Relinquish (21 page)

“Woah, woah, woah,” I say with my hands out in a calm down motion. I feel like I’m walking into a hornet’s nest.

“London, this is my little sister, Sadie. She probably saw Cain when I first met him in Cali.”

“I don’t care who she is, just stay the fuck away from my Ol’ Man.” She scowls and Cain chuckles jovially. He loves London getting all territorial, means they will go fuck like crazy afterwards. He once told me that’s when they have the best sex and he can talk her into trying to get knocked up.

“Trust me, I’m fucking six months pregnant, I’m not looking to get another piece-of-shit man.”

I’m sorry, what did she just say? I almost get whiplash from turning so quickly and trying to see her belly. It’s kind of like, if I can’t see it, then it can’t be real. How the fuck is she pregnant? Last time I was there I didn’t even see a man coming around at all. She has some serious explaining to do.

“The fuck you say, Sadie?” I ask, flabbergasted.

“You heard me, Silas, I’m having a baby,” she replies tartly and I hear Avery suck in a breath next to me. I glance at her quickly and see she looks pleasantly surprised. I have no idea why, but I’m sure she will be fillin’ me in later.

“Sadie, how the fuck did you get pregnant?”

I hear Cain chuckle then coax London to go to his club room. I knew it, the fucker’s gonna have her knocked up again by tomorrow.

“I’d go with the old fashioned way; but do you want me to give you the details?”

“Gross, Sades.” I turn back to Avery and point at her. “Don’t drink the water or whatever the fuck’s gettin’ people pregnant.”

She holds her hands up and smiles. “No way, I’m very careful about that type of thing.”

I roll my eyes at Sadie, I’m pretty pissed, but trying to stay calm. What can you do in this situation but show your support. She’s still my baby sister and I just wanna know who the little fucker is so I can go kill him.

“Look, Silas, it’s done and there is nothing we can do about it. I didn’t come here for you to freak out on me, but because I needed to be around my family during all these changes.

“I know, kid. You just sideswiped me on this shit. I mean, why didn’t you tell me sooner or sumthin’?” I ask and my anger starts to fade when I really take a good look at her. She looks so beat down and tired. I’ve never really seen my sister stressed out. She always takes everything with a grain of salt and rolls with whatever’s thrown at her. Right now she just looks frail with a big belly stickin’ out.

“I was scared to tell you sooner. I wasn’t sure of what was happening and stuff.” She moves away from Twist and sits at the bar.

He posts up next to her and I have to stop myself from growling at him. He did save my life in that barn and he did help keep my sister safe a few minutes ago. Sadie’s feisty but London could seriously hurt someone if she gets pissed enough. I think Cain’s been teaching her some techniques, not that she needed it in the first place. London’s like a princess around here with the brothers and it could make Sadie’s life harder if London doesn’t like her. We’ve never met the real club princess, Prez’s girl, not sure if we ever will. I sit on the other side of her and pull Avery to stand in between my legs so she can be a part of the conversation.

“Sadie, this is my chick, Avery.” I nod toward Avery and she beams a bright smile at my sister.

“Yeah, we met when I came to your room.”

“That’s right, my bad. Oh well. So we thought maybe you’d wanna get some food. You hungry?”

“Well, not really, Twist was kind enough to get me some food and a drink when I got here.” She fidgets as she says this and my eyes find Twist’s. He sits there gloating like a proud fucker, yet he knows I can’t get angry at him for making sure she was taken care of and fed. Damn it do I wanna though. Fucker’s cozyin’ right the fuck on up to my sister and she’s pregnant. What could he possibly get out of this with my sister and her kid?

“Alright. So who’s responsible for knockin’ you up?” Might as well ask the question I really want to know. Looks like I may be making a run out to Cali to hunt down some ass clown that touched my sister but was too much of a pussy to come meet me himself.

“Just some guy, it doesn’t matter.” She looks down and it pisses me off again. When the hell did she become so meek? It’s only been months since I saw her, what could possibly have happened in that short period of time?

