“They’re here,” Will said, rolling back the large metal door as a powder blue van pulled into the large space.
“Poet,” the driver said with a nod, walking forward to shake Poet’s hand as another man climbed out of the passenger seat.
“Thanks for doin’ this,” Dragon said, moving forward to shake hands, too.
“No problem. New president, huh?”
“That’s what they tell me.”
“We were real sorry to hear about Slider,” the guy said, turning to glance at the van. Shit, his face was all fucked up. “Might’ve had a little fun with the fucker on our way down.”
“He still alive?” Dragon asked. The man nodded. “Then it’s all good.”
I shuffled forward a bit as the men moved to the back of the van and pulled out the kid. His wrists and ankles were wrapped in duct tape and he groaned as they dropped him on the concrete floor with no way to break his fall.
“All yours,” the man from the passenger seat said.
Poet nodded and said something I couldn’t hear to the men, and then without another word, they climbed back in their rig and backed out of the warehouse.
“Hulk, get the door,” Dragon ordered, moving forward toward the prone body.
I turned and strode to the door, pulling it shut and flipping on the fluorescent lights overhead so we could see what we were doing.
When I turned back toward the men, everything inside me stilled.
I knew him.
His glasses were gone and his hair was messy, but I’d know him anywhere.
I was frozen. I watched blankly as Dragon and Casper pulled the kid up, seating him in a metal folding chair and taping him to it. He was silent while they did it, not uttering a word of remorse or fear.
Then he looked up and met my eyes, his mouth forming a sly smile.
I didn’t even realize I was moving until Casper’s hands hit my chest hard, stopping my forward momentum just feet from the piece of shit.
“The boyfriend,” Steve said calmly. “Nice to see you again.” He turned his head. “You too, Will.”
My hands clenched into fists, and it took all that I had not to go through my dad to get to him.
“You know him?” Grease asked roughly, glaring at me in accusation.
“He had a class with my woman,” I clarified through clenched teeth.
“Ah, more than that,” Steve murmured, staring at me. “Bellatrix and I were study partners…friends, even.”
A rough noise broke from my throat and Casper’s hands fisted in my t-shirt, still using his body weight to keep me in place.
“Shut your mouth,” I growled.
“She was pretty,” he continued, stopping only when the butt of Dragon’s pistol smashed across his cheek.
“Talk about my daughter again and I’ll have you gaggin’ on your balls,” Dragon warned.
“You’re her dad, huh?” Steve murmured, then spit blood out of his mouth onto the floor. “Shoulda taught her not to tell her plans to just anyone.” He smiled then, and his teeth were red with blood. “Makes it too easy to find her… and the rest of you.”
That was the last word he said.
Gunshots filled the room as Grease and Will lit him up, his body jerking over and over in the chair as they filled him with bullets.
When they finally stopped shooting, we all just stood there in silence.
“He was gettin’ off on that shit,” Grease mumbled, looking at the floor as he stuffed his pistol back in his jeans. “Didn’t want to listen anymore.” Then he turned and walked out of the warehouse, Will following behind him.
“Trix doesn’t need to know,” I rasped as we heard their bikes fire up outside. “Not her fault—not somethin’ she needs to worry about.”
“Agreed,” Poet murmured, watching me closely. “Got nothin’ to do with her.”
“Yup,” Casper said.
“Course not,” Dragon mumbled.
We turned toward the mangled body in the chair.
“Should we cut him up or just bury him like this?” Poet asked the room.
“Cut him up,” Casper, Dragon and I said at the same time.
Chapter 26
Trix
“Little Warrior, you got a visitor outside,” my dad murmured, waking me up from a deep sleep.
I glanced at the clock and saw that it was ten-thirty at night, not super late unless someone had been crashing at nine the way I’d started to. I’d tried to stay up and watch TV with Leo, but that usually meant he was carrying me to bed an hour later because I’d fallen asleep on the couch, so I’d started taking my huge ass to bed early. I was getting too big for my little brother to carry me anymore.
“What?” I asked, pushing up on my elbows.
“You got a visitor.” Pop walked back out of my room.
I groaned as I rolled to the edge of the bed and set my feet on the cold floor. I’d been wearing Cam’s t-shirts to bed with some of Leo’s boxers, but pretty soon, I was going to have to pick something else up at the store. The shirts were already stretching super tight around my belly, and by the time I woke up every morning, I’d pushed them to right up under my boobs in my sleep.
I stumbled toward the open front door and pushed open the screen as I adjusted the shirt, stopping dead when I saw Cam standing at the bottom of the stairs.
He’d let his beard grow in. I noticed it at my doctor’s appointment, but it had gotten even thicker over the past few days. I loved it.
“Hey,” Cam rasped, his face shadowed.
“Hey,” I mumbled back stupidly, letting the screen door shut softly behind me.
We stood there silently for a few moments.
“That my shirt?” I could feel his eyes focused on my belly, but I couldn’t see the expression on his face.
“Oh,” I laughed uncomfortably, “Yeah, you packed it and nothing else fits, so…” My words trailed off as I realized what I’d said. I’d never thanked him for what he’d done, but I had a feeling if I did so then, he wouldn’t be happy about it.
