“Try me.”

“With pleasure, babe. My mom babysits for me, doll. I have a daughter. A baby. Tiny tyke. Cute as she can be. And my mom watches her when I work.”

Mia’s jaw fell wide open. Ding, ding, ding. That was what he wanted to see. Mia was dumbstruck—and pretty as hell—but with nothing sassy to say. One of his prouder moments of the day.

Still, his gut churned, anxious over his revelations. He was stupid to say this much. Yet, somehow he needed her validation. He cast a glance her way, hoping for her reaction to justify his trust.

“I didn’t know.” Mia shifted on the vinyl car seat, crossing her ankles, and crunching an empty fast food wrapper.

“Why would you know?”

“You don’t seem like the fatherly type.”

“I bet I don’t seem like a lot of things.”

She gaped. Score one for Team Winters. He couldn’t shake his grin. Hell, if he’d known he could smile this much. His cheeks hurt. They were possibly the only muscle he didn’t work out on the regular.

“And the baby’s mother is?”

“It’s complicated.” The answer was an automatic defense mechanism. His mouth again spoke before his mind gave it the okay to proceed. His attitude was meant to protect his baby but served only to deflate Mia.

She sat still, hands folded in her lap, awaiting a simple explanation. Her therapist brain must’ve been in psychoanalytic overdrive. Simple was the furthest thing from the truth. He was already facing deep waters. Time to swan dive. “My line of work leads me straight to hell on a better than average day.”

Mia watched him in the dark car. He changed lanes needlessly, rubbing the back of his neck, then checked all his mirrors again, adjusting the rearview even though it was fine. Nerves punched, and he thought about backpedaling. “I like to keep my private life private.”

She still didn’t say anything. Must’ve been the therapist in her working him over. And, boy, she was good. He could barely keep the story contained. He fidgeted with the temperature controls and scanned the radio stations. Nothing but static. Stupid mountains. Mia remained quiet, and he couldn’t find anything to do other than recount the story. Ears over asshole, Winters dove into the truth.

“We busted up a very bad situation. Human traffickers, sex trade fuckers. There weren’t a lot of girls we could save, but we got some safe, back to the States. Everyone picked up new identities. Except one lady. A girl, in all honesty. She wouldn’t. Her name was Vanessa, and she was a beauty queen look-alike with a brass set of— She was a tough one. Kind of like you.” He paused, pissed his mouth ran off again before the brain gave a thumbs-up. “Anyway, she wasn’t going to give up her life. College. Friends. Though she had no family to speak of. Little did I know, she was pregnant. No idea who the father was. They did bad things to her.”