“Yes, Sadie, it fucking matters, give me a Goddamn name!”

Her lip trembles slightly, “NO. Silas it doesn’t matter, he’s gone okay!” she says fiercely, bringing some color to her cheeks again.

“What the hell do you mean, he’s gone? Where did he go?”

“I mean he’s gone, he took off, he fucking left me, okay!”

“No, it’s not okay, tell me his name and we will find him,” I tell her sternly, in full-on protective big brother mode. I will run this dude down and put a hurtin’ on him for messing with my sister. Her big blue eyes pool with tears and they stream down her cheeks when she blinks. She sniffles in a breath.

“That’s just it. He’s gone. He doesn’t exist. He didn’t even give me his real God-forsaken name when we were seeing each other. I’ve searched. You don’t think I would look for him? It’s all I’ve been doing for months. Why do you think it took me so long to come to you? I was ashamed.”

She sniffles abruptly, taking a deep breath. “I am ashamed, I’m embarrassed and I just don’t know what to do now. I’m scared, Silas, he’s gone and I’m left with this little baby all by myself. I can’t believe this happened to me. Why do they always leave, Silas? Am I so horrible, they all have to leave?” She starts to sob heavily and Twist pulls her into his chest to comfort her.

He talks soothingly into her hair as he embraces her tightly. “Shush, sugar pie. It’ll all be okay, don’t you worry about a thing. You need to calm though, baby, it’s not good, you getting’ upset so much.”

I look at her and my heart hurts so badly, it feels as if it could burst. This all stems back to my father. That piece of shit left and she has always blamed herself. I swear to god if I ever find this fuckwad, he will pay for doing this to her. I’ll let Twist hold her. She needs a man to be strong for her right now. I will be strong for her, but I know my brothers will help also. Twist chin lifts to me and I raise my eyebrows.

“Let me get her settled in a guest room and we can talk later about what to do ‘bout everythin’,” Twist says and I bite the inside of my cheek hoping the shot of pain will calm my restlessness. I’m telling myself not to just hop on my bike right now and drive up and down every single street in my home town to look for this creep. “She don’t need this stress with her baby and all. She needs to rest for a while,” he tries to reason with me.

“Yeah, I guess that’s a good idea, thanks, brother.” I nod at him. I lean in closer and tenderly kiss Sadie on her forehead.

“Go relax, Sades, we will figure this all out, okay?”

She looks at me sorrowfully andnods. She gives me a whispered “Thanks” and Twist leads her to the rooms.
What the fuck am I gonna do about this shit? Fuck.

Avery hugs me tighter around my waist and I concentrate on her for the first time since we came to the bar. “It’ll be okay, 2, you will figure something out. I will help any way you need me to,” Avery says and I smile down at her. She’s so amazing and I can’t believe I almost pushed her away. I lean in and kiss her softly on the lips.

“Thank you, Avery,” I murmur.

“For what?” she asks and scrunches up her nose.

“For being here, for supporting me, for just being amazing.” I hug her tightly and bury my face into her neck to breathe in her scent. Something about it seems to soothe me. I don’t know if she wears a special lotion, perfume or soap, but I can’t seem to get enough.

“Of course, 2, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

I smile and kiss her softly in response. She wraps her arms around my waist and I have to admit, it feels fucking great to have someone in my corner.

Avery

“Shorty, let’s just make some sandwiches and hit the sack, ‘kay?” he suggests and stands from the bar stool.

“Okay, that sounds good.” I follow him to the kitchen where he makes us each turkey and cheese sandwiches. He makes his with sloppy mayo and mine plain just as I like it. We eat standing in the middle of the kitchen like starving teenagers and he pulls me back to the bedroom. Maybe it’s time for round two.

I undress and climb into bed while he’s brushing his teeth. I love when he walks around with his shirt off, doing regular tasks like brushing his teeth. He has no idea how sexy he looks. I swear the toothpaste commercials have it all wrong. They should have a man like 2 Piece walk around shirtless, brushing his teeth and grumbling different things. They would sell tons of toothbrushes and toothpaste. I would definitely be buying stock in that stuff.

