Renegade Reject (30 page)

My lips curve up in the first smile I’ve worn in days.  “Sorry, brother.”

“Why don’t you just marry her?” Holt asks, coming up on the other side of me.

“Yeah, right.  She would tear my damn head off if I even asked.  No way, not with how pissed she is at me.”

The men go quiet until Holt suddenly grins. “I’ll make it happen.  Just trust me.  See you in a few hours.”

With that, they both get up and walk out of the clubhouse.  I watch them until the door shuts.  The only thought in my mind is,
‘What the fuck just happened?’

DAISY

Preach left the room hours ago, which is kind of shocking.  He hasn’t left me alone for more than a few hours since the night he brought me here.  Maybe he got sick of me throwing things at him.  Maybe I’m taking this all too far.  I love him, and I’m starting to believe he loves me, but I got this little voice in my head that keeps screaming at me, telling me that the minute I give in, he’ll break my heart again. 

Lounging across his bed, I pull out my kindle and decide it’s a good time to re-read one of my favorites:
At Peace
by Kristen Ashley.  There’s nothing better when you’re longing for your man than a little Cal. That man is every girl’s dream.  I’m just getting to the cherry scene when the door flies open. 

I look toward it, expecting to see Preach.  Instead, my Gramps comes walking into the room.

“Daisy, girl, need you to sign some papers.  Your dad changed some shit around.  He doesn’t want your mama having access to his crap.  He needs you to sign this, giving you power of attorney in case something happens,” he says putting papers in front of my face.

More than likely, Mom has been looting the bank account again, or picking his pain pills up from the pharmacy.  Instead of dealing with her, Dad thinks it’s easier to let me handle it all myself.

Just as I go to take the papers, Preach and Kevin walk in.  I can instantly tell that something is going on, but I don’t have the foggiest idea what it is.  “Why are they here?”

Kevin is a friend of the club, but not an actual member.  He isn’t around a lot, but enough for me to know who he is.  I don’t know much about him other than he works down at the courthouse, but I’m not sure what he does there. 

My eyes move from Gramps to Preach, and I see the sheen of sweat glistening on his forehead.  Oh yeah, something is going on.  I give him a dirty look, and then turn back to Gramps. “Well?”

“Kevin’s here to notarize the papers.”

“That doesn’t explain why the hell he’s here?” I say, pointing to Preach.

“Preach is escorting Kevin back to the office, in case your mama finds this shit out and tries to get to him.  You know how Lula is.  She’ll do whatever she can to get what she wants.”

“He can wait for Kevin in the common room.”

Preach takes a step closer and growls out, “It’s my fuckin’ room.”

“Just shut the fuck up, both of you.  Daisy girl, you need to sign the papers now,” Gramps says, holding on to his temper by a string.

I finally sign the papers without even looking at them, then hand them back to Gramps.  For some reason, a bad feeling comes over me when everyone in the room suddenly has huge grins.  I narrow my eyes and look at everyone. “What?”

“Nothing, Little Flower.  Nothing at all,” Preach says and snatches the papers from Gramps and hands them to Kevin.  He pulls out a little stamp and does his thing, then walks out of the room.  Gramps and Preach follow closely behind him, leaving the door open.  I smile when I realize their mistake. 

I quickly slide on my shoes and start to make my way down the hall.  I know I won’t get far, don’t even really want too, but I got to try or Preach will think I’m giving in.  I’ve just about made it to the backdoor when I hear a few brothers come into the club shouting.  Some are even clapping.  Curiosity gets the best of me, and I turn around and make my way toward the sounds.  As soon as I step into the common room, I see guys surrounding Preach.  For some reason, everyone is acting like he just won the lottery.

I stand there for a second before an arm wraps around my waist.  “Congrats, Little Flower.”

I look up and see Timber smiling down at me.  “What are you talking about?”

Timber’s smile grows as he shakes.  “I’d just about given up on Preach, but this shit right here proves he’s the man for you.  Gotta have some big balls to pull something this big.”

With those words, he lets go of me and walks toward Preach.  For some reason, I follow him.  I fall behind quickly, because the guys keep coming up and hugging me.  I hear congratulations over and over again, and I start to get a really nasty feeling in the pit of my stomach.

When I finally reach Preach, he wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me flush to his side.  When he leans down and gives me a soft kiss, I don’t even fight it.  I’m too freaked out to push him away.

