by Roni Loren
Something ugly and hateful twisted his features and though she sensed it coming, she held her ground. His arm lifted and the back of his hand hit the side of her face with brutal force, knocking her sideways and stinging like a son of a bitch.
Dizziness took her for a second, her ears ringing, and she grabbed the side of the sofa to keep from falling. That would leave a mark.
Good.
She put her hand to her cheek and tasted blood on her lip. “Do it again, you fucking coward.”
Liam surged forward like he was going to do just that. But before she could even brace herself for the blow, the door burst open. Pike was like a bullet coming through, giving Liam no time to process his presence. The right hook landed square, Pike’s fist connecting with Liam’s face, and Liam went sprawling to the floor in a crashing thud. Pike followed Liam’s descent, shouting and hitting him a few more times, but it was clear Liam had been knocked out cold.
“Mom?” Rae’s quavering question filled the air, her fear apparent, and Oakley rushed over to Pike, grabbing his shoulders before he could swing again.
“It’s okay, it’s okay, he’s out. Not in front of Rae,” she said urgently.
Pike turned, anger still hot in his eyes, but when he glanced up the stairs and saw Reagan, his fists unfurled and he released a harsh breath. He stepped back from Liam’s prone form and dragged a hand through his hair, looking altogether undone.
“It’s okay, baby, just give us a second,” Oakley called up.
Pike reached for her, his expression pained, as he touched her cheek. “I couldn’t get in fast enough. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. It’s nothing.”
“I want to fucking kill this guy,” he said, low enough for only her to hear.
She could feel the residual fury and adrenaline rolling off of him. If she left him here with Liam, it may only get uglier. “He’s out. We’re okay. We’re all okay. Just take a breath.”
He inhaled like an angry bull and let it out.
She licked her bloodied lip, thinking fast. Reagan would freak out if she saw her looking like this. “Can you go to Reagan? Try to calm her down?”
He frowned. “She’s going to want you.”
“I’m bleeding, and I can feel my face already starting to swell. I don’t want her to see me like this. She feels comfortable with you. Just go up and tell her that Liam was drunk and not acting right and that everything’s going to be fine. We’re all safe now.”
Pike peered up at Reagan, worry on his face. “I don’t want to leave you down here with him. He could wake up.”
“I’ll go in the kitchen and call the cops. And I’ll get my brother to come over and pick up Rae so we can file a report.” She reached out and squeezed his arm. “But I need you to go to her. Can you do that for me?”
“Mom, what’s wrong with that man?” Reagan called down, her voice small.
Pike held Oakley’s gaze for a long second then nodded and turned toward the stairs. “He’s going to be fine, sweetheart. Your mom’s about to call someone to help him. Is it okay if I come up there with you?”
Oakley peered out the corner of her eye toward Reagan. Rae shifted on her feet then nodded. “Okay.”
She released his arm. “If she doesn’t calm down and needs me, just come get me.”
“I’ll take care of her,” he said, his voice now resolute. He cupped her cheek then left her to go to Rae. She watched his trek up the stairs, not entirely convinced Reagan wasn’t going to freak out anyway. But when he reached the top, he knelt down in front of Reagan and said something. Oakley stood frozen, waiting for Rae to ask for her, but instead she threw her arms around him and buried her face in his shoulder. She could tell by the way Pike’s arms didn’t move that he was taken aback by her reaction. But after a beat, he wrapped his arms around Rae and lifted her off her feet.
Oakley’s lips parted as her daughter, who didn’t hug anyone but her and her uncles, locked herself around Pike like a monkey and let him pick her up. When he turned around and met Oakley’s eyes, she could see the surprise in his.
But she couldn’t stand there staring for long. The man at her feet would rouse soon, and she wanted the cops here when he did. She glared at the slack body on the floor and gave it a little kick, getting entirely too much joy from the petty move. “Might be kind of hard to get custody with an assault on your record.”
She went to the coffee table, grabbed her phone, and dialed.
Fuck Liam Garrett.
He may have seemed powerful back when she was a kid, but now she could see him for what he was—nothing.
