by Nicola Jane
“What do you want?” he growls.
“Of course, it isn’t just for the two of you to meet up, fuck. It’ll be a new family home for your mistress, your new baby, and you.” I pause, adding a smile. “When you can get away, that is, because you’re still married. How does Joanne feel about your love child? And by that, I mean your actual unborn child, not Aliyah, because she’s quite young, isn’t she?”
“Tell me what the fuck you want or get out,” he snarls.
The door opens, and we all turn to see Alaric. “Everything okay?” he asks.
“Everything is just fine, ain’t that right?” I say, smiling at Anthony.
“You want me to call the cops?” Alaric asks, ignoring me. “I’d love to get this dick arrested again.”
“I’m trying to be very calm right now,” I say. “Because just seeing your lying face makes my piss boil. But I’m not here for revenge . . . today. I’m here to talk business, so run along and go play with yahself.”
“Play with Sara.” He smirks. “That’s what I prefer to do.”
“Only she doesn’t want to play with you anymore, does she?” I sneer.
“Like that’ll stop me,” he snaps.
“What the fuck’s that s’posed to mean?” I growl.
Storm moves like lightning, and I smirk at the irony. Alaric’s red-faced and grasping at the large hand around his neck before I can blink. “You sure I can’t kill anyone?” Storm hisses.
I turn back to Anthony. “Pass the licence tonight, or I’ll make sure your new wifey is fucking one of my brothers before morning. I’ll have her singing all your secrets to the newspapers.”
“I can’t do it before the end of the week,” he snaps. “I can’t just click my fingers and get it done.”
I turn, heading for the door. “Then enjoy the headlines tomorrow with your coffee and toast. I wonder if Joanne will be joining you, or will she disown you? We all know how she hates bad press.”
Storm hits Alaric in the stomach, and he coughs violently. I wince. “What’s so fucking important about your damn sex club anyway?” yells Anthony.
“Ask your daughter.” I grin, tapping Storm on the shoulder, and he follows me out.
Sara is in the hall waiting, glaring at me. “What’s going on?” she demands.
“Club business.”
“With my family!” she snaps.
“You know as well as I do that this ain’t your family. The club’s been your family more than these stuck-up bastards,” I say. She follows me outside.
“The club is your family. They took me in out of loyalty to you, and once you’d thrown me to one side, they’d finished with me too,” she yells.
I spin to face her, catching her off guard. I grip her chin between my thumb and fingers and push my face into hers. “I never threw you to the side. I always wanted you. You pushed me away, wanting to handle your shit by yourself. You’ve got more mood swings than a fucking teenager, and I can’t keep up with them. You want me to claim you? Make you mine forever?” I whisper-hiss. Her eyes are lowered and her breathing is rapid. Her cheeks are slightly pinked, and I get a hard-on just knowing she’s turned on. “Fuck, if I didn’t have shit to do right now,” I whisper.
“Don’t let me keep you,” she mutters, stepping back and breaking the energy bouncing between us.
Chapter Eighteen
Sara
Mum is fussing over Alaric, making sure he’s lying on the couch with a cold compress across his stomach where Lake’s friend hit him. I roll my eyes. She’s never usually so attentive. I remember falling over as a child and her walking on as if it never happened. “I’m going to get the rest of my stuff,” I say.
Neither of them acknowledges me, so I go upstairs and collect the things I want to take from my bedroom. It hasn’t been touched since I left home years ago, and the photographs of me and Tillie from when we were teenagers are still stuck to my wall. I pull them down one by one, smiling at each before placing them in my bag. I never fully moved out before, just in case it didn’t work out, but this time around, I feel more independent. I have a job, I have my own place, and I have Leo.
I spend an hour making sure I have everything and then head downstairs. I place my bags by the door and pop my head into the living room. There’s no sign of Alaric or my parents. I contemplate leaving without saying goodbye, but it seems rude. Besides, I want to know if Alaric plans on leaving too—it’d be weird him staying here without me. I’m not sure when he became so close to my parents.
