Page 7 of Broken

“Keep that shit up and you won’t have to worry about my mouth ever again,” Dani promises, her voice a hair past annoyance and entering the bitch zone. “In fact, it will be snapped shut so tight that no part of you will ever experience my mouth again.”

“Jesus, Maw, I don’t want to hear that shit,” Cowboy yells. He’s a year patched in with the club and their oldest child—an adopted son that still looks just like Crusher. They’re actually so much alike it’s uncanny.

“I didn’t want to walk intomykitchen and see what you were doing with your latest skank either, but it happened.

“Hayley ain’t a skank,” Cowboy mutters. Even he doesn’t sound like he’s sure, and he shouldn’t be. Hayley is the very definition of a skank. There’s not much good about that woman and I should know, I think I was just like her once upon a time. She’s desperate to hitch herself up to a man.

That isdefinitelynot me this time. No way, no how.

“She’s right. It’s going to cost me over twenty grand to redo that damn kitchen so Hellcat will get back to cooking the food I like and letting me do her on the bar like I love,” Crush adds in. At this point, I’m holding back a laugh.

“Twenty grand is cheap for a complete kitchen remodel,” Dani huffs.

“It is, and that’s why your son is going to do a lot of the labor,” Crusher agrees. Cowboy gives them a look, but wisely says nothing else.

“Crusher, you know you’re my man, but I’m not riding in that motherfucking minivan,” Dragon finally adds. “If I tried, my damn balls might fall off.”

“It’s not a minivan, it’s a Toyota Highlander. That’s an SUV, motherfucker.”

“It looks like a van. My Navigator? That’s an SUV.”

“Let’s get going, Gabby. Do you want to change first?” King interrupts and everyone turns to look at me.

“I don’t really want to go,” I grumble. “I know I’m fine.”

“How many kids you had besides the one currently living in your belly?” King questions. My lips thin out in annoyance and for some reason that makes him grin.

“I’m hungry. It takes all evening in urgent care. I’ll miss the barbecue,” I explain, hoping to still find some way to deter him.

“We’ll stop in town and get something,” he responds. I try to stare him down. He just stares back, his face blank.

“Fine,” I mutter, stomping off, mad and more than a little scared. I don’t know what to say to King and I really don’t want to talk about my pregnancy.

But I know King will.

Chapter 4

Gabby

I lookaround the small dairy bar and frown. To be honest, I’m sick of diners. If you work in one, you don’t want to eat at one either. Still, I’m thinking right now that a diner would be better than sitting on a picnic table under an umbrella with King staring at me while munching on his burger.

He took me to urgent care and sat in the lobby while they checked me out. When I came back outside, the nurse with me assured him I was doing fine. I gave him my I-told-you-so look and he gave me his grouchy face. Now, we’re here. We’ve not talked a lot. I don’t know why he’s not talking. As for myself, I don’t know what to say to King. He’s the only one besides Nicole who completely knows my past and took the time to be really nice to me when I felt like I was drowning. That’s big—huge, really. I don’t want to fuck it up and my history is enough to show that I only know how to do one thing—and that’s fuck everything up.

“What?” he prompts, making me realize that I’m staring at him.Crap.

“I told you this was a waste of time,” I mutter. I’m being bitchy and I shouldn’t. King was just worried and being nice by taking time out of his day to make sure me and the baby wereokay. It doesn’t change the fact that I came when I didn’t want to. It’s hard enough working when I feel like crap. Not being able to rest afterward has made this day very,verylong.

“And you keep telling me,” King responds, after taking a bite of his burger. I feel guilty, because if I think about it, I have said it a lot. Weirdly, he doesn’t seem upset. His eyes are sparkling, almost as if he finds me funny.

“Sorry,” I mutter. “I’m just really tired.”

“Maybe that’s because you’re trying to do too much. Besides, you’re not that far along. You should be off your feet. The first trimester is when babies are at risk the most. You need to make the father step up and do his part and quit trying to do everything.”

I blink. “How do you know that?”

“Married to a nurse. Was planning on putting my kid in her, building a life. She decided she wanted that life, but not with a man like me.”

“I think we already determined she was an idiot in our previous conversations. I just didn’t know she was a nurse in addition to being crazy and a bitch.” His lips twitch, but I keep going. “And I should know. Once upon a time, I was the queen of bitches.”

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