She had changed so much. Her words were stronger and the determination behind her eyes seemed to multiply into the thousands since I had left. And she was right, I didn’t have any leeway to demand anything of her or ask her for any sort of favors. But this changed everything. If she really was carrying my child, then she needed protection. Money. She needed a safe place to fall and a nursery. She needed diapers and formula if she didn’t want to breastfeed.
Shit, was she going to breastfeed?
Go after her, you imbecile.
As if my feet had been lit on fire, I rushed toward her waddling body. Her hips had blossomed into thick, luscious dollops of desire and her stomach had grown to accommodate the life she grew inside of her. And as my eyes traced over the juiciness of her body, my heart pounded in my throat.
Before I reached out and captured her arm. “Molly, please.”
She whipped around before yanking away from me. “I won’t tell you again. Get the hell away from me.”
I met her, step for step. “Is the child mine?”
She picked up the pace toward her car. “Cut it out, Cole.”
“That’s all I’m asking. If the child isn’t mine, I’ll leave right now.”
She snickered. “And if it is?”
We paused at her car as she let her dog in and I steeled myself against her words. “If it is, I have a right to know, whether or not I broke your heart. Because if you are pregnant with my child, then I want to find a way to contribute.”
She shook her head as she opened the driver’s side door. “Then, by all means, it’s not your child. Now, get the hell away from—”
I snatched up her arm and pulled her so close that I felt her breath pulsing against my lips. “Don’t you lie to me, Molly. Be better than me.”
Her eyes danced between mine before she swallowed hard. “Yes, Cole. The baby is yours.”
The anger that pooled in my stomach almost made me vomit. I was going to be a fucking father, and I had been the stupidest human being on the planet toward her. Toward the woman willingly carrying my kid. I softly settled her back onto her feet before I released her, uncertain of what would be good for the both of them. Was it better for them to have a degenerate in their life providing for them? Or would it be better to simply contribute from afar and leave them to it?
I can’t leave my child behind. I have to step up.
“I should have been there,” I murmured.
Molly dropped down into her seat. “I need to get home.”
I shook my head softly, gazing off into the horizon. “I should’ve been helping you. Protecting you. Finding you a place to stay with me. And instead I—”
The slamming of her car door caught my attention, but it was how quickly she locked it that made me jiggle the car doorknob the way I did. I begged her to open it, not caring how I looked or who heard me as I pleaded with the woman carrying my child to simply let me in. I told her I’d take the back seat. I told her I’d shut the fuck up. I just wanted to be with them. I wanted to protect them and keep an eye out, just in case something happened.
Just in case the life I didn’t think was possible for me was suddenly ripped away.
“Get a life,” Molly murmured.
“Molly, please. Just open the damn door!” I exclaimed.
But she slammed on the gas and peeled out of the parking space, barely missing my toe.
“Opie!” I called out before I whistled. “Come, boy! In the back seat!”
I didn’t think twice as I raced toward my convertible. I heard Opie barking and pounding the grass as he soared toward me. I leapt behind the steering wheel as Opie lunged his way into the backseat, and even though I knew I was leaving shit like his leash and his water bottle behind, I’d come back for them later. Or buy new ones.
All that mattered was catching up to Molly and our child she held within her.
I knew she wanted me to go away. I knew she wanted to be left alone. But that simply wasn’t possible. I peeled out of that parking space, backing up and throttling it to go forward so much that I kicked up the smell of burnt rubber with my tires. Molly had just gotten out of sight when I took a left out of the dog park and onto the main road. However, I weaved through traffic to quickly catch back up to her.
And followed her all the way back to her apartment.
“Is this the point where you start stalking me?” she asked as she got out of her car. “Because if it is, let me save us the time and I’ll call the cops now.”
I slammed my way out of my convertible after parking next to her. “All I need you to do is listen. You don’t have to respond or even agree after I’m done talking. Just listen to me.”
She shook her head as she snapped for her dog. “No, you don’t get that right. You lost that right when you left me standing right here feeling worthless and useless, like I was some masturbation rag you used and then tossed off to the side before going to work. Like an asshole.”
“All right, already! I get it! I suck! I’m a shithead! But I’m the shithead that got you pregnant, and when you chose to keep that child, you chose to keep a part of me in your life. And now that I know that child is mine, I want to help.”
She shrugged. “Should’ve thought about that before you made me out to be nothing more than—”
I gripped her upper arms. “I have PTSD.”
She blinked. “What does that have to do with anything.”
I sighed, hoping and praying that my last-ditch effort worked. “I know you always wanted me to open up more, but I never did. I need you to know that you pressing me to open up isn’t why I walked away. I didn’t walk away because of you. I walked away because I knew it would keep you safe.”
She moved out of my grip. “Why do you have PTSD?”
Just tell her. This might be your only chance. “I lost all of them, Molly. Every single one of them. We were—we were ambushed. A-a-and—”
Opie nuzzled against my hand, but then I felt something foreign. Something so strange and so lovely that I almost cried.
Molly cupped my cheek with her soft, warm, delicate hands.
“What happened?” she asked softly.
I swallowed hard, gazing into her sparkling eyes. “We were out on patrol and we were ambushed. It happened so quickly, and I was so young in my medic career, and we were just ambushed. The route was supposed to be okay. It was supposed to check out. A-a-and it didn’t. We were ambushed, and gunned down, and—and—”
“And you lost someone, didn’t you?”
