Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 77980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
He wiggled his eyebrows expectantly, and I dropped down in the chair with a sigh.
“I’ve been fucking her,” I growled in response. “And now she’s pregnant.” There was no point beating around the bush. I invited them here for a reason, and that was one of them.
Terry let out a loud roar of laughter first, smacking the table with his palm, and cracking up. “You sure the baby is yours?”
“Right,” Virgil added. “I mean, we are talking about Mo, and she gets around Jas.”
I knew what they were saying, and even though it pissed me off, they were right. There were no secrets about Mo. She fucked for cash all the time. Anybody. Anywhere.
“Yeah, well, we fucked, and we did it raw so the possibility exists that the child is mine.”
“But it’s a slight possibility,” Virgil added. “At least three different guys have turned up for her at Midnight Mass this month alone. And,” he squirmed a little because of what was coming next. “we’ve all been with her, Jasper. All of us.”
“Not me,” Terry offered and raised his hands defensively. “Not for years, anyway.”
“I fucking know that, and I really don’t need to hear it, Virg.”
“Oh shit,” Terry laughed. “Please don’t tell me you have delusions of turning Mo into an honest woman.” I frowned, and Terry laughed even harder. “Oh no, you are!”
“This has fuck all to do with honesty, and Mo has always been straight up about what she wants out of life. But if she’s carrying my kid, I need to be there for her.”
“And if the kid isn’t yours?” I knew Terry was trying to be helpful, to give me a different perspective, but it only pissed me off.
I had no right to be pissed about it, not when I said pretty much the exact words to Mo, but I was.
“She didn’t tell me. She didn’t rush over to me with a smile and dollar signs in her eyes,” I admitted. “If I hadn’t shown up when I did, I’m not sure she would have said anything to me at all.”
That was a damn hard pill to swallow, especially considering most women would leap at the chance to have a wealthy man father their children. Hell, I half expected Mo to strut up to me and tell me she was knocked up with my kid and, in the next breath, demand an exorbitant amount of monthly support. But she hadn’t done that, and I didn’t know why.
“Ouch,” Terry said with a frown. “That’s rough.”
“Tough breaks,” Virgil added with a shake of his head. “A kick in the nuts.”
“No shit,” I growled angrily. “I don’t need your fucking sympathy.” The blood test would be processed in the next forty-eight hours, and I’d have my answer one way or the other. These men were my brothers, but they would have answers only after I did. “That’s not what we’re here to talk about,” I reminded them.
Their laughter faded, and Virgil nodded. “Sadie,” he guessed correctly, adding a solemn nod.
“Yes. We need to discuss what we’ll do if she doesn’t wake up. The doctor said she has to wake up on her own, so all we can do is just wait. Just fucking wait.”
I wasn’t a patient man, and waiting for something like this, to see whether my mother would live or die, pushed my ability to wait to the limit.
My office door banged open, and Cal finally stumbled in, drunk and smelling like a distillery. “We can start now,” he slurred and flashed a crooked, toothy grin.
My nostrils flared at the sight of my youngest brother, drunk at the ass crack of dawn, acting like a buffoon. “Sit the fuck down, Cal. You’re drunk, and you’re late.”
Cal threw his head back and laughed, nearly falling backward on unsteady legs. “Fuck, I thought I was early. What do you need me for anyway? I’m just your little fucking keyboard monkey,” he said and mimicked typing on his computer. “So,” he slurred, “what did I miss?”
“Sadie. She woke up for a few minutes yesterday,” I growled. “A few seconds would be more accurate, but she opened her eyes and said a few words.”
I didn’t want to get into that trauma, that fucking mindfuck from yesterday. “If she doesn’t wake up, we all need to step up, especially you two, in different ways.”
I had been thinking about it all night, and this would have to be a family effort.
“You’re already in charge of everything, so what the fuck difference does it make?” he sputtered.
“Goddamn right, I’m in charge. Who should be? You? The asshole who’s drunk at six o’clock in the fucking morning? I don’t think so.”
I didn’t even know why I was arguing with Cal. I didn’t argue with my employees, and I definitely didn’t argue with drunk fuckers.
“But Sadie built this. After everything Colm put her through, everything he did to her, forced her to endure, she still built this empire, and she did it for us. Maintaining it isn’t a one-person job.”