Freed (Bound Duet Book 2)

by Stephie Walls

  When I whistled, she rolled her eyes, and then lifted her shirt. I shouldn’t have laughed, but it came out before I could stop it. She had a rubber band somehow tied to the button hole and secured on the button to hold her jeans together because she couldn’t close the gap.

  “Brett Ryann, this is not funny. I’m sixteen weeks pregnant and a cow. Do you have any idea what I’m going to look like in another five months? You will have to roll me from room to room.” She swatted at my bicep when she reached the final stair.

  “You look beautiful. Now go get your crap and let’s go. And watch the language, the baby can hear you.” We’d been having that argument daily as well. Her mouth had become fouler than a sailor’s since she’d gotten pregnant.

  “Do you think I can order something other than wings tonight?”

  “Seriously? You created the entire menu around wings because you wanted wings. Wings from Hooters. But now you don’t want wings?”

  “Okay, fine. I’ll eat wings if it’s that big of a deal.”

  “I’m sure they’ll make you whatever you want to pay for, sweetheart.”

  The parking lot was packed. I offered to drop Annie off, so she didn’t have to walk, but the moment she saw Gray’s motorcycle near the door she refused to go in without me. I had hoped he had the sense to stay away, but that was wishful thinking. Hand in hand, I escorted my wife to the door. We’d rented out the entire restaurant for the night. It helped that Dan and I had gone to school with the General Manager, and he’d been in our fraternity.

  Lissa and Dan were the first to greet us. Lissa tugged at Annie’s hand, unaware that Gray was here. I realized she’d never met him and wouldn’t know him from Adam. I seriously doubted Dan pointed him out. Once those two were out of earshot, Dan started his warning.

  “Gray’s here. And he’s been drinking. I talked to him, and he assured me he was here to celebrate with you guys. Swore up and down he wouldn’t cause any problems. I didn’t want to make an issue of it with so many people here from the DC, who weren’t around during his tenure with your wife.”

  I knew what he meant, but I didn’t like the words or the tone.

  “Easy, man. I meant nothing by that.”

  “I know. I’m just on edge with him here. He brings out the worst in me, and with Annie and Lissa—the babies.” It was out before I realized I’d just confessed.

  Luckily, Dan hadn’t caught it and was pulled away when one of the women at the DC introduced him to her husband.

  We’d specifically stated no gifts on the invitation, but it was clear no one had listened. There were tables stacked high with boxes covered in pastel colors and huge bows. Annie and Lissa had been mingling amongst the crowd, and laughter flowed as freely as the alcohol. The night would cost us a fortune, but seeing her happy was worth every penny. For so many years, she’d given to everyone and gotten nothing in return. I always wanted to be the one who kept giving to her for the simple fact she never expected it nor took it for granted. She was humble and generous, and sweet—she was perfection in my world.

  As the night wore on and people had more beer than they did food, the crowd got louder and louder. Annie had wanted this to be her big reveal until she saw the number of people who had shown up. There were countless employees from the DC, her friends, my friends, our parents were even huddled in a corner somewhere trying not to be affected or offended by the younger generations around them. Everyone in our lives was currently in this room. Either she was going to do it, or I was, but one way or another, we were telling everyone before people went home.

  When Annie had refused to join me, knowing I was about to make her the center of attention, I proceeded anyhow. She didn’t have to be standing next to me to have the spotlight on her.

  Dan yelled out to get everyone’s attention. It was reminiscent of college days. “Y’all shut the hell up, my man’s got something to say.” He stood with his arm around an ever growing Lissa, and Annie by her side.

  I glanced around as the noise dissipated, making a note of where everyone was—Annie’s friends were on one side of the room, our parents on the other, and those from the DC and Walton’s mixed in with everyone else. Gray stood less than two feet from my wife, watching her as he swayed slightly. I tried not to keep my eyes set on him and addressed the room instead.

  “We wanted to thank all of you for coming out tonight to celebrate with us. Most of you know our story—you know how excited we are to welcome a baby into our family in the next couple of months.”

