Bolo’s Curveball (Saint’s Outlaws MC: Phoenix Chapter #3)

Chapter 1

Bolo

My fucking hands were shaking. Balling them up into fists, I squeezed, then shook them out as I got off my motorcycle.

This was the last news I’d expected to get.

It had me all over the fucking place. First I’d been so shocked all I could do was stare blankly at my phone.

Having OD and Kilo catch me reading Devyn’s text hadn’t turned out as badly as I would’ve expected. OD had been almost helpful.

After my head had cleared a bit I rode my motorcycle over here at Mach Jesus speed. I was lucky I hadn’t run into any cops.

I’d been trying to get Devyn to call me back for months. It’d taken me a while to get her to even give me the time of day at the beginning. She’d laughed and called me a playboy when I’d asked her out for dinner the first time. She hadn’t been wrong exactly.

Though all that changed when I met her. Not that she believed me—and for good reason, since before her I was a serial dater.

She still thought I was out fucking around.

I wasn’t. Some part of her must have believed me, or hoped to believe me, since she finally agreed to go to dinner with me. That was well over two months ago.

Getting a text from her that she was pregnant, and that the baby was mine, had hit me like a sledgehammer. Despite my shock, I didn’t let that stop me from heading straight to her. I stepped into the firehouse and jerked my chin in acknowledgment at one of the men standing near the fire engine.

“Can I help you?” he asked, coming over to me.

“Devyn Bell in?”

“Yeah. She’s in her office in the back. Third door on the right.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

I eyed the hallway. “Thanks.” I ignored the curiosity on his face. I was sure it wasn’t every day a biker in a cut walked into a fire station.

We could make a lot of money with the ladies doing Bikers versus Firefighters calendars.

She was going to be pissed that I was here. I walked down the hall and knocked on the door that had her name on it. I hadn’t let her know I was stopping by.

“Come in!”

Opening the door, I waited until she looked up. Gray eyes scanned the document in front of her and, at my silence, finally rose and met mine.

Her eyes widened and flicked to the door, seeing if anyone was behind me.

The firefighter hadn’t followed me back.

We were alone. “What are you doing here?” She shoved to her feet, came over and pulled me fully inside the office, then poked her head out into the hallway. She shut the door and glared at me.

My brows shot up. “You seriously thought you could send me a text like that and I wouldn’t show up?” I asked, amazed.

Did she think so little of me? Did I deserve to be thought of that way? Maybe.

“I thought you’d text me back and we could make a plan to meet later. You know…not at my work.” She huffed out a breath. “Jesus, Bolo.”

“Sorry, but if you’re pregnant with my-” I paused when her eyes narrowed and her scowl deepened.

Clearing my throat, I started over. “You’re pregnant with my kid,” I corrected.

Geez, I didn’t mean it could be someone else’s.

I’m really not good at this part. “I’m not waiting around to meet at some ambiguous time later on, Dev. ”

She shook her head. “I should’ve waited to tell you. I knew better.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, a grim look settling on my face. “I haven’t seen you for two and a half months, Dev. I’d say you did wait to tell me.”

She made a face at me. It was an expression filled with annoyance. “I only just found out, jerk. And it took me a bit to…digest it.”

“How long is a bit?”

“A week after I figured out I was pregnant, okay? I just…needed to breathe…and I can’t do that when you’re around.”

I had to fight to keep the grin off my face.

She liked to pretend she was completely unaffected by me.

Which was why it took a full month of chasing her to even get her to agree to our one date.

Then we’d slept together and afterward she’d ghosted me.

I hadn’t been able to figure out what’d happened.

It’d been a massive blow to my ego, so when she’d asked for space, after I’d finally gotten her to answer her damn phone, I’d given it to her. That had clearly been a mistake.

We hardly knew each other. Met at a bar. I’d gotten her number and then she’d found out I was in a motorcycle club and tried to cut ties before we’d even started anything. I’d been getting a beer after helping my dad out with a job, so I hadn’t been in my cut at the time.

