Blinding Trust (Mitchell Family, #7)(14)

He got up from the table and started pacing around my kitchen. “I get it. You think I am going to corrupt your kid. You know, Colt, I may look different than you, but I’m still that same guy you knew before.”

Savanna couldn’t take it anymore. “As much as I want to believe that you both are good people, I have to keep my guard up when it comes to my child. I think before Noah can go to stay with you, he should get to know you here, where we know he is safe.”

“Safe? Lady, I don’t know what magazine or news channel you get your information from, but I’m not some child molester or serial killer. I’m his blood. It’s way more than you share with him.”

I banged my fist on the table. “Enough! This shit is not happenin’. You will not come into my house and degrade my wife in front of me. That woman has been the only mother that kid has had since he was dropped off at our doorstep. She loves him as much as if she had him herself. You need to leave, before I remind you how we handle things around these parts and I can promise you that you’re not goin’ to like it.”

“Colt, don’t threaten me for stating the facts man. I have every right to know that kid.”

“Where have you been for the past ten and a half years of his life? I know I haven’t seen you for almost seven. You knew where we lived. You could have sent cards. Hell, my number is still the same. You never gave a shit about him.” I wasn’t going to tolerate him any longer. This guy had come into my house and been disrespectful. He needed to get the hell off of my property.

“Things have been tough for me. I had a lot of problems and I didn’t want to taint our relationship with them.”

Who did he think he was? “We never had a relationship, Zeke. You were a child when you lived here. I helped your sister take care of you, for a short time. I owed you nothing and my opinion doesn’t even matter. This is about my son. Your sister didn’t even bother to tell me about him. Do you have any idea what that was like for me, for my wife? No, you don’t! You couldn’t, because you were out getting drugged up. I reckon that’s how you had to deal with her loss, but that ain’t how I do things. She should have told me about him. I would have taken care of them.”

Savanna walked out of the room and sat on the couch. I didn’t mean it like I wanted to be with Krista. I think she’d just had enough for the night. “Look, I think it’s best that we just sever ties. Noah has met you. If you want to see him, it’s going to be here. I don’t want my son knowin’ your lifestyle. It’s not the place for a kid.”

“So he can’t come and stay with us?”

“No!”

Zeke grabbed his wife by the arm and almost pulled her out of the kitchen. “If you’re going to refuse me to see my own nephew, I’m going to have to contact my lawyer. Do you really want to go about it that way, Colt?”

“You do what you gotta do! No judge in his right mind is goin’ to think that Noah bein’ around all that partyin’ is a good idea.”

Zeke shook his head again. “I hoped this would go better, I really did.”

Once we watched them pull away, I hugged my wife. “It’s goin’ to be fine, Savanna. He’s just mad that we wouldn’t let him take Noah. He’ll calm down and it will be fine.”

“I hope so,” She cried with her face tucked into my chest.

Our kids had never been threatened like this. I didn’t know what to think. On one hand, I was hoping that it was just some phase that the guy was going through. Maybe after he left and calmed down, it would just all blow over and he would decide it wasn’t worth his time or his money. It wasn’t like I forbid him to see my son. I just said it had to be on my terms. I’m his father. He had to know that I would throw that card out there. Any good father would have done the same.

It also wasn’t because Zeke’s appearance. I knew there was a good guy somewhere in that tough armor he wore. The problem with Zeke was the package that came with him. He may not have been using and he could have been married to a princess for all I cared. It was the crowd of people that surrounded him wherever he went. It was the type of things that his songs implied.

He couldn’t get away from the life he’d made for himself.

I got that he broke down after losing Krista. It made sense. The kid came from nothing and she was his only lifeline. Before they stayed with me, it was Krista who fed him and made sure he went to school. Their dad wasn’t much of a father at all. They had no supervision.

“The bottom line is that Noah is our son. We decide what happens.”

Savanna turned and looked at me. She was so serious and I knew what she was going to ask. “Colt, I am going to ask you something and I need you to tell me the truth, no matter how much it would hurt me.”

“Don’t do this Savanna. I know where you’re goin’ with this.”

She put her hand over my lips and was already starting to tear up. “When I was going to marry Ty and your father had his fall, what would you have done if Krista was on your doorstep, pregnant with your child?”

“I would have done the right thing.” She was starting to get up. I pulled her back down beside me. “You wanted the truth and you of all people know what kind of man I am. As much as I was in love with you, I’d have to take care of them. I would have felt obligated.”