  The guys from the DC all hollered their appreciation for our situation. It was funny how men acted like this stuff didn’t matter, but when it came down to it, they were all sympathetic. There was just something about a woman who wanted children who couldn’t have them—it tugged on even the hardest of hearts.

  “Annie and I are grateful to Lissa for her sacrifice and Dan for sacrificing Lissa. We love you both!” I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face. And the guys again erupted in a raucous noise and inappropriate cat calls. I raised my hands to regain control. “But what no one here knows is, Annie is sixteen weeks pregnant.”

  Dan didn’t let me say anything else before swallowing me in a hug so tight I almost couldn’t breathe. The applause was deafening as were the words of congratulations. Our parents were in front of me, and so was an enormous crowd of people. I’d lost sight of Annie when Dan had tackled me.

  “Where’s Annie, Dan?” I started to panic unable to see her. Gray had been too fucking close for comfort.

  “Dude, she’s fine. She’s over there with Lissa and her girlfriends. They’re all pawing at each other like girls do. Don’t worry about her.”

  I continued to scan the crowd for Gray’s ugly mug, but talking to people without making eye contact was more difficult than I’d realized, and my attention got called away.

  “How the hell did you two keep this a secret?” My best friend had just asked the question on everyone else’s mind.

  “After two miscarriages, she wanted to make it through the first trimester before we told anyone. The doctor said this kind of thing happens a lot.” I felt like a broken record repeating the same thing to each person who asked. What had been exciting news was losing its luster the hundredth time I shared it.

  The sound of glass shattering wasn’t nearly as attention grabbing as the silence that washed over the room the louder Gray’s voice got. He had my wife pinned against a wall, caged between his chest and the plaster, and she was sobbing.

  “This wasn’t supposed to be like this. You were never his.” The words were slurred, but still intelligible. “You promised me you’d always love me, so why are you here with him?”

  Just before I reached him, he pushed back off the wall and launched a beer bottle across the room where it exploded on impact.

  He grabbed her by the arm, and she winced in his grip. “Answer me, Bird Dog. Tell me you lied. Say something.”

  “Gray,” I screamed in his direction hoping to distract him. My dad caught me, Dan caught Gray, and my wife’s hands covered her face in shame. “Let me go, Dad. Now is not the time or place.” I wrestled free, jerking people aside to gather her in my arms, but Lissa pulled her away before I reached her.

  Everything I hated in this world stood feet from me, drunk and entitled.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you, Gray? Two marriages weren’t enough for you to fuck up? Three years of her life wasn’t enough for you to torture her? When are you going to get it through your thick fucking skull, she’s my wife? She’s not on the market anymore. That’s my goddamn ring on her finger—forever!”

  “Brett, son, you need to calm down. This isn’t helping.” My dad being the voice of reason wasn’t welcome.

  I ignored the old man and kept ranting. “She’s pregnant, man. We have two kids on the way. It’s over. She’s not coming back to you. You fucked up and lost the best thing you ever had.”

  “I haven’t lost shit, man. She still loves me. If she
didn’t, she wouldn’t be crying.”

  “You dumbass, she’s crying because you scared her, embarrassed her, and caused a fucking scene. She doesn’t love you. Newsflash, Gray—you never loved her. If you had, you would have let her go so she could be happy.”

  I was done with him. I needed to find my wife and get the fuck out of here. My hands were shaking from the adrenaline coursing through my veins, and I was borderline out of control. In my wildest dreams, I hadn’t imagined this. Never had I thought even Gray was capable of this kind of disregard for someone else—especially not Annie.

  Lissa and Annie were in the kitchen near the back door. I refused to leave Lissa until I knew she was safe with Dan, but I needed to get my wife out of here. She was hysterical which couldn’t be good for the baby. I’d kill him if anything happened to either of my kids because of his shit show. Dan found us minutes after I sent him a text message.

  “Any possibility of getting the two of them out of here?” Dan asked referring to Lissa and Annie.

  “Yeah, man. I can take them out the back door. I can see our car from here. Can you wrap things up, pay the tab, and help close down shop?”

  “Sure. You taking them both to your house?”

  “I don’t want Lissa alone, so that seems like the best place to meet back up.”

