“MOVE!” I shouted at him.

  “I spoke to your manager. You have the day off. Calm down.”

  “I don’t want the day off! I need the money. Who do you think you are, speaking to my manager?”

  Why was he so freaking beautiful? It wasn’t fair.

  “The paternity test is more important. Wouldn’t you agree?”

  His words shut down anything I had been about to say. He knew. Oh God. He knew.

  “What paternity test?” My question came out as a whisper.

  “The one I scheduled to see if the baby is mine.” He said it so matter-of-factly. As if he were speaking to a stranger about the weather.

  “I don’t need a test,” I told him.

  “I do.”

  “I’m not pregnant,” I lied.

  “I’m not here to listen to more of your lies, Haisley. I need to know if the baby is mine.”

  My lies? I hadn’t lied to him. I had broken things off with him in a very brutal way, but my actions had been forced upon me by his friends. I wasn’t a liar though.

  “Fine. But this is pointless. I’m not getting an abortion.” I held my shoulders back and stood as tall as I could as I looked up at him, determined not to let him see my fear.

  He frowned. “I’m not asking you to. I am simply here to find out who the father is. I can’t trust the words that come out of your mouth. So, I need proof.”

  God, he was infuriating. I’d slept with him not once, but three times. I’d been completely infatuated with him. And all along, he was in the Mafia. Never telling me. Making me believe he was this great guy. Not someone who killed and did God knew what else. I wasn’t very informed on Mafia business. Maybe I should be since I was having a kid whose father was a part of it. If there was a liar here, then it was him.

  “Why? I didn’t ask for anything from you. I didn’t come tell you. I didn’t make any demands at all. Why do you need to know?”

  He shrugged. He actually shrugged, as if he didn’t know. I was pregnant, and he was shrugging.

  Asshole. GOD! How had I been so blind?

  Oh, right … he was too damn pretty, and I was an idiot.

  “My truck is this way,” he informed me. “Let’s go.”

  I didn’t move. “I don’t have money for this. Medicaid isn’t going to cover a paternity test.”

  He looked at me as if he were bored. That stung. I didn’t want to admit it, but it was painful. Being near him was painful.

  “I’m the one who scheduled it. I am paying for it. Now, let’s go.”

  “What are they going to do? Will it hurt the baby?” I asked, not moving in his direction.

  He looked annoyed. I did not care. I wasn’t doing this if it was something that would hurt my baby.

  “They take your blood, swab my cheek, and we have results back in about a week,” he replied.

  That was it? They could tell that easily?

  I stood there for a moment more, then finally gave in because it was clear Saxon wasn’t going to let it go. I knew the baby was his. He was the only guy I’d ever slept with. Of course, I hadn’t told him that because then I’d have had to tell him why there was no hymen to break through. My past wasn’t something I shared easily—or at all.

  I hoped he had to pay a lot for this stupid test.

  He didn’t open the truck door for me, but walked around and climbed inside the driver’s side. I’d been in this truck many times, and each time, he’d opened my door. The guy who had been interested in me was gone. In his place was this guy. The one who believed the worst in me. I was tired of being discarded by people in my life. My biological father, whoever he was; my brother, who hadn’t even tried to get in touch with me; my mom. And although I had shut Saxon out, having him treat me this way felt like being discarded.

  Sitting inside the truck, I buckled up and stared out the window. The last time I’d been in here wasn’t pleasant either. Or at least, it hadn’t ended that way. It had been traumatic. Now it was just silent.

  Saxon turned on the radio, and country music filled the silence. I rested my head on the seat, closing my eyes. The past week, I had started getting tired all the time. Yesterday, when I’d been making up a bed at the hotel, I had fought the urge to just crawl into it and close my eyes. Just for a minute. I didn’t, of course, but I’d wanted to so bad.

  “You’ve lost weight.”

  Saxon’s words stopped me from the pull of sleep. I opened my eyes back up and stared out the window.

