by Zoey Parker
He smiled at me. He had a tan that looked like a darker version of what was a natural olive complexion. His eyes were dark to match his hair, which was hardened by gel and slicked back. There was a little bit of stubble across his angular jaw, and I admitted that he was pretty attractive. But I didn’t feel attracted to him. In fact, I felt a little uncomfortable, though I couldn’t say why.
“Carol. That’s a pretty name. Is it short for something?” he asked innocently, tilting his head to the side as he continued to smile.
I swallowed and forced a return smile. “It’s what my friends call me,” I told him, avoiding a direct answer. “Do you work with Asher?” I asked hurriedly so we wouldn’t get stuck on names for any longer.
His smile faltered, but he regained it easily. “We are members of the Anarchy’s Horsemen. I suppose everyone here works for Asher, though I don’t work at Black Opus.”
I frowned. “For him?” I repeated, picking up on the thing that sounded weird.
He nodded. “Sure. Asher hasn’t been the leader for very long, but we do all work for him.” He smiled tightly and looked like he wanted to add something, but I wasn’t listening.
Instead, I was focused on what he told me. Asher hasn’t been the leader for very long.
Leader. As in the head honcho when it came to the Anarchy’s Horsemen, the illicit motorcycle club that my father was working so hard to get off the streets. The leader whose child I had growing in my womb as we spoke.
Horton was speaking and had asked me a question, but I didn’t care. I stood abruptly. “I’m sorry, I have to go find Asher. It was nice to meet you.” Then I left him before he had the chance to say anything more. I knew at that moment that I had to talk to Asher and come clean about a few things.
I didn’t care that he was the leader of the motorcycle club.
I didn’t care that my father was the mayor trying to get rid of him.
But he might.
I found Asher still talking to Bane. Smiling as best I could, I grabbed Asher by the elbow and apologized to Bane. “I’m sorry, but I need to borrow him for a moment. Is that all right?”
Bane nodded before Asher could say anything. “Oh, yeah, sure. I really need a burger anyway.” He winked at us, then headed towards the grill.
Making sure there wasn’t anyone else in earshot, I whispered to Asher, “I need to tell you something.”
He must have sensed the urgency or the panic in my voice, because his brow furrowed and his voice dropped, too. “Carol, what is it?”
Carol. Jesus, I didn’t even tell him the truth about my name!
I opened my mouth to come clean about all of it—me being the mayor’s daughter, how he’d kill me if he figured out this baby’s father was a Horsemen, much less the leader—when a sudden sharp pain tore through my middle. I let out a sharp cry, my hands going to my stomach automatically.
“Carol? Carol! What’s wrong?” Asher cried, reaching for me and holding me by the shoulders as I doubled over in pain.
It was excruciating, searing, and in a hot flash, I had a sudden thought: What if there was something wrong with the baby?
I clutched at Asher. “Oh God. The baby. I think there’s something wrong.” But I couldn’t say anything more. I slumped to my knees, Asher keeping me in a sitting position when I felt like just slumping over into the grass. I was sucking in harsh breaths through clenched teeth, tears forming in my eyes. My vision was starting to go dark, and in a faraway sort of voice, I heard Asher talking to someone.
“… have to get her to the hospital!”
“You can’t go!” cried someone else. “They’re looking for you.”
“I have to risk it. The baby…”
And then I slipped into unconsciousness, hoping the baby would be okay.
Chapter Fourteen
Asher
Going to the hospital was a risky idea that was likely to get me arrested. The cops were still looking for me, confirmed by several trustworthy sources. If they got ahold of me, I could fight my way through the legal bullshit, but if they found anything else—like the drugs we sometimes sold—they could potentially put me away for a long time.
Which I definitely didn’t want to happen, but I didn’t have a lot of options. Carol was in some serious pain, and I couldn’t help but notice when I picked her up that there was a smear of red between her legs. Blood. She was bleeding, and I knew it wasn’t her damn period. There was a very real possibility there was something wrong with the baby—and if there wasn’t, there was just something wrong with Carol.
Either way, I couldn’t just wait it out. I had to get her help.
Several of my guys offered to take her to the hospital for me, but with the trouble with Horton, I didn’t trust anyone enough to leave Carol alone with them. Not even my lieutenants.
Which isn’t fair, I thought as I carried Carol into the hospital. Bane and Winston both already adored her. But that didn’t matter when I was hurrying to the hospital. All I could think was I had to get her here, and I had to be here when they figured out what was going on.
I got her checked in but realized when I was filling out her paperwork that I only knew her name and her age. And only her first name at that. Shit, I don’t know anything, I realized. I made a promise that when she got out, I’d learn everything there was to know about her.
I had no idea that I’d be getting a crash course in her life before she left.