  “I’ll get this taken care of and be there as quickly as I can.” He turned away from me and put his hands on Lissa’s belly.

  My guess is the dynamic between us all was rather odd to an outsider, but it worked for us. Dan was as protective of my baby as he would be his own. And he loved Lissa the way I did Annie.

  “You good?” he asked his girl.

  She nodded but appeared startled, jumpy.

  “Go with Brett. I’ll be there to get you as fast as I can, okay?”

  The three of us started out the door, when Dan called out, “Hey, Penny?”

  Lissa turned to see Dan standing in the doorway with a big goofy smile on his face. “Yeah?”

  “I love you.”

  She made a cross over her heart with her index finger and then blew him a kiss. They were perfect for each other. Down to the way they communicated. She never demanded anything of him or expected more than he could give. Lissa loved him the way he was.

  Sitting at the light outside of Hooters, I watched Gray get on the back of his motorcycle. I couldn’t believe he was dumb enough to ride in the condition he was in, or that no one had stopped him. When the light turned green, and I turned toward home, he pulled off and settled in behind us. Keeping my eyes on him and the road without alerting Annie or Lissa was proving to be difficult. Annie had just stopped crying, but I could still hear her sniffles, and Lissa hadn’t said a word since I’d found them in the kitchen.

  There wasn’t a safe way to ride drunk, it was even more dangerous than driving drunk. At least in a car, there was a layer of metal to act as a shield between your body and the asphalt, not so with a bike. I kept my speed to a minimum in an effort to keep him from going any faster. I shouldn’t care if he smeared his brains across the interstate, but at this point, I just wanted to be home.

  In the second it took to glance at the road and return my gaze back to the rearview mirror, he was gone. My side mirror showed no sign of him, he wasn’t behind us. Less than two seconds later, he was riding the shoulder and had pulled up next to Annie’s window. The tap on the glass scared the shit out of me as much as it did her. We were in the far-right lane of a four-lane interstate, and Gray was edging up next to the car to get her attention.

  “Brett!” she screamed but said nothing else and gripped the door and braced herself on the dashboard.

  I swerved into the left lane to give him more space and get him off the grooved surface. My movement must have startled him. He swung over into the lane we’d just left and sped up, blowing past us down the dark road. Before I could say anything to either of them, the glow of the red brake light swung out of control. The color swirled in the darkness like a laser pointer as he laid the bike down, and it spiraled out of control down a stretch of unoccupied highway.

  The SUV screeched to a halt, and Lissa was already on the phone calling 9-1-1. I turned to Annie, putting my hand on her cheek. “No matter what happens, do not get out of this car. Do you understand me? The two of you stay put. I don’t care what you see—don’t open that door.”

  She nodded, and I hoped she would listen. He hadn’t had a helmet on.

  There was no way this would be good.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Annie

  The lights and sounds that came barreling down the street assaulted me. The sirens pierced the otherwise silent night while Lissa and I sat staring at the scene unfolding in front of us. The sky was lit up in a prism of red, white, and blue. My head kept telling me something was wrong, but my heart refused to believe it. Less than two hundred yards in front of us lay Gray’s Harley, and my husband had been on his knees with his back to us for far too long. Lissa hadn’t said anything, and neither had I.

  My lungs ejected one ragged breath after another as the road filled with emergency workers—fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars circled the epicenter of chaos. The only two men alive I’d ever loved were both inside that ring of lights, and I couldn’t sit idly by wondering if one of them was hurt. I was pissed Gray had pulled the shit he had tonight, but I’d never forgive myself if anything happened to him.

  Ignoring my husband’s request, I unbuckled my seatbelt and opened the door. Before getting out, I begged Lissa to stay where she was and call Dan. Inching as close to the scene as possible, I wandered down the interstate in a daze. The movement of people around me played in fast forward while I moved in slow motion. An officer stepped in front of me just before I reached the barrier of vehicles and halted my progression. Everything around me seemingly froze, my eyes darted around him, and he was unable to impede my line of sight in time. The metal was strewn all over the road, pieces that vaguely resembled the Fat Boy Gray had left Hooters on were too far apart. But even in a tangled mess, I would recognize that silver Harley anywhere. He adored that bike. Scanning the ground around the wreckage, I found his lifeless body on the ground twenty or thirty feet away surrounded by people—Brett remained on his knees at Gray’s feet.

