The only flight out to Atlanta was leaving early in the morning. I booked it hoping that was what Jamie had done as well. When I finally managed to get through security and down to the gate she was the first thing I noticed. Jamie sat there, balled up in a chair with ear buds in her ears and her eyes closed. She looked unbelievably beautiful and so fucking alone. That last bit was entirely my fault. I approached her slowly, quietly, not wanting to disturb her until I was close enough that our talking wouldn’t cause a scene. Not that there were many people here at this hour anyway.
It made me physically ill to know what I had to tell her and how it could break her. Break us. Not even could. I knew it would break something in her, and possibly end our relationship. I also knew I couldn’t tell her in the middle of an airport where she had no one to turn to. My plan was to smooth things over enough to get us home, and be able to talk it out once we got there. At least then, she would have her friends, her MC family, to lean on when she needed help coping with my shit. Hell, I think I needed that right about now too. The only person, outside of Jamie, I’d trust to discuss it with happened to be Jamie’s best friend since diapers though. I was not a moron. I knew where his loyalties would lie. Hell, I was thankful he would look out for Jamie, even if it meant being disloyal to me. It meant she had at least one person in her corner who would never let her down, since I apparently was bound and determined to keep doing just that.
“What do you want?” Her voice caught me off guard and cut through my thoughts in an instant. She never opened her eyes or bothered to acknowledge me in any other way. “I can feel you watching me, and I can smell your cologne,” she stated.
“We need to talk, Jamie. I did make you a promise, and it’s one I intend to keep as soon as we are home and what I have to tell you won’t ruin our honeymoon.”
She laughed as her eyes popped open. “It’s a little late for that. Our honeymoon was ruined the moment I came second to whatever it is you had going on with your phone.”
I sighed. “I know. I’m sorry, sugar. I will explain it all as soon as we’re home. I promise.” She scoffed at my promise as if it meant nothing. I narrowed my eyes on her and spoke my mind too. “You made promises too. You promised not to run. You promised to talk and listen before you ever took off again. Here I am chasing you down on your attempt to not just run, but fly away.”
“I wasn’t running,” she argued, as every muscle in her body grew tight with stress and anger. “You didn’t even realize I wasn’t eating at dinner. Never even noticed the conversation I had with someone else. You sure as shit didn’t realize when I got up, paid for our meal, and left the restaurant. I waited outside for five full minutes before I took off back to the hotel. I was there for nearly 30 minutes before I got in the cab and you had only just caught up to me then from a restaurant that was a short couple minute walk from the hotel.
“Yesterday, I spent mostly alone on a beach while you wandered off to have a phone conversation in private. Must have been a hell of a conversation too, considering you never came back to the beach for me. I had to walk back to the hotel alone, eat lunch alone, and go shower and take a nap. Alone. So this,” she waved her hands indicating the airport around us. “This is not me running. It’s me going home, because I was supposed to be on my honeymoon with my husband, and I ended up on vacation alone. So, I figured I’d go home alone too, because chances are you wouldn’t even notice I was gone.” She squared her shoulders and then looked me straight in the eye.
“I was not running from a conversation. I obviously wasn’t worth having it in the first place, because whoever you were talking to and texting with so much was far more important than even knowing if your wife was still with you, let alone speaking to her.”
“I’m sorry, Jamie. So fuckin’ sorry. I promise, you’ll understand as soon as I get to explain everything.”
“So explain then!” She almost shouted out, clearly exasperated with me.
“I told you, not in the airport, when we get home. I will tell you everything, and we’ll work it all out then.”
“Yeah, okay.” Her indifference killed me as she put her ear buds back in and turned away from me. We spent the rest of our time waiting on the flight with her ignoring my presence. Once we boarded the plane I realized things weren’t about to get any better either. She had apparently decided to fly home in the comfort of first class whereas I had just grabbed the first ticket available in coach. So, I spent the next nine, incredibly long, hours on the flight from Honolulu to Atlanta trying to figure out how exactly to break the news to Jamie without breaking her. If only I’d known the shit storm we would be walking into when we arrived.
Chapter 19
A cluster-fuck of epic proportions greeted us when Keys and Quickshot showed up together to collect us from the airport in Atlanta. Quickshot tossed a couple looks my way that made me think Jamie had already been informed about our issues before we got there. Well, wasn’t that just fucking lovely. It also had to wait to be dealt with, because the two computer nerds for our clubs had found something, finally, linking the WRs to their financial backers. We might finally be able to find the girl they took and bring her home to her son.
We were back at the clubhouse before Quick managed to corner me for a minute. “We are going to have a discussion about why the fuck your honeymoon was cut short before we ever even told either of you about what we’d found out. Then we’re going to have another discussion about some shit that’s been trickling down to me from guys in Cedar Falls.”
“I know. Let’s deal with one shit show first, then we’ll get busy talking about the rest.”
“She’ll never forgive you,” he admitted as he shook his head and walked away from me. That was another punch straight to the gut, because that was what I had been afraid of this entire time. I swallowed thickly and followed behind him as he moved to head to the conference room.
