Chapter 5 Really hope the next man destroys my cervix instead of destroying my life. -Overheard Conversations AUDRIC Present Day I stared at the DNA test in my hand and knew that this was about to be the biggest shitshow of epic proportions. I wasn't sure how they knew to make me take the DNA test, but now that I was staring at the results, I knew that I couldn't get away with the lie for much longer. "You ready, man?" Cakes slapped me on the shoulder. "Time to get our boy married." Our "boy" wasn't much of a boy. Our "boy" was actually a grown-ass man, but he was our club president. We were taking him to Hawaii to get married, and we'd all be staying at my place. A place that Laney had saved like she said she would. A place that had become my refuge any time that I needed a break. It was the one place that didn't seem tainted by the horrors of my life. My phone rang in my pocket, and I pulled it out and answered it while everyone else headed onto the plane. "Hey, Dad," I said. "Your girl's fussy tonight," he said. I winced. She was fussy every night. I loved the kid, but fuck, she was a lot of work. "I'm sorry, Dad," I apologized. Dad knew that Lottie wasn't mine. He'd always known, because I didn't keep secrets from the man. He didn't keep any from me, either. "It's okay, I'm happy as hell to do it," he murmured. "Just wanted to give you a quick update." "Thanks, Dad. We're boarding the plane now. Call me if you have any issues with Lottie." "Will do, kid," he said. "Love you." "Back at you." He sounded happy. He probably was. Hanging out with Lottie was the highlight of his life at this point. I hung up and pulled my boarding pass up just in time for my turn. Boarding the plane behind Webber and his soon-to-be wife, I wondered if she'd be on the flight. I was rewarded with her beautiful, beaming smile for all of two seconds before it slid off her face the moment she saw me. Her eyes lit with an inner fire that I only ever saw when she was looking at me. I don't know how, but over the last two years since Laney's death, she'd grown on me like a fungus. No longer did the sight of her set all my irritation to igniting. Somehow, someway, she'd become a person that I enjoyed seeing. I was sure the feeling wasn't mutual, but still. "Well, hello, Flight Attendant Creole," I said, sickly-sweet. Her irritation made me want to laugh. I managed to hold in the laughter, though. "Hi." She narrowed her eyes. Her gaze went behind me, and her face went utterly blank. I looked behind me to see Cakes standing there and wondered what the hell that was about. To the best of my knowledge, I didn't think the two of them had ever met. What the hell was that about? "Hello." Cakes smiled at Creole. "Hi." She tried for a smile, but it didn't reach her eyes. Okay, something was definitely weird there. She could put on an act with the best of them. Her prickly personality was always reserved for only me. So what the hell was that about? Determined to figure it out, I passed her and took my seat in first class. Laney's money had done one thing. I could now afford to do just about anything short of buying a country. Which was why the Combs had been fighting the will for the last two years. Which was also why I'd gotten that message today about a DNA test on Lottie. Fuck, what the hell was I going to do? "Hello, please take your seat and allow other passengers to move down the aisle," I heard ordered from behind me. I ignored Creole and took my time getting my bag above my head, then took my seat just in time to turn around and see her glare at me. "All done." I smirked. She narrowed her eyes but remained civil, smiling and greeting anyone who passed her. Although I did note, she stayed very, very far away from anyone who came on the plane. The only time she didn't all but flinch back when someone got too close was when it was an elderly woman in a wheelchair who had no arms. I snorted. Definitely no risk of touching from that chick. At least, I thought so, until the woman being pushed down the aisle by an airport worker passed a woman looking out the window. "Have fun in first class, you fat cow." The old woman snarled as she kicked the woman on her way past. "Mother!" the woman cried. "It's not like I chose to be upgraded!" "Yeah, but you chose not to give that upgrade to your mother." "And what, exactly, would you have done up here by yourself? You can't put your seat belt on. You can't put your peanuts in your mouth. You can't even get your luggage above your head. Back there, you have your preferred son," the first-class chick snarled. She definitely had a valid reason for not giving that first class seat up. It wasn't like I was going to help her. And though I was sure the flight attendants would help as they could, it wasn't like they could hand-feed her peanuts. Cakes sat down next to me, shoving his backpack underneath the seat before going back into the aisle to deal with his carry-on. I noticed that Creole didn't hurry him along, and he took twice as long as I had. I narrowed my eyes at the bane of my existence again, then said, "Cutting it a little close, aren't you?" "No," he grumbled. "Why spend any more time on this plane than I have to? I paid for first class. I'm guaranteed a seat and usually I never have issues with the overhead storage. But even if I did have issues, the flight attendants are more than willing to find space for my bag for me." "But then you'd have to figure out how to get your bag from way the fuck back there," I pointed out. "While everyone and their brother is standing up in the aisle champing at the bit to get out of the damn plane." "Well, just sayin', but their issue doesn't make one on my end." He shrugged. "No Lottie?" I shook my head. "I didn't think it'd be the greatest thing in the world to bring a two-year-old on a plane for the first time when she's having ear issues." "Still getting ear infections?" he asked. "Man, that's rough. I had to have multiple surgeries on mine." His dimple