I knock on my dad’s office before going inside. He isn’t there, so I peer out the window and find his car is gone. I go upstairs to see if Mum’s taking her nap, as she often does when Dad’s working extra. I raise my hand to knock but pause when I hear soft moans from inside her room. I smirk. Maybe she’s having an afternoon to herself. I turn to leave but stop mid-step when I hear a man groaning.
I carefully open the door just enough for me to look inside. “Oh my god!” I screech before I can stop myself. Alaric stops mid thrust, and Mum looks over in surprise. “You two?”
“I-I-I can explain,” stutters Alaric, tucking himself back into his shorts and stumbling off the bed.
“How long?” I ask, sickness bubbling in my stomach.
“Not long,” he mutters.
“Months,” snaps Mum coldly.
My eyes widen. “When we were . . .” I begin, and Alaric hangs his head. “Oh god,” I whisper, slamming a hand over my open mouth. “Did you . . . with me . . . then with her?”
“Stop the wounded puppy act,” Mum hisses. “It gets boring.”
“How could you?” I ask.
“Easily. You think your dad’s the only one who gets to have fun?”
“No,” I snap. “I think neither of you should be having fun with anyone else. You’re married! And me and Alaric were—”
“Were nothing,” Mum cuts in.
“Joanne,” Alaric growls in warning.
“Just fucking tell her,” she snaps.
I stare at him expectedly, but he shakes his head. “I can’t deal with this right now,” I mutter, rushing out the room and running down the stairs. Why’s my life so complicated?
After a restless night of tossing and turning and thinking constantly about my mum and Alaric, I get up and go to the gym. It’s not something I make a habit of, but I feel like working off all this angry energy. I ignore the constant phone calls from Alaric and note there are none from my mum.
After lunch, I head to the hospital to spend some time with the one person I can trust right now, Leo. I’m surprised when I see the Irish nurse chatting with Lake outside Leo’s room. I didn’t expect him to be here. So far, we’ve managed to avoid each other at the hospital. I watch for a few minutes while she twiddles her hair around her finger and smiles wide at something he’s saying. I knew it’d be her, she’s his type. I take a deep breath and walk past them, going straight into Leo’s room.
He looks pinker today, and I smile when he grips my little finger in his hand again. I live for these moments. “You’re looking big and strong today, little one,” I say. “And guess what, I managed to express more milk,” I add. It’s been a struggle to express much, and the midwife told me it was probably down to stress. Clearly not, because I’m more stressed than ever, but I got a good amount off this morning. I take the two bottles from my bag and place them in the small fridge. “It’ll make you stronger,” I say. At first, it felt weird talking to a baby in a box, but now, I do it without thinking. “The nurse told me that maybe in a week or so, I’ll be able to hold you. You’ll still have all those wires and stuff, but I can’t wait to have you in my arms,” I say.
“I can’t wait to see that,” comes Lake’s voice from behind me. “You and my son together. I’ll burn the image in my brain.”
“She’s the nurse?” I ask.
“She was updating me on Leo,” he says innocently.
“I mean the nurse you fucked to get access to Leo.”
/> “Right,” he mutters. “Yeah, we have history.”
“Where did you fuck her? Not in here, was it?” I ask, shuddering.
“Christ, Sara, what d’ya take me for?” he snaps. “I didn’t fuck her to get in here. I fucked her way back, months before you. I just flirted to get to see my kid because your boyfriend had me arrested for something I didn’t do!”
“We’re still not over that?” I ask, smirking. “And FYI, he’s not my boyfriend.”
“Right, his hands all on your ass yesterday meant nothing.”
“I told you, he was trying to piss you off,” I say, smiling at Leo as he crams his fist in his mouth. “Do you think he knows we’re his parents?” I ask.
Lake stands beside me, and we stare at Leo together. “I hope so.”