The mood in the conference room was not just subdued, but icy as I entered in behind Quickshot and took a seat at the round wooden table the girls used for their meetings. It did not escape my notice that the ice was all aimed in my direction. Granted, I deserved it, but none of them knew just yet exactly how much I did. When they all found out what was going on I was sure that I’d probably never be welcome back here again. Hell, I was beginning to think that Becca would get her way on one count. I’d probably end up back in Cedar Falls by myself before this was all over, and knowing Ghost I’d be doing it without a club. He wouldn’t fault me for knocking Becca up before I knew his daughter was still alive and that I would end up with her. He would absolutely kick my ass from here to the moon and back once he realized I knew - that I found out on our wedding day - and didn’t say a fucking word about it to anyone.
“What’s going on that was so important it required an escort from the airport.”
“Nothing required an escort,” Keys snipped out. “Angel Girl called and told me she needed a ride home.”
“Fuck,” I hissed through my front teeth as I sat back in my chair and just took everyone in.
“Not my business why your honeymoon got cut short, or why my girl didn’t want to ride with you to get here. What is my business, all of our business, is that I think we found a connection finally that led us to a full name. James Reardon was married to Kat Reardon. The financials between Winter’s Renegades were going through an account under her name.”
“You think she was involved?” Angel asked, brow furrowed, as if she was having a hard time believing that.
Keys shook her head in the negative. “No, I don’t think that at all. He was most likely using that account so it wouldn’t be traced directly back to him. Since she was missing, had access to the account, and it would appear that she was operating on her own with the transactions, I’m assuming he was setting something up to take her out and the WRs with her if he ever needed to.”
“That’s a hell of an assumption,” I told her.
She shrugged her shoulders at me. “It’
s what I would do if I were given the opportunity and couldn’t do all the wonderful things I’m capable of with a computer.” As she said the last she stared me down, and I knew I was in for it. That was a threat if I ever saw one. Damn.
“We have a starting point now. We can work on tracking him down and more importantly, tracking down Katherine and getting her back to her son.” Tash was the voice of reason. She was also studiously avoiding even looking in my direction.
“Is that all there is?” I asked.
“For now,” Keys stated sharply.
“Well, then I’m beat, I think…” before I could get the rest of my sentence out Jamie was on her feet and out the door. I stood and followed behind her. No one else left the conference room. Whether they were giving us space or getting right to work, I didn’t know, but I appreciated it either way.
“Jamie,” I called and she kept moving across the wide expanse of the common area of their clubhouse and up the steps that led to the loft and her room. “Jamie,” I called again. Still she ignored me. When she opened her door I called out, “Angel Girl,” and she turned her head slightly as her hand paused on the doorknob.
“We need to talk,” I told her.
“I’m thinking we needed to talk a few days ago, but I wasn’t worth your time or effort then. Don’t pretend like I am after I’m fed up with your bullshit.”
“No running,” I reminded her. “You promised, no more running.”
“You promised no more lies too, and I’ll be damned if you haven’t been holding something back since our wedding day.” I flinched back, not having realized she had noticed then that I was preoccupied. She laughed, but there was no humor in the sound. “Yeah, I noticed. I waited. Then I waited some more while you ignored me for whatever trouble you have brewing and chose to shut me out of. I know it’s not club business, because Quick knew of nothing pressing until today. That means it’s personal, and the type of personal that you want to keep away from me can only be one thing. I’m not having it. If you have unfinished business somewhere you need to deal with, I suggest you get that handled. I’ll also warn you; I won’t be there for you when you get it done on your own, because you made promises. You broke them. That means what I do from here on out isn’t running, it’s protecting myself.”
“Jamie, I’m trying to tell you about…”
“No. Right now, I’m exhausted and I don’t want to hear it. Like I said, you could have told me days ago. You chose to keep it, ruin my happiness, and our fresh start with it. Now, we’re on my time table and I just want to take a nap.” I moved to come take that nap with her, but she held her hand up and shook her head. “No. I’m napping solo, and you’re leaving. Go back to your club, Sweet. I don’t want to see you for the rest of the day.”
“Fuck! Jamie, I can’t fix shit if you won’t let me.”
“There shouldn’t be anything to fix!”
“There shouldn’t but I didn’t want my past shit ruining our day, or our honeymoon,” I tried to explain.
“Congratulations. How’d that work out for you, because I know exactly how it worked out for me since I’m in Georgia instead of Hawaii right now.” With that she moved into her room and slammed her door behind her. I heard the lock engage as well and knew there was no way I was getting to her tonight.
“We need to talk,” I heard Quickshot as he came up behind me. I just nodded my head.
“Let’s get back to the clubhouse first,” I managed to get out before I turned and left my wife in her room for the first night since we said ‘I do’. I didn’t want to ever resent my kid, but in that moment I sure as fuck resented Becca and her timing. If she’d told me sooner I have no doubt I’d still have ended up with Jamie, only there wouldn’t have had to be secrets involved.
“It’s true isn’t it?” Quickshot wasted no time before diving into the heart of the matter. I just hung my head into my hands and sighed long and deep before I glanced back up at him. I knew he could tell by the look of absolute misery on my face that it was indeed true. “Fuck, man. You know what this means?”
