Page 16 of Ready or Not
Garza is seated in one of the chairs. He looks rough, and at the same time, he’s still breathing.
Standing here, plotting murder, probably makes me just as bad as the men we fight against.
I roll my shoulders back, reminding myself I’ve invested a lot of years of my life into being a decent human being. Now is not the time to lose all my morals.
Garza sighs heavily when he spots me. “Are you here to finish what you started?”
I grunt, coming to a stop behind Mercy on the couch.
“We waited for you before getting into everything.” Mercy glances at me over his shoulder, then refocuses on Garza, crossing his arms over his chest. “Why are you here?”
“I still technically live here, unless you assholes are kicking me out,” Garza growls.
“That’s no longer up to us. It will depend on what our wife has to say about the situation,” Mercy says calmly.
“Your fucking wife.” Garza curses under his breath. “You know, I was planning to bring her home to meet you guys. Ask Ranger. I told him I was quitting his team and coming home.”
“And how did that end with you getting her pregnant and disappearing?” I ask, and my teeth grind together.
“You really think that’s my baby?” Garza asks with wide eyes.
“That’s the one thing you’ll all agree on, at this point. Trust me when I say, you’re hoping the baby is Garza’s,” Ranger says, swaggering our way from the formal dining room. “The other possibility for paternity makes the whole situation much grizzlier.”
The only exterior door in that direction is the front door, which we never use.
I didn’t even know he was here.
“How the hell did you get in here?” Mercy snaps, jumping to his feet.
“You knew how I felt about her,” Garza snarls, trying to push himself out of the chair. He groans, clutching his ribs as he falls back against the cushions. “How could you keep this from me?”
Ranger ignores Garza, looking at Mercy. “I bypassed the gate completely. I wanted to check out your defenses for myself. The southeast corner has a patch of ivy and other vines. You’ll need to have those removed.”
“Jesus Christ,” Mercy mutters.
My mind files through his words. The other possibility for paternity makes the whole situation much grizzlier.
“What do you mean? What other possibility for paternity?” I ask, but even as I say the words, reality catches up.
“Andrew Landis.” Ranger nods. “I think we can all agree it will be much less traumatic if Garza is the father.”
“What the fuck are you even talking about?” Garza asks. “Her dickbag boyfriend?”
I growl.
Ranger raises a hand at me, but he looks at Garza. “You need to start at the beginning. Explain to them how you met Vale and everything that occurred after. I believe it’s going to make you look the least…” He pauses. “Slimy.”
Garza swipes his blond hair back from his eyes, glaring at Ranger. Eventually, he explains how he was originally at the club to check for Ranger’s sister Sparrow. Once he spotted Vale, he spent the next several months popping in on his days off.
I’ve already heard some version of this from Vale.
I’ve seen her with Holt. I know she’s had sex with Mercy, but I have to tune out most of what Garza has to say about their night together.
“…I got up the next morning to grab breakfast, but I was always coming back. I even left my information next to the bed. Only, when I walked out of her apartment, I walked right into her boyfriend.” Garza sighs, shaking his head. “I didn’t know what to think, but that was the same morning shit went down in DC.”
“It was the night I lost two of my team,” Ranger pipes in. “I needed him back in the office.”
“He threatened to find a spot in his basement for me.” Garza scoffs. “I locked her door and left. I thought she’d call and we would figure it out from there. Only she never called.”