Cole (The Ride Series) (18 page)

Chapter Thirteen

I slipped soundlessly out of bed the
next morning, leaving Cole deeply asleep. I made coffee and started to unpack a
few of my kitchen boxes. I knew it would please Cole, and truth be told I was
ready to have my things intermingled with his. I was nearly done when he
emerged wearing only his boxers. I’d never tire of looking at his body-- his
sculpted chest and stomach. He reminded me of a lion with his lithe physique that
held a promise of shear power underneath its grace. His beautiful eyes swept
over me and they grew warm when he saw what I was doing.

“Coffee?” I offered.

“Yeah, coffee would be good,” he said
with a small smile on his lips. I’d totally been caught ogling him.

I rolled my eyes at him and handed him
his cup.

I let him drink his coffee as I
whipped up some pancakes and bacon. It wasn’t until he’d eaten half of it that
I looked at him expectantly from my place in front of the stove.

“Victor’s dead,” he answered my
unspoken question with brutal honestly.

I had promised myself that I’d be calm
despite anything he might tell me, and hoped that I successfully kept my face
clear of the shock that his admission sent through me.

“How?” I asked simply, leaning a hip
against the counter.

He sighed. “Do you really want to
know? I’ll tell you if you do,” he answered, his eyes piercing mine.

Did I really want to know? I thought
about it for a few beats before I shook my head. “No I don’t want to know,” I
answered him.

“And Jake?” I asked.

“In the wind,” he answered, sounding
aggravated.

“Henry made Benny his new lieutenant.
Do you know him?” he asked me as he shoveled the last of his breakfast in his
mouth.

“Yeah, I know Benny,” I answered
quietly.

Benny had always been kind to me in a
gruff sort of way. He was older than me – mid 40s with a tough old lady
named Darla. He’d always been loyal to my father and I wasn’t surprised that Henry
had chosen him.

“He’s in town for a while, his chief
directive from Henry is to take Jake down. He rode out with us last night,” he
explained.

“Is Jake working alone at this point
or does he still have help?” I asked while taking a much needed sip of my
coffee.

The fact that Victor had been killed
by someone close to me, maybe even by Cole, had me rattled. I didn’t like the
fact that my past was forcing blood to be spilled. Even after everything Victor
had done to me, it didn’t sit comfortably that he died more or less because of
me.

“Seems to be alone, especially after
what went down last night. No one would be stupid enough to partner with that
crazy mother fucker at this point,” Cole grumbled.

I nodded in full agreement. “Victor
was the brains behind the operation. Jake is just crazy.” I sighed. “I don’t
know if that makes me feel safer or not,” I mused.

“He won’t fucking touch you,” Cole
growled.

“I know, babe,” I assured him. “Is
Henry coming back into town? I should cook him up some of my ribs. Benny, too.”
I said, in need of a subject change. Now that the relationship had improved
between the clubs, I was anxious to do my part to encourage that however I
could.

Cole’s eyebrows rose and I was
gratified to see his mood lighten. “You been
holdin
’
out on me?”

I blushed slightly. “Not
intentionally. I don’t make them often. But Henry loves them,” I said.

“Pop’s been talking about having a
barbeque for both clubs. I’ll ask him about it,” he told me as he rose from his
seat to put his plate in the dishwasher. He came to stand behind me, put his
arms around my belly and kissed my neck. “He also mentioned that he still has
the photos of your dad to show you.”

“Yeah, I’d like that,” I murmured.
With all the craziness of the last few weeks I hadn’t had the chance to sit
down with Cal for a trip down memory lane. Part of me was probably avoiding it
to some extent. There was only so much emotional baggage I could strap on at
one time.

“Glad you’re
movin
’
in, babe,” he murmured in my ear, creating tingles down my spine.

“Yeah, me too.” I molded my body to
his. “I need to tell Kat. I feel a little guilty, I don’t want to leave her in
the lurch,” I muttered.

“She’s never there anyway, is she?
Every time I go to Sal’s place she’s there,” Cole replied.

He was right about that. Kat spent the
majority of her nights at Sal’s place, but she’d still need half of the rent
paid. I shared this with Cole.

He shrugged. “If she’s never there
than it shouldn’t matter much who it is.”

“Yeah, but she’s not entirely sure how
solid things are with Sal,” I informed him before I could stop myself.

“What? Why not?” he asked, surprised.

I shrugged. “He’s just not that
affectionate or vocal about his feelings toward her,” I shared.

“That’s just Sal,” Cole waved his hand
dismissively. “Trust me. He’s a goner.”

“I’m glad to hear it, but he could
probably work on making that more clear to Kat,” I said. “He could learn a few
tricks from you,” I said and smiled suggestively.

Cole chuckled. “Sorry, babe. I’m not
having a talk with Sal about his love life. Not
gonna
happen.”

“Dammit,” I muttered, knowing he’d say
as much.

“I
gotta
head to the club, check in with Pop. What’s your schedule?” he asked. I
realized this was something he’d always want to know regardless of my safety.
It was just how he operated.

“Unpacking, gym, hospital, and work,”
I answered simply.

“Hospital?” he asked with a creased
brow.

“Yeah,
gotta
see Mack,” I answered with a shrug.

I saw Cole’s eyes warm until they were
liquid. “I didn’t tell you how well you handled yourself last night. I was
proud,” he said seriously.

I shrugged again feigning indifference,
though his words thrilled me. “No use falling apart over things you can’t
control. I learned that a long time ago.”

