Chapter 12
LEO
Iflinched awake and winced at the pain in my skull. “Fuck.”
Squeezing my eyes shut, I brought my hands to my temples and pressed hard.
The bed moved at my side. Despite the pain, I forced my eyes open, expecting Cass.
Not Cass.
The brunette from last night smiled into her pillow. “Morning.”
No. No, no, no. This wasn’t fucking happening.
I shot out of bed, swaying at the sudden movement, then I took in the strange room. “Where are we?”
“My place, baby.”
The air skated over my naked body. Where were my clothes? My eyes weren’t working right as I searched the floor. They were fuzzy and heavy, like I was crawling out of a nightmare. But I found one of my boots and with them, my jeans. I swiped them up and shoved them on.
“How’d I get here?”
“I drove us.” She propped up on an elbow, baring a breast. “Come back to bed.”
Where was my shirt? I spotted it beside my other boot and boxers.
I shoved the boxers in the back pocket of my jeans and pulled on my T-shirt. “Where are my keys?”
She sat up and pouted, this time letting both of her tits free of the sheets. “Do you really need your keys this minute? Let’s have some fun first.”
“Bitch, where are my keys?” I roared.
She jerked before pointing to the nightstand.
I swiped them up and moved to pull on my boots, doing my best to balance even though the whole world seemed to be spinning in the wrong direction.
Then I strode for the door, but I stopped myself before leaving, facing the woman as my heart beat so hard it was like someone was taking a baseball bat to my chest.
“Did we fuck?”
She shot me a glare and pulled the sheet up to cover herself, but she didn’t answer.
“Did we fuck?” I repeated.
She jutted out her chin.
“Answer the question.” I walked toward the bed, looming over the foot. “This is not the time to play games with me, understand? Did. We. Fuck?”
She dropped her gaze to the cream quilt and shook her head. “No.”
A wave of relief nearly dropped me to the floor. “How’d I get undressed?”
“I helped you inside and took off your clothes. You passed out.”
“Where’s my truck?”
“In the driveway.”
With that, I marched out of her house, only taking one wrong turn before I found the front door and walked out into the blinding sunshine.
“Christ.” I was going to vomit. And I did. I shuffled to a snowbank off the woman’s driveway and emptied the limited contents of my stomach. Wiping my mouth dry, I stood straight and went to my truck, climbing inside.
The doors were unlocked. My wallet was in the passenger seat along with my phone.
I swiped it up and checked the screen. Seven missed calls this morning. Two from Dash. Two from Emmett. Three from Presley, plus a text.
Fix this.
“Shit.”
No need to call her and find out what I needed to fix. I tossed the phone aside and turned on the truck. It was almost noon. Son of a bitch. Cass was going to rip my balls off, and I was going to let her.
The drive home was painful, not just because my heart was still pounding in sync with my head. This wasn’t just drunk and hungover. My arms were too heavy. My legs too numb. I was sluggish and stuck in a haze. Last night had been a complete blackout.
I hadn’t blacked out since the clubhouse days. That had been in my early twenties when some of the brothers had bought laced weed and we’d had a hell of a party. The next morning I’d woken up with two women in my bed.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”
How could I have been so goddamn stupid? Why hadn’t I just gone home? Why had I left in the first place? I rolled the window down, needing some air, otherwise I’d be puking again.
This was the worst morning of my life. Hands down. In all my years, I’d never felt so ashamed. Even the time I’d woken up in jail because I’d gotten into a bar fight with a sixty-something-year-old man who’d kicked my ass at pool and—after I’d run my mouth—just kicked my ass, period.
What the hell had I been thinking last night? At least I hadn’t gotten behind the wheel and killed someone else or myself. A damn miracle. That, and the fact that I hadn’t screwed that woman.
I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself, let alone face Cass.
Turning down my street, I sucked in a deep breath as the house came into view. Cass’s car wasn’t in the driveway. Shit. That would at least give me a chance to take a quick shower and wash off that woman’s scent. It clung to my skin like a gray film.
The house was eerily quiet when I walked inside and punched in the code on the alarm panel. It smelled like Cass, fresh and sweet and . . . home.
Shower. Then groveling. Weeks of groveling.
I hurried to my bedroom, stripping my clothes.
They’d go in the trash, not the hamper. I’d never wear those jeans or T-shirt again.
Then I went to the bathroom and turned on the shower to a punishing temperature.
