Page 81

Opening my eyes, I suck in a stuttered breath and wipe the tears from my cheeks as I sit in the chair next to the large window, staring up at the stars from one of the guest bedrooms in the clubhouse. After another fortifying breath, I try to shove the memory from my mind but it’s a stubborn little bitch and refuses to stop tormenting me. The thing is, I do feel better after baring my soul to Diego earlier. I might be all up in my feels right now but this particular memory would have had me sobbing on my shower floor like a sad music video a few months ago and now, I’m only shedding a few tears as I relive the moment that changed me forever so that’s something, I guess.

Sighing, I lean my head back against the chair, mesmerized by the night sky as a sense of calm washes over me. The stars are so much more visible out here than they are in the city. I’ve lost count of how many nights Diego and I have sat out on the porch, looking up at them and talking about nothing and everything all at the same time. I don’t know why but those are some of my favorite memories since I started staying with him and it hurts to think that it all might be coming to an end soon. Glancing down, I press a hand to the top of my belly and sigh.

I’m thirty-two weeks along now which means this little man will be making his entrance into the world soon and nothing feels settled. Things between Diego and me are as complicated as they’ve ever been, especially since I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to give this thing between us a real chance, and I’m still being hunted down by an asshole hell bent on killing me. That isn’t the life I want my son to be born into but the longer it takes to catch Luca and do whatever needs to be done to remove the threat from my life, the more I’m accepting that I may not get a choice in the matter. It’s terrifying to think of what might happen if the baby comes and Luca is still coming after me but no matter what, I won’t let any harm come to my son.

The door to the room swings open, jerking me out of my thoughts, and I look up as Diego fills the doorway, blocking out the light from the hallway as he scans the room. His gaze lands on the bed first before flicking around toward the window and when he finds me in the chair, the tension drains from his shoulder.

“You okay?” I ask and he nods, his lips pressed into a thin line as he strides across the room and sinks into the chair across from me. Arching a brow, I watch him. His knee bounces like crazy in front of me, betraying the calm front he’s putting on.

“I’m fine.” He nods, in agreement with himself, but when he meets my eyes, it’s clear that he’s lying. Brown eyes that are usually filled with warmth, laughter, or fire are tortured now, filled with an agony that makes my stomach ache.

“What’s going on, Diego?”

He stills, shaking his head as he leans back in his chair. “Nothing. How are you feeling? Did you get any sleep?”

I glance back at the bed, ignoring the blatant lie as I toy with the necklace he gave me before our date. “No.”

“Ali said you were passed out.”

“Yeah…” I answer, turning back to him as a guilty smile tugs at my lips. “She was being annoying and constantly hovering over me so I pretended to be asleep until she left. I just needed some time alone to sort my shit out.”

“And did you? Sort your shit out?” he asks and I turn back to the window, watching the trees sway against the night sky for a moment before glancing back to him.

“I think so. Or, at least, as much as I can at the moment.”

He nods. “I want to talk about all that later but I need you to come down to the war room right now.”

“The war room?” I ask, my eyes widening. The war room is reserved for club members only and not even old ladies are permitted in there. His lips press into a thin line again and he nods.

“We got some info from Smith and we need to talk.”

He stands and holds his hand out to me, prompting me to rise from my own chair. Questions swirl through my mind as I watch him but the hard set of his jaw makes me think he has no intention of telling me anything until we get downstairs. What the hell is going on that has him so on edge? There hasn’t been a peep out of Luca since Diego went over to his apartment and scared the life out of him a week ago. I guess maybe I’ve been a little complacent in thinking that he might have backed off after being confronted by the guys but now, as he laces his fingers through mine, it feels like the past eight days have just been the calm before the storm. With my hand in his, he leads me out of the room and as we start down the stairs, I can’t take my eyes off him. His shoulders are impossibly tight and there is an anguish on his face when he lets the mask fall that honestly scares the hell out of me.

The clubhouse is in chaos.

And I don’t mean the kind where things are on fire and everyone is running around screaming and ripping things off the wall in their panic but as soon as we step onto the main floor, it feels like I walked into a war zone. I’m being suffocated by the tension radiating off of every single person in the room and there isn’t a smile on a single face in the room. Ali looks up from her seat in the dining room, gasping and jumping up when she sees me. My entire body jerks to a halt as she rushes over and wraps her arms around me.

“It’s going to be okay, Iz.”

Pulling back, I meet her eyes. “Will someone tell me what the hell is going on?”

“Um…” She glances up at Diego before looking back to me and shaking her head. “They’ll fill you in soon.”

“Everyone is waiting on us,” Diego says, pulling me along toward the war room and I follow behind him in a daze. My mind is spinning and it feels like it’s a million degrees in here as a band wraps around my chest and constricts.

Why the hell do I feel like I’m walking to my own execution right now?

And what the hell kind of game is Diego playing by not telling me what’s going on?

In the war room is the longest table I’ve ever seen in my life and enough chairs for the club’s seventeen members but most of them are empty. Logan sits at the far end, a ruler presiding over his domain, and on his left are Streak, Nix, Smith, Maverick, Tate, and Kodiak. If I thought everyone out in the main area looked somber, it’s nothing compared to the expressions staring back at me now. Their faces are a mixture of shock, fear, pity, and anger as they watch us walk around the room and settle into two chairs on Logan’s right. Diego keeps a firm grip on my hand, holding it in both of his as he looks over at Logan and nods.

“Someone going to tell me what the hell is going on?” I ask and they all exchange glances, nobody wanting to be the one to deliver the bad news and it pisses me off. If there is a guillotine hanging over my head, someone should have the decency to let me know, at least. Finally, Smith sighs and pulls out a folder, setting it on the table in front of him.

“I don’t know if Smoke told you but I’ve been tailing Gio for the past three days.”

My nod is curt as I study him. Diego filled me in on everything that happened when he went over to Luca’s apartment and as soon as Streak had a name for the second guy in the alley, he let me know that, too. In fact, he updates me every single day on what is going on, even if there has been no progress made so we don’t need to waste time going over shit I already know. Besides, I’m desperate to get to the damn point. Smith sighs, flipping open the folder and revealing a bunch of surveillance photos.

“We’ve been hoping he would lead us to whoever his boss is and tonight, he did that.”