NO SECRETS NO LIES (SIN CITY HEAT SERIES Book 3) (7 page)

    Alexis swallowed several times when he only
stared at her. “I hope you're satisfied. You didn’t have to drag me all the way
in here and…”
     She stopped speaking as Amir slowly began to advance
toward her. Alexis tried to hold her ground, but the expression on his face
made her back up until her legs hit a chair behind her, causing her to plop
down in it in an unladylike sprawl.

     Amir placed a hand on each arm of the
chair, effectively holding her captive. “Why.”
     That one word spoke volumes. Alexis tried to avoid the
intensity of his gaze, but he wouldn’t let her look away. “W-why what?” she
whispered.
     Amir's jaw tightened as he leaned closer. She could
see he was physically trying to get a reign on his temper from the way he
squeezed his eyes shut and clenched and unclenched his hands around the arms of
the chair.
     “Alexis..." She heard the warning in his voice,
but that was what gave her the courage she so badly needed right now. She was
not going to let him intimidate her!
     “Amir…” she mocked him, using the same tone as he.
“You want to know why? Why I never told you that I was pregnant? Why would I,
is more like it.”
     Amir’s head snapped back as if she'd physically
slapped him. He stood up to his full height then took a couple of steps back as
if he didn’t trust himself to be in such close proximity to her. Alexis let out
an audible sigh of relief once he was several feet away.
     “What in the hell is that supposed to mean?” His voice
was still dangerously low.
     Alexis was able to think clearer now that he wasn’t in
her space. “It means exactly what I said. Why would I tell you I was pregnant?
The last words I remember you saying were, ‘no bitch is ever gonna whip me.’
That is correct, isn’t it? That’s all I was to you. Another ‘bitch’ you’d managed
to fuck on spring break? And oh, let’s not forget the bonus you got.” 
     “First of all, that’s not why we’re in here.  If
you’d given me a chance to talk to you these last couple of weeks, I would’ve
apologized! Don’t try to purposely confuse the issue!”
     When Alexis stood up and turned her back to him, he
stalked over and spun her around. “Why didn’t you tell me I had a son?!”
 
     Alexis raised her voice to match his. “And what would
you have done if I’d told you?! Laughed in my face?! Called me a liar. Said I
was easy because I slept with you the first night I met you?!”
     “No, I…”
     “You would’ve what, Amir? I didn’t even know your last
name, for Christ’s sake.” She let out a hollow laugh. “You just found mine out
a few minutes ago.”

    
Amir
couldn’t meet her eyes because he knew what she’d said was true. Then his face
hardened, but before he could say a word, she continued.
     “And for your information, I did try to find you. I
figured there couldn’t be too many Amir’s who went to Morehouse and played
football. After I found out I was pregnant, I got on a bus and rode five hours
to Atlanta. Once I got to Morehouse, I went to the athletics department, and
asked around until I was directed to a Coach Brown.”
     Amir’s look intensified as she mentioned the name of
his college football coach. Coach Brown had been instrumental in helping him
perfect his game to become one of the best collegiate players in his division.
He’d been like a father to Amir. “You came to Morehouse. To find me…”

