Be My Hero(32)

But as I approached the opening, I caught sight of some guy standing  inside the garage, his back to me and his hands on his hips. It wasn't  Mason, that was for damn sure. I was about to call out some kind of  greeting to him, make sure he wasn't some creeper lurking around when he  said, "Holy shit, you got fat."

That's when I spotted Eva in the garage, trying to pull something out of  an open chest freezer. Her ass was pointed out at us, which didn't look  fat at all to me. Hell, I couldn't even tell she was pregnant until she  popped upright and spun to face the other visitor.

Her face instantly drained of color as she said, "Oh my God. Alec?"

Shit.

I ducked out of the doorway and grabbed onto Noel when he tried to pass  me to walk into the garage. Then I yanked him down next to me while I  crouched to my knees.

I have no idea why I wanted to hide while she had a talk with Alec, but  meeting her baby daddy was not high on my priority list. I wanted to  race in there and remove his balls from his nut sac in the most painful  way ever, which I doubted Tinker Bell would appreciate.

This was none of my damn business. That was not my woman, and that  fucking douche probably meant way more to her than I ever would.

That's what I kept repeating to myself, anyway. I had to hum in my head to give her some privacy and not listen in, though.

When Alec stepped too close to her, I almost lost it. Gamble had to grab  my arm because he must've known I was about to go ape-shit.

"Don't," he warned in my ear. "This is their fight, man. They obviously  have issues to work out. If you get involved and break your parole,  you'll land right back in jail."

Yeah, but if Eva was in trouble, parole was the last thing I'd be worried about.

I watched her face closely. She wasn't putting out any anxious or  frightened vibes. She seemed to be used to arguing with him this way.  But I hated how he grabbed her and moved in close. If Gamble hadn't  yanked me back again, I would've intervened.         

     



 

Why the hell hadn't I just intervened?





Chapter 12


EVA


I was going to see him again! Any minute now.

I'd been a flurry of anxiety all day. Ever since Reese told me Mason had  invited Pick over to look at her new car, I hadn't been able to calm  myself down. It was pathetic really. I should've been deciding what I  was going to do with my life after Skylar was born, or looking for  places to live, or researching parenting tips, or finding a job.  Anything. Instead, my mind kept lobbing back to his tattooed arms, the  one on his neck, and oh, I'd noticed one on his chest when all those  horny women had ripped off his shirt in the bar.

God bless horny women.

Pick Ryan possessed one fine naked chest. Definitely a Jake Gyllenhaal  lookalike, with a freaking nipple ring. His muscles had been packed into  a set of wide shoulders and a tapered frame that led down to the  slimmest waist ever. It had been impossible to contain the drool when  he'd playfully scolded the women for undressing him during the auction.  His smile, added to those pecs and his Mohawk plus the tattoos, had been  too much to take. I'd melted into his arms the moment he'd forced that  dance on me.

And his singing voice. Oh, my. The guy could actually carry a tune.

Humming "Baby Love" under my breath, I opened the door to Reese and  Mason's garage. Since they lived in a split-level duplex, there were  quite a few steps to climb down to reach the cement floor. I'd come out  here in the guise of looking for a bag of frozen peas in the chest  freezer that was kept in the garage, claiming peas sounded good to make  with the meal I was cooking for supper. But in truth, I was watching for  him.

He could be here any minute now.

Typical male Mason hadn't set any specific timetable with him. Being  guys, they'd only said Saturday night. Well, there was a lot of time to  cover during a single Saturday night. I needed to know exactly when he'd  make it. I was going crazy without a precise countdown to wait by.

I don't know why I was craving him so much. It wasn't like getting a man  was anywhere on my to-do list, plus he was the last kind of person I  should choose-if I were on the market. And let's not forget he was  married, which I seemed to keep forgetting, damn it. Besides, I had no  idea what I'd say to him when he arrived, or . . . damn it, why was he  taking so long?

