“Condition or not, babe, you don’t have a choice,” I told her, stepping toward her until only a few feet separated us.
“Then a favor,” she pleaded.
I narrowed my eyes with a raised brow.
She looked back at the truck through the tinted window. Then, as if it spurred her resolve, she looked back at me with determined eyes. “Don’t let anyone know who Adair’s father is.”
“Like fuck,” I growled. No way in hell was I denying my brother his only legacy.
“Please. I don’t want anyone knowing.”
“You’d rather I lie to all my brothers and tell them what? That this is just some kid I picked up?”
“No,” she said, looking back and forth up the street as if to inspire her with an idea. Then she looked back at me, her eyes locking onto mine. When they softened, I recognized the look.
“No,” I said before she could open her mouth.
“But you have the same eyes!” she pressed.
“I’m not claiming him as mine. I won’t take that away from Noble.”
“Please.” Her voice was growing more desperate as she stepped into my space. “It’s not forever … I just … I want to protect him.”
“And lying about his dead father will put him danger?”
“I—”
“No.”
“I’ll run,” she promised. “I’ll run every chance I get unless you do this for me. For Adair.”
I gazed into her eyes, and God be damned if I didn’t see the absolute truth in them. I could say I would keep her locked up, not letting her out of my sight, but I also knew I couldn’t do that to Adair. He was my nephew, and as much as I wanted to, I couldn’t take him away from his mother. Every kid needed a mother, and as much as I didn’t want to admit it, the tenants I had tracked down had told me Mallory was a damn good mother, despite her terrible life choices.
I clamped my hands down at my sides, sure the horrible taste in my mouth was acid when I spat the single word I would probably regret. “Fine.”
I could see relief flood her eyes, but I wouldn’t let her live in it for long.
“Only until I find out what it is you’re fuckin’ hiding from me,” I growled, stepping into her space, watching her eyes jump up to mine in panic. She was so close I could feel her nipples grazing my chest, and as much as I would have been interested, I was too pissed to care. “You ran for a reason. And I will find out what it is. You hear me?”
She swallowed. “Yeah, I hear you.”
She breathed a sigh of relief as I stepped out of her space and stormed around the truck, swinging the door open. I jumped in, turning the keys in the ignition and firing the truck to life.
Mallory slowly got into the truck, her eyes fixed on the road ahead.
“Seatbelt,” I snapped.
She flinched, jerking around to fumble the clip into the lock. After a third failed attempt at getting the damn thing in, I grabbed it from her and pushed it in until it clicked.
“Thanks,” she whispered, pressed as close to the door as she could get.
Putting the truck into drive and getting the hell away from this neighborhood, not looking at her as I turned onto the interstate heading home, I said, “By the way, the name’s Hunter.”
Two
Mallory
As I watched the grass banks of the interstate disappear behind us, I felt as if my heart was disappearing along with it. I looked at Adair sleeping in the car seat that had been installed in the back.
I didn’t have a car. I couldn’t afford one after mine broke at the Denver border. It was a problem I would have had to face if I had stuck to my plans to carry on into Omaha. Looked like that problem was out the window, along with my mind.
Going back to Fellpeak? Staying with Hunter, who said nothing the entire journey? Lying about him being Adair’s father? It was ridiculous. And stupid. Even so, there was no way I could let Adair go into child protective services at the cost of fighting Hunter.
It was true that choosing that house had been the last resort when my car had given up. And I had to put Adair in that daycare to work. It was that or the streets, and there was no way I would let my baby starve.
Adair gurgled, catching my attention. I couldn’t stop the smile pulling on my lips. He was a smaller replica of his father. I had to admit I felt a little lonesome, struggling to see my features in his face; but seeing the amount of Noble in him, I had no doubt he would grow up to be just like him: kind, generous, and beautiful inside and out.
Even if our last moments were bitter, I couldn’t find a bone in my body to hate the man who had given me a child. And as time went by, I found myself loving him more each time I looked at my son’s face and saw him smile.
I had never had affiliation with the club, except talking to a few of them once or twice at the bars and clubs. Therefore, I had never met Hunter. Hell, I hadn’t even known Noble had a brother. If it wasn’t for the eyes, the same gentle green eyes I had fallen in love with, I wouldn’t have seen a resemblance between them, even if they had stood side by side.
Hunter wasn’t as broad as Noble, but he was still huge with more toned muscles and height. Hunter had darker hair and flatter cheekbones. I wondered if Hunter was the younger or older brother.
I found myself staring at him, the massive man who came charging into my house like a bull and dragging me out the same way. He consumed the small space of the truck with only his presence. He wasn’t beautiful in the same surfer, easy-going way Noble had been. He was darker, broodier, good for one-night stands and rough, hot sex. Noble had been a lover; Hunter was a fucker. They were day and night.
His gaze flickered to mine, and I jerked my face away as fast as I could. After making it my mission to avoid him for the last fifteen hours of our journey, to be caught staring at him would mean mission failure.
I turned back toward the window, wondering if I could wind it down enough to grab Adair and make a successful leap from the truck. For an escape plan, it was the most reasonable I had yet. After looking for an eject button for a good hour and wondering if I could saw through the bottom of the floor with my nail file without him noticing, I was running out of ideas.
I heard Adair gurgling again then chuckled when I heard him laugh in his sleep.
“He looks just like Noble,” Hunter said out of the blue, startling me.
I fought the urge to look at him, pretending to look bored and resigned, and not like I was making an escape plan that consisted of a pencil, toothpaste, and whatever else I had in the contents of my purse.