My skin was raw and red by the time I stepped out and toweled off.
I dressed and went to the kitchen for an energy drink, still not feeling like myself but more alert than I had been before the shower.
The first gulp from the can burned but I chugged it anyway, only stopping when a note on the counter caught my eye. I picked it up, my stomach plummeting as I took in Cass’s neat handwriting.
I read it once. Then twice. Then the energy drink went sailing across the room, crashing into a wall and splattering its greenish-yellow liquid over my floor.
“Fuck!” I shouted, my throat burning as I mentally replayed her written words.
This is harder than I thought it would be.
I need some space. I need some distance.
I need to decide how you’re going to fit into our lives.
I’ll be staying with my parents until the baby is born.
My dad will come and get the rest of my things.
I’ll call you when I go into labor in case you want to be at the hospital.
But until then, please respect my decision. Please give me time to think.
She wanted to think about how I fit into her life. All this time, she’d left the door wide open. She’d given me time to get my head around this, and whatever I wanted, she’d never once said no. Until now.
Cass had slammed the door closed just when I’d finally been ready to walk inside. When I’d figured out it was time to pull my shit together. When I’d realized that the only woman I wanted was her.
I took the note with me as I walked toward her bedroom. My footsteps were heavy and the knot in my gut twisted as I approached the door. One glance inside and I wanted to vomit again.
The closet was open and empty. The nightstand was missing her phone charger and green apple lip balm. The candle on the dresser was gone.
I shoved off the doorframe and went to the office. Her books were still on their shelves from where we’d put them yesterday, but her laptop was nowhere to be seen.
“Damn it.” I closed my eyes and ran a hand over my face. She had to come back for the books, right? And what about the baby’s stuff?
The nursery. I spun around, going for the room across the hallway.
Cass had unpacked the gifts last night after I’d left for The Betsy. The new trash can was in the corner. The car seat was set beside a wall. There were piles of folded clothes and baby blankets on the carpet.
She’d taken her own things but had left everything for the baby. What did that mean? When had she left?
I looked at the note clutched in my hand and read it again, one word jumping off the page. Space. She wanted space.
“Fuck it.” She wasn’t getting space or distance or time. She didn’t get to make this decision on her own. She needed to hear my apology, and I wanted to understand why she’d stayed to unpack, only to leave awhile later. Was it because I hadn’t come home?
With my keys in hand and that note crumpled in a fist, I stormed out of the house and to my truck. I sped down the block, only pausing long enough at the stop sign to pull up Emmett’s name.
“Hey,” he answered. “Tried calling you. Suspect you know this, but I guess Cass moved out.”
“I know.” I gritted my teeth. “Found out when I got home. How’d you hear?”
“Scarlett. She saw Cass pull up with her car loaded this morning, then called Pres, who called Bryce, who called Genevieve.”
Fix it. These women were going to drive me insane.
“Goddamn it.” I didn’t need them in the middle of this. “Look, I need to know. Did you black out last night?”
“Black out? No.”
“I think that bitch who was talking to me put something in my drink.”
“What the fuck? Are you serious?”
“Yeah. I don’t remember anything. After you left, she took one of the shots you bought and I took the other.
I got up and talked to Bobby and some of the guys at the fire department for a while, then got dizzy.
Went outside to get in the truck and sleep it off.
Woke up this morning naked in that chick’s bed. ”
“Shit.”
“Yeah. Nothing happened. Still.” First, I had to convince Cass that it was the truth. There’d been no evidence of sex on my body when I’d climbed into the shower, so I was choosing to believe the brunette that we hadn’t had sex. Next, I had to get Cass to forgive me for being an epic dumbass.
“She drove my truck to her place, and I passed out,” I said. “We didn’t have that much to drink, right?”
“No way. I’ve seen you drink three times as many shots in a night and still walk through your front door.”
Then she had drugged me. “I gotta go.”
“What are you going to do about the woman?”
“Before I do anything, I need to talk to Cass. Then I’ll deal with the woman.”
“Don’t get thrown in jail.”
“No promises,” I said, ending the call.
I’d never hit a woman in my life and before today, I’d never had the urge. Not that I’d cross that line, but that brunette was going to pay for this. She was going to pay for hurting Cass and fucking up the good thing we’d had going.
The blame started with me. But the brunette had played her part and she’d be dealt with.