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“We have pictures.”
Wait. What?
He pulled photographs from a brown envelope I hadn’t noticed and set them between us. Three images of myself and the crackheads from that morning stared back at me.
What. The. Fuck.
“You were having me followed?”
I went from sick-to-my-stomach to pissed-the-fuck-off in a nanosecond, my redheaded temper flaring to life faster than it ever had before. He was unbelievable.
“No!” He jolted as if I’d slapped him. “God, no.”
“Then where did you get these?”
“It’s not important.” He reached for my hands again, but I pulled them out of his reach, too furious to allow his touch. “What’s most important is getting you clean. Now, before the baby comes. There are a few—”
“Stop fucking talking,” I gritted out through clenched teeth.
My emotions were all over the place, like a runaway roller coaster flying along the tracks without an end in sight. I didn’t know whether to be mad he thought I was abusing drugs or relieved I still had the opportunity to share the real problem.
“Baby,” he cooed.
Yup. I was going with mad.
“Right now, I’m not your baby.” I shook my head before deciding to lay all my cards on the table. “Believe it or not, I was planning to talk to you today. Not about my nonexistent drug use—thank you very much—but about the fact my biological parents have been blackmailing us for years.”
His eyes widened, almost comically, then turned to steel when he realized who the couple was in the pictures.
“Fuck. I screwed up.”
“You sure did, but so did I. I should have trusted you with this a long time ago.”
“Why are they blackmailing you?”
“I’m adopted,” I stated.
“I know, baby.”
“Not legally. At least not completely legally.”
“Explain.”
“When Gene Matthews, Caleb’s dad, was the chief of police, he found me inside of an abandoned warehouse my parents had been using for shelter. He took me to my parents, his friends, who he knew would love and protect me.”
“Why not go through the court system?” He asked.
“My sperm donor’s dad was the only sitting judge in town at the time.”
“Shit.”
“Exactly. Chief Matthews brokered a deal between them and the Jameses. Basically, my parents gave them a hundred thousand dollars and in exchange they signed over their parental rights to me.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“While Chief Matthews was alive, they kept their distance, probably because he scared the shit outta them. But once he died, the blackmail started. They say they have proof and unless we give them money every month, they’ll go to the police and have my parents arrested.”
“Arrested for what?” He reached again, and this time I let him capture my hands. I needed the feel of him against my skin.
