Her Big Bad Mistake (7 page)

Damon was thankful his friend hadn’t heard he’d called Becky his wife. Damon still couldn’t believe he was married. He wasn’t really the marrying type. Damon hoped Jacob would forgive him. “She has a concussion.” Damon didn’t tell them about the baby, he was still coming to terms with that himself.

“So Becky will be okay?” Caleb asked.

“Ah, I’m waiting for the doctor. He should be back in a minute and he’ll tell us more.” Caleb and Jacob nodded and leaned against the wall.

Amanda’s phone started ringing and she glanced down at it. “Look, I have to go. Tell Becky I’ll talk to her later and to call me if she needs me. I can bring her some clothes.”

Jacob smiled at Amanda. “She’ll be fine with us. We’ll look after her.” Jacob went over to her and Damon watched as he exchanged numbers with Amanda. Damon kicked himself—he should have done that.

Amanda smiled. “Ah, you must be the one she said she wished she’d been with.”

Damon groaned, narrowed his stare at Amanda, and prayed she didn’t say anything else. Damon could see it was too late, though. Jacob stiffened, nodded, and went back over to Caleb, but Jacob’s gaze never left him.

The doctor came by soon after and they waited in the lobby as Damon went into Becky’s room. Jacob gave him death stares and Caleb sure wasn’t smiling. Damon stood outside Becky’s room and moved when the doctor came out and went straight to him. They stood together at the side of the door.

“Mr. Chet, your wife needs to take it easy. Becky has high blood pressure and is showing signs of rare, early preeclampsia. As she is still in her first trimester we can’t do anything but it will hopefully go away. She was lucky the fall didn’t cause any harm to the baby. Dr. Stinson is an OBGYN, a good one.”

Doubt seeped into his mind. Was this child his? “How far along is she?”

The doctor didn’t seem to break his stride as he said, “For twelve weeks she seems right on target.”

Fuck, that was Vegas. Why the hell hadn’t she told him? Why hadn’t she contacted him? “Is she awake?”

“Mrs. Chet is resting. You can go in two at a time, but only one other visitor at a time. We’ll watch her for the concussion tonight but she won’t be going home until her blood pressure lowers. Once it’s lowered we will discharge her as long as she has someone to look after her and make sure she has an appointment with an OBGYN.”

He nodded and ran his fingers through his hair. His whole world was changing. “Can I go in and see her now?”

“Yes, but she needs as little stress as possible.” The doctor looked him up and down. “I have the number for Dr. Stinson the OBGYN.”

“I have the money to pay. Can I have the number?”

“Sure. I’ll give it to you before you and your wife leave. I’ll write a referral, too.”

“Thank you.”

The doctor smiled and walked away.

“Why the fuck is the doctor calling Becky your wife? I thought I heard someone say before we left, that you’d called her that when she fell, but I thought you said that to get to her.”

Clenching his fists, Damon closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Opening his eyes, he sighed. “Can we talk about this after we’ve seen Becky?”

Jacob glared at him for a while before he sighed and nodded. “Fine. I want to talk about what he was going on about with a baby”

“Um…yeah, okay.” Unclenching his fists, Damon opened the door to Becky’s room and they stepped inside. She lay in bed with a drip in her arm and monitors everywhere. There were two chairs in the room and he picked up one and sat it beside the bed.

Becky’s eyes fluttered open and she groaned. “I knew I shouldn’t have gone.”

Grinding his teeth, Damon gripped the edge of the bed and took deep breaths to calm himself. “Why?”

She avoided his gaze. “I’m not your type.”

Tears rolled down her cheeks and he swore. “What the fuck? If you’re not my type, then why the hell did I marry you?”

“I don’t know, maybe you thought it would keep your work happy. It didn’t even feel like a real wedding. I mean, shouldn’t there have been a lot more paperwork, and don’t you have to send it all away to be registered and so on? Not only that, I’m Australian. Don’t I need to do extra stuff?”

Scrubbing his face, Damon prayed for patience. She thought they weren’t really married. Right now he wished they weren’t. He was so angry. “Everything was sent away. I received a confirmation and have both certificates. You are my wife.”

“What the fuck?” Jacob growled and stormed over to Damon. “How could you? You cunt!”

