Untitled Book 2 (27 page)

M
Y
heart is in my throat.

I check into the hotel using the fake ID Talon had made for me, grateful to have it. If I didn't, I would have been screwed, because without any ID, they wouldn't have given me the room.

So for today, my name is Alexis Osborne. I leave my suitcase in the corner of the room and sit down on the bed, wondering just what the hell I'm doing. I left the clubhouse because I didn't know what else to do. Because for the first time ever, being there didn't feel so comfortable. How can things change so drastically within twenty-four hours? I went from being happy with the man I love and his amazing family, to being alone in a hotel room, my phone off and tears in my eyes. The situation I'm currently in, I don't know how to get out of. There's no fixing it, and there's no happy ending for everyone involved, especially me.

I wonder how I am going to live without everyone I've grown so close to over the last few weeks. I turn my phone on and send Vinnie a message, letting him know I'm safe, because I don't want him to worry that something bad has happened
to me. I put my phone on silent, use the bathroom, and then climb into bed. I don't know what's going to happen, or what the future holds for me, but for right now, I'm going to take a nap.

I don't have it in me to do anything else.

*  *  *

I wake up feeling less sorry for myself, and more anger. I check my phone, but ignore everyone's messages and calls except one person's. I don't want to drag him into this, but he's all I have right now.

I need you
, I type.

Tell me where you are, I'm coming to get you
, he replies instantly. I decide I want tonight to myself, so I reply with,
I'm safe. Can you come and get me tomorrow? Come alone.

Stubborn.

I grin and put the phone down. He better come alone. The last thing I need is Vinnie showing up demanding to know why I left, and then I'll have to tell him that I've ruined his life by making him a father. Even though it wasn't all my fault. Or maybe it was? I don't remember ever skipping a pill, but with everything going on I guess I must have. My stomach rumbles, and I know I have to get up to get something to eat.

When I told Faye that I was feeling nauseous, and my period still hadn't arrived, she quickly went and bought me two pregnancy tests. They were both positive. Then, when I finally worked up the nerve to tell Vinnie, I find out that he never wants kids. Ever. And now . . . now I don't know what to do. I'm lost, and confused, and all I want to do is stay in bed, cry, and eat junk food.

Will he try to make me get rid of this baby? I don't think I can, I'd lose a part of myself. But, if I have this baby, I've pretty much lost Vinnie. I love Vinnie, but I love myself, and now my child, more. I know I shouldn't have left like I did. I know it was selfish of me, but I just had to go away, and I'm not ready for everything to be out in the open. Maybe Faye told Vinnie I was pregnant, and now I won't have to. Maybe he won't even come after me when he finds out.

Back to feeling sorry for myself then.

I need to go back to the clubhouse at some point to get Colt. I miss him, but I knew I wouldn't be able to take him to a hotel with me. I left out food and water, and a note to please look after him until I get back. I know they'll take good care of him for a few days until I find us a permanent place to live. I'm hoping Talon will let us stay with him until I buy a place. Maybe I should move to another country. Then again, I couldn't really take Colt with me overseas, so it looks like I'm staying. And therefore having to face my problems.

Great.

I sit up in bed, my hands covering my face.

Right now—I'm being a coward.

I guess I just don't want to see Vinnie's face, hear the words pouring from his mouth as he says that he doesn't want him or her . . . doesn't want us.

But what can I really expect from him? He never even told me that he loves me.

*  *  *

Talon picks me up from the hotel in a red sports car I've never seen before. When I raise my eyebrow at the car, he just smirks
and says, “You told me to come alone, so I wanted to make sure no one follows me.”

“Very inconspicuous,” I mutter as he gets out of the car and takes my suitcase for me, kissing me on each cheek.

“You have some explaining to do, baby cuz.”

“I know.” I sigh, getting into the passenger seat as he loads my case. I put my seat belt on and wait for him to get back into the car, wondering what the best way to say this was.

“Speak,” he says softly, after he turns on the engine and exits the parking lot.

“I just want to hide out with you for a few days,” I say, looking at his profile. “Please.”

“That's no problem, Shayla. What I want to know is: why?”

I clear my throat, then decide to just blurt it out. “Vinnie told me he doesn't believe in marriage and never wants children.”

“And that's a reason to run away and hide from him?” Talon asks, confusion marring his brow. “At least he was being honest with you.”

Since when was Talon all Team Vinnie?

“Yes, I agree,” I say, swallowing hard. “I do appreciate the honesty. However, hearing that he never wants children, and that he'd be a terrible father, just before I was about to tell him that I'm pregnant, wasn't a situation I ever thought I'd find myself in.”

Talon mutters one word that sums up this whole situation. “Fuck.”

“Exactly.”

“Why didn't the two of you fucking use protection?” he growls, making me cringe. The last thing I want to hear is a sex talk from my cousin.

“I'm on the pill,” I say, scrubbing my hand down my face. “I don't know, I must have missed one, or something, I don't even know. But it's my fault, he trusted me to have it under control.”

I should have just made him wear condoms too. Fucking hell.

“It's not your fault,” Talon tells me in a gentle tone. “You didn't do it on purpose. Look there's no point going over the what-ifs, you just need to handle the situation and deal with the now. What do you want to do, Shayla?”

“I don't want to get rid of him or her,” I say in a small voice. “I'd hate myself, Talon. I'd think about it every day. It's not an option for me. If Vinnie doesn't want anything to do with our baby, then so be it. It's not like I need money, or anything from him. I can handle everything on my own.”

