Page 7

Ryker

I was in a foul mood when I got back to the Dixie Reapers compound.

As Laken had stormed off, I’d gotten on my bike and taken off.

The last thing I’d wanted was to stick around.

My bike roared to a stop outside the clubhouse, as I decided what the hell I was going to do.

I didn’t know if Laken had acted on her own or if someone had put her up to it, but I was damn sure going to find out.

I slammed into the clubhouse and came to a halt, when I saw the devastated looks on the faces at the bar.

“Who the fuck died?” I asked.

One guy winced, and the VP shot me a glare. “You’d better fucking hope no one dies.”

What the hell? How was this shit my fault?

A small hand gripped my arm, and I looked down at the VP’s wife.

I couldn’t remember her name, but I’d met her briefly shortly after I got here.

She’d seemed nice, and not quite who I would have pictured paired with the older man.

Then again, I’d noticed all of the old ladies seemed to be quite bit younger than the bikers they were paired with.

“It’s Laken,” she said.

“What about that lying bitch?” I asked, my anger flaring all over again.

Tears gathered in the woman’s eyes and she bit her trembling lip. “There’s been an accident. Laken was…”

Laken was what? What kind of accident?

The VP came over and wrapped his arms around his wife. He spoke to me over the top of her head, his look unforgiving and accusing.

“Laken was hit by a car when she ran from you. She’s at the hospital, and that’s all we know right now. Flicker called and said there was blood everywhere.”

My breath froze in my lungs. Laken was hurt?

Yeah, I’d lashed out at her, and I was pissed that she’d used me.

But part of me still wanted her, still cared on some level.

I’d thought she was special, might even be someone I wanted around for a while.

I didn’t like the idea of her in a hospital bed.

And blood everywhere? Just how fucking badly had she been hurt?

There was this squeezing sensation in my chest, and it hurt to breathe for a minute.

Had I caused this? If I hadn’t lashed out at her…

The VP’s wife whispered something in his ear, and he shook his head.

“He needs to know,” the woman said.

“No, Ridley. That’s not for us to decide. We should have never ordered Laken to keep away from Ryker. It was her decision to make, and so is this. When she wakes up…”

“If,” Ridley said.

“No, when she wakes up, if she wants to tell him, then that’s up to her,” Venom said. “If we hadn’t tried to keep her away, then maybe none of this would have happened. It’s our fault he didn’t know who she was.”

I had a feeling I was missing something huge, and I wasn’t going to get answers by sitting around here.

There was only one hospital in town that I knew of, at least only one that I had seen, so I went back out to my bike and decided I’d go see Laken.

Maybe I’d been too harsh, and I should have let her explain.

I was used to women trying to use me to get my dad’s club, they’d done it since I turned sixteen and bulked up.

Yeah, I’d been mostly gone the last twenty years, but every time I was home the same shit happened.

But if I’d been wrong… If it really was my fault that she’d been hurt, I’d never forgive myself.

I’d killed people, beat the shit out of them, even killed females in Afghanistan who posed a threat to my team, but I’d never been responsible for hurting an innocent woman before.

And that it was Laken made my gut churn.

At the hospital, there was a line of bikes near the ER.

I parked alongside them and went in to check things out.

Flicker, Torch, Bull, and several others were in the waiting area.

All of them looked like they’d been beaten, and I figured that meant the news wasn’t good.

There was a heaviness in my chest as I tried not to think about what would happen if Laken died.

Was it that serious? Could I lose her before I ever really had her?

I approached Flicker, and he surged out of his seat, his hands clenched at his sides. If this really was my fault, then I wouldn’t stop him from beating the hell out of me, if that’s what he wanted to do. He’d have every right.

“You don’t deserve to be here,” Flicker said.

“Just tell me she’s all right.”

He looked away and refused to talk to me.

Bull pulled him down into a chair again, and I found an empty spot to sit and wait.

The minutes ticked by, and then an hour had passed.

The longer we waited, the more the tension grew in the small room.

By the time a harried-looking doctor appeared, I’d lost track of time and was starting to get really damn worried.

