Chapter Ten

Summerville Cannon

S itting in the clubhouse, Cannon debates whether or not he should call Sutton. Not talking to her feels anything but natural, and as much as he wants to respect her wish to give her space, he's going crazy. He wants to talk to her more than anything. To talk about how they both feel betrayed and hurt by her mother, but he also wants to let her know nothing changed for him. This means nothing as far as he's concerned. If anything, he wants to forget all about it.

If he's honest, he wants to know if learning Ryan Hennessey, an asshole he's never liked, is her father changes things for Sutton. His biggest worry is that the past twenty-three years don't mean that much now that she has a different father. That he's lost his buddy to this lowlife who will use and hurt her to get whatever it is he wants. Who won't love her like a daughter like Cannon does but will exploit her vulnerability at learning the truth about her DNA.

The door opens, and he turns to see Sutton walking inside for the first time since she stormed in, accusing him of lying to her. From the redness of her eyes, he knows she's been crying.

“Hey, sweetheart. Everything okay?” he asks, suddenly concerned.

“Hey, Da-” she stops herself. “Hey.”

The fact Sutton stopped the word dad before it could fully come out of her mouth breaks his heart. “You okay, kid?”

Kid. He's always called her that, but it makes her flinch.

“I just... things are so messed up right now.”

Talk about an understatement! “Yeah, kind of.”

“I know you didn't know.”

Cannon tilts his head. “What?”

“I know you didn't know the truth. You know... that I'm not a Cannon.”

“No, I didn't know the truth, but even if I had, it wouldn't matter.”

Laughing, she looks away from him. “I don't know how you can think that. It does matter. I'm not your daughter.”

“Sutton, you listen to me,” he says and stands. “No matter what happens or what was found in that disaster area your mother calls her home, you are a Cannon. You are my daughter. The rest of it... it doesn't matter.”

“I'm so mad at Mom,” she says as she looks at him with glassy eyes filled with unshed tears. “How could she do something like this?”

He shrugs. Even though he has a few choice words to say about Grace, he doesn't think talking badly about her mom will get him very far right now. “I don't know. And I was really mad at her, too, but then I thought back to our life together. You and me. If she told me her child wasn't mine when she was pregnant, I might not have had this relationship with you. She might not have had a reason to keep me around, especially when things ended with us, and I would never change the time we have together.”

“I met him,” Sutton says.

Her blinks send the unshed tears cascading down her cheeks, but she's not sobbing. “Met who?”

“My father. Ryan Hennessey. He works at that taco place off of Broadway. Just released from prison a month ago and lives in a halfway house. So, you know, total winner. That's my gene pool right there.”

If he told her he hadn't also looked up where Ryan was after finding everything out, he'd be lying. He knew what the man looked like when he learned Grace was sleeping around, and he knows what he looks like now and where he lives. It also crossed his mind to come across him in a dark alley at night and make him disappear to fix the problems his existence has caused them.

“What did he say?” Cannon asks.

“I didn't tell him who I was. I chickened out when he started bashing Mom. Not that I disagreed with him, but I had this weird image of what life would have been like with him in it instead of you. I mean, how would I have turned out? And then I started wondering if maybe having me in his life could have turned his life around. Would he have had a reason to get his life together? I look like him, and it got so overwhelming that I just ran away.”

“He must be decent looking because you're beautiful.”

Shaking her head, she looks away. “Stop it.”

“Stop what?”

“Being so nice. This whole situation has me all messed up. Confused and just messed up,” she says. “I look like him, but his drug use has scarring on his skin and teeth missing. But we have the same nose and mouth.”

He takes a chance and reaches out to touch her shoulder, but she steps back and away from him. “Sutton-”

“My world feels completely upside down right now. Mom's a liar. A slutty liar. My dad isn't my dad, and my real dad is a deadbeat. A drugged out, felon, deadbeat. The guy I was seeing has lost his mind, and we're not together anymore, not that we were really all that together before, and I don't know what's going on anymore. I can't tell up from down or left from right. I need space, and I need to process everything.”

