Chapter 17 #3
Jigsaw, his wavy, shoulder-length brown hair loose, stared gobsmacked across the wide hospital room.
He looked just as shocked as Maddie. “Wait, you’re…
” His voice trailed off and he wiped a hand over his full beard.
Though his hand was steady, Kelly still got the impression the action was a nervous one. “Fuck,” Jigsaw finally breathed out.
Maddie tried to get to her feet, but she was too far back on the bed to do so gracefully. Both Pirate and Jigsaw leapt forward. Even Splinters tried to reach for her, only to fall back onto his bed with agony on his face.
Jigsaw reached her first, aiding her to her feet. His arms lingered around her even after she was steady. “You’re pregnant.”
Maddie stared up into his eyes. Kelly wondered if she even realized she still held onto Splinters’ hand.
Kelly wasn’t sure how old Jigsaw was, maybe late twenties to early thirties.
She remembered when he first prospected for the club, four-ish years ago.
Even fresh from the military with his hair short, she’d remembered thinking he was a strikingly good-looking man and way too young for her.
Thick broad shoulders with tattoo sleeves down both arms, he’d grown out his hair and now sported a short full beard.
Kelly might be head over heels in love with Grumpy, but she wasn’t blind or dead.
Jigsaw was hawt.
And clearly, this wasn’t the first time Jigsaw and Maddie had met.
A throat cleared from the doorway behind Kelly. Ghost, Lucky, and Bulldog stood there, the three highest ranking officers in the club.
Ghost crossed his arms over his chest, frowning. “We came to check on our newest brother and congratulate him. Instead, I walk in here to find a different brother holding onto my newest niece. Care to explain what is going on?”
There was a lilt to Ghost’s voice that brooked no argument. It was demanding, and left absolutely no doubt who was in charge of any room he stepped into. No doubt, in Grumpy’s absence, Ghost felt the need to stand in for Maddie.
To his credit, Jigsaw didn’t just drop his hold on Maddie and step away.
A lesser man might have. Instead, he pulled the empty wheelchair over to her and guided her down.
It seemed only then that she realized she was still holding Splinters’ hand.
The younger man was clutching his chest with his free hand, trying to catch his breath.
Sweat poured down his pain-stricken face.
Maddie carefully extracted her hand from Splinters’.
Jigsaw looked between them, frowning, then turned his attention to Ghost. “I met Maddie six months ago when I went to Denver. We were on the same flight out of Dallas.”
“And,” Ghost pressed, though every single person in the room was already thinking the answer. From the look on the club members’ faces, they were in the know that there was a question of paternity for Maddie’s twins.
Jigsaw squared his shoulders. “And we were together. Biblically.”
Maddie dropped her face into her hands, hiding the embarrassment of having her sex life broadcast so publicly.
“Enough,” Kelly snapped, glaring at Ghost. “Unless he submits for a DNA test, their past is moot.” She walked over to Maddie. Though she was only one-handed, she was able to push the wheelchair towards the door. “I’m not going to stand here and let you judge or embarrass her.”
Ruth also stood, her tired face now filled with rage. “A shande un a kharpe,” she snapped, casting shame on Ghost.
Ghost, though, stepped into the path of the wheelchair, his hands raised as if in surrender.
“Maddie,” he said gently. It took a moment, but slowly, the younger woman lowered her hands.
She had tears in her eyes and her cheeks were bright red.
“You misunderstand the intent of my question.” Ghost’s voice was still kind, softer than Kelly thought she’d ever heard him speak.
“It was not to embarrass or judge you, but to defend you. You’re Grumpy’s daughter and under his protection, which means you’re under my protection.
And I will defend you to my dying breath.
I don’t give a shit if he is my club brother, if Jigsaw did anything to harm you, hurt you, or endanger you, he answers to me. ”
The room was deathly quiet for several long seconds.
There was something so final, so fiercely absolute in Ghost’s voice that it sent shivers down Kelly’s spine—and he wasn’t even looking at her with that intense green gaze.
This topic was too serious for him to use the club’s newest nickname for Grumpy, which Kelly was grateful for.
Ghost knelt down in front of Maddie’s wheelchair, getting eye level with her. “Your father isn’t here right now, but I am. You tell me what you need, what you want, and I’ll see it done.”
