“You haven’t done anything wrong,” I tell him, setting the bottle on the shelf in front of him. “These people, they come at us from all angles, from every aspect. Whatever happens here, it is not your fault. You should be inside with everyone. Believe me when I say, there is no obligation here to waste your life away in a fucking shed when there are people who care about you inside, Braveheart. Tank is in there, bless his damn teddy bear soul, he jumps when Happy is near. He doesn’t have a brave bone in his body.”
That makes Braveheart smile. “And what about you?” he asks. “Why aren’t you inside?”
“Because someone is in there that’s been dead to me for a long time. I need a minute to wrap my head around it.”
“Oh, the guy Mercy brought in?”
“Yeah. He has information on Mary’s dad, but how can I trust him? How did he get into the FBI? Why didn’t he tell me? What if he wasn’t on our side? Does he know anything about Maximo and why the hell he is working for Preacher Man?”
Braveheart blows out a breath, and frozen particles fill the air as he thinks about what to say. He lifts his feet up, placing them on the shelf to get comfortable. “Those are a lot of questions, Knives. Questions only he knows the answers to.”
“I don’t want to talk to him, Braveheart. I don’t think I can.”
“For Mary?” he asks me. “Maybe don’t do it for you. Do it for her. After all this is said and done, you don’t have to talk to him again.”
And the thought of that hurts like hell too. “Give me that.” I steal the bottle away from him again and take another swig. “Don’t let Patrick see this.”
“No, I keep it locked up like Prez says to do. If Maximo went behind our backs, if he’s as slimy as I think he is, what would happen?”
“War,” I say, the word causing my stomach to turn. A lot of lives would be lost. “Moretti needs to remember. If he can get his memory back, I think we would know a lot more than what we do. Right after our partnership solidified, the hotel explosion happened, and we weren’t able to grow like we wanted to. Maximo came and changed everything.”
“Something is up with him, Knives. I’ll be honest, and I’ve never said this out loud, but I don’t think he can be trusted. Every move he makes, every time he speaks, I don’t understand how Reaper can look past the obvious. He has to know Maximo is not on our side. He has to.”
“Reaper has a lot to think about right now. He is trying to keep the peace. We have families here.”
“Either way, they are in danger until the threat is neutralized.”
“Yeah,” I agree. The more I think about his words, the more they resonate with Mary. The club isn’t my only family anymore; Mary is too. Until her threat is taken care of, she will always be in danger.
“Oh, before I forget.” Braveheart ducks back into his shed and grabs a package, handing it over to me. “This came in the mail for you.”
I raise an eyebrow in curiosity and rip open the package. It’s my new phone. Finally. With everything going on, at least something went right today.
“Thanks, Braveheart.” I don’t just mean for the phone, but by the look we give each other, I’m sure he understands what I mean.
“Anytime, Knives.”
I turn on my heel and head to the clubhouse, sucking up all my pride and all my pain to go take care of Mary.
Mason is dead. My past has no say here.
It’s all about Mary and how I can make sure she’s safe.
Ow.
“Holy crap,” I say on a held breath as I start to rouse. My head is killing me. I feel like I got hit with a bat.
I did see Whistler…
But no, that’s not what happened.
“Hellraiser.”
I wince as I look left to see Knives sitting in a chair, and he looks so relieved to see me awake. “What happened?”
“Someone ran you over, and you tripped and hit your head.”
“You worried us,” Sarah says from the bed next to me. “Sorry, I’m down here for monitoring for the little chipmunk, since I’ve been having some pain.”
“Oh no, is everything okay? Is the baby okay?” I ask her in a hurry.
“I’m fine. I have to take it easy. The muscles in my stomach never healed properly after being shanked—”
“—Don’t say it like that. It isn’t funny,” Tongue says out of the darkness… somewhere. And his statement is followed by a hiss.
That is terrifying. I’m glad I woke up to Knives next to me.
“Anyway, he might be hard to carry to term because I won’t have the muscle strength for my stomach to grow, and it will mess with my hips and pelvis.”
Tongue comes out from the far corner and walks by us, head down, and heads upstairs with Happy strapped to his chest.
“Tongue! I’m going to be—” but Tongue shuts the door before she can finish her sentence. “Okay.” She lays her hand on her stomach, which is still flat. If I remember correctly, she isn’t that far along, and she’s already having issues. I’m sure she’s scared.
“Okay, Sarah. Everything looks good. No exercise,” says Doc.
Sarah purses her lips and narrows her eyes. “Define exercise.”
Doc rubs his temples and then places his hands in a steepled position under his nose. “No rough sex. Nothing that will strain the muscle in your stomach. Keep it vanilla. Extra vanilla. I’ll have a talk with Reaper.”
Sarah groans dramatically and falls back on the bed. “Vanilla? No one likes vanilla here, Doc.”
“Oh, me so sad for you,” Doc pouts.
“You’re mean.”
“You’ll thank me when you’re holding your baby for the first time.”
Sarah gets this wistful look in her eye as she lays her hand on her belly, but the moment is ruined when loud, pounding steps hurry down the basement stairs. It’s Reaper. His eyes are wide, and he seems scared. “Doll? What’s wrong? Why are you down here? What happened? Is the baby okay? Are you okay? Why didn’t anyone come and get me!” he roars, and the stainless steel walls vibrate from the loud boom.
“Oh my god, no,” Reaper leans against the wall, defeated, broken, and his eyes water. “We lost the baby? Sarah…” He turns around and punches a hole in the wall, and everyone is so shocked from the quick conclusion that he made that no one speaks up to calm him down.
“Reaper, no. Oh my god, no. The baby is okay,” Sarah says, swinging her legs over the bed to stand. She pulls the stickers that connect to the monitors off her stomach and tugs her shirt down and runs over to him. Her hand lands in the middle of his back, and he pulls her in front of him to where we can’t see her anymore because his body covers hers.
“You’re okay. The baby is okay?”
I turn away from them, my heart breaking for Reaper and Sarah. The relief, fear, and tremble in his throat has my eyes burning.
“I was having some pain, and you were in a meeting. It wasn’t the same kind of pain as before,” Sarah explains. “The muscles in my stomach didn’t heal like they should have and carrying can be complicated and dangerous. Doc wants to keep a close eye on me. Very close. But the baby is healthy. And… Doc found something I think you’ll really like. Want to hear it?”