It seemed the boy was in serious need for male attention, and he wondered if his stepfather had been like Harper’s father.
“Can you put a sweater on Emma?” Teal called from the other side of the room as she fussed with her hair. “April’s up here are a bit chillier than back home.”
Trent made his way over to the play area they’d made for Emma Mae on the floor. He scooped her up and pulled a sweater from the duffle.
“Markus said spring session lets out the beginning of May. After he wraps up a few things up with his app, he’ll be able to come down, since he is foregoing his summer session.” Trent couldn’t believe how the timing was working out for him. Closing on the farmhouse was in two weeks, and he’d hired a crew to help him with the farmhouse. Perhaps he could teach his son a thing or two about building a home?
“Wait, what?”
Trent placed Emma back down by her toys then made his way to Teal. Seeing she was struggling with a pin in her hair, he threaded his fingers through her tresses, and pulled the pin from a tangle of curls.
Teal turned to him and took the pin. “How is his mother going to feel about him skipping a semester?”
“I asked him the same thing, baby. He told me he had planned on taking the summer off to work on his app. He’s got funding for it and everything.” He was proud of his son and his accomplishments.
Deep in his heart, he knew the best thing that had ever happened to Markus was Trent’s absence in his life—up until today. Had Harper stayed with him and her father cut her off, he wouldn’t have been able to offer a quarter of the shit her family could. He’d have ended up a grease monkey, just like his father. And while it was an honorable and decent profession, Trent knew Markus had been placed on this earth for so much more.
Teal twirled the pin around in her fingers. “You sound proud of him.” She turned slightly in her chair, her eyes on Emma Mae as she scooted across the floor toward her pink piggy.
“I am.”
Teal’s phone pinged on the dresser. The message notification lit up the phone, pulling his attention to the words illuminating the screen. Teal hadn’t noticed, she’d apparently been wrapped up in his words.
Trent reached past her and read the words. The threat. How Mutt had gotten her number was beyond him. It wasn’t a cell though . . . cells weren’t listed, were they?
“Oh shit. Are they canceling?” She reached for the phone and Trent moved it out of her reach.
“No.” He moved to the bed, watching Emma Mae as she used her chubby little fingers to grip the side of the bed and pull up with all her little strength. He smiled at her efforts, but didn’t reach out a helping hand. She was stronger than she looked and given time, she’d excel in every endeavor she attempted. He and Teal would make sure of it.
Little fingers gripped the cover, and her pink face scrunched in concentration. Clenching tight, she pulled until her little legs and the side of the bed supported her weight. Teal gasped, but Trent didn’t break his stare with Emma Mae. Baby blue eyes bore into him as she made her way over.
One hand lifted from her tight grip, and reached out for him. “Da-da,” Emma Mae’s soft voice called to him.
Trent’s eyes watered and his heart opened so wide from the love that filled him to bursting. He reached out a hand, just a few inches from her.
Quickly, Emma released the side of the bed, her little feet working faster than she’d expected, causing her to stumble after only two steps. He caught her in his arms and swooped her up. Teal ran to him and threw her arms around him, the sound of her happiness surrounding him, along with the giggles of his baby girl.
He closed his eyes for a brief instant, taking in and enjoying this moment with his family. And if the decision hadn’t already been made to kill the congressmen, this exact moment would have done it. He would fight and he would kill to keep his family.
“Oh my goodness, Trent. I’ve been waiting for this moment!” She squealed. He kissed Emma and placed her in Teal’s arms. She raised their daughter in the air and cooed to her.
Trent picked up her cell and moved to the door.
Her eyes widened. “Where you going?”
He lifted the phone, screen facing away from her and waggled it. “Logan texted. I need to talk to him about something right quick.” He forced a smile.
“About my surprise?” she asked, offering him an out.
He snatched it without even thinking. “Yup.” Her smile lit up the room, turning the dark deed he was about to commit into ash. “It’ll be a minute. And next time,” he motioned to Emma Mae, “we have to get that on video.”
