Trace

22 - Fallon's father

Trace

That was fuckin.g awkward, to say the least. I knew Fallon would be here tonight. I knew it when Roman and Ace said they’d be here. The pair of fucker.s are obsessed with making sure their wives are safe. Plus, Vidal always sends two bodyguards everywhere with his wife. He’s always been protective of her. But ever since the day an enemy of theirs tried to kill Marnie, Vidal’s protectiveness went into overdrive. No one could blame him for that. However, I pushed out of my head that Fallon might be here because I didn’t honestly think she’d come. Shows what I know.

The whor.e on my arm tonight, Mandy, Mindy, something beginning with an M, was nothing but a prop. I had no intention of sleeping with her. Okay, I did, but I wouldn’t have gone through with it.

All right, I would have. However, once I saw Fallon walk through the door, I really just wanted her to see me with the girl. I wanted her to be jealous. I wanted to hurt her the way she hurt me when she told me that she’d let that piece of scum touch her.

Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine Fallon would flip out so violently. Every fucke.r in the room was frozen to the spot as Fallon beat the hell out of Mandy-Mindy. It wasn’t ’til Ace yelled at me to drag Fallon off of the girl that I snapped out of it.

Should I have said what I said to the woman who obviously feels something for me?

I don’t know. I’ve been way too angry these past few days. Angry with Fallon for doing what she did. For saying what she said.

The thought of that cunt’s hands on my woman... Jesus, fuc.k! It’s really fuckin.g got to me. Prez even gave me a piece of his mind in church yesterday, again, but he was right to do so.

How the hell can I do the job he gave me when I can’t keep my mind on anything but Fallon?

But she was the one who spat all that stuff at me about not wanting to be with me, about us being nothing but cheats.

What the hell did she expect me to do?

Hang around in hopes she might change her mind?

What kind of idio.t does she take me for?

“You and I need a word. Now!” Ace doesn’t give me a chance to argue. He’s already walking toward the exit, but not before he kisses his wife.

Everyone is looking at me like I’m the one in the fuckin.g wrong here. I have no damn clue where Mandy-Mindy went, but I think the bartender took her out back to clean her up. She won’t tell the police what happened. Bitche.s like her never do. Not if they want to keep hanging around men like me.

“What do you want, Ace?” I ask as soon as I’m out front.

He’s pacing, hands together by his mouth.

I’m really tired of this shi.t with him. The constant looks he throws at Fallon. The way he goes off if she’s upset. Anybody would think... I coc.k my head to the side, looking at him, really looking at him.

Jesus, how did I not see this before now?

“I want you to stay away from Fallon. You bring out the fuckin’ worst in her, Trace.”

“What concern of yours is that?” I fold my arms over my chest. I’ve known this man for years. Years. I went to school with his wife. However, never once has he mentioned anything to anyone.

Does Tessa even know?

They have four younger kids.

Do they have room for Fallon?

“Don’t push me, Trace!”

“Does your wife know?” He eyeballs me. I’ve cornered him. He knows it, I know it. “All this time, and you’ve said nothin’. You knew Fallon was searching for her father. You knew it when Red realized who she was. How the fuc.k could you keep it to yourself, Ace?!”

“Shut up, Trace! You have no clue what you’re talkin’ about!”

“You’re her father, you jackass!”

“He’s whose father?”

Shi.t!

Fuc.k!

“Tessa,” Ace reaches for her, but she holds up her hands and shakes her head. “Baby, let me explain,”

“Tell me who the hell you were talking about, Ace!”

Hands scrubbing over his face, Ace turns away from Tessa and looks up to the sky.

“You have three seconds to tell me who you cheated on me with and knocked up, or I’m leaving you!”

“I didn’t cheat on you! I never have, Tessa. Fuc.k!” He takes her face in his hands, and I feel like a cunt for the second time today. I should have sensed Tessa standing there; I should have known she’d follow us out here. She follows Ace everywhere. She’s as protective of him as he is of her.

“Then what the hell is he talking about?”

I watch Ace kiss Tessa’s forehead before telling her, “He means Fallon,” Her eyes bug out. “But he’s wrong. She’s not my kid.”

“She’s not?” I was fuckin.g sure I’d got it right. “You know who he is, though, don’t you?”

Ace nods reluctantly, turns to his wife, and whispers something in her ear. She turns and walks back into the club. “Meet me at Roman’s in ten minutes.”

“Roman’s?”

What the fuc.k has Roman got to do with anything?

“Just meet me there if you want to know the truth.”

* * *

We’re all sitting around Roman’s table. Him, Marley, Ace. Tessa, and me. Roman isn’t happy; the angry look on his face gives that much away.

Marley grabs Roman’s hand and entwines their fingers, and he smiles at her. She’s good for him, always has been. He loves her and fought hard for her to make her realize he was the one for her. They have a beautiful little girl, Romany, and a tiny little boy just a couple months old, Colt. They’re in bed right now. Roman’s mom was babysitting. She left just as I arrived.

Ace and Tessa are side by side. Ace has his arm around his wife as always, and I’m sitting at the end of the table facing them all.

What the fuc.k is all this about?

“Somebody gonna talk, or what?” I finally ask. I’m not interested in the beer or coffee or whatever the f**k Marley keeps offering; it’s a damn stall tactic.

What the hell are these people, my Brothers, hiding from me?

