“You mean the guys in leather?” She nodded, her eyes filling with worry. “Yeah, we had a nice visit.”
“Oh, Lyric.” She nibbled on her bottom lip for a moment before shaking her head. “I don’t know why you chose Creswell Springs to set up your business, but there are a hundred—no, a thousand—other places you could have gone. Should have gone. Having someone connected to that time suddenly appear has rattled the boys. Especially Spider.”
“Spider?” I repeated. “The guy with the spider tattoo on his neck? Masterson?”
“Yes, that’s him.” Her eyes turned pleading. “Won’t you consider going somewhere else? New York, LA, Chicago? I saw your brother got picked up in the draft by Tennessee. Wouldn’t you rather be closer to him? Nashville is such a good city and—”
“I’m not leaving,” I interrupted. “Look, I don’t know what is going on or what happened during whatever time you’re talking about, but that has nothing to do with me. If your friends are nervous, that’s on them. I came here because this is where I want to be. Nothing and no one will make me leave.”
“But…”
I stepped away from her and walked to the door, opening it for her. “It was nice of you to drop by. I’ll be sure and tell Aunt Emmie that you stopped in to see me and that you say hello.”
A resigned sigh left her. As she walked past me, she paused and looked up at me quizzically. “Why did you pick Creswell Springs, Lyric?”
“The woman I love lives here.”
Chapter 12
Mila
With exhaustion pushing down on me like a ten-ton weight, I pulled my phone from my bag as I walked out of my last class of the day. Thirty minutes into the boring-as-hell psychology lecture, the damn thing had started vibrating up a storm. I was glad I’d at least turned it to silent before the professor arrived, or the dickhead would have called me out for having it on while in his class.
As it was, he’d still heard the vibrating—how, I wasn’t sure unless he had supersonic hearing since I was sitting all the way at the top of the lecture hall, and he’d been droning on and on just to hear the sound of his own voice. Every time my phone vibrated, his eyes would narrow, and he’d zero his gaze in on me. The look on his face told me he was wishing my head would explode, but he’d continued to talk, not even missing a beat.
My mom knew what time my classes were, and since Monroe was in her own class across campus, I figured it wasn’t likely to be either of them. Looking at the phone screen, I realized all the texts were from Aunt Raven, and they weren’t just to me. She’d done a mass group text to all the kids, letting us know Dad had found out who was opening the new tattoo place close to campus.
Only the week before, my parents had told my siblings and me that he’d been getting offers all summer from someone using a third party to try to buy in to the ink shop. He’d been turning them down left and right, and I wasn’t exactly surprised. Dad didn’t work with anyone unless it was the club. He liked being his own boss, not answering to anyone, even a partner.
They might not have even mentioned the whole thing if Mayor Jenkins hadn’t informed Dad that someone had leased a shop close to campus and things were being moved in. The lease said it was for a tattoo parlor, and my parents hadn’t wanted us to get upset, thinking this was going to cause problems for Dad.
I rarely worried about something causing Dad headaches of any kind. Who would want to get on that raging bull’s bad side?
Since our dinner conversation that night, I honestly hadn’t given it much thought. Whoever it was, they wouldn’t be around long enough to mean anything to me, so I wasn’t going to worry about them.
Not when I already had enough of my own problems to stress over.
But now that Aunt Raven was group-texting me, my brother, sister, and cousins, I realized this might be more of an issue than my parents had originally let on.
Opening the text to see the full line of messages, I scrolled to the top and started reading.
Only to drop my phone as soon as I saw his name.
“Motherfuck,” I whisper-shouted and bent to pick up the damn thing. Turning it over, I saw the screen was cracked, and I cursed myself for not putting on a case to protect it. Since I had a ring on the back of it, I didn’t drop my phone often, but I’d gotten clumsy lately.
