Untitled Book 2

by Chantal Fernando

  “Yeah, of course,” I say, leaving the kitchen. “Sin says they’re destroying his garden and ruining his life.”

  “Dramatic much?”

  I grin at her, lingering for a second before leaving for Sin’s house.

  The sooner I get there, the sooner I can come back and take my woman out to dinner. After we talk, I’m going to bring her home and make love to her all night.

  Yes, I fuckin’ said it, I’m going to make love to her.

  Fuck.

  How the mighty have fallen.

  And I don’t even give a fuck.

  * * *

  When I arrive at Sin’s, I’m about to walk inside when my phone rings.

  And that’s when everything goes to hell.

  THIRTY-NINE

  Shayla

  MY heart is in my throat.

  I check into the hotel using the fake ID Talon had made for me, grateful to have it. If I didn’t, I would have been screwed, because without any ID, they wouldn’t have given me the room.

  So for today, my name is Alexis Osborne. I leave my suitcase in the corner of the room and sit down on the bed, wondering just what the hell I’m doing. I left the clubhouse because I didn’t know what else to do. Because for the first time ever, being there didn’t feel so comfortable. How can things change so drastically within twenty-four hours? I went from being happy with the man I love and his amazing family, to being alone in a hotel room, my phone off and tears in my eyes. The situation I’m currently in, I don’t know how to get out of. There’s no fixing it, and there’s no happy ending for everyone involved, especially me.

  I wonder how I am going to live without everyone I’ve grown so close to over the last few weeks. I turn my phone on and send Vinnie a message, letting him know I’m safe, because I don’t want him to worry that something bad has happened to me. I put my phone on silent, use the bathroom, and then climb into bed. I don’t know what’s going to happen, or what the future holds for me, but for right now, I’m going to take a nap.

  I don’t have it in me to do anything else.

  * * *

  I wake up feeling less sorry for myself, and more anger. I check my phone, but ignore everyone’s messages and calls except one person’s. I don’t want to drag him into this, but he’s all I have right now.

  I need you, I type.

  Tell me where you are, I’m coming to get you, he replies instantly. I decide I want tonight to myself, so I reply with, I’m safe. Can you come and get me tomorrow? Come alone.

  Stubborn.

  I grin and put the phone down. He better come alone. The last thing I need is Vinnie showing up demanding to know why I left, and then I’ll have to tell him that I’ve ruined his life by making him a father. Even though it wasn’t all my fault. Or maybe it was? I don’t remember ever skipping a pill, but with everything going on I guess I must have. My stomach rumbles, and I know I have to get up to get something to eat.

  When I told Faye that I was feeling nauseous, and my period still hadn’t arrived, she quickly went and bought me two pregnancy tests. They were both positive. Then, when I finally worked up the nerve to tell Vinnie, I find out that he never wants kids. Ever. And now . . . now I don’t know what to do. I’m lost, and confused, and all I want to do is stay in bed, cry, and eat junk food.

  Will he try to make me get rid of this baby? I don’t think I can, I’d lose a part of myself. But, if I have this baby, I’ve pretty much lost Vinnie. I love Vinnie, but I love myself, and now my child, more. I know I shouldn’t have left like I did. I know it was selfish of me, but I just had to go away, and I’m not ready for everything to be out in the open. Maybe Faye told Vinnie I was pregnant, and now I won’t have to. Maybe he won’t even come after me when he finds out.

  Back to feeling sorry for myself then.

  I need to go back to the clubhouse at some point to get Colt. I miss him, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to take him to a hotel with me. I left out food and water, and a note to please look after him until I get back. I know they’ll take good care of him for a few days until I find us a permanent place to live. I’m hoping Talon will let us stay with him until I buy a place. Maybe I should move to another country. Then again, I couldn’t really take Colt with me overseas, so it looks like I’m staying. And therefore having to face my problems.

  Great.

  I sit up in bed, my hands covering my face.

  Right now—I’m being a coward.

