“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
“Very much.”
My eyes panned over to hers and I made no effort to hide the way my eyes danced along her body. She had so many other tattoos I’d never seen before. She had a barbed wire tattoo around her right bicep with some sort of flowers or colorful leaves wrapped around it. And on her left upper arm she had an artistic rendition of a picturesque sunset dipping down beneath the surface of the ocean. I saw a small heart with the initials ‘G.J.’ tattooed onto her right breast that wiggled for her while she breathed.
I started wondering if she hid more underneath that silken nightgown of hers.
“Well, thanks for your help,” I said as I tried to get up.
I heard her sigh as I stood to my feet before the room began to spin.
“Always the stubborn one,” Piper said. “Sit down, Rock.”
“I’m good. Gotta get back to the guys.”
“So, you’re still rolling with that club of yours.”
“‘Til death do us part,” I said.
I tried to take a step forward, but instead my body fell back. I flopped back down to the couch as the room spun, making me sick to my stomach. I closed my eyes and drew in a deep breath, trying to steady my stomach. My entire body hurt in ways I’d never experienced before, but slowly the events of the night before started to come back.
The conversation with Brewer.
The need for a drive.
Holy shit. The car that ran me off the road.
“My bike,” I said. “Where is it?”
“So, you’re starting to remember,” Piper said.
I opened one eye and glare at her as a small grin trickled across her cheeks.
“I hauled it into my garage. It’s pretty banged up, but it looks like the damage is mostly superficial. I worked out some of the kinks last night. But the handlebars are still pretty fucked up.”
“So, you still work on bikes,” I said.
“In between my shifts at the hospital. Though, in my defense, I work on more than just bikes now.”
“The hospital?”
“I work at the hospital in town. Took a job there as one of their main E.R. doctors a couple of week ago.”
“So, you’re back in town for a while.”
“So, it would seem,” she said.
“You don’t sound too thrilled about that.”
“I’ve had better moments in Redding, let’s just put it that way.”
The disdain in her voice was evident.
“I’m shocked you’re not still in jail or something,” Piper said.
“Nope. Only did a few months, then I got out,” I said.
“Good lawyer?”
“A bit of good behavior, too,” I said with a grin.
“Are you capable of something like that?”
I furrowed my brow as I took the chance and opened my eyes.
“Last I recalled, I didn’t hear you complaining about the way I lived my life,” I said.
“The last time I recalled, I was also trying to fuck you while you rode down the highway on your bike.”
“Not the adventurous spirit any longer?” I asked.
“Things took priority, yes.”
The look in her eye was foreign. Something I’d never seen before. I relaxed into the couch and stretched my legs, listening as they popped and groaned with the movements. I laid my head back into the cushions and sighed deeply. I wanted to get out of her house. To get out of the thick, disgusting tension brewing between us. But I also didn’t want to leave her. I didn’t want this to be the last time we saw one another. And if it was going to be the last time, I sure as fuck didn’t want to leave it on that kind of note.
“You said I don’t have a concussion?” I asked.
“I don’t think you do, no. But I did have to sew up some pretty deep gashes with the medical supplies I keep on hand,” I said. “The best thing you can do for yourself right now is rest. And if you don’t want to listen, I’ll call an ambulance and have you transported to a place where they’ll make you listen.”
“Do they have drugs there?” I asked. “Drugs would be nice.”
“I need to check your mental state before I give you anything for the pain. Are you remembering anything from last night?”
“I crashed into a ditch after a car ran me off the fucking road.”
“Well, we don’t always get lucky every day,” she said.
“I’ll pretend like I didn’t hear that.”
“I don’t care if you do or not.”
“You’re really pissed right now, aren’t you?” I asked.
“What tipped you off?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it was the fact that you just alluded to my being preferably dead.”
“Wasn’t sure if you caught that,” she said with a grin.
“See, now I know that grin. That isn’t the grin of someone who’s angry.”
“It’s the grin of someone who has the upper hand,” she said.
“So, you want me to rest, but you don’t want me here.”
“I’m first and foremost your doctor. And as your doctor, I know what’s best for you right now.”
“Does being my doctor come with playing doctor?” I asked with a smirk.
“You were never into roleplay.”
“Things change.”
Her eyes narrowed at me as she crossed one thick leg over the other. She looked different. The same, but also different. A little thicker around the thighs. Her tits were gloriously bigger as well. Her cheeks were a little rounder and her legs a little stronger. Fuck me, Piper was gorgeous. Juicier than I’d ever seen her in my dreams. I raked my eyes down her one last time before drawing in a deep breath, trying to keep my cock at bay.
Because even it throbbing hurt.
“Is there a part of me that isn’t going to hurt?” I asked.
“I’d say being tossed face first into a ditch warrants an all-around bodily ache,” Piper said.
“Is that your professional or personal opinion?”
“Both,” she said.
“So, do you own this home? Or are you renting it?”
I watched her face fall before something akin to sadness raked over her features.
“I own it,” Piper said.
“How much did you buy it for?”
