Deke
Whatever the hell I expected to find when I arrived back at Sophie’s, seeing her car packed with various big tote bags and her bent over the back passenger seat oblivious to my arrival hadn’t been my first guess.
What threw me more was the look of abject fear on her face when she’d turned to confront me.
Pulling the passenger door open as wide as possible, I leaned in to see what was inside.
A toddler, wearing a matching t-shirt and shorts in navy with white piping, was snugly strapped in an infant car seat.
A little boy.
With light brown hair.
And gray eyes.
My lungs seized in my chest, refusing to expand.
I stared at the child before me.
Not caring about the burning sensation filling my chest as a rushing sound filled my ears.
My son.
This little boy was my son.
A rush of joy and wonder so blindingly potent I nearly fell on the ground filled my body.
I didn’t know what I was doing or how I was supposed to act.
But one thing I knew for sure.
In that second, I fell in love with a tiny little person.
I blew out a whoosh of air, my chest heaving from however long I had held my breath.
Lifting my hand, I tentatively ran the tip of my finger over the face of a dog embroidered on the front of his shirt.
The boy glanced at me, his gaze wide and inquisitive, as if wondering what this giant was before him, and the next second, he reached out a tiny hand and latched on to my finger. “No, pleeze,” he said, but judging by his happy giggle, ‘No’ could easily mean yes in his eyes.
He was a stranger to me right now, but that would change.
“Hey there, little buddy.” I undid the straps of his harness and carefully, so very carefully, lifted my son in my arms to nestle him against my chest.
No words could describe the heart-stopping wonder of holding him for the first time.
“What’s his name?” I didn’t take my eyes off my child.
“Deke, I…” Sophie’s faltering attempt to explain was like a pin to the fragile bubble keeping my anger in check.
“His name,” I repeated, this time making it an undeniable command.
“Noah.”
“Noah.” I repeated softly. My son gazed up at me, recognizing his name.
I glanced down to Sophie as she wiped away tears from her cheeks. I couldn’t begin to imagine what she must be feeling. Jesus, I was running through a gauntlet of emotions myself, but judging by the way her gaze softened whenever she gazed at Noah, it was clear she loved her son.
Our son.
I made myself promise to honor that love for Noah as over the next couple of hours we dealt with the immediate aftermath of my discovery.
One thing was certain.
Nobody would keep me from my son ever again.
“We’ll bring from the car what is absolutely essential for Noah the next hour. Neither of us is leaving the house until I have the full story of how this happened.”
“Fine.” She opened the front passenger door and pulled out a woman’s handbag and a large blue canvas bag with various zippers and compartments. “This has everything we need in an emergency.” Looking back at Noah’s infant seat, she then flicked her gaze to me. “You’ll need to grab Gordon, his orange teddy. He takes Gordon with him everywhere.”
“Right.” I snagged the teddy and settled the toy between my chest and Noah, who chatted happily to himself as he squeezed his furry friend. There was so much I had to get my head around. Like the fact his favorite toy was an orange teddy named Gordon. I wanted to thank Sophie for sharing that information, but at the same time I resented the fact she had known and I hadn’t.
The bitter truth was I would be reliant on her sharing more facts about our son.
Following her up to the house, I waited while she unlocked the front door and followed behind her as she entered and headed for the living room.
A play area with a box of toys was set up next to the sofa. I lowered Noah to the floor, and he immediately started setting up brightly colored building blocks into a mini skyscraper.
That activity lasted about half a minute until he decided to sort through his box of toys and put them in piles according to some secret formula in his head.
“He’s got walking mastered.” I sat in one of the easy chairs and watched as Noah walked to all the different piles of toys and studied their contents.
“He was confident on his feet by twelve months.” Sophie dropped the bags beside the chair opposite mine and sat.
“That’s good?” I had no fucking idea, but I wanted to learn as much as I could.
“Yes,” her smile was short-lived but genuine. “Some children are taking their first steps at that age, but Noah seems to be ahead of the game in some physical milestones. He’s tall and big for his age, too.”
Another physical characteristic he got from me?
The words were unsaid, but I’m guessing Sophie knew they were hanging in the air.
“Noah’s got most of his teeth, too. We’re just waiting on his second molars to come through. He gets a little grumpy sometimes with teething, but on the whole, he’s been a champ.” She rubbed her hands back and forth over her denim-covered thighs. “His hearing is fine. We had a free check at the local pharmacy a month ago.”
“Sophie, what you’re sharing is interesting, and I’m going to want to hear all about it later, but you telling me about a free hearing check for Noah isn’t what I meant about getting the full story.”
She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, she met my gaze squarely. “Ask your questions.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were pregnant?”