“I agree,” she said as Trent exited the room.
Out in the hallway, he paced as he reread the text.
Tell your man this is his last chance before things get ugly, beautiful.
–Mutt
Trent growled at the endearment as he pressed the call button.
Mutt picked up on the first ring. “Hello, darling.”
Trent hated the smooth and soulful timbre he offered his wife. “Fuck you, asshole.” His growl was followed by Mutt’s laughter. “Tell Ace I’ll be there the day after tomorrow to do the job. Call my wife again and I’ll place a fucking bomb in the clubhouse and piss on the fire as you all burn.”
Trent disconnected the call and deleted all traces of Mutt’s presence on Teal’s phone. He glanced back at the closed door and could see right through it in his mind.
Fine, if his past wanted to rear its ugly head, he’d cut its throat and rip its head clean the fuck off.
Chapter 17
Teal and Trent arrived just in time to walk into the restaurant with Markus and Harper. Teal shook Harper’s hand, the tension between them palpable, just as Teal had expected. Hell, she’d hounded the woman with letters and phone calls that bordered on rude. She hadn’t exactly called Harper a bad mother, because Teal didn’t believe that she was, but she had insisted that a good mother would place the choice of getting to know his father into her son’s grown hands. Of course, it had taken her divorce to bring her to the dinner table tonight.
“So, explain to my wife the job you were offered after college, Markus. She’ll probably grasp it faster than I did.” The table and Trent laughed.
Teal glanced over to Markus as he placed his fork down.
“I’m moving to Brussels in a year.” Harper placed a hand on his hand, and gave a supporting rub. As they’d moved to the table, Markus made sure to sit beside his father and to Teal’s surprise, Harper had tried to sit on the other side of Trent. However, Trent had moved the empty chair away to place Emma’s highchair there.
Trent turned to face Teal. “He was head-hunted for a special job with ROA.”
Seeing Teal’s brow furrow, Markus explained further. “ROA is the leading global professional services company, it delivers a comprehensive range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, and technology,” Markus supplied.
Teal’s eyes widened. “Wow, Markus. That’s amazing. I can’t even imagine all the hard work and dedication it took to get you to this point.” And she couldn’t. This young man had a set career ahead of himself. He was Teal at one point in her life. All signs led straight ahead. She smiled.
“Yes, Markus’ workload at school is daunting to say the least.” Harper placed her wine glass down. “But he made it through it and is almost at the finish line. Another year of school, and he can start with ROA.”
“Is he like his mother, too smart for the world around her?” Trent asked.
Harper’s eyes met his and a gleam of appreciation lit them.
Teal understood Trent and Harper shared a past, but what she wasn’t okay with was the sharing of glances. Tonight, was a huge night for Trent, so she wouldn’t make a scene about Harper’s goo-goo eyes. Hell, the same happened to her when Trent complimented her, only the end result left her boneless and sated.
Teal took a sip of wine, then said, “Harper.” The woman turned her gaze to Teal, a pla
cating smile on her lips. “Trent tells me you graduated early, and received an acceptance to MIT. That’s pretty amazing.”
Harper inclined her head, but didn’t offer Teal the same gleaming smile and goo-goo eyes. “Thank you.”
“Ma, it was more than that and you know it. She was also offered a job at ROA when the company started up in 2009, but since she was raising me and it would have made her leave the country, she consulted with them instead. Ma is a big part of the reason ROA does so well now.”
“Hot damn, Harper. I always knew you’d grow up to be a part of something like that. Hell, all that stressing in school over grades paid off, huh?” Trent boomed with pride.
“It did, and I assume all the stressing I did over you paid off as well? I hear you own that old shop and you’ve turned it around into something pretty successful.” She lifted her wine glass. “Kudos,” she said. Her gaze turned to Teal. “What do you do for a living?”
Teal nearly choked on the bite of chicken marsala she’d just taken. Luckily, Trent chimed in.