Sighing, I dusted off the dirt on the cracked screen only to slice my thumb open on a sliver I hadn’t realized was sticking up. “For fuck’s sake,” I muttered, sucking my injured thumb into my mouth as I walked toward my car.
Opening the back door, I tossed my bag inside along with the busted phone and slammed the door. Getting behind the wheel, I punched the start button and reversed in a hurry. I’d seen the shop the day before on my way to my morning classes with that stupid “Now Hiring” sign.
Only a few minutes later, I pulled up in front of the shop and turned off the car. Angrily, I got out and slammed the door again, but it did nothing to alleviate my anger.
As I walked in, I heard a robotic voice announcing the front door was open.
“Just a sec.”
I stopped in my tracks when I heard his voice, a shiver going through me and making my traitorous body respond instantly. It only pissed me off more. Nope. Not going there. Ever again.
I didn’t know why Lyric Thornton was in Creswell Springs, but he had to go. Now.
Too impatient to wait on him to come out from doing whatever, I marched toward the sound of his voice, telling myself if he was with a girl like the last time I saw him, I was going to commit murder right there in that nice, clean shop.
“Mila.”
My name sounded reverent, and I turned to find him standing in a doorway to what looked like an office. His hypnotic eyes swirled with a mixture of browns, but I refused to look at them close enough to determine what shades they currently were.
Hearing his voice had caused my body to respond, but seeing him in the flesh, standing only feet away, made my heart skip a beat. Part of me had hoped Aunt Raven got the name wrong, while another part that I refused to analyze hoped he was there for me. Which was moronic. I was nothing to him. Less than nothing. All I’d been was a night of fun, and he’d forgotten about me the next morning.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I demanded, crossing my arms over my chest.
“Just hush for a minute, okay?” He stepped forward, grabbed me by the hips so quickly I didn’t have time to react, and jerked me against him. As he lowered his head, his breath caressed over my lips. “Fuck, I need this.”
My mouth was open, ready to verbally tear him apart and tell him to let me go. He took advantage and devoured my lips, thrusting his tongue inside hungrily, as if he were dying for my taste.
I slapped at his chest, struggling against him…for only a moment. And then his taste hit my tongue, and I was kissing him back, clinging to him instead of trying to push him away.
When he finally lifted his head, we were both gasping for air, and my mouth felt raw and swollen. Sucking in deep breaths, he pressed his forehead to mine. “Missed you so damn much, my Mila.”
“Missed…me?” My brain started working again, and I shoved at his shoulders. “You missed me?”
Surprised, he frowned down at me. “Why are you mad at me?”
“Because!” I exploded and mentally groaned at how childish that answer sounded. Shit, my brain was not my friend lately, and I really needed the fog to clear so I could at least sound like an adult for a few minutes. “I haven’t seen you in months, and then you show up here out of the blue, kiss the breath out of me, and tell me you miss me? What kind of bullshit is that, Lyric?”
“It’s not bullshit. I tried to get to you as soon as I could, but I had to work out my contract with Branch. If I’d known I was going to meet you that night, I never would have signed the damn thing, and I could have been here the next day.” He took a step forward, his hands reaching for me, but I stepped back, knowing if he touched me, I’d melt for him all over again. P
ain flashed over his face, filling his eyes with a hazel kind of brown this time. “Mila, I swear to you, I’ve spent the entire summer figuring out how to get here as fast as I could.”
“Why?” I yelled the question. “Why would you even want to? We were a single-night-only thing, so why would you want to follow me to some small town in Northern California?”
“Don’t say shit like that.” His jaw clenched, and he reached for me again.
I backed up until I felt the wall behind me and then moved to the side. Hearing him mutter a curse, I kept going until I was standing in the middle of the front of the shop before finally turning to face him again. “You can’t be here,” I announced. “I don’t understand why you’re here, but you have to go.”
