by A. Lynn
“Crow, where do want to have dinner? Want to just come here and get a pizza? Say six?”
“Sounds perfect. Is the little man going to be here, too?”
“No, he is staying with Sasha until the updates are complete.”
“Rea? I thought we were having dinner?”
“Not anymore. You go out with Asher and we can do lunch or dinner tomorrow.”
“Are you sure? Chicks before dicks and all that.”
“Yes, I’m sure,” I chuckle.
“Great!” she yells before dashing back into the house.
When I turn around, I see Crow having a silent conversation with one of the workers. I step closer to his side and whisper, “You know him?” He wraps an arm around my shoulder and turns his head to kiss my temple, but I step away enough that his arm drops.
“Baby?”
“I’m not there, Crow.”
“But you just said to that guy…” he trails off.
“I know what I said, Crow. You are my end-game. You acting the way you did, doesn’t change that fact. I love you, Crow, I always will, but I’m not where I need to be for us to try and be together again, not yet, anyway. Baby steps, okay?”
“I can do that, baby.”
“I’ll order a pizza around six, okay?”
“I’ll be here,” he says walking to his bike.
When he is out of sight, I walk over to the worker that Crow was having a silent conversation with and introduce myself. “Hi, I’m Reagan.”
“Diego.”
“You know Crow?”
“I do.”
“How?” I ask, starting to get frustrated. It’s like pulling teeth with this guy.
“I’m a Prospect for the Kings.”
“Oh, that’s cool.”
“Sure is. Now if you will excuse me, I need to get back to work.”
“Right, sorry.”
******
There is a steady pounding on the door that would scare the shit out of me if I hadn’t heard and then seen Crow’s bike in the driveway. I open the door with a faux irritated scowl on my face.
“I thought we said six?”
“When you agreed to talk, I was too excited to wait anymore. Did you order the pizza already or do you want to order in something else?” Crow asks.
“I’m good with pizza unless you want something different?”
“I’m good with pizza, too.”
“I plan to eat it as much as I can before I start getting the horrendous heartburn that the baby book warns about. Ryan had it, and she always made it seem like death would be easier, but when Sasha and I were talking about it yesterday, she made it seem like it was manageable.”
“What baby book are you reading?”
“It’s like a baby bible, terrifying and exciting at the same time. Fuck, I can’t remember what its title is,” I say getting up to go get it from the kitchen.
“Where are you going?”
“To grab it from the table in the kitchen. Can you order the food?”
“Sure, what do you want on it?”
“Surprise me, but I want a chocolate chip cookie, too, please.”
“You got it,” he says walking out front to order.
I am back on the couch reading again when he sits a little too close, making me swallow thickly. “Can I help you?”
“Just reading with you,” he shrugs.
I mark the latest reading spot before closing the book and handing it to him.
“What to Expect When You’re Expecting. Is it any good?”
“Define ‘any good’.”
“I don’t know… is it a good read?”
“It’s not a fictional book that is meant to be leisurely, it’s a non-fiction book that is supposed to prepare me to have this baby in nine months. It tells me what I can expect and watch out for when it comes to the Peanut.”
“Peanut?” he asks with a smile on his face.
“Uh, yeah,” I reply, blushing. “That’s what it looked like when I saw the pictures on Wednesday. I don’t like calling Peanut an ‘it’ and I haven’t thought of any names yet—not that any would apply right now either. So, yeah, Peanut.”
“Calm down, babe. I like Peanut, too. Do you have copies of the pictures? Can I see them?”
“I have six pictures, half of them are yours. I was going to give one to your mom, but she didn’t seem to know I was pregnant, and then you were there. After that, all I wanted to do was get out of there.” I get up from the couch to get the ultrasound photos for him when he snags my hand and stalls me from fleeing.
“I’m so sorry, baby. I’ll do whatever it takes to fix this.”
I free my hand to go get the photos off the refrigerator but stop in the doorway on my own. “I know you will, Crow, that’s—” I get interrupted by someone knocking on the door.
“I’ll get that.”
“Okay. I’ll get drinks and stuff. You want a beer?”
“You have beer?” He cocks an eyebrow.
“Don’t make that face, it’s yours.”
“Yes, I will take a beer. Don’t forget the pictures.”
Before I have everything gathered to carry into the living room, Crow is standing in the doorway to the kitchen. “That was fast,” I state.
“Was that ‘a that’s what she said’? Because, babe, you and I both know that isn’t true,” he says cockily, coming to stand in front of me. “You want to eat in here?”
“Yeah, Asher isn’t starting his work in here until tomorrow.”
“Now will you tell me what work you’re having done?”
“I don’t want to make you mad.”
“Why would I get mad?”
“I don’t know… how do you not know the work I’m having done if a Prospect is on the work crew?”
“I didn’t know he was until he let me know that something was wrong over here. And I haven’t talked to him since I was here earlier.”
