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“She’s claimed,” Haze says, his fingers rubbing soothing circles on my stomach. “By me. She’s mine. You don’t speak to her that way, Daisy.”

“No, you don’t,” Ora seethes, stepping closer to Daisy. “That’s my best friend you’re speaking to, and if you think I won’t get your ass kicked out of here, you have another thing coming.”

“The men won’t want me to leave,” Daisy replies, smiling now.

If she weren’t pregnant, I’d be tempted to slap that smug look right off her face.

Ora tilts her head to the side, stroking her own pregnant belly. “You might have a purpose here, but if you think for a second you’re not replaceable, you’re more stupid than you look. I can’t wait until you do the paternity test, so then we can resolve this once and for all.” Ora’s eyes snap to Haze’s. “And then you become the problem of whoever was dumb enough not to pull out.”

Ouch.

Daisy storms off, but not before looking back and throwing Haze an angry look. Haze ignores her and tucks an untamed curl back behind my ear, whispering into it, “You never did like anyone speaking badly about me, did you, Luella?”

His words bring me back to reality faster than anything else. He’s right. No one could ever say a bad word about Hayden in my presence. But that was before he left and cut me off. He didn’t even bother to keep in touch. No letters, text messages, nothing. He had gone from being my favorite person to us having no contact.

“If only you had the same loyalty to me,” I murmur, stepping out of his embrace.

I walk away, and he lets me.

Having so much history with him hurts.

We should have had a much different life together.

We could have had that life.

Instead, he might be about to have a baby.

And as for me?

I can’t seem to live with or without him.

HAZE

“Can we talk?” I ask later that night, and Luella nods, opening her door for me to enter. I’ve been handling all of this wrong. To move forward, we need to talk about our past, and ignoring it isn’t fucking working. I’m not someone who likes to talk about how they feel. I don’t know any bikers in our clubhouse who do, but if I want Luella, I’m going to have to give her something.

Right now, I’m putting myself out of my comfort zone, forcing myself to have an honest conversation. Communication is key, right? I heard Ora say that once. I’d rather communicate how I feel about her by laying her back on the bed and tasting her pussy until she screams my name and figures out she’s mine, but maybe I can do that afterward. I haven’t fucked anyone since I saw her at that clubhouse party, and for someone who usually fucks multiple women every night, it’s been a big change for me.

But she’s worth it, and I’m going to prove that.

Sex chases away my demons, and without it, I have to face them. A big part of that is having to accept the reality about my sister, Aspen. I haven’t mentioned her to Luella since we reconnected, and neither has she.

My sister has been the elephant in the room between us, and I think it’s time we both said our peace.

Luella sits on the bed, perched right on the edge, looking uncomfortable as hell. I take the chair next to the bed.

“Why don’t you ever ask about Aspen?” I start, licking my suddenly dry lips. Her green eyes widen at my question, and she starts to wring her hands together.

“I mean, what is there to say? We were best friends until we weren’t. And then you moved away. I haven’t seen or heard from her since.”

I suppose for her, it was that simple.

She got to walk away from her childhood best friend, but as her brother, I didn’t have that luxury.

“Aspen had started taking hard-core drugs, which I’m guessing you knew about. I don’t know if you knew how bad it had gotten, though, because she had turned her back on you by then. But my mom found her with track marks on her arm. That’s why we moved away,” I explain. “You know she tried to blame you, saying you got her into the drugs.”

Her brows furrow. “I’ve never done any of those drugs in my life, not back then and definitely not now.”

“I know.”