“She worked at a prison.”
Markus and Harper both looked at her, eyes wide, and she thought there was amazement in their gazes as well.
Swallowing her food, she said, “Yes, I worked as an admin to the warden in a class five prison.”
“Holy shit, that sounds cool,” Markus exclaimed.
“Watch your mouth,” his mother admonished. “That sounds dangerous.” Harper’s brow drew tight. “What made you want to do something like that?” Teal sensed the censure in her tone. “Was it a female prison?”
Teal cocked a brow. “No, it was a male prison.”
“Did it have a death house?” Markus asked, and Teal didn’t like the excitement in his tone when talking about capital punishment.
She shrugged lightly. “Yeah, it housed death row inmates.”
Teal picked up Emma’s bottle and handed it back to her as she grew fussy. And for the first time in a long time, Teal felt a bit inadequate. Trent lifted Emma from her seat and pushed the highchair away from the table, allowing Teal to scoot her chair closer.
He wrapped an arm around her and said, “Teal damned near ran the place. Jan Erik is all over the place without her, and he even offered to nearly double her salary if she and I moved up to Vermont and she took her job back.”
Teal glanced up into his eyes and saw the pride in them. She’d always known he hated her working in a prison, but the pride in his eyes made her melt.
“But—” Harper started, and Markus cut in.
“Wow, almost double your salary? You must be irreplaceable. That’s my goal.” He sat back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest in a gesture that almost mimicked Trent’s signature stance. “To become an integral part of a company. This summer, when I come to visit, I’ll—”
“What was that?” Harper seemed genuinely confused.
Teal stiffened. She knew this was going to be an issue, and after all the school talk they’d just had, she was positive his mother wouldn’t want him skipping the summer session.
“Yeah, I’m taking this summer off. We’ve talked about this, ma.”
Teal knew that tone all too well. While the state might call Markus a grown man due to his age, his whining tone betrayed his youth.
“I need to take the summer off to work on this app with Aiden.”
“We talked about it, but no decision was made,” Harper intoned.
“It’s only a week,” Trent added. “Maybe you can come after spring classes are over and still make the summer classes?”
“No, Dad.” There was a moment of silence at the word. Trent beamed, Teal stilled, and Harper’s irritation seemed to grow. “I need more time to develop this app, we might have funding and I need to get this demo rolling.”
“Aiden can do it, Markus. He dropped out and—”
“He didn’t drop out, he took one semester off. Stop saying he dropped out.”
Teal bit her lip, watching the interaction. The attitude was real with this one.
Trent bounced Emma in his arms. “We still have time to think about a solution.”
Harper rubbed her temples. “Trent, I need you to have my back on this. As his father, you should be telling him nothing is more important than his education—including getting to know you.”
Teal whipped her head to Harper, ready to light her ass up, because this could have had all been settled months ago. Trent and Markus could have already met by now. But the anger radiating from Trent nearly knocked Teal from her chair, and when she looked at him she could see the storm cloud brewing in his eyes.
“I want to be there for Teal’s surprise, too. So, I have to go in May.” Markus offered her a knowing smile. “Ma, stop worrying.” He placed an arm on the back of his mother’s chair. “It is just the summer session. It doesn’t push me behind at all.”
Harper didn’t seem convinced, but to Teal’s shock she nodded. “Okay, but afterward, you need to buckle down. You only have a year left before you head off.” She placed a hand on her son’s cheek. Taking in a deep breath, Harper struggled to reign in her emotions, and Teal understood. Having her marriage fail, and her son leave the nest, she would soon be left with nothing.
“Excuse me please, I need to use the restroom.” Harper pushed back her chair and was gone before anyone could say anything.
Teal placed a hand on Trent’s back, his rigid spine and burning eyes told her Harper’s comment still incensed him. It’d ticked her off too. Who the hell did that woman think she was? And as Teal had suspected, Harper found herself blameless once again. How she figured that was beyond Teal.
