“I couldn’t even say anything while she stood in front of me and told me we were done, that she was marrying the guy in the other room. She said what a great fuck I was and how she got what she needed from me. She rubbed her stomach at that point, but I didn’t get it – not until later. I was just trying to comprehend the half-million dollar diamond in my pocket and how it was supposed to look on her finger. I think I must have told her I wanted to marry her because she laughed and said there was no way Daddy would let her marry someone with my background. She said I wasn’t even close to being what she would consider marrying and that I needed to wise up and realize my place in her society. She pointed down at her feet when she said that.”
“I ended up just walking out,” I continued. “I guess I was in shock or something. I walked back to my apartment, which was a good two hours by foot, trying to understand what had just happened. I kept replaying the whole thing in my head until I remembered exactly what she had said – that she got what she needed. At the time, I must have thought she was just talking about the sex, but the image of her rubbing her stomach kept flickering around in my head. I had just gotten home when I realized exactly what she meant – she was pregnant, and the baby was mine.”
She didn’t make a sound, but Raine moved over so she was sitting very close to me and placed her hand against the small of my back before moving it slowly up to my neck and into my hair. She leaned against me lightly.
“I went kind of ballistic at that point, I guess,” I went on. Moving through the rest of this fucked up story had to be quick, or I would never get through it. “I trashed my apartment before jumping in my car and going about ninety back to her place. It was too late – they were already gone. I got on her computer and found out they had bought two tickets to Italy and were leaving that night.”
“That’s when John Paul called,” I said. “She had called him and I guess told him some of what happened. He told me to stay right where I was, and he’d come to get me.”
“I didn’t realize you knew John Paul then,” Raine said.
“Yeah, I knew him,” I answered. “John Paul was Landon’s other fighter, but that’s a whole different story.”
“I’m sorry,” Raine said. Her fingers began to massage the back of my neck. “Go on.”
“I wasn’t about to listen to him and stick around. I wanted to stop her from getting on the plane. I thought if I could just talk to her and tell her how much I needed her and how I was going to retire and that I had a plan for us…I thought if she would just listen…just for a minute. I didn’t get the chance because John Paul must have been pretty damn close to her place when he called. I was backing out of her driveway, and he slammed into the back of my Ferrari, the bastard. We ended up in a fist fight, and it’s probably a miracle one of us didn’t kill the other. Maybe we would have, but Landon pulled up, got out of his car, hit me in the side with a Taser, and drove off again. John Paul knocked me unconscious and hauled me back home.”
“Over the next week, I talked to a few people and figured it all out. Ian, the guy she was going to marry – he couldn’t have kids, and Jillian’s daddy wouldn’t let her marry someone without the ability to give him an heir. She’d lose her trust fund if she didn’t have a baby. She wanted me to father it because I was pretty, according to one of her girlfriends, and she heard I was strong and smart. I must not have been too smart since I was obviously stupid enough to eat what she was feeding me.”
I was silent for a while, thinking about all the people who seemed to know what was going on, all those who left me in the dark as I fell for her lies. I had been relieved to find out John Paul hadn’t known anything about it – they had been keeping him in the dark as well. I didn’t find out until much later, but Franks had known from the beginning and had actually arranged for her to be in Colombia to get started on her plan.
"What happened to them?" Raine asked.
"I have no idea," I told her. "Once I had it figured out, I decided to track her down, but Franks forbid me from doing so.”
“Who is Franks?”
“Oh…um…well,” I hesitated. Telling her who Franks was would be a mistake – a big one. “He was one of the guys in the organization. Kind of a…um…you know – he was important, I guess.”
I changed the subject quickly.
“I didn't care what he said and was going to find her anyway, but Landon stopped me."
"How?"
"By putting a gun to my head."
I grabbed my boarding pass and started heading to the international departure gates. When I turned the corner, I found myself staring directly at him.
"Get in here," he commanded.
He pulled me by one arm into a storage area.
"I have to go after her, Landon," I said frantically. "You don't understand. She's..."
"Pregnant, yes, I know."
“Did everyone fucking know what was happening but me?” I screamed.
“Keep your voice down, dickhead,” Landon snarled. “Not everyone, but plenty of people. I told you not to get attached to her. If I had realized you would be stupid enough to ride her bareback, I might have said something more convincing.”
I heard the soft click of the Glock in his hand, just there to make the point.
“She can’t just walk away from me like this,” I insisted. “She just isn’t thinking about what she’s doing.”