Hurt: A Bad Boy MMA Romantic Suspense Novel by London Casey, Ana W. Fawkes Page A

have a job to do,” Noah growled. “I need to find him . Some guy name Craig. Okay? Benito said he was here. That was the last known address. But Craig isn’t here, right? It’s you, the baby, and your mother.”
    Fear surged through me. An instant fear that made the room spin again. “You said… Craig?”
    “Yeah. Why?”
    “Craig doesn’t live here,” I said. “He never has lived here and never would. He’s a piece of…”
    I felt my body shake.
    “I thought there was no other man but me?” Noah asked.
    “There wasn’t. Craig wasn’t a boyfriend or something, Noah. Craig is my father.”
     
    ~ ~ ~
     
    The door closed and Jude cried out again. I turned and darted down the hallway for my baby. My son. My child. The life I held in my body and the life I gave birth to.
    Jude’s little face was red as his arms flailed, looking for me. I quickly grabbed him and brought him close to my chest. I bounced and rubbed the back of his head. He quickly calmed down.
    Normally Jude slept really well.
    It made me wonder if he maybe had a bad dream. Or maybe it was because he heard his father’s voice. Babies knew, right? There had to be something instinctive there between Jude and Noah.
    Jude cried and Noah left.
    It was not the family reunion I had been dreaming of for a year.
    I was right back where I started.
    Alone with Jude.
    Only now… I was really alone. My mother in the hospital, prepping to die. And Noah, looking for my father, to potentially kill him.
    I had nothing to do with my father. I never really had and never wanted anything to do with him. He was a degenerate gambler and abusive with his words and actions. He never raised a hand to me or my mother, but the things he did hurt. He was manipulative and did anything to survive.
    And now he was a wanted man by the man who got me pregnant.
    Could all of this possibly get any messier?
    I wanted to believe no… but the mess was only about to get worse…
     

16.
     
    (Noah)
     
    I rode fast, taking turns harder than I should have. A fucking day ago, it wouldn’t have mattered if I dropped my ride and killed myself. I could hit a tree, split my body in half, or just go off the road and disappear forever. Now, all of a sudden, it mattered. I’d leave behind a son and the woman raising that son.
    Yet I had done the dumbest thing possible and just stormed away.
    I fucking left the apartment and left Ashlynn alone, again.
    As I started to slow, telling myself to calm the hell down, I felt my pocket vibrating. I knew it was Benito calling me. He wasn’t going to stay persistent because he had Dante pushing him now. There was nothing wrong with what they had planned, it was just that it now had Ashlynn and Jude in the spiderweb of it all.
    I had no place to ride to. I just needed to clear my head, collect my thoughts for a second. The guy Benito wanted was a guy named Craig. Craig wasn’t Ashlynn’s boyfriend or something, he was her father. Her goddamn father. Yet the guy didn’t live in the apartment. And Ashlynn’s poor mother was dying of cancer.
    Ashlynn had a shit life. And a newborn to take care of by herself.
    I slowed and eventually just pulled to the side of the road. I climbed off the motorcycle and leaned against it, crossing my arms. I spent night after night in that jail cell, imagining what it would be like when I got out. I figured I’d go right back to fighting. Earn some money for Benito. Earn some money for myself. Drink a lot. Fuck a lot. Settle right back into the life I knew and loved.
    “Shit,” I said.
    That wasn’t going to happen.
    For the moment, I needed to keep Ashlynn and Jude both safe and a secret. I needed more information on Craig. Who he was. Where he really was. What the hell he was doing using his daughter’s apartment as an address.
    Then again, how did I know Ashlynn wasn’t lying to me?
    Fuck.
    I had let her get to me. From the second I watched her sleeping, she had a hold on me. Seeing her today at the door.