After Us (Next Generation #6) - J.M. Walker Page 0,89

with or egged on. He was going to use her words against us.

“Listen, you little bitch. Maybe you shouldn’t have teased my son then we wouldn’t be in this fucking hell,” Price growled.

I grabbed the phone from Piper, took him off speaker, and held it up to my ear. “I will give you one last chance to call your boys off. If you don’t, this will be war, Price.”

“That’s Mister Mayor to you, Jaron.”

“Oh I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you actually earned my respect. Forgive me for not noticing.” The sarcasm dripped from my voice.

“Jaron.” He chuckled. “I’m going to have so much fun ripping Piper apart. I was going to feed her to my dogs, but I’ve changed my mind. I’m going to keep her for myself. You know what else I’m going to do? I’m going to record every single detail and send it to you, so you can watch her die.”

The sound of the click in my ear, forced a curse from my lips. Tossing the phone in Piper’s lap, I gripped the steering wheel and pressed my foot against the gas as hard as I could.

“Jaron, what happened? What’s going on? What did he say?”

I didn’t answer because I couldn’t. I needed to get these fuckers off our tail. I needed to end Price before he made good on his threat. I needed to keep Piper and Brynlee safe.

I was pissed that she let her mouth get away with her, but I was more pissed that I couldn’t do anything about it. My temper had gotten the best of me before and I almost lost Piper as a result of it.

“Jaron.” Piper’s scream pulled me from my thoughts.

As soon as I reached for her hand, the SUV’s headlights were the last thing I saw before everything went dark.

Jaron

The only thing keeping me from just up and quitting, was the fact that Piper had my baby at home. She gave birth a week ago and I hadn’t been able to talk to her yet. Sammy and Cyrus had both gone over to check on her and Brynlee. They reported back that they were both healthy and safe. That was all I cared about. As much as it hurt that I wasn’t there, I was thankful that Sammy and Cyrus could be there for her.

They were the brothers I never had. We were family without being blood related. But even though we didn’t share the same DNA, we shared a bond that most blood relatives didn’t. Sure we fought, argued, and let our egos get in the way every now and again, but I couldn’t ask for two better men to look after my girls when I couldn’t.

While I stared down at the picture of Piper holding our newborn daughter, I ran my thumb along the colored image of them. She was beautiful and had a glow about her. Brynn was staring up at her mama and even though I wasn’t there, I could feel the love they already had for each other.

I craved the day that I could meet our daughter and see Piper again. A question had crossed my mind on if we would have still been together if she hadn’t gotten pregnant. I wondered if Piper felt the same way. The question had only crossed my mind once before I knew the answer was yes. She wasn’t pregnant when I went to Paris for her. She wasn’t pregnant when I found her at that bar and fucked her in the bathroom. She was mine before she had my baby growing inside of her.

From the moment I remembered being attracted to her when we were teenagers, I wanted her. And now that she was in fact mine, in almost every sense of the word, things were threatening to tear us apart.

But I refused to back down.

No matter the cost.

A loud ringing erupted in my ears. Pain slid between my eyes, forcing a breathless gasp to escape me. I tried thinking back over the last little bit. I didn’t know what had happened but what I did know, was that I hurt. Everywhere.

Opening my eyes, I blinked once and then a second time before my vision cleared and I looked around me. The car was in a ditch with smoke coming up from under the hood.

Clicking the seat belt free, I did a quick scan of my body. When nothing seemed broken, I looked around me.

Piper was still beside me, but her eyes were closed. There was