     Alexis squinted as she heard the touch of
skepticism. “Yes. I did.”
      Hearing the conviction in her voice and seeing
it on her face, Amir felt an unsettling gnawing in his gut. “Okay. Let’s say
you did come to Morehouse. If you’d spoken to Coach Brown, he would’ve told me.
Hell, he would’ve called me. He knew how to contact me at all times.”
     “Oh, I’m sure he did. When I told him my name and that
I was looking for you, he led me back to his office once he saw how upset I
was. He managed to get it out of me that I was pregnant with your child - and
then he called me a gold digging little slut.”
     “What?!” Amir shook his head. “I don’t believe you.
Coach Brown would never keep something as important as this away from me.”
     Alexis laughed. “He would if he thought it would ruin
your squeaky clean image. He said you were on the ‘fast track to stardom’, and
not only was it a foregone conclusion that you would be a first round draft
pick, but endorsement deals were just waiting in the wings once you signed on
the dotted line. You having a baby out of wedlock would have tainted what he’d
worked so hard to accomplish with you. He said he wasn’t going to let you be
another black man with a ‘baby mama’.” When Amir flinched, Alexis only looked
at him and said in an emotionless voice, “His words, not mine.”
     “Alexis…” Amir took a shaky breath, wary about what he
was hearing. 
     “You still don’t believe me, do you?” Alexis laughed
bitterly. “He asked me how I knew you.” She bit her bottom lip to stop it from
trembling, as affected today by Coach Brown's cruel words as she had been then.
“Do you know how cheap I felt when I told him I’d met you at spring break. He
actually laughed. He laughed and told me you met a lot of girls at spring break.”
     She remembered the look of disgust on the coach’s
face. “Then he reached in his pocket and pulled out some money. He threw it at
me and told me to get rid of it. Get rid of the baby and never contact you
again. I was mortified. I ran out of there and took the bus back to school,
determined to raise my baby on my own.”
     Amir turned away from the pain on her face. He linked
his fingers behind his neck and looked up at the ceiling. He believed her.
Coach Brown had made it his mission to get him all the way to the top. Amir had
always known Coach Brown was as addicted to the accolades and praise he
received as Amir’s coach as Amir was addicted to the game itself. But it didn’t
bother him, because he knew he wouldn’t have gotten as far as he had without
Coach. But for him to do this, to play God and decide the fate of Amir, Alexis,
and that of their unborn child...

     Amir turned back to face her.
"Alexis, I didn’t know. I swear to God, I didn’t know. There’s no way I
would’ve let you raise our son alone.” He walked closer to her, softly touching
her arm. “Were you…was there anyone to help you, your parents, or…”

     Alexis shook her head. “No. My parents
died the year I entered college. After I graduated, I took an entry level
position and worked my way up to management and never looked back. I made sure
my son never wanted for anything.”
     When Amir heard her last statement, he closed his
eyes. While Lexie was working to give their child the best she could, he’d had
money to burn from his contract, endorsements, and bonuses.
     “Alexis, you must have recognized my face in the
media. Why didn’t you try to contact me again? You had to have known you
could've gotten money…” He realized how that sounded the moment the words were
out of his mouth. "Wait..."

     She jerked away from his touch. “I didn’t
want your money. I didn’t want anything to do with you at that point. My son
and I got along just fine.”
     Amir took a deep breath as he thought about all of the
years he’d missed out on with Michael. His first words, his first steps, his
first…everything. He looked at Alexis.
     “I’m sorry for what happened with Coach Brown. God
knows if he wasn’t dead…” Amir left the rest of the sentence hanging. “But now
that I know I have a son, I’m going to be in his life.” 
     Alexis saw the sincerity in his eyes, heard it in his
voice and nodded. “I understand, I just don’t think we should rush this. I
think we need to give him some time to get used to you before -”
     “I don’t think ten years is ‘rushing it.’” His voice
carried a touch of bitterness. “I’ve missed out on a decade of his life. I
don’t intend to miss out on a moment more. We’ll tell him I’m his
father…tonight.”
     Amir’s tone left no room for argument, but Alexis
realized he was right. Michael needed his father as much as Amir needed his
son. “Okay. We’ll tell him.”
     “Tonight, Alexis. As soon as we leave.”

