Page 107 of Midnight Racers

“Why? Are we going to go back to me not knowing and you hiding the information to hold over me every time you feel like it?” I shot her a furious glare. “Considering it took two of us to make that baby, you could have at least let me know.”

She returned to glaring out the window. Both of us knew she’d been wrong to hide it, so she could no longer sit on the moral high ground. It was more than a little shaky and could dissolve into a mudslide at any time.

I turned into the lane leading to the house, activating the door to the garage. I’d already hidden the keys to my Harley and my spare car so she’d have to sit her sexy ass down until my temper had calmed enough to talk.

She followed me through the house tentatively, as if I’d laid traps that would spring out and grab her when she least expected it. Pixie wandered out of her preferred sleeping area, arching her back halfway across the floor before making her way to Charlotte to be petted and fussed over.

“So you’ve kidnapped me and my cat,” Charlotte snapped.

“Pixie came willingly, and technically, my child is inside you, so I’m babysitting them until their mother decides to be reasonable.”

She slowly stood and folded her arms across her chest to give me her best death stare.

“You do realise that my business partner is Jordan Berkeley? He is the king of death glares, so I’m afraid yours doesn’t scare me.”

I ignored her continued act of annoyance to wander to the refrigerator and select out what I had bought for dinner. Charlotte tended to burn her anger out and then sulk. My temper could outlast hers any day of the week and I had a lot of kindling to burn through.

She eventually came to sit on one of the barstools to watch me after she’d searched for the phones that I’d hidden. Her mobile phone was in her bag in my car, so technically she was my prisoner. She would have to sit there and listen to what I had to say, since she’d been making all the decisions for both of us.

I chopped the potatoes, and put the wedges into the oven, seasoned the steaks, and started to chop the shallots for the sauce.

“What if I don’t want steak for dinner?”

“Pixie can help you out with that,” I replied. “She tends to like steak cut into cubes.”

Charlotte drummed her fingernails on the countertop, and I ignored her and continued to make the sauce. When she strummed louder to show her annoyance, I put music on before placing the steaks in a pan to sear them.

Her temper eventually got the better of her, and she stomped over to the music station and turned it off. My eyebrows raised in question.

“You can’t do this to me, Flynn. It is against the law to kidnap a person and their cat and hold them against their will. You have no right to do this. We scratched our itch, and now it’s time for us to go our separate ways.”

I walked her, step at a time, until she had backed herself against the wall with nowhere to escape to. She blinked when I tucked her rebellious curls behind her ear.

“I can do this, Charlotte. Take a look around you because this is reality. Considering I’ve spent my life ignoring the law, do you think I give a fuck if kidnapping goes against their petty rules? I have every right to do this considering you’re carrying my child. And who said my itch was scratched? I didn’t agree to those conditions, so you need to stop pretending to be God and making decisions for everyone.”

That steely look of determination flooded her blue eyes.

“Don’t even think about it,” I informed her. “You made assumptions without even asking me. You put the life of our unborn child at risk even though you knew we were trying to protect you from an unknown threat. I’m beyond pissed at you right now, so I’d advise you to sit your ass down and contemplate your apology.”

I spun on my heel and returned to the dinner. The force of her shock almost ricocheted against the walls. I’d had a lot of conversations with her mum while she lay there scaring the shit out of us, and even though I had guessed most of it, I was still pissed at her for walking away and not trusting me. I stood there and watched when they scanned her to make sure the baby was okay, staring at that tiny heartbeat on the screen that ended in me making a phone call to Mum and her screaming with joy down the phone.

That was what was supposed to happen when you discovered a pregnancy—people were supposed to be happy, not creeping around hiding it from the other person who created that life with you.

“I didn’t cheat,” she said randomly when she returned to her seat.

My back molars ground together and I gripped the edge of the counter to save myself from strangling her. “Neither did I,” I replied. “Nor did I jump to conclusions about situations I knew nothing about.”

We were at a stalemate. I knew she wanted to know about Lydia, but she’d have to ask because I was still seething at her for walking away from what we had together. We glared at each other for several moments across the kitchen island.

“So, who was the mysterious woman you were talking to on the phone and hugging outside the hospital before you disappeared toward the maternity unit?” she finally asked. I noticed her hand unconsciously covering her flat stomach.

“That was my cousin Lydia, who was terrified, since a blood test revealed her as a match for Dad’s kidney transplant. She didn’t want to go through with it, and couldn’t find a way out. I met her at the hospital to give her support.” I continued to eyeball her so she could feel the full force of my wrath.

Charlotte had the good grace to glance away. “I didn’t know that,” she replied in a small voice. “All I know is that a stranger came home with me and made me feel as if I didn’t belong here. You can’t blame me for not knowing when you kept me out of your world.”

It was a fair point, but I was still processing nearly losing her, and finding her in the remains of that car pale, cold, and barely breathing. “Like you told me all about Craig?” I countered and watched her shutters coming down at the mention of his name. “Communication goes both ways, Charlotte. I never claimed to be a saint, but I’m not the only sinner here.”

She sucked in a breath and finally met my eyes. “Craig used me when I was young and naïve. He’s the reason I was against relationships in the workplace, and why I never put my designs on a work computer or cloud. I never mention him because I prefer to think of him as dead.”

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