Read Online Betting the Bad Boy by Sugar Jamison - Free Book Online

or write him a letter, or call him, but there was nothing. He knew her father had sent her away, but he still expected something. Some kind of communication. Just to let him know he wasn’t alone in there.
    He thought she had loved him, but he guessed it was more teenage infatuation than real love. And the whole time she had been keeping a son away from him. Probably too embarrassed to let to world know that she had made a baby with a piece-of-shit criminal.
    “Please come in.”
    He walked inside her house, finding the interior a little better than the outside. He could see all of Grace’s little touches that made it homey. The handmade quilts on the couch. The fresh flowers on the side table. Pictures covering nearly every spot on the wall. He walked over to them, seeing Ryder as a baby with a big drooly smile. Seeing him as a toddler walking and as small child at his baseball games. He had missed it all. Every single part of his kid’s life. And now he was a teenager.
    Duke knew right then that he would never miss another important moment again. “He looks just like you,” she said quietly from behind him.
    He turned to face her, more furious than he had ever been. “So you admit it? You’re not going to lie and say that I’m not his father.”
    “How could I deny it? I’m assuming somebody told you. Who was it? Who knew?”
    “Nobody told me. Of course nobody in town knows. You would have never told them that you had a baby with Duke King.”
    “Wait a minute.” She looked outraged. “I tr—”
    “No. You don’t get to do the talking. You had years to do the talking and you didn’t, so it’s my turn. Nobody had to tell me that he’s my kid. I caught him throwing rocks at your father’s car and realized that I was looking at my own goddamn face. How long did you think you could keep this from me? It would have come out. You may think you’re fooling the world, but these people here would have figured it out when he grew into a man who looked just like me. You’d rather let him go fatherless than let the world know that you had a baby with a King boy.”
    “I don’t think you’re trash,” she yelled back at him. “I never thought you were trash. I was in love with you.”
    “Bullshit. I did what I did for you and I never heard from you again.”
    “He sent me away! And I—”
    “You weren’t the fucking prisoner. That was me, remember? I was the one who couldn’t get out, who couldn’t contact you, but you knew where I was the whole time.”
    “Let me explain. I wr—”
    “Let you explain what? That you were just a bitch who screwed the wrong guy.”
    “Duke, I…”
    He saw Grace’s expression change to one of horror and then he felt the fist slam into the back of his head. Ryder had flown at him and started pummeling him with the force of a grown man. “Don’t you call my mom a bitch, you fucking bastard.”
    Duke caught the enraged kid’s hands, twisted them around his body, and pulled the boy close to him to stop the assault. “I’m sorry, Ryder. You’re right.” He held him tighter as he struggled against him. “You’re right. I should never talk to your mother or any woman that way. I was mad. I’m sorry, Grace. I won’t speak to you like that again.”
    “Ryder, honey.” Grace touched his shoulder, tears in her eyes. “Please calm down.”
    “Don’t touch me,” he snapped at her. “Is it true?” He looked up at Duke and into his eyes. “Are you my father?”
    Duke looked at Grace for a moment before he answered. “I am.”
    Ryder broke down, a sob tearing from his chest, and Duke felt more pain than he had ever felt in that moment. He didn’t know this child, but he knew Ryder was his and seeing him in pain was like being stabbed in the gut with a hot knife. He loosened his grip on Ryder’s arms and put one hand on his back as Ryder cried into his chest.
    The other hand came up to Ryder’s face, wiping away his tears. It was then that Ryder seemed to