Jacob’s fist connected to his face and Damon reeled back before bracing himself, ready for more off Jacob, he would only hit him once, he deserved that. Jacob came at him again and this time he hit him, but Jacob punched his stomach.

Becky yelled, “Stop. Stop now! Jacob, please let me talk to Damon. When I send him out you can talk to me if you still want to.”

Jacob’s eyes darted from him to a pale Becky, then back to him. “When you’re done I want to talk.” Damon knew he didn’t want to talk. Jacob wanted to fight. Damon nodded and Jacob turned to Becky. “Sweetheart, I’ll be back when he leaves.”

“Thank you, Jacob.” Becky watched Jacob leave before her gaze fell on Damon. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left. I shouldn’t have left it this long to see you, either. I called you so many times these last twelve weeks. Well, not the last couple of weeks since I learned who you really are and saw the women you go for. Also, you changed your number.” Her eyes narrowed on him. “So, if we’re really married, is it okay if I date other people since it seems fine for you to take hot models out on dates?”

Shit. Damon knew those promo stunts would come back and bite him on the ass. “No, you cannot date anyone else. The women you saw were publicity stunts.” He wanted to hit something or someone, he was so frustrated by everything that had happened and was happening. “One minute I’m getting told I’m too wild and I have to curb my ‘bad boy ways.’ Then I’m told I’m being too good and everyone wants the bad boy back. I wish they’d fucking make up their minds.” Damon stood and paced. “I haven’t been performing at my best. I did today.” He stopped pacing and looked at her. “You were at my game.”

“Not until the game started. I was in the toilet before that, talking myself into going.”

He bet when she walked in his game picked up. “That makes sense, figures you’re my lucky charm.” He sat and took her hand in his. “You should have told me about the baby.”

“I didn’t think you wanted children. I remember you telling me you’re not father material.”

“I don’t… I mean… I want ours.” Crap, this wasn’t going right. “I’m not really father material. I’ll try, though. I want you to move in with me. I have a huge house with everything you could need.” Where had that come from? He was happy living alone. Damon didn’t even invite any of the women he dated to his house. He had an apartment he took them to.

“I can’t move in with you.”

“Why not? You’re my wife.” He’d planned to find her because he missed her and wanted her with him. She should live with him.

Becky opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again. “I…I…we…you.”

“Give me a chance. I’m not the one who ran. You did. I want you with me where you should be.” Damon could see she was caving, so he pushed on. “It will be a good way to get to know each other better. I promise I’ll be on my best behavior.” She closed her eyes and chewed on her bottom lip. “Please.”

She opened her eyes and let out a long, drawn-out sigh. “Okay. But I’m going to keep paying the rent in the house I’m staying in, just to be safe.”

Damon would agree to that for now. He would slowly gain her trust and she would get rid of the rental. “If that’s what you want, you can keep it.”

Becky nodded and closed her eyes again.

“You should rest. You can see Jacob when you wake.”

Becky didn’t respond and Damon knew she’d fallen asleep.

Getting up, he went to talk to his friends.

****

Damon found Jacob and Caleb outside in the hospital courtyard. Jacob strolled toward him with a fierce scowl on his face. “Tell me what the fuck is going on?”

Damon knew he should say something to Jacob. He should tell him all that had happened. Damon should apologize but he didn’t know where to start, so he shrugged and muttered, “I married her. I couldn’t let her get away.”

“I told you to be nice to her. Not to fucking marry her. For fuck’s sake, Damon, I told you I was into her. What the hell, Damon?” Jacob ran his fingers through his hair. “I shouldn’t have left her with you. I should have said no to the promo shit.” Jacob gave him a death stare. “I never thought my friend would move in on my girl.”

“She wasn’t your girl. You hadn’t done anything to her to let her know you were interested in her. I fell in love with her.”

He wasn’t expecting Jacob’s fist—he should have. Damon stumbled back, but not before he grabbed Jacob and retaliated. Caleb tried to break them up but Damon wasn’t in the mood to be stopped. He needed a good fight. “Stay the fuck out of this, Caleb,” he growled.

Not bothering to check if Caleb stayed away, he kneed Jacob in the stomach and gave a good right hook to his face. They fell to the ground and wrestled, beating the shit out of each other until they were pulled apart by security. They were both dragged away as cameras flashed and phones filmed the whole thing. Caleb was nowhere in sight and Damon glanced at Jacob and winced. Crap, he’d done a number on him.

