chapter Thirty
How Could You
Toby
Two months later…
Funny how when you make up your mind, the Universe seems to start making moves for you. My dad decided to stick me with an out of state bounty. With so many hands scattered, I couldn’t wiggle my way out of it.
It was supposed to be a quick job. I figured I could leave my family at Wyatt’s, with Nellie. Just for the day or two it would take me. I didn’t expect it to take me four days.
The asshole almost gave me the slip, landing my ass in Utah before I collared him. I was on my way home when I got the call from Ry. I mean, literally, on my way home. I was in route to Wyatt’s to pick Kamara and the kids up.
I still can’t shake the looks of shock and disappointment; my father and Braxton wore as Ry held my son in his arms trying to soothe him. It’s so clear that TJ is my son. He’s a mix of Kamara and me.
There’s no mistaking those golden eyes. The copper brown hair is another giveaway. It’s not as light as mine, but the red strands mixed with brown are a dead giveaway.
However, I think I’d take my father’s look of disappointment over my mother’s reaction any day. I’m still reeling over how she stumbled back, when we walked into the door. My father had to rush to her side.
Her eyes bounced between a sleeping TJ’s face and mine. I’ve never seen my mother speechless. I didn’t have time to explain. I had to call Wyatt and Noah. Now, Wyatt and Noah have ended the call, looking like they’re ready to kill me and I can feel my mother’s eyes glued on me.
I’m too much of a coward to look at her. I keep my eyes on my son, as he plays with my shirt, content in his own little world. I wish my life were as simple once again.
Whack. Whack. Whack.
My mother slaps me in the back of my head three times. She reaches for TJ, handing him to my father, kicks off her shoes, balls the hem of her skirt in her left hand, and toss a fist at my face with her right.
I’m too stunned to move out of the way. I just sit there and take it. I don’t know what else to do.
“I raised, ye. I dinna. I’m your mum. Ye keep not one, but two wee babes for me? I birthed ya big ass. I pushed ye out,” she snarls as she dances around me, slapping me upside the head once again, for good measure.
“Mom,” Braxton calls, but doesn’t dare get in her way.
“Ye, mind ya own fucking business, ya little shit,” she points a finger at Brax. Her accent has slipped into being so thick, I don’t think anyone outside our family would understand her.
I know she’s pissed because her Northern Ireland accent is mixing with Dad’s Scottish one. Dad may not speak with an accent much, since being ops, but it comes out once in a while. With Mom, her Irish accent is always there, but she always slips into the two when she’s at her limit.
“Holy shit,” Ry gasps.
“How could ye? Dinna I make it so ye can come to me? Haven’t I made it so ye can count on me? I dinna ken. I just dinna ken why,” my mother nearly sobs.
I feel my own heart breaking. I finally snap out of shock, as I hear my father cooing to my son. I stand, and my mother jumps back, balling her fists, as if I would dare try to hit her back. I think that pains me more.
I feel like she doesn’t know me anymore. That’s the only reason she would ever think I would strike her. I reach out wrapping my arms around my mother, drawing her trembling body to my chest.
I know she’s trembling with anger and not fear. I’ve hurt her more than I ever could have imagined. When her arms wrap my waist and she buries her face in my chest, I’m completely shattered.
Cassidy Black is the strongest woman I know. I can count the times I’ve actually seen her cry. I’m ripped to shreds knowing I’m the source of this second time.
“I didn’t do it to hurt you. I never wanted to hurt you,” I choke out. “You did everything right, mom. You did everything you were supposed to. Believe me, if I could have, you would have been the first one I would have come to.”
Mom lifts her face to look up at me. Her brows furrow at my words. I watch her eyes search mine. I see the moment her anger shifts from me, as her face clouds over.
“Call me brothers, Joe. Someone’s fucking with my boy,” she orders, not looking away from my face.
“Lass, I’ve placed the right calls. I’m not as dense as Toby here seems to think. I missed the twins, but I got wind of most of what he’s been up to,” my dad grumbles, while giving me a knowing look.
Mom spins out of my arms to face my father. Her hands going to her hips. They don’t say a word out loud, but I can see the argument my parents are silently having.
“We work for the Naidoo family. Toby was a boy when we took the case. I placed him with Kwäzē, as a companion. If anything were ever to happen, Toby would have known what to do. When Kwäzē was skipped a grade. I reassigned Felix the task, he’d already been working on it, handling some technical things.
“They were babes,” mom cuts him off.
“Aye, but I taught them well, early. Kamara arrived shortly after and her father asked that I have Toby keep an eye on her,” my father responds. “Wyatt used to be a liaison for getting information to the king.”
“We be a bounty and private investigation firm. When did ye decide we’d be going into security?” My mother says with a deathly calm.
My dad sighs, kissing the top of TJ’s head. My heart squeezes in my chest. I don’t even think he knows he just did that. My dad has just taken to his grandson without question.
“We aren’t necessarily their security. That was a favor I did for Elijah. Our firm makes sure that no one else can find them. We were hired to make sure that anyone like us could never locate them,” Dad explains.
My head is spinning with this new information. I stumble back to take my seat. All this time, I’ve felt so alone, and confused on what to do. My father knew about the Naidoo family all along. I once thought it was possible, but I’d just shrugged it off.
“You knew I was looking for her. You knew she’d moved out by the beach house,” I say, as my thoughts try to pull together.
“We need to focus on getting Kamara, Nellie, and your daughter back. Once everyone is safe, you and I can tell the family all of our secrets,” Dad says firmly.
Wow, just fucking, wow.