Eight

Haisley

I knew I had exactly three minutes and about forty-five seconds before the hot water was gone. I rinsed out the cheap conditioner from my hair while washing off the soap from my body at the same time. If my hair were shorter, this would be easier. I knew the last minute and fifteen seconds of my shower was going to be cold. I never could get it all down in under five minutes.

The blast of ice made me squeal as I continued to rinse my hair. Quickly, I turned in a circle, pulling my arms up to my chest as I got the rest of the suds off my skin. Once I was done, I quickly shut off the water and grabbed my one towel. I had bought it at the dollar store, but hadn’t gotten a washcloth. That was a luxury. I just used my hands. I dried my hair the best I could, then wrapped the towel around me. The bathroom was so small that you could sit on the toilet and brush your teeth over the sink at the same time. Putting on clothes in here was almost impossible. But my roommates, Max and Sherry, were both here, so there was no dressing in my bedroom, which was also the living room.

A banging on the door startled me, and I jumped.

“Haisley!” Sherry called my name.

“Yes?” I asked, tugging the cotton T-shirt dress down over my still-slightly-damp body.

“You have a visitor,” she replied.

I stared at the closed door. No one knew where I lived. I had no one to visit me.

“Who?” I asked cautiously.

“Don’t know, but he’s fucking hot,” she drawled. “You’d better hurry, or I’m gonna show him a good time.”

It had been five days since the paternity test. Not a week yet. But it had to be him. He’d be able to find my address, wouldn’t he? Didn’t the Mafia have access to that kind of thing?

We hadn’t said one word to each other after we arrived at the hospital for the testing until it came time to leave. I told him I would take the bus and left when we were done. He didn’t argue. He was as glad to be rid of me as I was him. There had been no mention of what would happen when the results came back.

I continued to dry my hair with the towel, then brushed through it a few times before finally opening the door and stepping out into the hallway. There was always the chance AJ had found me. He’d be able to do that easily enough. Silver could have told him I was with Milly, who would have sent him here.

Walking into the living room, I found Sherry giggling and smiling at Saxon, who didn’t look very impressed. His tight smile didn’t meet his eyes. I stood there, unsure of what to say, when his gaze swung to mine, and I saw his jaw clench. I didn’t know why he had to look so angry about seeing me. He was the one who had come here. To my apartment. What had he expected?

“Verdict’s in, I guess,” I said as casually as I could.

He stared at me briefly, then looked over at my bag that sat in the corner of the living room. It was the same one I’d taken camping.

“Get your things,” he said with a scowl now on his face.

Was he serious?

“Why?” Although I had a feeling I knew why, but that didn’t mean I was going to just do it.

“Don’t make a scene out of this, Haisley. Get your things. We’re leaving.”

“NO. You’re leaving. I live here.”

Sherry’s eyes were going from me to Saxon with a look of fascination. This would no doubt entertain her for days. She’d not let it go. I would have to hear her retell it over and over.

“You’re going with me. Back to my house. At least until the baby is born. You need decent health insurance and prenatal care. Don’t be difficult. You want to keep the baby, then at least do what is best for it.”

“Do you have a gun?” I asked him.

He frowned. “Why?”

“Because I want to throw something hard at your head, but I need to be sure you won’t shoot me.” I was almost shouting. Almost.

“What’s going on?” Max asked, stepping out of his bedroom with his spiky black-and-blue hair all over the place, like he’d just woken up.

“Be quiet!” Sherry told him. “This is just getting good.”

I sighed and crossed my arms over my chest.

“If you don’t get your shit, I am going to grab what I know is yours and carry it and you out of here, kicking and screaming if I have to,” Saxon warned me.

“Who the fuck are you?” Max asked him.

Saxon turned his gaze to Max, then back to me. “Start moving, Haisley.”

“Do you seriously think I’m going to move in with you? Then, what? The baby is born, and you snatch it away from me and kick me out? I don’t think so, Saxon.”

“I’m not taking the baby from you. I am taking responsibility. It’s my baby too. I don’t want you starving it by not being able to eat enough and walking to work and cleaning hotel rooms. Goddammit! Just get your stuff, and let’s go. Why do you make everything so fucking difficult?”

Sherry stood up then and looked at me with her mouth agape. “That is your baby daddy? Are you shitting me right now? Jesus God Almighty, why are you arguing with him? Do you need glasses, girl?”

“Shut up, Sherry. Not everyone thinks with their pussy. She doesn’t want to go,” Max yelled at her.

Sherry rolled her eyes. “Give it up, Max. Do you see this man? He’s fucking hot, and, dude, she is pregnant. Get that through your head. She’s all long hair and pretty eyes and big tits right now, but she’s gonna be big and pregnant soon. Besides, she’s not into you.”

This just got weirdly awkward. I hadn’t known Max was into me. In fact, I had kinda thought he wasn’t into girls.

Saxon stalked over to my bag and jerked it up, and then he started toward me. I backed up, but he kept advancing.

Holding up both hands, I tried to stop him. “What are you doing?”

“What does it look like?” he snapped.

“Don’t touch her,” Max shouted, coming up behind him.

Saxon’s eyes flared before he spun around, and in one swift move, he pulled a gun from under his shirt and pointed it at Max.

