28. Chapter 28
The next day, around eleven in the morning, a knock sounds on the door and Luke gets up to answer it. Murmured voices reach my ears, along with the sound of plastic bags rustling. A moment later, he steps back and two women follow him in.
They both turn slightly as they hug Luke and say their hellos. Both of them are young. Well, younger than me, anyway, not that I’m that old since I’m only twenty-seven. The first woman has long curly red hair that goes down to her waist. Her curvy figure is wrapped in black boots, skinny jeans, and a black long-sleeved henley underneath a vest that looks like… Wait, is her vest just like Luke’s? When Luke had said that she was an Old Lady, I thought for sure that her vest would be different, but aside from the patches, it looks exactly the same. Wait. Cuts, not vests. Shaking those thoughts off, my gaze snags on her heavily pregnant belly. I wonder if she’s the one that’s having twins or triplets?
Movement has my gaze flicking to the other woman. She’s even younger than the first woman, but her smile and posture almost oozes sunshine. Like the first woman, this woman’s hair is also long, almost reaching her waist, but her blond locks are straight. She’s fairly skinny but I can already see a small baby bump resting underneath a dark blue long-sleeve shirt. Her skinny jeans mold to her small figure and she’s wearing tennis shoes. Remembering the cut, my gaze cuts to hers and I frown when I realize it’s different from the first woman’s. Both women’s smiles widen as my gaze bounces between them.
“Hi, Mary, I’m Levi,” the red-haired woman tells me.
“And I’m Mae. Nice to finally meet you,” the blond-haired woman says as she gives a small wave.
Shaking my head, I clear my throat. “Nice to meet you both. I’ve heard a lot about both of you from Luke and Allison.”
They both grin and then Levi holds up her hands, showing multiple bags on each hand, each bag filled with stuff. “If you’re anything like us, we figured you’re getting really tired of these four walls, so we brought you some stuff to help keep you entertained later.”
Chuckling, I nod. “Thank you, I’m definitely going stir crazy. I’ve never been stationary for this long before, including my prior injuries. I was always expected to continue my ‘duties’ as soon as we got back to the house.” Instantly I bite my tongue, I hadn’t meant to let that slip out but thankfully, neither one of them comment on slip.
“And since we all know hospital food is so blah,” Mae says as she scrunches up her nose and then holds up a cooler and some other bags. “I made some sandwiches for all of us.”
Luke sighs and shakes his head. “If Timber finds out you carried that heavy cooler up here all by yourself, you’re going to have a sore ass later on.”
Mae gives a saucy grin and winks at him. “I’m looking forward to it.” She chuckles and shakes her head. “That man needs to learn that just because I’m pregnant, it doesn’t mean I’m made of glass. If what happened before didn’t break me, carrying a cooler for a few minutes isn’t going to do it. Besides, I set it down when we were waiting for the elevator and while riding it, so it wasn’t like I was always carrying it.”
A chuckle escapes before I can stop it, and Luke gives me a questioning look. “It seems like you aren’t the only protective one in the club.” At my words both women start laughing and Luke’s cheeks tinge a little.
“They are all very protective of us and all the kids. It can get a little annoying and frustrating at times, but in the end, I think it’s worth it,” Levi says as she sets her bags down on the little couch in the corner.
“Very true. Now, let me hand out the food and then you’ve got to scootch that heiny of yours out of here, Patch. It’s girl time.”
Biting my lip to keep in another chuckle, I take a club sandwich that Mae hands me and my mouth waters as I unwrap it. From smell alone, I know this is going to be better than the bland hospital food I’ve been forced to eat so far. She also puts a small bowl of fruit salad on the nearby table as well, and then she holds up some bottles.
“I have raspberry, lemonade, and white cherry flavored water as well as regular bottled water. Which would you like, Mary?”
I pause, the sandwich halfway between my lap and my mouth. Anger swirls in my gut, but I swallow down the words threatening to escape. Swallowing a few more times, I finally meet Mae’s gaze and she gives me a sympathetic, understanding look.
