Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 70488 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70488 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
“Beau?” she said. “Is that the billionaire that owns that professional soccer team?”
“The one that Nettie, Boone’s wife, is on?” I nodded. “That’s him.”
“Oh,” she breathed. “The Dixie Wardens have some really important people in their fold.”
“That they do,” I confirmed just as the phone rang again. I hit answer almost immediately and said, “Tell me.”
“She swore me to secrecy,” he replied. “I can’t.”
“What if I guess?” I asked. “Will you confirm?”
“Yes,” he replied, sounding relieved.
Whatever was wrong with Katana had him worried, and keeping that worry bottled up inside was probably killing him.
“Cancer,” I guessed, going for the obvious one.
Beau blew out a long breath before saying, “Yes.”
My head hung even lower as I breathed, “Fuck.”
I knew it.
For years, it was always one of those things that was at the back of your mind. Our family had a rather aggressive breast cancer gene running through it. Every single female on my dad’s side had been affected by it.
My grandmother and aunt had died from it. Meanwhile, Heidi and Katana had yearly screenings for it.
Katana, however, had always said that she wouldn’t go through treatment for it if it was ever found out that she had it.
“And let me guess,” I said. “She said that she wouldn’t go through treatment.”
“You got it.” He sounded wrecked. “But there’s more.”
“Not sure how this could get any worse.”
“Katana is three months pregnant.”
“Fuck.”
“I went with her to her first doctor’s appointment with the oncologist,” he said. “That’s when she found out that she was also pregnant.”
“What the fuck?” I closed my eyes.
Bernice’s warm weight pushed into my side and her arms came around my arm, pressing me tight against her breast as she rested her head against my shoulder.
“As for whose kid it is, I don’t know. But she moved back to Sawtooth, so it has to be someone here.”
“The only people here that she would even consider are Dixie Wardens.”
“I know,” he said.
“I’ll find out who it is,” I said. “But this pregnancy could work to our advantage. When Aunt Lou was pregnant with Colder, she went through treatment after the first trimester, I think. She’ll want this baby to live, which means she’ll have to go through treatment at least until she has him or her.”
“I think she’s trying to pretend that it’ll all go away,” Beau said softly. “I was hoping y’all would call. None of my pleading is working on her.”
“I’ll call everyone,” I said. “We’ll work on her.” I hesitated. “You notice her around anyone at any of the parties lately?”
“Couple of people,” he said. “Thumper. And we know she wouldn’t go there. Bells, but that was also with Heidi around, so that’s probably a no-go. Then a couple of prospects. But she doesn’t trust easy, and she wouldn’t date them without them being fully patched in.”
“So we have no idea,” I surmised.
“None.”
We hung up, and my eyes lifted to stare at the food that Katana had delivered.
“What’s her deal with dating guys?” Bernice asked, not picking her head up from my shoulder.
Her touch felt like a calm sea in the middle of a raging storm.
I stood up, and she reluctantly let me go.
That hadn’t been my intention when I stood, so I reached for her and pulled her into my lap after I took a seat.
She came willingly, her head resting against mine.
“Katana comes with a whole lot of baggage,” I said. “I never knew what happened. Beau doesn’t even know what happened. But she’s pretty particular about only dating guys that are fully trustworthy. She sees them being patched into our club as fully vetted ‘good’ guys. She’ll date a Dixie Warden. She will not date any random man off the street. That’s why we think she’s with one of us.”
“And why not Shaw?”
Shaw.
“Why do you know Thumper’s real name?” I grumbled.
“Shaw.” She added emphasis to his name. “Hates that name. I can’t believe y’all call him that.”
“Katana gave him the name.” I grinned.
“I know,” she said. “He came in for a doctor’s appointment. Was having a…” She trailed off, remembering that she was law-bound not to disclose what Shaw had come in for. “Anyway, he gave me his real name. Then told us that he hated the name ‘Thumper’ with a passion. So, I’ll not be calling him by that name.” She sat up and leveled me with a look. “Now, talk.”
“Shaw,” I drawled, “wanted to ask Katana out. And eventually he did work up the courage. But before he could actually ask her out, he walked in on Katana calling him a ‘scared little rabbit’ when it came to domestication. They had a bit of an argument, and she started calling him ‘Thumper.’ It stuck.”
“Burn,” she said. “What makes you think that Shaw couldn’t be the father, though?”
I thought about it for a long moment before I said, “Mostly they fight like cats and dogs. I guess that doesn’t mean that they couldn’t have done it. But Katana is all about domestication. Thumper—Shaw—is all about living life to the fullest. Absolutely, positively, no settling down allowed for Shaw.”