Outlaw (25 page)

Cole looked back at the girl, and pointed back at
the door. “I told you to get the fuck inside,” he yelled.

The girl retreated.

Angel flinched. Somehow this wasn’t the Cole she
remembered. Or maybe she’d just built him up in her head.

The sound of crying filled the air. It snapped Angel
out of it.

Cole looked back, startled. Realizing the sound was
coming from inside the SUV.

“Now look what you’ve done!” she snapped. She
turned, and stepped over to the driver’s side window. Leaning her head in, she
said, “There, there, Honey-Bear. Mommy’s right here. It’s okay.”

Mommy? Cole walked over to the rear door, and jerked
it open. He looked in at the child strapped in the car seat on the other side.
A stunned look crossed his face. He studied the child’s face, his blonde hair,
his big blue eyes.

Angel stepped over, and tried to push him back.

He wasn’t having it. He grabbed her arm, and
twisted.

“You’re hurting me,” she said, glaring into his
eyes. Their faces were a couple of inches apart.

His eyes dropped to her mouth, and desire ricocheted
through him like a bolt of lightning. He let go of her, as quickly as if she’d
burned him. “Why’d you come here?” he asked harshly.

He could try his best, but she wasn’t going to be
scared off. Not when she had so much to loose. “I need to talk to you.”

“We’ve got nothing to talk about.” He raised his
eyebrows in a smirk. “Did you come here to tell me that’s my kid?”

She shook her head. “No. This isn’t about him.”

A knife went through him. He realized in a split
second just how badly he’d wanted it to be true. Then who was the father? The
thought of her with another man, having another man’s child, did something to
him. “What, then?” he snapped.

She took a deep breath. She looked around. Every
person on the lot was looking at them. “Is there somewhere we can talk? In
private? Please.”

He looked at her a long moment. He would have denied
her in an instant, if it wasn’t for that last word she’d whispered.

She watched him, sure he was going to refuse. She
could see the struggle on his face. He wanted to send her away. He wanted to,
badly.

He took a deep breath, and looked back at the
others. Then he held out his hand. “Give me the keys.”

She looked at him curiously, and then slowly held
the car keys out to him.

He shut the rear door, and opened the driver’s door,
and climbed in.

She stood staring at him.

“You coming?”

She snapped out of it, and walked around, and got in
the passenger side. He pulled out of the lot, and down the side street. He
never looked at her, but she noticed he glanced several times in the rearview
mirror, looking at TJ.

He drove a few blocks, and pulled into the parking
lot of a boarded up grocery store. He put it in park, and turned the engine
off. He sat quietly for a few moments, and then finally looked over at her.
“You wanted to talk?”

She took a deep breath. She’d rehearsed this a
hundred times on the flight out here. Now that she was here, looking at him,
she was having a hard time finding the words to start.

“Darlin’, if ya got something to say, say it.”

She nodded. “Okay. Look, as you used to say, I’m
going to give this to you straight. No sugar coating. It’s a long story, but
I’ll try to make it as brief as possible. Please don’t stop me until I’m done.
Okay?”

He studied her, a frown forming on his face. She
really had him puzzled now. Just what the hell was she about to tell him?
“Okay.”

“Nine months after I left here, I gave birth to
twins. TJ and a girl, named Melissa.” She paused to take a breath.

His left hand had been resting on top of the
steering wheel, his thumb tapping against it unconsciously, but his hand
stilled in an instant. His breath caught in his throat as he stared at her, his
brain trying to process it all. For some reason, it stalled on the girl’s name
she’d chosen. Melissa. He still thought of Angel every time he heard that song.

“When Melissa was about a year and a half, I noticed
a lump on the back of her neck. She has…” She looked down, and swallowed,
finding it hard to say the dreaded word. “She has Leukemia. She’s been through
chemotherapy, radiation, more horrible stuff than any child should ever have to
endure.” Once she’d started, the words poured out. Her voice was a little
shaky, and she tried to get it all out before she broke down completely.

He sat frozen, taking in her every word.

“She needs a bone marrow transplant. It’s her only
hope of beating this. The donor has to be a strong match for this to be
successful. “I’m not one. Either is TJ.”

“You need a donor? That’s why you’re here?” he
asked, stunned, turning to look out the windshield.

“There’s a fifty-fifty chance you’re her father.”
She watched him turn, and look at her. “Or her father may be lying out in a
ravine somewhere, decomposing.”

“Shit.” He pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his
pocket.

“Please don’t’ smoke around him,” she asked.

He paused, glancing back at the child, then turned,
and yanked on the door handle and practically vaulted out of the car. Angel
opened her door, and walked around to him. He shook a cigarette out of the
pack, and bent his head to light it. He tilted his head back, and blew out a
stream of smoke.

Angel stood watching him. She knew this was a lot to
dump on someone all at once.

Cole glanced over at her, his eyes traveling over
her again. “You look like you’re doing okay. I hardly recognize you.” He changed
the subject. He wasn’t ready to talk about the fact that he may be a father. He
needed a minute to process that.

She crossed her arms, and looked away. “Why? Because
I’m not that scared, little twenty year old anymore. Dressed in cutoffs and-”

“You were beautiful, even then,” he said, cutting
her off.

She met his eyes, and he looked away.

He took another hit off his cigarette. “Did you find
yourself a wealthy husband? One that can afford to keep you in designer
clothes?”

“No. No husband.”

He looked back at her, and asked the one question
that had haunted him for three years now. “Why’d you leave like that?”

“What do you mean?” she asked, stunned.

“No good bye. No note.” He studied her. “I come
back, and just find you gone. Mack said you took a cab, and left.”

