Chapter 4
Danica
T wo days had passed since I’d spoken to Smokehouse. I winced when I thought back to it. I hadn’t spoken so much as yelled. It wasn’t my finest moment, but I panicked as soon as I saw him. I’d been so worried he was going to outright reject me that I’d gone into attack mode.
The look on the poor guy’s face had made me laugh for the first time since I found out I was pregnant. Of course, that was hours later, after I’d cooled off.
“So, is he on board or…?” Keely gave me a hopeful look. She’d been pulling long hours at work and this was the first chance she’d had to interrogate me.
“I didn’t stick around to find out,” I admitted. “And he doesn’t know how to get a hold of me. I might have tried to scare him off before he could reject me.” That seemed to be a pattern of mine with Smokehouse, though I wasn’t sure why I kept doing it. I explained everything that went down.
“Dani…”
“I know,” I told her with a sigh. “Once I gather my courage I’ll go back and talk to him like a rational adult. I sort of lost my mind on him.”
“Hormones,” she quipped, taking a long sip from her coffee mug.
I stared at her as she licked a drop of the delicious liquid from her lips. After I’d gotten home from confronting Smokehouse, I started researching to clear my mind. Turned out, I couldn’t drink coffee anymore, according to what I’d read, and I wasn’t having an easy time with it.
“It creeps me out when you do that.”
“Just…how does it taste?” I groaned.
She laughed and shook her head. “Like heaven.”
“I remember,” I said, forlorn about the loss of something I craved so deeply.
“I wish I could have seen you throw that pregnancy test at him,” she said, changing the subject. “How did he react?”
“He was pretty shocked, from everything. He didn’t seem to know what to do.
Or say. At least until he asked if the baby was his.
” I glowered down at the toast I was buttering.
My stomach pitched and rolled at the thought of eating it, but I needed something.
It was my day off and I had every intention of reading and napping the day away.
The thought of going and doing anything productive just made me want to cry.
I didn’t know if it was too early for those hormones Keely kept referencing, or if I was just a bit depressed about the tailspin my life had taken.
None of this was in my ten-year plan, let alone my five-year.
I was off script and winging it. Something that made me very uncomfortable.
The plan was to have a baby with my husband, before I realized he was cheating, yet here I was, pregnant by a one-night stand.
“It’s not necessarily an unreasonable question.” Ever the lawyer, she pointed out, “It’s within his right to ask for a paternity test.”
I glared at her over my toast. “It’s insulting.”
“True, if he knew you. But, Sweetie, he doesn’t really know you. You guys had one night together. You were both drinking. For all he knows you sleep with every man you meet in a bar.”
“Technically, I have slept with every man I met in a bar,” I said, licking a bit of jam off my finger. “Just so happens he’s the only man that fits the description.”
She chuckled. “You might lead with that if you mention it to him.” We both frowned as we heard a car door slam outside. “You expecting anyone?”
“No. You?”
She shook her head as we both went to the window. Keely’s house was in a nice, quiet neighborhood. We were out of the way enough that people didn’t just drop in unannounced, usually.
I groaned when I saw Eli walking up the front path to the door. “Not today .”
“Not any day. Want me to get rid of him?”
“If only you could. No.” I sighed in irritation. “I’ll do it.”
“I’ll be in my bedroom if you need anything.” Keely never subjected herself to Eli if she didn’t have to, and now that she knew the things I’d kept secret for so long, she made it more of a point to keep away from him. It wasn’t worth ruining her career because she tried to kill him.
Opening the door before he had the chance to knock, I gave him a bland stare. “What are you doing here?”
Eli blinked down at me, then held up his wrist to look at his watch. “It’s eleven o’clock. Why are you still in pajamas?”
“Because it’s my day off and I can do whatever I want?”
“I need to speak to you.” He lifted a brow and looked past me into the house, clearly expecting to be invited in.
The urge to kick him off the property was strong, but this could kill two birds with one stone. “Come in.” I held the door open, stepping out of his way.
He looked around as he entered. “ This is where you’re staying?”
Keely had a nice home. There was nothing wrong with it, but Eli was a stuck up snob.
Nothing had ever been good enough for him.
He lived for appearances. We always had to have the newest cars, the nicest furniture, and of course had to entertain all the time so people could see what nice things we had.
I’d hated it, but it had been easier to live his way than rock the boat.
Not that he’d ever made me scared to live with him.
He’d never lifted a finger toward me, but he had a way of verbally beating me down until I gave in.
Now that I wasn’t with him anymore I was seeing what my life had been like and wondering how I’d put up with it for so long.
“I need to speak with you, too,” I told him, leading him into the kitchen. “Coffee?” The role of hostess was too ingrained in me to not offer him a beverage.
“Thank you. Look. Enough of the games, Danica.”
I made a face at the coffee pot. He never called me Dani. Or Honey. Baby. No. It was always Danica. “Did you ever love me?” I blurted out as I turned with a full mug of coffee cupped in my hands.
His shocked expression eased my heart a little. Until his face clouded over with an emotion I couldn’t place. “Of course I did.”
Was it the cold tone? Or the stiff robotic answer? I wasn’t sure which made me not believe him. Reality crashed over me like a cold wave. “Did you ever even like me? As a person?”
