Father

POV: Jared

Leah was admitted right away due to being in and out of it. All they know is that she is highly dehydrated, so they hooked her up with some fluids. They are thinking it might be a possible bladder or kidney infection.

I am not sure how long she had to hold it or how clean the buildings were that she was held in, but from the photos Adrian texted me… it was very rough. She might have picked something up from those dirty apartments. While her feet looked freshly washed when they took her socks off, it looked like she spent three weeks walking barefoot through the woods.

Adrian was never on the same page as me or Cameron, but I think we have all come to a mutual agreement to protect Leah. I have heard her call out for all of us when she blacks out. Pissed is an understatement for how I am feeling.

That poor Cameron kid, man he knew how to pick them. The story of them meeting was crazy, but it sounded like she hunted him down to use him. Cameron has been extremely gullible from the sound of it.

Not sure what to make of that Graham dude. He looked like the kind of guy who gets lost barebacking a horse through a country field while his hair drifts in the wind. Complimented by a chill and a go with the flow type of attitude.

He didn’t seem like the type of guy to be mixed up in all of Adrian’s criminal drama, but what do I know? I only edit the news to make it eye catching to the public. Knowing how to spin a story was what I learned in college.

I could tell that Adrian was ready to beat his ass for putting his hands on Leah, for kidnapping her, and for just being related to that chick. I mean Cameron and I would have joined him, but I doubt he would have needed it. Both of those dudes were very large, but Adrian had a gun tucked in the small of his back.

Part of me always thought he was a criminal. Come to think of it, I am the only one not associated with a criminal. My family was actually down to earth, and we settled our problems out back on the dirt road.

This whole group here was pretty fucked up. I mean Adrian had a brother he didn’t know about, and they are after the same girl. Then some crazy ex decided to start kidnapping people for money because of daddy issues.

My thoughts were interrupted when Leah opened her eyes. I hadn’t text Adrian yet because I wanted time alone with her. To make sure she was okay and not pressured into something dangerous.

“Hey handsome”, she smiled as I walked over to her.

“Shhh, just try and relax.”, I grabbed her hand.

“Hospitals aren’t very relaxing.”, she chuckled.

“I can get you some extra pillows.”, holding her hand as I ran my thumb over her fingers.

“That won’t help, but I have another idea…”, her eyes shot down and then back up to mine.

Her carnal desire was aimed at me, and I wasn’t upset about it…

**********

POV: Cameron

We sat there on the couch while she tried to explain herself. It was pathetic actually and I wouldn’t be upset if Adrian made an example out of her. She was pregnant with his kid, but I watch him insinuate that she drugged him to get pregnant.

I wonder why she didn’t just try that on me. He just worked for her dad, I owned a resort and sold it for a large profit. My uncle probably had a lot to do with it, he always rooted for me to succeed.

Finding out that she was Uncle Donny’s kid didn’t bother me. I knew that he wasn’t really my uncle. He just liked my mom and always took care of us.

Honestly, I didn’t even know he had children; he never spoke about it. He always spent his free time with mom and me. It was hard to believe that all of his work trips were actually criminal dealings.

It was a really messed up situation…

**********

POV: Adrian

Trying to control my anger at her senseless answers while worrying about Leah only elevated my stress. I don’t have time for her bullshit and if she weren’t pregnant, I would have forced them out of her. Her complacent looking brother only sat there looking foolish and oblivious to her problems.

“You’re all out of excuses, you better start explaining.”, my voice low and laced with fury.

“I have nothing to say to you, so I will be leaving.”, she stood up and started to walk away.

She passed by my chair to be petty, but I didn’t let her leave. I grabbed her hand and she stumbled but didn’t fall. Snapping her head back at me as if her glare had power over me.

“Get your filthy hands off of me.”, she huffed.

“Sit your ass down and start talking. I said you weren’t leaving until I had answers.”, I didn’t even turn to look at her.

Standing up, I pulled her arm to spin her around. Then walked her back to the couch and with one look, she sat. Her breathing erratic and her face wrinkled as she realized the seriousness in my tone.

“Monica, just tell us why you are being such a brat.”, Cameron leaned forward to rest his arms on his knees.

“You wouldn’t understand.”, she whined.

“Try me.”, I sat on the arm of the couch and crossed my arms.