  “If you want to keep the baby, then you need to take care of it. Starving yourself isn’t taking care of it. You also have dark circles under your eyes.”

  If I wasn’t afraid he’d pull some hidden gun out and shoot me between the eyes, I’d hit him across the face with my bag.

  Breathe. In and out. In and out. Do not yell at him and punch him in the nose. Remain calm.

  “I’m not starving myself. If I could afford to eat more, then I would.” My words were clipped, but at least I hadn’t shouted them.

  He didn’t respond.

  “What are you going to do when you find out this baby is yours?” I asked him, turning my head to look at him.

  “IF it is mine, then I’ll take that step when it gets here.”

  I laughed, although there was no humor in the sound. “You might think I’m a liar, but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is your baby. So, maybe you could tell me what you’re thinking because I’m not asking for your help. I don’t intend to let you force me to abort it or allow you take it from me. I won’t give it up for adoption. If you try and make me, I’ll … I’ll … disappear.”

  How I would disappear, I wasn’t sure, but if he pushed me, then I’d run away. Somewhere.

  “You want a baby at twenty?” he asked me, his tone hard.

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Why? You can’t even afford to feed yourself. How the fuck are you gonna feed a kid?”

  My stomach churned at the reminder that I had no clue how I was going to do this. He was rubbing it in my face that I hadn’t been born into a family of wealth and power. How had I thought this guy was something different? He was as nasty and cruel as the men who had walked in and out of my mom’s life. I didn’t want to ever trust another man for as long as I lived.

  “I’ll worry about that.” Props to me for not sounding as scared as I felt.

  “That’s a real mature response, Haisley. You’ll make a great mom.”

  The sarcasm in his words twisted my gut.

  I sat up straight and fisted my hands in my lap. He was not going to make me blow up and start yelling at him. I didn’t know if the baby could hear me yelling, but if it could, then that wasn’t good for it. At least it didn’t sound like it was good for it.

  “Do not ever tell me what is mature and what isn’t while you have been given everything in life, live in a nice, big house, and have racehorses and a fancy stable and an expensive truck. You know nothing about maturity. I’ve been taking care of kids since I was five years old. I’ve been making them meals, helping them get dressed, feeding babies bottles in the middle of the night, bathing them, changing diapers. Since I was FIVE. I didn’t have a childhood, Saxon. I was treated like a grown-up before I started first grade. You have no right to judge what I can and cannot do. Because I have fed eight kids with only ten dollars more times than you can count. When I say I will handle it, then I will.”

  I was shaking. These were things I’d never shared with him during the two weeks of our whirlwind fling. Sure, he had known that a lot was expected of me, but he’d had no clue just how deep it went. No idea what I’d lived through.

  He didn’t apologize. He said nothing. Not one more word. I didn’t close my eyes again because the exhaustion was now being chased away by the fury inside my chest.

  When the truck pulled into the parking deck of the private hospital, I wanted to laugh. We were getting a paternity test at a hospital that I’d never step foot in again. My baby wouldn’t be born here. There was no OB-GYN here that accepted Medicaid.

  Once we were parked, I swung open my door and jumped down out of his truck. I would take a bus from here. I wasn’t getting back in there with him. Ever.

  Eight

  Haisley

  I knew I had exactly three minutes and about forty-five seconds before the hot water was gone. I rinsed out the cheap conditioner from my hair while washing off the soap from my body at the same time. If my hair were shorter, this would be easier. I knew the last minute and fifteen seconds of my shower was going to be cold. I never could get it all down in under five minutes.

  The blast of ice made me squeal as I continued to rinse my hair. Quickly, I turned in a circle, pulling my arms up to my chest as I got the rest of the suds off my skin. Once I was done, I quickly shut off the water and grabbed my one towel. I had bought it at the dollar store, but hadn’t gotten a washcloth. That was a luxury. I just used my hands. I dried my hair the best I could, then wrapped the towel around me. The bathroom was so small that you could sit on the toilet and brush your teeth over the sink at the same time. Putting on clothes in here was almost impossible. But my roommates, Max and Sherry, were both here, so there was no dressing in my bedroom, which was also the living room.