“Doesn’t look like that one fits,” he joked softly.
“It doesn’t.” I chuckled. “I usually end up pushing it above the belly to get comfortable.”
Cam’s hands fisted at his sides.
“Show me,” he said.
My heart started thumping hard in my chest, the fact that I couldn’t see his face making his order even harder to follow. Could he see mine? The moon was behind him, casting him in shadow, which meant it was shining directly at me.
My hands went to my top, and my fingers shook a little as I gripped the sides and pulled it up and over my swollen belly, tucking it under my breasts. I tried to ignore the fact that I wasn’t wearing a bra, and that the movement made that fact perfectly clear.
“You’re so beautiful,” Cam whispered, moving up one stair. “Every time I see you, you get prettier.”
“Fatter, too.”
“Rounder. I like it.”
I took a deep, shuddering breath and held it. He was so close now. I could reach out and touch him, but I was afraid to.
The close quarters and darkened room had created an intimacy during my doctor’s appointment, but when we’d walked out into the sunshine, it had vanished again. It had been so long since we’d connected, I wasn’t even sure that our jagged pieces would fit together anymore. I wasn’t sure that he’d even want them to.
“Why are you here?” I asked hoarsely, dropping my hands to the bottom of my belly.
“I missed you,” he answered.
“I’ve missed you every day,” I said back, tears filling my eyes. “What makes tonight any different?”
Cam cleared his throat, then tentatively reached out to set one hand on my bare belly. “Some shit went down tonight,” he murmured, glancing up at me. When I didn’t ask any questions, his head tilted back down to look at where his skin met mine. “I was ridin’ home, and I couldn’t stop thinkin’ about all that I’ve been missin’.”
&
nbsp; “You know you can come and see—”
“All I been missin’ with you, Sweetbea,” he interrupted gently. “All your smiles and your complainin’ and trippin’ over your shit, and tryin’ to wake you up in the mornin’ when you’re actin’ like a hibernatin’ bear.”
My laugh turned into a small sob, and I pressed my lips tightly together.
“I love you, Bea. Always have. Not sure where we went wrong, but I don’t wanna be away from you no more.”
“Are you sure this isn’t because of the boys?” I asked softly. “Because you can come see them—feel them—whenever you want. I’d never stop you.”
“The boys,” Cam said in soft wonder. “Shoulda thanked you at the appointment for them, but I was so fuckin’ floored, I was just tryin’ to not pass out.”
I giggled, making my belly jump.
“The boys are a bonus, baby. Don’t you know that?” His hand left my belly and reached up to cup my cheek. “I loved you before the boys, and I’ll love you after they’re grown and makin’ their own families. It’s always been me and you, Trix.”
I searched his face, cataloguing every freckle and eyelash that were as familiar to me as my own. The beard was new, but the jawline wasn’t. The short hair on the top of his head was the same, his blue eyes were the same, the small scar near his mouth was the same. It had always been me and Cam—I’d loved him from some of my earliest memories.
“Me and you,” I murmured finally, my eyes overflowing. “Okay.”
“Yeah?” he asked, his voice so hopeful that I had to push back the sob caught in my throat.
“Yeah,” I agreed.
The rest of my words were lost when he shot up the last two stairs and possessively pressed his mouth to mine. His kiss still held that same first shock and then became so powerful that I was completely lost to it.
“I love you so much,” he whispered, pulling away before kissing me again. “Don’t leave me again. Promise you won’t.”
“I won’t,” I whispered back, pressing my forehead to his.
“Even if bad shit happens, you stay with me.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t care what it is—you stick it out.”
“Okay.”
“I mean it, Trix. Can’t take that shit again.”
“I promise.”
We stood there kissing for a long time, our hands roaming leisurely, but never to arouse. We just needed to feel each other.
Cam finally pulled away when I began to shift on my feet.
“You tired, Sweetbea?” he asked, framing my face with his hands.
“Yeah,” I groaned. I wanted to stay out there with him forever, but my back had begun to ache, I was shivering from the cool night air, and I knew my feet were swelling from standing for so long.
“Let’s get you to bed,” he said sweetly, bending down to grip me behind my knees and lift me into his arms.
“I’m a lot heavier now,” I said in apology as I opened the screen for us.
“Still light as a feather.”
“You’re such a liar,” I whispered as I shut the front door.
“Yeah, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you had two kids in there or somethin’,” he teased, his eyes twinkling.
We were silent as he moved down the hallway, past Leo and my parents’ bedrooms, to my room at the end of the hall. The house was shaped weird because my pop had to add on when Leo was a baby. It wasn’t meant for so many people, but my parents had made it work by adding on a bedroom for me that stuck out the side of the square house like a sore thumb. Literally. If you looked straight down at the house, it looked like a pixelated thumbs-up sign.
Cam set me on my feet in my bedroom, closing the door behind us without saying a word.
Then we crawled into my tiny bed and he tucked his front up tight against my back.
“I’m sorry for all the—”
“Told you not to apologize,” he cut me off, kissing the side of my neck.
