by Blair Grey
“Give it time to work itself out. It’s going to,” Isaac said. I was struck with how comforting he was, and I put my hand over his. Khloe arrived also looking grim, and she took Allegra from me with a weak smile.
“I wish you would tell me what’s going on,” I said. “I can take it, and not knowing is going to drive me insane.”
Khloe shook her head. “Knowing would be worse, trust me. Let me take Allegra, and we’ll talk later.”
I wanted to argue with her, but she refused to answer me. So, I went back to my chair and sank down, feeling defeated. I wanted to burst into tears, but there was a blockage in my emotions that only left me feeling numb with shock. Khloe gave me another worried look, but then she turned to go with Allegra.
But, I couldn’t help but notice she stopped to talk to Isaac before she walked through the door. She knew something she wasn’t telling me, and now Isaac knew, as well. I was desperate to find out, but I had a feeling it would be just as futile to try to get the information out of him.
I had to just sit back and pray for the best.
23
Nathan
I wasn’t sure if it was the pounding in my head or the smell of the hospital room that really brought me back to my senses, but I woke up feeling disoriented and like I would be sick. The room spun around in circles for a moment, only stopping when I put my hand to my head and took a deep breath.
It was then that I noticed Carl in the room. He was sitting in the corner with his head down, looking asleep. I didn’t want to bother him, but shifting around in the bed was enough to rouse him. He quickly rose and walked over to me, looking more concerned than I’d seen him in a long time.
Part of me wondered if what had happened really happened, or if I had just dreamt the whole thing. But, feeling the raw stub on my arm and the throbbing in my head was enough to convince me that it was definitely real. Too real.
“Drink this, it’ll make you feel a lot better,” Carl said as he lifted a glass of water to my lips. I sipped on it, feeling too sick to get much of it down. I didn’t know what to think, what to say. I was so pissed off over what happened, I just wanted to scream.
“Did the bastard get away with it?” I asked.
“No, he’s in jail. Couldn’t make it far with a broken leg and a broken arm. Not to mention what you did to his face,” Carl said with a grin. “I didn’t know you could throw that many punches, kid.”
“It’s the military that did it to me,” I replied with a tired grin. “They told me how to get the job done.”
“They did a damn fine job. The bastard could have well killed you,” he said. I nodded. I knew he was right. I was lucky to be alive. I wasn’t happy about anything that had gone down, but I knew I was lucky.
“Your girl is downstairs in the waiting room with a couple of the boys. Do you want me to bring them up?” Carl asked. “The nurses in this hospital are bitches, but I’m sure they’ll let you see them now that you’re a sight more alive than you were.”
I was struck with the fact that he called Jenna my girl, but I didn’t argue with him. I didn’t want to argue. I just wanted to see her. So, I merely nodded. “Send in as many of them as you can, I want to see them all.”
“Funny how something like that makes you want to see the ones you love,” Carl said. “But I think they’ll only let a couple in at a time, anyway. Let’s see what I can do.”
“Get as many in here as you can. I don’t give a fuck what the nurse has to say about it,” I called after him. I knew he was only able to do what the nurses said, but I still wanted to see everyone. I didn’t know how many of the boys were there, or even who was, but I still wanted to talk.
He returned soon with Isaac and Jenna. Jenna looked like she’d been crying, and Isaac also had a grim look on his face. They both clearly knew the truth, and neither of them were happy about it. I wondered how Zach felt about the whole thing. He was bound to be even more pissed off than Isaac.
“I’m so sorry this happened! I’m sorry!” Jenna said as she rushed into the room. She stopped short before she reached the bed, but I motioned her to come forward. I didn’t want her to feel uncertain around me or like she couldn’t touch me. I wanted her touch.
I lifted my hand, though it was bandaged and showed all the scrapes and bruises on my arm, and motioned her to come toward me. She shook her head as she obeyed, the tears running down her cheeks. She bit her lower lip as she laid her head on my chest. “I’m so sorry.”
“There’s nothing for you to be sorry for. You aren’t the one who did this to me,” I said softly. “You weren’t that prick.”
“I still feel responsible. I should have stopped it somehow. I should have done something,” she sobbed. “I knew that he was after you. He told me that we weren’t going to get away with this. I don’t know why, but he made it clear it wasn’t going to happen between us. I didn’t think that he’d actually go through with something like this. Oh, God! I don’t even want to think about what this is going to do for the truce.”
I put my hand on the back of her head, trying to give her what comfort I was in. But Isaac took a step forward. It was clear he felt the same way. “I’m not going to let that prick get away with what he did to you. He’s going to pay for this – mark my words, that asshole is going to pay!”
With a grin, I laid my head back on the bed. “Don’t think that he got away with anything. I hear tell he ended up with a broken leg and a broken arm. I’m sure he’s probably got a broken rib or two, along with a broken nose. He did his best to jump me, but that didn’t get him far.”
“He deserved it. If he didn’t want to get beat up, then he shouldn’t have attacked you – that’s how I feel about things,” Jenna said fiercely. “He thinks that he gets my unconditional loyalty just because we are part of the same MC and he’s my brother, but he’s made it clear that he doesn’t give a shit about me or my daughter, so I’m done.”
