Hurt: A Bad Boy MMA Romantic Suspense Novel (7 page)

“He’s awake from his nap,” I said.

“Obviously,” Noah said.

I looked at Noah. “That’s what he does, Noah. He eats, sleeps, cries, shits. It’s what a baby does.”

Noah nodded. “Yeah, sure. What does he… I mean, do you give him formula? Can I buy some or something…?”

I felt my face burn hotter. I looked down to my chest and shrugged my shoulders.

“Oh,” Noah said. “You… okay. You do it. That’s why you didn’t want me…”

“It’s not that,” I said. “It’s just… stuff…”

Jude cried again.

“You better get him,” Noah said. “If he’s like me, he’ll keep going until he gets what he wants.”

“Yeah, he does that quite well.”

Noah grinned. He reached out and touched my face. “So you’re definitely single.”

“Definitely,” I said. “Do you want to go meet your son now?”

“No,” Noah said. He took his hand from me. “Shit. Sorry. That came out… fuck. No, sweetheart. Not right now. Not like this.”

“Not like what?” I asked. “You’re standing here. You saw him last night. What are you going to do?”

Noah’s face turned to stone. He inched from me and went toward the door.

“So that’s it?” I asked. “You’re going to leave. Just walk right out.”

“I have a job to do,” Noah growled. “I need to find
him
. Some guy name Craig. Okay? Benito said he was here. That was the last known address. But Craig isn’t here, right? It’s you, the baby, and your mother.”

Fear surged through me. An instant fear that made the room spin again. “You said… Craig?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Craig doesn’t live here,” I said. “He never has lived here and never would. He’s a piece of…”

I felt my body shake.

“I thought there was no other man but me?” Noah asked.

“There wasn’t. Craig wasn’t a boyfriend or something, Noah.
Craig is my father.”

~ ~ ~

The door closed and Jude cried out again. I turned and darted down the hallway for my baby. My son. My child. The life I held in my body and the life I gave birth to.

Jude’s little face was red as his arms flailed, looking for me. I quickly grabbed him and brought him close to my chest. I bounced and rubbed the back of his head. He quickly calmed down.

Normally Jude slept really well.

It made me wonder if he maybe had a bad dream. Or maybe it was because he heard his father’s voice. Babies knew, right? There had to be something instinctive there between Jude and Noah.

Jude cried and Noah left.

It was not the family reunion I had been dreaming of for a year.

I was right back where I started.

Alone with Jude.

Only now… I was really alone. My mother in the hospital, prepping to die. And Noah, looking for my father, to potentially kill him.

I had nothing to do with my father. I never really had and never wanted anything to do with him. He was a degenerate gambler and abusive with his words and actions. He never raised a hand to me or my mother, but the things he did hurt. He was manipulative and did anything to survive.

And now he was a wanted man by the man who got me pregnant.

Could all of this possibly get any messier?

I wanted to believe no… but the mess was only about to get worse…

16.

(Noah)

I rode fast, taking turns harder than I should have. A fucking day ago, it wouldn’t have mattered if I dropped my ride and killed myself. I could hit a tree, split my body in half, or just go off the road and disappear forever. Now, all of a sudden, it mattered. I’d leave behind a son and the woman raising that son.

Yet I had done the dumbest thing possible and just stormed away.

I fucking left the apartment and left Ashlynn alone, again.

As I started to slow, telling myself to calm the hell down, I felt my pocket vibrating. I knew it was Benito calling me. He wasn’t going to stay persistent because he had Dante pushing him now. There was nothing wrong with what they had planned, it was just that it now had Ashlynn and Jude in the spiderweb of it all.

I had no place to ride to. I just needed to clear my head, collect my thoughts for a second. The guy Benito wanted was a guy named Craig. Craig wasn’t Ashlynn’s boyfriend or something, he was her father. Her goddamn father. Yet the guy didn’t live in the apartment. And Ashlynn’s poor mother was dying of cancer.

Ashlynn had a shit life. And a newborn to take care of by herself.