  I guess I just don’t want to see Vinnie’s face, hear the words pouring from his mouth as he says that he doesn’t want him or her . . . doesn’t want us.

  But what can I really expect from him? He never even told me that he loves me.

  * * *

  Talon picks me up from the hotel in a red sports car I’ve never seen before. When I raise my eyebrow at the car, he just smirks and says, “You told me to come alone, so I wanted to make sure no one follows me.”

  “Very inconspicuous,” I mutter as he gets out of the car and takes my suitcase for me, kissing me on each cheek.

  “You have some explaining to do, baby cuz.”

  “I know.” I sigh, getting into the passenger seat as he loads my case. I put my seat belt on and wait for him to get back into the car, wondering what the best way to say this was.

  “Speak,” he says softly, after he turns on the engine and exits the parking lot.

  “I just want to hide out with you for a few days,” I say, looking at his profile. “Please.”

  “That’s no problem, Shayla. What I want to know is: why?”

  I clear my throat, then decide to just blurt it out. “Vinnie told me he doesn’t believe in marriage and never wants children.”

  “And that’s a reason to run away and hide from him?” Talon asks, confusion marring his brow. “At least he was being honest with you.”

  Since when was Talon all Team Vinnie?

  “Yes, I agree,” I say, swallowing hard. “I do appreciate the honesty. However, hearing that he never wants children, and that he’d be a terrible father, just before I was about to tell him that I’m pregnant, wasn’t a situation I ever thought I’d find myself in.”

  Talon mutters one word that sums up this whole situation. “Fuck.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Why didn’t the two of you fucking use protection?” he growls, making me cringe. The last thing I want to hear is a sex talk from my cousin.

  “I’m on the pill,” I say, scrubbing my hand down my face. “I don’t know, I must have missed one, or something, I don’t even know. But it’s my fault, he trusted me to have it under control.”

  I should have just made him wear condoms too. Fucking hell.

  “It’s not your fault,” Talon tells me in a gentle tone. “You didn’t do it on purpose. Look there’s no point going over the what-ifs, you just need to handle the situation and deal with the now. What do you want to do, Shayla?”

  “I don’t want to get rid of him or her,” I say in a small voice. “I’d hate myself, Talon. I’d think about it every day. It’s not an option for me. If Vinnie doesn’t want anything to do with our baby, then so be it. It’s not like I need money, or anything from him. I can handle everything on my own.”

  “Being a single mother is hard work.”

  “I know.”

  I’m lucky that I don’t have to work—I can easily be a full-time mother and live off the money my father left behind, getting a job eventually. I can always do bookkeeping, although accounting didn’t really work for me the first time around.

  “So what, you told Vinnie, then bailed? He rang me, fucking frantic, wondering where the fuck you are,” he says, sounding like he feels sorry for Vinnie.

  I wince and look out the window. “I didn’t tell him.”

  “You what?” Talon practically yells now.

  “I didn’t tell him! I panicked, and I left, okay? I didn’t want to watch him get angry or to tell me to kill my fucking baby because he doesn’t want it! I don’t want to hear
it, Talon. Imagine hearing those words from the man I love.”

  Talon curses under his breath and slams his hands down on the steering wheel.

  “Is it safe for me to come to the clubhouse?” I ask him. “I know you had your own shit going on there . . .”

  “Vinnie is not going to want you staying at the Wild Men clubhouse,” Talon says, green eyes pinning me to my seat. “I’m going to become public enemy number one for bringing you there.”

  “I can stay at a hotel, but I want to bring my dog with me wherever I am.”

  “I’m not going to take you to the clubhouse, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to look after you. I have a house you can stay in—consider it yours, all right? I’ll move in there with you for however long you need me, but to be honest, I don’t think that’s going to be very long.”

  “Why?”

  “Because Vinnie is a Wind Dragon, Shay. You’re his, and they always come for what’s theirs.”

  I lay my head back and close my eyes. “How did things turn out like this?”

