me so they could go home. “We better head out, too. Big day tomorrow,” I said.
“Yes, the day I get saddled with a ball and chain,” Bishop teased.
I smacked his arm playfully. With the elevator full of our family and friends, we took the next one down alone. “You looked awfully natural with Natalie,” I mused.
“I’ve had a lot of practice with Wyatt.”
“Think you’ve had enough practice to do it for yourself?”
Bishop’s brow lined in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“This isn’t exactly the place I had in mind to tell you, but it just feels right.” I wrapped my arms around his neck. “Bishop Malloy, you’re going to be a father.”
His blue eyes widened. “Wh-what?”
I grinned. “Remember how we decided to go off my birth control a few months before the wedding to give it time to be out of my system?”
“Yeah . . . And?”
“And I’m pregnant.”
The elevator doors opened, and Bishop ambled out. “A baby . . . You’re pregnant.”
Considering the rough-and-tough man he was, his reaction was pretty priceless. “Are you okay?”
He turned back to me and blinked. It took a few more seconds for a beaming smile to light up his face. “Okay? I’m fucking amazing!”
He pulled me into his arms and squeezed me tight. “You just gave me the best wedding present anyone could ever ask for.”
“I’m glad to do it.”
“I hope it’s a girl, and she looks just like you.”
I laughed. “I have a feeling it’s going to be a boy.”
“Oh Lord, another Malloy to raise hell.”
With a shake of my head, I argued, “No. The Malloy boys’ days of raising hell are over. The last one officially becomes an old married man tomorrow and a father in seven months.”
Bishop grinned. “You’re right. My son will have a different future.”
“But I’m sure he’ll want to ride bikes and patch in to the Raiders.”
“You don’t mind?”
I stared into Bishop’s eyes. At one time, the prospect of a child of mine joining an MC would have been absolutely unthinkable to me. The last thing on earth I would ever have wanted was for my son to be a biker. But times change and people change.
“No. I don’t mind. We’re going to need a good, solid generation of Raiders to keep the new traditions alive.”
“I totally agree.”
Bishop slid his arm around my waist and led me to the car—and to the new future that awaited us as husband and wife and mother and father.
Read on for a glimpse of the first sensational romance
in the Vicious Cycle series . . .
Available now from
PROLOGUE
WILLOW
Bouncing her legs on the worn leather couch, Willow happily followed along with Dora as she took off exploring. No matter where the cartoon went, it was always better than the run-down apartment building where Willow lived. At the sound of splintering glass shards crashing across the kitchen floor, Willow abandoned Dora’s world, tucked her ratty teddy bear under her arm, and hightailed it out of the living room. Although she was only five, she knew all too well what was to come after the angry voices and the throwing things began. She had learned to read the signs, and sadly, she was never wrong. There weren’t many places of refuge in the tiny apartment where she and her mommy lived. But there was one place she could always count on to ride out the violent storms.
To other kids her age, the dark recesses under the bed were a frightening place. But for Willow, the known horror that often surrounded her was far less scary than the unknown. Lifting up the faded blue and white patchwork quilt, she crawled across the dingy carpet and underneath the ratty mattress that smelled like smoke and pee. Dust bunnies clung to her clothes, clouding her lungs and making it difficult to breathe.
Once she settled in, she pinched her eyes shut and imagined herself miles and miles away. Whenever she was scared, she went to be with her Angel Mommy. In Angel Mommy’s world, everything was happy, beautiful, and pure. Rainbows stretched across the sky over castles filled with unicorns. But the best part of all was Angel Mommy herself. Angel Mommy never drank too much out of the bottles with dark liquid that made her real mommy angry and then sad. Angel Mommy never had boyfriends who yelled at Willow or smacked her in the face or on the bottom. For Angel Mommy, Willow was her whole world—the only focus of her love and attention. They would play for