Betting the Bad Boy

by Sugar Jamison

Duke looked to Grace again. “I think that’s a question for your mother.”

  Chapter 7

  Grace couldn’t tear her eyes off Duke as he held on to their son and gently wiped his tears. It was then Grace knew she was wrong. That this separation was completely her fault. In her gut she had always known that he had never read her last letter. She knew he was better than that, more honorable. He just couldn’t have just ignored the presence of his son. He wouldn’t do what his father had done to him. She had made a terrible mistake, misjudging him like that.

  “If you’re my father, then where the fuck have you been?”

  She gasped at the language, at the anger in Ryder’s voice. But then Duke looked at her, thirteen years’ worth of anger and hatred built up in his eyes. She didn’t know what to say except, “I’m so sorry, Ryder.”

  “Don’t talk to me. I hate you!” He stormed out of the house. She started to go after him, but stopped. He needed his space, and she didn’t know what to say.

  She didn’t know where to begin, with Ryder who was hurting so much it broke her heart or with Duke who was standing before her, that heat of his hatred burning her.

  “I’m sorry.” Those were the only words she could form.

  “You are going to be sorry when I take him away from you.”

  “What?” His words literally caused Grace to stumble backward. “You can’t take him away from me.”

  “You don’t think so? You live in this shit box. You’re driving around a car that could fall apart at any moment. You’re working two jobs just to make ends meet when I have everything, when I could have provided for you both.”

  “Screw you!” She rounded on him. “He doesn’t go without. He’s healthy and taken care of and no judge is going to side with you.”

  “Why? Because I have a record? The record I got because of you.” He took a step toward her and she could feel his fury, but she wasn’t scared of him, only of his words.

  “I didn’t mean for that to happen. You know I didn’t. I didn’t even know you were going to be there that night.”

  “It doesn’t matter if you meant for that to happen. It did happen and you were so embarrassed by it you didn’t bother telling me that I had a son. Well, you’re going to pay for that, Grace. Because the tables have turned and I have everything and you have nothing. I will fight you in court and I will win.”

  Fear slid down her back, but she knew better than to back down to Duke. “It won’t happen. I know it won’t happen. He is loved. He is cared for.”

  “I heard from Lolly that he’s flunking classes and raising hell. The people in this town may not know he’s my son, but they know all about Ryder. He’s giving you problems. Problems that could have been avoided if he had a man in his life. His father in his life.”

  “You forget that my father was a judge for thirty years. You forget that my grandfather was a congressman and that we have connections. You can try to fight me for him, but you won’t win.”

  “You don’t think so?” He stepped closer to her, lowering his voice to a dangerous pitch. “I have all the money in the world and you have nothing. How long can you keep fighting me? How much money do you think your father has to pay a lawyer? By the time I’m done with you you’ll be so broke you’ll have no choice but to give him to me just to make sure he’s fed.”

  “Is that what you want?” She tried to keep her voice steady, but it was all she could do to keep herself from trembling. “You want to raise your son alone when you have never been around a child?”

  “I damn near raised my brothers. Or did you think the town drunk was a stable parent after his wife died?”

  “You may have raised them, but you haven’t raised him. You don’t know him and if you think being a parent is easy you’re dead wrong. And think about him! Think about what’s best for him. Your son. Is having us fighting really going to help him?”

  Duke went quiet then, and Grace knew she had made him think. The truth was, Duke was right when he said she couldn’t afford a court battle. Her father’s influence would only take her so far. She could barely afford to pay her bills now; there was no way she could afford a good lawyer.

  “What are we going to do,” he asked after a long silence. “I’m not just going to go away. I’m not just going to send a check once a month. I want him to know me.”

  And she wanted Ryder to know him. In her mind she had all these valid reasons for not going to Duke after he got out of prison, but none of them seemed anywhere near good enough after what she had just witnessed between them. “Let’s make a bet. Stay here with us for a month and get to know him. If you prove to me that you can be a good father, I’ll give you as much access to him as you want. But only as long as you don’t try to take him away from me.”

  “That’s not enough.” He shook his head, his feet planted. “No matter what you say, I’m going to have access to my son. You can’t keep him away from me again. I won’t let you.”

  “But I can get one hell of a custody agreement,” she countered. “You’re a stranger to him. You’ll be lucky to get weekends and holidays.”

  “You can’t do that to me.”

  “I don’t want to do that to you,” she said, feeling her heart breaking all over again. “And I don’t want to do that to him.”

  “What if I stay here? What if I prove that I’m a good father after a month?”

  “What do you want, Duke?”

  “I want you both to move to Vegas for good. I want to pick what school he goes to and I want to have a say in every major decision that involves him.”

  “But my father is here,” she blurted out, surprised at herself for doing so. They didn’t get along, and most of the time she didn’t like him very much, but he was her father and there was love there—and the promise she’d made to her mother.

  This was the only place she felt connected to her. Her childhood home was the only place she had happy memories of them.

  “Your father can go fuck himself. Those are the terms of the bet. If I can’t hack it, I’ll agree to whatever custody arrangement you want. But if I win, you had better start packing, because you’ll both be saying good-bye to this place.”

