“Looking good,” Snake says from his station across the room. He’s finishing up a tribal piece on a client’s calf, but I can feel his eyes on me every few minutes.
He’s been doing that all morning. Watching me.
Louie bought me those pregnancy tests four days ago. Of course he wants to know the results.
“Almost done,” I tell Miller, wiping away excess ink. The portrait is perfect. His mother’s eyes look almost alive, staring out from his bicep with the same fierce love Miller always talked about.
When I finish wrapping his arm, Miller examines it in the mirror. His eyes get wet. “She would’ve loved this,” he says quietly. “Thank you, Bonnie.”
“She would’ve been proud of you.” I clean my station while he pays Snake at the front desk. “Come back in two weeks so I can check on it.”
After Miller leaves, the shop falls quiet. Just me and Snake and the guard posted outside the front door. Rodriguez, built like a brick wall, is watching the street for any Savage Legion threats.
I start breaking down my station, organizing supplies, and avoiding Snake’s gaze.
“You gonna tell me or do I have to drag it out of you?” Snake finally asks.
I don’t look up from the ink caps I’m sorting. “Tell you what?”
“Don’t play dumb. About the tests. So? What happened?”
My hands are still. I stare at the black ink staining my gloves, unable to meet his eyes. “Positive,” I say quietly. “All three of them.”
Snake sets down his machine.
I peel off my gloves and toss them in the trash. “I haven’t been to a doctor yet, though.”
“Bonnie—”
“I just got married, Snake.” The words burst out of me before I can stop them. “I’m nineteen years old. I just became someone’s wife and now I’m going to be someone’s mother and everything’s moving so fucking fast I can’t breathe.”
He crosses and pulls me into a hug. I don’t cry—I’m done crying about this—but I let myself lean against him for a moment, borrowing his strength.
“Life doesn’t wait for you to be ready,” he says into my hair. “It just happens. And you deal with it.”
“What if I can’t?”
“You can.” He pulls back and grips my shoulders, forcing me to look at him. “You’re the strongest kid I know. You survived your father selling you off. You survived Marcus Stone. You escaped a forced marriage, and you’re still standing. You think a baby is going to take you down?”
“A baby is different.”
“Yeah. It is.” His expression softens. “But you’re not alone in this. You’ve got your husband. You’ve got your club. You’ve got me and Louie. And you’ve got more fight in you than anyone I’ve ever met.”
I take a shaking breath. “I haven’t told Ash yet.”
“Why not?”
“Because once I do, it becomes real. Once he knows, everything changes.”
“Everything already changed the moment you saw those positive tests.” Snake releases my shoulders and leans against the counter. “Hiding it doesn’t make it go away. It just makes you carry the weight alone.”
“What if he’s not ready?” I ask quietly.
Snake wipes down his station, not looking at me. “Ready for what? A baby?”
“Yeah.”
“Nobody’s ready for a baby. You just deal with it when it happens.” He tosses the paper towel in the trash. “But Ash married you to protect you from Marcus Stone. You really think he’s gonna bail because you’re pregnant?”