THIRTY
Pike collapsed next to Oakley in bed after an exhausting day of talking to the cops and handling the fallout from punching out the tour manager he was supposed to be working with.
Oakley, who was sitting cross-legged on the bed, turned to him, her face less swollen, but the bruises starting to darken around her left eye. Every time he saw her injuries, he wanted to go find that bastard Garrett and beat on him some more.
“So did you lose the tour?” she asked, a wince already on her face.
He adjusted himself on the pillows and crossed his ankles. “I called Lex Logan, the lead singer of Wanderlust, and told him what I knew about Liam. Then I told him that he backhanded my girl.”
Her gaze snapped up at that, and he could tell him calling her his girl had caught her off guard. She cleared her throat. “And what’d he say?”
Pike’s lips quirked up. “He said, ‘Fuck that guy. He’s done.’”
“He believed you? Just like that?”
“Lex said he never really liked the guy anyway. The record company had hired him based on a recommendation. But yeah, regardless of the other stuff Liam’s guilty of, Lex isn’t the type of dude who’d put up with anybody hitting a woman. He said he would’ve beat the asshole down, too.”
“He sounds like a good guy.”
“He is. You’d like him. He’s almost as handsome and talented as I am.”
She sniffed.
But the smile she gave him held no humor. He could almost feel the weight of her thoughts pressing on her. “How’s Rae doing?”
Oakley sighed and hugged her knees, sitting her chin on top of them like a little girl. “She’s okay. She saw him hit me, though.”
Pike pushed a stray hair away from her face, careful not to touch her bruises. “I know. She told me. Poor baby cried against my shoulder. She was so worried about you.”
It had broken his damn heart to see it. To his amazement, Reagan hadn’t let him go. She’d let him hold her and rock her while she cried it out. He’d almost cried with her because having her lean on him, trusting him to comfort her, had sent this surge of tenderness for Rae through him. He’d found himself wishing he could always be there for her to provide a shoulder or comforting words if she needed them.
Oakley blinked, her eyes a little misty. “I hate that she had to see any of that. I would’ve never tried to provoke him if I’d known she was there.”
Pike stilled. “Wait, you provoked him on purpose?”
“He was threatening to file for custody. I needed proof on paper that he was a threat. He’d never hit me before, but I’ve seen him lose his temper with other people and get into fights. I knew what buttons to push and hoped he’d take the bait.”
Pike shook his head. “Jesus, Oakley. What did you tell him?”
At that she smirked. “I basically told him how much better you were in bed than he was. Then I called him a pathetic pedophile who preyed on a kid because he couldn’t get a real woman.”
“Fuck,” Pike breathed. “You’ve got some balls, Oakley Easton. He could’ve done a whole lot worse. Punched you or attacked you.”
“I didn’t need balls. I had my instincts. I was with Liam for too long. I know he’s all hat and no cattle. He wouldn’t have done anything that would’ve landed him in jail for real. He knows he’d never survive it.”
Pike frowned. “I’m so
sorry I wasn’t here sooner.”
She shrugged. “I think it was for the best that I took the hit. Gives us proof. I’d take that backhand ten times over if it means I can keep him away from Reagan. Hopefully the one hit was enough.”
Pike ran the backs of his fingers over her cheek. “We’ll get you a lawyer. Jace’s friend Reid is an attorney at the Women’s Center. He’ll help us out. With all the back child support Liam would owe and the explaining he’d have to do about how he got a teenager pregnant, it’d be a tough one for him to win.”
“Thanks. I doubt he’ll really pursue anything. He was pulling that card to intimidate me. But I don’t want to take any chances.”
“I’d kill him before I’d let him near you or Rae. Jail would be worth it,” he said, meaning it. When he’d stepped onto Oakley’s porch and caught sight of the argument through the window, all he’d seen was red. Then Liam had hauled up and hit Oakley in a way he’d seen his mother hit too many times before, like he’d been hit as a kid—the backhand. The move that said the person on the receiving end wasn’t worth a shit, that he or she was just some trash to smack around. Pike had never felt rage like that. It’d gone beyond when Red had broken his hand. It’d tapped into that protective part of him that blocked out all other logic. Knowing Oakley had been subjected to Liam, that her youth had been stolen from her, that her dreams had been taken. All because of this scumbag. It had opened up that ugly, dangerous side of him. If she hadn’t been there to stop him, he probably would’ve beaten the guy bloody.