Towering over her and looking down was very intimidating. She squirmed in her seat and kept looking toward her brother for help. He didn’t seem amused.

“Don’t look at me for help. He’s not my father, so I don’t care what happens to him.”, Graham indulged us in a little information.

It seems that they were only half brother and sister. Cooper wasn’t Graham’s father and somehow, she wrangled him into her mess. Thankful that he was over her shit and surrendering.

“I didn't know he was my father until after high school…”, she started to open up and tell us her story.

Apparently, Cooper had a habit of saving victims from the human trafficking scandal. How he decided who to save was still questionable. Before my mother, it was her mother.

She grew up with Graham and their parents, living a quiet and fulfilling life….

That was until her mother considered her old enough to tell her about her past. Cooper had saved her mother, but in return she had to live with him. He would find himself drunk in her chambers often and she couldn’t stop him.

When her mother found out she was pregnant, Copper ordered her to go get an abortion. She agreed; asking for his credit card and a driver to get the abortion but treat herself after with some retail therapy. He was dumb enough to agree and she was smart enough to take out a large cash advance.

She split town and ended up working at a small-town diner just outside of Denver. That’s where her mother met and fell in love with Graham’s father. All she had ever known was life with her parents and brother.

Once she graduated high school, her mother wanted to prepare her for the real world. College away from home scared her mother and she knew firsthand of the dangers. That’s when she told Monica of her father.

Monica spent her time researching her father and going to college with the plan of working for him. She was lucky to get the job she did and there were many times she wanted to tell him who she was. Her painful journey started building a hard and callus exterior.

After gaining Cooper’s trust, he brought her in on business deals. She had a front row seat to the crime happening. The same crimes that took her mother away from family and created her.

The money and lifestyle had tainted her reality. She now craved power and altered the plans for her future. All while hiding it from her family.

For years she worked side by side with Cooper, aiding in furthering his criminal reach. He groomed her to be conniving and vindictive. The addiction to power ran in her blood and she dove so far in, there was no returning.

Graham sat there shocked hearing the full truth come out. Cameron was unbothered because her history didn’t change his future. And I didn’t pardon her for her crimes because she made the conscious decision to be a criminal.

It only intensified my urge to take my child away from her and lock her up. There was no love in my heart that would make me defy my job, forgive her of her crimes, and want to raise a child with her. My fist clenched with each crime she had revealed.

She described her hunger for power and that she had finally decided to tell Cooper who she really was. Upset that I was his choice for successor and that I would inherit his business. Letting me know that I hadn’t dirtied my hands the way she had to get his respect.

The obsession with power only clouded her judgement. When she found out that I had secured the resort deal, she was pissed off. She had been working Cameron for weeks because she knew who the old man was and that he would inherit the resort.

Hoping her sexual experience would trap him and she could manipulate him into selling to her. Leah threw off all of her plans and took the men from her life. It was a personal vendetta she had, and it didn’t go as planned.

Acknowledging that she drugged me to hide the fact she attacked her father. He didn’t take the news of her birth very well and wanted her gone. Firing her after she had pushed him into the position of the most successful in criminal history.

Knowing it wasn’t the first time she had killed someone; rage took over and she hit him. Before she could finish the job, Valerie walked in and rushed to him. Shock setting in and reality hit her.

When I showed up unannounced, it pressured her into covering it up. She knew Valerie was aware of the crime world because Cooper talked about her often and she had come by the office when she was in town. So, she wasn't shocked when Valerie helped her.

Valerie tossed a bag at her and told her to crush it up and put it in a drink. Reminding her to act casual and stir it up well. It was undetectable, fast acting, and wouldn’t cause any long-term damage.

“I undressed you and left you on the couch. Valerie told me when you woke up that you wouldn’t remember a thing. To tell you we got drunk, had sex, and then you passed out.”, she explained.

“Did we have sex?”, she still didn’t admit to raping me.

“No, I undressed you and then left.”, looking at me confused.

My eyes dashed down to her belly.

“For fucks sake Adrian. I don’t need rape you to get pregnant. We have had consensual sex for a long time now. It was bound to happen.”, she huffed.

Graham laughed and Cameron’s mouth gaped open.

She wasn’t wrong, but she was fucking other guys too. So, my question was... am I the father?

-To be continued-