Page 39 of Break Out

I’d have hit her with the dark shit some of the chapters did, but being the daughter of an MC president it wasn’t likely to faze her much. Bastard that I was, I did it anyway.

“Shit varies by chapter, but we don’t shy away from running guns, dealing drugs, every chapter runs the largest titty bar in town and if they slip to a competitor, they get fined.”

Her head went up and down in the slowest single nod. “Anything else?”

I nodded. “We provide security and run legit businesses for… tax purposes, you might say.”

Her eyes lit with borderline humor. “Wow! That’s looking out for number one. Gotta clean the cash.”

I widened my eyes at her. “What do you think Cal’s window and door business is all about? Or that damned storage center?”

Her expression shifted to offended. “My dad wouldn’t…”

She trailed off.

I smiled, but it was mean. “Yeah. They’ve ‘cleaned up,’ but it could go back the other way, Jade. At any time.”

She frowned. “So, your chapters are—”

“Don’t you dare say dirty.”

Again with that slow nod. “Okay, but I’m guessing the strippers do more than dance.”

I shrugged a shoulder. “If they do, that’s news to me.”

She stared me down with a ‘That’s bullshit’ expression. I fucking enjoyed that, and so did my cock.

Everything about her did it for me.

No, I shoved that thought out of my head. I was not doing parenthood again.

I shrugged a shoulder. “It would be news to me because the Augusta chapter has a few prostitutes who work for us.”

She blew out a small sigh and looked away for a long moment. When she met my gaze again, she asked, “Do you want this baby?”

Part of me wanted to watch her grow more pregnant with each passing day, but I couldn’t.

Time to pull the Band-Aid off. “I’ve done the dad thing before, and I won’t do it again.”

The way she stared at me. Her disappointment was palpable, and I knew she could see right through me.

She gave a slight head-tilt. “Good to know.”

That struck deep and I hated myself even more.

It became clear Simone would talk my ear off instead of go to bed – even if I could see the fatigue all over her face. Using my bossiest tone, I told her she had to go to bed and she complied.

I stretched out on the cramped sofa in the living room, and recalled how Simone had snuck out on me back in December. I grabbed my phone and texted Jackhammer and Warden – two brothers from the Jacksonville Devil Lancer chapter. They were the only two long-standing brothers in that chapter not serving jail time, and that was by sheer dumb luck. Subsequently, they were on overnight gate duty all week.

You see a brunette leave my camper without me, follow her.

On the surface, this didn’t make sense. If I didn’t want to do parenthood all over again, why did I give a shit where she ran off to? If I were honest with myself, I’d have recognized that her being pregnant with my kid affected me. But she didn’t need a man twenty years older than her in her life. Hell, our kid deserved a younger dad. The idea of another man raising my child pissed me off, but shit. They both deserved someone far better than me.

In the morning, I found my bed empty, the sheets rumpled, and no sign of Simone.

Frustration mounted, but I held it at bay.

Warden had sent me a text at four-fifteen this morning.

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