It was several hours before I found out anything about Carol. More than that, it took about forty-five minutes to convince them to even let me see her. They said family only, and it wasn’t until I explained that I was the father of the baby that they finally caved and let me see her.
Gently, I pushed open the door to her room, aware that she might be sleeping. They said she was resting, but if she were up, she could have visitors. Just not too many and not for too long.
I took a full step into the room when I saw that she was sitting up and awake, but a little pale. Her head turned at the sound of the door, and her face broke into a tentative smile when she saw me.
“Asher. I wasn’t sure you’d be here,” she said softly.
I frowned at her, coming to sit in the chair beside her bed. “Of course I’m here. Where else could I be? You had us all worried.”
Her smile brightened a little as her hands went to cover her stomach. “They said the baby’s going to be okay. I just have to be more careful. Less stress, no more coffee—” She made a face, clearly not happy with that one. “—and vitamins. I got a long lecture for not taking any yet.”
I nodded. “That was stupid. I should have gotten you some as soon as you showed up.”
She was silent for a moment, considering me. Her lower lip was caught between her teeth, thinking something over quietly. Finally, she said, “Why though? We weren’t planning on keeping it.” She said it hesitantly, but the words made my chest hurt just the same.
I realized then that I had been hoping that she would keep it. And not just that, but that she’d keep it and stay with me. Maybe that was incredibly stupid to hope for. We just didn’t know each other very well, and she was so young, but I couldn’t deny that I felt a strong, fierce connection to her. Like we were just meant to come together somehow. The sex was great, but I was finding that she was more than that to me. There was something about her that brought out the best in me, and I liked that.
I wanted more of that.
Taking a deep breath, I asked her carefully, “What if we changed that plan?”
I heard her breath catch. “What are you saying?”
I cleared my throat and tried again. “I’m saying, Carol, that maybe we should plan on keeping the baby. Maybe we need to get you those vitamins and schedule doctor’s appointments and make sure you’re taking care of yourself. Maybe we should start thinking of names.”
Her eyes had grown wide, and her lips were just barely parted. But she didn’t look horrified. And she didn’t look terrified, though I could s
ee she was at least a little bit scared. But not of me. Her hand reached for mine, and she said, “Are you sure that’s something you want? If I go through with this, I can’t walk away. You can.”
Clutching her hand tightly, I brought it to my chest, placing it just over my heart. “I would never walk away. Not from you, not from the baby. If we do this, I’m in it for the long haul.”
It took a while, but when her smile came it was so happy I thought it made the whole room somehow brighter. “You really mean that?”
I nodded, feeling my heart hammering wildly in my chest. I can’t believe we’re going to do this, I thought, but it wasn’t filled with apprehension. The thought was filled with wonder. “I do. I absolutely do. You’re the best thing that’s happened to me in a long time, Carol. I don’t want to lose that. What do you say?”
Her smile, so bright and filled with excitement, remained on her face as she nodded eagerly. “Yes. Let’s do this. We can make it work.”
I leaned forward and kissed her, still not quite sure that I could believe this all had happened. Was this real? We kissed for long moments, my tongue sliding along hers, one hand wrapped in her blonde hair while the other continued to clutch her hand over my heart. I felt happy and excited and nervous all at once.
Is this what it’s like to find out you’re going to be a father? I wondered.
We finally broke apart only when the nurse came into the room. She gave us a glance, a knowing smile on her face, then went to her business. She was filling out a chart as she asked, “Do you need anything, Miss Lautner?”
I froze.
Lautner?
For a second, it didn’t quite click. There was a moment where I heard her name in a far-off kind of way, like it was in a foreign language being shouted across a river towards me, the water catching and muffling the sound. But slowly, my brain processed it, and I looked over at the beautiful young woman lying in bed.
Her expression looked guilty and worried.
Lautner.
My eyes moved over her long blonde hair, her blue eyes. She was nineteen. In my head, I did the quick match. Thirteen, maybe fourteen, I thought, picturing a cute little girl with pudgy cheeks and braces. I’d seen her once at the wedding, walking down the aisle with a bouquet of flowers right before my mother. We hadn’t said a word to each other, and over time, that didn’t change. Later, I saw her only in pictures. My mother had said she liked the girl, though their relationship was strained.
What was her name? I found myself wondering as Lautner bounced around in my head.
Caroline. Caroline Lautner. She was six or seven years younger than I was, Mayor Lautner’s daughter from his first marriage. I was my mother’s son from her first marriage. Which meant the girl lying in that bed in front of me, whose mouth I kissed and whose pussy I devoured, who was carrying my child was my stepsister.
“No,” I said, shaking my head a little. “It’s not possible.”
