Page 73 of The Heart We Guard
Smoke shrugs. “Course I did. You were half-dead when I dropped you off. Trusting that she was going to do as we asked, to take you to her place and fix you up. But for all we knew, she could have called the police, dropped you off at a cop shop, taken you into the hospital. So, yeah, I fucking threatened her that I’d track her down and kill her if she didn’t save you. You’d have done the same.”
With a strong urge to defuse the tension, and deflect everyone’s attention, I tug on Butcher’s arm. “For the record, I told him that if you didn’t pay me, I’d hunt and kill him too and told him to get out of my way.”
Both sets of eyes land on me.
“She did,” Smoke says. “Glad you didn’t have to kill me too.”
22
BUTCHER
Bringing Greer here, first, was deliberate.
I was ninety-nine percent sure we hadn’t been followed. I paid careful attention to my side mirrors from the moment we left the hotel in Denver.
Occasionally, a car or truck would ride with us for a while, but they all eventually fell to the wayside.
By pulling up to the clubhouse, first, and letting the gate keep a watch for prying eyes on the road, I’d be able to keep Greer safe, introduce her to my men, and take her home once we knew it was safe.
What I hadn’t considered was what would happen once we got here.
And I fucked it up.
I was kind of proud when I stepped inside. Greer’s an attractive woman. She’s intelligent, sharp, and a pretty package I thoroughly enjoyed exploring last night.
And she’s carrying my kid.
Wanted everyone to know so that they could take a little care with how they treated her. That they would know she wasn’t just some flight of fancy I’d brought to the clubhouse to fuck.
That she wouldn’t have to deal with club girls or any of that bullshit.
Instead, I fucked it up.
From the look on Greer’s face when she stepped off the bike, panic and fear etched into the lines on her face, to the moment she spun around and asked me what the hell I was thinking telling everyone she was pregnant, I’ve handled it wrong.
And then, there was the look of devastation and disappointment on Ember’s face. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt my daughter more. I’m inept at this shit. Utterly, and totally, inept.
“Fuck me,” I mutter, rubbing a hand over my jaw.
Jackal steps over and shakes my hand. “Congrats, Prez,” he says. “Makes sense why you needed an escort. I’d want to protect a package like that too.”
Shade places his hand on Greer’s arm. “You feeling okay?”
“About the baby, yes. About all this…” She gestures around the room.
Shade smiles. Swear I’ve never really seen the fucker smile before. “It can be a lot. But we’ve got your back. You need something, shout.”
Jackal nods at Greer. “Same here.”
Greer sighs and then looks at me. “You should go.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Go where? This is my fucking club.”
She shakes her head. “After her. After your daughter. Because what you just did was unfair to her.”
The last thing I need is Greer telling me what to do in front of my men after I already feel like a fucking fool for my announcement. I take her elbow and lead her into church, grateful when I close the door behind me, so those fuckers won’t be able to see who I am when I’m around Greer.
“We need a rule,” I say firmly. “You got a problem with the way I’m doing something, you tell me privately. Not in front of my men.”
