No. I corrected myself. They’d fucked. He was a sub she’d dominated on more than one occasion. While I doubted either of them would’ve called it a relationship because it’d only ever existed within the club, it was the closest thing she’d had to one before she and I had gotten together.
But I hadn’t been jealous or had any problems with him. Rafael Gonzalez had been her past, just like other subs whose names neither of us knew. Just like I had women in my past.
Except none of the other people from either of our pasts was giving Nyx a sheepish smile and stepping aside to let her into his hotel room.
What the fuck was Nyx’s ex doing in Georgia the week before our wedding? Why was she meeting him? And just how long had this been going on?
Did I even want any of these questions answered?
In the space of a few minutes, my entire world felt like it was going to come crashing down around me.
Five
Nyx
“You’re an asshole, Rafael.” I glared up at him, my hands on my hips. “I’m supposed to be on vacation before my wedding, not working. I already broke that promise to Bradyn by calling you, but I told myself that was okay because, technically, I was just reporting what I hadn’t been able to tell you before I left.”
“I know.” He looked guilty as hell. “And I didn’t come here expecting you to do anything. You’ve worked your ass off these last six months, trying to find my child…my son.”
He still said the words like he couldn’t believe them, even though he’d been saying some form of them for half a year.
He’d come to the office in July, looking absolutely gob-smacked. He’d actually been so pale that, for a moment, I thought I’d have to call 911 because he’d been having a heart attack or something like that. Then he’d told me his story, and I’d understood exactly why he’d looked like he’d been hit with a two-by-four.
When he was in college, a girl he’d been dating for a few months ghosted him over their winter break. He’d always assumed that she’d gotten back together with her high school boyfriend when she’d gone back to Alabama between semesters and then just decided to stay home.
Then, this summer, a college friend of Rafael’s had come to New York. During the course of their conversation, Rafael learned that his ex-girlfriend had not only died about eighteen months before from a brain aneurism, but that she’d left behind a child…and that pregnancy had been why she’d dropped out of school. The timing suggested that either the child was his, or she’d been cheating on him.
That’s why he’d hired me. Over the past six months, I’d confirmed that Allyson Baine had, in fact, given birth in Alabama. A son, born the middle of August a little over fourteen years ago, had been named Cru Baine. No father was listed on the birth certificate, and I’d seen no announcements in the local paper. She’d enrolled him in kindergarten the fall after he turned five.
An obituary for a Dewey Bain the following August listed Allyson and Cru as his only family. Cru had started first grade at the same school, but around Thanksgiving, he’d been transferred to a school in Savannah. Between then and the time he was twelve, he’d changed schools twice more but always stayed in or around Savannah.
A few weeks ago, I’d found a very brief mention of a woman named Allyson Baine dying of a brain aneurism while working in a local factory. The article from nearly two years ago said that she left behind a twelve-year-old son.
That’s when things had gotten difficult. The reason I’d called Rafael when Bradyn and I had first gotten to the ranch was to let him know that a lead I’d been following had finally panned out. I finally had confirmation that a fourteen-year-old boy named Cru Baine was in the foster system here in Savannah. I had no doubt this was the same Cru I’d been tracking, but whether or not that child was Rafael’s remained to be seen.
Which was why I was now standing in front of him and telling myself it would be a bad idea to slap him upside the head.
Shadae would’ve approved.
“I just couldn’t stay away,” he continued. “Not when I know there’s a chance I could see him.”
I was seconds from screaming in frustration but managed to simply shake my head. “I don’t want you anywhere near him yet. Not until I have better confirmation that he’s your son. The last thing we want to do is get this kid’s hopes up that he has a father and then have to explain how we were wrong when DNA says he’s not yours.”
“I know.” Rafael cursed and ran his hand through his hair. “It’s just…fourteen years. If he’s mine, I should have been in his life for fourteen years. And I don’t know why Allyson wouldn’t have told me. But then we hadn’t been serious, and she’d known the career I was pursuing would be a busy one.”
“It’s fucked up,” I agreed. “But let’s make sure we do this right for the kid.”
He nodded and sat on the end of the bed. “What’s next?”
“I’m going to meet with a contact down here and find out where Cru is specifically.” I met his eyes with a firm gaze of my own. “And then I’m going to figure out a way to get a DNA sample.”
Rafael’s eyebrows shot up. “Seriously? Already?”
“Yes. We’ll need to do a paternity test eventually, and I think it’d be better if I can get it without him knowing.”
“How are–” Halfway through the question, his brain clicked back from ‘freaked-out maybe-dad’ mode to ‘lawyer’ mode. “Discarded DNA.”
If he’d been a criminal attorney, he might’ve gotten it a little bit sooner, but corporate lawyers didn’t necessarily deal with DNA on a regular basis.
I nodded. “When I find out where he is, I’ll be able to figure out what will be the easiest to grab. Water bottle, tissue, whatever.”
“If you take something out of the trash, how will you know for sure that it’s him?”
“I’ll try to physically see him throw something away,” I explained.
The nervous look was back. “And if you can’t?”
“Then I’ll take a whole bag of trash from wherever he is and hope that I don’t have to test every single thing in it.”
“But how can you be sure that any match comes from that specific boy?”
For a moment, I thought he was joking, but then I realized he was serious. He was one of the smartest people I knew. Quick thinking on his feet. It’s what made him an amazing lawyer. Finding out about Cru had completely turned Rafael’s world upside-down to the point where he wasn’t thinking straight.
I understood the feeling all too well. I’d had more than one incident like that in my life. I didn’t know how difficult Rafael’s life had been up to this point, but if this was his first real shock, I could see why he was still having trouble adjusting. It probably didn’t help that things were still in so much flux.
“It doesn’t have to hold up in court,” I reminded him. “If we get a hit, then we look into something official. Unless you have any other women in the area you might’ve knocked up, any positive results will come from the one kid whose mom we know you fu…um, had contact with.”