Page 59 of Gluttony

Unknown: Your sweet Valentina…hope she doesn’t mind being called a homewrecking slut.

He growled, rage filling his gaze with crimson. How dare that bitch threaten Valentina?

Unknown: Don’t worry. I see her right now. That fatty is always getting food! I’ll tell her about the baby for you.

Seized with panic and urgency, Red hurried from his office, ignoring Locust who called out to him from the bar, and hurrying to his bike. He needed to get to Valentina before Shannon did; he had no idea what crazy shit Shannon would tell Val, and he definitely didn’t want the psycho to tell Val that her baby was his.

Goddamn it!

He’d just gotten Val to commit to being with him, he’d just come off the best weekend of his life with the woman he loved—he’d be damned if Shannon’s bullshit made Val rabbit. She was still skittish, still wary, and she’d already admitted her problem with being confronted by Red’s past in public. And there was Shannon, spying, stalking, and now crazy talking about making Val the homewrecker.

Mounting his bike, he pulled his phone out to check Val’s location. Yeah, he’d planted tracking software in her phone, but the cyber genius she was would find it, and she could easily disable the signal. If she wanted.

There. It was live and strong.

She was at a grocery store not even five miles away. With Shannon.

Shit!

Holy fuck, he hoped he got there in time…. If he lost Val because of the mistake he made in fucking Shannon, his life was over.

TWENTY

By the timeRed roared into the grocery store parking lot, Val’s blinking dot had moved on. She was home, but that didn’t mean she was safe from whatever the hell Shannon had planned.

Not even taking a moment to breathe, he spun from the lot and pointed his bike toward Val’s place.

Fuck, he really hoped he got there before Shannon showed her crazy. The woman hadn’t taken being kicked from the clubhouse well. She’d taken to parking across the street and watching the place, and calling and texting him. He’d blocked her on all his social media accounts, but he knew how easy it was to just create another profile. Fuck, it was a good thing he’d already decided to pull back from his social media shit; this craziness with Shannon was a sign that he’d been coasting along, living the life of a thirst trap star, without any of the consequences. Until now. No, he hadn’t fucked Shannon because he was making a Reel, but she, no doubt, had known who he was in that gym, and she’d set her sights on him, thinking she’d get her piece of him. Thank fuck that baby wasn't his.

But if she tells Val that baby is mine….He couldn’t even begin to comprehend how fucked up everything would be. Val would be hurt, she’d feel betrayed, and he’d lose her for good.

No! I won’t let her walk away from me, from us. I’ll just make her listen to the truth. She’ll believe me!

She had to.

A few blocks from Val’s place, he noticed red and blue lights ahead, turning down the street toward Val’s house.

Suddenly, his heart was in his guts, and both were bleeding out.

Oh, God, what the hell happened?

He cranked up the speed, desperate to get to his woman, to see that she was safe.

As he peeled to a stop behind the police cars, he’d barely put the kickstand down before he heard it. The screeching.

“He’s mine, you fucking bitch! I’m carrying his baby—it’s me he wants! You can’t have him!”

Holy fuck! Shannon!

Driven by the urge to see his woman, to know she was safe, he ignored the people gathering in the street and hurried around the cop cars to Val’s yard.

Immediately, he saw her…and Shannon.

Shannon was flailing against the hold of two police officers, her face red, her crazy eyes wide, as she screamed at Val, who was standing there beside her car, pale, her arms crossed.

He was beside her in a blink, wrapping his arms around her.

She melted into him, shuddering.

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