I took a step back, toward the door. “Hi,” I managed to say, not sounding pathetically weak or half as nervous as I was. “I think you have the wrong room.” I took another step back.

“Not another step back, Georgie Porgy.” His tone was severe, but that’s not what stopped my retreat. If the gun he’d raised and had pointed right at my chest wasn’t enough, the use of that name was. No one had called me that in eleven years.

I looked at him, really looked. The silver gray streaks in his hair aged him, but other than that, and the hate-filled scowl, I could see the resemblance. They weren’t twins by any means, but they were definitely brothers. “Hello, Jamie.”

He didn’t acknowledge his name. Instead, he glowered in my direction. “Did you think that, on top of everything else, I would let you profit off him?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He pointed his empty hand toward the door. “I heard the song,” he snapped. “You’re not going to use pretend grief over my brother to sell records. You’ve taken enough from this family.”

I didn’t know how to disagree with a crazy man who held a gun. This man was hurting. My own grief had floored me, so I couldn’t imagine how he felt. So, I stayed quiet instead.

“Boy or girl?” he demanded a few seconds later. I knew what he was asking, but I didn’t answer. “Did you have a boy or a girl?”

There was no use lying. “A boy.”

“He always wondered. He’d look at every child he saw, trying to see if there was a resemblance to him. Or to you.” He took a step toward me. “You ruined his life.”

I shook my head, not caring if he had a gun on me anymore. “No. We agreed, Kevin and I together, that adoption was the best plan. He could have known his child, he chose not to.”

“You took that choice from him,” Jamie screamed, running his free hand through his hair. “You ran away in the middle of the night! So you could what? Sell my nephew to get here?” He waved the gun around the room. “Is this worth the lives you’ve ruined?”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about!”

“I watched my brother slowly fade away, the stress of not knowing his child wearing him down until he put a gun in his mouth. You fucking killed him!”

“You’re wrong.” I shook my head. “How’d you find me? Huh? Kevin, right? You went through his stuff and you realized he’d known where I was, who I was, all along. If he’d wanted to know where his son was, he would have asked me himself.”

“Just shut up. Shut the fuck up!” he screeched, aiming the gun at me once more. “My brother died never knowing his son because of you. Nothing you can say changes that! You are going to tell me where my nephew is, or I swear to fucking Christ, bitch, I will shoot you in the head.”

“Then shoot me. Because I’m not telling you anything.”

“I’m not kidding. Tell me!” he screamed, rage filling his tone.

“I’m not, either, Jamie. I’m not telling you anything about him. If Kevin had wanted to know, or wanted you to know our son, he would have told you the truth. We didn’t want our son tainted by your family. Nothing’s changed. So you either shoot me, or you leave. Because either way, I’m not telling you anything.”

He was in my face so fast I didn’t have time to rear back. The cold metal of the pistol he carried dug into my skin as he shoved it against my temple. I wished I could have seen Mike one more time. If I had, I would have told him I loved him.

The click of the gun echoed in my mind. Then I heard the shot. Pain ripped through me. Then the world was quiet.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

~ Mike ~

Lia sat and listened as I talked. She didn’t ask any questions, didn’t interrupt, and didn’t give me her opinion. She let me get it all out. After she’d calmed me down earlier, she’d sent me back to the hotel to get some sleep and told me to stay away from everyone until she could meet me for drinks before the concert.

“Do you think she’s telling the truth?” I asked her once I’d given her all the facts.

Lia only shook her head. “It’s Jules, Mikey. Let’s face it, she’s never had real clear boundaries between fact and fiction.” She sighed. “If I had to guess, I’d say she’s bending the truth to fit her will. As usual.”

I nodded. “What if Janet is mine?” The thought terrified me.

Lia raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t that the outcome we’re hoping for?” she asked skeptically. “That would be the best thing that could ever happen to that little girl.”

“Yeah, except the fact that I disappeared and I’ve been gone for half of her life.”

“Is that what you’re worried about?”

I nodded, and she gave me her sympathetic smile.

“Mike. She’s eight. It’s more important that you’re in her life from this point forward, because that’s what she is going to remember. She’ll look back and see that her dad was there for everything that mattered. And that he fought for her when he should have. That’s all she’ll care about.”

“She’s going to fight me.”

“Julie? Yeah, but that’s only because she’s not getting what she wants.”

“You mean me?” I snorted. “Julie doesn’t want me. She just doesn’t want to be alone.”

“I know that. You know that. She doesn’t.”

“She has a good case, Lee. I abandoned that little girl. I went crazy after the accident…I don’t own a house and I travel for a living.” The realization hit then. I’d have to give up my job because touring the world with two kids in tow was not an option. And Molly. I’d have to give up my Molly.

“You have just as strong of a case, Mike. Julie lied to you. For years. She lied to one of the most respected doctors in the area. A man who I’m sure will gladly testify on your behalf, even if he is a douche.” She had a good point. “Julie cheated on a Navy SEAL while he was deployed during the war. Then she told you the daughter you’d been raising wasn’t yours. No judge is going to think Julie is a better parent than you are.”

“I’m still a single dad without steady employment. Julie’s a nurse with established ties in the community. It just scares me.”

“It’s not like you don’t have an income. Your military disability didn’t leave you destitute. We’ll hire the most ruthless lawyers, and we’ll fight her tooth and nail. She wants to play dirty, we’ll get dirtier. You know damn well we’ve got your back. All of us.”

“I know you do.”

Her phone vibrated on the table, for the fifth or sixth time since we’d been sitting there, but she ignored it.

“You can answer that, you know.”

She shook her head. “Nope. I’m busy. They can handle things for a little while.”

I picked at the label on my beer. “How’s Molly holding up this afternoon?”

“She’s fine. She locked herself in her room and wrote a new song.”

“Oh, yeah? Is it any good?”

She shrugged. “I’m sure it’s brilliant. I’ll hear it later.”

I frowned.

“I had somewhere else I needed to be,” she said with a smile.

She’d blown off Molly’s concert for me. Well, fuck.

She shook her head at the face I made. “It’s fine, Mike. Sam’s with her, the guys are watching out for her, Emily is there if Molly needs anything. I checked on her before I left. Right now, I’m helping my best friend work through his crazy baby-mama drama.”

“You’ve been looking for a way to say that all day, haven’t you?” I teased.

“I have.” She giggled. “I really have.”

I laughed with her, relaxing even more. Sometimes all you needed was a few minutes with your best friend and then even the worst news didn’t seem so bad. “So, I guess the first step is getting an actual paternity test.” I sighed.

“Yep. You need to know for sure. Then we can figure out the next step. But it’s not something you need to stress over. Let Julie say whatever she has to say to make herself feel better. Just know that in the end, you’re not in this alone. I promised you years ago that you’d never be alone. I meant it.”