Chapter 10 #2
I take a deep breath and start explaining. These people have been good to me, and I’m tired of repaying their kindness with lies of omission. “Well, for starters, that guy stalking me isn’t Katie’s father.”
Queenie responds smoothly, “I already knew that much.”
There’s something in her expression that unsettles me.
I push it away and start to explain. “It started as an exposé on REACH. They’re a company who were supposed to be providing humanitarian aid in conflict zones across the world.
The company prided itself on being able to get into places other supply companies deemed too dangerous or impossible to reach. ”
I pause, my throat tightening. “We got a tip that they were grifting millions and not providing the services they claimed. After digging deeper, I found duplicate manifests, fake signatures, and accounts in names that didn’t exist. I was going to publish, but then my whole team was caught in an explosion—one I barely walked away from.
When I woke up from a coma, all my notes and my laptop had gone missing.
All I had left was a flash drive I wasn’t fully able to access.
It was hidden in the toe of my boot, glued to the inside.
Thankfully, the medical staff missed it when they removed my clothing.
My brain was a little Swiss-cheesed from the head injury and coma, but the moment I shoved my foot back in my boots, I remembered. ”
Her gaze doesn’t waver. “And why didn’t you use it?”
“Initially, because it was encrypted and I couldn’t figure out how to get the information off it.
But then I started getting phone calls where there was just heavy breathing.
Things started going missing from my hotel room, and I eventually realized someone was following me.
At first, I thought I was imagining it—maybe my brain was broken in a way that wasn’t obvious.
Then the person on the other end of those phone calls started asking me questions about REACH.
I thought they were asking questions and following me in an effort to assess if I was still working on the exposé.
I made it very clear that I had put all that behind me and started meeting with clients who wanted me to write about things not related to the war.
I stopped publishing stories under my own name and started using an alias. ”
She just nods, like none of it surprises her. “That was a smart move. I’m guessing that didn’t work though, right?”
“No, ma’am. It certainly did not.”
“To be honest, Rock and I wondered if there was more to it than some man chasing after his baby momma. You seem too intelligent and resourceful to tolerate that for long. Getting a restraining order isn’t all that difficult in this state. We knew there had to be more to it than you were saying.”
“Just so you know, I didn’t ask for Slate to ride in and save the day.
I didn’t want to drag him into my problems. When he showed up out of the blue, I knew the danger was real.
I didn’t hesitate to accept his help. Protecting my daughter has to come before anything else. I hope you can understand that.”
“Of course I can. I’d have made exactly the same decision in your place, except I would have made it clear to the people I was staying with exactly what they were up against. We don’t like curveballs when it comes to security.”
“I apologize for that. To be honest, I was just planning to stay long enough to scrape up enough money for me and Katie to disappear again. Every time they find us, I learn how to keep us hidden a little better. I thought accepting Slate’s invitation to stay at your clubhouse was a foolproof way to drop off the grid. I thought it would buy us time.”
A smile tugs at Queenie’s lips. “You didn’t anticipate your little one liking us so much or getting attached to Slate and the rest of us, right?”
I jerk a shaky nod. “Or me slowly falling in love with Slate and the life you and your husband so carefully created here.”
That open admission of admiration gets me a full-on smile. “Rock was a little skeptical of your intentions in coming here, but I could tell your affection for my son was genuine by the way you look at him.”
That surprises me a bit. “I didn’t know I was being obvious. I thought I was keeping it all under wraps.”
Queenie chuckles. “You don’t give a lot away, but the moment he walks into the room and the two of you make eye contact, the mutual attraction is too plain to miss. Both of you light up like a Christmas tree.”
I don’t know why her words make me blush. “We have a history together. We got close during the war.” Glancing away, I tell her, “Slate has always been the one that got away.”
“I can’t help but think you were that for him too. It took months of Rock probing him for Slate to come clean about why he got that dishonorable discharge.”