I watched her run her hands through her brown hair. It was loose and hanging down her back. There were worry lines etched into her forehead as she sighed. “I swear I wasn’t trying to keep anything from you. I just… I wasn’t expecting this. I didn’t even realize what was going on at first.”

“I didn’t expect it either,” I admitted.

Her eyes rose and searched my gaze. She was trying to judge by my answer how I was feeling.

She wasn’t going to figure it out by trying to read my expression.

My time in the military had taught me to shut down emotions and how to effectively keep any that slipped through from showing on my face. “Are you okay?”

“I’m pregnant, Bolo,” she said with a humorless smile. “What do you think?”

Frowning, I shrugged. “Don’t know. That’s why I’m asking.

” Pregnant women weren’t exactly something I knew much about.

Kilo’s old lady, Camila, was pregnant, but she was pretty much the only one I knew.

And I didn’t ask her questions. I figured the easiest way not to piss a pregnant woman off was to never ask questions.

She went back to her desk and sat at the chair, dropping her head into her hands. “We used a condom…didn’t we?”

Walking over, I dropped into the chair across from her. “Fuck if I remember,” I admitted. “Should have. I’m usually responsible about that kind of thing.”

She raised her head and glared at me. “I don’t really want to hear about all the times you used condoms with other women.”

“That wasn’t what I meant-” I broke off because it did come off that way. “We were drunk,” I said instead.

She sat back in the chair, blowing out a breath. “Yeah.”

“Doesn’t matter whether we did or didn’t, we’re here now. So please, tell me, how are you? How’s…the baby?”

She shrugged. “I’m pretty sure I’m like…

nine weeks. Something like that, based off when we…

And my last period. I’ve been so busy I didn’t even realize I was late.

” She swallowed back the rest of the words.

“My primary care doc did the blood test to confirm, but the OBGYN office I called is backed up. I have an appointment with them in a few weeks.”

“No shit?” I frowned. “That seems weird. I thought they saw you right away. Like that they’d make it a priority to get you in.”

“You’d think, but apparently not,” she said in a wry tone.

A knock sounded on the door and before Devyn had the chance to say anything a guy opened it. He froze when he saw me, then blinked twice and looked over at Devyn. “Dutch is making meatball subs for lunch. You want?”

“No thanks, Aiden,” she told him.

“Your loss. He makes the best subs out there.” Aiden’s gaze slid back my way. “Your…friend…want one?”

“Sure-”

“No, thank you,” she said, interrupting me. “He was just leaving.”

Damn, meatball subs sound good right about now. After this convo, I could demolish two or three easily.

Aiden was still standing there in the doorway, staring.

“You can shut the door on the way out,” she prompted.

“Right. Sorry.” Aiden gave her a sheepish smile then backed out of the office.

“A sub sounded good,” I told her.

She gave me a look of disbelief. “You’re not here for lunch, Bolo. In fact, why are you here?”

It was my turn to look at her like she was nuts. “You already forgot?”

She rolled her eyes. “Look…” She took a deep breath, then let it out. “I don’t expect anything from you.”

“What does that mean?”

“Just because…I told you…it doesn’t mean I need anything.”

I folded my arms over my chest again, fighting back angry words.

She was scared. It was written all over her face.

She probably thought I was coming here to tell her I wasn’t going to do shit for her, or the baby.

It wasn’t like she knew me well enough to know how I’d react.

So she was giving me an out before I said anything that would hurt her too badly. It was a defense mechanism.

“I know we didn’t have a lot of time to get to know one another,” I told her, “but I’d like to change that.”

Her gaze met mine and held. Hope was starting to edge out the fear in her expression. “You would?”

I nodded. “I only gave you space before because you asked for it.” I shot her a smirk. “Trust me, that wasn’t easy to do. I like you, Devyn. I think if you gave me a chance you’d like me too. But either way, I’m going to be here for you. For our kid. Like it or not you’re stuck with me.”

She reached out and grabbed the pen off the desk, fidgeting with it. Her fingers were trembling. “W-what exactly does that mean?”

“I’d like us to have the chance to get to know one another. See where this can go.”

She let out a huff of a laugh. “You’re only doing this because you got me pregnant, though.”