Fuck, does she know there have only been the ‘extras’ Stephan deemed ‘necessary’ in my life? Or is she suspecting based off of her own history? Taking a deep breath, I figure I’ll find out soon. Luke’s words from the other day come to mind and I wonder exactly how similar Mae’s story is to my own. Giving her a small smile, I clear my throat.
“I, uh, I’ve actually never tried the flavored waters before. I like all of those flavors in general, so surprise me.”
Mae gives me another smile, this one brighter than before, as she sets down the raspberry flavored one on the table and opens it for me. Something I’m grateful for since my right arm and shoulder are still rather stiff and sore from being partially dislocated and my left one has the IV and all wires connected to it.
“It’s my favorite,” she whispers as she slides it closer to me along with a few napkins.
Giving her a smile of thanks, they hand out the rest of the sandwiches to Luke and the guards outside before he also steps out into the hallway, but then he pauses as he ducks his head back in.
“Just a heads up. In about two hours you’re due for more antibiotics and pain meds, Siren. Either myself or Alli will be in to give them to you, but we’ll leave right after we’re done to give you more time with Levi and Mae.”
Nodding my head in thanks, since my mouth is full of food, I meant to say something as soon as I swallowed, but instead, a moan escapes as the flavors explode on my tongue. Closing my eyes, I chew, beyond grateful for Mae’s consideration to bring us food. I know I haven’t eaten out very much over the years, except for when Stephan demanded my presence on a few occasions, and any other food has been made by my hands, but damn. I think this might be the best club sandwich I’ve ever had.
Opening my eyes, they immediately widen and I feel my cheeks heating. Levi and Mae are trying to stifle their laughter, but Luke… Luke’s looking at me with heated eyes that have me wanting to squirm and rub my legs together to relieve some tension. A strangled noise escapes him and he shakes himself, but the look he gives me before he leaves has my face flaming red at how much desire I see in his eyes.
Desire for me .
Even in my broken state.
That last thought almost sends my mind into a deep spiral, but I do my best to push those thoughts away for now. I can focus on that later when I’m alone.
As the door latches, both women grin at me and Mae winks.
“I think someone’s in for a good time later,” she purrs, which has me almost choking on the water I’d just drank in an effort to cool down after that look.
Wiping off my chin, my mind whirls once again. While a part of me wants to believe her, the other part still has trouble letting go of everything Stephan has beaten into me over the years. Even if I know they were manipulative lies, when you’re told something repeatedly, it’s hard to shake it off or ignore it.
Frowning, I roll my eyes in an effort to distract them from seeing the true depth of my emotions. “I doubt it. Besides, I’m still technically married, even if I don’t want to be. Yes, there’s been a few times where Luke and I have kissed, but that’s as far as it’s going to be able to go for a while. Plus, I’m still healing. I know he wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize my progress.”
My frown deepens when they both give me little saucy and knowing smirks.
“Maybe after you hear our stories, you’ll realize you can still have a little fun while you’re healing and not by him sinking into your honey pot,” Mae says and my cheeks blaze while I simultaneously try not to laugh at her using the phrase ‘honey pot’ instead of the word vagina or pussy.
Levi hums. “Yes, there are still plenty of ways to have fun while you’re healing, but I agree. I have a feeling you won’t believe us about that, or about how the club can protect you and those cute kiddos of yours until you hear more about our stories.”
Standing, she takes a deep breath as she sets down her drink and sandwich. She slips off her cut and her long-sleeved shirt quickly follows, revealing a tank top underneath.
A gasp escapes when I see the many pinkish, almost silvery-white scars on her arms and upper chest. Levi rolls up her tank top and my hand flies to my mouth in an almost futile attempt to keep from sobbing out loud. Tons of scars bisect and crisscross across her stomach. Levi pulls her long hair over her shoulder, and when she turns, I can’t stop the next sob when I see that her back is even worse than her front.
After a moment, she turns as she smooths her tank top back in place but then I frown when she starts unbuttoning her pants. Tears stream even harder down my cheeks when I see the word ‘slut’ carved into her thigh. She turns slightly and that’s when I notice she has a very large tattoo of roses and what I think are knives that stretch from around her hip down to mid-thigh.