Chapter 10

     Amir and Alexis rejoined the celebration
determined to put Michael's well-being over everything else. No matter what
personal problems or unresolved issues remained between them, Michael's
happiness came first. Alexis nervously bit her lip while she scanned the
grounds looking for her son.
     Amir noticed her worry. “Everything’s going to be
okay. After we tell him, I’ll take things slow. I know he’s going to need time
to digest it all.”
     Alexis took a deep breath and nodded. When Michael was
younger and began asking about his father, it had been easy to vaguely tell him
that mommy and daddy had met in order to create him and bring him into this
world. That satisfied him for a couple of years until he started going to
school. Then he wanted to know why he didn’t have a dad like the other kids in
his class. Alexis’ heart cried for her child. She tried to explain to him that
although everyone had a father, not everyone had a dad. She constantly stressed
that she would always be there for him and love him no matter what. However,
the older he got, the less those answers appeased him, especially when he
noticed the other fathers at their son’s games.
     As she had many times before, Alexis questioned
whether or not she’d done the right thing. As Amir said, she could have
contacted him at any time and told him about Michael. It wouldn’t have been too
hard to find him. Had she not done so because she had her child’s best interest
at heart…or her own?
     “There they are.” Amir broke into her musings as he
spotted Michael. His pace quickened as he made his way over to Sharon and Soul
who were watching Destiny and Michael climb up the water slide.
     Soul and Sharon wore identical expressions which told
how anxious they'd been as they waited on the two to come back. They could only
imagine how upset Amir was at finding out he had a child, but after a few
moments, they let out relived sighs when they saw both seemed to be in one
piece.
     “Everything ok?“ Sharon asked.
     Amir gave her a reassuring smile. "It will
be."
     When Alexis heard Michael calling her, she raised a
hand up to shield her eyes from the brightness of the sun and waved at him.
Confident that he had her attention, Michael climbed to the top of the water
slide and waved back.
     The smile on Alexis' face faded when Michael turn
backwards to slide down. With visions of him flipping over and breaking limbs
flashing through her mind, she took a step towards the slide.
     “Michael! Michael…!”
     Amir grabbed her hand and held her back. “He’s okay,
Alexis.”
     Alexis looked at Amir, who was smiling at Michael and
waving. “But, he could hurt himself."

     Amir eyes twinkled with amusement. “It’s
not like he’s climbing a mountain. He’s just going down a water slide. He’s
good.”
    Alexis stepped back grudgingly, but folded her arms with a
little pout.
He finds out he's a father thirty minutes ago and already
thinks he knows best!

     Amir noticed the petulant angle of her
chin and knew exactly what she was thinking. Michael wasn’t the only person who
would have to adjust to the changes that were getting ready to happen in their
lives. He turned back just in time to see Destiny go down the slide first with
a big smile on her face. She was followed by Michael, who flew down with hands
in the air, grinning with excitement. When he got to the bottom, he and Destiny
ran over to them.
     “That was fun! I’m going again.” Alexis grabbed him an
instant before he dashed back to get in line.
     “Wait.” She bent down to get eye level with him. She
hesitated, looking from him to Amir.

    
Michael impatiently jumped from one foot to the other. “Mom…”
     “Sweetie, I’m going back to the tent to fix our
plates. This is…Amir. He’s going to stay out here with you until I get
everything ready.” She saw the surprise that crossed Amir's face.

     Michael looked up at him and grinned.
“Cool! So I can stay for a little while?”
     Amir nodded and smiled at his son. Before either of
them could say another word, Michael took off to get in line again. He stopped
halfway there and turned back to Destiny.
     “Come on Destiny.”
     Destiny scrambled loose from her father’s grip and ran
towards Michael without looking back.
     “Well, damn…” They all laughed as Soul stood looking
utterly lost.
     Sharon hugged him around the waist. “Don’t worry,
honey, you’re still her hero.”
     “I can't tell,” Soul said jokingly as they watched
Michael take Destiny’s hand and let her stand in front of him.
     Sharon laughed and gave him another kiss as she and
Alexis turned to go back to the tent. They had only taken a couple of steps
when a deep voice called Alexis’ name. Turning around, the four of them spied a
tall, slim, dark skinned brotha jog towards them.

      Unknowingly, a frown slashed across
Amir’s face and deepened when the man leaned down to kiss Alexis on the lips.
Seeing Amir's expression, Soul smirked and let out a low snort which Amir
ignored.
     “David…” Her lips parted in surprise. With everything
going on with Amir, she’d forgotten that she had invited him and his son to
stop by.
     “I’m sorry I’m late.” The man slipped an arm around
her waist and pulled her to his side.
     For some reason, Alexis found herself glancing at Amir
who was staring at her with his brows knitted down over his eyes. When he
noticed her watching him, he turned his attention back to Michael and Destiny.
     “Where’s Justin?” Alexis looked around for David's
eleven year old son.
     David’s smile twisted into a bitter grimace. “His
mother wouldn’t let him come. As you know, we made arrangements weeks ago for
me to have him on the Fourth of July but apparently, she and her husband made
other plans.”
     “Oh, I’m sorry.” David and his ex-wife had gone
through a nasty divorce. He'd taken her back to court several times for
violating the custody agreement.