Page 91 of Dash

“Sorry, babe, but don’t worry, there’s a weirdo for every kink.”

She laughs, wet and thin, but it’s the best sound I’ve heard all day. “I’m allowed to say my feet are ugly. You’re not.”

I press a kiss to her forehead. “I never said they were ugly. Just hairy.”

Her smile fades. She’s looking at me as if she expects me to disappear in front of her eyes. “What happens now?”

“What do you want to happen?”

“I don’t know. This conversation isn’t going how I imagined.”

Right. Because she thought the minute she told me she’s pregnant, I’d run.

“You want to keep the kid?”

It kills me to ask it. The thought of her having an abortion takes me back to Kendall, but I’m not that kid, not anymore. That grief that burned through me at what she did wasn’t because she ended the pregnancy. It was because she did it without involving me.

She doesn’t answer, so I keep talking. “I’ll support whatever you want to do, Dayna, but all I ask is that you don’t push me out. Don’t keep me in the dark. If you want an abortion, we’ll do it together. I’ll come with you and sit in that fucking waitingroom until it’s done. If you want to keep the kid. I’ll build a fucking nursery. Just… don’t leave me guessing.”

Don’t let me find out about the course of my life by accident.

The way her eyes soften tells me she knows my words come from a place of grief.

Her fingers tangling in my hoodie, as if she can keep me tethered to her. “As scared as I am, as hard as it’s going to be, I want our baby.”

Relief floods me, but I don’t let it slide onto my face.

“Then we’ll have our baby, Dayna. You and me.” I kiss her. My lips brush against hers gently, telling her without words how fucking grateful and happy I am that she’s giving me this chance to be a father.

“Dash?” Riot’s voice cracks through the moment.

She tries to pull back, but I hold her in place as the door opens.

Riot takes us in with a sweep of his eyes. Mace is behind him, and I can hear another voice that’s probably Nic.

“She hurt?”

I shake my head. “No.”

The room becomes small as the guys pile in. The tension blooms, and Dayna doesn’t let go of my hoodie.

“You see the shooters?” Nic asks, cutting through the bullshit to the meat of the fucking problem.

“No. But they were aiming for me. Crawled along the kerb, waited until they identified me, and then pulled their weapons.”

Dayna’s fingers curl deeper into the shirt.

“I don’t know about anybody else, but I’m starting to get fucking pissed off with this shit,” Riot mutters.

“I’ll check the cameras in the area, see if anyone caught anything.” Mace crosses his arms over his chest. “You should get her home.”

I glance at Dayna, pale, trembling. I want to lock her in my apartment and barricade the fucking door.

“We need to go to the hospital first.”

Riot’s head snaps up. “Thought you said you wasn’t hurt.”

“She’s not.” I meet her gaze, trying to tell her with my eyes everything’s going to be fine. “We’re still going.”

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