Page 73 of Slayin Villain
I nodded.“Yeah.It’s time.”
Rachel’s voice was quiet.“So you’re just gonna go?”
“You can have him.”
Her lips puckered.“You think I want him after this?”
“I think we’re both exhausted trying to survive the wreckage of a man who couldn’t choose if his life depended on it.”
Eve set her drink down.“Say what you mean, Ember.This ain’t the kind of night for half-truths.”
I looked Rachel dead in the eye.“He kept sleeping with me because he thought I might be pregnant with his baby.That’s the only reason.It stopped being about fun the moment it got complicated.”
Rachel’s hands clenched around her glass.“You are pregnant.”
“Yeah,” I whispered.“But I don’t know if it’s his.And I was sleeping with Rome the whole time, too.”
Cece placed a gentle hand on the table.“You don’t have to stay to suffer.”
“I’m not,” I said, a little firmer now.“I’m leaving because I won’t raise a child where love is some kind of punishment.I won’t live in the middle of two men waiting to be claimed like property.”
Rachel sat back, eyes glossy.“I don’t want to raise mine around lies either.”
Eve exhaled and muttered, “Well, it’s about damn time.”
We all looked at her.
“You two needed this,” she said simply.“Truths.Hurt or not.We’re all we got at the end of the day.You want these men to grow up?Show them how women handle shit.With truth and teeth.”
Irish sauntered over just in time to catch that last bit.“Y’all settlin’ the biker world over fruity drinks?”
“Sit down and hush,” Cece said, patting the seat next to her.
He obeyed with a grin.
Rachel leaned forward, voice softer now.“You leaving for real?”
“I am.”
She studied me a moment longer.“Then I hope it’s everything you need it to be.”
It wasn’t forgiveness.
But maybe it was grace.
We sat in silence a while, the band switching to something slower, sadder.Eve finally stood, throwing her arm around both of us like she was keeping the peace with rhinestones and mascara.
“Let’s go listen to some damn music,” she said.“One last night on the town before the whole damn club burns down or grows up.”
I nodded and stood, hand brushing over my belly.
No matter what came next, tonight we weren’t rivals.
We were just women trying to survive the storm.
Chapter 32
Villain
