Page 17 of Slayin Villain (Royal Bastards MC: Nashville, TN #11)

Ember

I never wanted to be someone’s dirty secret. Especially not his.

Villain wasn’t just a man. He was a storm in denim and leather, and I’d walked straight into the eye of it thinking I could come out untouched.

I was wrong.

I sat on the edge of his bed, our bed lately, his scent still on my skin, the ache between my thighs still raw from the way he’d taken me last night like he couldn’t get deep enough. But in the morning, when the shadows cleared, and the whiskey wore off, he always turned into a ghost.

A cold, beautiful ghost who never said the things I wanted to hear.

I gripped the pregnancy test tighter in my palm, the plastic biting into my skin. I’d taken another one. Then another. All the same result.

Pregnant.

And I didn’t know if the baby belonged to the man I used to love or the one currently wrecking my body and my damn heart.

When he walked in, shirtless, hair wet from a shower, I barely looked up.

“You stayed last night,” he said like it surprised him.

“You asked me to,” I replied.

He gave a little nod, then grabbed a towel and started drying his hair like we were just roommates or strangers. Like he hadn’t buried his face between my thighs and whispered my name like a man begging a god he didn’t believe in.

“I need to tell you something,” I said, standing.

He didn’t look at me, just moved to the dresser, yanking out a shirt. “Let me guess. Rome’s been sniffing around again.”

“No.” My voice cracked, and that got his attention.

His eyes found mine in the mirror. Cold. Guarded. “What is it then?”

I turned the test over in my hand, then tossed it onto the bed.

His gaze shifted to it. His chin stiffened.

“Is that what I think it is?”

“Yeah.” I folded my arms across my chest. “I’m pregnant.”

The silence was brutal.

He didn’t blink. Didn’t move. Just stared at that stick like it was a loaded gun pointed at his chest.

“I don’t know if it’s yours,” I added quickly, shame tightening my throat. “But it might be.”

He turned his back.

“You gonna say something?” I asked, my heart pounding.

He grabbed his cut from the hook and shrugged into it, slow and heavy like every movement was calculated to avoid me.

“I need to think,” he muttered.

“That’s it?” My voice shot up. “You need to think?”

He didn’t answer.

He just walked out the damn door.

I stared after him until my chest hurt, until my lungs screamed for air and my hands started shaking.

He didn’t slam the door. He didn’t even yell.

That made it worse.

A part of me had expected anger. A fight. Some kind of passion that told me he gave a damn.

But I got nothing.

A few hours later, back at my place, the knock came. Hard. Loud. Unapologetic.

I already knew who it was.

I opened the door, and Rome stormed in, shoving it closed behind him.

“You told him?” he barked.

I blinked. “Who told you?”

“Villain’s a loud asshole when he’s mad. Word got around.” He looked me over, eyes narrowed. “You really didn’t think he had a right to know?”

“I don’t know if it’s yours!” I shot back.

He laughed. Bitter. “That’s comforting.”

“I didn’t plan this, Rome.”

“But you are planning to keep it?” he snapped.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.”

His voice dropped. “Well, you better figure it out real quick, Em. Because if that baby’s mine, we’re done with this game.”

I folded my arms. “What game?”

He stepped closer, his voice a razor. “You playing house with Villain like he ain’t gonna toss you aside the second it gets hard.”

“He hasn’t tossed me yet.”

Rome snorted. “He will. And you know it. I’m the one who’s been there. I’m the one who’s…”

“You’re the one who disappeared!” I screamed. “You treated me like a backup. Don’t come in here acting like you were ever all in!”

He went quiet. Just breathing. Eyes locked on mine.

Then he said, “If it’s mine, we leave. No more club. No more Villain. We go somewhere else, start fresh. You and me.”

I stared at him. My chest ached.

“Say something,” he demanded.

“I don’t know who I’m running from anymore,” I whispered. “You? Him? Or maybe just myself.”

Rome cursed and stalked out the way he came, slamming the door hard enough to rattle the walls.

I stood there, hollow.

Maybe I was Property of Chaos now.

Because this mess?

It was all mine.