“I didn’t. This is my childhood home.”
“So, you’re living with your parents.”
“No,” she said.
My eyes connected with hers and I saw a pain flooding them I was all too familiar with. Shit. Of course, I’d touch on the one damn subject that would bring tears to her eyes. I fucking hated it when Piper cried. She did enough of that shit over the summer we spent together. A little girl terrified of what her future brought while not knowing what move to make or what to do with her fucking life. I’d spent that entire summer wrapped up in her. Trying to expose her to things that could make her smile despite the world she thought was tumbling down around her.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“It’s fine. I didn’t have the heart to sell it, and now I’m glad I didn’t. Once I took the job with the hospital, I didn’t have to find a place to live.”
“And even in a small town like Redding, finding a place to stay is a shit show,” I said.
“Beau! Stop!”
My eyes widened at the small voice. I watched Piper bolt upright in her chair before she quickly stood to her feet. She ran across the room and around the couch as I stood to my feet, ignoring the swirling of my brain and the tilting of the room. That was a child’s voice. There was a child in this fucking house.
Holy hell. Was Piper a mother?
“Beau! No!”
“Gavin, honey. You have to be quiet. What’s going on?” Piper asked.
“Beau’s eating my shoe,” the boy said.
“Beau, come on. You’re going outside now.”
I heard the dog whimper his disapproval as Piper came walking back down
the hallway. She had a massive pit-bull mix in her arms as she walked towards the back door, then she put the dog down onto its feet and opened it. She scooted him out the door with her foot before he flopped down onto the cement, staring back in through the glass and looking at all of us.
Then, a boy came running into the room with a toy in his hand.
“He can have it,” the boy said. “It’s too small anyway.”
My eyes whipped over to Piper before I looked back down at the small boy next to her. He wrapped his arms around her and smiled up at me with a smile that looked a little too familiar. His hair was dirty blonde and thick. And his eyes were a thunderstorm gray. He was tall. His head rested easily in the crook of Piper’s waist. My eyes dropped down the boy’s body and took him in as my mind began to whirl.
“Rock,” Piper said.
“How old are you?” I asked the little boy.
“Don’t answer that. Just go back up to your room,” Piper said.
“I’m five,” the boy said with a massive smile. “My name’s Gavin. Are you feeling better?”
‘G.J.’
Gavin Jackson.
He was five?
I heard the back door open before the dog started barking. The door slammed as footfalls shuffled across the floor, but I wasn’t paying attention. Voices emanated from upstairs before some music struck up as my mind slid back into its own world. Into its own fucking calculations. Five years old. Nine months of pregnant. That put him being conceived in--
Oh shit.
My vision focused as Piper came walking back down the hallway. And the look on her face told me everything I needed to know. She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the hallway wall as I stood there, staring her down.
Did I have a fucking kid?
Chapter 8
Piper
“I told you to stay in your room,” I said.
“But Beau had my shoe, Mommy. You said if Beau ever got-”
“I know what I said. But I told you to stay in your room. All you had to do was take the shoe from Beau and hand him one of his toys I know you keep stuffed underneath your bed.”
“Sorry,” he said.
“It’s okay,” I said as I scooped him up. “You just have to do what Mommy says okay? It’s imperative you stay in your room right now.”
“Why?”
“Because the man downstairs is very sick, and I don’t need you running around and disturbing his rest.”
“Because you’re his doctor?”
“Exactly,” I said. “Because I’m his doctor. You want him to get better, don’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Then he has to have quiet and he has to rest.”
“But I heard you guys talking.”
“I was just telling him what happened to him and asking if he could remember things. That’s it,” I said.
“Oh.”
“Beau’s going to spend some time outside, and in the meantime, I’m going to put on a movie for you to watch.”
“Do I have to stay up here all day?” he asked.
“No, sweet boy. Just for a little while. Until the movie’s done, okay?”
“Okay.”
I settled my son back into bed and turned on his favorite movie. A musical. I’d memorized that thing from front to back. He knew every song and sang them out as loudly as he could. Normally, I’d stray away from that movie as much as possible. It got on my last nerve and made me want to punch a damn wall. But in this particular instance, I didn't mind it at all. He slid down underneath the covers and lost himself in the movie, so I rose up and pressed a kiss to his forehead.
“I love you,” I said.
“Love you too, Mom.”
I really hoped Gavin would stay in his room this time. Little kids never listened, but if there was any time for him to listen, it was now. I closed his door so he didn’t have to hear the inevitable conversation that was about to ensue, then I leaned against the door and placed my forehead on it. I allowed myself a moment’s rest. Just a moment to bring my thoughts together and prepare myself for the inevitable. Then I looked down at myself and figured I could use a change of clothes.
Anything to put off what was about to happen.
I slid into my bedroom and started pulling out some outfits. I slid my nightgown off and tossed it into the corner, resolving myself to the least amount of work in order to conserve energy. I pulled on some panties and tucked myself into a bra, then pulled on a pair of skinny jeans that came all the way up to my waist. I slipped a t-shirt over my head that was cut off at my waist, then I piled my blonde hair into a messy bun on top of my head. I walked into my bathroom and splashed some water in my face, drawing in deep breaths to try and stop the swell of panic rising in my gut.
