Chapter 11 #2
She was relieved he was in favor of her keeping the baby.
Given the way he’d taken such care with her while guests of the Phantom Furies, it shouldn’t have surprised her.
Until he said the words, she didn’t realize how much it would have hurt to hear him reject their child.
She absently rubbed at her stomach, hoping the nausea she was experiencing would settle down now that she didn’t have to worry about him reacting negatively toward her pregnancy.
“Are you all right?” Darren asked. “You don’t look so good.”
“Um. Yes. I,” she shook her head. “I’ve been having morning sickness, and all this time I thought I was coming down with the stomach bug everyone seems to be catching. I should’ve known better.”
The sound of a man and a woman laughing, and coming closer, drew her attention to the hallway.
Her back shot straight, and her breathing caught in her chest. Jed was coming into the bar area, shirtless and fastening up his jeans.
A pretty blonde woman wearing what looked like Jed’s shirt was smiling and hanging on his arm.
“Damn, Tori. I think you drained me dry.”
A direct hit to Sadie’s heart. She thought she’d been slowly falling in love with the asshole, but given how badly her chest was hurting, she feared she had already fallen. She steeled herself and fisted her hands at her sides, waiting for him to notice her.
“That didn’t take long,” she murmured to herself at the same time Darren growled. She checked to confirm his ire was focused on Jed and not her.
Jed stiffened the moment he registered her presence, his mouth dipping into a deep frown. “What the fuck are you doing here?” he snapped.
“None of your fucking business.” Facing Darren again, she said, “I’m sorry, I can’t do this right now.
” She spun on her heel and hurried to the door.
She felt bad for running out on Darren after dropping the world's biggest bomb in his lap, but she couldn’t be around Jed right now.
She felt a fine sheen of perspiration pop out on her brow and knew she wasn’t going to make it out of there without embarrassing herself after all.
She just prayed she could make it outside first.
Once outside, she spotted a trash can several feet from the door and ran in that direction, barely making it before the urge to throw up hit her.
She scrambled to grab all her hair in one hand to hold it out of her way.
The thought of getting barf in her hair made her retch again.
Oh God. The smell of beer, old food, and—was that piss?
—was overwhelming. She didn’t know which was worse, the violent retching or the ungodly smell.
Her eyes slammed shut when she saw a few used condoms amongst the trash.
Oh my God! What was wrong with these people?
When she thought she might actually be finished, she reached into her pocket for her glove to wipe her mouth.
She tossed it into the trash, deciding she’d buy new gloves the next time she went to the store.
No way would she bring it home to wash. The freaking smell on the drive home would kill her.
She stood up and leaned her back against the wall with her eyes closed, letting the cold air hit her face.
She took a few long, slow breaths in and out and thought it safe enough to get in her car.
“Are you okay, Sadie?”
She squealed and jolted at the sound of Cutter’s voice. When did he come outside? How embarrassing that she hadn’t heard the door open or close over the sound of her vomiting. She wiped under her eyes to remove the wetness caused by tearing up through her ordeal.
“Yeah. I’m good.” For now. She prayed she made it home before she got sick again. Unfortunately, she needed to swing by Cathy’s house to pick up Oliver on the way.
“Here.” He handed her an unopened bottle of water. The man was a godsend.
“Thank you.” She accepted the bottle after he twisted the top loose. Taking a mouthful, she did a swish and spit in the trash, then took a long drink to ease her sore throat. “Doesn’t anybody empty the trash around here?”
“Yeah. That would be mine or Miles’s job. Sorry, we didn’t do it earlier.” He rubbed the back of his neck, a light flush appearing on his cheeks.
She snorted. “No need to apologize. How were you supposed to know some woman was going to come along and throw up in it?”
"It happens more than you would think." His lopsided grin was sweet. His longish hair lay in layers below his ears, and his chestnut colored eyes sparkled with laughter. “I was going to follow you home, but since you’re still here and don’t look that great, I’ll ride with you instead.
Is that okay with you?” Cutter stood with his hands in his pockets.
“Ride with me?”
“Yes. One of us will be with you at all times until we can find Tinker.” Oh, right.
How could she have forgotten about Tinker?