“I got this tattoo after my wound had healed. They had carved ‘BP’ into my thigh. I was almost sixteen when I was kidnapped the first time. They were responsible for some of the scars on my torso as well. The rest of them happened earlier this summer. I’ll tell you more about both of the attacks in a bit, but I wanted to show you my scars first.”
I can only nod in response as Levi rights her clothes, my throat thick with emotion at what she’d been through. Twice.
Movement has my gaze moving to Mae as she stands. After slipping off her cut, she takes off her long-sleeve shirt as well. However, unlike Levi, Mae isn’t wearing a tank top, just her bra. Much like Levi, Mae has scars littered across her breasts, her chest, her stomach, and her arms. She unbuttons her jeans and lowers them a little, her scars going down to around her hip bones. Pulling her hair to the side, once again, tears stream down my cheeks when she turns around. Her back is also worse than her front. It looks like she was whipped or something the way they crisscross all over her back, neck, shoulders, and down to her upper buttocks.
Turning back around, Mae starts to get dressed again and Levi hands me some tissues, which I gratefully take. Blowing my nose, I dry my cheeks repeatedly as a few tears refuse to be held back.
They both sit back down, and when I’m finally composed enough, I’m about to ask them a question when my stomach rumbles loudly. My cheeks heat and they both softly chuckle. Levi pushes my sandwich back toward me. In between bites, I’m damn near stunned silent, when I’m not chewing that is, when Levi starts telling me about a rival motorcycle club’s attack on her and her mom right before she turned sixteen. An attack that claimed her mother’s life.
Of course, she didn’t know who they were at first. That was revealed during the lead up to their second attack on her. She goes on telling me about Scott, aka Fang, of Black Plague. About the betrayal of her uncle selling her to Fang, as well as what he did to her when she was a little girl. The threats against the people she considered her brothers and sister as well as her men. Finding out she was pregnant and that same day, both of her men and one of her brothers being shot.
Then, when they were headed back home, Black Plague caused a car accident where they finally got their hands on Levi as well as Reaper, the President of the Junction Creek chapter of the club. My gut clenches so much I thought I might throw up when she tells me about the betrayal from a man who she had considered a brother, Travis. About how her men and the men from both clubs rescued her and Reaper.
Hearing Travis’ name has me remembering Luke’s words from the other day. Knowing about his betrayal, at least as much as she’s willing to share with me that is, I have a feeling I know how Travis met his end. Especially since I know how Grandpa would have handled that kind of betrayal.
An icy sliver runs down my spine as I wonder exactly how far Grandpa would be willing to go since at least one of his sons, his grandson, and his wife have already betrayed me. Well, and Eileen, but she should be thankful she’s already dead, otherwise her punishment might be as severe as Diego’s. Pushing those thoughts aside, I wipe away the fresh tears that have fallen down my cheeks.
When Levi’s done telling her story, Mae tells me about what her stepdad did to her and her mom. About her rocky start with her biological dad, Smoke, when she showed up at the club asking for help and explaining who she really was. That she had found proof of her true identity the night before and that her stepdad was trying to sell her to someone called Bruce. At first, due to some false information Smoke received, he tried to shut out Mae, thinking she was just like her mother, Lillian. A deceitful, manipulative, druggie whore. Mae gave all the proof that she had and refuted the information Smoke had received, showing him that the woman in the pictures and notes wasn’t her, but he still refused to believe her. To give both her and Smoke some space to process the new information, she and Timber went to Junction Creek for a while.
There, she met a man who tried to take Mae for his own, Carter Johnson. After Mae publicly turned him down, things took a turn for the worse when Carter broke into the clubhouse and kidnapped Mae after drugging her. He caused the scars on her chest, stomach, hips and most of the ones on her arms. Thankfully, Timber and the club rescued her before she could be hurt worse.
