Chapter 11 Hello Fatherhood, Goodbye Life
HELLO FATHERHOOD, GOODBYE LIFE
PIERCE - THREE MONTHS LATER
Lexi and I have been tiptoeing around each other and the house ever since she dropped the bomb that we’re having a baby.
She’s been avoiding me like the damn plague.
Ditching her usual couch-potato nights and holing up in her bedroom, leaving me alone to stew in my own restless energy, twiddling my fucking thumbs.
The only time she emerges from her self-imposed exile is when I cook. And even then, it's a coin toss whether she’s going to inhale the food like she hasn’t eaten in days or yell from the hallway that the smell is making her morning sickness worse.
She was already too thin when I moved in. Frail in a way that didn’t sit right with me from that night my hands met her waist at the clubhouse. Whatever softness she had left on her petite frame had withered away.
Harlow leaving after everything with Evan hit her harder than she’s letting on to her best friend.
She’s been retreating into herself ever since, refusing to take care of her physical needs, let alone her mental ones.
Shutting the world out until it comes knocking is easy when she thinks no one is paying attention.
Between the weight loss and the constant nausea that hasn’t let up, she needs me—even if she won’t say it out loud.
Hell, maybe especially because she won’t.
So, I cook. Every night. It’s the only way I know how to pull her back into the world of the living, even for a little while.
I could go to the club, blow off steam, and grab drinks with the guys, but I don’t.
Truth is, I don’t want to be away from her.
I spent months watching her from a distance after Evan, and years before that, trying to erase the thought of her from my head with whatever drink, drug, or woman would let me forget.
None of it worked. Not really. And now? Forget it.
We’re not together. She’s made that painfully clear, repeatedly.
But she’s not seeing anyone else, and I don’t want someone who isn’t her.
All five feet of guarded glances, tangled emotions, and that dull fire that’s still deep down refusing to die.
Lexi is and has always been an untamable chaos, and I’m fucking drawn to it.
Right now, she’s standing across the kitchen island, staring at me with that look she’s worn all week. Frustrated. Uncertain. Like she’s gearing up for a fight, she’s not sure she’ll win.
I love it.
“Pierce! Are you even listening to me?”
I shake off the thoughts spinning through my head and give her the smile that used to do the trick. The one that used to make her soften around the edges.
She glares, arms crossed tight over her chest. Her sharp exhale is half shriek, half sigh. She’s entirely over my shit.
Yeah, that little ace up my sleeve definitely doesn’t work anymore.
“Sorry,” I say, holding up my hands a little. “I was just planning what to make you for dinner tonight.”
She scoffs. “You’ve always been a shit liar. Good to see some things haven’t changed.”
If she only knew how much I’m keeping from her. How hard I work to hold back everything I really want to say just to keep her from seeing the true evil that lurks around her.
Then she drops it, casually, like she’s not about to set fire to my entire nervous system.
“What I said was, I think I’m ready to tell Harlow and my brother. Let’s go over there today.”
My pulse spikes, but I keep my face still, nodding slowly like I saw it coming. Truth is, we can’t keep this a secret forever. It’s a miracle Harlow hasn’t figured it out already with the way Lexi’s been acting. But still, saying it out loud? Making it real? Telling her family?
Yeah. That’s a whole different kind of terrifying.
“I’ll grab the keys.”
The car rolls to a stop in front of Si and Harlow’s place. The small ranch-style home with rocking chairs on the front porch and a wind chime clinking quietly in the winter breeze is so different than anything I’d expect from the couple who resides here.
Lexi twists her fingers in her lap, nerves practically radiating off her. I don’t know why she’s the one so anxious. I’m the one stepping into a lion’s den. A dead man walking.
She’s worried about a simple family visit.
I’m concerned about surviving her brother’s particular brand of gruesome torture.
The shit I’ve seen Si do with nothing more than a belt and a pair of pliers would make a grown man rethink his life choices.
I’m not sure how he’ll react to the news, but my imagination doesn’t have to work too hard to paint a picture straight from a horror movie.
“Okay,” Lexi says, her voice tight. “Let me do all the talking. I can handle my brother.”