“Oh. Okay, Asher and Nico are business partners—and cousins—apparently, which is why he was here earlier. Trust me, it was a shock to the system to see him after all this time, too. I didn’t know about his connection with Asher until today, but I digress. The work I have contracted to be done is removing the alarm you put in and replacing it with one that has cameras and floodlights for the exterior and alarm triggers on the inside of all the windows, too. They are putting in a five-foot cast iron fence, a microchip locking dog door, and changing the garage door sensor. I wasn’t sure if you changed the locks on the garage door or not, so I’m going to have them change that one, too.”
“That’s a lot of work. You sure they can get it done by Sunday?”
“He said it wouldn’t be an issue, he just needed extra workers. It’s not like he charged me out the ass or anything. I want my son home and I am willing to pay extra for that to happen.”
“How much did he charge you?”
“Twenty-five thousand, but I paid him thirty-three.”
“Why did you pay more?”
“Incentive. Can we change the subject now?”
“Just one more question?”
“One.”
“You’re getting a dog?”
“We are. J is going to be so excited! It’s a security dog from Rotti-Protect in Safford.”
“Are you sure that’s safe for little man?”
My hackles rise. “Crow, we talked about this. You don’t get to tell me how to raise my son.”
“I’m not trying to tell you how to raise your son, I asked a simple fucking question.”
“Do you think that I would do something to put him in danger? The most dangerous thing that walked into my life was you and your club. That’s the only danger here.”
“Baby—”
“Don’t ‘baby’ me. This was a mistake. I want you to leave. Here are some of the pictures of Peanut. Have a good night, Crow.”
“Reagan, this wasn’t a ba—”
“Yes, it was. Please just go.”
“Quit cutting me off,” he says deadly calm. “We were having a nice time, now sit back down and finish your dinner.”
“We were having a nice time until I said something that you didn’t agree with. So no, I won’t sit down and finish my dinner. But you will get up and get out.”
“I’m not leaving, we haven’t even talked about what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“You’re not leaving?”
“No, I’m not.”
“Don’t make me call your mother,” I threaten.
“Tell her I said ‘hi’.”
I take my phone from the pocket on my sweater, bring up Stella’s contact, and push the green phone.
“It rings three times before she answers. “Hello? Rea? Is everything okay?”
“Actually, Stella, it isn’t. Crow is here and he won’t leave. Will you please get him out of here before I call the police?”
“The police? Dramatic much?” Crow sneers behind me. “You accepted my invitation for dinner.”
“You’re right, I did. But now I’m changing my mind.”
“You didn’t change your mind. You got butthurt when I questioned whether getting a Rottweiler is safe to have around Jordan and Peanut!”
“Don’t worry about my children, Crow. Peanut isn’t yours, remember? The daddy of my Peanut is in question until the twentieth of February. That reminds me, Stella will you go and provide a DNA sample to be compared against?”
“Of course I will,” she says.
“Thank you, Stella.”
“Fuck no, she’s not. That’s my Peanut in there. If a sample needs to be given, it will come from me and me alone. We don’t need a paternity test anyway,” he says, taking my phone from my hand. “Ma, she’ll call you back.”
“Damn it, Crow. Will you just go?”
“No, just listen to me, baby,” he stresses, placing a hand on my back and the other on my flat stomach. “I am so sorry for the way that I talked to you. When I thought you were with someone else—that someone else had their hands on the body that was made for me—I just lost my mind. We had only officially been together for a couple of weeks when you found out you were pregnant, and that just made it ten times worse. To know that you were carrying a baby that wasn’t mine, was unfathomable.” He shakes his head. “Even if it was another man’s baby, you would have conceived before we were together. I overreacted and I am so sorry I said those things to you. I will never forgive myself for that. Even if Peanut wasn’t mine—which I full-well know it is—I would love it regardless, it’s a small piece of you. And it would have been mine, anyway, just like Jordan is. I love you all, baby. Please don’t make me live without you.”
“Okay,” I whisper as tears run down my cheeks, taking my resolve with it.
“Don’t cry, baby,” he says, wiping them away.
“Okay,” I repeat, reaching up and pulling his lips down to mine. “God, Crow, I have missed you so much.”
“I know, baby. Me, too. How about we don’t do stupid shit to each other anymore?”
“Sounds like a plan. I do still want to get the paternity test done, though, so any doubts being had by anyone, will be put to rest.”
“I say fuck them, but if that’s what you want, then that’s what we will do.”
“Thank you,” I say as I kiss his lips again. “Now, I’m about to smash that cookie. You better get your ass in here if you want some of it.”
“You better share that shit. It smells good as fuck!”
“You better hurry!” I cackle all the way to the refrigerator. “You want some milk, honey?”
“Definitely,” he says behind me, before wrapping his arms around my waist and burying his nose in the side of my neck.
I stop what I’m doing, and reach my arms up to hold his head, until his phone rings. “You better get that.”
“Yeah,” he answers then pauses. “Fuck! Are you serious?” Pause. “I’m at Reagan’s now, I can be there in about an hour if I leave now.” Pause. “I’ll see you soon.” He cuts the call.
“You got to go?”
“I wish I didn’t, but yeah.”
“Is everything okay?”
“I’m not entirely sure.”
“You coming back tonight?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Oh, okay. I’ll see you around,” I say, feeling rejected.
