“Anthony,” Lauren screeched, stepping in front of me.
He must’ve clipped my lip too because it was bleeding.
“Move,” I hissed.
“No,” she challenged, as she glared at her brother. “This isn’t any of your business. I don’t need you punching him in the face and I don’t need you…” she pointed to her mother, “…spreading my business around for the whole world to know!”
“I fucking warned you, Lauren!” Anthony ground out before turning his eyes back to mine.
“And I told you to stay the fuck away from her!” He added.
I blew out a ragged breath, losing my patience and ten seconds away from pummeling both Maria and Anthony.
I hadn’t even had a chance to process what the fuck was going on.
And wasting time with these two clowns was pissing me off.
“You’re in my fucking house now,” I said, diverting my eyes between Maria and Anthony.
“My fucking rules. Now both of you sit the fuck down and let me handle my shit!”
My shit.
My shit being Lauren was knocked up.
“Oh, this I’ve got to see,” Maria snarled.
“Shut up,” Kitten and I yelled, causing us to look at one another. Her big blue eyes stared at me and shit, they were full of tears.
Now what?
I had no fucking clue.
“Shit, Riggs. You got a bun in the oven?” Wolf asked.
“She got your kid, she got you for eighteen years,” Pipe added.
“Kanye West, Pipe? Really we’re going to rap now?” Bones questioned.
“Fuck off,” I growled, grabbing Lauren’s hand. “Upstairs, now,” I seethed.
She snatched her hand free, crossed her arms over her chest and stalked toward the stairs.
Like she had a right to be mad.
Like she was the one who just robbed a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of drugs from a bunch of crazy Chinese people.
Like she had to breathe for her brother to save his life.
Like she walked a mile in my fucking shoes.
Like she came home with blood on her hands to be told, “Hey so there’s this baby that exists and its half yours.”
What the fuck?
Me a dad?
Get the hell out of here.
I followed her into my room and closed the door behind us. I placed my hands on my hips, standing as still as a statue, trying to figure the right thing to say.
This fucking blows, didn’t seem fitting.
And I didn’t want to upset her any more than she already was because…she was fucking pregnant.
Jesus.
“The veins in your forehead are bulging a bit,” she said observantly. “I’m sorry, that wasn’t how I planned for you to find out. I tried telling you before you left but…well you were there, you know how you stormed out of here,” she added bitterly, and taking a seat on the foot of my bed.
“I had a momentary lapse of weakness and thought before you went out guns blazing like a cowboy you should know that you’ve got a kid on the way,” she started, biting the inside of her cheek before she continued to ramble on. “I don’t mean that having a kid should stop you from being who you are but, well, fuck! I don’t even know what I mean anymore,” she dropped her head into her hands.
I stared at her speechless, not realizing at first that I was pacing my small room. She dropped her hands and lifted her eyes to mine.
“I don’t expect anything from you,” she whispered.
I walked toward her and pressed my index finger to her mouth, silencing her. I felt more out of control in that single moment than I had in the last two days. Her eyes widened as I took a retreating step backward and she opened her mouth to say something else but I shot her down with a curt shake of my head.
Silence.
It was golden.
Especially when you were having a mental breakdown of sorts.
I peeled the bulletproof vest off and dropped it to the floor, kicking off my boots and disarming myself. I made sure the safety was on because clearly I was an advocate of safety.
What a fucking joke.
How’s that for impending fatherhood?
I sighed, taking a seat next to Lauren and stared at the wall.
“How long have you known?” I asked, robotically.
“About two weeks,” she replied.
I’m sure there was a protocol for this shit, like a list of questions I should’ve asked but the ones that came to me, sounded foul even inside my head. I wasn’t going to ask her if she was sure the kid was mine. I may not know her very well but I knew her well enough to know what we had, that one night, was nothing but a detour.
Me and my big fucking mouth.
“I’m guessing you want to keep it,” I said, grabbing my knees as I turned my head to face her.
She looked exhausted, drained, but still so fucking pretty.
She bit her lip and nodded.
“I’m keeping our baby,” she insisted.
Our baby.
Wow.
That would take a whole lot of getting used to.
“Riggs,” she started and again I lifted my finger to her lips.