Page 83 of Silver Fox Daddies

“Okay.” Natasha checks her watch for the time. “It’s done.”

I shut my eyes. “Look for me. I can’t.”

She takes the test and looks at it.

I watch her eyes.

And they go wide.

“No pranks,” I say. “What is it?”

“It’s positive, M.”

My heart leaps out of my chest, my ears hearing her words but my mind not registering. “What?” A tear slips from my eye. “Positive? There’s no way.” I step forward and take the test from her hands to see two pink lines striped across the window, indicating that I am in fact pregnant.

My breath runs away from me and I can’t slow it down.

More tears fall from my eyes. I’m not sure why.

“It’s gonna be alright.” Natasha places a comforting hand to my back, rubbing.

“No.” I shake my head, making myself feel even more sick. “You don’t understand. Daddy is going to be furious. All he’s ever wanted was for me to do well in college and work hard.”

Natasha sticks her face into my personal space, catching my eyes. “All thathehas ever wanted? I’m sorry, since when are we supposed to live our lives on our parents’ terms?”

She shakes her head, taking a step back toward the sink. “Unbelievable.” She snaps her fingers in my face. “Wake up, M. Are you forgetting that your father is the leader of a crime group? He doesn’t want you to work hard because he wants you to succeed. He wants you to work so you keep your head down, focused on exams, distracted. He’s worried what you’ll do if you find out the truth. Who you’ll tell…”

I twiddle with my fingers. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Isn’t it obvious?” she says. “You find out that you’re pregnant and the first thing that comes to mind is what your father will think. What doyouthink?” She crosses her arms, leaning back against the counter and staring at me, waiting for an answer.

“I don’t know.” Instinctively, my hand goes to my lower abdomen. “I haven’t really thought about it. All I know is that I wasn’t supposed to get pregnant. Not yet, anyway. I was supposed to get a job at the vet and continue working as a librarian until I secured something. I never thought I’d be leaving that place for…maternity leave.”

I pause for a moment, flashing back to the first time the three bikers waltzed in through those library doors, looking and smelling like trouble.

But what if trouble is not what I always thought it was?

What if trouble takes a different form?

I sigh, running a hand through my hair.

I’m not sure how I feel about all of this yet. What Idoknow is that the thought of getting an abortion makes me feel sicker than I’ve been this whole morning. One of them impregnated me. That makes us closer. That binds us together in a way the tattoo could never.

I’m growing a baby inside of me, from one of them. That should make things feel more complicated, but I actually think it’s given me more hindsight.

“You should tell them.”

“Tash, I need to get my head around all of this first. Let’s focus on one thing at a time.”

“Do you love them? The bikers?”

“Tash—”

“It’s a simple question. Do you?—?”

“I can’t answer that right now.” I press a hand to my temple.

“What if it’s Diesel’s? Imagine that. He killed your mother, and now you’re carrying his child.”