The doctor pulled a mask down under his chin and looked around the room.

“Laken Beaumont’s family?” the doctor asked.

“That’s us,” Flicker said, standing along with the other Dixie Reapers. I got to my feet and stood on the outer edge, wanting to hear that the man had to say, and yet feeling like I was an outsider. I guess I really was, even though I knew a part of Laken they didn’t.

“We were able to stop the bleeding. She has two cracked ribs, and there was some internal damage from the impact. She has a gash on her head that took twelve staples to close, and some bruising on her side from where the car hit her. We had to induce a coma in hopes the swelling in her brain will go down, but the baby is fine,” the doctor said.

At the word “baby” the Dixie Reapers turned to glare at me, and I felt like the world was beginning to tilt.

Laken was pregnant? So, she hadn’t taken the morning-after pill.

Had that been her plan all along, or was it just an accident?

I didn’t hear anything else the doctor had to say, but as he walked off, Flicker approached me.

“You got my sister pregnant, dickhead. And you nearly got her killed.”

“I didn’t mean for her to get hurt. And I’d thought she’d take the morning-after pill so she wouldn’t get pregnant.

I should have made sure she took it.” Not that she would have if her goal had been getting pregnant from the beginning.

She’d not seemed to pay me any attention in that bar until I’d run my hand up her leg, but what if she’d been baiting me.

Wouldn’t be the first time. But it was the first time anyone had actually caught me.

I’d always been super cautious and wrapped my dick… until Laken.

“Laken was on the Depo-Provera shot,” a soft voice said behind me. I turned and saw Isabella, the President’s wife. “She probably didn’t think she could get pregnant. I went with her when she had it done, and I don’t think she was scheduled to go back for another one until next week or week after.”

“She was on birth control?” I asked.

“You mean you fucked her and didn’t even ask?” Flicker asked. “What the fuck, man?”

“She told me to just pull out, but then…” I closed my mouth.

No way I was going to tell her brother that her pussy had felt so damn good I’d lost my head.

I’d already said too much before, not knowing she was related to a Dixie Reaper.

Fuck, the way I’d gone on about her, I’m surprised Flicker hadn’t strung me up by my balls that first day.

No guy wanted to hear about some guy fucking his sister.

“I’m going to go see my sister. And you,” Flicker said, pointing at me, “had better not fucking be here when I get back.”

“I’m not leaving,” I told him. “I need to talk to Laken.”

“No one’s talking to her thanks to you. Didn’t you hear the doctor? She’s in a coma.” Flicker turned on his booted heel and stormed off.

Isabella patted my arm. “Let him cool down, and he’ll eventually come around.

Laken means a lot to him, and not just because she’s his sister.

She came to live with him when she was a teenager because her mom died.

Flicker took her in, and she’s lived with him ever since.

No one’s allowed to touch her, she’s not allowed to work…

I don’t think she’s been on a date since she came to stay with him.

He’s a little obsessed with keeping her safe. ”

Torch studied me with his arms folded over his chest. “You need to decide how you’re going to handle this.

You have something of a reputation with the ladies, and it’s not a good one.

When Flicker found out you’d slept with his sister, he nearly came unglued.

I thought he was going to pound your ass into the pavement. ”

“Why didn’t he?” I asked.

“Because I told him to get his shit together and cool the fuck off. Laken’s a grown-ass woman, but Flicker’s never going to see her that way.

He’s twenty-one years older than Laken, and I sometimes think she’s more like a daughter to him than a sister.

Not because of the age difference but because he raised her the last five years,” Torch said.

“Other than the Dixie Reapers, she’s also the only family he has.

They have a dad out there somewhere, and possibly more half-siblings, but no one has heard their old man in a long-ass time. ”

“She’s carrying my kid,” I said.

Torch shrugged. “Is that all that matters to you? Because the kid will be taken care of. He or she is a Dixie Reaper, and Laken will have all the help she could ever need. We take care of our own. Any man in my club would lay down their lives for her and that kid.”