He clucked his tongue in annoyance. “I just answered you. Quit being needy.”
My mouth thinned out into a grim line. This was the Eli I knew so well. He didn’t bother to lie. He just sidestepped. I’d seen him do it with clients, friends, even family over the years. I was now recognizing how many times he’d done it with me.
“What do you want?” I asked, turning and putting the mug into the sink. Hell would freeze over before I gave him a wonderful treat, that I couldn’t have, when he was such a dick.
His eyes narrowed, not missing what I’d done, but for once he kept his mouth shut. “I want you to come home.”
“You cheated on me, Eli.”
“Please,” he scoffed. “Like you suddenly care now.”
“Excuse me?” I asked, horror flooding my response.
“I’ve been cheating since we got married. You were never concerned about it before.”
My jaw dropped open. “You… What?” I sputtered.
“You’re telling me you really didn’t know?” He gave me a patronizing smile. “You can’t be that stupid, right?”
Maybe if my head wasn’t buzzing with fury and hurt I’d have heard the loud rumble of an engine outside.
But I didn’t. I stared at the man that I thought I’d loved.
Sure, my marriage hadn’t been perfect. We’d had our trials, but no, I hadn’t known he was cheating all that time.
“I’m not coming back,” I bit out past gritted teeth.
Turning, I snagged papers sitting on the counter and placed them in front of him along with a pen.
“Sign the divorce papers.” This was the third set I’d had to get because he kept throwing them away.
His brown eyes scanned the documents in front of him then lifted slowly to survey me. “No. You belong to me, Danica. You pledged yourself to me.”
A knock on the door interrupted him. Then Keely called out. “Uh…Dani. It’s for you.”
My chest was heaving with anger. The gall of this man thinking he owned me. I wanted to scream. I wanted to rage. I wanted to hit him. Instead, I took a deep breath and went to the door.
My eyes widened as I looked up at Smokehouse. Oh crap . I reached out and shoved against his massive chest. His brows shot up, but he obliged by stepping backward. I moved outside with him and shut the door. “What are you doing here?” I asked in a low voice.
Smokehouse’s eyes narrowed on my face, then flicked over to the window to the kitchen. “Who’s that?”
I really wanted to lie. It shouldn’t be his business. Only, I was pregnant with his kid and that sort of entitled him to know about me. If he was planning on sticking around he’d find out anyway. “That’s my soon to be ex-husband.”
“You’re married?” It was more of a growl than a sentence. Stepping back until my back was against the door, I nodded. He glared at me. “I’d never hurt you.”
“I don’t know you very well.”
“That’s true. We have a lot to learn about each other. What’s he doing here?” He looked pissed as he glowered at Eli through the window.
“Being an asshole.” My eyes closed when the words popped out. What was it about Smokehouse that I couldn’t seem to control my emotions when he was nearby? “Sorry. I’m trying to get him to sign the divorce papers.”
“He won’t?”
I shook my head. “Never mind all that. How did you find me?”
Before he could answer the door opened behind me. I stepped to the side so Eli didn’t end up plowing into me as he came outside.
“You again? Who are you?”
I looked between my ex-husband and the father of my baby and wondered how I’d gotten into this mess. “What does that mean?” I asked in confusion. “You two know each other?”
“Met yesterday morning,” Smokehouse said, answering me. “When I was looking for you.”
“I asked who the hell you are,” Eli barked. He didn’t like to be ignored.
I’d always thought Eli was an imposing figure with his height and confidence making him seem larger than life.
He looked like a spindly Praying Mantis standing near Smokehouse.
The biker standing in front of us was massive and for some reason, I felt safe with him.
It didn’t matter that I hardly knew the man. He wouldn’t let Eli get out of control.
Smokehouse’s tone changed instantly from soft and passive when he spoke to me, to ready to fight as he answered Eli, “A friend.”
“Eli, I need you to leave. Take the papers with you-”
“You have one week, Danica,” he said, ignoring Smokehouse as though he were a bug on the bottom of his shoe. “You can either come home willingly. Or…”
“Or what,” Smokehouse growled, stepping forward, forcing Eli to pay attention to him or risk being pummeled to death. “I’d really like to know, you fucking prick.”
Eli’s lip lifted in a snarl of disgust. “This is who you’re keeping company with these days?” he asked me. “Impressive.” His tone dripped with sarcasm. He stepped around Smokehouse and started to leave.
Without thinking, I grabbed Smoke’s arm, stopping him from following after Eli. “Just let him go,” I said. “He’s not worth it.”
Smoke’s green eyes focused on me. “If he’s threatening you, then he’s worth it. Trust me. I’ll leave him bleeding and broken on the sidewalk.”
Strangely, his words made me breathless. I’d never had someone, other than my family, stick up for me. Smoke’s violent words both turned me on and made me want to cry.
Trying to get a hold of my wild emotions, I motioned for the door.
“Want to come inside?” I asked for the second time that day.
This time I was looking forward to the conversation.
If nothing else, at least we could clear the air and maybe I’d find out once and for all if he planned to leave, or do this with me.
It would hurt if he rejected me, but at least I’d know.