  Talon’s eyes gentle. “It’s all temporary. Things will work out for you, Shayla. I promise.”

  I’m glad he’s so confident, because me?

  I’m not so sure.

  FORTY

  Vinnie

  I STALK through the clubhouse, phone in my hand, waiting for Talon to call me back. He said that she’s fine, and that he will get her to call me ASAP. I got no fuckin’ sleep last night, instead I kept calling her and Talon’s phones, wanting some damn explanations. We were meant to talk everything out, she said we would, but then she just leaves?

  When Faye rang me and asked where Shay was, I felt it in my gut that something wasn’t right. And it wasn’t. She was gone. Without a word. Fuck, how she played me yesterday morning in the kitchen, letting me think everything was going to be okay between the two of us, when really she knew she was going to leave without giving me any kind of explanation as to why, or without giving us a chance.

  Faye leans against the wall, hand on her protruding stomach, watching me as I pace.

  “Vinnie, why don’t you let me make you something to eat? You haven’t eaten or slept.”

  “I’m fine,” I tell her, waving off her concern. I won’t sleep until I get to talk to Shay. I’m so angry at how she’s handled this whole thing, yet at the same time I’m worried and just want her home.

  “Vinnie,” Faye says quietly, looking unsure. “Shay confided something in me, and I think it has to do with this whole thing.”

  I stop, turn to her, and approach. “What are you talking about?”

  “Fuck!” she snaps. “This isn’t my place to say, it should come from her. I just don’t want you to find out that I knew, and then lose your shit at me. She spoke to me, woman-to-woman, and it doesn’t feel right telling you when it isn’t my thing to tell.”

  I study her for a moment, and then yell out one word, “Sin!”

  Faye mutters something under her breath, I’m pretty sure she called me a snitch, but I’ll have to deal with her ass later, because right now all I want to know about is what Shay confided in her.

  Sin walks in from outside, shirtless. “What the fuck is going on now?”

  I look at his wife. “Faye knows.”

  “Knows what?” he asks, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand.

  “Everything.”

  “For fuck’s sake, someone give me more than that,” he growls, losing his patience. “I’m trying to build a higher fence. I don’t have time for this shit.”

  “I think I know why Shay left,” Faye tells her husband. “She confided something in me, and after Vinnie told me what their last conversation was about, it all makes sense.”

  “Faye,” Sin says in warning.

  She turns to me, her hazel eyes narrowed. She doesn’t look very happy with me all of a sudden, and I’d like to know why. “You said that you told her you never want kids, or marriage, and that you’d be a terrible father, and that you never plan on moving out of the clubhouse. Basically, in a way, you gave her an ultimatum. You set the rules, leaving nothing open for compromise. That’s not how a relationship works, Vinnie. You gave her nothing to work with, no hope for the future, except for a life staying exactly how it is now. What about what she wants? Did you even ask her that?”

  “You said all that to her?” Sin asks, blue eyes going double their size. “Ice-cold, Vinnie. Ice-cold.”

  “I was honest,” I say, defending myself.

  “Yeah, well,” Faye says, hands now on her hips. “You gave that asshole of a speech to a woman who’s already pregnant with your child and was going to tell you that day.”

  “What?” I ask. I can’t have heard correctly.

  There is no way.

  No.

  Pregnant?

  But she’s on the pill. I know no contraception is 100 percent, but what the fuck?

  “So you told a pregnant woman, who is unsure and probably scared, not to mention hormonal, that you don’t ever want children?” Sin asks, cringing. “Fucking hell, you’re so screwed.”

  “Thanks for that, prez,” I reply, still in a daze.

  Shay is pregnant.

  I don’t really know how to process this, to be honest. I fucked things up with Shay, she’s probably really hurt right now, and hating me, but I don’t know how to accept that I’m going to have a child, when like I said, I never planned on having one.

  Ever.

  Under no circumstance.

  I run my hand over my head, and turn to walk away from these two, because I need to be alone right now.