popped as he half-heartedly grinned at me, reminding me of Lottie's dimple. I frowned. "What did you have wrong with your ears?" "Started with chronic ear infections." He sighed. "Then it turned into damaged eardrums. It was a whole shitshow, and a lot of it was due to my mom and dad's negligence. If they'd taken me the moment that they saw I had an issue, all would've been well. I would've just had tubes in my ears and been done with it. But since they neglected to take me until it was really bad, I had a lot of other issues I had to deal with on top of that. But your girl should be fine. You get her to the doctor in plenty of time. They'll just put tubes in her ears, and she'll be right as rain." I pulled my phone out of my pocket and typed in "are ear infections hereditary?" I had a theory. It was a crazy one, but it was one that I knew to be most likely a very real possibility. Laney had slept with one of my brothers. Not my blood brothers, but my heart brothers. The Truth Tellers MC brotherhood was something out of this world, and I counted them just as much of a brother as my own sibling-even if she had been gone from this world for a really long time. Anyway, the night that I remembered her coming home, she'd stayed at the club longer than me. I'd come home because I had an early job outside of the city the next morning, and had to be up by three. She'd stayed behind because she'd been having fun. All of the club had been. Every last one of them had been drunk off their asses when I'd left, and had been heading straight toward sloshed. Most of the old ladies and the rest of the attendees had been, too. Everyone but Laney. I'd made sure that she switched to water halfway through the night because I wanted to make sure she could get home safely. She was more than sober when she came home, too, because I remembered waking up when she walked through the door. We didn't sleep in the same room, never had since we'd gotten married. But she always made sure to let me know when she arrived or left so I didn't worry. She'd gotten home that night and woken me up to tell me that she was home and had said that she'd had a great time after I left. Usually, that meant that she'd found a dick to scratch her itch. At the time, I'd been drunk on sleep, and hadn't really thought about the fact that she'd been at a club party when she'd made the comment. But after she'd died, I'd realized a few really harsh realities. One, I knew one of the club brothers was Lottie's father. And two, I had no clue what to do about it because one of them would feel really fuckin' bad about sleeping with my dead wife, and knocking her up, forcing me to raise a kid that wasn't mine. Not that I hated Lottie or anything. I loved her. But it was more like an uncle kind of love. I knew that she wasn't mine, and never would be. One of these days, she would either be taken by the Combs, or I'd have to find her real father and make him fight. Either way, this wasn't going to end great. How did I even bring this up with them? Hey, at a party two years and nine months ago, one of you slept with my wife, and knocked her up. Would you all mind taking DNA tests so you can help me fight to keep Lottie away from the uber-rich Combs? Yeah, it wouldn't go over well. I did, however, have it narrowed down to four men. Cakes, however, was now in the lead. "Please stow your tray tables and make sure your seats are upright," Creole's sweet, honeyed voice broke into my thoughts. Everyone did as she asked, but something in me made me hesitate to right my seat. Which, of course, prompted her to come right over to me and bend down so only Cakes and I could hear. "Are you hard of hearing? Or do you expect me to right your seat for you?" Cakes coughed uncomfortably. My brows rose. "I actually had planned to, but you should probably give us more than ten seconds from the moment that you announce what we need to do." God, this woman sure knew how to get under my skin. "How about now?" she whisper-hissed. "Has it been long enough?" "Cakes," I said as I righted my chair. "You should probably make sure your tray table is stowed before she loses her..." I saw the moment the man's name registered, and she all but jerked back. Her eyes went wide, and she stared at Cakes for so long that I felt my belly start to get a little uncomfortable. Was she looking at him for the reason I thought she was? Or was I just overthinking it? But if there was one woman on this planet that would know who Lottie's father was, it would definitely be her... Determined now to know the answer that was burning on the tip of my tongue, I said, "Creole, have you ever met Cakes?" Panicked eyes met mine. "No. Why would I?" "Because the sound of his name made you get all weird," I said. "Just thought you two might know each other." "Can't say that I've had the pleasure of meeting her, man." Cakes grinned. "I definitely would've remembered that hair." And what went unsaid was her ample ass and tits. Those were a few things that Creole had been known for. Tits, hair, and ass. I remember Laney droning on and on about how perfect Creole's body was, meanwhile she had to put in six hours at the gym a week to have a flat tummy. "Cakes, this is Creole Williams. She was Laney's best friend," I said softly. "Creole, this is Cakes." Cakes offered her his hand, but Creole winced and stepped away. "Nice to meet you, Cakes." "Don't take offense," I said softly as we both watched her move away. "She doesn't allow touch from anyone." "What happened to her?" What hadn't? "Something happened when we were teens. I'm not sure what, but one day I woke up and she was just different. Hated my guts. Laney tried and tried, but she could never figure out what happened," I murmured. "She got pregnant sometime in our senior year, had her kid, and moved in with her sister so she could help with her son. Though, her son died from leukemia. Then her mom followed six months later." Cakes cursed under his breath. "What a life." Agreed.