Page 1 of Patchover Fright Night
Chapter One
It was so weird,waking up today to the realisation that it wasthefucking day. The day it’d all change. No more mixed up club with fucking warring cuts on our backs, because finally we’d be patched over officially, and all become Phoenix MC members.
I felt strangely conflicted about the whole thing. Not about being Phoenix MC again, because since I lost them, it was all I wanted, to get back what I’d lost, and even though that wasn’t about to happen the way I wanted it to, this was the future they were allowing me to have. I planned to take it with both hands, and not screw it up.
Soph was in the bathroom, and a second later, I realised why. The poor thing was throwing up again. I swear, we just needed to get a fucking pregnancy test and have done with it, but she wanted to see her doctor to get it confirmed properly, rather than relying on ‘crappy home kits that probably weren’t that accurate’. I got up and tapped on the door, hearing a pained groan from inside the bathroom.
“Baby, do you need me in there?”
She was silent for long enough that I tried the door, but it was locked.
“Soph? Are you okay?”
“Do I sound fucking okay?” She snapped, suddenly unlocking the door and wrenching it open, holding a hand over her stomach, like she was protecting the baby we were both convinced was already growing there.
“What time’s your appointment, Soph? Maybe they can give you something to help with the sickness.”
Those big blue eyes filled with tears, and I reached for her, but she shoved me away.
“What’s going on?”
She turned from me, turned her fucking back on me. What the hell was going on?
She brushed her teeth, and rinsed her mouth, while I stood there stewing, then turned and practically ran to me, her body crashing against mine as she sobbed quietly.
“Babe?”
“I’m… I’m scared, Micro.”
I led her to the bed, sitting her down, and crouching in front of her. I rubbed her thighs gently as she tried to calm herself. I got it now, by the way, she wouldn’t fucking come near me until she freshened up, because she’d been puking, but I didn’t care about stuff like that. I’d hold her no matter what.
“Talk to me, wife. You know I’ll kill all your fears for you.”
Her bottom lip trembled. “This isn’t something you can kill, Micro. What if it’s not what we’re hoping for? What if it’s not working, and there’s no baby after all? Maybe it’s food poisoning or something.”
Aw my sweet fucking woman. Honestly, she was so sure only bad things could happen to her, even though I thought we’d spent the last six months proving otherwise.
“Look at me, babe.Hear me. I’m fully on board with fucking you even more often, if that’s what it takes.”
She stared at me for a few seconds, giggling softly as she absorbed my words. Good. That’s better. All I wanted was to see her happy, smiling, not bogged down by fears.
“You’re insane, Micro. Lucky I love you anyway, huh?”
I thanked the fucking universe for that every single day, because an asshole like me had never deserved a woman like her, or to survive, but I got gifted with both, and I wasn’t letting either go.
“Babe, I’m the luckiest fucking man on the planet, but if you’re not pregnant, we’ll keep trying, and if you are? Then you can join me in looking forward to our future child, and all the crazy shit they’ll get up to. Wonder how small a motorbike I can get. Gotta start them young…” My voice trailed off as my joke suddenly soured, and memories of my childhood crashed down on me. Fuck no. I had to do better than him. I had tobebetter.
“Micro, look at me.” Now she was tilting my chin so I could meet those sweet eyes of hers, which showed so much compassion, that it was like she knew exactly where my mind had gone.
“You’re not him.” And yep, she’d fucking seen right into my fucked up head again. She was way too good for me, right?
“I’m gonna do my best not to be, baby. So let’s go get you poked and prodded by a doc… wait, it’s a woman, right? No man is touching you down there. I’ll fucking kill him first.”
She huffed out an irritated sigh, and shoved me aside, as she got up and stomped back to the bathroom. What? What did I say this time? Sometimes there was just no pleasing people.
Reacher
Iwatched from thewindow as Stitch oversaw the loading of bikes and vans, and my club brothers milled around, either following his orders, or mouthing off at him just to wind him up. This was the home I’d always wanted, and we’d made it happen. We’d created something amazing here. The hope was that we were about to do it again, over in Hampshire, so why was my gut churning, like something bad was going to happen? We were happy. Was that why I was waiting for the other shoe to drop?
