Page 16 of Room Twenty: Owning Their Angel

My feet start to move before I even realize it. My strides are long, and I feel my brothers moving next to me, our eyes fixed on our woman and closing in fast.

When we’re close enough to touch her, I force myself to keep my arms at my sides. I don’t want to fucking scare her. It’s the last thing I want in this whole fucking world. Even though I’m yearning to wrap my arms around her and feel her body against mine again.

“Heather,” Bedlam’s voice breaks as he calls out to her.

She stumbles a little as she freezes and the three of us reach out to steady her, but she doesn’t need it. When she takes a step forward and then whirls around to face us, her hazel eyes are wide with shock. As my eyes scan our woman, I’m thrown for a fucking loop when I move down her torso to find she’s now sporting a very round, very pregnant belly.

Everything stops around us, the moment frozen in time, as shock, relief, fear, and a little bit of anger start to course through my blood.

It feels like everything comes together, making so much more sense, and I know, without a doubt, the real reason why she ran. The feeling of my heart being ripped out of my chest is almost too much to bear.

CHAPTER 8

POE

I can’t tear my eyes away from Heather’s pregnant belly. I don’t know what I was expecting when we approached her, but this was the last fucking thing I even considered. Seeing her like this is like hearing angels sing.

Because I’m so fucking relieved to have my eyes on her again. Because she’s safe. Because she’s right here in front of us.

Because she’s carrying our baby.

There’s no doubt in my mind the baby is biologically one of ours, but which one doesn’t matter. I’m already hooked. With one fucking glance.

Just like I was with Heather.

It’s heady and I’m feeling a little lightheaded as the silence around us stretches into something bordering on awkward and uncomfortable.

I’m not sure I have the words to deal with this situation, but when I look back up into Heather’s hazel eyes and see fear there, I know I need to get my shit together.

“Okay,” I breathe out.

“Holy shit,” Scope murmurs. “You’re pregnant.”

I can’t help but bark out a laugh because of the bewildered tone of my brother’s voice and because he’s stating the obvious. Viper slaps my shoulder and I rub a hand down my face, swallowing the last of my laughter.

“I, um,” Heather’s face is a mixture of emotions, none of which I like, “yes, I’m pregnant. I’m about 25 weeks along now.” She shakes her head and starts to trip over her words, like she can’t stop them once the floodgates open, “When I first found out I thought it might have been that night at Club Sin since the condom broke. Then I found out how far along I was, and it was before then. I was on birth control,” her tone is insistent, “but I didn’t know antibiotics can make them ineffective and we weren’t always on top of using condoms. I’m,” her face crumples and my heart fucking breaks, “I’m sorry.”

There’s no more room for hesitation or surprise anymore. Not when our woman has tears running down her cheeks and so much fucking despair swirling in her beautiful eyes. I close the distance between us and wrap my arms around her to tug her against my chest. It feels different with her pregnant belly between us, but not in a bad way.

Not at fucking all.

“Cherub,” my voice gets locked in my throat as I bury my face in her hair and take a deep breath of her lavender and crisp air scent, hoping it’ll calm me, “why didn’t you tell us? Why did you run?”

“I didn’t want you to think I trapped you,” her voice is muffled against my chest, but I can hear her.

When I look up to find Viper and Scope closing in on us, their bodies coiled tight with the need to be just as close to her as I am, I know, by the way they clench their jaws, they heard her too. It kills me that she thought we’d ever accuse her of such a thing. Then again, did we give her a reason to trust anything different?

Fuck. We messed this whole damn thing up.

Scope’s eyes are sad as he reaches out and runs his fingers through Heather’s hair. “We would never think that,” his voice is soft but firm.

She turns her head and peeks over at him. “Really?”

“Never,” Viper chimes from her other side and she looks at him, the relief on her face a physical thing that digs its claws into my chest and rips out my heart.

“Other people would, though. The angels,” she closes her eyes and sighs, “it’s exactly the kind of thing one of them would try to do and then accuse me of.” She shakes her head and tries to pull out of my hold, but I can’t seem to get my arms to drop. Not yet. “I just didn’t want to bring that kind of drama to the club. I didn’t want to cause any kind of rift. Not when you were about to get your cut, Gray,” she looks over at Scope, “and you still had a few months.”

“Fuck anyone who would say such a thing to you or us,” Scope’s voice is fierce.

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