  “Are you going after her?” Faye asks, hope lacing her tone.

  Hope that I soon dash. “No.”

  How fucked-up is that? My first instinct after hearing this news isn’t even to go after her, to tell her everything will be okay, because I don’t know if it will be. I’ve never trusted another woman when she said she was on the pill, I always wore condoms anyway, but with Shay, I trusted her completely. I guess that’s not exactly fair, because shit does happen and nothing is foolproof, but fuck, I only just heard the news and my head is fuckin’ spinning.

  This can’t be happening.

  I run my fingers over the bridge of my nose and take a deep breath.

  Shay.

  Pregnant.

  A fuckin’ baby.

  I picture a small baby with her dark hair. A baby of mixed nationalities, raised by two people whose own parents didn’t even want them.

  I don’t know anything about being a good father.

  Nothing. I never had one, I never had a good childhood, I never had anything, and that’s all I know to give back to a child.

  Nothing.

  I wouldn’t know how to be there emotionally. I wouldn’t know how to calm a crying baby, or how to bond with one. What the fuck do you even do with them all day long? A baby would just hog Shay, and I’d be there on the outside, wondering what the fuck happened to my life. Sure, Faye and Sin make it work, but they’re different. I’m a different man than Sin is. I’d have to move out of the clubhouse, because that’s not exactly a place you can raise a child for its entire life, and live the exact life I always said I never wanted. I’d be living a life I might grow to hate, or maybe I wouldn’t, I won’t know until it happens.

  Maybe Shay was right in leaving. Maybe she knows, just as well as I do, that this child would be better off without me.

  “He’s not going after her,” I hear Faye tell Sin. “You need to make him. You’re the president!”

  “I can’t make him do anything,” Sin replies, sounding exasperated with her.

  “Then give him a male pep talk, you’ve been in this situation. Imagine if you’d treated me like this when you found out I was pregnant. I would’ve thrown it in your face for the rest of your life.”

  “Well hopefully Shay is a more kind and forgiving woman than you are,” Sin says in a dry tone. “Their situation is different than ours, and I can’t make Vinnie
fix it, it’s his decision.”

  “The longer he waits the harder it’s going to be to fix.”

  “He only just heard she’s pregnant, let the man digest it. You can’t solve everyone’s problems.”

  “The hell I can’t,” Faye mutters, and I can just imagine her giving Sin her narrow-eyed, stubborn look. “I love Vinnie, and I really like Shay. Vinnie’s kid will be my niece or nephew. This affects us all.”

  “Well us standing in front of him discussing it isn’t really going to help now, is it?” Sin says. “You need to give him time. He’s a man. He will do what he wants, when he wants, not because there’s a stubborn-ass woman waiting at his door, a woman who’s not even his, talking about him where he can hear her.”

  “Fine,” she says, then calls out, “Vinnie, if you don’t go and get Shay right now, you’re a dumb-ass. That’s all I’m going to say about it. Men become fathers the second they hold their baby, women become mothers the second they become pregnant. Don’t be a dick and realize too late what you’re going to miss out on.” She squeals, then yells, “Sin, put me down! I’m not finished yet.”

  I hear her yelling down the hallway.

  Thank fuck he took her away.

  Still, her words play in my mind.

  The thing about Faye—she’s usually right.

  FORTY-ONE

  Shayla

  TALON gets me settled in his house, then leaves and tells me someone will be dropping off groceries and lunch. He says he’ll be back in the evening to take me out to dinner. So basically, I’m alone in a new house with nothing else to do but overthink my life and everything that’s happened in the last few days, which is the last thing I want to do right now. I wish Colt was here. I put on the TV and try to distract myself. I’m watching Supernatural when there’s a knock at the door. I open it, coming face-to-face with Ranger.

  “Shayla,” he says, smiling, his hands full of bags.

  “Hey, Ranger,” I say, opening the door wider for him. “Do you want some help?”