Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
FALLON
It took him exactly four weeks to try to enact his secret plan to help Gage.
Unfortunately, it came on the heels of his next doctor’s appointment, which was also the time they were going to see Mango on the ultrasound screen. Fallon was dealing with it all well enough, but he wasn’t sure he was ready for it to be that real.
It was harder and harder to disconnect from the reality of his situation, but as that happened, he’d started to realize he didn’t feel less like himself. It was what it was. He was going to be a dad, and each week that passed, the ticking clock got louder and louder.
He probably would have been more terrified, except he had Gage, and that made a difference. Gage was there for him, but more than that, he was there for Gage. He was allowed to be the strong, silent protector type at home whenever Gage was feeling low or unsure.
He turned to Fallon any and every time he was feeling small.
And that was something he never thought he was going to have in a relationship.
“Well,” Gage said, watching Fallon scrape all the goo off his stomach with a wet wipe. The sensation was almost unbearable, but the stuff the doctor had in his office to get it off his skin worked miracles. “Is there anything else you wanted to do today?”
“Actually, yes.” Fallon straightened his shirt and hopped off the table. Gage was holding the folder with the blobby photos of Mango, who was a lot bigger than a mango now, but he was attached to the name. “I have a surprise for you. Are you busy this afternoon?”
Gage shook his head. “Just with whatever you have planned.”
A little thrill shot up his spine, and he took Gage’s hand as they passed through the lobby to pick up his next appointment card.
Tucking it away in his wallet, he led the way to the car and hunkered down in the passenger seat as Gage put all the papers in the glove compartment and then started the car.
“Okay, I’m all for surprises, but you have to tell me where we’re going.”
Fallon slapped himself on the forehead. “Shit. Right. Uh, so we’re going to the zoo.”
Gage frowned but didn’t argue. He just popped it into the GPS, then headed out onto the road. The silence in the car was fine at first. It was normal, which Fallon liked. Appointments were always a struggle for him, so he liked to decompress, but he noticed that Gage was getting tense.
“We don’t have to go.”
“What?” Gage stole a glance at him.
Fallon chewed on the inside of his cheek as he considered his words. “You seem upset. We don’t have to do the zoo.”
“No, I—that’s not…” Gage trailed off, and he flicked on the blinker, ignoring the GPS directions, and turned down a neighborhood street. “Shit.”
Fallon sat up straighter. “What’s wrong?”
“We’re being followed.” Gage took a slightly sharp right with no blinker, then swore again. “I noticed him on the drive to the clinic. But he didn’t come inside, and I didn’t see the car as we were pulling out, so I figured it was just a coincidence. But he’s right behind us.”
Fallon’s hackles rose, and he turned in his seat. He couldn’t see well enough even with his glasses to make out who was in the driver’s seat, and he didn’t recognize the car. “Should we call someone?”
“Mm…I think I’m gonna hit the station,” Gage said. “My dad’s there. If someone wants to fuck around, they’re also gonna find out.”
Fallon didn’t like that at all, but he also trusted Gage to keep him safe. Mango started to jump around on his bladder, and he felt a sudden wave of nausea. “I might need to throw up.”
“Hang tight, okay? We’re nearly there.”
Gage wasn’t kidding. They reached the station parking lot in two minutes, and Gage pulled up right next to the truck Fallon recognized as Adele’s.
“Call my dad, will you?” Gage said as he reached for his door handle. “I’m going to go see what the fuck this guy wants.”
“I don’t want to be in here alone,” Fallon said. “I don’t like this.”
“I know, but—”
Gage’s words were cut off by a sharp knock on Fallon’s window.
His heart leapt into his throat, threatening to suffocate him to death as he whipped his head to the side and saw a strange man he didn’t recognize.
He was pasty with a ’70s porn-stache and was wearing a turtleneck so high up, it gave Fallon a secondhand choking sensation.
“What the hell?” Gage demanded. “Don’t move.” He flung his door open and stepped one foot out of the car. “Who the fuck are you, and why the fuck are you following us?”
“I’m looking for a missss—”
“Fucking watch it,” Gage growled.
“—ter,” Fallon heard the guy very quickly correct, “Fallon Montez. I’m with the sheriff’s department.”
Fallon’s ears began to ring. What the hell did the sheriff want from him? He took a shaking breath and realized that Gage was poking his head back into the car.
“Hey, sweetheart. Breathe for me.”
Fallon sucked in a lungful of air.