I slowed and eventually just pulled to the side of the road. I climbed off the motorcycle and leaned against it, crossing my arms. I spent night after night in that jail cell, imagining what it would be like when I got out. I figured I’d go right back to fighting. Earn some money for Benito. Earn some money for myself. Drink a lot. Fuck a lot. Settle right back into the life I knew and loved.

“Shit,” I said.

That wasn’t going to happen.

For the moment, I needed to keep Ashlynn and Jude both safe and a secret. I needed more information on Craig. Who he was. Where he really was. What the hell he was doing using his daughter’s apartment as an address.

Then again, how did I know Ashlynn wasn’t lying to me?

Fuck.

I had let her get to me. From the second I watched her sleeping, she had a hold on me. Seeing her today at the door. The way she reacted to me being there. Almost passing the hell out. Being goddamn beautiful and having that aura of total innocence and desperate need. The way her body tasted. The smell of her desire.

She cracked the shell around my heart a year ago. I thought that crack had hardened in jail. But I guess not. Then again, I had no idea what Ashlynn was. Other than the fact that she gave birth to my son. My only child. A healthy son.

“And I walked away,” I whispered.

I’d make that situation right. At least for the sake of Jude. The baby deserved me in his life and would have me in his life. I had survived enough fights and jail… nothing could take me down now.

Before I could finish the goddamn thought, tires squealed. I looked to my left and saw a black van barreling around the bend in the road. Then it crossed the yellow lines.

And it was aimed right at me.

~ ~ ~

I jumped to the left and saw the van getting closer by the second. The side door slid open and two men, dressed in black, with guns, tried to grab at me. I managed to throw a punch and then I lost my balance. When I tumbled back, I hit the ground and started to flip over. I was going down into a ravine, rolling and bouncing hard with each flip of my body. The only way I could protect myself was to tuck my chin into my chest and cover my head.

When I stopped rolling, the inside of my body felt like it was still going. I uncovered my face and saw one of the masked men already climbing to his feet, the gun in his hand waving around. I jumped up to my knees and shook my head, trying to get rid of the dizzy feeling.

Fight or flight was never an option with me. It was fight… fight until fucking death… always. Forever.

I lunged forward and tackled the guy to the ground. I grabbed his wrist and slammed his hand off the ground. It took three hard slams to get him to let the gun go. He came across with a left that rocked my jaw. I fell off him and scrambled for the gun. From the corner of my eye I saw him pull out a knife. I had to abandon the idea of grabbing the gun for the moment. I jumped at the guy again, getting him with the same tackle. I was bigger and stronger than him, even though he had weapons.

“Yo! John! You alive?”

The voice echoed.

I brought my fist down and hit John in the mouth. I then covered his mouth.

I looked up the ravine and saw the faint outline of someone standing there. It was his crew, checking on him.

That’s when a plan developed in my mind.

I grabbed John’s throat and made it so he couldn’t scream. I dragged him along the ground and got the gun. I put the gun right to his head.

“Listen to me, asshole,” I growled. “You’re going to do what I say. Get on your knees, hands behind your back. You’re going to look up to your boys and tell them I’m gone. That you got me. Tell them to leave so nobody sees them and gets nervous. Tell them you’ll take the motorcycle and meet up later. Got that?”

The guy shook his head. I jammed the gun to his head. He took a shaky breath.

“I’ll put a bullet in your head if you don’t,” I said.

He nodded.

I lessened my grip on his throat.

“Understand?” I asked.

“Yes,” John said. “Yes.”

“Good.”

I stepped back and watched as John listened to me. I put the gun to the back of his head and ripped his mask off. I looked at him. I had no fucking clue who he was.

“Say it,” I said. “Hurry.”

“I’m down here!” John yelled. “I got him!”

“Are you hurt?” the voice yelled down.

“I’m okay! You guys go! I’ll take his motorcycle.”

I waited and listened.

My plan had worked.

“Who are you working for?” I asked.

“Go fuck yourself, man,” John said. “I don’t even know your name. I just have my orders.”

“I’m the one with a gun to your head. You take my orders now, bitch.”

