Betrayed, but New Love Found

Who's Is That Pretty Lady?

Maverick

“Dad, we go to the ranch?”

Mav smiled at his four-year-old son. Bray calling him dad is still something that puts a smile on his face every time. There was a time that Brayden hardly talked, and Mav didn’t blame him. Being picked up by a stranger, a tall, big man at that, was probably terrifying to a three-year-old.

Last year, he was balls deep in an anonymous brunette that he had no idea who her name was when his phone rang. He ignored it, and it stopped, but then it started back up. He slapped the ass of the woman that he was f*cking from behind and reaching over, he grabbed his phone off of his night stand. She kept f*cking herself on his d**k, and he wasn’t inclined to stop her.

“Who is this?” he barked into the phone.

“Is this Mr. Holston,” a woman said over the phone. He grunted as the woman picked up her pace. She was close.

“Who’s asking?”

“This is Detective Jenkins with the California Police Department. I’m calling in regard to…”

Just as the woman on the phone was telling him why she had called, the brunette screamed as her orgasm hit. He couldn’t keep the smile off his face, another happy customer.

“One sec,” he said into the phone.

He put his phone on the bed, grabbed the chick's hips and pounded away until he found his nut. Satisfied, he pulled out, ripped the condom off and tossed it in the trash that was next to his bed.

He picked up his phone and brought it to his ear.

“Sorry, I was busy when you called,” he said, watching the woman throw a wad of cash on the bed before putting her dress back on. She looked at him and smiled before she walked to the door. He gave her a wink and watched her leave. He picked up the wad of cash and smiled. Five hundred bucks.

“I gathered from all the noise,” the lady said, unimpressed.

“What can I do for you?” he asked.

“Again, I am contacting you about a minor male child that matched your DNA.”

“Impossible. I’ve never raw dogged a girl before, I’ve always wrapped up.”

“Well, your DNA was in the system from your time in the Air Force. A woman named Rebecca Warden, was the mother of little Brayden Warden until she passed away this morning from cancer. We’ve been trying to find a relative of Brayden’s and when we took his DNA and put it in the system, you came up in our computer system.”

Maverick racked his brain. He’s been out of the Air Force for two years. He did eleven years before he was injured. He had been guarding a gate in Afghanistan when bullets started flying over his head. He dove for cover along with the other Security Forces member, but a bullet hit his thigh. They fired back before the gate opened. Members of the Marines came out in a Humvee and laid down cover as they were dragged inside.

While he was in the hospital, his time to re-up came. He had been thinking of re-upping, but was told that maybe it would be a good idea for him to be done. He took that as he'd always be on desk duty from there on out, and he didn’t want that. So he got out. He remembered that time after some rehabilitation he kind of went wild and f*cked a lot. So, if this was true, then maybe a condom failed and he had a kid.

“How old is the kid?”

“Three,” the detective said.

Seemed about right. He had sighed and told the woman he’d take the first flight to California since he was in Montana. He didn’t remember a woman named Rebecca, but that didn’t matter, he never remembered any woman he slept with once or twice.

He was 32, he wasn’t looking for anything serious. He had told his parents, who let him rent the room above the garage when he got out. His mom got all excited because she wanted to be a grandmother. She wanted to come with him, but he said no. He didn’t want to overload the kid. His dad suggested, why didn’t he take over watching the Robertson Ranch for him? That way it would give him more of an income, rather than doing odd jobs around town. His parents didn’t know he had picked up older women that wanted some young stud. He charged high fees and those that really wanted him paid for it. He didn’t see a problem making money this way? He was hot, and why would he give anything away for free? He thought about that. Now that he had a kid, guess he couldn’t do that anymore.

“Yeah, dad, that would be great. I can get an apartment too.”

“No, stay here,” my mom said.

“Mom, we’re going to get our own place. Don’t worry, it’ll be close.”

Snapping back from memory lane, he smiled at his son.

“Yeah, buddy. Why don’t you go get ready? Wear your cowboy boots.”

“Okay.”

Brayden ran off. This kid saved him. He went from selling his body for extra money and possibly going down a dark hole to being the light that guided him on the right path. The money he had saved from selling himself, got them a rented two-bedroom apartment that he paid for a year in advance. He had flown to California, went shopping for a couple of toys and walked into the police department. They did another DNA test, and he stayed with Brayden while they waited for the rushed results. He had tried to talk to Brayden, but the kid just blinked at him. He showed him the truck and the teddy bear he got him. He had been happy that the kid played with the toys.

When the results came back positive that he was the father. He signed a bunch of papers and then Brayden was his. He got McDonald's for them and went to the hotel room he got for the night. They ate and stared at each other.

It took three months for Brayden to open up to him. He had taken Brayden to get his last name changed from Warden to Holston and that night when he put him to bed, Brayden looked at him and whispered, thank you. Two days later it was his fourth birthday and Brayden woke up a whole different kid. He started talking, smiling, and looking at him like he was his hero. Mav had been so d*mn happy. Now their relationship was solid, and Brayden called him dad.

