Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 106284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
“What the hell? Are you sick?” Pres grimaces, stepping back, not crossing the threshold.
I walk in and take a seat on the edge of the mattress. The walls feel like they’re crumbling in on me. Claire follows my path with her eyes, her face becoming paler. She knows Pres is testing her, keeping her locked away while he decides if a death sentence is coming for her.
“Diamond’s fucking chili,” she sputters. “The baby doesn’t like it.”
My ears must be mistaken. What baby? I look around the room like one’s going to spring out of the bed sheets.
“What the fuck did you just say?” Pres takes a deadly step inside, sucking all the oxygen out of the room. Cowering against the trash can, she startles when the door slams closed and leaps to her feet, swiping at her mouth and resting a hand over her stomach.
Brothers had knocked up club sluts many times in the past, acting recklessly with their cocks, but Pres got snipped, never wanting more than Callan and Kit. If he wasn’t going to end her before, he will now. She’s been fucking around on him.
I’d never have to worry about this problem. I wore rubbers with everyone but Kit and shot blanks. Found out when I was fifteen and had forged my age on a sign-up sheet to sell my sperm. Wanted the money for a two-day rock festival. I didn’t think much about it at the time or while growing up. It didn’t bother me until I sank into Kit’s warm body and realized I’d never fill her belly with my kid. There would never be a picket fence or little Kitty’s and Cutter’s running around.
Pres’s scathing glare narrows in on Claire. “You know it’s not mine. Whose dick have you been bouncing on?”
Her body quakes, lips trembling as she tries to speak. Only a squeak comes out. No brother would be foolish enough to fuck the pres’s favorite girl. It’s an unwritten rule we all respected.
Desperate blue eyes bleed into me. “Cutter.” She forms the word, and I don’t know if I imagine her saying it or if she actually said it. “It’s Cutter’s baby.”
Yeah, she said it.
Brushing my hands through my hair, my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.
“Is that true? Is that why you’ve been asking after her?”
My head buzzes, the questions trying to fight through the alcohol haze and craziness of this situation. Claire needs me to claim this baby. It will probably be the only thing that stops the pres from putting a bullet in her brain. Kitty will be so fucking mad—mad enough to finally move on from me. Diamond’s words echo around my head.
“I’ve seen it so many times with club girls, but Kitty isn’t like them—don’t make her one. I can’t stand watching that girl’s heart break waiting on you to claim her.”
“It was a one-time thing, I was drunk.” The words leave my mouth as air, turning into binding cement once they land in my pres’s ears.
His large hand wraps around my throat, squeezing slightly, his angry face baring down on me. “If it were anyone else…” He shoves away from me and paces the room.
“It was one time, Jericho.”
“Shut the fuck up and don’t come near me if you value your life.”
Sniffling, Claire cuts her eyes to me, asking without saying the words to keep up the lie.
“I don’t want to fucking look at either of you,” Pres growls, picking up a chair and tossing it at her feet.
“I’ll go home,” she offers, gently sobbing.
“No.” He jabs a finger at her. “You’ll stay with your baby daddy until I tell you you can leave.”
“Wait—in my room?” She can’t stay in my room. Kit’s scent is still on my bedsheets. I need it there.
“You got a problem with that, asshole?”
“No.” I get to my feet, taking Claire by the arm. “I’m sorry, Pres.”
When we enter the hall, my thoughts whirl and collide, an anxious twinge spreading across my chest.
“He’s going to kill me, isn’t he?” Claire clings to me like I’m a life raft and she’s on the Titanic.
“No, not now.”
“Oh god, you saved my life again,” she chokes out, wrapping her arm around my neck, her body quivering against me.
I saved her life and ruined my own.
But maybe I’ve given Kitty hers back.
She’s going to hate me for real now.
CHAPTER 12
FAVORS
CUTTER
“Is it okay if I lie down for a bit? I don’t feel good.”
Staring at my bed, a hundred different images of Kitty burst to life in vivid color. I don’t want Claire’s scent eclipsing Kitty’s. It’ll be all I have left of her after she hears the news.
Pulling the comforter free, I hand it to her while I rip the sheet off and bundle it in my arms. “Now you can.”
She doesn’t question my crazy ass actions, just lays the blanket on the mattress and climbs onto my bed.