“What are you going to do?” I asked. “I think it would send a clear message to him if you didn’t talk to him again.”
“I can’t say that I never will, but it’s going to take a lot of repair,” Jenna replied. “I can’t just let him get away with that. I can’t let him do that to you and not see that it affects me, too.”
“I’m proud of you for making that choice,” I said. “I know it’s hard for you, but you’ve got Allegra to think about, and me, so you need to make the decision that’s best for your family.”
“Blaze called Khloe to come bail him out of jail yesterday. She got the call when she was at home, but he refused to tell her what he’d done to end up in jail in the first place, which she thought was suspicious. She didn’t want to ride to his rescue if he wasn’t going to tell her the truth, so she let him stay in. When she heard about your beating, she put two and two together,” Jenna explained.
“The bastard thought that she would really bail him out?” I asked in disbelief.
“You’d be surprised at how many times through the years she has had to do that. Or me. He can’t stay out of trouble, which is why I knew this had to be coming. I was so stupid!” she sobbed. She didn’t care that there was Carl and Isaac in the room, all she cared about was me.
“Don’t blame yourself, honey. Listen to me. I want you to pull yourself together and realize that you had nothing to do with this. This wasn’t your fault, and no one blames you. He might be your brother, but you don’t have any control over what he does. Clearly, or he would be a lot better of a brother to you,” I said.
She looked at me, forcing a smile though there were still tears in her eyes. “I’m just sorry that this happened. You didn’t deserve this, and I hope he gets a lot of time in jail for doing it.”
“We can’t say for sure that will happen. It all depends on what the cops think,” Carl butted in.
“That’s right,” Isaac added. “It really comes down to whether or not they are going to push this on something that our MC was doing, or something that they feel is
a crime.”
“It was a crime!” Jenna insisted.
“To you, but they might see it as rivals going at each other, and if they do that, they might let him out early,” I said.
“If that happens, then I’m going to disown him on the spot. I’m not going to allow that monster in my life if he’s not going to get punished for what he did,” Jenna said with the same fierceness in her voice as before.
“We could always take matters into our own hands if that happens,” Isaac said. “You know Zach would be down for that.”
“We aren’t going to kill the guy – though I think we should,” Carl replied. “You know we don’t do shit like that.”
“The Enemies do! They just make it look like an accident,” Isaac replied.
“Hey!” Jenna snapped.
“Okay, everyone just calm down; we’ll get this figured out. Here’s hoping that they are going to take care of it on the police’s end, and we can work from there, okay?” Carl held his hands up to get the attention of everyone, and we all took a deep breath.
I knew Carl was right. I didn’t want to get into a fight with Blaze again, and I didn’t want to be part of a group of boys jumping him. As far as I was concerned, it was done and over with, he got what was coming to him, and I could live with that. All I wanted was to take care of Jenna and my daughter, and let this entire thing go.
Hell, there was even a part of me that was willing to let go of the MC if it meant that my family was safe. I didn’t want to do that. I didn’t want to let that happen, but I was willing. As hard as it was, I would choose them over the club.
“Alright, you guys, the patient needs to get his rest now,” a nurse poked her head into the room and announced. Jenna slowly peeled herself off me. It was clear she didn’t want to go, but she also knew that she didn’t have a choice.
“You go home now, get some rest. You look like you’ve been up all night,” I told her.
“I’ll be back tomorrow, and I’ll bring Allegra with me,” she promised as she stood. “I miss you already.”
“Thank you for coming, honey, you were really great,” I said as I kissed her cheek. She smiled at me before she turned and followed Carl out the door. Isaac lingered for a moment, looking at me with raised eyebrows. It was the first time he had seen this side of me, and I was sure he didn’t know what to make of it.
But, I merely shrugged. If Jenna was going to act like a doting girlfriend, then I was going to treat her like one, it was simple as that. Hell, I would be happier to make her my wife, but I could bring that up to her later.
For now, I was just going to work on getting better, and look forward to getting out of the hospital. I wanted my daughter, and I wanted my girl, and I no longer cared what anyone thought about what I was doing.
I had fought for my right to be with her, and I would stand by that, no matter what I had to face to bring us together.
I would fight for us to the end.
24
TWO WEEKS LATER
Jenna
It had been two weeks since Nathan had been discharged, and I had stayed with him ever since. I didn’t want to let him out of my sight with what had happened, and Allegra really didn’t seem to mind that we had moved in with him. Hell, even Carl and his other friends didn’t seem to mind that Allegra and I were here.
It was a good feeling, living with him, knowing that he was on the mend. It would be a slow process. His knee had been really hurt in the fight, and his prosthetic was broken beyond belief. He was on the phone with the VA almost daily, talking about getting a new one, but it was a slow and painful process.
He’d have to get the piece custom made, which was going to take some time. Of course, he was trying to make the best of it with what we’d been through, but that didn’t make it any less annoying in the long run.
