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Titan grinned. “Orion’s the only person that calls Nova by her name. Atlas calls her Twinkle, Raven calls her Little Star, Bast calls her Starlight, and I call her Sparkly.”
“That’s got to be the sappiest thing that I’ve ever heard,” I said, staring at him, imagining Nova Havoc having all these athletic superstars wrapped around her finger.
“Nova is very special to all of us,” he said, his love for her evident in every word.
Getting back on track, I said, “We need to find out Rachel’s endgame.”
“It’s not my kid,” he repeated. “She’s doing this for likes or revenge, nothing else makes sense.”
My mind kicked into PR mode as we ate our dinners in silence. Luckily, it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence. Even though I could still feel eyes on us, we were being left alone to enjoy our dinner, and it really sucked that I was beginning to like Titan Miller. At the end of it all, I still had a job to do, and it would be the height of professional irresponsibility to get involved with a client.
Good times.
Chapter 13
Titan~
Considering that Lux had left my game and hadn’t been too happy about our phone call, things were going a lot better than I probably deserved. Normally, highhandedness didn’t work with women like Lux Leland, but I suspected that her job was the main reason why she was putting up with my shit.
After eating in comfortable silence for a while, Lux said, “She shouldn’t be able to get away with what she’s doing, Titan.”
Her sentiment was sweet, but she was talking exactly like a person that had grown up in a world with loving parents, a great childhood, and with the belief that she could achieve anything that she set her mind to. Lex was fortunate enough to believe that she could combat evil if she was on the good guy’s side, and God bless her.
However, people like me knew different. For all that I had managed to accomplish in my life, there were hundreds just like me still stuck back in Hammond, Illinois. If it was just a simple case of determination, then we’d all be successful. Unfortunately, life wasn’t that cut and dry. If your parents filled your mind with the possibility of more, then that was a big help when trying to reach your goals. However, if your parents filled your mind with negativity, then it was easy to find yourself stuck in the same place as always. Getting out wasn’t always that easy, and the guys and I had been lucky enough to have athletic talent on our side. Seriously, I’d been ready to throw it all away just to do right by Trisha and her imaginary baby.
Luckily, I’d also had Raven as my friend. While the rest of us had been just as determined to get out of Hammond as he’d had, Raven had basically raised us, despite us all being the same age. Raven had always been our leader, and he’d always done his best to lead us in the right direction. There was no telling where we’d all be right now if not for Raven King.
“And what would you have me do, Lux?” I asked. “Drag her to the middle of town square, then let the outraged public stone her to death?”
She shot me a look. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“As much as it sucks, the bad guys do win on occasion,” I told her, informing her of one of life’s little truths. “There’s really no way to prove that Rachel is doing this with ill intent, baby.”
“Titan, it’s not right,” she argued.
“Lux, I’m not saying that it is,” I replied, loving her quest to fight for what was right. “I’m saying that I prefer to pick my battles, and some random chick that I might or might not have slept with isn’t worth it.” I sat up straighter in my seat. “Am I pissed that she’s using me for whatever the fuck she’s doing? Yeah, of course. Is it worth starting a media war when Iknowthat she’s not pregnant by me? No.”
“Then why revise the original statement that we came up with?”
“Because I needed to make it clear that my family was off-limits,” I answered. “I have no problem starting a war for them, even if I lose. Raven, Orion, Atlas, Sebastian, and Nova are worth losing everything that I have for.”
Her face softened. “I get that, I do. I have a family of my own. Still, I just…I guess I’m just still trying to understand why she’s doing this.”
My blue eyes narrowed a bit. “You still don’t believe me.”
Lux’s head jerked back a bit. “What?”
“You still think there’s a chance that the baby is mine,” I said, calling her out.
“Maybe I’m still trying to wrap my mind around your claims of…” She lowered her voice. “Of not having…traditional sex all these years.”
“Traditional sex?” I chuckled, though it sounded a bit empty.
“You know what I mean,” she drawled out, not impressed.
“Do you want to know the first thing that crossed my mind when Trisha told me that she was pregnant?” Lux nodded. “That I was going to have a baby.” Her green eyes widened in surprise. “Not that I was going to be stuck in Hammond, not that the guys were going to leave me behind, not that all my dreams were crashing down around me. My first thought was that I was going to have a baby, and my second thought was that I was going to do everything that I could not to be like my parents. My third thought was that I would work three jobs if I had to in order to make all my child’s dreams come true. My child was going to grow up in a home that every child deserved to grow up in. My child wasn’t going to ever go to bed hungry, have clothes that didn’t fit, and not flinch whenever voices got loud, and definitely not have to run and hide when the belt came out.”
“Titan…” she whispered.