She rolled onto her back, peering up at him. “I’m so sorry you got dragged into all of this. Told you I suck at hookups.”
He smiled down at her. “Yes. You totally do. Being all awesome and stuff. Making it impossible for me not to come back for more. I’m completely addicted.”
Her gaze went to the ceiling, a distant look coming over her face. “Guess it’s good the tour’s about to start then. You can detox. We both can.”
His smile sagged.
She looked over and reached out to cup his jaw. “Don’t do that. I didn’t mean it as a dig, just stating the facts. We can’t keep pretending that it’s not happening.”
“I’m not pretending.” He put his hand over hers, the decision he’d made a few days ago slipping out. “If you’re pregnant, I’m not going.”
She sat up. “Wait, what?”
He shifted to be face to face with her. “I’m not going to leave for months while you’re pregnant with my baby, Oakley. I’ll find a drummer to fill my spot on the tour.”
Her expression turned horrified. “Pike, that’s … crazy. And completely unnecessary. I appreciate the gesture, but I can handle this on my own. You’re not turning that opportunity down for this. I won’t let you.”
His jaw flexed. “It’s not your call to make.”
“Yes, it is,” she said firmly. “I don’t want that. You’re going.”
The way she said it stung. Cold. Final. “You don’t want that or you don’t want me?”
“Don’t do that. Don’t twist my words around.” She sent him a warning look. “Last time I got pregnant, I walked away from my dream. If it happens this time, I’m not letting you compromise yours. I told you that if there’s a baby, you can be part of his or her life, but I don’t need you here holding my hand just because I’m pregnant.”
“And what about being part of your life?”
She closed her eyes and rubbed the spot between her eyes. “I’m not going to pretend I don’t have feelings for you. I think that’s painfully obvious by now. But we knew going into this that our lives aren’t compatible. You need to be on the road. I need to be here.”
“You could come with me, you and Rae, as soon as she’s out of school for the summer. Take a leave from work. I can cover whatever you need. Rae could see the country. That would give us three months together.”
She lifted her head, giving him a look like he’d sprouted a unicorn horn. “You want to bring a girlfriend and a kid on a rock tour? Do you know how insane you sound? Do you even understand how confusing that would be to Rae? And what would happen after the three months?”
He could feel her slipping away, the walls going up. The night he’d originally planned had gotten screwed up by everything that had happened this morning. Now he was messing this all up, too. But he was taking Foster’s advice and leaving nothing unsaid, no stone unturned.
He leaned back over the edge of the bed and dug in his overnight bag. When he straightened again, he plunked a little box on the bed between them.
“I don’t want to take a girlfriend. I want to take my fiancée.” He opened the box to reveal the sparkling ring he’d picked out a few days ago. “And I want to make it crystal clear to Reagan the role I want to take in her life, too.”
Oakley stared down at the box with her lips parted and her face slack. “Pike, what the hell are you doing?”
Her voice was way too calm and still. Quiet in a dangerous way.
He took her hands in his, charging forward despite her less-than-enthusiastic response. He’d expected that. “Look, I know it’s fast. And yes, probably a little crazy. But you talked about your instincts earlier. Well, I have some, too. And the only time I’ve fucked things up in my life is when I haven’t trusted them.”
“Pike …”
“I know I’m probably not the type of guy you pictured having in your life. My job is bizarre and my family won’t be inviting us over for Christmas dinner. Your parents will probably hate me. But I think we both know enough to realize that there’s something different between us—something we shouldn’t just walk away from.”
Oakley looked down at their joined hands.
