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No, don’t think about that.
Cadence forced herself to breathe, because that was the hardest part of all of this. She told herself to put one foot in front of the other as she got to the Sudz Soap Shoppe; she pled for her weary body to move past those sweet scents, leaving everything that had become familiar. The yellow door on the bottom landing still swung on its hinges from Porter’s departure.
Her beat-up Chevrolet was parked just outside.
The door pushed open before she reached it. She lifted her head. “Porter?”
“Not Porter.”
She knew that voice. Lacy stepped into the foyer, a cheerful grin painted against his harsh expression. His dark hair had been buzzed in an expensive haircut so that it showed every hard line of his face. She’d once found those chiseled features quite manly and handsome. His dark brows arched at her in a sinister way. “Don’t look so disappointed, Cadence,” he said with a dry chuckle. “It’s only the father of your child.”
She felt like she was walking through Jell-O. She slowed, not able to control her body through her shock, at all.
She couldn’t run. She couldn’t fight. She froze.
He took her box. “Is this all you packed?”
Why wasn’t her body working? It had been sluggish before, but now it had shut down.
“You were going to leave before I came?” he asked. “What’s that about? C’mon, get in my car, Angel. We’ll talk about this.”
“Lacy,” her voice came out a whisper. Of all the possible scenarios that had run through her imagination at how this meeting would go, she hadn’t expected or wanted to sound like a scared child. She should’ve left Harvest Ranch long before this.
His eyes ran possessively over her like she’d never noticed they’d done before, but now she realized that he acted like he owned her. “You’re wearing the clothes I sent. You look great.”
“Lacy, we already talked,” she said. “We’re through. I’m not going with you.”
“Don’t make this harder on yourself.” He glanced back at her cleaned-up Chevrolet parked out front. His black SUV Mercedes towered over it, making her car’s sunken hood and headlights look almost deflated. “You were going to drive back in that thing?” He laughed. “Why do you insist on being so ghetto? I told you that I’d get you a cherry red convertible.”
“I don’t want anything from you.”
“No, you only want to trap me by having my kid?”
“The baby’s not yours,” she said helplessly. “I told you before.”
“Lies. There are ways for me to find out. I don’t have to rely on your word alone.”
Her heart skipped all over the place, but he was wrong. She’d looked into this before. He couldn’t force her to do anything. She’d lose any child custody money, but that didn’t matter. She wanted nothing to do with him. Her protective instincts kicked in, and suddenly she wasn’t only fighting for herself anymore. “We’re through here,” she said. “Your attorney can talk to mine.”
“An attorney?” Lacy called her on her bluff. “You can’t afford to go up against me.” His hand went to her arm when she tried to back away. “Not so fast, Cadence. Get in my car and we’ll talk,” he repeated himself from before, though this time it didn’t sound like a request. “I have an offer you can’t refuse.”
She shook her head, even as his hand tightened over her. “I don’t trust anything you say, Lacy. I know what you’re doing to this town. Everything you touch, you destroy.”
“You didn’t feel that way before, only when you turned jealous. I wasn’t cheating on you with that woman.”
Lies! He really thought that she’d buy that? “Leave me alone. I’m keeping this baby, and we want nothing to do with you. I’ll sign anything you want me to sign to cut you out of the picture, if that’s what you want, but I’m not going with you.”
“You see, that’s not good enough. I’m finding I’m starting to grow attached to this baby of mine. The two of you sure look cute in those clothes that I bought you.” His hand went to her stomach and she fought free.
“Let her go!” Porter raced down the stairs. She listened to the jangling bells from the door at the Sudz Shoppe crash together. He must’ve come from there. He hadn’t left after all! His sister-in-law owned the place. Had he gone in there to vent his frustrations?
Now he stood there in front of them, rage contorting his usually laidback expression. This was a different man than she was used to. He looked terrifying. “Don’t touch her.”
Lacy whipped around to him, his face twisting into a scowl. “What are you doing here? Does West know you’re here?”
“For the last time, I’m not Nash.” Porter punched him squarely in the face. Lacy stumbled backwards, not putting up a fraction of the fight that he’d threatened Cadence with. His strength was in his polished smarm and penning sleazy deals with greedy investors, not in fighting rowdy cowboys ten years younger and built with muscle.
Lacy held up his hand, the other one catching the blood from his nose. “You made a big mistake. I don’t care if you’re the Slades’ spawn. I’ll ruin your whole family.”
