Page 41 of Mistaken Identity
My stomach sank. “Please tell me it’s someone that’s not married.”
“Worse.” He looked a little green for a minute. “It’s Gunner’s.”
My heart sank.
Worst-case scenario, apocalyptic event…this was an eleven on a scale from one to ten. “Fuck.”
“What’s wrong with him being the father?” Creole looked between all of us.
It was Webber who answered her, mostly because my insides had sunk down past my knees.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“Gunner lost his son in a school shooting almost a decade ago now,” Webber murmured. “He’s sworn off all women. Didn’t even know that he’d been intimate with anyone, honestly. Broke up with girlfriends who wanted kids. He doesn’t want kids. Ever again.”
“Well,” Creole said as she stood up. “It’s not like he has a choice now, does he? He’s got one.”
I scrubbed at my face. “Did she take advantage of him is the real question.”
“Laney would never do that,” Creole said fiercely. “She wouldn’t have forced herself on him, and you know it.”
I let my head fall back, and my head hit the metal bars that lined the inside of Webber’s office.
“No,” I agreed while still staring at the ceiling. “But I also wouldn’t have thought that she would have put Gunner in that position, knowing how bad it would hurt him to know that he has a kid.”
“That’s why she lied,” Creole guessed. “Because once she realized what she’d done…who she’d done…that it was a mistake. She couldn’t get out of it after that. But she could throw someone else under the bus.”
“Fuck,” I grumbled, my gaze going to Webber’s, as if he could help me solve the world’s problems. “What do we do now?”
“The entire situation doesn’t change, Audi,” Creole said, drawing my attention from my club president. “She still needs surgery. She still needs her dad and his medical history. She needs Gunner, whether he’s ready to deal with this or not. We can keep her. You and me can raise her. But Gunner has to at least give us information.”
I liked the sound of ‘you and me.’
But there wasn’t a you and me to be had…was there?
“I agree with your little enemy here,” Webber said. “He needs to know. He may not like what he finds out, but he needs to know.”
“Fuck,” I groaned. “Fuck!”
“Incoming!” Silver called out loudly.
We all looked up to find Silver in the doorway with a grumpy Lottie.
She yawned in Silver’s arms, but didn’t make a move to go toward anyone else.
I smiled, though it didn’t reach my eyes. “When do we do this?”
“Now.”
Webber, Apollo and Creole all echoed the same word.
Exactly the opposite of what I wanted to hear.
“Fuck!” I got up.
“What’s going on?” Silver asked.
Webber gave her the rundown, causing Silver’s eyes to go wide. “Wow.”