“Don’t fucking look at me like that. You don’t look that good yourself,” Jacob snarled as they were dragged out of the courtyard and met by four policemen.

Shit, he was on probation for a whole bunch of shit and resisting arrest was one of them. His lawyer wasn’t going to be happy to hear from him. Their coach was going to kick his ass when he saw him and Jacob.

He grimaced as the adrenaline wore off, and the aches and pains made themselves known. Damon cooperated getting into the police car and hoped that if he obeyed he would get this all over and done with soon. As he sat in the back of the police car, he hoped Becky didn’t see this later on YouTube or Facebook.

****

Becky was pissed. Caleb came and picked her up from the hospital. Amazingly her blood pressure had lowered overnight and the baby was doing fine. She was allowed to leave if she had someone to go home with and help look after her. Becky had expected Damon to pick her up, but when Caleb came Becky knew something had happened.

“What happened? Why are you here and not Damon?” She sat on the edge of the bed and glared at Caleb. He squirmed under her stare.

“He wasn’t able to make it.”

“What the hell do you mean, he wasn’t able to make it?” The shrill tone of her voice had Caleb backing up with his hands in the air.

“There was an incident.”

She slowly stood. Becky knew she needed Caleb’s help to get out of here. “Can you get me out of here?”

“Yes. I came to help you.”

Becky nodded and pressed the nurse’s button. “I told them I had someone coming for me. The forms should be ready to be signed.”

Caleb nodded and Becky waited patiently to get her answers until she was out of the hospital and sitting in Caleb’s big SUV.

“Thanks for breaking me out of the hospital. I’m not a fan of them.”

“That’s fine. I have the keys to Damon’s house, and he said to—”

“No.”

“Ah… what?”

“I said no. You’re not taking me to Damon’s house, you are taking me to Damon.”

Caleb shook his head. “No way. Damon would have my head. And Coach said to leave him in th—”

“Who are you more scared of, Caleb? Damon, your coach, or a fragile pregnant woman who has had three men take advantage of her, when all she wanted was an American working holiday?” She quivered her lip and hiccupped.

Caleb’s eyes widened and he groaned. “You’re evil. I have no idea why they think you’re sweet. Fine, he is in jail. Coach thinks it will cool them off.”

Becky narrowed her eyes at Caleb—she hadn’t missed the
them
. “What do mean, them? Why is Damon in jail?” She should have guessed after the way the men acted in her room, but she’d been so tired. Caleb seemed reluctant to tell her why. “When will they be getting out?

“I was going to drop you off at his house and get you settled. Then I was going to go pick them up. Their lawyers are ready to meet me there when I call them.”

Becky sighed. This was all her fault. Her stomach rumbled and she glanced around her. “I’m starving. How about we pull over and get food? Can you call the lawyers to meet us at the precinct?”

He nodded and Becky rested her head against the window and closed her eyes. She hoped she was doing the right thing.

Damon knew Becky wouldn’t be happy when she found out about this. He practically had to beg her to give him a chance.

“Chet, Stevens, you’re getting out.” The officer opened the cell door and avoided Damon’s gaze. “Congrats on your wife being pregnant.”

They walked out and Damon started to have a sinking feeling as the man continued to talk. “She said you were taking her baby shopping today. Good luck with that. I remember taking my wife on her first baby shopping trip and that was a while ago. Um… my son is a fan of yours. Would you mind signing something for him?”

Damon stopped and looked at the officer. “Did you say my wife was here? Out those doors?”

The officer seemed to figure out he’s said the wrong thing. “Yes, she came with your teammate, Caleb Blackbe.”

Clenching and unclenching his fist, he nodded. “Sure, I’ll sign something for your kid.”

The officer opened the door, stepped out, and walked him to where his lawyer, Caleb, and his wife stood chatting and laughing with police officers. When Becky saw him her eyes widened and he watched her paste a smile on her face. Her eyes were what had him pausing—they flashed bright with anger.

“Honey, I was just telling them that you were supposed to pick me up from the hospital and take me baby shopping.”

What the hell?
Becky had never called him honey. Dickhead, asshole, but never honey. What game was she playing?

Her Australian accent was thick as she hugged him and leaned up to whisper, “You’re an arse. This gives me real faith in you…not.” She pulled from his ear and held his hand with a bright smile on her face.