She dug her keys out of her other coat pocket and handed them to Cutter.
“Here. You drive.” She was exhausted. Between her nerves and getting sick, she was wiped.
She climbed into the passenger side and buckled up while Cutter got behind the wheel and adjusted the seat. “You good?”
She leaned her head against the rest and nodded her head.
“Yes. I’ll be fine. I’m just tired now.” She waited for him to start the car before she told him they needed to make a stop on the way home.
She directed him to Cathy’s house and tried not to think about what seeing Jed with another woman so soon had felt like.
She should have known whatever was between them was always destined to end after his comment on their relationship.
It is what it is. He was telling her, without saying the actual words, that there was a time limit on them.
* * *
Jed
“What the hell was she doing here?” Jed asked after the door closed behind Sadie.
Before Darren could reply, Race asked, “Who’s on Sadie?”
Fuck. Gritting his teeth, he admitted, “No one, I guess.”
Race’s scowl deepened. He waved for Cutter to follow Sadie.
“What the fuck do you mean no one, you guess?” Darren growled, stomping his way to Jed.
“I mean, I found out she’s pregnant with someone else’s kid, and I left. I didn’t think about getting someone else on her.” Darren shoved him hard, almost causing him to land on his ass.
“What the fuck? How long has she been without protection? Did we not all agree less than twenty-four hours ago that if you couldn’t be with her, you needed to let us know so someone else could cover her?
” He didn’t give Jed a chance to respond, not that he had a good argument to defend himself.
Whether he was seeing Sadie or not, he still should have seen to her safety.
Darren walked off, then spun around, stomping back. “I can’t believe you left her unprotected, knowing Tinker’s got a hard-on for getting his hands on her to get to you.”
Jed wasn’t sure, but in his opinion, he couldn’t help but feel Darren was taking this fuck up with Sadie a little too personally.
“Well, he doesn’t need to use her to get to me anymore. As soon as I found out that she was knocked up by someone else, I ended it. There’s no reason for him to go after her anymore.”
Darren ran his hands roughly over his face, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “Do you think he knows that, dickhead? Or that it will matter to him that things are over between you two?”
No, it wouldn’t matter to Tinker. There was no way for him to know that he and Sadie were on the outs since no one had seen him in forever. No, even if he knew it wouldn’t matter because Tinker would know that Jed wouldn’t stand by and allow a woman to be hurt. Even if she was a cold-hearted bitch.
Dropping his hands on his hips and shaking his head, Darren turned disgust-filled eyes on Jed and blew up his world. “You are such a fucking idiot. The baby you’re so worried about being passed off as yours is mine. She came here today to tell me she’s pregnant.”
“What?” Jed choked. “And you believed her?” What kind of game was she playing?
“Did you forget about the two of us being held against our will and forced to fuck? The baby she’s carrying is mine.
” With that, he spun on his heel and moved toward the door.
Halfway there, he turned to fire one more parting shot.
“You don’t fucking know her at all. If you did, you’d know she’s a damn good woman who's had more than her fair share of hard knocks.” He threw his hands out to his sides and backed the rest of the way to the door. “You’d be fucking lucky to have her.”
“Where are you going?” How could Darren drop all this on him and leave?
“To tell the woman I love I’m having a baby with someone else.” He slammed his hands into the push bar on the door and stormed out.
Jed was left standing in the middle of the floor, stunned at everything he learned.
Glancing at the bar, Race’s lips pressed tight in a disappointed grimace, and Dagger’s slow shaking of his head made him feel about two inches tall.
He started for the hall, intending to get dressed and take a ride to clear his head, but came up short when he saw Tori standing at the mouth of the hall, biting into her bottom lip, and her eyes were sad as if even she was disappointed in him.
In his room, he quickly pulled on another shirt, pulled his socks on, and shoved his feet into his boots.
Grabbing his cut from the chair, he shrugged it on and palmed his keys.
Not wanting to suffer his president’s and VP’s disappointment again, he slipped out the back door and rounded the building, heading for his truck.
He jumped in and backed out. He wasn’t sure where he was going, but he couldn’t stay there.
What he wouldn’t give for some warm weather so he could ride his bike.