Mav had taken over the care of the ranch. It was a weird situation. His dad was young when he was hired as caretaker of Robertson Ranch. It was a second job for him. The couple that had lived there with their teen daughter had made it into a vacation retreat. That’s how they made all their money. People booked the rooms for family vacations, or weddings. There was golfing, hunting, fishing, dancing and horseback riding. There was actually a lot to do there. But then tragedy happened. The man and their daughter died, and the woman couldn’t handle the place on her own. So she paid for it to be taken care of and disappeared. No one knew what happened to her. But she had been loaded and set up for the property to be taken care of for years and for the caretaker to have a good living. It paid really well, enough that his dad quit being the store manager at the Piggly Wiggly in town and did it full-time. He remembered going with his dad as a kid to help him with the animals, mowing the yard and learning to drive the tractors and other farm equipment. He did all the way up until he joined the military. Now it was his turn to do it with his son. It was a lot of work. Over the years, animals passed away, and new ones were bought. The Alpacas showed up five years ago, his dad said. Manuel and his crew come once a year to shear them, and they take the wool. It was like clockwork. He was just supposed to keep them alive, and if they passed, bury them in the animal cemetery that was ten acres away from the main ranch. He was told by his dad that when an animal passes, they fill out a form and send it off to a corporation that handles all the paperwork. Then a new animal would show up weeks later.

Maverick just did what his father trained him for and that was it. He wondered if the resort would ever be up and operational ever again.

“I’m ready dad!” Brayden said as he came strolling out of his room.

He chuckled at the sight of his son. He was in his cowboy boots as Maverick told him to wear, with gray sweatpants on, a white long-sleeve thermal shirt and his winter coat he was trying to zip up. He also wore his cream-colored cowboy hat on top of his chestnut-colored hair that he definitely got from his mother, since his own hair was black as midnight. But Brayden had his hazel eyes.

“You look ready to go buddy. Let me help you with that zipper,” he said, walking over to him.

“No, dad, I’m a big boy, I do it.”

“Okay, well, if you do need help, it’s okay to ask.”

In the end, Brayden needed help. Maverick showed him once more how to zip his jacket up. They took five minutes for him to practice, and then they were out the door with both their thermoses filled with hot chocolate and a blueberry muffin. Maverick lifted his son into his Ford Raptor, and held Bray’s thermos and muffin while he locked himself in his car seat. A couple of minutes later, he was starting the truck. Ten minutes later, he came to the gate and stopped his truck. Did he forget to close the gate yesterday? He’s never been so careless before.

“Sh*t.”

“Swear jar!” Brayden called out as he shoved more of his blueberry muffin in his mouth.

“Sorry bud. Looks like daddy forgot to lock the gate up yesterday.”

“No you didn’t. I saw you.”

That brought the Mavericks' eyebrows up.

“Stay here buddy,” he said and got out of his truck. He lifted the collar on his jacket. It was starting to get really chilly. He walked to the gate, saw the padlock was locked around one end and the chain was wrapped around the pole. Did he f*ck up wrapping the chain and only padlock one end? He usually wasn’t so careless. He shrugged and went back to his truck.

He put it in drive and drove down the road.

“What the h*ll?”

“Swear jar, daddy.”

“Sorry buddy, daddy is just so confused right now.”

He pulled up to the house and there was an older dodge sitting in front of the house. Maybe he needed to check his email and see if someone new was coming to the ranch for some reason. He put the truck in park and took out his phone. He opened his email and didn’t see anything new.

“Buddy, I’m going to need you to stay in the truck for a minute, okay?”

“Yep.”

But before, he got the truck door open, movement caught his eyes and he looked at the house. The most gorgeous woman he'd ever seen was standing on the porch with a small smile on her face and a mug in her hand. She had long auburn hair in a braid, that was over her shoulder and lying below her left breast in a tight green long-sleeve sweater. A pair of black jeans and boots. Her face looked flawless and makeup free. He was a little too far to see the color of her eyes. She looked to be a tiny little thing.

“Who is that pretty lady daddy?”

“I don’t know buddy. But I definitely want to find out.”

“Is that my new mommy?”

Maverick whipped around and looked at Brayden. He looked really excited.

“Bray, do you want a new mommy?”

“Yeah, mommies are nice, and smell sweet. My mommy said one day an angel is going to come and be my new mommy, and she will be so pretty. That lady is really pretty. She could be my new mommy.”

Maverick looked back at the woman.

“Well, buddy, I’m not so sure yet, but why don’t you and I go meet her? She looks harmless, right?”

Brayden nodded and eagerly started unbuckling his car seat.

“I’m ready daddy.”

“Okay bud,” he said. He wasn’t so sure he was though.