6. Emery
Emery
I shouldn’t have come here.
The moment I turned the corner and saw Hayes, I realized my mistake. Not because I didn’t want to see him—or that I haven’t thought about him every day since New Year’s. But what if he doesn’t feel the same way about me?
What if he forgot me the moment I disappeared from the bed?
After all, one look around the clubhouse confirms everything I guessed about him when we first met. He’s trouble wrapped in a gorgeous package. Half the people here are barely wearing clothes. The room reeks of alcohol. There are women and guns everywhere.
Maybe it should bother me.
Or, at the very least, intimidate me.
But women and guns are the least of my problems when I’m in enemy territory.
All around the room, bikers watch me. Talking ceased at the mention of my uncle. I’m standing at the brink of a war that’s been brewing between Hayes’s club and my family, and coming here will be the final straw.
Looking up into Hayes’s eyes, it doesn’t matter. I had to come. He deserved to know the truth. And even if he hates me for leaving in the middle of the night, or for sharing the last name Zane with my uncle, I hope he shows mercy on his daughter.
Charlie wiggles, and I hold her closer. It’s as if she senses something is wrong. These past twenty-four hours, she’s been restless, and there’s little I can do about it with the position we’re in right now.
Hayes watches us. He’s barely taken his eyes off her since I told him her name. They have the same nose, and when she wakes up, he’ll see she shares his bright-green eyes.
A man at the back of the room is the first to move, dragging his hand through his dark-brown hair as he crosses the room. He knocks the shoulder of the guy sleeping on the pool table, waking him up and mumbling something before walking in our direction with lethal intensity in his eyes.
When he stops beside Hayes, I read his patch and realize he’s the club president.
Steel—apparently.
I didn’t pay attention to Hayes’s patch the night we met, but I do now. I focus on his rank specifically.
Vice President.
Crap.
Steel glances behind me at Ghost, the biker who let me through the gate. “Did you search them?”
That question has Hayes snapping out of whatever trance he’s been in since I walked into the room.
“We’re not fucking searching them.” He steps between me and Steel, and my lungs flood with his familiar earthy scent. Ceder and leather. “Just give me a minute.”
“She’s Zane’s niece—”
“Just one fucking minute.”
Steel works his jaw, anger brewing in his eyes. But he nods once.
Hayes turns me toward a hallway at the side of the room, leading me by the small of my back away from the other bikers. The protectiveness is terrifying. Is he worried about what his club is going to do to me?
Should I have thought about that before coming here?
Probably.
Once more, Charlie starts to wiggle around, hungry and searching for her bottle.
But I left my bag in the car, not sure if they’d even let me inside, so she’s going to have to wait.
Brushing my finger over the bridge of her nose, I try to soothe her the best I can as Hayes leads us to a room near the end of a long hallway.
When he opens the door, I’m overwhelmed with the scent of him.
A rich, lingering scent that fills the room even if nothing else in here feels like him.
It’s unusually bare. A bed sits at the center.
Messy sheets drape onto the floor. The furniture is simple with a dresser on one side of the room and a sitting chair beside it.
On the wall are four oversized playing cards carved in wood. The king of diamonds, spades, hearts, and clubs, all in a row. Hanging on another wall is a sheet of metal with the Twisted Kings skull and crown on it. It’s the same logo that’s on the back of Hayes’s cut.
When we met, I didn’t know much about motorcycle clubs in Vegas.
Only that they gave my uncle trouble on occasion, and he’d often grumble about wishing they’d leave Vegas.
It wasn’t until long after that night that I overheard how much he hated the Twisted Kings specifically, claiming they were dismantling our family’s empire.
Only then did I realize the depth of my mistake.
“You can sit if you’d like.” Hayes motions to the bed, staying by the door. “Can I get you anything?”
“We’re fine.” I take a seat, my back stiff as I glance around the room.
Charlie makes a sound that pulls Hayes’s attention. “How old is she?”
“Five weeks.”
My answer washes any light from his eyes. “She’s five weeks old, and you’re just now telling me I’m a father?”
“It’s—” I close my eyes, letting out a breath. “It’s hard to explain.”
“Try.” His voice is cold.
Empty.
Hayes looks anywhere but at me.
“I didn’t find out I was pregnant until it was too late to tell you,” I say, but he’s already shaking his head like he doesn’t believe me.
“How was it too late?”
“Because by then I was already engaged to someone else.”
The fire in his eyes burns straight through my center. Anger. Hurt. A mix of every emotion. “You’re married?”
“No.” I shake my head, and it’s enough to cool his expression.
“New Year’s—the night I met you—was the night before the announcement.
I hadn’t even met the man I was getting engaged to yet.
My uncle set it up to seal some deal they had, and I didn’t have a choice in the matter.
That’s why I was out that night. I slipped my guards, thinking that if I could have one last night of freedom—of anything—that I could accept what was next. ”
Hayes stares at me, and it’s impossible to read what he’s thinking.
“I didn’t know about your club’s issues with my uncle at the time, or I promise I wouldn’t have dragged you into this.
I wasn’t planning on what we did on New Year’s.
I wasn’t planning on you. And honestly, it terrified me because meeting you made it so much harder to accept what was to come.
