Twisted Steel: An MC Anthology: Second Edition by Elizabeth Knox (top 5 ebook reader txt) 📕

At the term “ol’ ladies,” her nose wrinkled. I leaned down to kiss the tip of it as I grinned.

“Don’t call me old,” she grumbled.

“It’s actually a term of endearment,” I said, and she snorted in disbelief. “It’s true,” I argued. Her expression told me she still didn’t buy it, but I’d have Steph, Kassi, and Sera talk to her to explain it better than I could.

“Where did you go today?” She gave me a belligerent scowl. I sighed.

“Club business,” I evasively replied. There was no way I’d tell her we broke back into Chet’s house and returned the phone to where she’d described it being. He might know it had been messed with, but hopefully he hadn’t checked yet. We also thoroughly searched the house and planted a few listening devices.

If it was the last thing I did, I was going to nail his ass for the shit he’d been doing. After talking with Venom, I also found out he was one of the cops who’d given his ol’ lady, Loralei, a bunch of shit while she was here.

Fucking asshole.

“Hmpf!” she huffed.

“Look, I’m not trying to be a dick, but there are some things that are better you don’t know.” She appeared to be mulling over what I’d said as she picked at nonexistent lint on the covers she’d slipped under.

When she didn’t say anything, I joined her under the bed linens and gathered her close. Her head lay on my chest, leg twined with mine, and hand resting over my pounding heart. This was extremely difficult for me, and I was tempted to let it lie, but I couldn’t. What I’d admitted to her was huge.

As I spoke, I sifted her silken honey-colored hair through my fingers.

“You’ve told me you’re not old, you’ve griped about me marking my territory, and you’ve been pissed at me for being gone today, but you haven’t actually addressed what I told you. I know what I said when we started our arrangement, but somewhere along the line, things changed. The joke was definitely on me when we made that agreement, because I had no idea how easily you’d get under my skin. The thought of you being with anyone else makes my chest feel like my heart is rotting inside it. I’ll never force you to stay with me if you don’t feel the same, but I want you in more than my bed—I want you in my life. You mean something to me. I—You somehow found a way to make me love you,” I ended in an amazed whisper. I’d poured my heart out like a fucking pussy, but it needed to be said. With bated breath, I waited for her to say something.

She inhaled deeply and let out a shuddering exhale. Her fingers clutched me like she never wanted to let me go. Right when I thought she had chickened out or I was a fool, she dropped a bomb on me that changed everything.

“I’m pregnant,” she whispered.

If the world had split in two and I’d fallen through, I couldn’t have been more stunned.

And devastated.

Fighting to breathe, I moved her off me and sat on the edge of the bed. Betrayal ripped through me, and pain like nothing I’d experienced ravaged me.

“Luke?” she whispered, oblivious to the fact that she’d ruined us with her statement.

As stoically as I could when my rib cage was in a vise and I couldn’t expand my lungs to breathe, I stood. Leaving my back to her because I was afraid to look at her in case I weakened, I told her, “Nice try, honey, but it ain’t mine. I’ve had a vasectomy.”

Forcing one foot in front of the other, I went to the bathroom doorway.

“Luke!” Her strangled shout snapped through me like a bullet. I flinched when her hand curled around my bicep. She ducked under my arm, wrapped in the sheet, holding it by one hand.

“I’ll get you moved to the guest room. I won’t turn you out, but you can’t stay in here.” Through each word, I refused to meet her silver gaze. If I did, I might crack. I’d let her have such power over me that I was tempted to tell her it didn’t matter if she’d cheated or was lying to me.

“Goddamn it, Luke! Now who’s being childish? Look at me!” she demanded, but I stubbornly refused. “My name isn’t honey, and we also used condoms. Considering you’re the only motherfucker I’ve slept with in the last two years, we have a problem. Either your procedure didn’t work or it was the immaculate conception of the second coming, which I doubt. Regardless, it sure as hell is yours!”

Roughly, I dragged a hand through my hair and then down my face. My heart wanted to believe her so fucking bad. A small voice in the back of my head said that she wasn’t deceitful, but I couldn’t wrap my head around it.

I needed some time.

Gently, I moved her out of the way, then closed the bathroom door and locked it. She pounded on the other side as she yelled my name. I bowed my head and leaned it on the wood. Gutted didn’t begin to describe how I was feeling.

I hadn’t lied. I loved her. Heart and soul. But she’d sliced me open in one fell swoop, and I was reeling.

Silence fell as she quit beating on the door. Unable to stand the smell of her on me because it was making me want to crawl back out there and tell her it didn’t matter, I still loved her, I got in the shower. The water hadn’t heated yet, and I sucked in a startled breath as the cold hit me.

The water had gotten hot, then cold again before the pounding started once more.

“Stop!” I roared.

While the pounding ended, I heard Reaper’s voice. “Prez, you need to come out here.”

Defeat heavy in my heart, I stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel low on my