“Why do people keep saying that to me today?” he demanded. Frustrated, he scrubbed his hands over his stubbled jaw. “Mila, I’m not going anywhere. Not unless you’re going with me. And as pissed as you seem to be at me right now, I doubt that is likely to happen anytime soon. So, get used to me being here, baby. Because I came here for you, and I’m not leaving without you.”
My heart started to melt at his declaration, but I quickly squashed the feeling by reminding myself all over again of the last time I’d seen him. In New York City. With the blonde half in his lap. Telling her how much he’d missed her.
“Fine,” I snapped, pushing down the pain of that memory. “It’s your funeral. By the way, my dad is at his most dangerous when he’s talking calmly. He likes to give you a false sense of peace before he slits your throat.”
With that, I turned and headed for the door, but two steps were all it took before a wave of dizziness hit me and I was reaching out for something to hold on to. Which was nothing at all. Crying out in panic, I started to fall.
Lyric wrapped his arms around me, anchoring me against his body. “Baby? What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
The dizziness began to fade, and I blinked up at his worried face, his eyes swirling so quickly I couldn’t keep up with the color change. He touched unsteady fingers to my forehead. “You’re sweating. Are you sick?”
“I’m pregnant,” I whispered.
Chapter 13
Lyric
As pissed as she was at me only moments ago, I was certain she’d only blurted out that announcement to freak me out. See how far she could push me.
But I’d been half holding my breath waiting for her to tell me if she was or not ever since I’d woken up the morning after our amazing night together and found that unopened condom on the sitting area floor of my hotel room. Part of me had been hoping she was, that even if for some reason she didn’t want to be with me, we’d still be eternally connected through the baby we made that night.
Another part had been silently freaking out, I could admit that, but it was a hell of a lot smaller than my hope. Having spent all summer thinking about the moment she would confirm or deny we were going to be parents, the freak-out had only lasted a few weeks before the hope gave me ideas and I’d started making plans for if she was pregnant.
Finding her this sick, however, wasn’t something I planned or even imagined. She was so weak, I was the only thing holding her up. Her brow and upper lip were dotted with sweat, and her body trembled slightly from the effort of keeping her eyes open. She looked sick and miserable, and that scared the absolute hell out of me.
I’d been calm and cool all day in the face of her father and his MC. I’d almost won over the sheriff’s wife and dealt with a woman I didn’t even know was part of my childhood, who wanted me gone just as badly as everyone else. None of them had scared me, even though they’d tried to do just that.
But faced with the realization that something was wrong with my Mila?
It made me shake with terror.
I swept her up into my arms and headed for the back exit where I’d parked my SUV after lunch. I didn’t know where the hospital was, but in this small-ass town, it couldn’t be too hard to find.
“Wait,” Mila complained when she realized I was headed for my vehicle. “What are you doing?”
“Taking you to the emergency room. You’re obviously ill. Fuck, woman, you nearly passed out back there.”
I opened the front passenger door and placed her carefully in the seat before fastening her belt. I wasn’t sure if it was because she was so sick or if she was in shock, but she stared at me in bewilderment for a moment before finally snapping out of it enough to protest.
“I don’t need to go to the hospital. I just got dizzy. My blood pressure has been weird lately.” She blew a few strands of hair out of her face, but they fell right back, and I carefully tucked them behind her ear before it could frustrate her further. “My mom had the same issues when she was pregnant with my brother, sister, and me.”
“Don’t care. You scared the hell out of me just now, and I’m not going to calm down until we get you checked out.” I started to step back to close the door, but she grasped my arm with surprising strength.
“We can’t go to the hospital.” Her gray eyes had a wildness to them, and she glanced around quickly as if making sure no one could see us. “Doc will be there, and if he finds out why I’m there, he’s going to tell my dad. I haven’t told him yet.”
“You’ve been this sick, and your parents don’t know you’re pregnant?” I demanded loudly.
“Shh,” she hissed, glancing around frantically again. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
“Your parents don’t know?” I repeated.
