Page 175 of Straight to Me

“Tell him what, Mads?” Travis asks. I don’t look at him. I keep my eyes locked on Rocco’s as I answer, straightening my spine.

“That he’s going to be a father.”

Silence fills the space around us. Rocco rubs his beard with his hand then takes a step closer to me.

“And what do you think he will do if he finds out we let you come along? What if they take you before we get him, kill you in front of him, what good is that to anyone?”

Did he not hear what I said?

I feel my pulse pound in my head at his dismissal. Before I can speak though, Travis gently puts his hand on my arm. “I won’t let that happen,” he says. “None of us will. She’s stubborn and she won’t take no for an answer. Probably just follow us once we leave anyway.”

Rocco looks like he’s ready to throw punches.

The tension in the room is thick as I stand up to the Rippers MC President, backed by one of his own. His eyes move from mine to Travis as he makes his decision.

After a moment of panicked silence, Rocco straightens, physically tugging his clothes straight and shaking his shoulders. “If you come with us,” he says on a heavy, depleted sigh, “it won’t just be you and Dean in danger.” He looks like it’s physically hard to get the words out. “But my grandchild too.”

Chapter Forty-Three

VP

Mads carries a little girl down to the river. She’s holding her delicately in her arms as the water washes over the child’s toes. The sunlight skims off her perfect skin.

I sit watching them from the saddle, admiring the way this woman I get to call mine, holds my daughter so lovingly.

How did I get so lucky?

Every day she shows me her beautiful normal life—free from danger or hate. She’s the face that stands out in the crowd, the one that makes me want to be the best version of myself. She’s the one who brought me the peace and happiness I never imagined I deserved.

Mads bends to drop my baby girl’s toes in the water. As she does my little one looks over her mother’s shoulders to me. She’s the spitting image of Mads. But she has my eyes. Those big fucking eyes that love me unconditionally. They grab my heart, tearing down the walls I’ve spent so much of my life living within.

I jump off my bike and walk towards them. My baby holds her arms out for her daddy. The tips of her fingers reaching for me have their own gravity pulling me closer. It’s a sight and feeling I’ll never forget.

I wrap my arms around my girls. Everything good about me is them.

Then it’s black.

I’m waking up.No!I don’t want to wake up. I want to stay with my girls. When I blink my eyes open there’s no sunshine. No river. Nobody I love. Instead, I sit in a dark room, tied to a chair.

A small window on the door lets in just enough light, but it’s fading. Soon I’ll be in total darkness. The cold air sticks to the walls in here where black and green mould festers in the corners. It stinks of damp—like no one’s been in here for months.

I look around the room but there’s nothing of any use. Nothing I can get my hands on to free myself. I need to get out of here. I need to get to Mads.

My girl. Who I just fucking managed to get back.

And now I’m here.

My mind races with images of her face in the mill, on the edge of doing something stupid to try and save me. Thank fuck she stayed put. I hope she got out of there unnoticed.

She has to have got out.

I think to my dream of us having a kid—a little girl. I’ve never dreamt or thought about having kids. It’s something that’s never even crossed my mind until I met Mads. But I admit, seeing the negative pregnancy test, it struck a chord somewhere deep inside me.

She was right. She said I’d want something now, something I didn’t know I wanted before. And I do, I want it all; I want to live with her, give her babies, marry her, show her that I can give her everything she wants and still be the man she fell in love with. The bossy, control freak VP who makes her laugh and worships the ground she walks on.

My mind races, playing out a desirable future before me. I clench my fists trying to pull my wrists free from the rope that’s cutting off my blood supply. I’ve spent a lifetime getting out of situations like this when what waited for me on the other side was just more of, this. And now, what waits for me is an actual life. One I can finally envision for myself.

No more drowning on my own. I want to breathe free with the woman that showed me how to live again.

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