“Being a single mother is hard work.”

“I know.”

I'm lucky that I don't have to work—I can easily be a full-time mother and live off the money my father left behind, getting a job eventually. I can always do bookkeeping, although accounting didn't really work for me the first time around.

“So what, you told Vinnie, then bailed? He rang me, fucking frantic, wondering where the fuck you are,” he says, sounding like he feels sorry for Vinnie.

I wince and look out the window. “I didn't tell him.”

“You what?” Talon practically yells now.

“I didn't tell him! I panicked, and I left, okay? I didn't want to watch him get angry or to tell me to kill my fucking baby because he doesn't want it! I don't want to hear it, Talon. Imagine hearing those words from the man I love.”

Talon curses under his breath and slams his hands down on the steering wheel.

“Is it safe for me to come to the clubhouse?” I ask him. “I know you had your own shit going on there . . .”

“Vinnie is not going to want you staying at the Wild Men clubhouse,” Talon says, green eyes pinning me to my seat. “I'm going to become public enemy number one for bringing you there.”

“I can stay at a hotel, but I want to bring my dog with me wherever I am.”

“I'm not going to take you to the clubhouse, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to look after you. I have a house you can stay in—consider it yours, all right? I'll move in there with you for however long you need me, but to be honest, I don't think that's going to be very long.”

“Why?”

“Because Vinnie is a Wind Dragon, Shay. You're his, and they always come for what's theirs.”

I lay my head back and close my eyes. “How did things turn out like this?”

Talon's eyes gentle. “It's all temporary. Things will work out for you, Shayla. I promise.”

I'm glad he's so confident, because me?

I'm not so sure.

I
STALK
through the clubhouse, phone in my hand, waiting for Talon to call me back. He said that she's fine, and that he will get her to call me ASAP. I got no fuckin' sleep last night, instead I kept calling her and Talon's phones, wanting some damn explanations. We were meant to talk everything out, she said we would, but then she just leaves?

When Faye rang me and asked where Shay was, I felt it in my gut that something wasn't right. And it wasn't. She was gone. Without a word. Fuck, how she played me yesterday morning in the kitchen, letting me think everything was going to be okay between the two of us, when really she knew she was going to leave without giving me any kind of explanation as to why, or without giving us a chance.

Faye leans against the wall, hand on her protruding stomach, watching me as I pace.

“Vinnie, why don't you let me make you something to eat? You haven't eaten or slept.”

“I'm fine,” I tell her, waving off her concern. I won't sleep
until I get to talk to Shay. I'm so angry at how she's handled this whole thing, yet at the same time I'm worried and just want her home.

“Vinnie,” Faye says quietly, looking unsure. “Shay confided something in me, and I think it has to do with this whole thing.”

I stop, turn to her, and approach. “What are you talking about?”

“Fuck!” she snaps. “This isn't my place to say, it should come from her. I just don't want you to find out that I knew, and then lose your shit at me. She spoke to me, woman-to-woman, and it doesn't feel right telling you when it isn't my thing to tell.”

I study her for a moment, and then yell out one word, “Sin!”

Faye mutters something under her breath, I'm pretty sure she called me a snitch, but I'll have to deal with her ass later, because right now all I want to know about is what Shay confided in her.

Sin walks in from outside, shirtless. “What the fuck is going on now?”

I look at his wife. “Faye knows.”

“Knows what?” he asks, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand.

“Everything.”

“For fuck's sake, someone give me more than that,” he growls, losing his patience. “I'm trying to build a higher fence. I don't have time for this shit.”

“I think I know why Shay left,” Faye tells her husband. “She confided something in me, and after Vinnie told me what their last conversation was about, it all makes sense.”

“Faye,” Sin says in warning.

She turns to me, her hazel eyes narrowed. She doesn't look very happy with me all of a sudden, and I'd like to know why.
“You said that you told her you never want kids, or marriage, and that you'd be a terrible father, and that you never plan on moving out of the clubhouse. Basically, in a way, you gave her an ultimatum. You set the rules, leaving nothing open for compromise. That's not how a relationship works, Vinnie. You gave her nothing to work with, no hope for the future, except for a life staying exactly how it is now. What about what
she
wants? Did you even ask her that?”

“You said all that to her?” Sin asks, blue eyes going double their size. “Ice-cold, Vinnie. Ice-cold.”

“I was honest,” I say, defending myself.

“Yeah, well,” Faye says, hands now on her hips. “You gave that asshole of a speech to a woman who's already pregnant with your child and was going to tell you that day.”

“What?” I ask. I can't have heard correctly.

There is no way.

No.

Pregnant?

But she's on the pill. I know no contraception is 100 percent, but what the fuck?

“So you told a pregnant woman, who is unsure and probably scared, not to mention hormonal, that you don't ever want children?” Sin asks, cringing. “Fucking hell, you're so screwed.”

“Thanks for that, prez,” I reply, still in a daze.

Shay is pregnant.

I don't really know how to process this, to be honest. I fucked things up with Shay, she's probably really hurt right now, and hating me, but I don't know how to accept that I'm going to have a child, when like I said, I never planned on having one.

Ever.

Under no circumstance.

I run my hand over my head, and turn to walk away from these two, because I need to be alone right now.

“Are you going after her?” Faye asks, hope lacing her tone.