I just hadn’t expected them to do what they did quite so spectacularly or forget the nearly twenty years of service I had under my belt.
“It’s all bygones now.” I tried for nonchalance when all I was feeling was anger. “Did you get a chance to look at places for rent?”
She blinked at me owlishly. “It just so happens that I got you a house right next to a certain renter.”
I tilted my head slightly sideways. “What?”
“Johnny told me about a place that was up for rent next to his rental house.” She paused. “And I signed the lease on it yesterday for you. I know you said you wanted to look around, but this place is awesome. No joke. And it’s close to where you said you wanted to be.”
I’d told her that I’d like to be near Souls Chapel, and she’d run with it.
That meant that a certain woman would be there, too.
“It doesn’t come up for another month, though,” she said. “So you can stay with us until then.”
That actually sounded awful.
Coke and Cora had two kids. Mackie. Jackie. Mackie and Jackie, although sweet as could be, were also giant pains in the ass.
The thought of being with them for a short amount of time sounded great. Anything longer than a couple of hours, though…
“I need to go back to my storage shed,” I admitted. “Get it packed up and brought down here. Plus, Bronx already offered me a place to stay. I would offend him if I didn’t.”
That was a lie. It was all packed up and ready to be brought down here the moment I told the movers I needed it. And Bronx had no fucking idea that I was out, let alone staying with him.
But he would understand that the moment that I told him about Cora’s offer.
Again, they were sweet and all, but I didn’t want to be anywhere around their kids.
Just the thought of their kids made me think about my possible kid on the way.
“What’s that look for?” she asked as she started driving.
I looked at her. “I don’t want to tell you just yet.”
I was still trying to wrap my head around it.
Plus, telling her before I even had that conversation with Blaise seemed like a bad idea.
Cora would have questions… and I didn’t have answers yet.
Plus, she was only six weeks along.
Didn’t most people wait until they were farther along to tell anyone because of the chance of losing the baby?
Just the thought of Blaise losing the baby, though, made panic roll through me.
“You’re really being weird,” she grumbled as she turned into the nearest gas station. “Now, pump the gas for me? I’m starving and I could really use a Snickers or something to hold me over until I can get home.”
I got out and did just that.
All the while wondering if this was anywhere near as bad as my head and heart were making it out to be.
• • •
Hours later, with a new license in hand, updated insurance, my motorcycle, and a brand-new cut on my back, I walked up the front walk of Blaise’s place.
It was nice.
Very nice.
And the place that I was likely going to rent, which wasn’t ‘next door’ as much as ‘down the road’ seeing as there was only a house every half-mile or so, was just as nice.
I knocked on the door, felt my heart in my throat, and waited for her to answer.
I heard the ‘click-click’ of dog nails, and then a menacing growl.
I grinned, happy that Blaise had that.
“Oh, Sarge,” I heard Blaise call, “give it a rest. It’s probably just the mailman, like it always is.”
“So not the mailman,” I said to the woman that opened the door without, might I add, looking through the peephole to see who it was.
She blinked at me. “What are you doing here?”
I gestured to the dog that was now growling at me from much closer than I was comfortable. “You mind?”
“Sarge,” Blaise said. “Get back here.”
Sarge backed up into the house, but he kept his eyes on me.
Just the sound of her voice was sending tingles down my spine.
And don’t even get me started on the fact that my cock was now raging.
Thank God I no longer had shitty prison pants on, though.
That, and I had on real underwear—boxer briefs might I add—that felt like heaven after all those years of boxer short hell.
“What are you doing here?” she repeated.
I looked at her, then allowed my gaze to slide down the length of her body.
She was wearing black yoga pants—the kind that were tight at the ankle and not flared—a black t-shirt that was loose that said, ‘Talk to me Goose,’ and a pair of black ankle socks that looked to have quite a bit of brown hair stuck to the bottom of them.
My eyes went back up to her abdomen where our baby lay.
“I’m here to talk to you,” I said softly, allowing my gaze to once again meet hers. “We have a lot to talk about.”
She rolled her eyes. “You were pretty clear.”
“I was?” I asked, confused.
Honestly, her telling me was a blur.
Over the last four days, I’d replayed our entire interaction in my head, up until she left and didn’t turn back around.
I’d decided that she’d heard me when I’d called her name.
There was no way in hell she hadn’t.
The guard had heard me.
So she would likely have heard me, too.
Which had made me mad.
How the hell are you going to put that on a man and then walk away?
“Drummond told me what you said when you left,” she explained. “I can take a hint, you know. I’m fully capable of doing this on my own.”
The thought of talking to another man about me made anger start to boil in my stomach. Innocent talking or not, the thought of her being around another man at all was enough to send me into a jealous rage.
She was my woman.
Had been mine for a really long fucking time, actually.
