Secrets by Erosa Knowles Read Free Book Online

unfit line,
we’re through. I mean that. There’s nothing wrong with those boys.
Chastity's done a good job.”
    “Yes, she has. And if that’s the angle your
mother decides to play, then she’ll come against a mama bear that
takes no prisoners.” Sven nodded toward the door. “She might not
fight too hard for herself, but for her kids, she’d go against God
himself.”
    “I saw that.” Kenton exhaled. “It’s none of
my business who the father is. If you say they’re not my uncle’s,
then I guess I’m wrong and owe her an apology.”
    “You are wrong and you owe her a big ass
apology. Let me ask you this.” Sven walked closer and looked down
at him.
    He looked up at the older man. He’d always
respected him. Sven had been instrumental in Kenton's decision to
join the Navy. “What?”
    “How many times you have sex with her?”
    Kenton blinked. His mind raced as thoughts
jumped and fell over each other. How did he know? He doesn’t-he’s
fishing. Why would he ask that? We don’t even talk. In the end, he
blanked his face. “What?”
    “You heard me.” Sven stood facing him, his
face pink. Not red, that’s a good sign, right? All the men on the
ranch were very protective of the two women that lived there.
    “Why would you ask me that?”
    “Why won’t you say never?”
    “Never.”
    Sven leaned forward and ran a hand through
his hair, releasing the ponytail. “Shit, that’s the first lie
you’ve ever told me.”
    It wasn’t. Kenton had taken some things from
Sven’s bag once when they’d gone camping and he denied it. He'd
been ten or somewhere near that age. But that wasn’t important.
“What are you talking about?”
    “You were too upset about her being with
another man to have not staked a claim, even subconsciously.”
    “The man was my seventy-year-old uncle. She
was his ward, that’s fucked up.” His face heated as the thought of
her with his relative singed his pride. Wait, pride ? What
the hell?
    Sven shrugged and backed up. “Okay. Good to
know. Now what? How do you feel about her having children with
another man? Someone else got the goods. You're okay as long as
it’s not your uncle, right?”
    He nodded, too twisted inside to speak. The
thought she’d moved on burned a hole in his gut. He schooled his
face, forcing it to remain placid, calm, frigid almost.
    “Glad to hear it man. I’ll let Robbie know.”
Sven turned toward the door.
    Without thought, his hand clamped down on
Sven’s shoulder. His voice dropped an octave. Veins stood out on
his neck. “Who? I know you didn’t say Robbie.” Robbie was the ranch
manager and single. He had nothing against the man except he
shouldn’t be looking at Chastity that way.
    Sven shrugged to remove the hand. Kenton
tightened his grip. “I said Robbie.”
    “What the fuck is he doing hanging around
Chastity? He’s old enough to be her father. I thought you were head
security. How the hell did he get close to her?”
    “I guess the same way you did, when I wasn’t
looking. I trusted you and didn’t dog your steps. But the fox got
inside the chicken-coop anyway.”
    Sven shrugged again, and this time Kenton's
fingers loosened and fell away.
    “How many times did you have sex with her?”
Sven asked again.
    Kenton swallowed, ashamed that he’d betrayed
the trust of two men he greatly admired. “Two.”

Chapter 6
     
    Three days after their disastrous attempts
at mediation, Chastity received a call from Jamison. The judge, who
was an old friend of Mr. Baxter’s, and who’d sent the case to
mediation, had an opening and wanted them in court the next
morning. Waiting for Sven to escort her inside the courthouse, she
glanced around the quiet hall. The calm before the squall.
    The children were at home with Robbie, who'd
been given specific instructions. No one gets near her kids,
period. She figured Maude would send someone to the ranch while she
was at court or something underhanded like that.
    Chastity hadn’t seen