Page 42 of Domino
I think he could, of course, sue for paternity and demand a DNA test, but I looked it up and know how expensive those are. I doubt he’ll have the money to make that happen. This whole gambit is a risk. But it’s one I have to take if Cole and I are ever going to be completely free of him.
“You had no right to do that,” he hisses.
“I had every right. You weren’t around.”
“So, you cut me out of his life because you were pissed off that I went hunting? How in the fuck is that fair or right, Ash?”
“Maybe you should have thought about all of that before we got to that point. Maybe you should have learned to be a better man earlier.”
“This ain’t right, and you know it. I’m goin’ to get my son back, Ashley. And I’m goin’ to make you pay for what you’ve done. Just know that. You’re gonna pay a heavy fuckin’ price.”
“Yeah, good luck with that.”
I disconnect the call and drop the phone onto the nightstand. It rings again, but I silence it. I’ve given him every opportunity to change. To be a better man for me, and for his son. Well, he’s out of chances now. It’s more than clear that he’s not going to change. Not for me and not for Cole. He’s just used up his last opportunity to convince me he deserves to be a part of my son’s life.
This is done, and this is over. Tomorrow, I go and get a new phone, officially turn the page on my past, and start a fresh, new chapter. And this one, I’m going to write for myself, by myself.
Chapter Sixteen
Domino
“So, why haven’t you called her yet, then, Romeo?”
“Gotta let some anticipation build,” I reply.
Derek shakes his head. “Never figured you for a pussy, man.”
“Go fuck yourself.”
But I snicker, although it’s without much humor behind it, then take a long swallow of my beer, pondering Derek’s question. There’s no real good reason I didn’t call her last night. Other than the fact that I spent a good portion of the day trying to get a bead on the guys in the black SUV. After I saw them rolling slow down Harrison, I followed them, doing my best to be discreet about it. But there’s nothing really subtle about my bike, so I had to hang back farther than I would have liked.
I look at the closed doors to the Leadership room, wondering what’s going on in there. Derek doesn’t know much, and the bits of information he does have, are scattered and not overly informative, anyway. All he could say for sure was the tension in the air is high.
Which brings me back to the guys in the SUV. I made them for cartel guys. I know I can’t be absolutely certain, but I got that twitchy vibe I always got when something was about to go down over in the shit. Being in Afghanistan taught me how to be observant. When we were in areas choked with people, be it a marketplace or a village, I always assessed the area and the people around us quickly. Failure to do so meant you could end up getting your ass blown up, so I learned to be fast and accurate thoroughly.
Several times over there, I picked out the threat—usually some dude strapped with a suicide vest—and kept my unit from getting blown to shit. Several times, we weren’t so lucky and somebody got by one of our guys, and our unit took a hit. But the point is, when I was assessing a scene, I always got a particular vibe. It’s like a sixth sense or something that helped me pick out the bad guy with bad intentions from the crowed.
And when I saw those guys in the SUV yesterday, I got that feeling all over again. Something wasn’t right about them and that they were there with bad intentions. It was just a feeling, and with everything that had happened with the cartel, I wondered if I was just being paranoid. I puzzled over it all night, wondering if I should bring it up to Leadership, or just let it go. I mean, it’s not like anything happened. They didn’t do anything, and no shit went down anywhere. So, I decided to sleep on it.
I woke up this morning, though, and it was still bothering me, so I figured I’d talk to Cosmo. Tell him what happened, what I saw, and let him make a call about whether to bring it up to Prophet or not. No sense in getting everybody worked up about it, if somebody as even keeled as Cosmo said there was nothing there and it was probably just my imagination working overtime.
But when I got here, the atmosphere in the clubhouse was heavy, and the closed-door meeting that was becoming a regular thing here persisted. It got me thinking that maybe the two things are connected. That maybe there’s some behind-the-scenes shit going on with the cartel I’m not aware of. Something that drew them to Blue Rock. I know Prophet’s got a special kind of hard-on for those guys, but would he go rogue and do something to pull us into a war with them?
“So, what’s she like?” Derek asks.
I shrug. “She’s a knockout. Got a tight little body with curves in all the right places,” I tell him. “She’s smart as hell, too. Witty. She can definitely hold her own when it comes to giving somebody shit.”
“Sounds like she’s already got you wrapped around her finger. And here I thought you were just lookin’ to get laid.”
“I don’t know what I’m lookin’ for. Could be I just want to get laid. And trust me, I wouldn’t mind bangin’ her in the least.”
Derek takes a drink of his beer and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. “Yeah, I ain’t buyin’ that. You’re already talkin’ like a man who’s seeing minivans, white picket fences, and two-point-five children.”
“You’re such an asshole,” I laugh. “I’m definitely not the nuclear family kind of guy. Never have been. I don’t do kids.”
“Never say never, man.”
My heart suddenly spasms with pain as I stare at the bottle in front of me. I’ve never been much for kids to begin with. But as the thoughts scroll through my mind, the faces of an Afghani boy and a girl, neither of them more than ten years old float through. I’ll never be able to forget them. They were seared into my brain where they’ll always remain. And rightly so. What I did is something I’ll never be able to forget, nor should I be able to. It’s a memory that will haunt me to the end of my days. It’s something I’ll never be able to forgive myself for. Nor should I be forgiven.