“Poor kid. Doesn’t know what he’s getting into,” I say, sighing. “What are you doing later?” He shrugs. “Just, I have a bottle of vodka that I’m planning on consuming, if you wanna join me?” I don’t add in that I feel used and violated or that Alaric was fucking my own mum. I shudder again at the thought.
“It’s probably not a good idea,” he says, wincing.
I feel embarrassed and my cheeks show it. “Of course, sorry. The last twenty-four hours have been hell, and I’m not thinking straight.”
“Sara, it’s not that. I—”
“Honestly, don’t apologise, it’s absolutely fine.”
We fall into an awkward silence. My phone buzzes in my bag and I pull it out. “Jacob,” I answer, smiling.
“Hey, chica. Wanna meet me?”
“Most definitely,” I say, relieved I have an excuse to get away from Lake. I grab my bag and throw it over my shoulder. “Love you, little man,” I say, kissing my hand and placing it on top of the plastic box.
“You’re going?” asks Lake.
I nod, then leave. “Where are you?” I ask Jacob.
Jacob waves at me frantically from across the wine bar. Tillie is with him, and I’m so relieved to see them both, I burst into tears. “Was it something we said?” jokes Jacob as they both rush to wrap me in a hug.
“I’m having the worst few days,” I sob.
I fill them in on everything so far, and they listen with shock, especially when I tell them about Mum and Alaric. “And now I have to work with him knowing he’s been—”
“Boning your mum,” adds in Jacob, unhelpfully, and I shiver.
“Why did he try and get with me if he was already having sex with her?” I wail.
“Because he’s sick in the head,” says Tillie.
“He keeps calling me,” I say. “I don’t know what to say to him.”
“Ignore him until you feel better,” says Jacob. “Some people take kink to a new level.”
I turn to Tillie. “Do you know why Lake was at my parents’ house last night?”
She shakes her head. “I don’t get told those kinds of things. ‘Club business’ is Blade’s favourite saying.”
“It must be to do with him buying out Six,” suggests Jacob. “When your dad offered to pay Lake off, wasn’t signing the club licence part of the bargain?”
I nod. My dad is on the council that reviews those kinds of things. With Dad refusing the licence because of my accident, it would make sense for Lake to pay him a visit, but I know my dad, and I know he won’t back down. Not without good reason. “I need lots of wine,” I declare. “Wine and no men,” I add. “Apart from you,” I finish, winking at Jacob.
“You know I can’t screw you now. I don’t do MILFs,” he says, and I punch him in the arm playfully.
LAKE
“What is it with you and killing people?” I ask. Storm punches the guy a third time and splits his lip. Blood splatters as I step back, trying to avoid the mess.
“A man after my own heart,” says Blade.
“Sometimes it does better to leave them alive so they can pass on the message,” I point out, placing a note in the man’s pocket and patting it. “Let your boss know we said ‘Hi’,” I say. “Be a good boy and stick to your own patch. Any more drugs on our patch and I’ll let this guy kill you,” I state, pointing to Storm. “He’s got a real fetish for it.”
“A bigger message is sent when you start killing off his men,” offers Storm.
“Agreed,” says Blade, throwing a knife up in the air and catching it.
“Don’t juggle with your knife,” I snap. “It puts me on edge.”
“I’m a good aim,” Blade responds defensively. “If you ever get hit, it’s cos I meant to do it.”
“I gotta get back,” says Storm, glancing at his mobile. “My sister is almost at the club.”
The club is loud. I’m in no mood for a party, but Blade drags me to the bar and orders me a whiskey. Storm comes towards us carrying a kid around eight years old wearing ear defenders. Behind them is a small woman with a feisty look about her. “Brothers, this is Seb, my son. That’s my sister, Taya.”
We say hello and they move on to meet the rest of the MC. “Man, she is hot,” says Blade quietly, so no one can hear and report back to Tillie.
“Where is Tillie, by the way?”
“She went to meet Sara.”
