It flies out the window when she quickly adds on, “After you’ve made your call.”
“What?!” I screech. “You can’t use my nephew against me.”
She pulls a face as if to say,yeah, I can.
When she pushes off her feet, I follow after her. “This is blackmail! And wrong—”
“More wrong than letting a man believe you aborted his baby?”
That stuffs my attitude right down my throat, but it doesn’t stop me from saying, “If he didn’t pry into my business, he wouldn’t have fucked up the facts.”
Raquel glares at me. Not because I’m using the same pathetic excuse I’ve used since Alex left our ranch in a dust of fury, but because I cussed in front of Axel.
“Sorry.” My murmured apology is for Axel not my sister, but Raquel accepts my grumble on his behalf.
While gently bouncing Axel on her shoulder, Raquel shifts her eyes to me. “You had unprotected sex—numerous times, and the receipt from the clinic he gave Dad showed the appointment was for an R. Myers. I can understand his error.”
“I also told him I was on my period.”
Raquel glares at me. “On the same day you made it look like you had sex with your boss.”
“I didn’t say sex—"
Herdon’t mess with memask slips over her face. “No, you just implied it.”
“I. . . I. . .”I’ve got nothing.
The reason for Axel’s grizzles comes to light when he makes the biggest burp I’ve ever heard. Raquel stiffens, used to his burps also bringing up almost all his bottle. She gets lucky this time around.
Me, on the other hand. . . she’s not even halfway done with me yet.
After putting Axel back in his bouncer, she spins around to face me. “What did you tell Isaac? ‘It’s okay to forgive. It won’t make you weak.’ It was good advice, Regan. Advice you should listen to.” Her eyes glisten with moisture as her son coos in the background. “If you do that, I’ll promise to do the same whenever Axel’s dad rocks back into my life one day.” Her last two words hold no confidence whatsoever.
When I nod, she rubs my arm in a soothing manner. “I’m going to take a shower. Can you watch Axel for me?”
I nod before all the question leaves her mouth. Nine years ago I thought I’d never love again. Tricks and schemes had me considering the possibility, but Axel abundantly proves I’m still capable of loving. It’s not the same all-encompassing love spouses feel for one another, but it is enough. . .for now.
As Axel drifts off into a milk coma, my thoughts drift as well. They begin at the exchange I had with Alex three nights ago before they slowly float back to the first time I saw him after months of absence. The look that crossed his face when he screamed at me about his rights. . . god. I can still feel his hurt to this very day.
Although I am mad at how he deceived me, perhaps some of the guilt I’ve been carrying the past twelve months will lift if I admit my wrongs in the downfall of our relationship. I don’t expect my confession to stop Alex’s ridiculous campaign to ruin Isaac, but it couldn’t hurt it.
My shaking hands impede my effort to dial a number I haven’t dialed in over a year. I expect the operator to tell me the number is no longer in service, so you can imagine my surprise when it instantly rings.
It rings, and rings, and rings, until I chicken out and hang up.
Twenty-One
Alex
“You’ve given me no choice. I have to replace his things.”
Reid’s nose screws up as he slips into the chair opposite me. “Why? We conducted a search—a compliant warrant approved by a judge.”
“You destroyed his fucking property.” I throw the photos Brandon supplied me of Isaac’s private residence across the table.
Although pissed Regan showed up at my office last week solely to protect Isaac, her visit held merit. The search my crew conducted on Isaac’s premise wasn’t a lawful search. They may as well have gutted his house for how badly they damaged his belongings. Not a single item was left untouched.
My eyes float up to Reid when he murmurs, “What the fuck?” His dark eyes lock and hold with mine. “That was not us.”