But Carol bit her lower lip, tears in her eyes, and nodded. “Yes, I know. I should have told you I’m the mayor’s daughter, but I was so scared that you’d kick me out! That you wouldn’t want me anymore and—”
I held up a hand to stop her tirade, standing and putting just a little bit of space between us. “Do you know who I am?” I asked carefully.
She blinked at me. “I only just found out at the cookout tonight. I had no idea you were the leader of the Anarchy’s Horsemen. I thought you were just a member.”
I shook my head. “No, that’s not what I meant. I mean, do you know who I am?”
Before she could answer, the door opened again. The nurse looked up in surprise as a good-looking older man with graying hair and a decent build for someone in a suit marched into the room. Behind him, another woman followed. She was wearing a suit and had her hair up in a bun. She looked frazzled. I recognized them both instantly.
The mayor and his secretary.
“You!” he bellowed angrily, pointing a shaking finger at me. “What the hell are you doing here? What have you done to my daughter?”
“Daddy…” Carol said tearfully, looking strained and paler than she had a second ago.
The baby, I thought suddenly, remembering how she was supposed to avoid stress. Which she was definitely not doing right now. I wasn’t sure how to cut back on the stress, though, because he was blocking my escape and I didn’t want to leave her anyway, but this was going to get ugly.
“Sir, I—” I began, trying to smooth this over and proceed rationally.
“Don’t you speak to me!” Mayor Lautner roared out. “Marrying your mother does not make you my son, you heathen savage!”
I saw instantly when recognition washed over Carol. Her eyes went wide, and she turned to look at me. I heard her soft voice, small and a little scared, say, “Asher?”
I clenched my eyes shut, and when I opened them again, it was just in time to see Mayor Lautner throwing a heavy fist at my face. I caught it in the jaw, the force sending me staggering back slightly. The man could throw a punch, I would give him that, though it wouldn’t have been so bad if I’d seen it coming.
“Daddy! Stop!” Carol screamed, throwing back the covers to get up.
I went to stop her. “Carol, don’t get up. Think of the baby.”
As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I knew they were the exact wrong thing to say. Everything in the room seemed to freeze for just a breath, and then I saw Mayor Lautner pale. He doesn’t know about the baby, I thought, then corrected, Or, at least, he didn’t until I opened my big mouth.
“Baby?” he repeated, sounding startled. “What baby? Oh God, Carol, honey. What did you do? Are you pregnant?” He rounded on the nurse who still lingered in the room. “I don’t want you speaking of this to anyone, do you understand?”
“Dad—” Carol tried, but he wasn’t listening.
“Doctor-patient confidentiality, remember? If you breathe a word of this, I’ll have you sued for everything you’re worth.” Not waiting for her to say anything in response, he kept turning so he was facing his secretary. “I want damage control. She was missing because she got lost during a hiking trip or something. She couldn’t find her car. Rescuers finally found her, and that’s why she’s in the hospital. Recovering. She’ll continue to recover over the weekend at a private spa where she doesn’t want to be disturbed. She needs her rest. Schedule the abortion there.”
All the while the secretary was jotting down fast notes, nodding and muttering, “Yes, sir” as was her job, but all I heard was the very last bit.
Schedule the abortion there.
I looked over at Carol, my eyes wide. She met my gaze, her own huge, and she shook her head. Finally, she looked really terrified. Finding out that we were stepsiblings had thrown us both off. Her father coming to the hospital hadn’t helped. But the thought that she was going to have to get an abortion was the thing that, in the end, truly scared her.
Turning to face him, I held my ground. “She’s not getting an abortion.”
Chapter Fifteen
Caroline
Asher’s voice was firm and unwavering. He was this immovable mountain that was standing between my father and me.
When I was still in junior high, my father had gotten himself remarried. I was just a kid then, and I hated the idea that my father would try to replace the beautiful, wonderful angel that was my mother with some other woman. When he’d introduced her to me for the first time, I’d latched onto everything about the woman that was different and twisted it into something to hate.
She had dark, thick hair, completely opposite of my mother. It was long and curled down her back in tangled waves that seemed to be all over the place. Her eyes were a dark brown that was almost black, instead of my mother’s blue ones. Her complexion was closer to olive instead of the fair skin of my mother. Even her build seemed different. My mother had been model tall and model thin, built like a rail with tiny little breasts that made her look younger than she already did. But this woman
was voluptuous. Maybe not heavy, but definitely curvy in all the places that men appreciated.
Men like my father.
The woman was young though. Younger than my own mother had been, and that was one of the biggest things to wrap my hatred around.
What sort of man fucked a woman so much younger than he was? It was such a perfect excuse to hate her that I used it every chance I got. She’s practically my sister, I would shoot snidely at her. But the woman, to her credit, just laughed it off. She would wink at me and say she’d always wanted a sister.
