Page 54 of StoryTeller's Tale

“Can I help you?” the woman asks disdainfully, eyeing my jeans and t-shirt with obvious disgust.

“Who is it?” a man’s voice calls from somewhere deep in the depths of the house.

“I’m here to see Sheri Secord,” I get in fast before I can be dismissed as someone asking for a handout. “I’m a friend of hers.”

“That figures,” she says in a nasal tone. “She’s not here.” She starts closing the door.

Expecting the move, I have my steel-toe capped boot already positioned to wedge it open. “Do you know where I can find her?”

“Who is it?” the male voice calls again.

“Some good-for-nothing asking about Sheri.”

Heavier footsteps now sound, and a man appears behind what is presumably his wife. He gives me just as contemptuous look as her. “What business have you with my daughter?”

“I’m a friend.” A friend who’s fucking worried about her. If she’s out walking around, there’s a chance Knuckles could get to her. “Just tell me where I can find her.”

He shrugs. “We’ve no idea. Just told her to go get her problem sorted and not to come back before it is.”

“It’s damn inconvenient,” the woman says. “I’ll deal with this, Ted.”

Obediently the man walks away, and I’m left with the woman who’s glaring at me. “Is this your fuckin’ fault?”

I feel like I’m falling down a rabbit hole and need to get some control back. “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. I haven’t seen Sheri for weeks. Now will you tell me where she is?”

“I don’t care where she’s gone as long as she gets it sorted. Sheri’s a selfish brat, always has been.”

My eyes narrow. Someone selfish doesn’t give everything up for strangers, nor puts herself in line for a bullet. I’m quickly not liking this woman or the man I believe is Sheri’s dad.

A growl comes to my throat. “Where’s she gone?”

My menacing tone seems to get through to her as she steps back to put space between us. “Out of state, somewhere, anywhere, where she can get rid of the kid. She came here asking for help. I told her she couldn’t come back until she got it fixed.”

“Kid? What kid?”

She shakes her head as if I’m stupid. “She’s pregnant.”

My hand slams against the doorjamb. For a moment, I need support. Visions quickly go through my mind of how good it felt to come inside her ungloved. I knew at the time there could have been consequences but had thought the odds were on my side. Now I realise they weren’t, and unless Sheri got a taste for sex and went with someone else after me, she’s likely to be carrying my child.

Jesus. It’s hard to keep a myriad of expressions coming to my face. Once I saw myself with a wife and a child, but betrayal and cheating had soon cured me of it. I’m a nomad at heart, a man who likes moving around all the time. How could I be tied down?

I doubt Sheri’s any happier about it.

What a fucked-up situation this is. We didn’t give in to passion. We didn’t forget to take care. Both of us are totally blameless. Just another thing to be laid at Knuckles’ door.

Sheri doesn’t know I’m here. She doesn’t know how to find me. I could disappear, leave fate to play out as it will, could go back to Arizona and continue my life as a single, unburdened man.

It takes one split second for me to think of running away and an equal time for me to dismiss it. Even if Knuckles isn’t trying to get his hands on her, there’s no way I could leave Sheri right now.

She must be in pieces.

Especially at it appears she’s got no support. This woman, who I suspect is her mother, has sent her away to get rid of it. Maybe that would have been my go-to response were it not for the callous way she’s talking about it.Get the problem sorted.Like there’s no emotion involved.

If I know anything about Sheri, she’ll be tied up in knots. It’s her body, her baby, her life. Neither I, nor this woman, have anything to do with it.

It doesn’t matter if I’m reeling with shock. Now’s not the time to consider how I’m dealing with it. It’s Sheri who needs my help, now more than ever. And Knuckles? Heaven help him if he hurts the woman bearing my child.

I see red. Moving forward fast, I push her against the wall and wrap my hand around her throat. “When did she go?”

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