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Hell, I’ve scared the shit out of myself, too.

After a moment, they break apart and come back to the truck - Logan slipping behind the wheel and Ali getting into the passenger seat in silence. I can feel their questions hanging over all of us like a guillotine. As Logan pulls away from the hospital, I think about the conversation we’re going to have to have when we get back to their house and my stomach twists. It’s not something I’m looking forward to, at all, but I know it has to be done.

Chapter Five

Isabelle

My stomach flips violently as I sit in the back of Logan’s truck, the silence deafening as we make the ten-minute drive back to the compound. My mind is consumed with the hard conversations I now need to have with the people in my life. When I first found out I was pregnant, I was scared and unsure so my choices made sense to me but now…

I kept this all a secret for too damn long and it doesn’t matter that the plan was always to tell my friends and the baby’s father about all of this starting today. I’ve been backed into a corner by Luca and now it looks like I was going to hide this pregnancy right up until the end and I hate knowing that is what they’ll think. I had imagined that I would find a way to tell the father and then take my girls out to lunch and tell them the news. They would have been shocked but they would have been happy for me and we would have shed a tear or two about my little peanut. Glancing down, I place my hand on my belly and tears well up in my eyes as my sweet baby gives me a soft kick right in the middle of my belly.

Worry eats at me as I look up at my best friend in the front seat, wondering what her reaction will be to the news now and the fact that I’ve hidden this from her, from all of them, for so long.

I just hope she understands.

Logan pulls the truck up to the front gate of the two-hundred-acre piece of land that the Bayou Devils MC calls home and I suck in a breath, clasping my shaking hands together. He presses a button on his visor, prompting the front gate to slowly start sliding open and I breathe a sigh of relief. The property is large but despite that, the seven-foot-tall stone wall that surrounds the entire property makes me feel safer than I have all night. The large clubhouse comes into view as Logan pulls into the parking lot and I glance behind us as the gate closes, desperate to make sure that I am truly safe. Once it closes, I turn back to the clubhouse and my mind drifts to the last time I was here. It was a little over six months ago when they had a joint birthday party for a few of the brothers. It was a crazy damn night with good music, good people, and the alcohol was flowing freely.

The clubhouse is quiet tonight, which isn’t all that surprising given the time and the fact that half of the brothers have families and homes further back on the property. A few people are standing out on the back deck, around the fire pit, talking and drinking beer, and they wave at us as we drive past. I drop my gaze and turn toward the opposite window in an effort to hide my face. I’m sure that by tomorrow evening, every single person on this compound will know about what happened to me tonight but for now, I’d rather they didn’t.

Ali and Logan’s house is about one hundred yards behind the clubhouse, something he insisted on when they started building this place three years ago, but the entire plot of land is heavily wooded so each house comes with a sense of privacy – something I’m extremely grateful for tonight. Logan slows down and turns the truck onto the forty-yard gravel road that leads to their house far quicker than I would have liked. My stomach does a little flip and my heart hammers in my chest as we pull up out front of the modern farmhouse Ali designed and Logan turns the truck off.

Oh, God.

The front door opens and I suck in a breath as Carly and her husband, Chance, step outside to greet us. Carly wrings her hands together as Chance wraps an arm around her waist, pulling her into his side as concern lines both of their faces. I feel exposed despite the fact that I know they can’t see me yet and I press my hand to my belly, closing my eyes as I take a deep breath, hoping to steady my nerves.

It doesn’t work.

Opening my eyes, I release the breath just as Ali and Logan open their doors and hop out of the truck before looking back at me. I grip the handle, suck in a breath, and open the door as my heart hammers in my chest. When I turn back toward my friends, Carly takes a step forward but stops short when her gaze lands on my face. Her jaw drops and her eyes widen.

“Izzy.” The horror in her voice reminds me just how bad my face looks right now but I hold my head high, refusing to show any kind of weakness. Yeah, maybe I fell apart earlier but I will not let Luca get the best of me. She searches my face, taking it all in as pain fills her eyes and I know seeing me like this has to be bringing back some painful memories for her – memories that she would rather keep locked away.

Shit.

I hate that I’m doing this to her.

“It looks worse than it is. Promise.”

She shakes her head, clearly not buying my obvious lie, but I ignore the look on her face and the pit in my stomach as I march up the front porch steps with Ali and Logan trailing behind me. As soon as I reach the top, Carly steps in front of me and gently touches my face, just below the bruise across my cheek as tears gather in her gray eyes. My chest aches at the gesture. Before I can stop her or warn her to be gentle, she wraps me up in a hug and pain shoots through my body.

I hiss, my muscles tensing and she jerks back, searching my face with concern and I can feel the questions lingering between us. Shaking my head, I force a smile to my face and try my best to reassure her that I’m okay but just like with Ali, having the support of my girls is making it hard to keep an iron grip on my emotions.

“I’m good, Car.”

“No,” she answers, a scowl on her face as she releases me. “You’re not. What the hell happened to you?”

“And please tell me the other guy looks worse,” Chance adds, flashing me his signature easygoing smile as he pulls his wife a little closer. Chance likes to make everyone think he’s the carefree one, the guy with a joke always ready but I know how seriously he takes keeping the people he cares about safe. Behind the mask of cocky jokester, I can see the toll the evening is taking on him and the worry in his eyes.

“Let’s get inside so we can sit down and figure this all out,” Logan says as he and Ali join us on the porch, Logan on my right and Ali on my left. My gaze bounces between the two of them and tears sting my eyes at the love and support they’ve shown me from the moment I called them at the hospital. It’s not often you find people in life who will jump in a car in the middle of the night to rescue you at a moment’s notice, no questions asked, and I wish they knew how grateful I am to have them in my life. I’m not good at that kind of thing, though, and I can’t remember the last time I was this mushy in front of other people.

“Before that…” I pause, sucking in a breath as I try to step out of my comfort zone. “I just want you guys to know how much I…”

Ali places her hand on my shoulder. “Don’t. You’re our family, Iz, and there isn’t anything we wouldn’t do for you. You don’t have to say anything.”

“I just don’t want you to think I take it for granted. I know I’m not so good with the feelings and all that but… I love you guys.”

Looking up, I meet Chance’s eyes. He’s staring at me like I have three heads and I can’t help but laugh, despite the tears threatening to fall. My behavior tonight is so far from my usual self, as evidenced by the bewildered look on his face, but with everything I’ve been through in the past few hours on top of pregnancy hormones, I’m feeling particularly emotional.

“Izzy,” Ali whispers and when I meet her gaze, I almost burst into tears again. “We love you, too.”