“What’s that?” I nod to Preach’s hand, noticing some weird certificate he’s holding.

“Just our marriage certificate,” he says.

“Yeah, right,” I snort. 

He shoots me his panty-dropping smile and hands me the paper.  I look down and see my signature on the bottom, the signature I just signed moments ago.  Then, I finally look at the rest of the paper.  On the very top, in big bold letters, are the words Marriage License.  With that, I feel the world around me go black. 

Chapter Twenty-Six

PREACH

At first, I thought the plan Holt and Wayne had for Daisy and I getting married was epic.  Not so much anymore.  Right now, I’m thinking it may have been the biggest mistake of my life.  It’s almost like I’m a ghost since she woke up from fainting.  I expected anger or tears, but she’s not pissed at me.  She’s not anything with me.  Anything would be better than this silence. Two days, two damn days, since we got married, and not a single word has passed her lips.  She’s not talking to me, her grandparents, not to anyone really.

When I saw her go down after looking at the marriage license, I damn near went out myself.  It was one of the scariest moments of my life.  Everyone told me that it was nothing, just something that happens to pregnant women.  That’s bullshit. The fact we were married freaked her out so bad that she had to escape.  Fainting was her escape. 

I hear a nearly silent laugh as Ice takes a seat next to me at the bar. “She really doesn’t seem to be all that happy about this shit, huh?”

Everyone has kept their mouths shut about what happened, but I should have known Ice would be the one to bring it up. “Whatever. She’ll get over it.”

She motions to my nasty ass glass of sweet tea.  “I see you’re hanging in there.”

I look toward the bottles lining the wall behind the bar and shrug.  “So far, but it’s getting harder with every fuckin’ minute that passes.”

“You’ve come this far.  No reason to screw up now.”

Shrugging again, I look at her.  “I don’t think there’s any reason to stay straight.  It’s not like it gained me anything.”

“Daisy still on your ass?”

“No, I wish she was.  Now, she’s just not talking to me at all.  I really thought nothing could be worse than her throwing shit, but the quiet is killing me.”

Ice lays a hand on my arm.  “She’ll come around.  Just give her a little time.”

I slowly nod, hoping she’s right, but scared as fuck that she’s wrong.  “I’m giving her time.”

“Not too much though.  If you do, shit will be even harder to get passed.  Time only makes it harder to forgive,” Kidd says as he slides into the seat next to Ice.  “I gave Jenna time, way too much fuckin’ time.  What I figured would be a few days turned into years.  When I told you to give her time, I didn’t think you were going to trick her ass into marrying you.  Now, you got to step the fuck up.  If not, her anger’s only gonna grow.  Believe me, brother, you don’t want that to happen.”

Ice leans into his body, a snarky smile on her face that promises Kidd’s dick will be very lonely tonight.  “What are you saying, babe?  You think I held on to my little tiff too long?”

She may be smiling, may even be happy as hell for the moment, but that question is a minefield.  If Kidd doesn’t watch out, he’ll be in the same boat as me.  Of course, he isn’t Pres for no reason.  He can handle his shit.  “No, baby girl.  What I’m saying is I let that shit go on way too long.  I should have fucked you into forgiving me years ago.  Then I wouldn’t have been sleeping alone for all that time.”

“You weren’t sleeping alone.”

Kidd cups her chin before responding.  “No, I wasn’t, but I didn’t have my baby girl beside me, so I felt like I was all alone.”

Her body instantly melts into his as she whispers her reply, “Me too, baby.  Don’t ever doubt that.”

A long minute passes as they stare at each other.  Finally, Kidd leans over and covers her mouth with his.  “Take care of this shit with Daisy, and do it now.  I want to take you to bed, and I don’t want your mind on anything but my dick when we get there.”

I watch as a shudder runs through her body before she looks over to me.  “I’ll handle Daisy.  I can get her to talk to you, but make sure you got your game face on, because you’ll have some serious explaining to do after I’m done.”

DAISY

Ice, Skittles, and I are hanging out in Preach’s room.  I refused to go to the common room, and they refused to leave me alone. They spent the first hour trying to talk to me about Preach, but I was having none of it.  I stayed quiet, not yet ready to give up all of my anger.  Since I figured out that everyone knew what was going on with the marriage, I’ve refused to talk to anyone.  They’re not making it easy though. 

