Page 34 of Whips and Chains
He seemed so utterly broken I couldn’t help myself. I stepped in and wrapped my arms around him, squeezing him tight.
Then walked away, because his grief was so thick that if I stayed a second longer, I knew it would consume me.
Iput on my outfit and did my makeup in the guest bathroom at my brother’s place. At nine, I called an Uber and started making my way downstairs to wait for it.
But Fang, asleep with his head on Wolf’s mattress, the rest of him sitting on the floor, caught my eye from the doorway of the little boy’s bedroom.
I stifled a laugh when Wolf waved his chubby hand at me.
“Go to sleep now, okay?” I whispered to him.
He squeezed his eyes shut and made an overexaggerated snoring sound.
I swallowed down my giggle so as to not wake my brother. He clearly needed the sleep, and with so many kids, I couldn’t blame him for getting some wherever he could. Wolf seemed quite happy to have one of his dads there with him, even if he was sleeping on the job.
Downstairs, I found Rebel, Vaughn, and Kian all curled up on the couch together, a movie flickering in the darkness, but all three of them gazing down at the baby in Rebel’s arms.
My heart gave a tiny squeeze, though I wasn’t one-hundred-percent sure why. I didn’t want babies right now. Hell, I had nobody to have babies with. I barely knew Whip, I was mad at Levi because we could just not get our shit together at all, and X was completely insane…though he would make the prettiest babies.
I gave myself a shake. I was missing a whole bunch of steps I needed to take before I could get myself from where I was right now, to snuggled on a couch with a baby and three men who loved me as much as Rebel’s guys loved her.
Vaughn was the first to notice me. “Going to your shift at Psychos? You need me to drive you?”
“I’ve got an Uber on the way. I’ll be fine. But thank you.”
He nodded and went back to stroking his youngest daughter’s soft hair while she fed.
Rebel glanced up at me. All the hard edges she’d had in the car earlier that day when she’d been fired up and ready to fight on my behalf had melted away, and all that was left was the mom and partner who loved her family more than anything else. “Have a good shift. I hear Dax from the tattoo shop is down there tonight, doing flash pieces.” She grinned, a little of her sass breaking through the mom routine. “Do not come home with a tattoo on your pussy.”
I choked on that. “What?”
Kian couldn’t keep his amusement off his face. “At least get a good one if you do. Something pretty.”
“Not a guy’s name,” Rebel added.
Kian glanced at her. “You did—”
“And I think that’s my cue to leave. Pretty sure I hear my Uber outside. Have a good night, you guys.” I scuttled out of the room before I could hear any more about how Rebel may or may not have my brother’s name tattooed on her vag.
Outside, my Uber had arrived, so I got inside and texted Nyah that I was on my way. I checked a few other notifications, but by the time I looked up from my phone, I realized I wasn’t sure where we were. I peered out the window, but nothing outside was familiar, just dark houses in a suburban neighborhood.
I leaned forward to speak to the driver. “I’m going to Psychos in Saint View. I’m not sure we’re going the right way.”
“We are,” came back a deep voice. “This is a shortcut. There’s traffic on the main roads.”
A tiny alarm bell went off in the back of my head. “There’s traffic at this time of night?”
“Road work.”
I supposed that could be true, but a shiver ran down my spine anyway. I checked the driver information on the app and then tried to catch a glimpse of his face from the back seat, but he had a baseball cap sitting low on his brow, and it cast shadows across the top half of his face, leaving me only his lips to identify him with.
I couldn’t tell if this guy was the registered driver or not.
And I really did not recognize this part of town.
It quickly dawned on me it didn’t matter. If this guy wasn’t going to Psychos, then he was taking me somewhere else.
Everything that had happened last night in that warehouse came rushing back in bright, vivid color, and my stomach churned in sick panic.
