Page 46 of Hendrix

Anna had told me weeks before how she’d always love me, and my ego thought that would be enough to stop her going through with it. Anna put up with a lot of my bullshit while I took my time getting with the program and coming to the realization that she was mine. It was a given that she’d get sick of my back-and-forth bullshit and move on.

But I was still shocked as shit when she did.

Jeez, I was such a fucking tool back then. Egotistical and entitled. I fucked around and found out to my cost. Women like Anna were the type to bend over backward to accommodate men like me, men who tried to work out what was important (in my case... her). However, she also wasn’t the pushover I played her for the instant I closed down communication. I’d moved away without even a conversation to explain my thought process, though if I was honest with myself, I’d played her way before that.

See? Tool. Egotistical. Entitled.

That was me all over.

You could add fucking dumbfuck, numbskull idiot into the equation, too.

But anyway... I digress.

When she walked out of that church with the bells ringing for the happy occasion and confetti falling around her beautiful face, my soul died. Although I’d given her no choice but to walk away, a part of me couldn’t believe what she’d done to me—to us.

With the burn of emotion sweeping through my throat like an out-of-control wildfire, I jerked my helmet on, revved up my ride, and got the hell out of there, suddenly feeling like a broken man.

That was three years ago, and I hadn’t seen her since, but I’d dreamed about her. Not at first—initially, I was so fucking mad at her that I did everything to prove to myself that I didn’t care; however, all I managed to prove was that I did care, more than I ever thought possible. Then, I kept telling myself it was for the best. Anna wanted kids and a family, and I wasn’t built that way. I lived my life wild and free, and all she wanted was to be tied to somebody.

It took me no time to realize I’d made the biggest mistake of my life; one I couldn’t rectify because she was married. Somebody else had given her everything she’d yearned for. Another man held her at night, and I had to accept he’d make her dreams of being a mother come true one day, too.

The most fucked-up thing about my big ol’ come-to-Jesus moment was that, in hindsight, giving Anna Bouchard a baby wouldn’t have been so bad.

In fact, it would’ve been beautiful.

It was true what everyone said... you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone, and Anna was definitely gone... until today.

And now I had a dilemma.

If I wanted Anna Bouchard in my life, I’d have to be raw and vulnerable, open up, soften, and fundamentally change who I was. I’d have to be wise, nurturing, steadfast, strong, unwavering, dedicated, and loving.

And now I’d also have to be something I never thought I’d be, something that frightened the bejesus outta me.

I’d have to be a father.

Fuck!

CHAPTER NINE

ANNA

Ihadn’t slept a wink. Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was my husband lying in a puddle of blood, staring vacantly at nothing.

After Breaker ushered me out of my house, he ensconced me in a black SUV, wrapped me in a warm blanket, and made sure I drank some water. Within minutes, Hendrix and his men joined us, and we sped off to an airfield, boarded a private plane, and flew to a different private airfield just outside Potomac.

Hendrix sat alone for the entire flight, looking out the window at the inky black sky, brooding his ass off. He didn’t explain anything or talk to me about what was about to happen. He didn’t even look at me.

I rolled my eyes and left him to it. He always was a self-centered bastard. In twenty-four hours, I’d been beaten by my husband, jeered at by his family, and locked in my room before hearing my husband’s murder and seeing him dead on the floor with blood oozing out of his neck and arm.

Jameson ‘Hendrix’ Quinn needed to get with the program and understand that sometimes, it wasn’t all about him. He may have been accustomed to dead bodies, murder, and shoot-outs, but I was still processing the shit I heard and saw. Plus, it didn’t help that my hormones were out of whack.

I’d always known what the Speed Demons were. I’d witnessed the trouble in town between them, the old mayor, and the rival biker club that caused issues for years, but I wasn’t deep enough in the club to bear witness to their war.

This was all new to me, so the longer he ignored me, the more pissed I got. Would it have been so hard for Hendrix to ask me how I was doing? Especially after everything we used to mean to each other. I knew my pregnancy came as a shock to him, but it really wasn’t his business because that was the way he’d made it.

It was the early hours of the morning by the time we got to his clubhouse. I was exhausted and half-asleep, so I didn’t even protest when he flung the SUV door open, pulled me into his arms, and carried me bridal-style into the hotel.

Within minutes, I was stripped down to my underwear and tucked up in a warm, cozy bed. It took me seconds to fall into a deep, dream-filled sleep until ten minutes ago, when I’d awoken with a start.

---