Page 53 of Slayin Villain
Villain turned first.“What?”
Rome looked like he’d been ready to follow me earlier, but now I made him freeze.
“I’m not yours, Rome.You only want me when someone else does.”
He opened his mouth, but I raised a hand.
“And you?”I looked at Villain.“You keep saying nothing matters, but I’m carrying something that says otherwise.”
He swallowed hard.
I stepped between them.
“I’m not a sweetbutt.I’m not a secret.I’m not some placeholder until you get your shit straight.I’m pregnant.I’m scared.And I’m done waiting for either of you to grow up.”
Villain reached for me.“Ember…”
I backed up.“No.Don’t call my name unless you mean it.”
Rome tried to speak, but I shook my head.
“You want me?You show up.You pick me.You fight for me.Otherwise, don’t say a damn word.”
And then I walked.
My boots crunching gravel.My chest aching.But for the first time in weeks, I felt power in every step.
Not because I won.
But because I finally knew I deserved better than the war, they’d made me fight alone.
Chapter 22
Rachel
I sat in the back corner of Royal Road’s bar, longing for the sharp burn of cheap bourbon tracing my throat like punishment I deserved.But I couldn’t drink.I was pregnant.I sipped a diet soda.
The club was quieter than usual.Like the storm that ripped through all of us left debris no one wanted to clean up.
Including me.
I hadn’t planned to show up again, not after everything.But something about sitting alone in my trailer, half a pint of cookie dough ice cream melting in my lap, crying at the sound of Villain’s name echoing in my own mind.It drove me here.
Back to the chaos.Back to the pain.Back to the goddamn beginning.
“You look like hell,” a voice drawled beside me.
I didn’t have to look up.That southern accent was all sass and spice.
“Nice to see you too, Eve,” I muttered.
Eve slid onto the barstool next to me, her long legs in skintight leather pants that could start a bar brawl just by walking past the wrong guy.She wore her ‘Property of Kingpin’ patch proud, glitter eyeliner sparkling like she wasn’t carrying the weight of the MC world on her shoulders and in her baby bump.
“Girl, you’re not even hiding it.You got that look.That I let a biker break me, but I still miss the way he says my name look,” she said.
I exhaled.“Because that’s exactly what happened.”
Eve waved the bartender over and ordered me a protein shake, “You ready to talk about it?”