She straightened in her chair. “I tried to.”
“How hard?” I shot back.
“Numerous times.” Ignoring my disbelieving stare, she continued. “Rob knew the name of your employer, Marshall Security in Denver. I rang them three times and left messages for you to call me, that I needed to speak to you, and that it was important, vitally important.”
“I didn’t get those messages.”
“That doesn’t mean I didn’t call. You can check my phone records if you don’t believe me.”
“When exactly did you call?”
“Your dad’s funeral was the twenty-sixth of February. I called the end of April when I had the results of the blood tests confirming I was pregnant.” She leaned forward and pointed her finger, stabbing the air. “And Rob called around the same time when I didn’t hear back from you.”
April. Going back roughly two and a half years now. Marshall Security had a smaller staff then. There’d been a receptionist that was fired sometime in the May—or was it June?—for being incompetent. Plus, she’d tried to date all of the guys working for Lance, including me.
A sickening feeling developed in the pit of my stomach.
“Sophie, I swear, I didn’t get those messages. I can tell you Lance Marshall fired the receptionist who was employed at that time for incompetence.”
“I believe you, Deke.” She shrugged, her expression mirroring the sadness in her voice. “I always had trouble associating the man I knew to the one who couldn’t be bothered returning my calls. We know each other. Know the kind of people we are. So, yes, I believe you. Just like I hope you believe me when I say I made those calls.” She lifted her chin in a small measure of defiance.
I had no reason to doubt her. Not only was she offering up her phone records, but like Sophie said, I did know her to be a person of character.
Thinking back, I could remember instances where a couple of the girlfriends of Lance’s men had complained of hassles with the receptionist. It was one of the reasons the men were happy when Lance showed her the door.
“Jesus, Soph, I’m sorry. I wish I’d known sooner. I can only apologize for that fucked up situation.” I sat there, shaking my head. One deluded bitch could wreak so much damage. I clenched my fist and imagined smashing it through a wall, the shattering pain in my knuckles as bone hit a hard surface a welcome release.
The caveman existed in all men, and I was no different. Meting out and enduring physical pain was a cathartic experience in some ways.
“Well, okay.” Sophie rose from her chair and held her hands together in front of her like she’d just concluded a meeting with her accountant.
Oh, no, sweetheart. That’s not how we were playing this out.
“Do you have a spare room set up?” I remembered the house had four bedrooms.
“Of course, why?”
“Good. I’d prefer a bed to the sofa.”
Sophie blinked, as if I was talking in a foreign language. “I don’t understand.”
“Let me spell it out for you. There’s a crazy nut job stalking you, and I’m not a fan of that happening. Also, I’ve just found out I have a son who I want to get to know and protect.” I stood and glanced at my watch. “I’ll need a couple of hours to sort some jobs out at the house, and then I’ll bring my stuff over.”
“No,” she said in a whisper, before shaking her head vigorously. “No!” This time she shouted her dislike.
Noah looked up from his toy deliberations and drew his brows together in a frown. “Mommy, yes!”
“See, Noah thinks it’s a good idea.” I ignored her clenched mouth and looked to our son. “Right, buddy?”
Noah smashed a fist through his newest skyscraper creation. “Right, buddy.”
I took that as a ringing endorsement of my plan.
“Deke you can’t stay here.”
“Sophie, either you let me stay here or I’m going to ring Lance Marshall and have my buddies come and put you and Noah in protective custody.”
I would have laughed at the way her mouth dropped at my ultimatum if I hadn’t been serious.
“You can’t just do that.”
“Wanna bet?” I stepped closer, forcing her to retreat until the back of her legs hit the seat of the chair behind her. “You’d be surprised what a private security firm with close links to many government agencies can achieve. Especially when some of those agencies can’t be found in any government directory.”
Sophie dropped her gaze to the floor and sighed, which I took as a sign of her compliance with my plan. The fact was her permission wasn’t essential to me protecting her. Whether she stayed by my side of her own free will or in handcuffs, I didn’t mind either way. In fact, there were times when I preferred to have a pretty lady in cuffs.
But for now, I’d leave that discussion with Sophie for another time.
“See you in a little while, buddy.”
“See ya.” Noah waved before turning back to his toys.
I walked toward the front door, but turned before I reached the foyer. “Oh, Sophie?”
“Yes?” she snapped with more than a little hint of irritation.
“Don’t try to run, babe. I’ll catch you and have you taken to a secure location.” I saw her quick intake of breath. Yep, she had been debating the pros and cons. “Promise me.” I ordered, holding her gaze.
She didn’t look away. “I promise.”
And that had to be enough for me to walk out of here and do what was necessary to ensure I could move in.
Trust worked both ways.