Page 40 of SEAL's Doorstep Baby
My time in the SEALs isn’t something I’m ashamed of. Even the mission that went wrong—the missions that haunt me—they aren’t anything I need to cower over. And certainly not from an asshole who did a single Google search.
So I step forward, my expression (and conscience) clear. I shrug.
“Maybe. I’ve killed a lot of men, some of them very much like you. Evil, callous and selfish men.” I tell him calmly. I know hisgame and his plan. He has no power over me, now. “But now I have a daughter, and you had better believe she is my whole world. So if you think for a moment that you could ever take her away from me, then you’re obviously not thinking clearly. Try using your brain this time.”
I see him thinking it over, and when he finally reaches the only logical conclusion, he visibly shrinks in on himself.
“I don’t wanna die,” he whispers. I realize he’s talking about whomever he owes money to. “I really was going to pay him, Emily said she’d help me, and now—if I don’t do anything—he’ll torture me before he kills me.”
My left eyebrow creeps to my hairline. “Who wants to torture and kill you?”
“Santiago,” he sobs out. “It started out as an advance for a couple of pills, but he said it was a loan and I’d have to pay compounding interest. Now I owe over fifty grand even though it started at just five.”
Jeff doesn’t deserve my help, and if it wasn’t for the fact that there was a part of him that was once good enough for Emily to see something in him, I wouldn’t lift a finger to help his miserable life now.
“Why would Emily want to help you?” I ask. Even as I say it, I know why. Emily was a good person. She would have helped him just because he was Maddie’s dad.
At least, she would have if he’d actually asked her.
Considering he hasn’t come knocking once since she died, I am doubtful. Considering he didn’t even come to the funeral, I am furious.
“I don’t know,” he cries anyway.
Pity surges within me. So does disgust. What a miserable man; a miserable life.
“You won’t die.” I decide. If twenty years from now, Maddie wants to know about her dad, she won’t know that I left him torot, even if he does deserve it. “I’ll take care of your debt, if you give me all the information; all of it.”
“Thank you.” He mumbles over and over as he breaks down sobbing, but none of it is my concern.
I pull out my checkbook. “And you’re going to sign this.”
Out of the back of my pocket, I pull out the paperwork that has been sitting in my top drawer since the day after Jeff first called.
He picks it up, eyes wide. “Termination of parental rights?” he reads, brows high.
I nod. “No more child support,” I remind him scathingly.
He nods, though he does shoot the park another long look. I don’t offer to introduce him. Emily didn’t want them to know each other. So they won’t, at least not until Maddie gets a say.
When he signs the paperwork, he gives me the name and information to put on the check. I ignore the part of me that still wants to pummel him, to call him on his bluff, and I give him the money against my better judgment. This seems like a small price to pay for Maddie’s future. I’ve got enough saved to handle whatever comes. For Maddie, I’ll always make it work. I wave away all his attempts at gratitude. I reach into my pocket, clicking the side button on my phone. It turns the recorder off.
“I want you to remember what I’m saying now, Jeff. If you ever come close enough to Maddie to be within walkable distance, then you won’t have to worry about anything ever again. Because everything about you will end that day.”
I walk away, leaving Jeff in a sobbing pile on the bench.
Time to take my girls home.
Chapter sixteen
JACOB
Ihadn’t expected to have this much fun on the holidays with my new, makeshift family, but some how we managed to make it all work. While the good has come with some challenges, I’ve found myself focusing less on how things—especially my relationship with Allison—will affect me personally, and more on how it could change the dynamics of our family. At the same time, I've also had darker thoughts about what could happen if the uncontrollable factors lead to permanent damage for the people I care about.
I am unused to having to think so much about things like this—family and all that comes with it. My thoughts are usually more focused on planning and navigating combat, but this was no easier. When it came to a fight, although there were a multitude of factors that could affect our outcomes, the result usually boiled down to two options. We were either successful or not, which meant fear couldn’t get a grip on me no matter what the situation.
Raising a family brings its own set of fears, many of which are fueled by the cracks in my mind—cracks I didn't even realize existed until now. There's a constant fear that things could get worse.
That fear was the reason why, despite wanting to take things between us further and start something official with Allison, I couldn’t do it yet. Not right away, at least. Trying to start something so quickly could end badly.