  Every inch of her body wanted to rebel, to scream at him to go away and not interfere with her son, but Ryder wasn’t just her son. He was Duke’s, too, and he needed to know his father. Grace needed to do what was best for him. “I agree.”

  “Good.” He stuck out his hand for her to shake.

  She gripped it and looked right into his eyes.

  “If you once threaten to take him away from me or try to turn him against me, you had better be prepared for the fight of your life. Because I’ll die trying to take you down.”

  His hand squeezed a little more tightly around hers, and heat shot up through her body. She was mad as hell at the moment and so was he. But he looked good, too. Big hulking body, hot angry eyes. She wondered what it would be like if he made love to her right now.

  Making love wasn’t the right term. Sex was better. Hot, primal, angry sex that left them both sweaty and spent. The thought of it made her excited. It made her want to finish what they had started in the park the other day.

  Duke let out a long, slow breath, his nostrils flaring. “I don’t fight dirty.”

  Maybe not but he did fight, and fight incredibly hard. “I believe you.”

  “Good. I’m going to go find Ryder.”

  *

  It didn’t take Duke long to find Ryder. The boy was sitting behind the dilapidated shed looking surly as hell. But Duke went to him and took a seat on the ground next to his son.

  Ryder placed his hand over his forehead. “Just go away.”

  “That’s not going to happen.”

  “I know who you are now. You’re rich. You own fifteen cars while my mom is driving around in that piece of shit.”

  “It’s embarrassing, isn’t it?” Duke said softly. “I’ll get rid of it.”

  Ryder looked at him for a mo
ment as if not sure how to take that. “If you think you can buy me stuff and I’ll like you, you’re fucking crazy.”

  Duke took a deep breath. “I’ve been your father for about five minutes, but I’m going to remind you to watch your mouth around me.”

  “And if I don’t?”

  “I pull your tongue out and feed it to my dogs.”

  Ryder’s head snapped toward him.

  “I’m not your mother, boy. Or your grandfather. You aren’t going to run over me.”

  “Where were you?” He looked and acted like a tough kid, but Duke saw a little boy in there and he was hurting.

  “I didn’t know about you. I promise I didn’t.” Obviously Grace hadn’t told their son about him because she didn’t want him knowing that his father had spent half of his life in prison. Duke almost didn’t blame her for that.

  Duke had to walk around knowing that at best his own father was a careless drunk, and at his worst a cruel bastard. He knew what it was like to be ashamed of his old man. His kid shouldn’t have to be ashamed of him. “Why did you leave my mom?”

  He didn’t do it willingly … but then again maybe he had. He had broken up with Grace after learning she was going to turn down admission to an Ivy League school to be with him. They had fought about it and it had been nasty. He had been nasty, saying what had to be said to ensure she didn’t want him anymore. But he had to do it. He was setting her free, giving her a chance that she’d never have if she stayed with him. He would never have thought that his plan could backfire the way it did. He would never have thought he’d get into the fight that led to the loss of his freedom.

  Grace, he assumed, never made it to that Ivy League school. It was probably too hard to attend school while she was nursing his baby. “I went away. We had different plans in life.”

  “I hate her.”

  “Don’t hate her,” he said even though he was so pissed at her he couldn’t see straight. “Raising you alone probably wasn’t easy.” Duke could see that he was taken care of, that his clothes were new and clean, that he was well fed and loved. He could see that it was Grace who went without so that Ryder could have. “I was bad news when I was younger. I had to get my shit together.”

  “She should have told me.”

  “You’re right.”

  “You don’t have to agree with me,” he snapped, sounding incredibly surly “It’s not going to get me to like you.”

  “I don’t really care if you like me. But you should know I’m not going anywhere. I’m moving in.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I am your father and you are my son and we should know each other.”

  “You don’t expect me to call you Dad, do you? Because I won’t. You’re not my dad. You’re just somebody who slept with my mom.”

  Goddamn it, this kid was going to be tough. This kid was going to be just like him. “Call me Duke for now.”

  Ryder was quiet for a long moment, and Duke felt bad for him. He knew how bewildered he had been when he learned. He could barely imagine how it was for the kid. “Okay.”

  “Now, the first fatherly thing I’m going to do is tell you to get your ass inside and apologize to your mother.”

  Chapter 8

  Grace watched Duke and Ryder push their dinner around their plates that evening. It could have been that given the emotions of the day, neither one of them was hungry. But Grace suspected, at least in Ryder’s case, that he just wasn’t a fan of her broiled fish, steamed broccoli, and brown rice. Getting Ryder to eat healthy had been a battle and she suspected the only reason he went willingly to his grandfather’s house was so that he could eat whatever he wanted.

  “Are you ready for dessert?” she asked as she got up to clear their plates. It was the only words that had been spoken during the dinner. She knew they were both too angry with her to attempt conversation, and she was too exhausted to be bothered by it. It was weird sitting there with Duke and Ryder like they were a family. There were so many times she had wondered what it would have been like if Duke had never gone to prison. Would they have gotten married? Would they have stayed together if they had?