John turned his head and spit. “You said you weren’t going to shoot me.”

“I never said that,” I said. “I just gave you orders and you listened.”

John turned some more. I brought the gun back and slammed it to the back of his head. It knocked him out cold. He fell forward and I tucked the gun behind me. I then set my sights to getting to the top of the ravine.

If someone was after me, someone was after Benito.

Worse yet…
what if someone was after Ashlynn and Jude?

17.

(Ashlynn)

I couldn’t get Jude to get comfortable. Each time I put him down, he started to cry. I settled on a warm bath for him. That seemed to do the trick, which was helpful because there’s nothing worse than your own child crying and you, as a parent, not being able to soothe them.

I sat on the closed toilet and watched as Jude picked up his toys and slammed them into the water. He was fascinated by bubbles and splashing water. When he’d hit the water too hard and the water splashed to his face, he’d get a really surprised look on his face like a ghost had just thrown water at him. It was nothing but pure innocence to watch. It made me smile to see him play and see him happy.

I pictured Noah there, on his knees, reaching into the water, splashing along with Jude.

That won’t happen. That will never happen.

The only thing that kept me in town was my mother. I stayed because she had gotten sick. Before that, it was just where I lived. My intentions were to start med-school in southern California and start the rest of my life. That all went to the wayside after that night with Noah. All my friends slowly faded away as they either went on to graduate school, med school, or just went off to live their lives. I was the only one pregnant and I wasn’t much fun. I think they all knew I was lying about Jude’s father - and I was. My story made me sound like more of a whore than I actually was. I think a lot of people lost respect for me and pitied me. They didn’t want to see me get fat, have a baby, and struggle.

True friends.

I wiped the corners of my eyes and finally had the chance to call the hospital.

There was no change with my mother. She was still sedated. The cancer was still there, obviously. She wasn’t reacting to the treatments Dr. H had hoped she would. Truthfully, if my mother hadn’t been so stubborn, she could have gotten medical help sooner. I tried to bring that up to her once and she blatantly told me that if I hadn’t gotten pregnant, she would have taken care of herself better.

And now my father was poking his way back into the picture. Not that he’d ever do anything. He’d never visit. He’d never give a shit about me, about Jude, about his dying ex-wife. But he had used my address as his address. He knew he was in trouble and he was trying to pass it to me.

Fucking asshole.

I hung up the call and cried a little.

Then I drained the tub, got Jude dressed into warm PJ’s, and rocked him back to sleep. He was getting sick. Or maybe he was heartbroken that his father had come and gone without so much as a word.

When I put Jude down, he actually slept.

I didn’t make it two steps out of the bedroom before there was a knock at the door. I rushed to the door, thinking and hoping it was Noah. I ripped open the door and instantly regretted my decision.

There were three of them.

Three men.

The three men from last night… at work…

The asshole I hit smiled at me.
“Ready to earn that fifty bucks back?”

18.

(Noah)

My mind was one track now.

Get to Ashlynn and Jude.

I needed to know they were okay. I needed to know whoever had attacked me hadn’t gone after her. I parked outside her apartment and my phone went off again.

This time it was Dante.

“I can’t talk,” I said.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Benito kicked a hornet’s nest, Noah. We’re getting shit on all sides.”

“A black van tried to take me out. I wrestled one of the guys and the others fled. I didn’t kill him. Knocked him out. The bend up near
Ridge Runner
. You know where that is. Down that ravine if you want to go get him.”

“Where are you now?”

I looked at the apartment building. “Trying to make sense of this Craig situation. I have my guard up, okay?”

“You have to get back here soon,” Dante said. “Benito wants to regroup and talk.”

“Soon.”

I ended the call.

I rushed to the door and was ready to pound my fist, but I remembered about the baby. If Ashlynn had gotten Jude back to sleep I didn’t want to wake him. I needed to clear the air with Ashlynn first. Then I could meet my son and figure this all out.

I gently knocked.

There was no answer.

I knocked again and again.

So I did what I had to do.

I broke into the apartment for a second time.