I licked my lips. “I have two names. Maybe you know me by the other. My friends call me Rex.”
There was no flicker of recognition.
“Rex is Latin for King.”
“Yes, it is.”
I knew she’d studied Latin at school.
I’d paid for a private academy, wanting her to have the best education money could buy.
“Is that intentional?”
My lips almost twitched. “It was.”
The wad of cash was stuffed into the space. “I don’t want your money.”
“I’m sure you don’t,” I agreed, heart sinking. “But this place isn’t safe.”
She gulped. “You think I don’t know that? It’s all I could afford until I get paid next week.”
I gritted my teeth. “You’re working?”
“As a waitress. Three nights a week.”
Her answer was rich enough with details that I knew she recognized my name.
At least, I hoped she didn’t tell every bastard who came to her door shit like that.
Reaching up, I scratched my jaw and said, “I can’t take that money back.”
“I don’t want it,” she said bitterly.
“Maybe you don’t, but I want you to have it. I have no need for it.”
She frowned. “It’s money. How can you have no need for it?”
“Because I’d prefer for you to have it instead.”
“That makes no sense.”
“You know I’m your biological dad, Wynter.” I hitched a shoulder. “What do you expect me to do?”
“Not stick around?”
Christ, this girl could wound.
“I would’ve if I could’ve.”
Her mockery stung as she said, “That’s a real comfort to me now. Dad.”
“I know it isn’t. But I promise you, if I could have raised you as my own, I would have.”
Her sniff told me she thought I was talking out of my ass. “Why are you here?”
“You’re seventeen.” I swallowed. “I-I tried to stay away because I didn’t want to make things confusing for you, but I lost my dad on Christmas Day, your grandfather Bear, and he… I…”
“Did he know about me?”
“No.” It was one of my darkest regrets.
I didn’t know why, out of everything, that was the trigger, but it was. She made to slam the door closed, but I stuck my booted foot in the opening, wedging it there so she couldn’t.
“Go away,” she snarled.
“Let me explain!”
“Why should I? Why should I listen to you when this is the first time you’ve bothered to come into my life?”
“I didn’t give you up because I was young and foolish. I didn’t set you up with Jeremy and Ally because I didn’t want you.”
“Why did you then?”
Jesus. How did I explain this?
“Your biological mother, Rachel, was young when she had you. It wasn’t planned. Rachel’s a genius. She’s so fucking smart, Wynter. I’ve seen your report cards, and I figure you take after her.” I shot her a grin that went down like a lead balloon. “She got into Brown for pre-law, and she was going to take on the world. The condom busted, but that didn’t matter. You were unexpected, but we loved each other, Wynter. I swear.”
“You didn’t make her get rid of me?” she asked, her voice suspicious.
“No!” I barked. “I damn well didn’t. Your mom was delicate that year.” It was hard to settle on that word, but it was the only one that seemed to sit right with me. “Something had happened to her, but she wouldn’t tell me what. Someone had hurt her. It made her distant. Things were awkward between us in the run up to her leaving.”
“Who hurt her?”
“I-I found out recently that it was my uncle.”
Her eye rounded. “Your uncle hurt my mom?”
I figured the possessive pronouns were a step forward.
“Yeah, he did.”
“Badly?”
I rubbed my forehead with the back of my hand. “He assaulted her. Sexually.”
“I-I’m his?”
“No! No. You’re mine. She was fragile before she went to school, but when she was due to give birth, she was worse than ever.” I sucked in a breath. “I don’t live a life where… My world is dangerous, Wynter. You’ve watched Sons of Anarchy?”
She blinked. “I have.”
“Well, think that but worse.”
Her eye drifted down my length, fastened itself to the patches on my cut. “You’re a biker?”
“I am.”
“The Prez. You’re the leader?”
“Yeah, but I wasn’t back then. I’d have made it work if Rachel could have coped, but she couldn’t. She was broken, Wynter. In many ways, she still is.”
“Because of your uncle?”
“Yeah. Even now, if I touch her unawares, she flinches. It’s like I’ve hit her with a taser.” The truth rattled through me, hurting me as much as it hurt Rachel. “Whatever he did to her, something she still won’t talk about, it crushed her. She dove into her studies then, and now, she lives and breathes her work.
“I wanted you, Wynter. I did. And I know, if things had been different, she’d have wanted you too. But things weren’t different—”
“You’re a biker?” she asked again.
“I am.”
“Did you hurt your uncle? For touching her?”
“He died a long time ago.”
Her eye closed for a split second. Slower than a blink. “Good. I’m glad.”
“Me too.”
Especially knowing how he died.
At the end of Sin’s fists as he beat the bastard to a bloody pulp that resulted in his death.
That was the least he deserved.
I swallowed. “I wanted you to have a stable home. A good life. With people who’d already been looking to adopt. I-I figured Jeremy and Ally were safe choices.”
The corner of her mouth that I could see, grew taut. “Ally… Mom… she’s good people.”
But her dad wasn’t.
“Did Jeremy hurt you?” I growled, straightening up as outrage filled me.
“No.”
Why wasn’t I reassured?
“Why did you move out?”
“That's my business. Not yours.”
I decided not to push my luck by prodding for more answers.
“Why are you really here?”
“You’re grown up. If you wanted, we could be friends.”
She studied me for a second, but her distrust was clear in her silence.
“You had seventeen years to find me. Why bother?”
“I didn’t have to find you. I knew where you were,” I told her carefully, “but I wasn’t about to walk into your life—”
“Just thought you’d do that today?” she sneered. “What’s changed?”
“I’ve changed.”
A hard laugh barked from her. “Yeah, okay, what do I look? Ten? I might have believed that bullshit before, but not now.”
Patience rattled, I told her, “It’s not bullshit. My dad just died. It made me realize that having a lot of family is a positive, not a negative.”