Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
Midas
Amity and Dice walk in first, with a shaken Kiki between them. I stand up and walk over, Kiki’s eyes lighting up when she sees me.
“Hey, Midas, I’m okay,” she tells me with a smile. I briefly take her in. Apart from a small cut on her forehead, she looks fine.
“Good. What happened?” I ask, but I’m looking at Dice.
“Someone ran me off the road,” Kiki answers.
Legs steps up beside me before I can say anything else. “Hey, Kiki. I heard what happened. I’m glad you’re okay.”
Kiki looks at her with shock clear on her face. “You’re back?” Her gargled hiss comes out as she takes a step back, almost walking into Amity.
“No, I just came with Midas—”
“Of course you did.” She looks around, swallowing whatever else she was going to say before her shoulders drop. “I’m going to go lay down,” she mumbles before walking away.
“Well, that wasn’t awkward at all,” Amity mutters, making Legs chuckle.
“What did I miss?” I ask, confused.
Dice rolls his eyes. “Really?”
I glare at him. “Yes, really, prospect.”
“He really is that obtuse, Dice.” Legs sighs. I look at her but Amity laughs outright.
“She’s in love with you, Midas.”
“Good. I love her too.”
Everyone freezes around me, but I still feel like I’m missing something. “I know you don’t believe me yet, Legs, but it’s true.”
“Oh Jesus, you weren’t kidding,” Amity mutters. “We’re not talking about Legs. We’re talking about Kiki. Kiki is the one that loves you.”
“No, she doesn’t.”
Dice sighs. “Well, she thinks she does.”
“How the fuck can you love someone you don’t know?”
Legs rubs her temples. “I ask myself the same question.”
“What does that mean?” I frown at her.
She looks up at me and sighs, lowering her voice a little. “When’s my birthday, Midas?”
I open my mouth to reply, but it’s hazy. “March 19th.”
“September 29th,” she replies softly. “What is my favorite color? Favorite TV show? Favorite food?”
I open my mouth again, but before I can say anything, I see her eyes get damp.
“How old am I, Midas? Do you even know what my real name is?” She swipes at her cheek before walking away. I move to go after her, but Amity stops me.
“I’ll go.” She glares at me as I scrub my hands down my face.
“Fuck!”
Dice stares at me impassively.
“Don’t look at me like that.”
“I’m not looking at you any way, Midas.”
“We kept everything superficial for a reason.”
“How’d that work out for you?” he questions quietly.
“I could always put you on toilet duty.”
“You could. But I’d still be the only one of the two of us that knows her real name.”
“Wait, you know it? Why?”
“Because I asked.”
I can’t even rail at the fucking guy because I could have asked the same damn thing.
“Tell me what’s going on with Kiki.” I change the subject, daring him to argue, but he doesn’t.
“Docs say she’s fine, just the bump where her head hit the steering wheel. But there are no signs of concussion and no stitches needed. Her car is being towed to the garage. Hoops called and says there is no other damage besides a little to the bodywork and a blown tire.”
“Well, that’s something. She see the guy that ran her off the road?”
“No, said it was a dark blue or black older model truck.”
“Same description as the truck that followed Lil that time? Shit, that’s not a coincidence.”
“No. Havoc and Nevaeh stayed to find out what was happening with Tina, but he said he wouldn’t be there long.”
“Alright, I’ll pass it on.”
He’s quiet for a minute, so I wait him out, but when he keeps quiet, I grit my teeth.
“Anything else?”
“Hoops is blaming himself. He picked up Tina and brought her home. Now he feels like shit that Kiki got hurt on his watch.”
“No, he did the right thing, taking Tina back. I’m not blaming Kiki for what happened, but she should have gone home with them. She was told not to be off the compound alone.”
He nods in agreement before I dismiss him and head out to find Legs.
I go upstairs first, cursing when I remember she no longer has a room here.
I walk down to G’s room in case Amity took her there, but nobody answers.
I jog down the steps and head out back. I spot them on one of the benches facing away from me.
I move closer, not wanting to startle them, but slow my pace when I hear them talking.
“You’re not being stupid, Legs. I’d feel the same way, too.”
“You’d have put up with that shit for two minutes before you shot him.” Legs laughs, but I can hear the tears in her voice. “When will it stop hurting so much, Amity?”
“I don’t know. You said he’s trying to make it up to you now. How’s that going?”
“I’m not sure. I’m just so confused. I don’t know this Midas.
He’s attentive and sweet and has his moments, and he’s not dismissive of my feelings.
