Page 53 of Courting the Consequences

“She met Mac one night when he came in with some of the guys from the barracks.” He rolled his eyes. “From what she said, a lap dance led to a kiss that led to fucking in the bathroom. Six weeks later she came crying to me that she was pregnant.” He rolled his eyes again.

She was getting reallysick of his arrogance.

“I told her I would pay for a paternity test. If the child was mine, I would help her. She went to a clinic and tried to give me forged documents, framing me as the father.” He shook his head in disbelief. “Luckily, she had gone to a clinic where a friend of mine worked,” he continued his lies. “He gave me a copy of the real results. Marcos is Mac’s son. My fiancée cheated on me with my ex–best friend and got pregnant with his child.”

Kara was seething inside. She had to clamp down on her emotions. She threw up every wall she could in her mind so as not to show how utterly incensed she felt.

“She fed Mac the same bullshit papers that it was my child. But I had the truth. She didn’t deny it when I confronted her. I told her I wouldn’t raise someone else’s bastard child and she should leave.” He shrugged.

Kara shook her head in disappointment. “I don’t know why I expected anything else,” she said, resigned.

He narrowed his gaze on her. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand how a woman can imprison a man like that, lie about the child being his. It’s inconceivable.”

“So Mac is Marcos’s father?” she questioned, glancing away.

Vince eyed her and nodded, and then he dropped his last surprise of the evening. “Yes, your half brother shares the same father as your boyfriend.”

Kara’s eyes flashed back to her father’s. Her heart hammered in her chest as it constricted.

“Oh yes, my darling daughter,” he drawled, a sneer on his face. “I know all about how you’ve been whoring yourself to those three bikers. Like mother, like daughter after all.”

“How fucking dare—”

“No, how dareyou,” he snapped, immediately cutting her off. “After everything I did for you. Pulled you out of the slums, gave you Harvard. You would dishonor me by being a biker whore?!”

Rage colored her vision red. “Fuck you,” she spat.

Vince laughed cruelly. “No, daughter, you’ve already fucked half the town.”

She rose from her seat. She remained calm in the face of everyone watching, but she would not sit there a moment longer.

“Sit. Down.” Vince growled.

She remained standing.

“Kara, if you don’t want to see yourboyfriendsall behind bars for the rest of their lives, you will sit down, andlisten.” He kept his voice low, but his own anger boiled under the surface of his red face.

She reluctantly sat. She folded her shaking hands on her lap beneath the table.

“This is what you will do. You will end yourwhore ways, immediately.You will go to them and end thisfarceof a relationship. You will tell them you can no longer help them with the Granger case, then you willstop digging into things you don’t belong in,” he ordered vehemently. “Do you understand me?”

“Yes, Father,” she answered sardonically and rolled her eyes.

He glared at her, dropping all pretenses for the crowd behind her. He eyed her carefully before he nodded. “You may go.” He waved a hand at her dismissively.

She didn’t hesitate. She glared at him, grabbed her purse, and left. She didn’t need to be told twice.

ItwasanothernightKara spent crying alone. She didn’t bother to reach out to her guys. There was no point. They had made it clear that they didn’t have time for her this week. After a weekend fuckfest, they were done with her.

Her father had made it clear that her whore ways would only lead to them being imprisoned.

She didn’t put it past him. Not after everything he had revealed. Not after the things she’s helped him bury over the years. Her father was not a good man. She had known that from the start. And like a fool, she’d let him rope her into this false sense of security with him, as if she were desperate for love.

Now she was well and trulyfucked.

She didn’t bother going to work that day. It was Friday, her schedule was mostly empty. She texted her secretary and called off.

She spent most of her morning crying and debating with herself.

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