That’s why I snuck out in the morning. If I hadn’t, then I don’t know that I could have left. ”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“It would have been. My uncle would have found me with you, and I can’t imagine what would have happened. So I went back, even knowing how angry he’d be that I snuck away.”
“Did he hurt you?” Hayes asks through gritted teeth.
“No, he didn’t need to. I wasn’t going to be his problem much longer, anyway. The next night, he announced my engagement to Eli.”
Hayes’s eyes narrow. “Who?”
“Eli Winters. Oil heir with an endless trust fund.” I frown.
“He wanted a piece of my uncle’s world just like my uncle wanted a piece of his, and I was the solution to both of their problems. We were supposed to get married two months after the announcement, but then I started feeling sick…
and that’s when I took a pregnancy test.”
I look down at Charlie sleeping in my arms.
“I wasn’t planning on her either. When I told you I was on the pill, it was the truth. But I’d been sick recently and didn’t know antibiotics could mess with the effectiveness. When my uncle found out about the baby, he—” I take a deep breath, my eyes burning.
“What did he do, Emery?” Hayes hasn’t moved, but his anger radiates.
So hot it’s an incinerating presence hanging between us.
I blink back my tears, looking up at Hayes. “I was supposed to be a virgin when I got married, and the pregnancy was proof I wasn’t. My uncle was furious.”
Hayes works his jaw, not breaking my stare, but not saying anything. The silence is almost worse than if he were to tell me what he’s thinking.
“Eli changed the deal after that. I don’t know what it was before or what it became, but things changed. My uncle had me brought to one of his hotels, and he cut off my access to anyone outside. He kept me in a wing for my entire pregnancy.”
“He locked you up?”
I nod. “He said all I had to do was tell him who the father was, and I could leave, but he was lying. He’s always lying, and I couldn’t risk him finding out you were the dad because I knew he would make you pay for it.
I wanted to tell you—I did. Even if you just kicked us to the curb, you deserved to know you were a father.
But I couldn’t. He wouldn’t let me. I was stuck there. ”
“Yet you’re here now.”
“I am.” My heart races. “After my uncle locked me in his hotel, I assumed Eli didn’t want me anymore and bargained for something else.
I didn’t see him again until after Charlie was born.
Apparently, he and my uncle finally figured out through video footage that you were the man I spent New Year’s with.
They said you were a Twisted King, and I heard them talking about the war you had going with my uncle.
Eli said he was still planning to marry me, but that Charlie was a complication.
I didn’t know what that meant, but I couldn’t risk waiting to find out.
The things my uncle does to people… The business he’s in… ”
His back stiffens, but his expression softens the slightest. “You know what your uncle does?”
“That he sells women?” I glance away. “Yeah, I know. It’s how he got me to cooperate. He said if I didn’t, he’d find another use for me in his organization, and I didn’t need him to elaborate to understand the threat.”
Hayes’s eyes darken.
“Anyway, that’s why I didn’t tell you about the pregnancy or Charlie. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to. I couldn’t for a long time. Until I had no other option but to find a way to escape. They can threaten me, but Charlie…” I look down at her. “I had to get out of there for our daughter’s sake.”
A smile tugs the corner of her mouth as she continues to fight sleep. It’s not a real smile, but my heart swells anyway.
“Last night, one of my bodyguards created a distraction while my uncle was tied up at an event,” I explain.
“The second I was free of that place, I came here. Maybe I shouldn’t have.
I know we were just a one-night stand. I’m surprised you even remember me, honestly.
But I had to at least tell you—warn you.
They know you’re Charlie’s father, and they’re not happy about it.
They’re going to do something to retaliate. ”
Hayes swallows hard, watching me. Digesting everything I just said.
This is messy, and me being here puts him in danger. Maybe I shouldn’t have come.
Hayes’s phone pings, and he quickly reads the message. Whatever it says does nothing to relax his jaw. He shoves his phone back into his pocket, reaching for the door, where a biker is already standing on the other side when it opens.
I recognize him from the party. He was sleeping on the pool table when we arrived, but thankfully, he’s dressed now.
“You good?” Hayes asks the biker.
He nods. “I’m good.”
Hayes turns to me, jutting his thumb behind him. “This is Venom. He’s going to keep an eye on you two while I meet with the guys, but I’ll be back.”
“I’m not going to do anything.” My teeth clench, realizing that Venom is here because Hayes doesn’t trust me.
“It’s a precaution we have to take until we’ve voted.”
“What are you voting on?” My heart races. “Please, I promise I’m not here to hurt anyone. I just didn’t know where else to go. For Charlie—I had to—” I can’t form a sentence, much less a thought.
“Hey, hey.” Hayes walks over, squatting down in front of me and planting his hands on my knees, brushing his thumbs on the inside of them as tears sting my eyes. “Nothing bad is going to happen to her. I swear on my fucking life.”
I nod, swallowing hard. “Thank you.”
He doesn’t say anything else as he stands and walks away. When he leaves the room, Venom takes his spot at the door. Arms crossed and his back to it. I look down at Charlie in my arms, still sleeping, and I’m so glad she’s too young to know the world is falling apart around her.
She wraps her tiny fingers around one of mine, and I take a deep breath.
Hayes will protect her. He’ll keep her safe.
The question is, what is he going to do with me?