“Interesting,” I muse. “Sara asked me to go for a drink with her earlier. I said no.”
“Why would you say no when you’ve clearly been mooning over her for weeks?” asks Blade.
“I didn’t wanna complicate shit,” I say.
“Like having a kid with her?” Blade grins, then pulls out his phone and shows me a tracking app. “Shall we go crash their pity party?”
SARA
“You didn’t mean what you wrote in that song about meeeeee . . .” I wail into the microphone. “Cos you said forever, now I drive alone past your street—” Tillie wrestles the microphone from me and hands it back to the karaoke man, who smiles gratefully.
“You’ll have us thrown out,” giggles Tillie, guiding me back to my seat.
“I think you needed this,” says Jacob, wiping tears of laughter from under his eyes. “And I definitely needed the laugh.”
“It’s so much better when I’m sober and you’re drunk,” agrees Tillie. “I get to remember all of this so I can torture you tomorrow with the recount.”
“Did you invite him?” I accuse, my eyes burning into Lake as he saunters across the bar towards us, looking hot.
Blade kisses Tillie. “You tracked me?” She scowls playfully.
“I was missing you,” he answers, grinning.
“You guys,” I say, groaning. “Single people avoiding loving moments right here!”
“Sorry,” Tillie apologises, rubbing my hand.
“Thought you were busy,” I say to Lake.
He sits down opposite me. “Blade wanted to stalk his gorgeous woman. I’m his wingman,” he says.
Chapter Nineteen
Lake
“She always get in this state?” I ask as Sara throws her arms around the neck of the doorman.
Jacob laughs. “This is her quite sober. You should see her when she really hits the bottle.”
I unpeel Sara from the doorman and warn her, “You carry on like this and I’ll be locking you in my room.”
She narrows her eyes. “Forget it. That life is not for me anymore,” she hisses. I make a mental note to ask her about that later, but for now, I concentrate on leading her through the packed streets so we can find a cab.
When we finally get back to the club, I feel relieved. I know I have Sara to myself here. She can’t get another man’s attention.
The club is a lot quieter than it was earlier, with only Riggs and Cree sitting at the bar with Storm.
I grab a bottle of beer and some water and head over to where Sara is now sitting alone. “What happened to Blade and Tillie?” I ask. We dropped Jacob home on our way here.
Sara screws her face up. “They were all over each other, horny bastards,” she mutters. “I don’t remember pregnancy hormones doing that to me.”
“G
lad to hear it,” I say, taking a seat. I place the water in front of her, and she screws her nose up.
“I caught Alaric having sex with my mum yesterday,” she blurts out.
I almost spit my beer out. “Shit!”
“I’m not upset because I care about him. I don’t. But why would she do that? Why would he?”
“Was it a one-off?” I ask.
She shakes her head sadly. “Before me and Alaric were even a thing, apparently.”
“Gross.”
“She must really hate me,” she mumbles.
“You don’t get on?” I ask. I knew they weren’t close, but I didn’t realise how bad things were.
“I was a fashion baby,” she says. “Always shoved into the limelight even when it wasn’t what I wanted. She cares about appearances and nothing else. It’s fine, I dealt with it long ago, but this just . . . well, it was another level.”
“Doesn’t your dad say anything?”
“He’s always too busy with his side piece. I don’t remember a time when he was ever there for us. He’s always working or with someone else. Maybe he’s happier away from Mum, but that meant I had to deal with her. They haven’t asked about Leo, not once.”
“They played the doting grandparents beautifully in the newspaper article,” I say, smirking.
“One day, I’m going to tell the truth about them and what it’s been like growing up with parents who care more about money and looking good than their own daughter.” Sara groans, “I have to work with that asshole.”
“Sara, you don’t have to work. I’m happy to support you and Leo,” I say. And before she can call me out, I add, “I know you want to be independent, and I know you want to do this on your own, but you’re the mother of my child and I want to help.”