  A banging on the door startled me, and I jumped.

  “Haisley!” Sherry called my name.

  “Yes?” I asked, tugging the cotton T-shirt dress down over my still-slightly-damp body.

  “You have a visitor,” she replied.

  I stared at the closed door. No one knew where I lived. I had no one to visit me.

  “Who?” I asked cautiously.

  “Don’t know, but he’s fucking hot,” she drawled. “You’d better hurry, or I’m gonna show him a good time.”

  It had been five days since the paternity test. Not a week yet. But it had to be him. He’d be able to find my address, wouldn’t he? Didn’t the Mafia have access to that kind of thing?

  We hadn’t said one word to each other after we arrived at the hospital for the testing until it came time to leave. I told him I would take the bus and left when we were done. He didn’t argue. He was as glad to be rid of me as I was him. There had been no mention of what would happen when the results came back.

  I continued to dry my hair with the towel, then brushed through it a few times before finally opening the door and stepping out into the hallway. There was always the chance AJ had found me. He’d be able to do that easily enough. Silver could have told him I was with Milly, who would have sent him here.

  Walking into the living room, I found Sherry giggling and smiling at Saxon, who didn’t look very impressed. His tight smile didn’t meet his eyes. I stood there, unsure of what to say, when his gaze swung to mine, and I saw his jaw clench. I didn’t know why he had to look so angry about seeing me. He was the one who had come here. To my apartment. What had he expected?

  “Verdict’s in, I guess,” I said as casually as I could.

  He stared at me briefly, then looked over at my bag that sat in the corner of the living room. It was the same one I’d taken camping.

  “Get your things,” he said with a scowl now on his face.

  Was he serious?

  “Why?” Although I had a feeling I knew why, but that didn’t mean I was going to just do it.

  “Don’t make a scene out of this, Haisley. Get your things. We’re leaving.”

  “NO. You’re leaving. I live here.”

  Sherry’s eyes were going from me to Saxon with a look of fascination. This would no doubt entertain her for days. She’d not let it go. I would have to hear her retell it over and over.

  “You’re going with me. Back to my house. At least until the baby is born. You need decent health insurance and prenatal care. Don’t be difficult. You want to keep the baby, then at least do what is best for it.”

  “Do you have a gun?” I asked him.

  He frowned. “Why?”

  “Because I want to throw something hard at your head, but I need to be sure you won’t shoot me.” I was almost shouting. Almost.

  “What’s going on?” Max asked, stepping out of his bedroom with his spiky black-and-blue hair all over the place, like he’d just woken up.

  “Be quiet!” Sherry told him. “This is just getting good.”

  I sighed and crossed my arms over my chest.

  “If you don’t get your shit, I am going to grab what I know is yours and carry it and you out of here, kicking and screaming if I have to,” Saxon warned me.

  “Who the fuck are you?” Max asked him.

  Saxon turned his gaze to Max, then back to me. “Start moving, Haisley.”

  “Do you seriously think I’m going to move in with you? Then, what? The baby is born, and you snatch it away from me and kick me out? I don’t think so, Saxon.”

  “I’m not taking the baby from you. I am taking responsibility. It’s my baby too. I don’t want you starving it by not being able to eat enough and walking to work and cleaning hotel rooms. Goddammit! Just get your stuff, and let’s go. Why do you make everything so fucking difficult?”

  Sherry stood up then and looked at me with her mouth agape. “That is your baby daddy? Are you shitting me right now? Jesus God Almighty, why are you arguing with him? Do you need glasses, girl?”

  “Shut up, Sherry. Not everyone thinks with their pussy. She doesn’t want to go,” Max yelled at her.

