Page 8 of Never Too Late for Love
Maybe Sofia hadn’t staged her injuries and really was what she’d said she was—a woman in fear for her and her newborn infant’s lives. Maybe the boyfriend Sofia had been with at that time was a different one, because the friend had also said Sofia changed boyfriends more often than her underwear, and there was no true way of knowing who her baby’s father had been.
Cris never had been sure why, if Sofia had been so scared of her boyfriend, she hadn’t signaled the nurses at the hospital for help when KC had been born. At the time, he hadn’t been completely sure he believed her excuses that there was always someone from the gang with her, preventing her from signaling for help.
Or, maybe Sofia meeting Typhoon Tilly and realizing she was far outclassed had scared Sofia into a different course of action, ditching the boyfriend and going with the story she’d told Tilly, Cris, and Landry, because she knew her boyfriend was going to go down, since Tilly wasn’t a person to fuck with when the safety of a baby was at stake. Maybe realizing their original plan would never work because of the vast resources available to the triad, Sofia had gone rogue and decided she did want away and didn’t want to share the wealth with her boyfriend.
That also meant Sofia might have lied, and that KC’s biological father might not really be deceased after all. That was yet another can of worms Cris refused to touch, because the biological father had apparently also been in a gang.
Sofia’s friend had cautioned Cris that he should watch his back for any possible scams that might be played on him by “long-lost relatives.” Relatives who might be willing to go away if the price was right.
So far, none had appeared.
He didn’t want to believe that about his Sofia, but he was also a realist whose own father had thrown him out and sent him to live with an uncle who’d beaten him—Sofia’s father.
Except if the friend’s story had been accurate, wouldn’t Sofia’s boyfriend have used that as an excuse to try to discredit her and get himself out of jail?
There was no way to know, because even admitting that much might have been against their “no narcs” gang code. Or if the boyfriend thought Sofia was still with him and it was part of the greater plan to use the baby to extort money from Cris, he would have stayed silent. Maybe they hadn’t expected Tilly, and her calling the cops on the boyfriend skewed the plan and turned him against Sofia, thinking she’d screwed him over, and he’d ordered the hit. Maybe someone else from his gang had taken initiative if they hadn’t known about the plan and ended it all before they could cash in.
Cris would never know. That was something that ate at him. The truth had died with Sofia in that jail. It had taken Tilly long enough to deal with her guilt and loss in the face of her having her biggest wish granted. Her feelings of failure that she hadn’t been able to keep Sofia safe.
He refused to upend Tilly’s emotions again. Not again. Especially not over an uncertainty that left them in the same damn place after covering a galaxy’s worth of emotional territory in the process.
It was easier to weed through the shoebox-sized plastic container of pictures and other things, saving only what he knew KC might want when she was older, pics of her mom, her high school diploma, her graduation photo.
The rest he shredded and tossed.
For now, they stayed locked in the bottom drawer of his desk in the LA office. Until Landry thought it was okay to bring them to Florida.
Most likely by mailing them from LA to their office there, using a fake name and address and a computer-generated note claiming they were a former schoolmate and friend of Sofia’s who wanted to see these given to KC, setting the groundwork of the story so neither Cris nor Landry had to directly lie to Tilly.
It would speak for itself.
KC dove under the water, splashing Cris as she kicked. She swam like a dolphin, the swim classes they’d put her in as a baby paying off. She was happy, bright, and had a fantastic future waiting for her to seize it and make it her own.
As he glanced over at Tilly leaning against Landry on the swing and smiling as she watched them together in the pool, he knew there was no way in hell he was going to ever let her know the full truth about Sofia.
Especially since he didn’t evenknowthe full truth. It would always and forever be a mystery.
Maybe that was for the best.
Chapter Four
Bob seriously thought he was going to come right there in the kitchen when Landry had, without warning, bumped up the setting on the butt plug. It’d started rolling and humming and nailing him in the sweet spot and Bob literally had to grab the counter for support.
Then Landry turned it down again. When Bob looked, he spotted the sadist’s playful smile from where he sat in the swing on the lanai with Tilly.
Landry blew him a kiss, and Bob blew one back.
He couldn’t feel too aggravated at the sadist. That the man was paying him attention meant he’d missed Bob and wanted to play. Wasn’t like he could take Bob into the pool house right now and beat his ass with KC awake and in the pool.
Taking a deep breath, Bob went back to work preparing their lunch. He knew from experience that once KC was inside the house, Landry would shut the butt plug off, not wanting to risk doing anything like that in front of her.
But while KC was distracted out in the pool…
Bob suspected at least a couple more instances would happen before he called them all in to eat.
Then again, a few minutes later, as he finished preparations and walked over to the sliders, he thought maybe Tilly had scolded Landry to ease up, because there hadn’t been any more instances and the butt plug shut off as he’d turned from the sliders after calling them inside.
Whew!
