Chapter 26
Dixie
Ididn’t tell Penn what I’d realized when he picked me up from Misty’s house. I wanted to. It would have probably made things a little better between us, but I’m still scared.
What if he doesn’t love me back?
He’s been great, and he’s done more than any other man in my life ever has, but that doesn’t mean he loves me. And telling him without him saying it back is more than I’m willing to do.
“Are you sticking around?” I ask Penn as he parks the pickup outside the Seven Crows.
As we get closer to my due date, he’s insisted on driving me when he’s in town. That way, if something happens, he knows we have a vehicle he can use to get me to the hospital quickly.
“I wasn’t planning on it,” Penn says. “Not really in the mood to socialize.”
My heart sinks. It’s probably a good thing I didn’t tell him how I feel. “Oh.”
His hand grabs mine as I turn to get out of the pickup. “Do you want me to stay?”
“Only if you want to.”
“I can come in for a little while.”
I give him a small smile, and he returns it. Briefly.
We walk inside, and his breath hitching gets my attention. Then I see him: Stephen.
“Did you know he was here?” Penn asks, his voice quiet.
Shaking my head, I look up at him. “No, I swear.”
“I’m not fucking leaving.”
“You don’t have to.”
“Dixie!” Stephen calls. “I’ve been waiting for you to reach out. Who’s that?”
I walk up to Stephen and shake my head. “I’ve thought about your offer—”
“I found the perfect little house for us. It has a pool and four bedrooms. Plenty of room to give our little bundle of joy a sibling or two,” Stephen says.
He stands there wearing a crisp charcoal gray shirt, and I can’t believe I thought he was the most handsome man I’d ever seen.
What really turns me on is the biker with calloused hands who can probably fix anything in his house without having to call a service to do it for him.
A man who not only handles his responsibilities but also takes on those that don’t belong to him.
When he reaches out to touch me, I move out of his grasp. “No.”
His smile falls. “No?”
“I don’t want what you’re offering.”
“I’m leaving my wife,” he says. “I’m giving you everything you want.”
“I don’t want that anymore,” I say with a shake of my head. “And I don’t want you. Go home, Stephen. Figure out how to make things work with Caroline. Be a good father to your kids.”
“Dixie—”
“I mean it, Stephen. You threw cash at me to get an abortion, and then you set my house on fire when I didn’t do it. Nothing you say now can fix that,” I say. “I’m sorry.”
His face changes in an instant. The charming and sincere mask cracks, and I see the fully rotten version he keeps carefully hidden. His mouth twists into a sneer as he grabs my wrist. “You’re carrying my child. My blood. You think you can just walk away?”
“Let me go,” I say, trying to pull my arm from him. “You’re hurting me.”
“I’ll take the baby from you. You’ll never see that child ever again, and you can’t fight me on it. You don’t have the resources.”
First he didn’t want this baby and now he’s threatening to take him from me? I feel sick, and I worry he’s going to break my wrist. “Stephen, let go.”
A large hand clamps onto his neck, and Stephen lets out a squeal as he finally releases me. Penn glares at him with more anger than I’ve ever seen before, and he tosses Stephen backward. “Don’t ever fucking touch her again.”
“This has nothing to do with you, scum,” Stephen growls. “She’s carrying my kid, and if she’s not going to be with me, she won’t be with that kid, either.”
Penn body checks him, and I gasp when Stephen lands on the floor. Hard. There’s a crack as he lands, and I can’t tell if it’s Stephen or the hardwood floor that made the noise. Either way, it doesn’t sound good.
“Try to take her baby from her,” Penn says. “I fucking dare you.”
“What the fuck is your problem, man? This has nothing to do with you!”
He jumps onto Stephen and punches him, pinning him down as he does. I gasp, my hands flying to my mouth as Stephen tries to stop the blows but fails miserably.
“Penn!” I scream. “Stop it! Nancy has a rule!”
It does no good, and I worry he might actually kill Stephen. Every hit makes a sickening sound as bone cracks, and it makes my stomach churn even more.
Pacino grabs Penn and yanks him up, leaving Stephen writhing on the floor in pain with blood all over his face. “Come for her baby, and I’ll fucking end you!” he shouts. “But before I do that, I’ll ruin your entire goddamn life. You’ll beg me to end your suffering by the time I’m done.”
“Easy, man,” Pacino says, his muscles straining as Penn fights to be let go to finish what he started. “Don’t kill the bastard in front of witnesses. I like most of the people in here, and I don’t want to have to get rid of half the town.”
I’m sure it’s meant as a joke, but it doesn’t quite land that way. Not after what Penn just did and threatened.
“What the fuck is going on?” Nancy shouts, running from the back.
“He doesn’t get to come in here and grab Dixie. And he sure as hell doesn’t get to threaten her!”