I nod, unfolding myself from behind the wheel of her compact sedan. My knees crack from the cramped ride. She’s still frozen in the passenger seat, not making a move. I round the hood and open her door, leaning down so we’re eye to eye.
“You sure you want to do this?” I ask, voice low. “We don’t have to tell them today.”
She takes a sharp breath, and when her head whips toward me, her eyes lock on mine. A determined fire flashes under the muted winter sun.
“It’s time,” she says. “They need to know. And I need my best friend to talk to about all this shit.”
I give her a slight nod and step back, giving her room. She finally climbs out, resolve hardening her features.
The walk up to the front door is slow, each step building that wired, anxious buzz in my chest. The same kind of tension I get when working through a job for the club—high stakes with no positive outcome guaranteed.
We pause on the stoop. Her hand rises, ready to knock, but I catch her arm gently before she can follow through.
“You know you can talk to me, right?” I murmur, almost afraid they’ll hear through the thick oak door.
Lexi lets out a light, almost carefree laugh. It’s so unexpected, it knocks the breath out of me.
“I’m serious, Lex,” I say, voice a notch deeper. “I get that you want Harlow to know. But at the end of the day, this is you and me, Princess. I’ve got you. Whatever you need, I’m here.”
She doesn’t speak, but I can see the wheels turning behind her eyes, grinding with hesitation and what I hope is a budding trust in me.
I know it’s not natural for her anymore, not after everything.
But for the last three months, I’ve been there—every damn day.
And I’m not going anywhere. No matter what her brain is telling her.
Her fist slams into the front door like a damn sledgehammer. My heart kicks into overdrive, pounding in my chest like I’ve just run for my life. That is, until the door swings open and Harlow’s high-pitched squeal cuts through the air.
She throws her arms around Lexi and yanks her inside with no hesitation.
I follow behind, quiet as ever, taking in the subtle changes to the house.
What used to be all bare walls, dark corners, and leftover pizza boxes now has warmth.
The framed photos mixed with houseplants that are clinging to life, and new throw pillows, show the apparent influence Harlow’s had to soften the sharp edges of the place.
The house finally feels like a home instead of the cold-ass bachelor cave Si kept it as for years.
Speaking of the devil, Silas sits on the couch, half-watching sports highlights, beer in hand. But the second he sees Lexi, he’s on his feet, pulling her into a bone-crushing hug.
I know he’d never hurt her. He’s her brother, the last blood relative here for her in this town.
But there’s still something primal that tightens in my chest when he holds her like that.
The urge to pry her out of his arms and tuck her safely into mine hits hard, fast, and is entirely irrational.
I shove it down and give him a sharp nod when he glances up and meets my eyes over her shoulder.
“Hey, man,” he says, voice casual but curious. “Didn’t expect to see you here. You want a beer? Lexi?”
“I’ll take some water,” Lexi replies before I can speak.
I trail Silas to the kitchen, leaving the girls in a tangled heap on the couch, already deep into their rapid-fire conversation like we’re not here with some life-changing news. Their laughter follows us across the open room.
“So,” he says, popping the cap off a beer and grabbing a water bottle from the fridge. “How are things going? Anything new?”
I give him a look. “New since the last time you asked me…what, three days ago? You check in like a paranoid man on a mission, you know?”
He snorts. “Yeah, well. Habit.”
“Nothing new,” I say. “Like I told you, if something comes up with the cops, you’ll be the first to hear it.
But it’s been quiet. Too quiet. Either they’ve hit a dead end or his old man’s taken things off their radar.
If he’s running things through a private firm now, it’ll be harder to keep an eye on what’s coming.
It’s too bad, because the cops, hell, they couldn’t find the ass end of a horse in broad daylight. ”
Silas frowns as he hands me the beer and sets the water on the counter. “Yeah. That’s what I’m worried about.”
“It’ll be fine. We’re closing in on almost six months since he disappeared. The trail’s gone cold. There’s nothing from South America leading them back here to lock in on.”
“Yeah, I know you’re right. How’s she doing?” His gaze zones in on his sister.
The rare smile plastered across her face as she chats with Harlow is stunning, and I love every second of seeing it there.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”
“What?” I shake off the happiness and steal my features.
“You’re in love with my sister.”
Fuck.