He comes out yawning and the bed dips as he slides in next to me. I can tell his mind is going a million miles a minute, or else I would be talking to him about everything prior to his sister’s stuff happening.

I feel strong arms wrap around me and pull me to his muscular chest. We lie there silent and unmoving for what feels like an hour. He eventually falls asleep, never loosening his hold on me. It’s the first time ever he’s just held me and we’ve slept. I have to admit, I loved every second of it.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I’m awoken by more pounding on the door. Is this going to be an everyday thing? Do people not sleep in around here? I mean it’s a club house, surely you would think they would all be hung over and sleeping.

“Yeah!” 2 croaks and there’s more pounding on the door. I swear it better be a damn emergency at this rate. I get out of bed on automatic and run my hands down my body.
Yep, I have clothes on.
2 Piece is sleeping on his stomach with half an ass cheek hanging out of the covers. I’m not too worried about it though, because it’s covered with his tight indigo-blue boxer briefs. Who’d have thought a bad-ass biker would have colorful undies.

I open the door about four inches and peek through. “What’s up, Bean!” Niko says happily and I try to slam the door closed again but he stealthily slides his foot in before I can. “No, no, Bean. Time to wake and pack up,” he says seriously and the fog starts to clear out of my brain.

“Get the fuck outta here, she ain’t goin’ anywhere,” 2 Piece mumbles grouchily. Niko makes a face at me and I smirk. It’s pretty awesome for 2 to say I’m not leaving.

“What exactly is going on, Niko?” I look him over; he’s definitely all freshened up and dressed. He always smells like a million bucks with his delicious cologne. It wafts through the open doorway and I inhale deeply.
Ahhh, so good.
I know, I’m a weirdo, but that’s fine with me.

“Boss called. We are done, time to go home now. You go back to coffee and I go back to regular job with Boss.”

He smiles and I lose my breath. Go home now? But I’m not ready to go home yet.

“When exactly are you wanting to leave?” I ask quietly and he looks me over, contemplating something silently.

“We go when you pack.”

I swallow deeply and hold my breath for a beat. This is it. Time to pull my big girl panties on and leave the man I’ve grown to care deeply for. Oh, who am I kidding, I freaking love him.

I turn and see 2 Piece sitting up in bed staring intently at me. I take a deep breath and say the one thing I’ve been dreading since I arrived, “It’s time for me to go back home.”

Chapter 14

“Avery,” 2 says and I stay silent, attempting to swallow my emotions.

What is there to say at this point? I know he won’t come see me. He proved as much all the times before when I had to leave and wouldn’t hear from him unless I came back to town. He’s always let me know the score from the beginning, I’m the one who has grown too attached and can’t cope with the thoughts of not seeing him or touching him again for who knows how long. I’m going to have to leave, to go home. I have to leave him, not knowing if I will ever see him again and it’s got me crumbling inside. Does he even feel remotely what I feel for him? I get to go home, back to my boring life, with a job I hate. I’m going to go finish school, get my degree, eventually meet some mediocre man, settle down and be unsatisfied for the rest of my life. That’s if I even meet someone. I could turn into a bitter old woman who sits home, lonely, emailing people their completed tax returns and looking forward to the latest Price is Right episode.

Niko clears his throat and we both turn to him. “He can bring you another time, if you wish? I do not like the sad Bean, chin up and cheer up.”

He is brilliant. I wish 2 Piece would bring me at a later time, but that’s just not realistic. I mean, why would he waste time, energy and gas just to drive me back after he gets sick of me. 2 already told me not to overanalyze stuff and to take it slow, while in the meantime I didn’t get to analyze jack and discuss it with him.

“It’s okay, Niko, I will pack my stuff and not take too long, okay?”

He looks me over, confusion dancing over his features, but nods anyway and I shut the door. I turn toward my bag and set it on the bed so I can get dressed and stuff my belongings in it. I might as well just rip my heart out and leave it on the bed.