Wolfe’s voice came out of nowhere, and I jerked in surprise before he rested his hand on my belly and dragged me back into him. “You should be asleep.”
“Can’t,” I mumbled. “Can’t leave her.”
“You need the rest, babes. It’s not long now.”
And it wasn’t.
Three weeks until my due date. Only God knew who the father was—
Flame. I hope the kid has his red hair.
My eyes widened at that, and somehow, from out of this chaos, I managed to smile.
God, I hoped my kid had that shock of auburn hair too.
“The fuck?” Wolfe rasped, making me jolt. He reached up and rubbed his forehead. “Did you hear that?”
Course she did, dumbass. Was speaking to both of you. My momma didn’t raise me to be rude.
I could sense Wolfe’s surprise, sensed it when his knees buckled and he backed into the wall.
“Is that Ryan?”
“Yeah. He comes and talks to me every now and then.”
“Talks to you?” he demanded, his voice as close to a squeak as his baritone would allow.
Yeah. I keep her company, don’t I, babe?
“I’m going crazy. These past few days—”
I wasn’t in the mood for this conversation. Instead, I stated gruffly, “I’m not going anywhere. Ama needs me.”
“So do we all.” He sighed as he rested his chin on my shoulder. “I’m sorry, Lucifer.”
My brows furrowed at his formal tone. “It isn’t your fault.”
“I don’t know how you can’t think it is.” He sighed again, and then when he turned his face into my throat, I tensed when I felt his tears, and immediately melted into him, not stopping until we were pressed tightly together. “I’m so sorry.”
“It isn’t your fault,” I repeated, my tone harder this time. I needed him to know that I didn’t blame him. “We did everything we could. We had the alarm systems, we had everything in place. H-He just got in.”
“Nobody will ever touch her again,” he rasped. “As God or as Lucifer is my witness, I don’t care which, so long as you know that I will die before I let anyone take her—”
I grabbed his hand, tightened my fingers around his, and whispered, “I believe you.”
They’d all come to me. All four of them, well, five if you counted Ryan too. All of them apologizing, all of them saying that it wouldn’t happen again, and I knew why…
They were terrified I’d leave.
Terrified I’d pull up roots and take myself, Amaryllis, and this baby in my belly away from them. Away from the MC, from the brothers who still weren’t sure whether they could trust me or not even though I’d brought millions into the coffers with the guns that Ryan had designed. Away from the Rebels’ enemies.
My phone buzzed, breaking into my thoughts. I reached for it in my jeans pocket, and seeing Martin’s name, frowned.
“That your dad?”
“Yeah.” I connected the call—not because we were friends now, but because if I didn’t, shit had a habit of happening. Not bad shit, just weird shit. Like I’d get a bouquet of amaryllises or he’d send me a box of sweets that he knew were my favorite. That he was watching me was always the message behind them, and yeah, it was creepy, but he was the Prez of an MC who had been given the nickname Lucifer… There wasn’t much creepier shit around.
“You need me to come get you?”
Behind me, Wolfe tensed.
“No.”
“They didn’t keep her safe.”
I reached up and pinched the bridge of my nose. “If you’re only just hearing about this, then neither could your guys.”
Silence fell at my words, and I knew I was on point.
Wolfe too, because he snorted.
“Is the bastard dead?”
“What do you think?” I scoffed. Hell, the second Flame had gotten his hands on him, it was a wonder there’d been anything left to feed to the pigs.
My man was currently retrieving Jodie-May on my behalf, because I wanted to slit her throat myself. He’d promised me that, had promised me I’d be able to end the bitch who’d poisoned a decent kid against us, who’d made a martyr out of the fucker’s scumbag father. Aaron had been normal before he’d left, but she’d obviously poisoned his mind, twisted it until we looked like the bad guys, and the second he was old enough, he’d come to get his revenge for a fucker who didn’t deserve anything but for someone to piss on his grave—if he’d had one, of course. The pigs had fed well on his body, after all.