So many emotions went through him. The shock. The anger. The feeling that his life had just turned on a dime.
Because it had.
Everything had just turned.
Laurel and he had been together two years and three months ago, the perfect timing for them to have an eighteen month old son.
“Why?” he managed to say, though it would be the first of many questions. Questions that Laurel had darn sure better be able to answer.
Laurel didn’t exactly jump to answer, but then she didn’t back away from him, either. Even though he had to be giving her his worst glare, she held her ground.
“You should probably sit down,” she suggested.
No way would sitting help. Nothing could at this point. His entire body was a tangle of nerves and fresh adrenaline—all caused by that picture of the little smiling face on Laurel’s phone.
Everything about that face was familiar.
Because it was practically identical to pictures he’d seen of himself when he was a baby.
“Why?” he repeated, his jaw so tight now that he was hurting.
“I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want my father to find out. I was afraid he would kill you.”
“He would have tried,” Jericho conceded. Now the profanity came, and he couldn’t stop himself from cursing Laurel. “You still should have told me.”
Her chin dropped a little, and while she still held her ground, the tears shimmered in her eyes again. He wasn’t immune to those tears, but right now he had no intention of giving Laurel one ounce of comfort.
How dare she do this.
“I already had your father’s death on my conscience,” she said. “I didn’t want your death there, too.”
“That’s no excuse.” He jabbed his index finger at her and considered punching the wall just to release some of this dangerous energy revving up inside him. Hardly a mature reaction, but this had shaken him to the core.
A baby!
Except he wasn’t exactly a baby now. He was eighteen months old. Born nine months after Laurel and he had ended up in bed. And she’d kept it from him this entire time.
“You had no right,” he warned her.
“Maybe not, but what’s done is done. I’m sorry I can’t give you more time to come to terms with this. I’m sorry about a lot of things. But right now, we have to stop my father from taking him.”
Jericho got a new surge of anger, too. Except this was more rage, and it was aimed at Herschel. “That won’t happen. No way will I let that snake take custody of...” But the words wouldn’t come so he could finish that.
My son.
However, it was exactly what Jericho meant. It wasn’t happening. It already sickened him to realize that Herschel had been part of the little boy’s life this entire time.
And that Jericho hadn’t been.
Later, he’d address that with Laurel.
“Why is Herschel trying to take custody?” Jericho asked. “How is he trying to do it?” he amended.
“My father has two fake psychiatric reports on me,” Laurel explained. Not easily. The words seemed to stick in her throat. “Both claiming that I’m mentally unstable.”
“You could counteract those with your own real psychiatric reports.” Because Laurel had been careless and irresponsible when it came to her father, but she wasn’t crazy.
“I could, but I don’t own the judge that’ll be presiding over the hearing. Plus, my father has a document I signed that’s connected to some illegal funds that were transferred from an offshore account. I did sign it, but I had no idea it was a part of a money laundering scheme.”
So, Herschel was coming at her from two angles, but it did surprise Jericho there was only one document with her signature on it that could have criminal ties. After all, Laurel had worked for her father for nearly a dozen years, and she’d no doubt come in contact with plenty of his dirty businesses and schemes.
“I want the names of every person involved in that deal,” Jericho insisted.
Laurel nodded, but there was plenty of hesitation in her expression. “My father said if I came to you for help, that he’d only make things worse for both of us.”
Yeah, that sounded like Herschel. A man of threats. Though he didn’t know how much harder her father could make things, considering he was trying to take Laurel’s child.
Jericho’s child, too.
The reminder didn’t settle easily in his mind. Of course, nothing about this would.
“You don’t doubt he’s yours?” she asked.
“No.” How could he? The proof was right there in front of him. “How much does Herschel know about Maddox’s paternity?”
“Everything. Now,” she added in a whisper. “At first, I’d told him Theo was Maddox’s father, and Theo went along with it. But when I broke off the engagement, Theo told him the truth. That’s why Herschel wants custody right away. You know how much he hates you, and he hates me even more now that he knows I kept the truth about Maddox from him.”
Jericho was betting there was a whole other story to go along with that one. Theo had probably squealed to get back at Laurel. He didn’t know this Theo idiot, but he’d settle things with him later.
With Herschel, too.
Not just for this stunt he was trying to pull with getting custody, but because it was possible that Herschel had indeed been behind the hit-and-run idiot that Jax now had in the holding cell. Jericho didn’t know exactly what Laurel’s father would hope to gain by that, but anything was possible when it came to Herschel.
Especially anything illegal.
“Your father must have seen the resemblance between Maddox and me,” Jericho said, handing her back the phone.
“He did,” Laurel readily admitted. “He didn’t know about that night we were together. I’d managed to keep that from him, but he asked me point-blank if I’d been with you. I denied it, and I falsified the results of Maddox’s paternity test so I could try to get him off your trail.”
Jericho hadn’t wanted Herschel off his trail. Especially not for something like this, something that would keep Maddox from him. The best way to deal with a snake was to confront it.
“Where’s Maddox now?” Jericho asked.
“With a friend, Sandy Singer. She’s a former cop, and she took him to her parents’ house in Sweetwater Springs. Her parents are out of town so the place was empty.”
So,