  “What is it?” Ryder asked, refusing to look her in the eye. He’d apologized for telling her he hated her when he came back in the house with Duke. She didn’t believe that he was sorry and she didn’t blame him. It was her fault. She hated herself.

  “I’ve got fresh strawberries and homemade, low-fat whipped cream.”

  He pulled a face. “No thanks.”

  “Come to the store with me, boy,” Duke said.

  “But what about dessert?” she asked feeling oddly abandoned.

  Duke stood, tugging Ryder by the collar of his shirt. “Eat your strawberries, Grace.” The two of them were gone after that, leaving Grace to wonder if she was going to end up losing her son to Duke.

  They returned an hour later, Ryder sipping on a huge milk shake. She didn’t like for him to have sweets so late in the evening. She also didn’t want him to have food in his room, but she said nothing to him, figuring she owed him at least that.

  They watched Ryder go upstairs to his room after he said a gruff good night to them. He usually allowed her to kiss his cheek before he went to bed, but not tonight, and it stung a little bit.

  “He sleeps upstairs?” Duke asked her when they no longer heard his footsteps.

  “Yes. I sleep on this floor in that room over there.” She pointed down the hallway. “I was nervous about letting him sleep upstairs alone, but I figured if somebody broke into the house they would kill me first.”

  “Is that a joke?” he asked her, his face blank.

  “It’s supposed to be.”

  “It’s not funny.”

  “I know.” The air was so thick with tension that she almost couldn’t breathe. “I made up your room while you were gone.” She looked up at him. He was so tight with anger, but so beautiful to look at in his fitted black T-shirt, faded blue jeans, and black boots.

  He grabbed his bag off the floor and followed her down the hall to the basement door. “You planning on keeping me down here so the neighbors don’t see me?” he asked her as they walked down the stairs.

  He was taking a jab at her. She stiffened but didn’t respond to his anger, too exhausted. “I thought you would appreciate the space.” She turned on the light to reveal a finished apartment with its own bathroom and kitchenette. “The Phillipses finished the basement for their son. They put a lot of money into this instead of the rest of the house.”

  This space was the reason she had brought the house, because while most of it was ugly she felt that love had gone into making this room. The walls were painted buttercream. There were built-in shelves on the walls and framed paintings. The furniture down here was fairly new and in nicer condition than the stuff she had upstairs.

  “The bathroom is in the corner. I put washcloths, towels, and soap in there for you. There’s also a full bathtub in case you ever feel the need to take a bath.”

  “Are you saying I need to bathe?”

  She shut her eyes before they filled with tears. She didn’t want to cry in front of him anymore. “Duke … No. I didn’t mean it like that.”

  “I know. But I’m mad at you so I don’t really feel like being all that nice.”

  She opened her eyes and nodded at him. He was staring at her, searching her face. She wished she knew what he was looking for. “Where did you take Ryder?”

  “To the burger shack off Route Four.”

  “Oh, you got milk shakes for dessert?”

  “No. I fed him. He ate a double bacon cheeseburger, a hot dog, and a large order of cheese fries. The milk shake was just to wash it all down with.”

  “What? You can’t feed him stuff like that! Do you know how much saturated fat and processed crap was in that food?”

  “I might be a little too simple-minded to understand how unhealthy that meal was. But you can’t tell a boy that he does indeed have a father after going thirteen ye
ars without him and then feed him broiled fish and broccoli. He needed something else. Something to make him feel something other than what he is feeling, because if he’s feeling anything near what I’m feeling, he is confused and pissed off and rubbed raw.”

  “Did he talk to you about it?”

  “No,” he said. She felt relieved. She couldn’t bear the thought of her son opening up to a man he barely knew, even if that man was his father. “We didn’t say anything. I don’t think either of us is used to the fact that we’re father and son. When did you know you were pregnant?”

  She thought back to that time and briefly closed her eyes as that wound was sliced open again.

  “I was at the end of my third month when I figured out what was wrong with me.” She walked away from him and sat on his bed, her legs feeling too wobbly to support her weight. “My parents sent me to Rhode Island. All the way across the country to stay with friends of theirs. I didn’t want to go, but they told me it was just for a few days until things blew over. I was supposed to relax, they told me. I stayed in a big house right on the ocean. They figured I would be happy there once I forgot about you. I should have realized then what my father was up to. He was furious when he found out how involved we were. I had embarrassed him and the family name. He wanted to punish me.”

  Duke’s nostrils flared and he shook his head. “Lolly told me they sent you away. I just assumed you never wanted to come back.”

  “You would have heard it from me if you had bothered to read any of the letters that I sent you.”

  Duke’s head snapped up. “You never sent me a damn thing.”

  “I sent you twenty letters. One every single week.”

  “You’re lying.” He looked more stricken than furious, but his voice was full of anger and she wanted to flinch at the accusation.

  “Don’t you dare accuse me of lying. I loved you, damn it. I stopped writing when I realized you didn’t love me back.”

  “I never got them. Not one fucking letter, Grace. You can’t tell me that all twenty of them got lost in the mail. You can’t tell me that there wasn’t a phone for you to reach me.”