“Great. You need to open your window, okay? He’s gonna hand you something.”
Fallon blinked at him.
“He’s serving you with something. We will take care of it, but you have to take it, okay?” Gage’s voice was quiet and calm, which helped Fallon focus. He climbed back into the car and sat down. “Okay?”
Fallon was still feeling confused, lost, and numb, but he could do what Gage was telling him to do. He hit the button on the door, and the window slid down, sending a burst of cool air into his face.
The man crouched down and blocked it. He didn’t look so scary now. He actually seemed apologetic. “I didn’t mean to scare you. My job is hard sometimes.” He had a large, orangey-yellow envelope in his hand and a clipboard in the other. “I just need you to sign this.”
Fallon’s hand shook as he did it, and then he was handed the envelope.
“Thank you, Mr. Montez. You’ve been served. If you have any questions, please contact the department. And my name is Alexander Heath if you need to reach me for any reason.”
Yeah, okay. Not a terrible guy.
Fallon nodded, then sat back as Alexander walked off, and in the small side mirror, Fallon could see him getting back into his car. He sat there a moment, and then like he was never with them at all, he pulled out into the street and was gone.
“Shit,” Gage said. “Okay. Do you want to open it?”
Fallon shook his head and shoved it at his boyfriend. “Can you? Is that illegal?”
“I don’t think it’s illegal, baby,” Gage murmured softly as he took the envelope. Fallon closed his eyes against the sound of the seal tearing, and then his heart began to speed up again when Gage sucked in a breath. “That fucker. That motherfucker. I’m going to kill him. I will be acquitted too.”
Fallon opened his eyes. Fear was clawing at the insides of his throat. “What is it?”
Gage stared at him for a long time, and then he licked his lips. He was…scared? Nervous? Definitely angry, but there was something else too. Something Fallon had never seen on his face before.
There was another long moment of silence before Gage set the papers down on his lap, and Fallon peered over. Panic raced up his spine when he saw the name at the top of the sheet alongside his own.
Charles Scott.
Charlie.
“He’s suing me?” was all Fallon could ask, because what else could there possibly be? He was already convicted of battery, stalking, and intimidation. What could he possibly come after Fallon for?
Gage cleared his throat. “It’s…there’s a court order.”
“For what?”
The silence was oppressive and overwhelming. Then Gage made a soft noise, but in the quiet car, it was loud and painful. “Paternity.”
Fallon’s gaze went a little hazy and white. “What?” His voice sounded strange, like he was shouting into a canyon.
“You’re being ordered to submit to a paternity test for…for Mango.” Gage let out a sharp breath. “He knows. Charlie knows everything.”
Fallon was eerily calm by the time they got to wherever Gage was taking them. He had no idea. It was some sort of office building he didn’t recognize. In his head, he figured he should be freaking out. He should be panicking and crying and throwing up or raging and screaming.
Anything but sitting there with a heavy, numb weight on his chest.
When Gage opened his door, he got out and held his boyfriend’s hand as Gage led him inside. The place smelled like one of those floral-scented oil plug-ins that tried to mimic flowers but never quite achieved it.
It burned his eyes, and he blinked as Gage let him go to talk to a man sitting at a desk.
Fallon was very aware in that moment he wasn’t fully himself. Everything felt like it was in a dream. The echoes of his shoes on the tile were too soft, and his breathing was too loud. Gage’s hand—when he was holding it—had been too loose, then too tight, which was not like him.
So it probably wasn’t him.
It was Fallon.
“Where are we?” he finally asked.
Gage spun around, eyes slightly wide. “We’re at Monty’s office.”
Fallon thought maybe he was supposed to know who that was, but he didn’t.
“He’s my uncle,” Gage went on. “He’s a lawyer. I think he can help.”
If there was any help to be had. That was the entire problem. Fallon hadn’t been able to bring himself to look at the court order when he was in the car, but the truth was—this was Charlie’s baby. And if he knew about this, he had every right to demand to be part of it.
Didn’t he?
After what he did?
Fallon snapped back to reality just as Gage was leading him down the hall, and he came to a stop in front of a wooden door that was propped partly open. Leaning in, Fallon saw Gage smile.
“Hey. You’re not busy still, right?”
“Not even a little. Come in.”
Fallon hadn’t known what to expect with Monty. He hadn’t formed any sort of mental image at all. He was short, though, and thin, with a mop of brown waves and a very soft, very young-looking face, though flecks of grey at his temples betrayed his age.