“What the fuck?!” Max shouted.

“Oh my shit!” Sherry squealed.

“Saxon.” I said his name as calmly as I could. My heart was racing as I stood there.

Max had gone pale, and Sherry was frozen with a look of horror on her face.

“Haisley is leaving with me. If you would kindly back the fuck up, I’d appreciate it.” His voice was so polite, as if he wasn’t pointing a pistol at my roommate.

He slid it back into the hidden holster at his back, then turned to look at me. “Let’s go.”

“Let me get my other bag,” I said softly, afraid to raise my voice.

He might have spoken as if he wasn’t angry, but the rage in his eyes was unmistakable. I didn’t know this Saxon. If I had, I was positive I would not be pregnant right now. This Saxon scared me. I didn’t want this to be the father of my baby.

“Haisley, I can call the cops,” Max said.

“Shut up, you idiot!” Sherry hissed at him.

I shook my head and picked up my other bag. “No. It’s fine. I should go. I’m sorry,” I said to both of them, then turned to walk over to Saxon, who opened the door, watching me closely.

“You have my number,” Max called out.

“Fucking shut up!” Sherry threw a shoe at him this time.

I said nothing.

Saxon nodded at both of them as if he had been there for a friendly visit, then closed the door. I let out a sigh of relief. He hadn’t hurt them.

He took the other bag from my hand. “This way,” he said, then began walking, expecting me to follow.

I didn’t have on sleeves, and the night air was cold. I’d left my toiletries and towel in the bathroom, but there was no way I was going to ask him to let me go get it. My heart was racing as I thought about the fact that I couldn’t get away from him. I was going to have to live with him.

What about his parents? Didn’t they live there? He was just going to move me into their house?

This time, he opened the passenger door for me and tossed my two bags into the backseat, then stepped back to let me in. I climbed in, and he closed the door behind me. To think I had sworn I’d never get in this truck again. I was angry that he had the power to make me do it.

When he was inside and buckled, I looked over at him. “I have a job. I need to tell them something. I can’t just not show up.”

“You can call and let them know.” He cranked the truck.

“I don’t have a phone.”

“I’m going to get you one.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Yes, I am.”

“I didn’t ask you for help.”

“Doesn’t matter. You’re getting it.”

I let out a frustrated groan and stared out the window. He’d actually pulled a gun on Max. Saxon, with his beautiful face, his dimples, and his curls. He didn’t look like a guy who would even own a gun. Knowing he was in the Mafia was one thing. Seeing it was very different. Levi and Kye looked like they could be dangerous. But not Saxon.

“How far along are you?”

“Can you turn on the heat?” I asked him, shivering.

He muttered a curse. “If you had on more clothes, you wouldn’t be cold. Don’t you have a coat?”

“I wasn’t expecting to be forced out of my apartment. And no. This is Florida. I don’t have a coat.”

“It’s December. Even in Florida, you need a fucking coat. At least most nights.”

I had left the coat I used with Silver. She needed one to walk to the school bus in. The one she’d used last year was small then, and this year, it didn’t zip over her boobs.

“How far along are you?” he asked again.

“What? You don’t know that from all your resources?”

He sighed. “Are you going to remain difficult through this entire thing?”

He was forcing me to move in with him. He’d accused me of not taking care of myself properly. He had pulled a gun on my roommate. Did he expect me to be warm and bubbly?

“Nine weeks,” I muttered.

“When was the last time you saw a doctor?”

I didn’t look at him as I continued to stare out the window. “At six weeks.”

“Do you have a preference for a male or female doctor?”

He was being very thorough. Who had told him what to ask? He couldn’t have come up with all this on his own.

“Female.” The idea of a man down there bothered me.

“When did you find out?”

“When I missed my period,” I replied. Wasn’t that how most girls found out?

“Did you test the day you missed or …”

I finally turned to look at him. “I’m never late. When I was two days late, I tested. Why are you asking me all this? Do you honestly care?”

The hand he had on the steering wheel tightened. I could see his knuckles turn white. Saxon had anger issues. How had I missed that? Oh yeah, I’d only known him for two weeks.

“It’s my baby too,” he said through clenched teeth.

“Yes, but you didn’t want me to keep it.”

“I never said that. You assumed.”

“You said I couldn’t afford a baby.”

His jaw worked back and forth, like he was grinding his teeth. I would point out that it was bad for his teeth, but there was that gun to worry about. One never knew what would set him off.

“All that matters at this point is, you’re pregnant, and it’s mine. I’m going to make sure you and the baby are given the proper care.”

“You’re not worried that paternity test could be wrong?” Although I knew it wasn’t.

“No.”

“It’s that accurate?”

He glanced at me. “It is when it’s ninety-nine-point-nine percent accurate.”

The fact that seemed to piss him off made me smile. I couldn’t help it. I knew it was his, but since I was apparently a liar, he couldn’t trust me. Maybe it was me being petty, but I felt like I had won.

“Why are you smiling?”

I shrugged. “Because I like being vindicated.”

He didn’t say anything more, and I laid my head back on the seat. The warmth from the heater felt wonderful. It didn’t take long for my eyes to grow heavy, and I welcomed the sleep. I’d worked a ten-hour shift today. Country music started playing, but it felt far away as I drifted off.