I tilted my head slightly to the left as I looked at her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She licked her lips. “If you wanted to get transferred out because of me, that’s fine. I can take the hint. You don’t want me around. But I can also take care of myself. I know that I can do it on my own.”
My brain clouded in confusion.
I shook my head to clear it. “Babe, I don’t know what you think you heard from Drummond, the dumbass who has had a crush on you for a really long time, but whatever it was was bullshit. I would never tell you anything through him. Can we go inside? I’d like to hear what I supposedly said.”
She rolled her eyes, but stepped back, putting her hand on the dog’s head.
“Sarge,” she said quietly. “Let him in.”
She and the dog backed up simultaneously, allowing me entrance into her place.
There were boxes lining all the walls, and the only thing that was ‘out’ was a television that was on the floor against the wall straight in front of me.
“This is a nice place,” I said. “Cora rented me one that’s literally right next door to yours.”
She hissed in a breath. “The one that’s the first house on the right?”
I looked at her. “Yes, why?”
“My brother told me that one was a bad place. Cursed,” she said. “Something about being in a flood plain, a murder taking place there, and a woman committing suicide.”
My brows went up. “They didn’t say that to my sister-in-law when she went to sign the lease papers.”
Blaise tossed me a look over her shoulder as she moved deeper into the house.
The place was set up weird.
Despite it being large and beautiful on the outside, the inside was like a maze of hallways and labyrinths.
After two turns and a long hallway, we wound up in the kitchen, which had a small
window that overlooked the living room.
“This place is creepy,” I told her. “If mine is anything like yours, I’m going to have to move out before I even move in.”
Her brows rose. “I didn’t take you as a man that couldn’t handle a little creepiness.”
She was right.
“My brothers and I used to tell scary stories when we were little. As we got older, we made it a game to tell even scarier ones. We’d do our research right before our camping trips that we took once a year. Then we’d tell stories and see who got scared first. As we aged into adults, it turned into us researching unsolved mysteries all throughout the world. Then we’d tell what we found. Sometimes we’d have an idea, or one of us would have some insight that sounded like it may be something someone would want to know, and so we’d send our hunches into the tip lines that were attached to those unsolved mysteries,” I murmured, leaning my hips against the counter as I watched her move to the fridge. “So needless to say, I’m kind of hard to scare now. Not to mention I’ve just spent years in the prison system. If I wasn’t scared in there, then I’m not going to be scared out here.”
She looked at me curiously over her shoulder, then shook her head and turned back to the fridge.
Which appeared empty.
“I have beer and… outdated milk,” she said. “I’m fairly sure the milk is still good, though. I had it on some cereal before you knocked on the door.”
“You’re fairly sure?” I found myself chuckling, then sobered. “Who was the beer for?”
Because she was pregnant. There was no way in hell she should have that in the house unless…
“My brother was over last night,” she explained. “He helped me move some of the big pieces of furniture where I wanted them. He brought beer and pizza with him. Do you want some pizza?”
The thought of pizza was actually quite appealing.
“I am hungry,” I admitted. “But I’d rather take you out to dinner if that’s okay?”
Her head tilted slightly to the left as she closed the fridge. “Sin…”
“I didn’t say shit to Drummond when I was leaving,” I told her honestly. “Hell, I didn’t even know I was leaving until they called me to the warden’s office. At first, I thought they knew what we’d done. But I figured out really quick that they had no clue about that. Do you know who Lynn is?”
“The Lynn that’s always hanging out with my grandfather?” she asked. “The ex-FBI guy?”
“The ex-something guy. I’m not actually sure which branch of ABC agency he’s in. All I know is that he’s crazy good at what he does, and he offered me a job.” I paused. “That’s why I was transferred to Bear Bottom Penitentiary. Lynn offered me a job and a way to get out of prison early if I took it.”
“What is this job?” she asked. “Something dangerous?”
She leaned her hips against the counter and crossed her arms over her chest, pushing her breasts together and letting me know that she wasn’t wearing a bra underneath that tight t-shirt.
I blinked my eyes and looked away from her breasts to her face.
Her mouth was curled up in amusement at having caught me looking.
“Sorry,” I muttered. “Anyway, how much have you heard about the human trafficking going on in these parts?”
Blaise’s face fell. “More than I want. My brother said that young teens are disappearing at an alarming rate. That’s all we’ve talked about lately on the phone. Him working a case or whatnot.”
I nodded once, crossing my arms over my chest, mimicking her stance.
“Lynn and six other men are going to help with combating this issue in our neck of the woods,” I explained then what Lynn wanted from me. “He pulled a few men out of prison just like he did me. There are two that were already with him. Apparently, the front he wants us to use is forming a motorcycle club. So there can be an explanation as to why we’re all in the area. Because you know we’re going to draw attention. All these ex-cons in a certain area that is getting some really bad press due to the number of teenage girls disappearing.”
“You’re going to be in a motorcycle club?” she asked curiously. “Which?”
