“Of course you wouldn’t,” I said with a frown because the idea of her having a problem with us doing any of those things hadn’t been what I’d meant at all. “But it doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt at the same time, watching us do them when you never got to be with the man you loved.”
She let out a slow breath. “I appreciated that you told me you were pregnant when it was just the two of us. That helped a lot. Not that I’m not over the moon for you… It just gave me a minute to feel my feelings without everyone watching for my reaction.”
That was exactly why I’d told her first, and why it was just the two of us at her house. The one she’d bought with Eric. Because then I could stay or go, depending on how she needed to process the news. It had only taken her a couple of beats before she’d wrapped me up in a hug and began peppering me with questions, but I knew there’d probably been some tears shed alone in bed that night. Only a few, I was sure, for all she’d lost. I’d shed more than my fair share for her as well over the years.
“I just wanted to check in. Make sure you’re okay with everything,” I told her.
“I’m good.” Her eyes softened as she looked down at my still flat belly. “I can’t wait to hold that baby.”
“It seems so…wild,” I said, touching my stomach again. “Like it can’t actually be happening… And then I throw up and realize that it’s definitely happening.”
We both laughed. I got up and went to sit by her on the couch and she wrapped an arm around me. “Don’t worry so much about me.”
“I’m your big sister. That’s in my job description.” We sat there, holding each other for a few minutes before I spoke again. “I know you loved Eric… Losing him doesn’t mean you can’t have another love.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yeah. I guess I’ve kind of been hiding out for a while.”
“Maybe it’s time to try again?”
She nodded. “Maybe it is. We’ll see.”
“Just make sure he’s a boring accountant and not Superman on the side. Mom and Dad are already going to lose their minds if they ever find out about Bolo.”
“Reporter,” she pointed out a second time.
“Yeah, yeah.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Picking up the remote, I flicked on the TV. That was enough talking for now. What we needed was something to take our minds off our real lives. I put on one of our favorite movies and cuddled up next to her to veg out for the evening.
CHAPTER 18
Bolo
My eyes swept the parking lot, looking for threats as I walked up to Devyn’s apartment complex. It’d been about a week since the factory incident and we’d settled into a routine. I watched over Dev at night, and Strike and Drifter had volunteered to sit outside her place during the day for a few hours while I slept, then I took over again.
It wasn’t ideal, but it was the best I could do for now. We didn’t have an exact location on the two factions of The Collective Glitch had been watching just yet. He’d been keeping an eye on them via bank accounts, emails, and other shit rather than knowing a physical spot. So the club was split between guard duty here, watching over the compound—and the women there—and looking for our targets.
We were searching different buildings on the side of town where we suspected they were holed up. The kind of buildings these types usually used, old warehouses, factories, and shit likethat. With every empty building our frustrations were building. Once we found them, all hell was going to break loose. They just didn’t know it yet. They thought they were safe. It was only a matter of time before we found them.
I knew Dev was investigating the factory fire as well, because of course she fucking was. Though I hadn’t told her I was the one who’d killed those men, burned their bodies, then set the place ablaze. It was just my luck that she was the investigator on a fucking fire I started. My gut told me this was going to get complicated real soon.
It wasn’t like I could ask her to look the other way. Not yet. She was still trying to come to terms with the fact that my club brothers and I were vigilantes. I actually wondered if somewhere in the back of her mind she suspected our involvement. Or had it not really occurred to her yet. If it hadn’t, then it would at some point. I knew I should sit her down and explain everything that had led up to me torching that building, but she wasn’t ready for it just yet.
It was important that I walk a line with her. I needed to give her all the information about me. About my club. Hell, about my family—since Dad and Isaac had helped me dispatch those pieces of shit straight to hell. But I needed to do it a little bit at a time. If I just dumped everything into her lap she was going to drop my fucking ass so fast, I’d wonder what the fuck had happened. I had to be…delicate…about this. And delicate didn’t describe me in any way. A bull dozer was more delicate than I was.
I looked down at my cell and frowned. Devyn hadn’t responded back to me yet today. Strike and Drifter had been keeping an eye out, but hadn’t seen any threats. But she wasn’t responding. There was a chance that she’d thought about everything I told her and had decided I wasn’t worth the trouble. But she’d been responding to me up until she went to sleeplast night. I couldn’t imagine she’d decided to drop me between closing her eyes last night and opening them this morning. No, something else was going on. A pit formed in my stomach. I wanted to hurl.
My brain—and my imagination—didn’t have a chance to catch up with my instincts. I was overcome with something I was almost completely unfamiliar with. Fear. Dread. Something was wrong.
My brothers were waiting in one of the MC’s SUVs to see if I needed any help, and I jerked my chin in acknowledgment of them as I went past. I took the stairs two at a time until I got to her floor. My fist beat on the door. I probably sounded like the damn cops serving a search warrant, but at this point I was fucking worried. Had those pieces of shit somehow gotten past my brothers and gotten to my woman?
My scowl deepened the longer I waited. I was about to take the door off the hinges when it finally opened. The glower on my face disappeared the second I laid eyes on Devyn. “You look like shit.”
