“I can’t.”
She exploded. “You are unbelievable. And not just with me. Everyone. Your family. Your friends.”
He clamped his lips.
“Why won’t you even try and defend yourself?”
“It wouldn’t matter if I did. You wouldn’t believe it, and I won’t use it as an excuse. I treated you bad. I treated a lot of people bad, and I guess now I need to see if I can make amends.”
The pieces clicked into place. “Oh, I get it now, this whole stalk Renny thing is about you trying to assuage yourself of your guilt. Dumped Renny, let’s apologize and make it all better. Because it’s so simple.” As if words could heal what he’d done. But, if he thought she forgave him, would he leave her alone? “You know what, on second thought, I accept your apology. I forgive you for running off like a coward. You can cross me off your to-do list.” And get out of my life.
“An apology isn’t enough. I want to help you. You shouldn’t be working at the Itty Bitty. You’re better than that.”
She arched a brow. “Too good for a paycheck? I gotta pay my bills like everyone else, Caleb. Some of us have responsibilities.”
A frown drew his brows together. “So I hear. But you shouldn’t shoulder the burden alone. Maybe you should force a certain asshole father to give you some help so you don’t have to degrade yourself working in a place like this.” Caleb swept his hand at the bar behind him.
“My dad died, and even if he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have raised a finger to help me, not after the baby.” A Bible-thumping fellow, Dad had stopped talking to her, and even on his deathbed from a vicious fever he’d caught in the bayou, he turned his head away when she went to say her goodbyes.
“I wasn’t talking about your dad. I was talking about your baby’s father. It takes two to make a kid.”
Her gaze narrowed. Hold on a second… “What about Luke’s father?”
“Way I hear it, the deadbeat skipped out on you and the child.”
“He did.” Was he pulling her leg?
“That’s not right,” Caleb growled.
“No. It isn’t.” Incredulity built in her. Surely she was wrong.
“You should force him to take responsibility for his actions.”
“You really think so?”
He nodded. “Make the asshole pay.”
Sweet baby corn, he really didn’t know. “Well, I’m glad you think so, Caleb, because given you ignored the letters I sent you, I kind of figured you had washed your hands of us.”
He went still and turned pale. “What are you talking about? What was in those letters?”
“First, let me ask you, did you get them?” Judging by the panicked look in his eyes, he had. “Did you even open them?” He didn’t have to answer for her to guess. A bitter laugh erupted. “Nope. You didn’t bother, did you? Just chucked them in the trash, just like you did me and your son.”
Nope, he didn’t know, and she wondered if he’d remember seeing as how he hit the ground pretty hard. She didn’t stick around to find out.
Chapter Five
Your son.
The words echoed long after the last rumble of her car died off. Caleb lay on the ground as if frozen. And perhaps he was. He certainly didn’t feel anything through the numb shield of his shock.
We have a child together.
No, not together. Renny had the child alone. All alone without anyone to rely on. Without telling a soul, not even his brother or mother because she thought he didn’t want it.
Thought he didn’t want her.
“Awwwww!” His yell echoed in the sky, and yet it did nothing to ease the bursting tension in him. His beast throbbed below the surface. Drawn by the rage. Fighting for control.
No.
No!
He had to keep his inner self caged.
But I have a son!
A son he was kept from by secrets and deals and a past he couldn’t escape.
Except hadn’t he escaped?
Caleb had retired from the military unit that had used him. He had escaped his servitude under the crooked rhino sergeant who drew him and others into acts of evil. A certain viperous enemy no longer controlled him.
Caleb couldn’t help but touch the scar on his cheek. The price of slipping the naga’s mesmerizing leash. Escaping the life he’d never wanted had left its mark, but he welcomed it. That scar signified his freedom, but it also reminded him of how it got there.
As if his nightmares would ever let him forget.
A shadow blocked the wan quarter moon struggling to shine in the sky. A blocky figure stood over him. Red slitted eyes flashed. A gator. Big one, too. Wonder if he’s another one of Wes’s cousins? The Mercers bred like bunnies on fertility drugs, popping kids out all over the place.
“There’s no parking or sleeping in the lot overnight,” the behemoth said.
“I seem to have lost my ride.”