Markus twittered on about going to Kentucky, oblivious to the inferno raging inside of Trent.
Teal stood and held a hand out to Emma. “I’m going to change her.” And give that shrew a piece of my mind while I’m at it. Trent handed over Emma, and she leaned down to kiss him. “Talk to your son, baby,” she whispered in his ear.
There were times when Trent’s anger made him deaf, luckily this wasn’t one of those times. He gave an indiscreet nod and jumped into the conversation about horses.
Teal bent and grabbed the diaper bag and headed to tame the shrew. When she entered the restroom, Harper was on her phone. Teal wiped down the changing table and placed a towel down before placing Emma on it. Quickly, she changed Emma’s diaper and was cleaning everything up just as Harper walked past her.
“Wait,” Teal called out to her.
Harper stopped with her hand on the door. She slowly turned. “Yes, Miss Lofton?”
Teal couldn’t stop the surprised expression from filling her face. In her last letter, Teal had signed it Teal Lofton-Reed. So, this woman knew that she was married and her surname had changed.
“Lofton-Reed,” she corrected, working hard not to slap the piss out of Harper. “And I’ve told you several times to call me Teal. We need to talk. Hell, we all need to have a sit down without Markus, so we can make sure we are on the same page.” Teal hefted a sleepy baby in her arms, not missing the slight roll of Harper’s eyes.
“Look, there is nothing to sit down about.”
“That childish attitude you keep throwing off is not going to freeze Trent out of Markus’ life.”
Harper turned and the cool smile on her lips told Teal that she had come to win. “You think I want Trent out of our son’s life, Miss Lofton? No, Trent isn’t the problem. Not anymore.” And with that, she pushed open the door and left.
It took everything in Teal not to reverse time to two years ago when she would have chased Harper down and sliced into this chick verbally, but she couldn’t. Though Markus was an adult and seeing his father was supposed to be his choice, Teal knew that shattering the bond between mother and son would be impossible. Besides, that’s not the path she wanted to take. If made to choose, she was certain Markus would choose Harper. She couldn’t be the reason Markus stayed away.
Still, Harper’s words haunted Teal because they implied that there
was still a problem and Trent wasn’t it. Teal sucked in a breath. If Harper thought for one moment there would ever be something between her and Trent, she was insane. Still, Teal had to wonder what the hell had happened in Harper and Trent’s initial meeting to have her acting like this. Teal lifted the diaper bag over her shoulder and headed out the door. Heaven help this bitch if she thought Trent was fair game.
Chapter 18
After their incredibly short stay in Massachusetts, Trent had canceled his two-day stay with Logan, stating there had been an issue at the shop. He’d placed Teal and Emma Mae on the plane to Vermont, and had flown back to Kentucky.
Checking in with his men, he had made sure everything was running smoothly, finished up going over payroll, and had even gotten some inventory stocked and entered into the system before Ace had come calling.
Now, Trent sat on the same stool at the MC’s bar he did all those years ago. Only this time, instead of waiting for a First Son of the Revolution member, Trent stared up at the emblem of the Blackwater Renegades—a gaping-mouthed dire wolf with red blood dripping from sharpened teeth. Blackwater Renegades arched above the dire wolf’s head along the top in a sharp slashing script, in a depiction of ripped skin.
Trent threw back the shot of whiskey that’d been placed before him, and pushed the shot glass back onto the bar. He noted absently that the place was much cleaner than it had been those many years ago.
Time ticked by, as men in cuts came and went, some with ladies on their arms and others with guns in hand. A few times, eyes were trained on him as the men made their way into the back room, where Trent would soon be called into. His phone buzzed, and he pulled the thing from his pocket.
“Hey,” he said, keeping his tone low. Trent didn’t want the men to overhear his conversation, or to even think of his wife for that matter.
Indebted: 'Til Death Do Us Part (Teal & Trent Book 3) Page 15
