Page 82 of Biker's Baby

THIRTY-SEVEN

Abe

I spenta sleepless night trying to comfort both Iris and Tris.

Tris was up a lot in the night, crying from the nightmares that he kept having. Iris for her own part would do what she could to comfort him, but once she’d gotten him to sleep and she tried to sleep herself, she would start shaking and sweating in her sleep, too.

I knew she was having nightmares, and it made me feel guilty. I had promised her that she would be safe here, but instead she’d gotten kidnapped right out of the bedroom while I was away. I should have made sure she was watched better. I should have taken the time off work to check on her while she went for long stretches alone.

There were so many things I kept thinking I should have done to make sure she was okay, and that was making me feel worse and worse.

I wound up lying awake myself and just staring at the ceiling until Iris put her hand on my chest.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“What’s wrong?” I replied. “You can’t sleep with all the nightmares you’re having, and I just feel like shit for letting you get taken away like that.”

“Don’t blame yourself,” she said. “I was the one who got involved with that guy in the first place. I was the one who let him rule me for so long, and I didn’t do enough when he was stalking me before that I didn’t give him the message to fuck off or die.”

“You can’t blame yourself for him coming after you,” I told her. “You were the victim in this, and it was his fault, not yours.”

“And you can’t blame yourself for not being here when you were at work,” she replied. “You were just earning money so you could take care of us. You had no idea that he could break through the lock that way. And if I did, I would have done extra things to make sure I was safe here, too.”

I sighed. I knew she was right. But it was still difficult for me to accept the fact that this was something that had just happened. I was used to being the one taking care of things, and if things went wrong, then I was the one who took the blame.

The fact that she didn’t blame me was new. I was used to girlfriends demanding that I fix everything in their lives, and if something didn’t turn out right, they would be mad at me whether it had anything to do with me or not.

“Close your eyes, try to get some sleep,” Iris said. “I’m sure there’s plenty waiting for us in the morning.”

“I hope not,” I told her. “I’m about over all this drama going on. I want to go back to my boring life.”

“I could always move out,” she said, and I grinned.

“Don’t you dare,” I said. “Or you’re going to find yourself with a new stalker.”

“It’s not stalking if you want the person to stalk you,” she said. “Then it’s just you admiring me from a distance.”

I laughed as I wrapped my arm around her. We spooned on the bed for as long as we could before she had to get up to get Tris again, and I was glad for what she’d said. I felt better knowing that she didn’t blame me, but it wasn’t enough to erase all the guilt that I felt against myself.

Still, there wasn’t anything I could do about it now, and I knew blaming myself wouldn’t get me anywhere. It was done now, and it was time we move on.

That’s all there was to it.

“Fuck,who’s that at this hour?” I muttered.

I was in process of making coffee for Iris as she sat at the table early the next morning. Tris was in his highchair with some dry cereal sprinkled about, and I was glad for the chance to do something for her while she sat there and let me.

But there was a knock on the door, and I reluctantly went to see who was bothering us so early. I hoped it wasn’t Glenn. I wasn’t in the mood for company, and I would tell him straight that he had to wait.

Instead, it was Special Agent Mikey Warden.

“Mikey!” I said as I yanked open the door. “I wasn’t expecting you!”

“I’m sorry for showing up at the ass crack of dawn,” he said. “But I wanted to check base with you after yesterday. I know you got the local PD involved, and I’m sorry that we weren’t able to get out there ourselves. But with how fast the case moved, it seemed like you were able to get yourself out there and take care of business before we would have arrived anyway.”

“That’s why I didn’t wait,” I said. “As soon as I had a bead on the location, I was out of here and after her.”

I introduced my old friend to Iris and Tristan, and I laughed at the way Mikey seemed charmed by both of them. He knew my father, and I knew he was thinking of the old man as he met my family. There were times I wished my father had been able to meet Tristan. He would have loved the family I built.

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