Chapter 8
TARIQ “REEK” HORTON
Isat in my condo with no lights on, replaying every ugly word I’d said to Ava the night before. The city glowed through the windows, but inside it was dark and quiet.
I had meant what I said. I did feel like she had tricked me into the one position I had spent my whole life avoiding. Ava knew exactly how I felt about kids. She knew I didn’t want that life or a child looking at me one day like I had failed them. So, I felt cornered and robbed of a choice.
But another part of me couldn’t shake the way her face looked while I was saying all of those things to her. I couldn’t shake the hurt in her eyes. I knew I’d hurt her. I watched her stand there trying not to break while I said everything in the cruelest way it could be said.
And now, that hurt look in those pretty eyes wouldn’t leave me the fuck alone.
I dragged my hand over my face and leaned back into the couch. Bullshit was coming at me from all sides. Sienna had played me. Ava had hidden a pregnancy from me for months. And I was sitting in the middle of both, pissed off enough to break something and too wound up to sleep.
My anger at Ava wasn’t just about the baby.
It was about all of it; about Sienna making me feel like a fool, about Ava putting me in the exact situation I had avoided since I first started fucking.
I had been too careful for too long to end up here.
I had never been the type to leave a woman behind with babies and bitterness while I moved on. I made sure of that.
Then one woman plays me, while the other was hiding a baby from me.
That shit felt like the universe laughing.
As I stared at nothing in the darkness, my phone rang.
I looked at it ringing on the table and saw Langford’s name flashing back at me
I stared at the screen for a second before answering, “Yeah.”
“Have you heard from Sienna?” he spit without greeting. I could hear the concern in his voice.
“Nah, I haven’t.”
“She didn’t show up at the office this morning.”
I looked out at the city lights and kept my tone emotionless. “A’ight.”
“That’s all you have to say?”
“What you want me to say?” I asked. “We hung out Saturday night. I haven’t heard from her since.”
“You aren’t concerned that you haven’t spoken to her since Saturday?”
“Me and Sienna wasn’t together for real, remember? We weren’t talking all day every day. I don’t keep tabs on her every move.”
Langford exhaled hard into the phone. “This doesn’t feel right.”
I didn’t say shit.
He let out a slow breath. “If you hear from her, tell her to call me.”
“I will.”
Then the line went dead.
I lowered the phone slowly and stared at the dark screen for a second before tossing it back on the table.
Langford was already sniffing around. It was only going to get worse from here. Every hour she stayed missing was going to tighten the pressure on me.
I stood up and walked to the window. The whole city looked calm from up here.
Two women had turned my life upside down in different ways in less than twenty-four hours.
I rested my hand against the glass and thought about Ava again, because apparently I was a glutton for punishment.
Her face.
Her voice.
That little break in her when she realized I meant every hurtful thing I said.
I hated that a part of me cared and that I wanted to stay angry, but my mind kept drifting back to how bad I had wounded her.
I had wanted her to feel what I felt; trapped, blindsided, and cornered. Instead, I got all that shit out, went home, and realized I didn’t feel better at all. I was just more pissed and tangled up than before.