A Dare Between Enemies

Chapter 7

"Would you care to explain yourself?"

Darryl glanced up from his legal pad to see Warner hovering over him with an impatient glare. "What is it that I have to explain?"

"Your offhanded attitude, your crisp remarks, your sour mood," Warner listed.

Darryl reclined in his chair, giving his colleague a hard look. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Are you kidding me? The past hour has felt like waiting for a time bomb to detonate. Even Mrs. Miller, Miss Gregory and her lawyer were a little spooked by your brashness," Warner said of their settlement meeting. Miss Gregory was suing her former business partner and friend, Mrs. Miller, for stealing thousands of dollars from their candle-making business after she sold her rights away to be a full-time housewife. Miss Miller had claimed that she hadn't taken a dime from the establishment, though Miss Gregory and her attorney had provided bank statements as proof that the business' profits were disappearing.

"Does that matter?" Darryl questioned a bit too sharply, "We got the women to agree to a reasonable settlement instead of letting the matter get out of hand and ending up in court. My good mood or lack thereof, we still got the job done."

Warner remained silent, his surveying eyes assessing honing in on him, before shaking his head pitifully.

"You know, I figured that you would be back today all smiles, seeing that you were off in a rush to meet Ms. Marks last night. Thought you were finally going to get laid, because Lord knows how long it's been since I've seen you with a woman, but I'm guessing things didn't go too well."

Darryl frowned, barely keeping his anger at bay at Warner's mention of Naomi. He had hardly caught a wink of sleep, both anger and shock keeping him wide awake. He'd given up the charade of sleep and tried to work off some steam in his home gym well into the night, but he just couldn't shake his wayward emotions.

He had a son.

A son who was nearly a decade old. A six-year old boy who could be his childhood double, who inherited his name and whose mother kept secret for almost seven years. If that didn't boil his blood, then it was Naomi's unjustified reasoning that constantly replayed in his head. Not only had she let their bitter ending get in the way of doing the right thing, she had convinced herself that he was at fault for his being an absentee father. But Darryl refused to be that any longer, and it brought him a perverse satisfaction knocking Naomi down a few notches when he warned her of the repercussions she would face if she were to stand in the way of him building a relationship with Dare.

"You can scowl all you want, Darryl," Warner berated, with an exaggerated air of impatience. As if he were dealing with a child. "But as your colleague and your closest friend I'm demanding you to tell me what's going on." To show that he meant business, Warner rounded the table and took a seat across from him, waiting expectantly.

"And what if I told you that I don't want to share my business with you?"

"I'd say, tough luck," Warner answered easily with a dismissive shrug, his mouth curving.

Darryl shook his head, trying to keep from laughing at Warner's antics. His ruthless and belligerent qualities was what made him a successful attorney. Much like himself, if there was one thing Warner hated, it was taking 'no' for an answer.

And as much as Darryl hated to admit it, Warner was right. He wasn't in a good mood and if he didn't tell someone about Dare, he would explode.

Seeing that Warner was growing more impatient by the second, Darryl blew out a strangled breath.

"I have a son."

Saying the words aloud caused his stomach to clench. The reality of being a father was settling in. And with one look at Warner, he saw the same stupor on his face as when he'd first seen Dare.