“Sure,” he kisses my head and rushes to the front door.
No ‘bye, baby’. No ‘I love you’. Just a whack-ass forehead kiss. Okay, I don’t think forehead kisses are whack—they are incredibly sweet, but sweet isn’t exactly what I was expecting after we just made up after being apart for a month.
Chapter 4
Crow
Numerous traffic violations and about thirty-five minutes later, I am pulling into the parking lot of Inked by Kings tattoo shop. It looks like a fucking bomb went off. I am beside myself with anger for Axle—this is his baby. I would lose my fucking mind if someone did some shit like this to Customs.
I park my bike and join the brothers off to the side of the building, out of earshot of all the cops. “So what do we know?” I ask.
“Not a lot, Brother,” Gunner replies.
“What happened? It looks like a damn bomb went off in there.”
“Someone shot the building up,” Axle states.
“Rippers?” I ask quietly.
“Don’t know for certain, but I don’t think so,” Bane adds. “Kimberly said she could have sworn that she saw Dec minutes before the first bullet sailed through the shop.”
“That’s some bullshit!” Pop yells.
“Lower your fucking voice, right fucking now!” Gunner commands, getting in Pop’s face. “Regardless of how you feel about it, Colt, Kimberly has been the office manager here for a long time. I’m pretty sure she knows what Dec looks like.”
“Fuck you, Gunner! He wouldn’t do this!”
“Like he wouldn’t drug Crow, either?”
“Fuck you, too, Bane!”
“Church, now!” Gunner demands before turning to Axle. “Get the prospects up here to board up the windows. We can get a rush order on some windows and have them put in over the weekend.”
“Reagan is having some work done on her house. Do you want me to get their contact information?”
“Sounds good. Talk to her and I will see all of you back at the clubhouse for church in two hours. Someone needs to stay here until the prospects get here, though.”
“I’ll hang here,” Moose offers.
Gunner shakes his head. “No, I don’t think that’s the best idea. If it was Dec and Cash and they come back and find you here by yourself, things may go bad for you. Especially since you didn’t walk out with them yesterday.”
“I don’t think they would hurt me, Gunner.”
“Did you think he would try and hurt me?”
“Do you really think he tried to hurt you, Crow?”
“I don’t know, Moose, and that is a much scarier prospect.”
“Either way, I won’t risk leaving you here, Moose,” Gunner states matter-of-factly.
“I’ll stay,” Rhys grumbles.
“Sounds good. Call if anything comes up or if you need back up,” Gunner replies.
“I’ll stay with him,” Horse offers.
“Me, too,” Jagger chimes in.
“Good. Call if you need anything,” he repeats before getting on his bike and leading the rest of us out of the parking lot.
Forty-five minutes later I am pulling into Reagan’s driveway, feeling like an asshole because her house is dark now. I look at my watch and seeing that it almost ten thirty, I decided to let her sleep. Then the front porch light comes on and the door opens.
“Crow?”
“Yeah, baby, it’s me.”
“What are you doing here? I thought you weren’t coming back.”
“I have about an hour and a half before I’m needed in Church. I thought we could spend it together.”
A smile spli
ts her face. “Then why are you still way over there?”
I’m off my bike in the next second, sprinting towards her. I am on her porch before she has a chance to do more than give me her back. I wrap my arms around her waist and hoist her up into a bridal carry before stalking into her house and kicking the door shut.
It slams a bit harder than I meant for it to, so I’m quick to ask after Jordan. “I hope I didn’t wake him up.”
“He’s with Sasha until Monday. I told you that earlier.”
“I forgot. Good thing, though, because that shit would have woken him up.”
“You think?”
I feign a glare. “Don’t make me tickle that smart mouth right out of you.”
“Don’t make me pee all over you. I really didn’t think the excessive peeing started immediately,” she shrugs. “Who knew?”
“Probably lots of people, baby.”
“It was a rhetorical question, dick.”
I sit on the couch and get comfortable without letting her out of my arms. “I’m so glad that we are sitting here together right now.”
“I’ve told you before, Crow, I don’t want to be without you. I have known that from the beginning, and I mean it just as fiercely now as I did the first time I told you. It just comes down to how many times I can be okay with you talking down to me or fucking around on me. You are the only factor that can break us.”
“I didn’t fuck around on you.”
“I know that... Now. But the worst of it was the way you talked to me when I told you I was pregnant. That isn’t okay now, nor will it ever be. Is that how you will respond every time I get pregnant? Will you question me like I haven’t earned your trust? I told you that you would only get a hundred percent honesty from me; I’m not a liar, Crow.”
“I’m sorry baby. I promise I will make this up to you.”
“I know you’re sorry, Crow, but I don’t need you to make it up to me. I need you to not do it again.”
“I promise,” he vows.
“Good,” I pause. “Now, what was so important that you ran out of here without saying bye or that you love me?”
“Awe, babe. Did I hurt your feelings?”
“Don’t joke.”
He sobers. “Someone shot up the tattoo parlor that the Club owns. Stamped by Kings, ever heard of it?”
