Page 52 of In It for the Long Ride

“Those are fucking feds,” he growled.

“Just catching on, are ya?” I spat right back.

Mak and Demon wrestled him back and threw him outside.

“He had no fucking right!” Mark roared.

The two of them slammed against the plexiglass wall as Mak no doubt struggled to control the old bull.

“Shut the fuck up or I’ll violate you next.” I heard Mak return, in a tone that was surprisingly controlled.

“Violate me? You’ll violateme?” Mark yelled, his outrage obvious in his tone. “I’m her father. I had a right to know– A right to be there!”

“And this is why you weren’t,” Mak calmly responded.

I heard what sounded like a shove.

“Get it together!” he hissed at his father.

Mak returned, closing the door a little louder than I would have deemed necessary. Considering it was Mak, though, I wasjust thankful they still had a door. The last thing I needed was half the club locked up over property damage.

We sat there without any word for three hours. When the door opened next, it was Easy’s turn to walk inside.

“Brother,” I heaved, starting toward him.

We embraced and I thumped his back while he leant his weight to me for a moment.

“She’s gonna be alright, man. She’s home now,” I quietly encouraged.

“She’s covered in scars. She can’t even speak about half the shit he did to her,” he rambled, his voice never rising above a whisper and stretching until he gasped for the next breath to finish telling it. “She has several fractures. Some are new. Some are not. She’s sedated right now. Mark is with her. The doctors want me to send her to some place for recovery.”

He was shaking his head even as he said it. I could tell it would be a cold day in hell before anyone would convince him to let her out of the club’s sight.

“She just needs normal,” he stammered.

“No,” I quietly denied.

His eyes snapped to mine, and he squinted like he was about to tell me just how much value he placed in my opinion of what his wife needed.

“Normal is too much. She needs quiet. She needs boring. A period that is so peaceful and unstressed that she can let all the damn adrenaline and terror die down. She won’t know what normal is until that happens. You don’t just flip the lights out and close the door on something like that. It takes time and space to heal. She doesn’t have to go away for that, but who is gonna assure she gets it? Can you promise that not only is nothing going to happen this week, but that the routine will become so monotonous she can predict it in her sleep and trust it with every fiber of her being?”

He swallowed and dropped his gaze.

“You don’t have to send her away.” I put my hand on his shoulder, “But promise me—no matter what happens—you’ll protect her peace like your life depends on it, and don’t let anything, including her, stop you from getting the help she requires. If you love her and you want her to have a fighting chance, that’s what you do, Brother.”

“I’m going to see my sister,” Mak announced, brushing past us.

“Go with him,” I shot Banshee and Demon a look and they hurriedly did so.

I turned, ready to find something to drink and grab a quick bathroom break while everyone was free to move.

“That ain’t it,” Easy whispered.

The chill in his tone stopped me in my tracks.

“She’s at the end of her second trimester.”

I blinked and squinted like he was speaking a foreign language, “Huh?”

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