  Sherry rolled her eyes. “Give it up, Max. Do you see this man? He’s fucking hot, and, dude, she is pregnant. Get that through your head. She’s all long hair and pretty eyes and big tits right now, but she’s gonna be big and pregnant soon. Besides, she’s not into you.”

  This just got weirdly awkward. I hadn’t known Max was into me. In fact, I had kinda thought he wasn’t into girls.

  Saxon stalked over to my bag and jerked it up, and then he started toward me. I backed up, but he kept advancing.

  Holding up both hands, I tried to stop him. “What are you doing?”

  “What does it look like?” he snapped.

  “Don’t touch her,” Max shouted, coming up behind him.

  Saxon’s eyes flared before he spun around, and in one swift move, he pulled a gun from under his shirt and pointed it at Max.

  “What the fuck?!” Max shouted.

  “Oh my shit!” Sherry squealed.

  “Saxon.” I said his name as calmly as I could. My heart was racing as I stood there.

  Max had gone pale, and Sherry was frozen with a look of horror on her face.

  “Haisley is leaving with me. If you would kindly back the fuck up, I’d appreciate it.” His voice was so polite, as if he wasn’t pointing a pistol at my roommate.

  He slid it back into the hidden holster at his back, then turned to look at me. “Let’s go.”

  “Let me get my other bag,” I said softly, afraid to raise my voice.

  He might have spoken as if he wasn’t angry, but the rage in his eyes was unmistakable. I didn’t know this Saxon. If I had, I was positive I would not be pregnant right now. This Saxon scared me. I didn’t want this to be the father of my baby.

  “Haisley, I can call the cops,” Max said.

  “Shut up, you idiot!” Sherry hissed at him.

  I shook my head and picked up my other bag. “No. It’s fine. I should go. I’m sorry,” I said to both of them, then turned to walk over to Saxon, who opened the door, watching me closely.

  “You have my number,” Max called out.

  “Fucking shut up!” Sherry threw a shoe at him this time.

  I said nothing.

  Saxon nodded at both of them as if he had been there for a friendly visit, then closed the door. I let out a sigh of relief. He hadn’t hurt them.

  He took the other bag from my hand. “This way,” he said, then began walking, expecting me to follow.

  I didn’t have on sleeves, and the night air was cold. I’d left my toiletries and towel in the bathroom, but there was no way I was going to ask him to let me go get it. My heart was racing as I thought about the fact that I couldn’t get away from him. I was going to have to live with him.

  What about his parents? Didn’t they live there? He was just going to move me into their house?

  This time, he opened the passenger door for me and tossed my two bags into the backseat, then stepped back to let me in. I climbed in, and he closed the door behind me. To think I had sworn I’d never get in this truck again. I was angry that he had the power to make me do it.

  When he was inside and buckled, I looked over at him. “I have a job. I need to tell them something. I can’t just not show up.”

  “You can call and let them know.” He cranked the truck.

  “I don’t have a phone.”

  “I’m going to get you one.”

  “No, you’re not.”

  “Yes, I am.”

  “I didn’t ask you for help.”

  “Doesn’t matter. You’re getting it.”

  I let out a frustrated groan and stared out the window. He’d actually pulled a gun on Max. Saxon, with his beautiful face, his dimples, and his curls. He didn’t look like a guy who would even own a gun. Knowing he was in the Mafia was one thing. Seeing it was very different. Levi and Kye looked like they could be dangerous. But not Saxon.

  “How far along are you?”

  “Can you turn on the heat?” I asked him, shivering.

  He muttered a curse. “If you had on more clothes, you wouldn’t be cold. Don’t you have a coat?”

  “I wasn’t expecting to be forced out of my apartment. And no. This is Florida. I don’t have a coat.”

  “It’s December. Even in Florida, you need a fucking coat. At least most nights.”

  I had left the coat I used with Silver. She needed one to walk to the school bus in. The one she’d used last year was small then, and this year, it didn’t zip over her boobs.