Ice jerks her eyes to me.  “Does she honestly think the world was formed by a big fuckin’ boom, or that we came from monkeys?  Ha, I’d have a better chance at believing we came from mermaids who wanted to live on land.” 

“How did mermaids get brought into this?  That’s just stupid,” Skittles asks, trying not to laugh.

“Well, it’s true, you know.  I’d have a better chance of believing we came from mermaids, instead of fuckin’ monkeys.  At least mermaids look like people.  Monkeys look like... well, monkeys.  I can’t believe you think that shit is true,” she says, shaking her head.

“Monkeys?” I wheeze. “Mermaids?” I lose it. I can’t help it.  I let out the loudest laugh ever.  I tried holding it in, but I just can’t.  This constant silence is making me lose it.

“What going on?” I hear from behind me? “Who’s talking about mermaids?”

I turn and see it’s Preach.  Forgetting for a minute that I’m angry with him, angry that both he and my own family pushed a marriage on me, I tell him about Skittles and Ice’s idiotic conversation.

He lets out a loud laugh before shaking his head.  “Is this shit what you chicks talk about when you’re alone?”

It’s not until he sits down and pulls me into his lap that I realize what I’ve done.  I’ve spoken to him for the first time in two days. I’ve let him back in.  I immediately start trying to get up.  His arms tighten around me.  “Don’t do it, Daisy.  Stop running from me.”

“Just let go me go, Garrett,” I say, still struggling to get up.

“Nope, that’s not happening.  I’m never letting you go.”

I shake my head.  “I’m not ready to talk to you yet.”

“Too damn bad, cause I’m ready to talk to you.  I’m done with you ignoring me.  That fuckin’ stops now.  I can’t exactly prove myself to you if you keep freezing me out.”

“Maybe, I don’t want you to prove yourself to me.  Maybe I don’t want any of this,” I mutter the words that are as far from the truth as they can be, but I just can’t admit out loud how much I want him.  I know as soon as I do, he’ll turn.  He always does.

“Shut the fuck up, Daisy,” he growls in my ear. “I love you.  I love you so fuckin’ much, and I’m trying to show you that.  Just give me a damn chance.”

I still, my eyes blurring with unshed tears. “Maybe right now you love me, but what about tomorrow?  Who’s pussy will you be inside of then.”

“I’ll love you today, tomorrow, and every day for the rest of our lives.”

I shake my head and voice my thought.  “No, everything will change tomorrow.  It always does.”

“Tomorrow, you and I are going on a date.  It’s your choice; fancy ass restaurant, a movie, whatever the fuck you want.”

“You don’t date.  You told me so.”

He leans forward and runs his lips from my forehead to my chin.  “Told you, babe.  I’ve changed.  You went on a date with that prick cop.  If you want to date, it’s going to be with me.”

“Okay,” I whisper, so shocked that he’s giving me this that I forget to deny him. 

My response seems to satisfy him.  He simply smiles and stands up.  “I’ll leave you with your girls, but I’ll be back soon.”

He leans down and kisses my forehead before walking out of the room.  I watch his every step, wondering if I made a mistake. 

“Girl, you need to let the shit go.  He loves you. You gotta forgive him,” Skittles says as she sits down beside me. 

“Look at me and Kidd.  We lost six years, six long years, because I was nursing my pain.  I was an idiot, clinging on to that hurt.  Please don’t be me, Daisy.  Don’t waste your life with anger,” Ice says as a tear rolls down her cheek.

Her words cut me deep. The emotion cuts me even deeper.  I’ve never seen Ice be sentimental before. Normally, she’s all fun and bullshit.  “I’m scared. I’m scared shitless.”

“I know you are, babe, but you got to give this a chance.  If you don’t, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life,” she says, sitting down on my other side.

“You need to forgive and learn to forget, Daisy.  I know what it feels like to love someone, someone I’ll probably never have.  At least you have a chance to be with the man you love.  He wants you forever. You have no idea what kind of a gift that is,” Skittles whispers.

Both Ice and I look at her, eyes narrowing.  I’ve never heard Skittles talk like that before.  In fact, I’ve never heard her talk about a guy before.  She’s a great person with a heart of gold.  Any man would be lucky to have her.  Before I have the chance to ask who’s the loser that doesn’t see how wonderful she is, she stands up and walks out of the room.