Then, not too long after her wedding, Smoke was shot and Mae was subsequently kidnapped from the hospital and unfortunately drugged again. Michael, one of the guys that were trying to buy her, was responsible for the kidnapping. When Mae refused to submit to him, he whipped her. Once again, I was thankful that the club rescued her before she was hurt worse. Especially since her own mother, Lillian, and Lindsey’s mother, Jane, were killed by those monsters. Not to mention what poor little Lindsey must have seen and heard while in those asshole’s clutches. It shocked me when they said that Lindsey is the daughter of one of their Prospects, Drae.
So much trouble came to the club in such a short timeframe. My worry that the club will get sick of helping people out increases and despite what they’ve said, I still worry that they’ll send me on my way to handle my problems on my own. Shaking my head, I push those thoughts away as I let out a shaky breath before blowing my nose and drying my cheeks again. A thought has my hand freezing and my gaze bounces between both of them.
“Please say you both weren’t pregnant during all of that? That neither one of you had to wrestle with thoughts that what those assholes did to you might have caused you to lose your baby? Babies I mean?”
Both of them avert their eyes and my heart feels like it’s been swallowed up by my stomach.
“I had found out a few weeks prior to the second attack that I was pregnant. The day that both of my men and Ethan were shot was when we’d found out I was having twins. That was the day before I was kidnapped the second time by Black Plague.” Levi’s face hardens, but her eyes are slightly unfocused, almost as if she’s back in her memories of those two days.
Mae shifts uncomfortably in her chair. “I didn’t know that I was pregnant at either times of my kidnapping. It was after I woke up from Doc and Patch stitching up my back that Timber asked me about my period. I took a home test, which was positive, and Patch took in a sample to test so I would know for sure.”
Levi’s head turns quickly toward Mae, and Mae shrinks back slightly at the action. Though, I’m not sure if it’s by surprise or worry.
“I thought you were just pregnant during the second attack.”
Mae’s face flames red. “Well, it seems Timber’s swimmers were very determined. We did the math and he got me pregnant that first time.”
A second later, Mae’s face falls for some reason, and Levi reaches out, grasping her hand.
“Hey, those babies of yours are going to be just fine. They’ve got both Timber’s and the Witlock’s stubbornness. They aren’t going to let what those fuckers did to you win.”
Dread washes over me, and then I remember Luke’s words. That something else happened to Mae around the time that she got pregnant. And I don’t think he was alluding to her kidnappings.
“What happened?” Even I can hear the waver in my voice, and I’m beyond worried for Mae and her babies at what she’s been put through.
Mae swallows a few times and Levi gives her hand another squeeze. She looks up and I’m momentarily frozen in place at the pure fury and anger radiating out of her normally cheerful face and eyes.
“I mentioned before that I was drugged.” At my nod, her face hardens even further. “Well, we found out later that while yes, the drug had a sedative in it, they also had some sort of drug in them to make me extra fertile. Michael’s, and maybe even X’s, intent was to use me as a baby making machine for them. We know that I received the drug at least four times, maybe more. My family, the club, and OB-GYN doctor know about me being drugged, but outside the club, no one else knows. Because of the drugs, my doctor is seeing me more than usual as a precaution. So far, the boys are all healthy and doing well, so I’m hoping the drugs haven’t given them any adverse reactions.” She pauses, and her face pales as her gaze darts to Levi’s. “Futtenfarter.”
“Wh—” I start to say but then I’m cut off by Levi jumping up from her chair and cheering in excitement as she does a little shimmy. I’m almost positive that if she wasn’t so pregnant, she’d be jumping up and down.
“I knew it! I knew it! I picked the right team! I knew it!” She practically sings over and over again.
Mae groans and bends over, cradling her face in her hands right at the moment that Luke pokes his head in.
“Everything okay in here?” he asks, eyeing both of them before his gaze settles on me.
Nodding, I bite my lip at Mae’s stricken look. I’m going to guess she didn’t want to let the babies’ genders slip, so I go out on a limb.
“We’re all good. Just some much needed girl talk.” At my emphasis of ‘girl’, he smirks and then nods before stepping into the room and closing the door.
“Well, after I give you your meds, I’ll step back out so you can continue your girl talk.”
