She sighed, not commenting on the house at all. “I need to tell my parents that I’m home.” When I looked toward her to gauge her reaction, it was to see her grimacing. “And it’s time that they met my real husband.”
We hadn’t even gotten out of the car yet.
Reaching for the seatbelt that I’d just taken off, I clicked it back into place.
“Let’s just take care of everything then,” I suggested.
She looked over at me with terror in her eyes.
“It’ll be okay,” I promised, offering her my hand.
She took it and held on to it like her life depended on it.
She didn’t let it go. Not once. Not when I sneezed and needed the use of my other hand. Not when I shifted gears. And not even when she wiped the tears from her eyes.
CHAPTER 23
This is my drinkin’ shirt. I don’t know if I wear it every day.
-T-shirt
BECKHAM
“Let me go in first,” I said as I stood at the bottom steps of the police station. “Give me, like, two minutes.”
“They’re not going to be happy,” Trouper said as he deftly moved the sleeping baby in his arms to his shoulder. “I don’t want you to do this alone.”
I looked over at my husband.
“I’m not doing it alone,” I corrected him. “And you can stand outside the door once my brother gets to the office. Okay?”
He sighed. “I guess that’s all that I’m going to be able to do. I don’t want you to get any shit, though. If they start pissing me off, I’m coming in, whether you want me to or not.”
I nodded. “That’s fine.”
He gestured for me to lead the way, and I did.
Dad’s office was actually in the SWAT building out back. Instead of entering the main office buildings, I walked around the side and led the way toward that back building.
When we got there, it was to find quite a few of the SWAT team members in attendance, a few of those being my cousins and people that I knew from growing up.
They were busy training, though, and didn’t notice me.
Thank goodness.
I walked past the gym area and toward the back office where my father was.
“You can wait here.” I pointed to a break room. “Even though you’ll be a few leaps and bounds from the office, you should be able to hear.”
Trouper caught me around the hip and pressed a kiss to my face. “It’ll be okay, baby.”
It wasn’t going to be okay.
I was going to not only tell my father about who Hiro’s real father was, who my husband was, but I was also going to tell him about what happened to me and what I’d been doing at the time of that happening to me.
My father wasn’t going to like hearing that I was FBI and kept it from him. Nor was he going to like that I was married to a man that he hated.
This was going to be a nightmare.
Trouper kissed me one more time, and then I slipped into the hallway and looked toward the gym, wondering if Louis had gotten my text yet.
He would. His watch alerted him to when he got them, and he was very quick to respond when it was me.
Shoring myself and dragging a deep breath into my lungs, I peeked around the corner of my dad’s office and saw him sitting behind his desk, writing something.
Likely a report.
I felt the bile rise in my throat.
I took one last deep breath and walked into the room.
The moment I stood in the doorway, I spoke.
“There’s something that I need to tell you.”
My father looked up from the paperwork at his desk, saw me, and grinned wide.
“Beckham,” he greeted, standing and walking toward me. “What are you doing here?” He paused with me half in his arms. “Where’s Kase?”
My father hugged me tight anyway, despite loving my child more than me.
I swallowed hard, felt my nerves tightening in my belly, stomach threatening to revolt.
I couldn’t do this.
I looked away, and my eyes connected with Troup.
Troup who’d ignored my orders and followed me inside. Damn him.
I loved him like crazy.
Tears started to leak out of my eyes at the sight of him standing there.
I hadn’t realized that he knew that I’d need him.
But I couldn’t do this anymore.
I couldn’t lie to my father. My mother. My family.
“What the fuck is goin’ on?” Louis asked as he shoved into the office. “I have shit to do. I’m in the middle of writing reports, and I really would love to get this done before I have to fuckin’ get home. Calloway needs some help.”
Louis had married Calloway, his high school sweetheart, and gotten his happily ever after. Meanwhile, he had no clue that his sister didn’t have that same option.
“I, uh…” I looked at my brother who was now standing next to us. “I need to talk to you both.”
That’s when I reached for the trashcan and threw up next to my father’s desk.
Thank God he had his own office now.
I felt a warm, dry hand place itself on the back of my neck and knew that Trouper had joined us in the office.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” my father snarled, moving with deliberate, heavy steps.
It surprised me that he hadn’t noticed Trouper until now.
“And why the fuck do you have Kase?” Louis barked.
I stood up so fast that I felt vomit drip down my chin.
I wiped it away with my wrist and pushed them both back. “Don’t fucking touch him!”
My dad blinked at me, startled by my outburst.
The door to my father’s office closed, and I looked behind me to see that Trouper had been the one to close it.
Once it was closed, he turned to look at us.
My stomach was still roiling at the thought of telling my family what had happened.
What had gone down.
“That man you met a couple of months ago is not Hiro’s father. I am,” Trouper said quietly.
Trouper never raised his voice when around my family.
Never showed his anger.
Never did anything that would outwardly display his anger.
But I could tell that he was pissed.
At everything.
The way he held himself, strung so tightly, as he said those words, as if waiting for my father’s condemnation?
I hated that for him.
“You’ve got to be fuckin’ kidding me,” my father growled. “Beckham? You did this? How could you? And why are you calling him Hiro? His name is Kase!”
I felt that familiar roll start in my stomach again.
I’d need his trash can a few more times before I was done explaining.
“Sit down, baby,” Trouper ordered.
I did, getting to my ass a lot faster than I intended.
Troup handed me Hiro who was now very much awake. I immediately placed him on the ground next to my father’s desk where there was a small trash can full of tennis balls. I wasn’t sure why they were there, but Hiro instantly tumbled it over and started to play.
“Someone better start talkin’, really fuckin’ quick,” Louis ordered. “Or I’m about to start letting my fists fly.”
“You touch him, and I’ll never speak to you again,” I told Louis quietly. “And you’ll never see your nephew again, either.”