I was in the kitchen, working on putting together sandwiches. Nathan wanted to spend some time with Allegra, and I took the chance to have a few minutes to myself. It was strange, living together. I thought that I was going to have to give up my time with my daughter for him to spend some time with her, but now that we were together, it didn’t seem like I’d ever have to worry about that.
I warned myself not to get too comfortable. I didn’t want to settle into a life that wasn’t going to be sustained. But, at the same time, I had a feeling this was going to be our lives now. He cared about me, and I cared about him.
Was there really a need to talk about it? Couldn’t we just be happy with what we were doing and move on? I didn’t know, and I didn’t like how it weighed on my mind. It was as though every time I thought about us and how happy we were, there was another part of me that was reminded we never made it official.
If we were really going to be together, I wanted it to be official. I didn’t want to keep playing this guessing game, wondering where I stood, and if this was going to come to an end one of these days.
There was a scared part of me that had the sneaking suspicion it would all come to an end, and we’d go back to the agreement we had before. Perhaps he thought that I was here only until he got better, and he didn’t think about what we were going to do after he did.
When, in reality, that was the only thing I’d been thinking about these days. Well, that and taking care of him and my daughter when I wasn’t at work.
It was Friday, my half day, and I was glad for the chance to be home with both of them. Though they were in the other room, I felt connected, I felt like this was just too perfect to be anything but what I thought it was.
Suddenly, two hands made their way around my waist, and before I could even think, his nose was in my neck. He nuzzled me for a moment, holding me close to him from behind as he did. It felt good, too good. I didn’t want to have the doubts in my mind anymore, so I swallowed my fear, and I asked him what we were doing.
“What do you feel like we’re doing?” I phrased the question again. I didn’t want to be too direct with him, but I wanted to know, and I felt like it was the right time to ask.
“I feel like you and I are happy in our lives together,” he said. “We just sort of fell into this, which makes me think it was a lot more fate than either of us could have anticipated.”
“That’s how I felt about it, too, but I’m afraid that this is something that’s just going to go away. I’ve never been so happy before in my entire life, and I’m afraid something is going to come and snatch it away from us, even if it means we are going back to our agreement,” I breathed.
“First of all, why would we do that?” he asked. “I don’t think there’s any reason to go back to a custody agreement when you and I are clearly happy together. What? Would you move out and take Allegra with you? I just put her down for a nap, and I don’t ever want to miss that again.”
I smiled. “She’s asleep?”
“Oh yes, out like a light. You know how it is with her. It doesn’t take too much to convince her to go down for a nap,” he said.
“That’s for sure – that girl loves her sleep, always has,” I admitted. I didn’t say anything else for a moment. I didn’t really know what to say. There were times when I thought that I was the one pushing for us more, and I didn’t want to say so.
But, I didn’t want to make him feel bad about it, either. If we were naturally going to be together, then I wanted it to be natural, and that was it.
Suddenly, his hands tightened around my waist, and he started pulling me with him toward his bedroom. I was still concerned with the injuries he had, but I went willingly, a smile on my face the whole way. It didn’t take much for him to turn me on, and just the thought of him soon to be inside me was enough to do the trick.
We started making out when we were in the narrow hall almost to his room, and by the time we got inside, he was tearing my clothing off. I fought with his clothes just as much, trying to get them off him before we reached the bed. It was a bit of a ritual we had. He was on top of me in a heartbeat, his hands exploring me, his body on top o
f mine.
He had his hand on my pussy, then on my breasts. He used his lips to tease my neck, working his way down to my tits. His lips were soft on my nipples; his teeth were rough on the rest. I closed my eyes and laid back on the bed as he pushed his cock inside me, pumping himself into me.
There were times I’d ride him, but he always preferred doing the work. I liked it when he did. He knew how to touch me in just the right places, and he always did. I moaned on the bed as I writhed underneath him. We’d long since learned to close the door. We liked to be loud. We liked to let each other know that we were doing a good job, and by the sound of his balls slapping against me and the moans I made, I knew we were both doing a good job.
He was thrusting into me as I put my hands up behind my head, letting him bounce my tits with his body over mine. He pushed harder and faster, driving me closer and closer to orgasm. He had learned that I told him when I was close through the light breathing that shook my entire body, and I was close now.
He pumped into me a few more times, cumming at the exact same time I did. I loved the feel of his cock filling me with his cum, and with the waves of pleasure running through me, I felt I was on top of the world. I couldn’t get enough of him, and I spread my legs further to take him deeper.
Nathan moaned, pulling me into him as he came. I did the same, holding him on top of me, pressing myself into him as much as I could. I loved the intensity of my orgasm, the rush that it gave me, the pleasure that ran through the core of my being.
We knew how to not be loud enough to wake Allegra, and we both took the moment to lie in each other’s arms, making the most of the time we had together. Though we loved our daughter with all our hearts, we did like the time we got to catch with just each other.
Allegra had brought us together, but we were the ones who brought her into the world in the first place. It was the perfect family, and I knew nothing was going to tear us apart.