“She’s not going to take it well considering she doesn’t think she can have kids with me,” I muttered.
“No shit, asshole. That’s not the half of it though. I think she could have looked at that as a blessing. If you guys couldn’t have one together at least you’d have one that was part of you. She would have taken that on, and done right by you and the kid. You fucked up though. She’s going to think her marriage was a lie. You tricked her into this. You pulled her into a marriage knowing what was waiting out there, and you didn’t give her the choice. It’s going to tell her that you didn’t trust how she’d handle the situation.”
“That wasn’t why I kept it to myself,” I argued.
“Doesn’t matter why, jackass. I’m not stupid. I know you guys promised not to let lies and other people come between you again. You fucking turned around and did exactly that, on your wedding day, no less. Hell, you ruined her fucking dream honeymoon too.”
“I fucking know!” I shouted. “Becca wouldn’t stop blowing up my phone and threatening to go to Ghost,” I managed to spit out through my anger. I was shaking all over as the full impact of what was happening was finally hitting me. I would lose Jamie over this. How was I ever going to look Becca in the eye and have to parent alongside her? How was I going to look at my daughter and not know every single time that, in a roundabout way, she cost me Jamie? Before I knew it was happening Quickshot had his arms wrapped around me in a hug.
“Fuck, dude, I know this can’t be easy on you. I’m here for you too, but she’s my sister. I need to look out for her too, because I didn’t do a great fucking job of it before and look what happened.” He swatted my back a couple times before he pulled away and just shook his head at the state I was in. Here I was, a badass biker, the President of an MC, and I was crying like a little bitch because I was about to become a father to the wrong woman’s baby and lose the woman I needed more than the air I breathe because of it.
“I tried telling her,” I started to say.
“What? You mean earlier at the clubhouse?”
“Yeah, I… she wouldn’t listen,” I sighed again.
“No offense man, but the time to tell her was days ago. The minute you found out, about five minutes before you lied to me,” he tacked on at the end making me feel worse.”
“Sorry,” I offered and he just shrugged it off.
“I get it. You didn’t want me spoiling your day either. Honestly? I can’t say that I wouldn’t have. Do you honestly think she wouldn’t have married you if you told her?”
I scoffed. “Even if she still wanted to go through with it, that’s a hell of bomb to drop on your wedding day. I would know. I had to live with that through the whole thing; worried she’d hate me. Worried she’d leave me. Worried that my whole fuckin’ world was about to fall apart.” I stood and growled out my frustrations as I sent a chair flying across the room to smash apart under the weight of a concrete pillar. “I already lost her once. I couldn’t take the thought of losing her again on what was supposed to be our wedding day. We were supposed to be getting married last time another woman came between us. I just saw history repeating itself and I panicked. Damned if I do, damned if I don’t man.”
“Yeah, I’m seeing that. Why don’t you take a seat and I’ll grab you a beer. I think maybe a shot or two as well.”
“Why didn’t you at least tell her on your honeymoon?” Quickshot asked as he delivered a shot and a beer to me.
I just watched him as he took the seat opposite me. “I wanted to. I almost did several times, and then I would watch her sleeping so peacefully, and I didn’t want to ruin that time. I swore to myself that I would tell her the minute we got back to reality, but I wanted our fresh start to be a happy one, you know?”
“That didn’t seem to turn out so well for you,” he told me needlessly.
“Yeah, well, that first morning we were there I went to go grab us breakfas
t and when I took a look at my cell it was blown the fuck up by Becca. There were all sorts of texts, threats, and just pure craziness.” I tossed my cell at him so he could read through them to see for himself.
“I’m not liking this shit,” he finally said after reading through a good deal of it. I’m actually worried for Jamie after reading that.”
“She won’t hurt Jamie.”
Quickshot cocked his head sideways and gave me a look that said he didn’t believe that one bit. “Did you think she’d ever react like this?” He waved my cell in the air.
“No, I never would have pegged Becca as the crazy type.”
“Hormones change a woman a lot. That much I’ve gathered from my mom and the cackling hens around the clubhouse. You need to face reality too though, brother. That woman thought you were coming back for her, only to find out you left her pregnant and you got married to another woman.”
“I didn’t know she was pregnant. She never fucking said a word to me about it.”
“I guess not, because you broke up with her via text when she was expecting you to come home and make her your old lady. How do you think Jamie would react knowing just that much? She’s going to feel bad for Becca. She’s going to flip her shit and wonder how you’ll treat her down the road.” My eyes bugged out a bit as he mentioned those things, because I honestly hadn’t thought of that. I’d only thought of the implications of having a child with another woman. “She’s going to have to decide if she can deal with having your child and your ex in your lives especially after she gets to read through those messages. I’m serious when I say she better get to read through them too. Jamie needs the full picture and not a sugar coated version you think will sell it all to her.”
“Yeah, well, now I just have to figure out a way to get her to let me do that before someone else breaks the news to her and makes this shit a million times worse for us.”
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