Then, I took a good, hard look at myself in the mirror.
I wanted to brush it off. To tell Rock that Gavin wasn’t his child. But we both knew better. Gavin was the spitting image of his father, and I saw that realization wash over his face. He knew. Rock knew he had a son. And I knew the second I walked down those stairs he would ask me if Gavin was his. We’d been through a lot, both good and bad. And while I wasn’t a fan of what he had chosen to do with his life, he did help me through an insane time in my life. He helped to distract me from the pressures of school and the death of my father. He whisked me away on weekend adventures that helped me with my grieving process.
I hated him for the life he led, but I loved him for what he had given me that summer.
Gavin, included.
That boy was my world. The reason I got up every single morning. As I wiped my face off with a towel, I recalled the first time I figured out I was pregnant. The signs were all there. Vomiting. Headaches. Exhaustion. Chest pain. Every single symptom that could’ve come as a result of a pregnancy hit me all at once. I took drug store test after drug store test before finally resolving myself to going and seeing a doctor, and it was like my world had stopped.
And for a brief couple of weeks, I considered having an abortion.
The guilt, even now, was overwhelming. Tears flooded my vision as I conjured my son’s face. How I could have ever thought about aborting my pregnancy with him made me sick to my stomach. Gavin single-handedly brought a light into my world that could never be snuffed out. He was full of life and always smiling and always had something to giggle about. He was sociable and energetic and caring to his core. He might look like his father, but he got his disposition from me.
The perfect combination of two imperfect individuals.
I took the time to apply some makeup. I wanted to feel normal for this conversation. I swiped on some mascara and wing-tipped my eyeliner. I put chapstick on my lips before lining it in a cherry red. I felt at peace with makeup on. I felt put together. Held together by the bonds of the accents I drew along my face. I slid everything off to the side and gave myself one last look, then I resolved myself to a conversation I knew had to take place.
I walked by Gavin’s room, listening as he sang to the first song of the movie. It warmed my heart to hear his little voice wafting through the door. My hand hit the railing and I started down the steps of my childhood home, my heart pounding fervently in my chest. My hand gripped the wooden support at my side. I willed my legs to stay strong enough to get down the stairs. I turned a corner and stood in the hallway, coming face to face with the man that had changed my world all those years ago.
A man I couldn't forget if I tried.
His eyes held my stare, but they were vacant. Almost as if he wasn’t in this world any longer. I took a step down the hallway and my movement stunned him, his head shaking to bring him out of his trance. And when his eyes fell onto mine again, they hardened. Those steely gray eyes that used to hold a warmth for me grew cold and dark. His eyes dropped down my body again, but not with the initial shock and surprise it once had. Instead, his nose twitched. Like he smelled something bad in the rafters of my home and was trying to be polite enough not to bring it u
p.
But I knew Rock.
And I knew what was about to fly out of his mouth.
“Rock?” I asked.
His eyes panned back up to mine, but his body didn’t move.
“Do you remember anything else about your accident last night?” I asked.
He snickered, but his eyes never wavered.
“That’s what you’re concerned about?” he asked.
“As your doctor, yes.”
“I’m not talking to you as my doctor.”
“Then who am I to you right now?” I asked.
“I’m honestly not fucking sure right now.”
The words hurt more than I had imagined they would.
“He’s five.”
“He is,” I said.
“Did you carry him for nine months?”
“Rock, I--”
“Answer me, Piper.”
Hearing my name so hard off his lips settled my heart into my stomach.
“Eight and a half, but yes. Essentially,” I said.
He snickered again, and that time he peeled his gaze away from mine. He shook his head and I could see how unsteady he still was on his feet. He stumbled over to the couch and I rushed for him, but his hand jutted out and caught me in my chest. Preventing me from helping him, even in a doctoral capacity.
“I got it,” he said.
“You need to rest.”
“I need answers,” he said.
“You can have all the answers you want if you just lay back down. You shouldn’t be on your feet right now.”
“And you shouldn't have hid this from me!”
His voice bellowed all over my house. It pressed into every corner and echoed down every hallway. I took a step back from him, putting some distance between us as he stood back up. He rolled his shoulders back as his eyes continued to darken, and for the first time ever I wondered if he was going to hurt me. I backed up to the entrance of the hallway and kept my eyes on him with one ear trained on the steps.
“Is Gavin mine?” Rock asked.
“Rock, I really think you should--”
“Is Gavin. My son?”
There it was. The moment of truth. And even though everything inside of me wanted to lie and cheat and steal myself away from that moment, I knew I couldn’t. If I was going to be living and thriving in Redding, it was only a matter of time before he figured it out anyway if he was still in town. I knew that much. I’d convinced myself he wasn’t in town any longer, but it was obvious he was.
Rock (Dead Souls MC Book 4) Page 4