She walks over to me and gently looks at my reddening wrist. “He grabbed you?”
“He’s the one who tried to kill her by setting her house on fire!” Penn growls. “And now he’s talking about kidnapping her baby.”
“You know, I think I have something in my eye. I should probably head to the back and see if it gets better in a few minutes.”
My jaw drops. Nancy rarely lets people off the hook for fighting, and I feel the smallest amount of gratitude. This is for me. She’s trying to help me.
Kannon walks over and turns Stephen onto his front with a simple flip of his body. A groan sounds, but he doesn’t fight Kannon when he grabs his wallet. “Stephen Patterson.”
There’s not one ounce of sympathy in Kannon’s demeanor as he pulls his license out and tosses it to Pacino, who catches it with one hand. “Take him.”
Rooster and Kannon pull Penn aside, and I’m stuck staring in awe. I have no idea what’s happening, and Pacino takes a photo of the ID on his phone before tossing it back onto the ground in the pool of blood left by Stephen, who lies on his front where Kannon left him.
“I’ll have Scotty dig up all of his dirty little secrets. We’ll have enough dirt on him to bury him by the end of the night.”
“I’m okay,” Penn says. “You can let me go.”
I’m not as certain as Rooster and Kannon are, but they release him, and Kannon flips through the folds of Stephen’s wallet. “How many fucking credit cards does one asshole need?”
“How much cash does he have?” Penn asks. “He owes Dixie for half the cost of everything since he knocked her up.”
“None.”
“Check his jacket pockets,” I stammer out.
Giving me a shrug, Kannon walks over and bends down to dig through Stephen’s jacket pockets. His eyebrows shoot up as he pulls out three rolls of bills wrapped with rubber bands. “Who is this fucker? A dealer?”
“Pharmaceutical rep,” I say. “Though, I don’t know why he gets paid like that.”
“There’s fifteen grand in my hands. You want it, Dixie?”
I shake my head. “I don’t want anything from him.”
“Get up,” Pacino says, his voice low and commanding.
Stephen groans in response.
Kicking him, he says, “Either you get up on your own, or I pick you up. And you don’t want me to do that, because you’ll land fucking hard in the middle of the goddamn desert.”
He scrambles to his feet, using the chairs and tables to help him up. I gasp as I see his bloody, swollen face while he sways from side to side.
“Get out of here and don’t fucking come back,” Penn says. “If you come back, you’re never fucking leaving.”
Picking up his wallet and ID, he stumbles past everyone as he hurries out the front door. Kannon holds up the money. “He forgot his cash. Guess the tab’s on him tonight. Round for everyone!”
Penn hurries toward me and gently reaches out for me but stops before touching me. “Are you okay?”
“He’s going to take my baby.”
“No, he fucking won’t,” Kannon shouts. “Motherfucker will be in seventeen goddamn pieces if he tries.”
After what I just witnessed, I don’t think that’s much of an exaggeration, and I lean forward to rest my hands on my knees. “I don’t think he’s going to give up that easily. He’ll be at the hospital when I go into labor.”
“And we’ll be there, too, sweetheart,” Pacino says. “He’s not getting your kid. We’ll make sure of that.”
“Penn, why don’t you take Dixie home?” Nancy says as she rolls out a mop bucket. “I’ll cover your shift. And we’ll put you back on the schedule after you’ve gotten settled after having the baby.”
“Nancy—”
“It’s already decided, honey.”
Penn nods. “I’ll take her home. Sorry about the mess.”
“Yeah, way to go, Penn. Make Nancy clean up your mess,” Rooster says, laughing at the bar.
“You think I’m cleaning this up?” Nancy asks, tilting her head back with a loud laugh. “Get your ass over here, Rooster. You’re on mop duty.”
“What? I didn’t—”
“You wanna be banned for two weeks?”
Clamping his jaw shut, he nods. “No, ma’am,” he says between gritted teeth and glares at Penn.
“It’s not his fault,” I tell Rooster. “Don’t give him that look.”
Rooster’s eyes widen. “I mean, he kind of—”
“Stopped a man trying to hurt me? Yeah, I guess that’s really such a bad thing.”
His face turns red. “I didn’t mean—”
“Pissing off a pregnant woman is really not a good idea,” Nancy says. “Especially one who knows your biggest fear is birds.”
“I have an uncle who has chickens,” I lie. “I bet I could get him to bring a few roosters for—”
“Sorry!” he shouts. “I’m fucking sorry!”
“Come on,” Penn says, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. “Let’s go.”
The moment we’re outside, the adrenaline drops, and my knees buckle. “He’s going to try—”
“He can try anything he wants, but he won’t be successful. I promise, Dixie,” Penn says, his eyes locking with mine as he holds me steady.
His fists have blood on them, and I think about what Misty said. When these men love, they love hard.
I just didn’t think it was meant literally.