“Not true, but even if it was, so what?” It wasn’t.

I’d been biding my time. From the minute I’d seen her walk into that bar it was like everything had narrowed down to just her.

She’d been on my mind every damn day since.

I was hearing her laugh in my dreams. Relay would call it an obsession, and maybe it was, but I liked what I knew of her and I wanted to know more.

“I’m not trying to trap you, Bolo.”

“Never said you were. I wanted more than one damn date, Devyn. You’re the one who got cold feet.”

She opened her mouth, then snapped it closed. “I’m keeping the baby.”

“Never even thought otherwise.”

She frowned at me, like I was a puzzle she couldn’t quite figure out.

“What?”

“You’re…not what I expected.”

I chuckled. “You thought I’d run. Why’d you even tell me then?”

She rolled her eyes. “My mom said it was only fair to let you know.”

“She sounds like a smart lady,” I told her. “I can’t wait to meet her. So… What’d you say?”

She frowned. “You’re sure?”

“I’m not asking you to date me.” I would, but knew she’d bolt out that door behind me faster than I could finish the sentence.

She was a skittish one. I needed to play this cool or she was going to run.

That was the last thing I wanted. Even if it didn’t work out between us, I refused to have a kid out there who I didn’t know.

Who didn’t know me. But I would rather have us be a family.

I’d already been thinking that I was getting too old for the partying lifestyle. I was tired of it. Not of my brothers, our MC, or anything. I’d kill for them. But I was thirty-five and I’d started to think of what came next.

She shook her head in disbelief. “You haven’t actually even asked if it’s yours.”

Seemed she was ready to finally acknowledge that this could be a legitimate question a man might have, though I hadn’t been thinking of it that way.

She also seemed to have forgotten she’d just gotten mad at me when I first came in and accidentally implied that the baby might not be mine.

I wasn’t about to point any of that out though. “You think it’s mine?”

“I know it is,” she said with a sigh. “You’re the first guy I’ve had sex with in…an embarrassingly long time.”

That wasn’t anything to be embarrassed about in my opinion, but I didn’t say that. Devyn had a fiery temper—which I really liked about her—and I was trying to not step directly on a landmine while I was trying to persuade her to get involved with me.

“That’s all I need to know.”

“You don’t even know me, Bolo.”

Because you ran away when I tried to get to know you. But we seemed to be throwing all rationality out the window. Proceed with caution.

She threw up her hands. “I don’t even know your real name. But you’re just trusting me when I say this baby is yours?”

That was what I meant about her temper. She was grateful I believed her, but still a little mad about it, too. Women were a confusing addition to our species, but fuck if humanity wouldn’t suck without them. “I’m good at reading people. You’re trustworthy.”

That took the wind out of her sails. “Thanks…I guess.” She looked at me helplessly. She wasn’t sure how to handle any of this.

I was right there with her and just doing my best not to fuck it up. “What do you think?” I prompted again.

She was silent for longer than I liked, but she finally nodded. “Yeah. Okay. We can…get to know each other.”

“Need to know my baby mama,” I said with a grin.

She glared at me. “Shut up.”

Laughing, I offered, “Why don’t we go grab some lunch?”

She looked around her office, then shrugged. “Okay. But not with the guys. I haven’t…told any of them.” She cocked her head. “How’d you find where I worked? I never told you what I did.”

Glitch.

It sure was handy having a computer hacker as a friend and club ally.

Even though he lived up in Wyoming, he was always happy to help out when needed.

And the Wyoming club president of The Berserker’s Rage MC never seemed to mind loaning out his skills to us.

We were always grateful for the help. Cypher knew if he ever needed anything, we’d be there for them and vice versa.

It was a mutually beneficial relationship even though we didn’t share club names. It was always good to have friends.

I’d been surprised when Glitch had told me that my girl was a fire investigator with a local fire department. “I have my ways,” I said, answering her question without actually telling her anything. I got up and went to hold the door open. “I know a great place not far from here.”

She looked like she wanted to run away again. I wasn’t sure why she was so hesitant to get involved with me, but I was going to do my damn best to convince her that I was worth taking a chance on.