Riggs' Saviour (Kings Reapers MC) by Nicola Jane (affordable ebook reader txt) 📕

that area. The last one was two days ago. Now, I’ve gotta wait to see if they’ve gotten it all or if I have to try something else.”

“Like chemotherapy?” I ask, my voice shaky. I’d been searching up cancer treatments since I saw him at the hospital.

He nods. “And if I have that, the chance of us ever having another kid is unlikely.”

“I don’t care about having more kids,” I say. “You’re the most important thing in all this.”

He shakes his head with a look of disgust on his face. “I don’t expect you to stick around, Anna. I’m not the man you married.”

I shuffle closer and place a hand against his cheek. “Don’t say that. Why didn’t you tell me? All this could have been avoided.”

“I don’t want you with me out of pity. I can’t get a fucking erection. You know how that makes me feel?”

“None of that matters. I love you. I don’t care about the sex or kids.”

He pushes my hand away from his face. “You will. In time. I don’t know if things will get better or a shit tonne worse. I don’t want you looking after me. I never wanted you to know. Now that you do, I don’t feel better for it. Now, I’m stressed about you and how you’ll cope. Just walk away. It’s less complicated when you aren’t around.”

I recoil like he’s slapped me. “That’s not fair. You never gave me a chance to stay and fight for us with the whole truth out. If you’d have told me, I could have understood your behaviour. I thought you hated me, that you’d stopped loving me!”

“Maybe I have. Maybe that’s why I couldn’t bring myself to tell you.”

I swipe my tears away. “Stop pushing me away,” I snap. “It’s cruel.”

“I mean, how messed up is it that Raven noticed and you didn’t? What does that say about us?” A physical pain swells in my chest. I know he’s being like this so I’ll walk away, and right now, I’m considering it. “She’s been around, yah know, asking how I am. Making sure I rest and everyone leaves me the hell alone.” I can’t stop the flow of tears anymore. “She did the job you should have done.”

“Stop,” I whisper. “No more.”

“And she’s pretty, right? If my erection is gonna come back, then surely it’ll work for her.”

I clench my fists because slapping his smartass face will only make me feel shittier. His cruel eyes glare at me. He expects me to run. Instead, I lie beside him and leave my tears to fall. He should witness what his cruel words do to me.

RIGGS

I stare straight ahead, fixing my angry glare at the window. Why won’t she fucking leave? Her quiet sobs shake the bed. I’m angry she’s found out the truth. Now, she’ll hang around and I won’t know if that’s because she wants to be here out of love or if she feels duty-bound cos we’re married. I haven’t stopped drinking since my last round of therapy. I shouldn’t even be fucking drinking, but who was gonna stop me?

“Is it something I do?” she eventually whispers. When I don’t answer, she continues, “Am I the problem?”

“What do you mean?” I ask, sighing impatiently.

“Is it something I do to make men treat me like shit?”

Her words cut me like a knife to the heart. “No,” I mutter.

“Then why does it happen to me? When will I meet a guy who treats me like . . .” She pauses, thinking. “Like Vinn treats Leia?”

I scoff. “Vinn isn’t even with Leia. He’s just obsessed.”

“But he treats her so well. He doesn’t care that she’s with Chains. He would do anything for her. He even put me in one of his houses just because she asked him to.”

“Anna, you don’t do anything wrong,” I mutter. I feel like a shit bag. I drink the glass of water as my head feels fuzzy. “You just fall for arses like me.”

“You treated me like that once,” she says. “When we first met, I thought the world of you. You stuck me on a pedestal. Maybe that’s why it feels so much worse—you put me up so high and then kicked it from under me. Now, I don’t know how to get back to the woman you fell in love with.”

“You shouldn’t want to,” I say. “You deserve better.”

“It breaks my heart to know you didn’t trust me enough to tell me about this. I didn’t notice like Raven did. I guess I was too busy trying to be the perfect Pres’s wife. I wanted to make sure I was doing everything right, like your mum did for your dad. She gives so many tips, sometimes, I feel like I’m in way over my head.” She smiles, but it’s sad and empty. “Don’t ask too many questions, Anna. Make sure you’re there to listen, Anna. Don’t make decisions about Ziggy, Anna, but don’t pester the Pres with unimportant shit. You just have to stroke his ego, Anna, make him feel special so he doesn’t turn to a club girl.” She winces as fresh tears fall. “I got it all so wrong. I stopped being myself. I wanted to be like the other ol’ ladies, but it didn’t even work because in the end, you couldn’t talk to me.”

Guilt eats away at me and I pull her against my chest. She sobs harder. “I didn’t know you were under so much pressure,” I say into her hair. “I fell in love with you because you weren’t like the other women here. I liked that.”

“The women have so many rules. Rules for how to behave around other charters. How to fuck, depending on the mood of your man. Shit, they even decide what food to cook depending on what mood you’re in. This whole club works around you and how to please you. I feel so insignificant because I don’t know what rules apply when. We stopped having