Tearing up, I tell her, “I didn’t find out that he gave me his seat on the last transport out of Kabul until recently. I carry a lot of guilt that he was left behind and had to fight his way out on his own.”
“You should know that when Rock and his club brothers found out about that, Slate turned into a walking legend around these parts.”
“I hate that he got sectioned out of the military for going AWOL. Those were chaotic times. I would think his chain of command would see his actions as heroic, not as something to be punished.”
“Of course, they didn’t give a shit that he sacrificed his spot to save a person’s life.
You can’t always trust the government to do the right thing because their military protocol and bureaucracy constantly trump every other consideration.
We saw that as a selfless act of heroism and threw him a big party when we found out.
He’s even got a tattoo to mark the occasion.
He made us all proud. And now that I’ve actually met you and my granddaughter, I’m even more convinced that he made the right decision. ”
I almost choke on my mouthful of coffee. “Your what?”
Queenie gives me a stern look. “That little girl belongs to this family,” she says quietly. “And I’ll be damned if we let anyone rip her away from where she belongs. Slate might be blind to it, but I’m not. She’s his daughter, right?”
I steady my voice. There’s no point in denying it now. My voice shakes when I finally whisper, “It’s true. Katie is Slate’s daughter.”
Queenie doesn’t look surprised. If anything, she looks relieved that I’ve said it out loud. She leans back, still holding her cup of coffee.
“To be honest, it didn’t take a genius to piece it together. The name, those blue eyes, that hair—she’s got my son written all over her. You should’ve seen him with Katie the first day. He didn’t even realize what he was staring at, but I did.”
My eyes drop to the floor, shame filling my very soul. “I wanted to tell him,” I say quietly. “I still do. It’s just that things have been so chaotic.”
Queenie’s expression softens, but her tone doesn’t waver. “You need to tell him, honey. And soon. Because if you don’t, I will.”
The words punch right through all the excuses I’ve been telling myself.
“Queenie, please,” I stammer, my voice breaking. “Slate has a lot on his plate right now. He’s stretched thin. If I tell him now, it’ll be like dropping another weight on his shoulders.”
“My son deserves to know what he’s fighting for,” she insists stubbornly.
I get the feeling that I’m not going to win this argument, but I give it one last try. “I don’t want to distract him when danger is near. I need him to be clear-headed for his own safety.”
She tilts her head, her voice low but firm. “I love you, Christina, but you have to know my son deserves the truth. Waking up every morning in his bed and lying to him all over again is a choice on your part.”
“I didn’t lie to him. He never asked, and I never volunteered the information.”
“We don’t accept lies of omission or half-truths in this family. You are the mother of his child and have a duty to tell him he has a daughter.”
I shrink in on myself. “I know what you’re saying is true.”
“My son has been walking around for years not knowing why he feels like something is missing from his life or why he feels so damn restless all the time. That little girl of yours is the reason. And she deserves to know who she belongs to.”
Her blunt words hit the mark, driving home how not knowing might have affected him. “I know,” I whisper. “I’ll tell him.”
“Listen to me on this. You think you’re protecting him, but all you’re doing is keeping him from the one thing that could change his whole situation for the better.
You think you’re protecting Katie, but she’s growing up without her father, her grandparents, her uncles.
You’ve got people here who would walk through fire for her, and she doesn’t even know it yet. ”
Tears well up in my eyes again. “I was afraid,” I admit.
“When I woke up from that coma and found out I was pregnant, I couldn’t even remember how I got there.
I thought I’d been in an automobile accident.
Memories of the explosion came back pretty damn fast, and before I could get myself turned around, I realized I was being watched.
I thought Slate was better off not knowing, that he’d probably moved on by then.
I thought what we had was probably just another in a long line of flings for him.
He didn’t deserve the kind of trouble I was dragging in my wake. ”
Queenie snorts a laugh. “My sons thrive on chaos and danger. In case you haven’t noticed, they’re all veterans of foreign wars who grew up in a damn motorcycle club.”