Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 92067 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92067 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
I haven’t asked the doctor what I’m having. Until recently, it was because I was in denial and ignoring the fact there was a life growing inside of me. It was a child born of heinous circumstances, but despite that, it is an innocent soul, and it needed me. No one ever had before. I wasn’t going to let him or her down. Now I haven’t asked, because I like not knowing. I want to be surprised. It’s been a long time since I’ve had surprises—at least good ones—and I find that I want it. This baby and me, we’re going to be a team. I’ll do anything to make sure our future together is happy for him or her.
I am dialing my phone when I see Lottie’s jeep pulling into the parking lot. She hates driving anything but her bike that Diesel bought her. I know she brought the jeep because of me and my little jellybean. I rub my stomach. I don’t look that far along. I have worried about that, but the doctor assures me the baby is fine. She says I’m one of the blessed moms who carry weight well and don’t start showing completely until the last couple of months. I think it has more to do with the fact that I’ve been sick as a dog with morning sickness—that seemed to last all day long. Food has held little interest for me because of it. I drink healthy shakes to supplement and force myself to eat healthy, but there are days that some of it refuses to stay down. I’m personally glad I don’t look to be as far along as I am. Soon, I’ll tell my parents, and they’ll believe the pregnancy is recent and I’ll let them believe that.
Hell, I’ll even pray they believe it.
“Hop in chick. Sorry I’m late. The SS crew had a small situation.”
I nod, but don’t say anything. I don’t want to know and if she told me, then she would take that to mean I was going to join—which I’m not.
I’m moving to Denver.
Chapter 2
King
My ass was on the bench of an old, painted red bench. My back was leaned back against the matching picnic table. A worn, but usable, red umbrella shielding me from the burning sun above my head. I had a beer on the table beside me, but I’d long since forgotten about it. My mind was busy, and it was in places it probably shouldn’t be.
Gabriella.
I smiled as I thought of that name. It fits her much better than the shortened version everyone calls her. She’s too complicated for a simple name. I knew that from the first moment I met her. Of course, back then, after hearing T talk about her, I thought all that complication was bad—down to the core. Getting to know Gabby, I see it differently now. I’m no expert when it comes to people, but I’ve lived inside hell enough to know one thing. Everyone on the face of God’s green earth has a blackness inside of them. A substance so dark that light can’t enter. You can feed this monster inside you or starve it until it slowly wastes away. That’s it. That’s what I know. One more thing that I’ve learned just recently—and pretty brutally—is that the most beautiful person on the outside can hide that darkness in her smile and in her words. It's a hell of a lesson to take away from a short marriage, but it’s there just the same.
In some ways, Gabby and I are a lot alike. Both of us were desperate for a life that, for our own reasons, we didn’t think we deserved. The only difference is Gabby allowed that desperation to turn her into someone she didn’t like—that no one liked. Me? I didn’t go that far, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized I let Shelby push me until I made changes I didn’t like—offers I didn’t want to make. Hell, I was willing to change my lifestyle and leave the club. Luckily, she threw that offer in my face. I guess having an old man in a uniform trumped having a grease monkey working at a garage. Fuck, most days I walk around in a haze trying to figure out how she fooled me so completely. More and more, I find myself just damned glad that I escaped.
“I thought you were going back to North Carolina or Virginia? I can’t keep up.”
I look up at Dragon and shrug. “Diesel said you were grilling out tonight. Thought I’d try my chances. See if you are going to poison me or not.”
“Asshole.”
“It’s my blood,” I say dryly.
Dragon throws his head back with laughter, shaking his head. “You’ve been around Ford too long.”
“He’s a good man.”