His eyes cast down to the floor, and he just nods because the lump in his throat stops any words from coming out in that moment.

“I'm sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear, and the last thing I want to do is hurt you. I just... I don't even know what I need right now, so it's really hard to be around you. There feels like expectations, and I just... I need to breathe. Space to breathe and scream and cry and deal. Does that make any sense?”

“I understand,” he chokes out. “I'm here... when you're ready.”

Nelson walks into the clubhouse, and he looks relieved to see her. “Sutton, I've been trying to reach you.”

“I'm done, Nelson,” she says, surprising Cannon. This is her sort of boyfriend? Or was?

“Sutton-”

“I really can't take any more disappointments, and not only are you unreliable, you're just an ass. I have enough flaky people in my life, and I really don't need another.”

She walks out, and Nelson stares, slack-jawed as the door shuts behind him.

“You were dating my daughter?”

“Uh... kind of. Did something happen?”

“She met Ryan Hennessey,” Cannon says, the words coming out like he spits out teeth.

Nelson looks up at the ceiling and groans. “Fuck.”

“What happened with the two of you?”

“We were hanging out while avoiding this place, and we were friends. Then we were more than friends. Until I got pissed, and she pushed like she usually does, which is actually a good thing for me. But then I said something, and here we are.”

“What'd you say?”

His eyes widen as he looks at Cannon. “I don't really wanna tell you 'cause you got the whole 'angry dad' face going on right now.”

“Spit it out, or I'll use you as the punching bag I really need to hit.”

“I told her not to talk to me about moving on until she meets her real father and stops... uh, using me as a distraction.”

As much as Cannon wants to punch him with the fists clenched at his sides, he doesn't. No matter how much Nelson may deserve it, he won't hit him. “Idiot.”

“Yeah,” he says, turning to leave when a man walks in, not wearing the Drifter leather. “Who the fuck are you?”

Cannon recognizes him immediately and almost laughs at how much his looks have declined since his latest mug shot. “That's Ryan Hennessey.”

“Jesus fuck, you're a damned druggie, aren't you?” Nelson asks. “Meth your drug of choice? Bet it is based on those scars you got goin' on.”

Sutton was right, though. They do have similarities. It doesn't sit well with Cannon. If I break his face, he won't look so much like my daughter.

“Marvin Cannon,” Ryan says and smiles. “Long time no see. I met our daughter, although she didn't introduce herself as such when we talked. She here?”

“Nope.”

“I realized who she was as soon as she hightailed it out of the restaurant. I knew Grace was fucking around with biker trash, but I never expected her to let him raise my kid.”

Snarling, Cannon glares at him. “Stay the fuck away from her. She already has a father, and you're not needed. She hasn't needed you for twenty-three years, and she doesn't need you now.”

“She's got my DNA, buddy.”

“DNA don't mean shit. I'm her father, and that doesn't change because her mom's a lying bitch.”

He smirks. “At least we have that in common. But it does mean something; otherwise, you wouldn't be so angry, Marvin. You see, my sperm made it all the way to the egg and stuck. Yours didn't. That kid's mine.”

Walking up, he gets in Ryan's face, using his four-inch height difference to his advantage. “I'll kill you if you do anything to hurt my daughter. And I got an army waiting to back me up. You ain't got shit, so turn around and crawl back into whatever fucking sewer rats like you live in. It won't be long before you're locked up again anyway, which seems to be more of a home for you than any place out here, huh?”

“Biker trash telling me to go live in a sewer... that's rich. You know, you should be the one to leave Sutton alone, Marvin. Because guess what? Daddy's home.”

The smug look on his face won't last long if Cannon ever runs into him again, and Ryan makes the smartest move he's likely ever made by turning around and walking out the front door.

“Jesus, that's her father?” Nelson asks.

“And you pushed her to meet him. Such a good little boyfriend, you motherfucker.”