“Now’s not the time to discuss it, but
if I did decide to fill my father’s shoes it’s nice to know my woman can handle
the job that comes with that,” he told me, his eyes full of pride and love.

I stood on my tiptoes and kissed him,
watching as he gathered his things to head out for the day. I had never thought
I’d want to be back in the life, but with a man like Cole I’d want to do just
about anything.

“And babe, shit obviously got stepped
up last night. I don’t want to argue, but we need to have a serious talk about
your work schedule until this shit blows over. Working the late shift puts you
and my guys on the line,” he said firmly.

“I’ll talk to Pete today,” I promised
without delay.

My instant compliance clearly
surprised him and his eyebrows rose. I rolled my eyes. “Of course I don’t want
to put anyone in danger, Cole. I’ll just work the day shift for now.”

He kissed my forehead tenderly.
“Thanks, babe.”

I started unpacking my things as soon
as Cole left. Despite my earlier reservations, now that I’d agreed I was
anxious to do so. I started in the kitchen, moved to the bedroom, and finished
in the bathroom. I was just thinking how quickly I’d completed the job when I
unearthed a box of tampons from one of the boxes. My heart immediately stopped
beating and then started back up again, double time. How long had it been since
I needed those? I knew the answer--too long. With everything that had been
going on I hadn’t been keeping track. I didn’t even notice that I missed a
period.

It’s not possible, I told myself. I
was religious about taking my pills. Except for maybe my stay in the hospital,
and maybe when I went to Idaho...and Connie’s place. Fuck!

I called Kat immediately, my hands
shaking as I held the phone to my ear. “I need you to bring a pregnancy test
over here, now,” I told her without a hello or a greeting of any kind.

“Be there in ten,” she answered
without question. See, this is why she was my best friend.

Twenty minutes later we were sitting
on my new bathroom counter watching the little blue stick create two blue
lines.

“No,” I breathed feeling like I might pass
out.

“Let’s take another one, I bought like
five of them,” she suggested, her tone calm, though I could tell she was far
from it.

I nodded woodenly.

Now we were staring at three different
pregnancy tests all in various states of “you
are
pregnant!” Did I really need the digital version and the
lines to confirm it? Really, it was just like throwing it in my face at that
point.

“Shit,” I said dumbfounded as we
continued to stare at the tests.

“Yeah,” she agreed. There wasn’t much
else to say at the moment.

“What are you going to do?” she asked
quietly.

“I’m going to stare at them for about
ten more minutes,” I answered through barely moving lips.

“Okay,” she agreed instantly.

I finally pulled myself together and
we left the bathroom to go sit on the couch in the living room.

“Well, let’s get you in to see the
doctor,” Kat stated. I so appreciated her taking control in this moment because
I was completely unable to. I was still reeling from the shock of my life. I
didn’t
feel
pregnant. Weren’t you
supposed to be throwing up or something? I just felt like me, sans period.

My OB could fit me in that day, in
just an hour, so we continued to sit on the couch talking about the
possibilities.

“Would you keep it?” she asked
tentatively.

“Yeah,” I answered without hesitation.

“How do you think Cole will feel when
you tell him?”

“I have absolutely no idea,” I
answered truthfully. “We’ve been together three months, if that,” I added with
a bit of panic in my voice.

“Well, we’ll just cross that bridge,”
she assured me.

“Yeah, well, for now your steering
because I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing,” I admitted.

“Deal,” she agreed.

Like a best friend would, she drove me
to my appointment. Hank had tailed us but we hadn’t given him any details other
than it being a “lady doctor” appointment. Unsurprisingly, after that, he didn’t
ask for more details. It would have been comical if I wasn’t so freaked out. Kat
came in with me as the doctor confirmed that I was indeed pregnant, though very
early on.

“I see you were on
several different antibiotics,” he noted while
reviewing my chart.

“Yeah,” I nodded. They’d been prescribed after my not
so little brush with the concrete via one Victor
Friggin
Cross.

“They told you that could interfere with your birth
control?” he asked.

Well, if I’d allowed them to check me out they probably
would have.

“I wasn’t aware of that,” I answered evasively. “But I
skipped a few pills as well,” I admitted.

“It was probably more likely to be the medication
unless you missed a lot of pills,” he told me.

Well, at least it wasn’t
all
my
fault. That didn’t really
help my current freak out that I was suddenly six weeks pregnant.

“What the fuck am I going to do,” I lamented as we sat
parked in front of my new home. The home I had just moved into with my brand
new boyfriend. God, this was bad.
Very, very bad.

“You’re going to tell the guy who loves you that you’re
going to have his baby, a bit earlier than expected,” she answered.

The prospect of telling Cole felt so
surreal,
I couldn’t even get my head around it.

“This would have happened anyway Scar, you two are made
for each other. You’re just a bit ahead of schedule,” she soothed.

“Yeah, like years ahead,” I scoffed.

She patted my leg sympathetically. “I get to be an
auntie.” She let out her first small burst of excitement at the news.

I grinned despite myself. “Yeah, you do.”

“He or she is going to be so freaking cute, I mean look
at you two!” she exclaimed.

I allowed myself to picture it for the first time,
though it still hadn’t truly sunk in. “Yeah, we’ll make a beautiful baby,” I
sighed.

“The most beautiful,” she emphasized.

I smiled at her. “Thank you. As always, you’re the
best.”

“You’d do the same for me,” she said.

“I would,” I agreed.

“When are you going to tell him?” she wanted to know.

“No idea.”
“Well, my lips are sealed,” she promised while making the motion.

“They’d better be.” I laughed dryly. “I might not tell
him until this kid is in college.