Maddie’s breath came in short, hiccupping gasps. “It was months ago. He didn’t know who I was,” she tried to justify.
“I don’t care.” Ghost’s eyes practically glowed with his honesty. “If he harmed you, emotionally or physically, I will strip him of his colors and personally ensure his punishment.”
Kelly glanced over her shoulder at Jigsaw, and though he still looked shocked, he did not look worried or offended by Ghost’s obvious threat.
“No,” Maddie insisted. “I mean, please don’t hurt him.
It was mutual, I swear. We just… We were strangers.
I didn’t even know his name, or his road name, until just now.
There’s no way he could have known mine or put together who I was.
Please don’t hurt him.” Tears started to fall down her cheeks again.
Kelly reached forward with her good hand to squeeze Maddie’s shoulder reassuringly.
Ghost studied Maddie’s face for a second before he nodded and stood. He touched her hair affectionately, uncle to niece. “You’ve only to ask,” he reminded her. Then stepped out of the way.
“Wait!” Jigsaw called after them. Kelly looked back, awkwardly turning the wheelchair so Maddie could see him too. “I need to… I mean, we need to talk,” Jigsaw said to Maddie, a note of pleading in his words. “How… How far along are you?”
Maddie nodded slowly but also begged, “Later, please. I need to go lay down, but you should know it’s twins.”
Jigsaw’s jaw about hit the floor, and Kelly recalled Maddie’s story about her mystery man on the plane saying that twins ran in his family.
Kelly struggled with the wheelchair another second before Lucky stepped forward and took control of it. “Thank you,” she sighed out her gratitude. Kelly and her mom followed Lucky out into the hallway. Everyone was silent down to the elevator.
Maddie wiped her eyes with the outside of her hands. She glanced up at Kelly and begged, “Please don’t tell my dad.”
Kelly winced, not sure if that was a promise she could make. “You really think that there’s a chance they’re Jigsaw’s?”
Maddie swallowed hard, blinking hard as she stared up at the ceiling. “Is it bad that I’m hoping they’re his? That I just want to leave Texas and Colton and my old life behind without any strings attached?”
Kelly’s heart hurt for the young woman. She leaned down and kissed Maddie’s temple. “No,” she answered softly. “I think that’s very human, and after having the pleasure of meeting Colton, completely understandable.”
They watched the elevator slowly lower to their floor. “Do you think he was telling the truth?” Maddie asked. “About twins running in his family? I know that had no effect on my being pregnant with twins, but for some reason, his story brings me comfort.”
“He’s not lying,” Lucky spoke up. He looked like he’d have rather kept his mouth shut, but Kelly also knew he also wasn’t the sort to hold onto information that others needed. “Parents, siblings, aunts, uncles… If they’re related to him by blood, they’re a twin. All but him.”
Maddie let out a shaky breath. “We’re here. We might as well do a paternity test if Dr. Lisbon is willing.”
The elevator dinged and the doors opened. Kelly, Ruth, and Lucky pushing Maddie stepped inside.
Maddie sniffled, and in her reflection on the silver elevator doors, Kelly saw tears start to fall down the woman’s face again. “Story of my life,” she mumbled as if to herself. “One step forward, two steps back. Just when I start to think something good is about to happen, two bad things follow.”
“Hogwash,” Ruth spat. “You make your own luck, neshomele. I saw the way that meshuggeneh was looking at you when we came in.”
“Mesh-a-what?” Maddie asked, wiping at her eyes.
The elevator opened again, and they walked out towards the maternity ward.
“The foolish one on the bed,” Kelly’s mom explained. Lucky walked slow enough that Ruth was able to keep pace with the wheelchair. “He likes you, my neshomele.”
Maddie snorted, clearly piecing together that “meshuggeneh” was Ruth’s name for Splinters, even if she didn’t understand the meaning of the affectionate nickname.
“I doubt he’ll ever speak to me again now that Jigsaw’s here.
Even if Jigsaw isn’t the father of my babies, he’s not going to want his brother’s ‘leftovers’. ”
At the disgusted tone Maddie took to describe herself, Lucky pulled the wheelchair to a halt.
Kelly, a few steps behind them, was grateful, because this was not something she wanted to raise her voice about and draw an audience.
However, she didn’t have to say a damn thing, because Lucky beat her to it.