I remembered then that Blaise’s entire family was in one.
I wasn’t wearing my cut today, or I would’ve turned around and shown it to her. Had she really not seen it yet?
“Souls Chapel Revenants MC. Apparently it had already been semi-formed before I arrived. A few ‘members’ were there already. I haven’t met any of them yet. You were my first stop,” I explained.
Her shoulders slumped slightly.
“Are you sure about this, Sin?” she asked. “It sounds like a lot of… pressure.”
I shrugged. “Being in there without…” I stopped myself from saying ‘without you there.’ “It’s really hard. I would do just about anything not to be in there anymore. It was killing me.”
She nodded once, her spine stiffening slightly as she looked at me for a long time before coming to a decision.
“I don’t mind you coming to doctors’ appointments and stuff,” she looked up at me. “But I think you need some time. My original plan still needs to stay in effect. I’m here if you need to talk. Need to assure yourself that I’m well. But take some time to think. To make sure this is really what you want.” She gestured to herself. “I don’t need dates. I don’t need false platitudes. If you’re going to be in our life, you need to be in it. And I think that you need to find yourself, get yourself settled, before you add me and this baby into the mix.”
I wanted to argue with her, but she was right.
I didn’t need to be starting anything with her right now, anyway. I had a hundred million things that I needed to do.
But none of those things was more important than this.
“Blaise,” I said carefully, feeling like I was talking to a scared puppy and not a grown woman. “What is this really about?”
She swallowed hard. “What are you talking about?”
I knew there was something more.
Something she wasn’t telling me.
But I didn’t know what that something was.
“I just think you need time,” she murmured. “I don’t want you to jump into it without first knowing what you’re looking for at the finish line. I don’t… I think we both need some time to settle in. You just got out of prison today. You need… time.”
I had a feeling she wasn’t giving me the whole picture.
But I wasn’t really going to argue with her.
If she didn’t want me around yet, I’d give her that play.
“You’ll still be here once I get everything straightened out? You won’t totally hate me because I’m still getting my footing?” I wondered.
She rolled her eyes. “Sin, I’ve waited all these years. I can wait a few more months.”
I felt something inside of my chest tighten.
“I don’t want you to think that you can’t come to me. If you have a problem, let me know. I’ll handle it,” I urged.
She snorted. “I’ve been taking care of myself all these years just fine. I can do a couple more months.”
Her words, for some reason, made my heart hurt.
“I know one thing, Blaise,” I said as I hefted myself off the counter. “I’ll be back. I don’t want to be in the dark here. I want to be around. I want this. I want you. That’s never changed.”
With that, I let myself out of her door, and headed toward the street where I’d left my bike.
When I got on, I looked toward the front window where I could see her peering out.
I waved and knew that I’d be back.
Maybe not tomorrow, but soon.
• • •
BLAISE
I picked up the phone, tears running down my face, and waited for him to pick up.
“You better be freakin’ right,” I said. “Because I think I might’ve really just pissed him off.”
Johnny sighed, then started reiterating
what he’d already told me. “From what Coke told me, they had a really shitty childhood. Coke said that their parents, before they died, were really strict. Forced them to be obedient in every way. First the father died, then the mother. They moved to the grandparents that the dad learned the absolute obedience from. Then he went from one strict household to another when he went Army. He spent years in the military being told what to do. Then he spent even more years in the pen being told what to do. I just think that it’d be a good idea to let him come to this decision on his own, that’s all.”
The decision on whether or not to stay with me. To not be forced into a decision that might or might not make him hate me the rest of his life.
CHAPTER 7
Life update: still a mess.
-text from Blaise to her daddy
BLAISE
Four weeks later
“Stupid, stupid, stupid car.” I kicked the tire as I watched smoke billow from the hood in great huge plumes. “I hate you.”
I really did hate the car, too.
I’d been telling my dad for years that the damn car was an asshole and hated me—seriously, the car was perfectly good each time I took it in to get checked out, then bam, right back to being a dick the moment it’s no longer under someone else’s hands—but no.
“It’s okay, Blaise,” I mimicked my father’s voice. “There’s nothing wrong with this car.”
I kicked it again for good measure. “Nothing wrong with it my ass.”
I looked at the POS in disgust. Piece of shit—my nickname for it.
It was… smoking.
Was it on fire?
I looked at it with revulsion, then pulled out my phone and called my father.
“You’re never going to freakin’ guess what my POS is doing right now,” I said as he answered.
“Driving like the good transportation that it is?” My father’s amused voice filled the air around me.
“No,” I immediately disagreed. “It’s smoking. Like, it’s on fire, billowing smoke into the sky for people miles away to see.”
There was a long pause and then, “What did it do before it broke down?”
I frowned. “Actually, it didn’t break down. It was just billowing smoke so hard into the cab of the vehicle that I thought maybe it wasn’t a good idea to keep driving since I couldn’t see.”
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