Page 20

EMBER

“The guys are going to be busy for a while,” Ivy announces, coming in the room with Sutton, Isabelle, Josphine, Stella, Everleigh, London, and Bristol all in tow.

“Where are all the kiddos?” I ask, scooting up just a bit on the bed.

“They’re all in the playroom, except for August, he’s down for a nap,” Josephine says, holding up a baby monitor while climbing up onto the bed and sitting cross-legged.

“We figured we’d come hang out with you, so you weren’t alone,” Ivy remarks, climbing in next to me.

The bed wasn’t big enough for everyone, but they all managed to find somewhere on the bed. Doing something like this isn’t something I’m used to. It’s strange, yet nice in a way.

“I know you probably thought you’d just lay in here and be left alone, but that’s not how any of us roll,” Sutton states, smirking. “We have lots to catch up on.”

“Like how things are going with you and Cerberus,” Bristol adds.

“Um, good, I suppose.” I shrug.

Ivy giggles and shakes her head. “We’ve never given her the full rundown of how things happened with our men and us.”

“We should definitely enlighten her about what we’ve all dealt with before we actually got with our men.” Josephine grins.

“First, let’s get the pizza,” Stella says, waving her hand. “Prospect at the gate just let me know our pizza was here.”

“Pizza?” Seriously. I didn’t think I was going to be eating pizza anytime soon. I figured Stella would keep me on a certain diet because I was still healing.

“Yeah, why not? Pizza is healing.” Ivy grins. “That and Buffalo wings.”

A few moments later, there’s a knock at the door. Stella and Sutton climb off the bed and open it. The two of them come back to the bed with three boxes of pizza and one with wings. They also had paper plates, napkins, and wet wipes. Even better, they had ranch for the wings.

They all divvy up the pizza while starting their stories. I knew some of the bits of it and what they all went through, but listening to them now, it’s like listening to war stories.

My heart hurts for what Bristol went through.

The fact she has Beast in her corner makes me happy.

Ivy’s mother was a pure bitch in my opinion.

She doesn’t tell me if they ever got even with the club that took Sutton because of the debt her uncle wanted her to pay.

Josephine surprised me when she said she was ready to get back into motorcross.

I didn’t even know she raced. Stella explained how she’d gotten pregnant after one night with Angel and was going to leave, but he made her stay.

With what happened to London, I knew most of it since I was back and around.

Listening to their stories, I knew they’d understand me more than anyone, so I ended up opening up to them.

Over pizza and wings, I tell them about Halloween night when I was raped.

I tell them how I dated Cerberus before leaving for college and how he broke my heart back then.

I even tell them about my relationship with Dex.

I finally get to the part of what happened with Samir.

The last of what I tell them is how Cerberus cleared things up for me about what happened so long ago and how I was going to be his.

They all get wide-eyed when I tell them about what he said throughout the first few days he was put in charge of my protection.

Throughout it all, no one interrupts me.

I just talk and tell them everything. Honestly, I have to admit it’s nice.

I like being able to open up with them. Knowing their stories and the fact they shared them with me makes it that much easier.

It’s like a weight is lifted off me, and I couldn’t appreciate them all the more for it.

Finally, when we’re all done, the air lightens up in the room, and they start joking about how Styxx needs to find himself a woman to have a kid with, so he’d leave Josephine’s baby alone.

The man was constantly trying to take Aug with him which them made Scythe lose his shit.

The two of them were twins and shared a bond, and Styxx now claimed that Aug was his too, because he claimed Uncle rights to have the kid every chance he could.

“You know it wouldn’t be so bad if Aug didn’t cry until his uncle picked him up. I swear my baby thinks Styxx is his parent and not Scythe or me. Scythe has mentioned shooting his brother more than once.”

“Scythe might say as such, but there’s no way he’d kill his brother,” Ivy says, though she does it laughing. “Shoot, you should have seen Reaper’s expression when I told him we were gonna have another baby.”

“Oh, I’ve heard about it.” Sutton snorts. “Tombstone told me that’s why Reaper was in such a bad mood.”

“I don’t think he was ready for another baby,” Ivy confesses. “He’s a great dad to our twins.”

“He had practice with raising me,” I tell her. “I might have been twelve at the time, but he still helped raise me along with Tombstone and Angel.”

“Yeah, he did.” Ivy smiles. “What I think it comes down to is all the shit that went down while I was pregnant.”

“I could see it,” Isabel says softly. “He’ll have to get over it, though. Nothing’s going to happen to you. Not again.”

“You know what I think?” London asks.

“What?” Everyone speaks up at the same time.

“I think after all pregger women have popped, we should do a day of going four-wheeling. I haven’t been on one in years. I wouldn’t mind going mudding. ”

“That’s a great idea,” Everleigh shouts, smile beaming. “We totally need to do this. Girls’ weekend at the mud park.”

“Think we’d be able to pull it off?” Ivy asks, glancing at me. “We’d have to leave kids with their dads and find a way for them to agree.”

“There’s no way we’ll be able to pull off a whole weekend. We wouldn’t be able to do a day, but we could figure something out,” Josephine remarks.

“Tell them we’re going shopping and then leave them a note.” Isabel snickers.

“You realize who our men are? They’d see right through it.”

“You got that right.” Bristol snorts.

Conversation flows. Ideas are created. They have time to figure everything out.

As I listen to them all, something I hadn’t thought about since the day I was shot pops in my head, and my breathing becomes shallow. Looking at Stella, I blurt out the question I need the answers to most. “How early can you tell if you’re pregnant?”

“Do you think you are?” Stella asks, watching me closely.

“I’m not on birth control, and Cerberus didn’t use a condom.”

“What is it with these men and not using condoms?” Everleigh huffs.

“It’s like they don’t know what one is when it comes to their women,” London says, shaking her head. “Like they don’t care if they get us pregnant or not.”

“Some would say it’s their way of trapping us.” Ivy sighs and leans back against the headboard, hand resting on her stomach. “I think it’s not that, though. Those men, when they see what they want, don’t waste time making it happen.”

“We could possibly do a blood test,” Stella suggests. “We have supplies here at the clubhouse, so I can do that here. I can take the blood to the hospital and run it there for the results. Or we can wait a couple more weeks, and you can take a home test. Is this something you want?”

Would I want a baby?

Not just any baby. Cerberus’s baby. I could see it in my head. I used to dream about it when we dated. But now? “I’d want it,” I find myself whispering.

“Then we’ll draw your blood and get it tested.” Stella nods and gives me a small smile, then changes the subject.

Thankfully, conversation flows easily again. They stick around until the door opens and Cerberus steps into the room. No one says a word when we all see he’s got blood coating his hands, his face unreadable.

“Guess they’re done,” Ivy says, climbing off the bed. “Let’s get this all cleaned up and leave them be. We need to check on kids anyway.”

All the women leave, telling me to call them if I need anything. The entire time, I stand there watching Cerberus watching me.