I blinked back tears. “I lost all of them. All three of them. And Stokes, my best friend, he just died. Right there in my arms, you know? I kept begging him to not give up. To not leave me behind. But he just gave up and I couldn’t even be mad, you know?”
She smoothed her thumb against my cheek. “What happened after that?”
I sniffled hard. “I dragged them all to safety. I stole all of their guns and ammunition and took out every last fucker that dared to step into my line of fire. It was the longest fifteen minutes of my fucking life, and I gunned down every single one of those overrated, under-fucked cocksuckers. And then they gave me a damn medal for it.”
“Oh, Cole,” she whispered.
“I got my men killed, and they gave me a fucking medal for it.”
She cupped my other cheek as she stared intently into my watery gaze. “My father kidnapped me when I was ten.”
I paused. “Wait, what?”
She sighed as her hands slid away from my cheeks. “My father was abusive, and I watched him beat up on my mother every time she threw herself in front of me. She saved me from so much, and when she finally had the courage to walk away, I guess it was the only thing he could think to do to get back at her.”
“He—kidnapped you?”
She nodded slowly. “Yeah, he did. I was a car-rider in school, and he just pulled up and tugged me into his van.”
“Jesus, Molly. What the fuck happened after that?”
She shrugged, crossing her arms over her chest. “It’s sort of a blur. I remember kicking and screaming, a lot. I remember him pulling over and trying to tie my hands and wrists together.”
“Fucking hell,” I hissed.
“I flailed so hard while he was trying to put binds on me that I broke his nose. And when he let up on me, I jumped out of the van and ran as quickly as I could. I ran through the forests, getting swatted at my branches as I heard my father crooning for me. I waded through mud pits that came all the way up to my waist just so he wouldn’t have tracks or a scent to smell as he navigated through the woods because those were the kinds of tactics my mother had to teach me growing up. Tactics to survive, not thrive.”
It was my turn to cup her cheek, so I did. “You’re magnificent, you know that?”
She cleared her throat. “My point is, I have PTSD as well. Sometimes, something as simple as a smell will trigger such a harsh memory that I can’t breathe. And you can forget sleeping at night. I just take cat naps whenever I can. And my point with all of this is that we have so much more in common than you could ever imagine, and if you—”
I finished her statement, because I knew where she was going. “If I had stuck around long enough, I would have realized how perfect we are together.”
She sighed. “Yeah. That.”
I smoothed my thumb against her soft cheek. “I’m so sorry, Molly. I’m sorry I ever felt I had to leave you in order to protect you. I’m sorry that I used my bullshit and my life as an excuse not to pursue things with the most perfect woman I’d ever come across. I’m sorry that I let my fear get in the way of us, but if you give me another chance—just one last chance—I promise never to make a fool out of you again.”
She quirked an eyebrow. “Never again?”
I shook my head. “Never again.”
She narrowed her eyes. “It’s going to take a lot more than a simple apology to get back on track.”
I cupped both of her cheeks. “You name your terms, and I’ll abide by every single one.”
She took a step toward me. “Fine, all right. Then, we start with this term: every Saturday evening is mine to have with you. I don’t care what you have to do at work or who you have to call, but Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings are ours.”
I nodded. “Done.”
She took another step toward me. “Also, if you really want to step up in this child’s life, the next few purchases are on you. I still have things I need for the nursery, but I don’t have the disposable income right now to get what I need.”
I took a step toward her, closing the distance between us. “You and our child will never worry about money again. You have my word. Any other terms?”
She sighed. “Stop fucking hiding away from me. Stop thinking that you have to save me from something. Stop pretending like your life is some ticking time bomb, and you need to—”
“Shh,” I whispered.
She scoffed. “Sorry, what?”
A roar quickly came toward us and I turned around. “Get behind me and hush.”
“Uh, I’m sorry, did you literally not her what I just said?”
“Molly, you just have to—”
The second I saw the bikes crest the corner of the road her complex sat on, I knew we were in trouble. I whipped around and tried to get Molly up the steps, but she dug her heels in and made my job that much harder.
“Cole! Cut it out!” she exclaimed.
I gripped her chin. “Look, I know you don’t like this, but we have to get upstairs. Now.”
“Who are those guys? What’s happening? Why are they—no!”
In a flash, my head was ripped back. Molly screamed out for help as I collapsed against the pavement before boots stomped against my ribcage.
“Molly!” I roared.
“Cole! No, get your fucking hands off—Cole! They’re—AH!”
Through the chaos and the carnage, I watched them shove Molly into the van. She tumbled onto her stomach and I growled out, forcing myself up onto my feet. A fist clocked me in my jaw and I stumbled to my left, trying to keep my eyes on the van so I could memorize every detail.
“Cole, please!” Molly shrieked.
There were too many of them, though. I was swarmed with Black Flag bastards as they harassed me and hurt me just enough to keep me on my knees. I listened as the van peeled away from the apartment complex, carrying with it the entirety of my life.
But my shock and anger had nothing on the fear that rushed through my veins when those assholes finally retreated, leaving me bleeding and bruised as I called Tanner.
“This is Tanner,” he said.
I groaned. “Tan, it’s me. The Black Flags, they—they, uh–.”
“Dude, where the hell are you?” he hissed over the phone. “Everyone’s been trying to get in touch with you.”
I stumbled over to my bike. “Molly. They have Molly. She’s pregnant, and she fell onto her stomach in a van, and they have–.”
“They have all of the girls, Cole.”
I froze next to my bike. “What?”
“They have all of them. They took all of them. You need to get to the clubhouse as soon as possible. Because we have a very serious situation on our hands.”