He gave hers a squeeze. “I’ve never felt about anyone the way I feel about you. Every time I think about leaving on tour without you, I get a knot in my stomach. And if you’re pregnant … Jesus, Oakley, how could you think I wouldn’t want to be a part of that process? So much happens during that time. Doctor visits and sonogram pictures and finding out the gender. I don’t want to hear that shit via email. I don’t care if we’re here or there, all I want is for us to be together.”
Tears filled her eyes, and she shook her head. “Pike … we—this is—we can’t.” She looked up at him, eyes shiny. “You are the best man for doing this. I can’t even tell you what it means to me that you’re offering this. But whether you can see it or not, this is about the baby.”
He swallowed hard. “It’s about us.”
She pressed her lips together and shook her head again. “You would never be proposing right now if not for this potential pregnancy.” She let her chilled hands slide out of his hold and met his eyes. “We would’ve ended our fling and gone on with our lives. You don’t love me, Pike. You just don’t want to walk away like your dad did.”
He stiffened at that, her words like ice water rolling down his spine. “You think I’m trying to fucking prove something because I have some kind of daddy issues? Christ, Oakley, I’m telling you that I want to be with you, that I want to marry you. And you think I’m saying it because of my fucked-up childhood? Why the hell would you say that?”
She picked up the ring box, closed it, and placed it in his hands. Her eyes were sad when she looked up at him. “Because throughout all of that beautiful proposal, you never actually said that you love me.”
“I did, I—” Hadn’t he?
She swiped at the tears that had escaped and gave him a resigned smile. “You didn’t. And that’s okay, because you shouldn’t. People don’t fall in love that fast. The pregnancy scare has just messed with both of our heads, made all of this feel more intense.”
The words didn’t resonate with him. He didn’t buy that logic. All he felt was the sting of her refusal, the pain of her rejection. Maybe she hadn’t fallen in love with him. But he had with her. And perhaps the proposal was rushed because of the baby, but he wouldn’t be doing it if his gut wasn’t telling him that Oakley was meant to be his. That she was the
one. That she was it for him.
But she clearly didn’t feel the same way, and he wasn’t going to be the pathetic guy who stuck around where he wasn’t wanted. He’d done what Foster said. He’d put everything on the table. Laid his goddamned heart out there and offered it to her.
She just didn’t want it.
He clutched the ring box in his hand. “I’ve gotta go.”
She frowned. “You don’t have to—”
“No, Oakley. I really do.” He climbed off the bed, every muscle in his body feeling tight. “I’ll stop by in the morning for the test. Get some sleep.”
“Please, don’t leave like this …”
He grabbed his bag and headed to the door. “Good night, Oakley.”
THIRTY-ONE
Oakley stumbled to the bathroom the next morning, unsure if she’d be able to perform for the pregnancy test. After crying all night, she doubted she had any hydration left in her.
She washed her face and tried not to look at her reflection in the mirror. The left side of her face was swollen from Liam’s hit and had started to turn purple, and her eyes now looked like she’d been punched there, too. She peeked out the window. The sun was just starting to come up. Pike wouldn’t be here for at least an hour.
She needed to get this done now. After last night, she couldn’t handle doing this with him here. She’d hurt him last night. The way he’d looked at her, the wounded betrayal in his eyes when she’d turned him down was going to fucking haunt her. But she’d had to do it. It’d been the right thing to do.
Saying yes would’ve been selfish and destructive. She didn’t doubt he had some kind of feelings for her, but the proposal had been a knee-jerk reaction. Pike being a stand-up guy. Maybe he’d convinced himself that he had strong feelings for her, but they couldn’t get married after only knowing each other for such a short time. Even if there was a baby involved.
Pike was used to risk-taking, leaping on faith, a dreamer at heart. But no matter how hard she’d fallen for Pike, how badly she wanted to believe that she could have her own fairy-tale ending, she couldn’t afford to marry a guy on a whim. She had Reagan to think about. Her daughter was already getting attached to Pike. What would happen if Oakley agreed to a marriage and then a year in, Pike realized he wasn’t built for the family life? Or what if Oakley found she really couldn’t bear to be with someone who was gone so much? If it ended, it’d tear them all apart.