  The sharp intake of breath sent a pain to my stomach. My hand flew to my belly while the other landed on the officer’s shoulder in an attempt to push him away. I wasn’t sure who I needed to reach more, my husband who appeared devastated or my ex, who wasn’t moving.

  “Ma’am, you can’t go over there.” His grip on my arms was firm as I tried to wriggle from his grasp. The need to reach them was overwhelming; this man standing in my way was agonizing.

  “Brett!” I shrieked my husband’s name first trying to get his attention before yelling, “Gray!” I howled out in anguish, but neither responded to my shrill plea. I had to get to them. “Brett, Gray—I’m here,” I wailed. The officer full-on embraced me, prohibiting any movement. “Let me go, please!” I could see by the look on his face, he wanted to help, and that it was pity prevalent in his stare. I hated that look. “Fucking let me go. I have to get to them, please,” I wept, splitting the ears of the uniformed man in front of me. The torture of not being able to touch Brett or Gray was horrifying.

  There were hands all over me, restraining me and attempting to soothe my savage cries. I screeched at them, begged them to let me pass, let me get to the two men on the ground, but none of them moved.

  “Ma’am, you have to calm down.” Those words bounced off the recess of my mind, sending me into hysteria.

  “Calm down? Are you fucking kidding me? Let me go. Please!” No amount of begging, cursing, or screaming did anything to cause them to waiver. As I stood there stamping my feet in an ultimate display of indignation, the paramedics had put him on a gurney, but they weren’t moving. No one was doing anything to help him. Even Brett was just kneeling in the same place he’d been since I walked up.

  “No
one’s helping him! Why isn’t anyone doing anything to help him?” I plead to an officer who exchanged a knowing glance with his partner.

  At that moment, the paramedic covered Gray with a sheet, his body gone from my sight, and Brett fell forward with his forearms on the highway beneath him.

  “No!” There was an eerie quiet that seemed to consume the air. As if the world had paused for a moment of silence in Gray’s honor. “Gray!” The tear-filled screams echoed in the surrounding night. Dan caught me in his arms as my body began to collapse. I had no idea where he’d come from or how he’d gotten here, but he held me as I seeped to the pavement howling.

  Once again, I pleaded with the Almighty, bargained with the One who had everything, and again, my pleas fell on deaf ears. God never wanted what I offered; he wanted Gray and took him there on the road.

  My knees buckled, and Dan sank to the ground with me. His arms cradled my back to his chest as we laid on the interstate, my face pressed against the warm asphalt beneath me, and I uttered my silent prayer, chanting futilely to God.

  Dan didn’t leave my side. He stayed with me even after the officer came to ask me what I knew. I gave him the little information I could provide before he asked me if I knew Gray’s next of kin. I knew I couldn’t be the one to deliver this news to anyone, and I had to offer the cop something.

  “His mama,” I choked out. “I have her number.” I pulled the phone from my back pocket and searched the contacts through flooded eyes. I located her name and handed him my cell. I never heard a word he said and wasn’t sure she’d even answered when he called.

  Time seemed to stop and speed up simultaneously. The pain etched its way into me in slow motion, embedding its fibers in every pore, yet everything else seemed to race ahead. Dan and I sat there watching the scene before us one minute, and in the blink of an eye, everything was gone—the motorcycle, the police cars, the onlookers—even Gray. I sat on the side of the road wondering what the hell had happened. His death had materialized out of thin air. Less than an hour ago, he was yelling at me in the restaurant, drunk and upset, and I’d done nothing to lessen his pain. I’d cried, and he’d left distraught. Now there was nothing. He won’t ever argue with me again, he won’t call me intoxicated anymore, he won’t drive Brett nuts at the DC. I will never hear him call me Bird Dog. In my trance, Dan had been replaced by Brett who currently sat holding me. The grief was all-consuming, inhabiting my soul, and coursing through my veins.