that hellhole.”
Two hours later, we were on our way to the house that Beckham had rented out in the middle of nowhere.
“This is nice,” I mused as I looked at the small log cabin home in front of us.
She sighed, not commenting on the house at all. “I need to tell my parents that I’m home.” When I looked toward her to gauge her reaction, it was to see her grimacing. “And it’s time that they met my real husband.”
We hadn’t even gotten out of the car yet.
Reaching for the seatbelt that I’d just taken off, I clicked it back into place.
“Let’s just take care of everything then,” I suggested.
She looked over at me with terror in her eyes.
“It’ll be okay,” I promised, offering her my hand.
She took it and held on to it like her life depended on it.
She didn’t let it go. Not once. Not when I sneezed and needed the use of my other hand. Not when I shifted gears. And not even when she wiped the tears from her eyes.
CHAPTER 23
This is my drinkin’ shirt. I don’t know if I wear it every day.
-T-shirt
BECKHAM
“Let me go in first,” I said as I stood at the bottom steps of the police station. “Give me, like, two minutes.”
“They’re not going to be happy,” Trouper said as he deftly moved the sleeping baby in his arms to his shoulder. “I don’t want you to do this alone.”
I looked over at my husband.
“I’m not doing it alone,” I corrected him. “And you can stand outside the door once my brother gets to the office. Okay?”
He sighed. “I guess that’s all that I’m going to be able to do. I don’t want you to get any shit, though. If they start pissing me off, I’m coming in, whether you want me to or not.”
I nodded. “That’s fine.”
He gestured for me to lead the way, and I did.
Dad’s office was actually in the SWAT building out back. Instead of entering the main office buildings, I walked around the side and led the way toward that back building.
When we got there, it was to find quite a few of the SWAT team members in attendance, a few of those being my cousins and people that I knew from growing up.
They were busy training, though, and didn’t notice me.
Thank goodness.
I walked past the gym area and toward the back office where my father was.
“You can wait here.” I pointed to a break room. “Even though you’ll be a few leaps and bounds from the office, you should be able to hear.”
Trouper caught me around the hip and pressed a kiss to my face. “It’ll be okay, baby.”
It wasn’t going to be okay.
I was going to not only tell my father about who Hiro’s real father was, who my husband was, but I was also going to tell him about what happened to me and what I’d been doing at the time of that happening to me.
My father wasn’t going to like hearing that I was FBI and kept it from him. Nor was he going to like that I was married to a man that he hated.
This was going to be a nightmare.
Trouper kissed me one more time, and then I slipped into the hallway and looked toward the gym, wondering if Louis had gotten my text yet.
He would. His watch alerted him to when he got them, and he was very quick to respond when it was me.
Shoring myself and dragging a deep breath into my lungs, I peeked around the corner of my dad’s office and saw him sitting behind his desk, writing something.
Likely a report.
I felt the bile rise in my throat.
I took one last deep breath and walked into the room.
The moment I stood in the doorway, I spoke.
“There’s something that I need to tell you.”
My father looked up from the paperwork at his desk, saw me, and grinned wide.
“Beckham,” he greeted, standing and walking toward me. “What are you doing here?” He paused with me half in his arms. “Where’s Kase?”
My father hugged me tight anyway, despite loving my child more than me.
I swallowed hard, felt my nerves tightening in my belly, stomach threatening to revolt.
I couldn’t do this.
I looked away, and my eyes connected with Troup.
Troup who’d ignored my orders and followed me inside. Damn him.
I loved him like crazy.
Tears started to leak out of my eyes at the sight of him standing there.
I hadn’t realized that he knew that I’d need him.
But I couldn’t do this anymore.
I