Mae gives me a relieved look behind Patch’s back before giving Levi a stern look in warning who mimes zipping her lips shut as she retakes her seat. I think I may have been on the mark about her not wanting to reveal the genders just yet.
A few minutes later, Luke finishes up his notes, and I’m shocked when he leans down, kisses my temple and then leaves without another word. I wonder if he’s wanting to reassure himself that I’m really here as much as I want to do the same for him. Adding in the fact that he hasn’t seemed to have changed in his level of affection that he used to give me when we were teenagers has my cheeks heating as I realize just how much I want his affection again.
I’m brought out of my thoughts by Mae’s voice.
“I mean it, Levi. You can’t tell anyone yet and you know why. Not even Sasha or Roxy.”
Levi pouts and I can’t help the chuckle that bubbles up at the sight. Then I realize that we’re alone again and I can ask the question I had wanted to earlier. “Are you planning some sort of reveal party?”
I’ve heard about those over the years, but I’ve never been to one or seen one. Hell, I’ve never even been to a baby shower before and Stephan sure as hell would not have approved of me having one.
Levi rolls her eyes. “So, it started with the twins. Somehow, both our club and Reaper’s club managed to keep it a secret from my men that we were all betting on the genders of the babies. We used our old dirt bikes to do the reveal. We had them shoot out a cloud of either pink or blue smoke to show the genders. In my case, the twins are both girls. With Mae, we decided to continue the bet, only this time, Timber knows about it. The only reason why Mae and Timber know the gender this time instead of being surprised is because they were insistent on watching every single ultrasound to make sure the babies were developing normally. Not that I blame them on that one. Her reveal and baby shower are going to happen on New Year’s Day.”
A smile stretches across my face. “That sounds so cool. I’ve never been to a baby shower or reveal before. What all did you guys do at yours?”
Both of their smiles slip from their faces as they stare at me.
Oh, shit.
I hadn’t meant to reveal that to anyone. To give them a glimpse as to how deprived Stephan has kept me from the outside world.
Mae gives me a small, understanding smile. “There was a bunch of food, cake, and cupcakes. They had timed it so that it was the same day as their first knife throwing contest between the two clubs. So, after they had the gender reveal and doled out the winnings from the bet, it went right into the competition.”
“I know other people do a bunch of baby games and such, but I just couldn’t see the guys doing that, so I decided to skip that part with them. Besides, I think the bet thing was the guys’ version of a baby shower party. That and they gave most of the money to the guys and me to help set up the nursery. A couple of days prior to the reveal party, the girls and I got together and we did the games with just us ladies.”
“We’re going to do the same thing with mine. Us ladies are going to get together the Saturday before the party at our house to do the games. Oh! You should come, Mary! You can even bring the kids. Levi’s sister, Nikki, is bringing her daughter, Sadie. My sister, Susie, is bringing her son, Jordan. Drae’s mother-in-law, Elvira, is coming as well and bringing Drae’s daughter, Lindsey. Aside from them and us, there will also be Sasha, Levi’s sister; my friend, Peggy; our friend Erin, who owns the bakery here in town; and from the club, there will be Roxy, Ashley, Ginger, CJ, Amy, Sarah. Oh, and Alli will be there, too.”
I bite my lip. I’ve never really been good in crowds, but Alli will be there, so that should help calm my nerves. Plus, I think it might be good for the kids to be around the other kids. They were never able to have play dates or slumber parties before.
Swallowing my nerves, I give what I hope is a confident smile. “Sounds like fun. We’ll be there.” Both women give blinding smiles which helps relax some of my nerves. It gives me hope that my kids and I are on the right track to getting our lives back and truly living.
Levi gives me a mischievous smirk. “So. About the spicy things you can get up to while you’re still healing.”
My cheeks heat and I’m sure I probably look like a tomato. Even with my olive complexion. My stomach somersaults at the thought of being intimate with Luke again, but a small niggling voice reminds me that even though I don’t want to be, I’m still married to someone else.
Levi’s smirk deepens and I have a feeling I’m going to be learning way more about these two women than I originally thought.
Oh boy…