had to threaten to leave to get him to talk, so be it.
Dana held out her hand. “Sit with me.”
I took it in mine and sat down in the chair next to her. “Sweetie—”
“Please don’t,” she croaked. “I know what’s going through your head and you couldn’t have done anything different. If it wasn’t for you, I’d be dead. I’m the one who needs to apologize for acting like a nutcase over Nadia.”
“Don’t worry about it, I probably shouldn’t have been so harsh,” I admitted.
“You weren’t, I deserved it. Liv, if there’s one thing I know about you, it’s that you don’t go after people unless they come after you. And I came at you like a fucking hyena. I’m sorry. I’d like to blame it on the hormones, but everybody knows I’m just a bitch in general.”
We both managed pained smiles, and with no further mention of it, let bygones be bygones.
“I don’t suppose you know why this happened?” she asked. “Gauge won’t tell me anything.”
I shook my head. “I honestly have no idea, but I’m sure it’ll be taken care of. Whoever was driving that car won’t get away with it. You just focus on getting some rest and maybe you and Gauge can try again soon.”
“The doctor says everything’s okay in there and we shouldn’t have any problems trying for another. It was kind of early anyway, we just found out a couple days ago. It’s weird, Liv, we didn’t even want kids but the news got Gauge all excited. We’ve been doing nothing but fighting lately, but seeing that test come up positive breathed life back into our marriage... I guess it could be worse though, it’s not like I had all this time to bond with it or anything. ”
I squeezed her hand. “It doesn’t matter how long you knew, your life changed from one day to the next. And then changed again. You have every right to mourn. Just do your best to remember all the love and support you have, okay?”
“Yeah, I will.”
“Good. Listen, I need to get out of here, but I’ll come by to check on you in a bit. Do you need me to bring you anything from home? Clothes or something?”
“No, I’m okay. Thank you though.”
I stood up and kissed her cheek. “Okay. Love you, girl.”
“I love you too. Thanks for being such a good friend.”
“More than that,” I reminded her. “We’re sisters, right?”
She wiped her eyes and cracked a smile. “Always.”
: : : :
I hadn’t even cut the engine before Torch raced across the clubhouse lot, pulled me off the bike, and trapped me in his arms. “God, baby... You okay?”
No, I wasn’t fucking okay. I’d just spent hours talking to cops, waiting around a hospital, and questioning my culpability in Dana and Gauge losing their baby. None of those made for a good day.
Fuming, I pushed back against his chest and broke free. “Get off me, Torch. I don’t need a goddamn hug.”
“What the hell’s wrong with you?” he demanded, scowling in confusion.
I glared at him. “What’s wrong with me? You wanna do this out here with everybody watching?”
“Well, since I don’t know what the fuck this is, probably not,” he snarled.
I gritted my teeth, stepped around him, and power walked my pissed-off ass through the clubhouse and into his room. The door had barely slammed shut behind us before I laid into him. “You remember the conversation we had in this very room last year? I told you, word-for-word, that I’d take a bullet for you as long as I knew what direction it was coming from. You fucking swore to me that you wouldn’t keep me in the dark. But that’s all you’ve been doing lately. Why did somebody try to run us down, Torch? And don’t you dare give me the fucking run-around.”
He scrubbed his beard and looked away.
Fuck that. I grabbed his chin and forced him to look at me. “I’m not stupid, we were targeted. This is exactly the kind of shit we agreed to be honest about, so don’t even think about lying to me anymore. You’ve been completely freezing me out and I’m at the end of my fucking rope. So, unless you want me wrapping it around your neck in your sleep… Talk!”
His nostrils flared and his expression instantly turned from guilt to rage. “Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to, Liv? In my clubhouse? I’m not doing this with you right now.”