“You had no right to do this, Ace.” Roman all but hisses at Ace.

“What did you expect me to do when the man thinks I’m the girl’s father?” He hisses back.

I am so fuckin.g sick of this push-and-pull crap!

“Just fuckin’ tell me what the hell you fucker.s brought me here for!” Yeah, I’m yelling, but I’m sick of this shi.t, I just want to know what’s going on!

I watch Marley squeeze Roman’s hand before turning to me and smiling. He’s not saying anything, just keeping his head down.

“I want to show you something,” She tells me. She’s a beautiful woman, Marley. She has a tight body, big tit.s, long legs, and long blonde hair, and she looks fantastic in that little white dress. You wouldn’t know she’d not long given birth.

Focus, Trace, don’t be lookin’ at another Brother’s wife that way, you fuckin’ perv.

Marley slides a photograph over to me, one she took from the photo album in front of her. I look down at it. It’s pretty old, a little boy about a year old, smiling wide. She then slides another picture over, a picture of Romany. I smile at how beautiful she is. She’s smiling just as wide as the little boy in the other photo.

“This you?” Roman nods without looking at me. Baby Romany is the spit of him. Poor kid.

Marley slides another photo over to me. It’s baby Colt; he’s only five months old, and the picture is new, but it’s so obvious that he’s Roman’s kid, just like Romany; Colt looks just like his dad.

The next photo Marley hands me is smaller than the other pictures. A little frayed in one corner. I bring it closer to my face. For a second, I thought it was Romany. The eyes, not the color but the shape, the smile, they’re so similar.

I flip it over. There’s writing on the back.

This is what you missed out on. This is what you denied when you called me a liar. She’s beautiful, isn’t she? She is who you truly denied. She’s who you lost.

“What the hell is this?”

“I think you know what that is, Trace.” Deep down, I do, but it’s not sinking into my head. “I made a mistake a long time ago,” Roman tells me. Everyone is silent. No one is moving a muscle or even breathing too loudly. “I was a stupid kid who thought he was God’s gift. Even more so when an older woman came on to a foolish Prospect with ideas above his station.

“It was one night, that’s all. A couple of months later, she came to me and told me she was pregnant. I didn’t care, and I told her as much. She was nothin’ but a whor.e, so the kid could’ve been anyone’s. The whole damn town knew of Jade’s reputation: this town and everyone around it.

“I told her to get lost. Not to try and pin someone else’s mistake on me. Then she vanished with Red’s kid, and it broke him, and I felt it was all my fault for sendin’ her away.”

This is too much. It can’t be true.

But, of course, it can. Nothing would really surprise me when it comes to the men I class as my brothers.

But sleeping with Red’s baby momma?

That’s low, no matter how old Roman was at the time.

“I got that picture in the mail about eighteen months after she vanished. I kept it to myself because I knew what it would do to Red. He’s my best friend, and I went behind his back. Did the one thing no man should ever do and knew he’d blame me for losing his son. As selfish as it was. But he wasn’t the only one who lost his kid when that bitc.h took off.”

I look at the photograph in my hand, and I can’t deny it as much as I want to. “She’s yours.” It isn’t a question; everyone at this table knows the truth.

“Yeah. I’m Fallon’s father.”

How obvious is that to me now?

They have the same green eyes and the same smile. Their names even rhyme! Fallon and Tallon.

God, how stupid am I?

How stupid are we all?

“How fuckin’ long have you known, Roman?”

“The second she walked into the back room at the strip club. I knew who she was the second I looked in her eyes.”

“All this fuckin’ time!”

“Calm down, Trace.” Ace shoots me a look.

Getting angry here is wrong; there are innocent children in the house. But I am angry. I’m mad with Roman for not coming forward, for letting Fallon think she’s alone in the world when she has a father, a baby brother, and a sister right here in the next damn town to where she lives!

“Do you honestly think I wanted this, Trace?” No, I don’t suppose he did. “I needed to make sure she was who I thought she was before I could approach her. For all I knew, Fallon had a father, a man who raised her. What would she have thought of me if I’d thrown the truth in her face? I could have blown her life apart.

“When the girls at the club provided a urine sample for testing, I had a DNA test done. Fallon is my daughter, but I only found out for sure a couple of weeks ago. I’ve wanted to tell her ever since, but I don’t fuckin’ know how!”

“Easy! Just sit her down and tell her the fuckin’ truth. You knew she had no one else but her brother. You knew she was struggling. I don’t care if you had to lock her in a room and yell the truth at her, but you should have told her! Fallon needs you, man,” I tell him more calmly. “She has no one else in the world right now but you.”

Roman scrubs his hands over his face. I’m just as frustrated about it all. I don’t know where Ace comes into this, but now I realize what all the looks he’s been giving Fallon are. He’s Roman’s cousin on his father’s side. That makes him Fallon’s cousin also. He’s been looking out for her because she’s family.

She’s not alone anymore.

“It’s time to tell your daughter who she is and who you are, Roman. No matter how hard you think it might be, she needs you more than you know. Don’t let Fallon keep wondering where she belongs. Red will understand.” I hope. “She needs you.”

All Roman needs to worry about is what Fallon thinks of him, not what Red will think about him fuckin.g his son’s mother. I need to talk to Fallon myself and make her understand that I’m... God help me, falling for her.

Everything will work out. I’ll make sure of it.