“Honestly, man, I’m not sure how you even noticed another woman if you’ve got that hot as fuck wife back home.”
“I didn’t! I wasn’t…I never meant for this to happen.”
“You said vows. You made a commitment to Charlotte. Nothing else should trump that.”
“That’s what I thought too. I finally told Meredith that I’m a married man and that my wife has to come first,” he says as he puts his phone away and puts out his cigarette on his forearm unflinching, like he thinks the deserves the pain.
“So it sounds like you’ve made a decision.”
“I did. I had,” he agrees. “But then…Meredith told me she’s late.”
I let loose a low whistle. “The whole illegitimate child thing may put a damper on your anniversary.”
“I’m not gonna tell Charlotte, at least not until I know what Meredith is going to do. And I know what you’re thinking — I’m an asshole. I deserve to be in this position. And you’re right. But how the fuck am I supposed to choose between my wife and my kid?”
“I have no clue what to tell you, but you’re gonna have to make a decision, man, and soon.”
“I can’t!”
“You better before life decides for you,” I suggest.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you need to tell your wife about Meredith and the kid before she finds out from someone else.”
“She won’t,” he says.
“You don’t think Meredith will get pissed and tell Charlotte herself?”
“Nah. She wouldn’t do that.”
I find that hard to believe. A woman scorned can be hell on wheels.
“I can’t tell Charlotte. It would kill her, man. Destroy her. I don’t want to hurt her like that just to get the guilt off of my shoulders.”
“So you’re gonna go home to your wife and pretend like your kid doesn’t exist with another woman in some other part of the world?”
Adam is quiet for several long minutes before he says, “Yeah, yeah, I’m gonna do that. Charlotte…we’ll get through it once I’m home. I’ll miss Mere, but she’s a tough girl. I can send her some money every month.”
“You’re in deep shit, man,” I tell him. There is no way in hell he can keep a situation like this a secret forever.
“You can’t tell a soul about this, McNamara,” he insists. I know he’s serious when he switches to my last name, as if he’s giving me an order.
“I won’t,” I assure him.
And at that moment in time, I would’ve bet my life that I would never be the one to betray his trust.
But fate had different plans for all of us.
Chapter One
Roman
Five Years Later…
“I can’t fucking wait for summer,” Hugo says after he straightens from taking his turn and missing it on the pool table in the clubhouse.
Winston, my VP and a man of few words, grunts his agreement.
This round, the third of the night, it’s me and Winston verses Hugo and Cannon. The winter months are slow and boring around here in our tourist beach town, which is starting to show in the depressed demeanor of all the guys.
“No shit. Spring break is just the appetizer before the main course,” Cannon agrees.
“Maybe for you all,” I mutter. “I’m getting too old for college girls.”
“There’s no such thing,” Hugo argues with a dramatic gasp. “Easy pussy is easy pussy, prez.”
“It’s hard to take pride in something you didn’t work hard to earn,” I explain while lining up my shot that goes wide. Grabbing my bottle of beer from the bar, I take a sip before continuing on with my tirade. “Any asshole with a dick would suffice for a bunch of drunk college coeds trying to bang their way through spring break. You’ve talked to enough of these chicks; you know their stories. ‘I don’t want to have any regrets when I start planning my wedding,’ shit like that.”
“Wow, cynical much, Roman?” Cannon asks with a bark of laughter.
“I’m not cynical. It’s the truth.”
“Roman’s ego recently got bruised,” Winston states. He reaches up to stroke his black, closely trimmed beard to try and hide one of his rare smirks. “Some girl called him ‘daddy’ last week. Got him feeling old.”
I glare at Winston while the guys laugh at my expense. That was not exactly something I wanted to be public knowledge. I swear the grumpy bastard enjoys having other people’s misery keep him and his surly-ass company.
“Damn, man! That’s awful,” Cannon, one of the twins who looks like a twenty-one-year-old surfer, has the nerve to say to me.
“Whatever,” I mutter. “I’m done with college girls and their inflated pouts, obsession with selfies and inability to cook fucking spaghetti.”
Before I can continue my rant or force myself to finally admit that I’m ready to start settling down, I feel my phone buzzing from the inside pocket of my cut. And since I’m at the bar with most of the other Savage Kings, that means it’s probably a bullshit, afterhours call about one of the club’s properties. I’ve been managing our rental properties from the beginning and regretting almost every second of it, even though I shouldn’t complain.
I was damn lucky to have met Torin Fury, the president of the original Savage Kings when I first came home from Afghanistan. He thought I would make a good leader for a new chapter in my hometown at a time when I was flailing, trying to find my place in the world again. Torin even threw in some of his own money to help our guys invest in rental properties.
Pulling out my phone, I take a quick glance at the screen and mutter a curse. “Sorry, but I better answer this. If I don’t, he’ll just keep hanging up and calling until I do,” I inform the guys. “What’s up, Ernie?” I ask as I put the phone to my ear.
“Roman! So
