On The Ropes (Tapped Out 3)

“Obviously, I didn’t know him, either.” He began walking away, his footsteps echoing on the concrete. “I’ll be waiting outside.”

Figuring he needed a moment, I gave it to him. Then I walked outside into the sunshine to reclaim my life.

Twenty-Seven

“Dammit.” I clicked off my phone and threw it in the stupid birdbath I’d broken. “I can’t get a hold of anyone. Dante’s phone is going straight to voicemail, and so is Marco’s.”

I’d informed Dante where we were camped out just in case he happened to find Carly, but hope on that score was growing dimmer with every hour of no contact.

I couldn’t lose her. I just fucking couldn’t.

“Do you expect either of them to go to confession?”

Fox’s mild question made me stifle a snarl. After pulling my whole sordid life story out of me, he’d gone in to check on Mia a few times, and suggested we call the police if the calls to Carly’s cell phone weren’t answered by the end of the day. He’d told her about the dog—and then I had—and she’d glared at us and shook her head.

“She’s eighteen, and we have a note. She must want to start over someplace new with the baby.”

The baby Mia either refused to connect with me, or refused to think about the origin of, period.

I really didn’t want to think about the origin of it either. Even hours later, I couldn’t begin to wrap my head around its existence. Someone upstairs must be having a grand laugh at my expense.

Or maybe downstairs.

“I expect that I can’t fucking sit around here all day and do nothing.” I shoved my fingers through my hair. “At least Jenna’s back home, safe.”

“Yeah. Maybe now Slater will stop leaving me messages that it’s all my fault for bringing a ‘wolf into our circle’.” He raised his eyebrows at me. “Dude, you sure cause a fuckton of problems.”

I rose to pace the few feet around the patio. I couldn’t go back into that stuffy, airless building and lock myself inside with Mia’s pain and confusion any more than I could stand around out here and do nothing. It wasn’t the way I was wired.

“Maybe we should call the police.” My statement surprised both of us. “Someone w

ith resources needs to be looking for her, and goddammit, that’s not me. I’ve been cut off from every network I ever had access to for years, and even if I could use the Andrettis’ contacts, this may be their work. The police are better than nothing.”

“Mia blames herself, thinks she drove Carly away somehow. So she won’t want the police, and right now, I have to side with her. Not because I don’t want to call them, but because she’s right. Carly’s an adult, and we have a note in her handwriting. Until more time has passed, there’s no reason for the police to think she’s in danger.”

“If more time passes, she could be—” I stopped and swore. I wouldn’t say it. Ever. No matter what.

“This isn’t what happened to Emilia,” he said gently.

I balled my hands into fists and pressed them into my eyes. “No. For damn sure, it’s not. She’s coming back here, and if she really is…if she really is…”

“Pregnant? She is. I saw the stick. I held her while she cried.”

The pain in my chest far exceeded the one in my jaw. “She cried?”

“She’s eighteen and scared out of her mind. Of course she cried. But she didn’t stay crying. She got right back up and did what she needed to do.”

“Which is what, exactly?”

“Not have an abortion,” he said quickly, taking a guess at my thoughts. “You must’ve gathered from her note that she decided to have the baby. But she went back to work and school, and she got back to her life. She wasn’t depressed the last time I saw her, or if she was, I didn’t realize it. She’s a strong girl.”

“Yes. She is.” So much stronger than I’d ever given her credit for. And I couldn’t even be angry at her for not telling me she’d discovered she was pregnant, because I’d brought her into a world that was so dark and dangerous her first thought was to protect her child.

My child.

“You haven’t done the usual panicky guy thing about making noises the kid might not be yours, so I’m guessing you were…active enough with her for you to have no doubt.” Fox looked away as if he wanted to be anywhere but there.

“It’s mine,” I said quietly. “I don’t believe she was with another, but even if she was, it would still be mine. As she’s mine.” Swallowing deeply, I sat beside him on the rock-cut wall that bordered the patio. “The way we got together—it wasn’t good. We were forced into a situation by some of the men I was with and there’s a chance that was what led to this pregnancy.”