I should be ecstatic, right? It’s just that he’s doing it so easily now.
He’s tactile with me like he’s been doing it for years.
Only he hasn’t, and that’s what hurts the most. In showing me how good to me he can be, he’s rubbing in exactly what he withheld. ”
“That wasn’t my intention.” They both whirl around. “I mean, I want to show you how good we could be, but I don’t know how to keep myself from bruising you. I fucked up so much, I don’t know how to unravel the threads while everything is knotted.”
She swallows, looking pale and unsure.
“I might not know your last name Hazel, but I know you. I know you talk in your sleep—really random things that don’t make a lick of sense, but you make everything sound like an adventure.
I know your favorite sandwich is plain cheese because sometimes the simple things are the best—unless it’s coffee, then you like the most complicated thing off the menu. ”
She snorts a little at that, tears running down her face as I take a step closer.
“You pick out all the red M&M’s and eat them first because they’re your favorites even though they taste the same as the rest.” I move a step closer, my voice dropping lower.
“You love dancing in the rain but hate it when your feet get wet, have a bizarre fear of parrots because it is not natural for birds to sass back at you…and you love me. You love me so damn much that you’ll eventually forgive me, even though I don’t deserve it, because you know nobody will ever love you as much as I do, Legs. It’s just not possible.”
She stares at me, her lip quivering, before she walks toward me and faceplants against my chest. “I do love you,” she admits as she grips my cut.
“I know.”
“But I also hate you.” Her voice cracks, along with mine.
“I know that too.”
“I don’t want to hate you anymore, but if I stop, I might just hate myself.”
A commotion from inside catches all our attention before either of us can say anything else. I take her hand as she swipes at her tears and follows Amity, who had been watching us quietly.
Havoc is talking to G, and I can see just how pissed off he is from way over here. Neveah walks over to Amity, looking worried, so I send Legs over to talk to them.
“What’s going on? Is Tina okay?” I ask Havoc.
He gestures for me to sit, so I do, and G and Mac walk over to join us.
“There’s some damage to Tina’s organs. They have her sedated, and they’ve managed to stop her from seizing.”
“Jesus, what the hell caused it?”
“She was poisoned.”
I blink, sure I heard him wrong.
“Did you say poisoned?” Mac questions.
Havoc nods.
“What? When? How?”
“I don’t know. They’re going to run some more tests.”
“This is fucked-up.”
“You’re telling me.” He looks over my shoulder before his eyes come back to mine. “How’s she doing?”
I turn and see Legs talking to Nevaeh.
“She’s okay. We’re taking things one day at a time.”
“Just don’t fuck it up.”
“I’m not planning on it.” I look over and see her rubbing her eyes and get to my feet. “I’m gonna take her home so she can get some rest.”
“We’ve got church later.”
“I’ll get Powers to stay with her until we’re done.”
“Alright.”
Before he can say anything else, I walk away and tuck Legs under my arm. “Let’s get you home. You look dead on your feet.”
“I feel it. Some days, I feel like I have too much energy to contain, and others, it’s like it’s been drained right out of me,” she mutters as we say goodbyes to Amity and Nevaeh.
I walk her to the truck and help her in as I tell her what they found out about Tina.
“I can’t believe someone poisoned her. That’s crazy, Midas.”
“I know, trust me. That’s why I’d rather have you back at the apartment than here because I have no idea where it happened.”
“Holy crap, you don’t really think someone in the MC did it?”
“No. It’s not my brothers’ style. I’m just being overly cautious.”
“I get it. The baby makes everything seem like such a risk. For the record, I don’t think any of the brothers did it.
I agree, it’s not their style. Plus, poisoning someone is usually done by women.
I read that somewhere,” she mutters before leaning her head against the window and falling fast asleep.
I hate leaving Legs, even though she has Powers with her, but nobody says no to church unless you have a damn good reason.
And being obsessed isn’t considered one of them.
I listen in as Havoc talks, updating everyone on what’s been happening and what we know, but my thoughts keep drifting back to Legs and the shit she said about me not knowing her name.
I mean, it’s shit, no two ways about it.
It would be real easy for me to blame the fact that we all use club names, Legs included, but that’s just an excuse.
As Dice said—all I had to do was ask. It sucker punched me because it shows how desperately I kept a barrier between us.
Instead of protecting her, it just made her feel like an outsider looking in.
“Anyone else have anything to add?”
I look up when Havoc’s voice snaps, making me realize he’s looking at me. “Legs said something that made me think.”
Someone snorts, but I ignore them.
“What did she say?” G leans forward and asks.