Page 23 of The Queen of Nightmares

I stomped into the meeting room, my mood souring with every step I took away from my little Queen. Almost everyone was already around the table, only the spot at the head and two others empty. I eyed Doc, who was sitting back in his chair, arms crossed and glaring holes into me. I smirked.

“Hello, brother.”

He flipped me off. “Fuck you, Bones.”

Everyone around the table laughed at his display of irritation. We all knew that if he didn’t want to be sitting in that seat, he wouldn’t be. We also knew that it was long overdue. There was no better choice for the VP position than Doc. And there was no one I trusted more than him to have my back. As VP, if anything happened to me, he would be next in line to take over. He may not have been a patched member of the club all these years, but he’d been a part of it just as long as I had. The one and only thing that had held him back from making it official was the hours he had to spend at the hospital at the beginning of his career. He was still a busy doctor, but he was at the point where he wasn’t captive to his job any longer. I knew he would put the club first as much as he was able.

I shrugged off my leather jacket, draping it over the back of my chair, and sat down just as the remaining brothers walked in and took their seats with a nod to the rest of the gathered club members.

“Alright, let’s get this meeting started.” I looked around the table with the gavel next to my fingers. “Let’s talk about how we are going to annihilate the mother fucking Boogeymen once and for all.”

ChapterSeventeen

THE QUEEN OF NIGHTMARES

“Hey, Kara!” I walked over, excited to see my friend. She looked me over from head to toe as she examined me closely.

“Hey, girl. I heard some shit happened yesterday after I left.”

I nodded to the other girls with a small smile in greeting. We weren’t close and had barely spoken more than polite words to each other, but they hadn’t been mean. I wished I could make friends easier, but I had a hard time putting myself out there, especially with these girls. They were so beautiful, and I could never forget my scars. Even if Jack made me feel so good about myself that I often forgot about them while we were together, the self-consciousness always came roaring back as soon as I was around other people.

I shuddered at the memory of those thousands of little feet crawling over me. “Yeah, that package you dropped off had a nasty surprise in it. I ended up spending most of the day in the hospital with dozens of bug bites. Luckily, they weren’t venomous. I just had to take some Benedryl for the itching.”

I lifted my sleeve, where several bites were still red. Though they were smaller in size than they had been the day before, they were still slightly raised.

One of the other girls gasped in genuine shock at the sight. “I’d heard you had some kind of attack, but no one knew what it was. Are you okay?”

If I thought about them too much, I would start scratching at them again, so I quickly pulled my sleeve back down. “I am. It was pretty boring in the hospital, to be honest. Though, Jack and I did get to see the baby.”

There was a chorus of exclamations. Apparently, it wasn’t common knowledge that I was even pregnant. That honestly didn’t surprise me. I hadn’t been around long after we first found out, and then I had spent months in the house pretty much alone, with Zero and Kara for occasional visits.

“Oh my gosh! I didn’t know the Prez had a baby on the way!” One of the girls gushed. “I bet the baby grows up to be just as handsome as he is.” Her voice was dreamy as she got a faraway look, either imagining Jack or my baby. Either way, I felt a spark of jealousy. Both were mine.

I forced a laugh. “Yeah, I bet.”

Kara eyed me knowingly. She was the one who had convinced me that other girls would want Jack even more now that he’d proven he was interested in women. She gestured with her eyes at the other women, who seemed to be looking at me with jealousy. Or maybe it was that they were sizing me up? Maybe they thought they could win Jack away from me. They had the skills, I was sure. But Jack was devoted to me, and I could tell in the truck how much he was already in love with our baby, too. No one could take that away from me.

I lifted my chin a little higher, trying to be the Queen he always called me. I was the one he’d chosen, not these women. Even though he’d been surrounded by their beauty night and day for years, it wasn’t untilmethat he’d changed. It sucked for them, but for me, it was glorious being his girl.

I looked back over at Kara, giving her a smile and showing her that it didn’t matter who wanted him. She was frowning but gave me a reassuring smile once she noticed me looking her way.

“You want something to drink, Sal? I can get them to pour you some ginger ale?” Kara asked as she slid off the stool she was perched on. I stepped back to allow her room to move around me, already heading to the other end of the bar where a prospect was drying glasses with a bar towel.

“Umm, sure. That would be great, thanks,” I called as I stood there awkwardly. I wasn’t sure if I should take a stool near one of the other girls or move over toward the couches. I remembered what I had seen a couple of nights ago and shuddered. No, thank you. I wrapped an arm around my middle. Perhaps I should just go to Jack’s office. I’d be comfortable there, and I wouldn’t feel like I was on display for the club girls as they carried on a conversation between themselves about how cute babies were and how they bet the Prez’s baby was going to be the cutest they’d ever seen.

“Sally?”

I jerked my head in the direction of the voice to notice one of the girls smiling at me.

“I asked if you got a sonogram picture printed yesterday?” I couldn’t remember her name since I hadn’t worked with her much. It was Mindy or Mandy. Maybe Cindy?

“Oh, yeah, sorry. Jack kept most of them, but I did manage to keep one for myself.” I reached into my small crossbody bag and pulled out my wallet. I slipped the little square picture from inside and held it to me protectively while everyone giggled, talking about how adorable it was for big, bad men to go crazy over their babies. I smiled in agreement, but inside, I was thinking,you can’t take him from me. I need him!

“You’re so lucky, Sally. You have what we all want.” All the girls nodded in agreement as one of them spoke.

“Yeah. These bikers are just so much, you know!” Another gushed. “When they claim someone, they go all out. A bit caveman, I guess, but who wouldn’t want to be claimed by a man who would do anything to protect you?”

I laughed awkwardly. “Yeah, Jack is pretty caveman, I suppose. But he makes sure I know that I’m all his.” I reluctantly held out the piece of paper with my baby on it and watched as they all got as close as they could. They oohed and awed over the little dot in the middle that resembled a peanut. I couldn’t help but smile a real smile as I watched them fawn over my son or daughter.

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