“What?” Her arms came unfolded. She looked at him,
stunned, and a little pissed. “That’s not what happened!”

“You know what, it doesn’t really matter anymore.”
He tossed his cigarette into the distance, and turned to get back in the
vehicle. Maybe he didn’t really want to know the answer.

“Like hell it doesn’t,” she snapped, grabbing his
arm, and pulling him back around. “You’re going to hear the truth, damn it!”

He stared at her, and jerked his arm out of her
grasp. He didn’t want her touching him. If she did, he’d loose it, and the
walls he’d built to guard his heart, walls he’d carefully, painfully built,
brick-by-brick over the last three years would come tumbling down.

“
You
left
me
!” she yelled at him.

“What?” He stared at her. What the hell was she
talking about?

“That morning when I woke up alone, I thought you’d
come back. I waited-”

“Evidently not very long, babe,” he interrupted.

“Mack called me into that room.” She pointed in the
general direction of the clubhouse. “He told me you’d left, and wouldn’t be
back for a couple of days-”

He interrupted her again, shaking his head. “No,
Angel, I was back in a couple of hours-”

She continued, talking over him, “He said you told
him to make sure I got a cab home. And to tell me it’d been fun.”

“What? I never-”

She kept going. “Guess your brother wanted to get
rid of me. I wrote you a note. Left it on your bed. Did you read it?”

“There was no note.”

“Gee, wonder who could have gotten rid of it. Just
like he got rid of me.”

Cole shook his head, trying to make sense of all
this. He couldn’t have been wrong all this time, could he?

“Look, it doesn’t matter.” She threw her hands in
the air. “What I need to know is if you’ll help my daughter.”

When he heard her say, ‘it doesn’t matter’ something
inside him snapped. His look darkened, and he advanced on her.

She took a couple of steps back, and felt the
vehicle pressed against her back.

He put his hand on the vehicle, and leaned into her,
bringing his face to within a couple of inches of hers. “Don’t you mean ‘our’
daughter?” he challenged.

They stared at each other.

Her eyes dropped to his mouth, and she remembered
the feel and taste of it. “Yes. I…I hope ‘our’ daughter.”

His gaze wandered over her face, stopping at her
mouth. He stared at her full lower lip, and longed to run his thumb over it. He
couldn’t believe she still had the power to stir him like this. Even with as
much as he’d tried to hate her all these years. And now all he could think
about was being on top of her, inside of her. He dragged in a deep breath. He
couldn’t let himself think about that, think about her again. It would open up
the wound again. So, he did the only thing he could think to do to protect his
heart. He lashed out at her. “Guess I’d be the lesser of two evils, huh, baby?
At least my body’s still alive and kicking, huh?”

“I’d forgotten just what a bastard you could be,”
she whispered.

“Baby, the man I was? He was nothing compared to the
bastard I’ve become.”

“Be a bastard then, maybe you’re beyond saving. But
your daughter is not. If you can’t save your own soul, at least try to save
your daughter.”

He stood staring at her. She didn’t know how close
to the truth she was.

Angel closed her eyes, and took a breath. She wasn’t
going to get anywhere like this, and she couldn’t afford to fail her daughter
now, not after everything Melissa had gone through to get well. Angel wasn’t
above begging. She swallowed, and looked into his eyes. “Please, Cole. I need
you. Please, help her. I’m begging you. I’ll get down on my knees, if I have
to. If that’s what you want.”

He looked at her with something akin to horror. He
could hear the desperate plea in her voice. He took a step back, and turned
away, shaking his head. He ran a hand through his hair, and took a deep breath.

Shit.

He couldn’t stand to see her like this, torn to
pieces. She’d actually said she’d get down on her knees, by God. His Angel. She
shouldn’t be down on her knees to anyone, least of all him. But, she needed
him. Their daughter needed him. It had been a long time since anyone had needed
him. No matter how much he needed, for his own protection, to push her away, he
couldn’t turn her down. The words tumbled out of his mouth before he could stop
them. “What do I have to do?”

Angel closed her eyes, and thanked God. She took a
deep breath. “It’s a simple test. They swab your cheek, and draw some blood.
Test it to see if you’re a match. You can do it here, locally. You don’t have
to come to Phoenix.”

“That’s where you’re living? Phoenix?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

“Your Dad still a cop?” he asked, looking off in the
distance.

“Would that matter?” she countered.

He shook his head. “No.”

“My father died about a year ago. Shot to death
during a traffic stop.”

He looked over at her. “Sorry.”

She nodded. “At least, he got to know his
grandchildren before he died.”

At her words, Cole glanced back at the SUV. The
topic he’d pushed aside. He was a father? He took a deep breath, and walked
around it to the side that held the car seat, and opened the door. He leaned
in, and looked at the boy, who stared back at him with wide eyes and started to
cry.

His son.

My God.

He felt like the wind had just been knocked out of
him. Like the fates had just given him a sign, a reason, an explanation. ‘Here
it is, boy. The reason you’re here on this earth. What it’s all been about.
That missing puzzle piece.’

It was staring back at him with wide blue eyes.

Angel pushed Cole aside, and reached to unbuckle the
car seat straps. She pulled TJ out, and held him. He was clutching a small
teddy bear. He put his head on his mother’s shoulder, and stared at Cole.

Cole stared back at him, dumbfounded for a moment,
and then he sucked in a deep breath, regaining his equilibrium. Shaking his
head, he looked over at Angel. “I can’t get over it. You’re a mom.”

Angel smiled.

Cole reached up, and patted TJ’s back. “Hey, little
guy. It’s okay.”