"My baby love. I need you, oh, how I need you," I sang the words under  my breath as I pulled up the freezer door. There wasn't much piled  inside, so it wasn't hard to spot the peas. But it was impossible to  reach them with my baby bump in the way. I tried turning so I could bend  down sideways but didn't have any success with that either.

Not ready to give up, I tried the other side and was able to reach in a  little farther until the tips of my fingers barely grazed the cold bag.  Frozen air wafted up and coated my bare skin. The baby doll top I'd put  on had thick straps but no sleeves, so the skin on my arms prickled  instantly with goose bumps, which made my breasts bead from the chill.

I'd dressed for Pick. It was stupid, I know. I was seven and half months  pregnant, not exactly the most glamorous time of my life. He was  married-why I had to keep reminding myself of that was just plain scary.  And we came from completely different worlds. My father would've  stroked out if he'd ever seen me with a tatted-up, metal-faced guy like  Pick.

Okay, so that would've been a plus-anything to kill off the old  bastard-but even I hadn't been able to go that far. That type had always  intimidated me, as if they were tough enough to chew me up and spit me  out without a second glance, as if they saw me as nothing but a spoiled  rich bitch.

But Pick had completely smothered my fears and reservation in that  regard. He'd never intimidated me. And he'd never treated me as a  spoiled, rich anything. He looked right past types, stigmas, and  prejudices and made it easy for me to do the same.

He was still forbidden though. Having Reese paint my toenails for me  earlier this evening because I could no longer reach them, just to  impress him, was wrong.

Leaning into the freezer a little more this time, I pressed my belly  against the opening of the lid, making Skylar jump at the pressure.

"Sorry, kiddo." I patted my belly, hoping I hadn't hurt her. Time to call on Reese for help with pea-from-freezer extraction.

"Holy shit, you got fat."

At the familiar voice, I whirled around and gasped. A chaotic buzzing  filled my head as I stared at the sight before me. It didn't seem  possible that my ex from Florida, nine hundred miles away, was standing  in Mason and Reese's garage. But there he was, gaping in horror at my  stomach.

I blinked twice. Then shook my head to deny it. "Oh my God," I finally  found the air to gasp. "Alec? What're you doing here?" I looked behind  him to make sure my parents or anyone else from home hadn't come with  him, but he was alone, thank God. The last words we'd ever shouted at  each other had been pretty final. I couldn't think up one more thing  he'd need to say to me for closure. "How did you even find me?"         

     



 

Slipping one hand into a pocket of his pressed khakis, he strolled  closer, his lip curling into a mocking sneer as he looked me up and  down. "Mason told me you were here."

Next item on my to-do list: murder Reese's interfering boyfriend.

Stopping in front of me, Alec let out a breath and shook his head as if disappointed. In me! "I talked to your parents, Eva-"

"Oh, well, you know what?" I snorted and held up a hand to stop him,  knowing he still wanted me to do what he'd been demanding the last time  we'd spoken. "I talked to my parents too, and I know exactly what their  position is. I wouldn't be here in BFE Illinois, sponging off my cousin,  if they hadn't kicked me out because I refused to get an abortion. And  since I'm still here, Alec, I guess that means I haven't changed my  mind. So, sorry for your wasted trip, but you came for nothing. You can  turn around and go right back to Florida."

Alec gritted his teeth, his expression showing all the frustration he  was experiencing. I didn't care; he wasn't going to tell me what to do  with my baby. He'd given up his right to make a decision the moment he'd  called me a cheating whore after I told him I was pregnant.

But then his face went blank.

"You're really going to play this out, aren't you? Fine, I'm willing to play. What do you want, E.?"

When he caught my arm in a hard, vise-like grip, my warning signals shot  sky-high. Alec had never been physically abusive before. But something  wasn't right about him today.

Men who found themselves on the edge of desperation usually acted out in  terrible ways. I'd learned that the hard way from my father. Well,  today Alec looked eerily desperate.

Knowing I had to handle this carefully, even though his presence was  ticking me off big time, I tried to take his entire reason to feel  desperate away from him.

"This isn't a power play for me to get a pretty toy, Alec," I assured. "The only thing I want is my child."