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But I don’t get to her feet. My gaze stops on her torso, and my entire body tightens at the sight that greets me. It’s not huge, and maybe some wouldn’t even notice it, but I’ve memorized every square inch of her body, and what is staring back at me is definitely not the same as when she ran away several months ago.
“What the fuck is going on with your stomach?” I bark.
ChapterFourteen
REESE
I take half a step backward,ready to run, but then realize that I have nowhere to go and Douglas might be right behind me. “Nothing,” I mutter.
“That is a fucking lie,” Agony grinds out.
“Do you even care?” I ask. “Isn’t Thunder waiting for you?”
He stares at me, looking completely and totally confused, but that just makes me roll my eyes. This asshole has the audacity to act like he doesn’t know what I’m talking about when that bitch answered his phone and basically tried to claim him right then and there to me.
“Firstly, I have no fucking clue what you’re talking about, and I don’t want to know either. Secondly, what the fuck is happening with your stomach? You better fucking spit that shit out. And thirdly, is that why you really ran from me?”
Oh god.
He thinks I ran away because of the baby. Maybe he thinks I ran because I didn’t want him to be the father when that couldn’t be further from the truth. If there is any man in the world who I want to be my baby’s father, it’s this man.
“I didn’t know I was pregnant until after I ran. I called to tell you, but you werebusy.”
Agony snorts. “So, you didn’t try that hard. Glad to know how I fucking rate.”
I want to tell him that it’s not like that, not at all, but I can’t. Because that’s the way it happened. I got my feelings hurt, but I knew I should have told him no matter what, and now here we are. The only thing I have going for me is that he hasn’t missed anything too important yet.
“And you’re running from a stalker ex who I know absolutely fucking nothing about. I’m so fucking pissed right now.”
He should be.
I really messed up. And no matter how badly my feelings are hurt, I am the one who ran. I am the one who kept things from him—huge things. There is a moment of silence in which we stare at one another, then he clears his throat and takes a step toward me, then another, until he closes the distance between us.
Lifting his hands, he cups my cheeks as his eyes search mine. He shifts closer to me, then rests his forehead against my own. His eyes flutter closed, and he inhales a deep breath before he lets it out slowly.
“I am so fucking angry,” he whispers. “I am so fucking happy,” he continues as his hand drops from my face and his palm curves around my belly. “I am so fucking scared.”
“Agony,” I breathe.
He lifts his head, though he doesn’t move back from me. “Lance,” he states.
Blinking, I stare at him for a moment. “Lance?”
“Lance Dixon.”
It’s in that moment I realize this is his name, but he doesn’t stop with that nugget of information. He continues, and as he does, I also realize that we aren’t so different, me and Lance Dixon.
“My name is Lance Dixon, and my parents were completely fucking worthless. They call me Agony because I feel too fucking much, and my life has been worthless until this point. My mother was on drugs, a true fucking crack whore. My father got full custody when the state worker found me completely neglected and living in filth in a trap house.”
“Lance,” I exhale.
He shakes his head once, and I snap my lips closed to let him continue. “My father wasn’t much better. He was a Devil’s Hellion, but back then, it wasn’t the way it is now. He neglected me, too. He just made sure that sweet butts were around to somewhat take care of me. He was killed on my tenth birthday.”
He doesn’t speak immediately. He stays silent, and I decide to ask him a question. “What happened after that?”
“What happened next was that my aunt took me in, except she wasn’t any better than my fucking parents. Being neglected was a good day over there. She liked to beat me on the regular, and so did her husband.”
My heart aches. No, it does more than that. It cracks and breaks into a million little pieces. Lifting my hand, I extend my fingers and slide two of them along his bottom lip.