“I was messed up, Cam.” I continued, knowing I had to get the words out. He might not have needed to hear them, but I needed to say them, anyway. “When I found out I was pregnant, it was like it knocked something loose. Well, maybe it was before then. Remember when you slapped my ass during—”
“I remember.”
“I started having these memories. Flashes at first, and then after we found out I was pregnant, they got worse.”
“Why didn’t you say somethin’?” he asked softly, rubbing his hand up and down my belly.
“I don’t know. I guess I was just trying to figure it out on my own, and I was so fucking terrified of having a baby that I completely lost my shit.”
“Next time, you come to me.”
“I did—”
“You tellin’ me you wanted an abortion wasn’t comin’ to me with the shit that was draggin’ you down. That was you pickin’ a fight,” he argued.
I took a deep breath, then confessed, “I didn’t really want one.”
“Figured that out a long time ago, Bea.”
I sighed, relaxing my body farther into his chest.
“The shooting just made it worse,” I said finally, letting it all out there. “It made the memories worse and the nightmares worse, and I felt like I was losing my mind.”
“Still havin’ ’em?”
“Not as much,” I answered, reaching down to twine my fingers with his. “I’ve been going to this doctor, and that helps. Yoga with Nan helps, too.”
“Gettin’ all bendy and shit?”
“Of course that’s the part you’d focus on.”
“Just teasin’ you, baby. They’re helping?”
“Yeah. I’m getting better.”
“That’s fuckin’ good news,” he said, squeezing my hand. “’Course, I’d take ya batshit crazy—but I’m real glad you’re feelin’ better, baby. Real glad.”
“I love you,” I whispered, my eyelids drooping. “Don’t leave, okay?”
“I’ll be here when your grumpy ass wakes up,” Cam promised. “Go to sleep.”
* * *
The next morning, I woke up with a start, and immediately felt Cam’s hand rubbing over my belly and the boys moving like crazy.
“What time is it?” I rasped out, relaxing back into the bed.
“A little after eleven,” Cam whispered back, his lips against my throat. “You slept through your parents and Leo leavin’.”
“Where’d they go?” I asked, tilting my head to the side so he had more room to work.
“Who gives a fuck?” His teeth bit down on my skin and I shuddered. “I got you alone.”
“Hold that thought,” I said quickly, scooting away from the heat of his body.
“Where you goin’?”
“Your sons are on my bladder,” I mumbled back as I got to my feet, pushing my pajama shirt down. “I’ll be right back.”
Cam groaned and I couldn’t help but laugh at his grimace as I walked out of the room. Then I took a step backward and leaned my head back inside. “Thanks for staying.”
“Told you I would.”
I made my way to the bathroom with the goofiest smile on my face. I couldn’t help it. I was so freaking happy.
When I got back to the bedroom a few minutes later, Cam was sitting up on the bed, putting on his boots.
“Wait!” I blurted. “I’m back. Take your clothes back off.”
Cam laughed hard, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he motioned for me to come to him.
“Want you bad, Sweetbea, but I’m not fuckin’ you here.”
My stomach dropped. “What? Why?”
Cam grabbed my hips and pulled me forward until I was standing between his spread knees. “Well, besides the fact that your pop would see it on my face and cut my balls off—”
“No, he wouldn’t.”
“I’m also too old to be worryin’ about your parents comin’ home and catchin’ us, and this bed is too fuckin’ small.”
“We need a place
to live,” I grumbled as he pushed my t-shirt back above my belly.
“I’ll find one,” he murmured, kissing my bellybutton. “But right now, I want ya to get dressed so I can take ya to the clubhouse and show ya off.”
“They’ve seen me,” I said back, reaching up to run my fingers over his bedhead.
“Haven’t seen ya with me.”
“I’m not taking a shower,” I warned. “I’m guessing you wouldn’t get in there with me, and I don’t want to leave you yet.”
“I’m not goin’ any—”
“Nope.”
“Fine, just get dressed.”
Cam watched me closely as I stripped out of my pajamas, and groaned as I slid a pair of underwear up over my hips. “You’re killin’ me.”
“You said you wanted me to get dressed,” I replied innocently, jumping then laughing hysterically when he acted like he was going to lunge for me.
I pulled on a pair of leggings and a maternity shirt, and as soon as I’d pushed my feet into some sandals, Cam was up off the bed and dragging me toward the front door. I hadn’t even brushed my hair, but I decided not to mention it as he mumbled about getting out of the house so he wouldn’t fuck me under my parents’ roof.
When we got to the clubhouse, there weren’t many people there, which seemed to seriously bum Cam out.
“Wanna go to my parents’?” he asked as he glanced around the room. “Think Poet and Amy were headed over there today.”
My body locked up and it took me a minute to answer him.
I hadn’t been back to Casper and Farrah’s house since the shooting, and a month before, I would have said that I’d never set foot on their property again. But Cam was looking at me with so much hope on his face, I couldn’t tell him no.
Casper, Farrah and the girls had been living at home and dealing with all the bad memories on a daily basis since Lily had been released from the hospital. I could go for a few hours.