She released a tired exhale. “I haven’t told them. I haven’t been brave enough yet. But I know Mom’s guessed and is just waiting for me to confide in her.” She touched her free hand to her forehead, pressing the palm into the center and groaning. “These damn headaches are the worst. I’ve been so foggy lately. And clumsy. I can’t hold on to anything, it seems, and I’ve nearly fallen I don’t know how many times.” She dropped her hand and met my gaze, her eyes welling up with sudden tears. “I dropped my phone earlier and broke the screen, and then I sliced my thumb open on a shard I didn’t see sticking up.”
“Baby, don’t cry,” I begged. Taking her hand, I lifted it and kissed the injured thumb. “I’m here now. I’ll take care of you. You don’t have to worry about anything else ever again.”
“No!” she screamed, then pressed her lips together and shook her head adamantly. “You can’t be here. Lyric, my dad will kill you. Please, I’m begging you. Just go back to New York. Live your life and forget about me.”
“You think I would just pack up and abandon you and our baby?” I cupped the side of her face, stroking my thumb over her tears. “I have been losing my mind without you. The only thing that got me through this hellish summer was knowing I was going to be with you again soon.”
Right before my eyes, her emotions changed. The tears stopped with a flutter of her lashes, her entire beautiful face turning cold. “Or was it all the girls who were warming your bed every night that got you through?”
I pushed down my frustration, knowing she was probably just trying to get a reaction out of me. “You just said you’ve been foggy, and after seeing my sister’s hormones make her act insane, I’m going to ignore that question. How could you possibly think I would want anyone after having the perfection of you?”
“Wow,” she whispered, a humorless grin tilting her lips. “If I didn’t know any better, I would have actually believed you were sincere just now.”
“What’s that mean?”
“I saw you with the blonde, Lyric. What was her name?” She frowned, trying to remember. “Oh yeah. Vi, I heard you call her. I saw you with her just two weeks after our”—she made air quotes with her fingers—“‘amazing night together.’ I heard you tell her just how much you missed her too. How you wanted to spend as much time with her as possible, so of course she wouldn’t be in your way while you were working.”
I pulled back from her with a frown, my heart pounding against my ribs. “You saw me with Violet?” A lifted br
ow was her only answer. “You came to New York to see me?”
“Stupidly, yes. I missed you, and I—” She broke off, her jaw clenching. “You didn’t have messages turned on for any of your social media, and we didn’t exchange numbers. I took a risk and flew out to see you because, apparently, I’m an idiot. I got there, and you were with the blonde. Violet.”
“You were jealous. Of Violet,” I said with a laugh, shaking my head at how absurd that sounded.
Mila punched me in the shoulder. “It’s not funny!” she yelled at me, and when I heard her voice crack, I abruptly stopped laughing and wrapped my arms around her.
“If you knew my family, you would definitely know how funny that is,” I soothed, kissing her temple. “There is nothing to be jealous of when it comes to Violet. She’s like my sister. And if my dumb-ass brother hadn’t screwed up so royally, she very likely would have been one day.”
“She was practically sitting in your lap,” she muttered. “You were all over each other.”
“Were you high when you came to see me?” I teased, kissing her forehead.
“I know what I saw!”
I sighed, knowing I needed to figure this out before she hurt herself even more thinking about me with Violet. “I promise you, I have never and will never want Vi like that. And even if by some chance I ever did, I would never do something like that to my brother. She’s a hugger. Are you sure you didn’t see her hugging me?” When the glare didn’t clear from her beautiful face, I groaned in frustration. “I was missing you just as much as you were missing me, Mila. I was sad and lonely. Violet came to visit me because she could hear it in my voice. The whole time she was there, all I could talk about was you. I told her about you before I even told my brother. She was excited for me, told me not to fuck it up, and that she wants to meet you.”
Savoring Mila (Angels Halo MC Next Gen & Rockers' Legacy Book 3) Page 8
