Page 31 of Buried

Tristan leaned his head back against the bed, seeming to drop that specific topic of conversation. “Dumb of him to let you come here by yourself considering the mother fucker that shot me is still running around,” Tristan grumbled.

I scowled, defensively crossing my arms over my chest. “For your information, River had Sam bring me up here since he had to get Axel’s shit together,” I snapped. “I’m not fucking alone.” As if my man would ever send me out somewhere un-fucking-protected. The mere thought made me scoff.

“Who the fuck is Axel?” Tristan demanded, his eyes flickering to my stomach, only to see that I was still very much pregnant.

“My nephew,” River spoke up as he strode into the room, holding Axel’s car seat in one hand with the small diaper bag in his other hand. He set Axel and the diaper bag down and pressed a light kiss to the top of my head, immediately relaxing me.

Kneeling, I unhooked Axel from his car seat, lifting him and cradling him in my arms as he opened his beautiful, blue eyes and looked up at me. I smiled down at him as I rubbed my fingers over his chubby cheek. He gurgled as he reached up to put his hands on my face.

“Kid looks a hell of a lot like you, River,” Tristan admitted as he looked at Axel.

River shrugged. “Red didn’t want him, so Adelaide told him she would take him. We’re parents a bit earlier than expected.” But River smiled at me—that smile that told me everything was okay, that everything wouldcontinueto be okay.

I looked at Tristan. “So, Jesup said that Frederick was doing some shit on the side, and when you confronted him, he shot you,” I said, spiking up that conversation. I wanted to know what the fuck was going on.

Tristan shrugged. “Something like that,” he said gruffly. Evasively.

Fuck, I hated it when he did this shit. He didn’t like anyone outside of the members that sat at his table knowing anything, and he liked it even less when women tried getting in the middle of things.

“Spill,” I snapped at him.

Tristan scowled at me. “You’re in no fucking position to be making fucking demands, Addy,” he snarled. “You’re a club woman. Remember your fucking place.”

I glared at him, opening my mouth to snap back at him, but River beat me to it. “Watch your fucking tone with her,” River warned coolly. “What exactly happened, Grim?” River demanded to know. “And don’t you dare fucking hold back information just because she’s in the fucking room. She’smyold lady. I determine what she knows and doesn’t know. She deserves to know this.”

Tristan glared at him for a moment. River’s expression didn’t change. He just looked at Tristan with cool eyes, waiting on Tristan to begin explaining what the fuck had happened.

Finally, Tristan grunted in displeasure. “Some-fucking-how, he got wind of Adelaide’s pregnancy, and he was under the pretense that it was my kid.” I tensed. River stepped closer to me on instinct, his hands settling over my hips. “I confronted him to tell him to keep his mouth shut about it. Told him that noone else was supposed to know. But Frederick is being paid by someone to get his hands on Adelaide because they know I will go to extreme lengths to make sure that she’s safe and protected.” Tristan clenched his jaw. “I don’t know what they want from me, but Adelaide isn’t safe—especially not here.”

River stepped around me, his glare fixed on Tristan. The door opened behind me, and Joey stepped in. He flashed me a warm smile that made my heart flutter in my chest before he focused his attention on the scene unfolding in front of him. “You should have fucking called me the second someone got wind of her being pregnant!” River barked at Tristan.

“Woah—what the fuck is going on?” Joey demanded as he stepped to my other side, his muscular arms crossing over his chest.

A humorless laugh spilled past River’s lips. I swallowed thickly. River angry and pissed at Tristan? I could handle it. I knew he wouldn’t hurt Tristan because River loved me too much.

Joey, though? Joey might love me, might have changed for me, but putting my life in danger drew the line for Joey. He would drop bodies regardless of the pain it caused me.

“Fucking dimwit here decided that instead of informing me that someone is after Adelaide to get to him, he would take care of shit himself. Now, the mother fucker—the only person we know that holds the answers we need—is fucking MIA, and Tristan got himself shot trying totalkto the fucker instead of getting the answers he needed and putting a goddamn bullet through the traitor’s skull.”

Joey moved to lurch forward, but River intercepted him despite the pure rage simmering in his gaze. “You hurt him, you’re fucking hurting her,” River growled at Joey.

Joey’s eyes flashed dangerously. I shifted Axel to one arm and settled my hand over Joey’s bicep. His jaw flexed as he turned to look down at me.

“I’m holding you with me,” I whispered, willing him to stay with me and to not hurt Tristan, silentlybegginghim not to.

He leaned down and brushed his lips to my forehead. My heart squeezed in my chest. “I’m stepping out,” Joey growled, taking a step back from Tristan’s hospital bed. “River, I’ll catch up with you in a bit. I need to cool the fuck off, or I’ll be eliminating one dumb fuck from your woman’s life.”

I frowned after Joey as he stormed out of the room.

“I was trying to do fucking damage control without worrying Adelaide,” Tristan snapped at River, drawing River’s attention back to him. “I knew the second I told you, you would tell Adelaide because you just can’t keep your fucking woman out of club shit. Adelaide is too unpredictable, can’t fucking trust her to not take shit into her own hands. This is club shit.”

“Thisclub shitinvolves her!” River roared at him, stepping back from me as he started losing his cool.

I reached out to River, gripping his cut. He swung his burning, blue eyes to me. “Stay with me,” I pleaded.

He drew in a deep breath, nodding once at me before he turned his attention back to Tristan.

“Fucking hell, Tristan, I tell Adelaide shit because if she knows, then she can take necessary measures on her part to keepherself safe, and she won’t feel fucking trapped when I do what I have to do so that she’s protected,” River growled, but he wasn’t shouting anymore. “You still haven’t grasped that fucking concept when it comes to her. Keeping her in the dark about shit will only get her stuck in the same fucking position she got herself into a year ago, or it’ll send her back into that same fucking hole she got into with Joey.”

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