Page 37 of Wyatt (The Black Roses MC #5)

Chapter seventeen

Wyatt

A fter getting back from picking up Colby, Maizie was exhausted. I’ve never been more scared in my life than when I saw her having a panic attack at the clubhouse. Her eyes had glazed over, and she wasn’t focused on anything. Her body was shaking so hard, it terrified the hell out of me.

Trick and Tanya had made burgers, so they packed up a couple plates for us since we left before we ate at the clubhouse, and Tanya wrapped Maizie in her arms, whispering words of comfort that I couldn’t hear.

Tanya knows a thing or two about having an ex who threatens kids.

The club took care of it back then, just as we’re going to now.

Maizie barely touched her food. I ate my burger and tried to have a conversation with Colby to make things as normal as possible, but the meat tasted like ash in my mouth.

Colby ate and chatted with me, but he wasn’t as animated as usual.

Kids sense when things aren’t right with their parents.

He kept glancing at Maizie, who tried to smile, but it was forced.

At bedtime, she had lain in his bed with him, read him three books, and held him as he slept.

When I peeked my head in the room, she met my gaze with glassy eyes.

“Come on, baby. Let’s get some sleep,” I said, and she rose from Colby’s bed and followed me into the bedroom.

Silently, she went into her en suite and brushed her teeth as I undressed and crawled under the covers.

When she emerged from her bathroom, I held out my arms, and she came to lie next to me.

We didn’t say anything. Hell, I was still a mess about what all of us learned, but she finally settled, and we both fell asleep.

“Thanks, man,” I say to Knox and hang up the phone just as Maizie slips out the back door and meets me on the deck with a cup of coffee in her hand.

She looks beautiful as always, with her hair mussed from sleep and her breathing deepening after that first sip of morning coffee.

“You're up early,” she says and sits on the chair across from me. I know she’s putting distance between us. She’s scared of my reaction this morning since I didn’t give her much of anything last night.

I don’t know how to do this. How to navigate this conversation.

I’ve never let anyone in like I have with Maizie.

And up until yesterday, I didn’t have the slightest worry about it.

But today? Today, I’m worried that she doesn’t feel the same way about me as I feel about her.

That she doesn’t trust me with her secrets or her heart.

“I made Colby some eggs and toast,” I say and take a sip from the coffee I have resting on the knee that’s crossed over my leg. “Knox and Mia are going to come pick him up. I haven’t had a chance to get you a helmet or a jacket yet, so Mia is bringing hers over for you to borrow.”

Her brows dip low in question. “Why?”

“Because I need to clear my head, and a ride always helps with that. But I don’t want to let you out of my sight, so you’re coming with me.”

Maizie nods and doesn’t argue. “I’ll go get Colby ready.” She stands from her seat and walks back into the house, and I finish my coffee then head inside to get ready as well.

Twenty minutes later, Mia and Knox are in the kitchen, pouring coffee into mugs from the pot I made earlier. Mia hands Maizie the jacket and helmet Knox bought for her a few months back when they started dating.

“The helmet should fit you fine,” Mia says. “The jacket might be a little short.”

Mia barely reaches five-foot-four, and Maizie is five-foot-ten. She slips it over her tank top and smiles. “Thanks for this,” Maizie says.

“You doing okay this morning, sister?” Mia asks.

Maizie huffs out a laugh. “Not really. But I’m getting there.”

“How about you, brother?” Knox asks.

“Same,” is the only reply I give.

He nods in understanding.

Colby comes bounding into the kitchen with Pepper and a few dog toys. “I’m ready, Aunt Mia.”

When he calls her aunt , I can visibly see her getting choked up. Mia has always treated Colby as family, along with everyone else, but now she knows he really is her nephew.

She clears her throat and smiles. “Okay, monkey. Let’s hit it.”

They’re taking him to the park, then over to Mia’s grandmother’s house. Knox said Elaine called Mia this morning because she didn’t want to bother Maizie after yesterday. When Mia told her they were going to take Colby for a few hours, Elaine insisted they come pay her a visit.

Maizie leans down and wraps her son in her arms. “Have fun and be good for Knox and Mia, okay, buddy?”

“Of course. Me and Pepper will be on our best behavior.”

Maizie stands and smiles proudly at her son. “You always are.”

They walk out the door, and it’s just Maizie and me left in the house.

“Ready?” I ask.

“Let’s go.”

My bike is parked in front of her house, where it’s been for the last couple of weeks.

Since telling everyone Maizie and I are together, I haven’t spent a night away.

This is the first time I’m taking her out on it, though.

Why didn’t I do this sooner? Why is our first ride when we’re both feeling untethered?

I hate this feeling, but there was no way I was going to leave her here.

I’m upset, I have questions, but I still feel the same intense pull toward her I’ve always felt.

Actually, that’s not true. It’s gotten stronger as the days and weeks have passed.

I get on my bike and show her how to get on behind me—where to put her feet and also where to steer clear of so she doesn’t burn herself on the pipes.

When I start my bike and settle into the seat, her arms wrap around my waist, and she presses herself to my back.

Feeling her so close is as comforting as much as it is painful.

Why didn’t she trust me?

We head away from her house and out of Shine’s city limits.

I drive around for about half an hour before deciding where we’re going to go to have the talk we need to have.

Ten minutes later, I’m driving slowly down the dirt road that leads to the small lake we’ve taken Colby fishing at.

It’s secluded enough that we can yell, scream, or cry if we need to.

I didn’t want to be around a bunch of people and have to temper—or have Maizie have to temper—any emotion that arises.

When I park, I let her off first and then dismount, taking my helmet and cut off as she does the same. She hands me the helmet and jacket, and I lay them next to mine on my bike.

“I’ve always loved this place. I kind of wish you hadn’t taken me out here for this conversation. It’s like we’re bringing our baggage to one of my favorite places,” she says, looking around.

“I wanted privacy,” is all I say.

She wraps her arms around her middle as though she’s protecting herself from what I’m going to say next.

“Okay.” She closes her sad eyes for a moment, then opens them, meeting my gaze. “Let me have it. I deserve it.”

“Maizie, I’m not going to yell at you. And you wouldn’t deserve it if I did,” I say. “I just want to know why you don’t trust me. Why didn't you think you could be honest with me about who Colby’s father is?”

“Because it doesn’t matter who his father is. I’m his mother, and Nolan Dawson has no right to him.” I can sense her hackles rising. I don’t want to fight with her, but it sounds like this is a point she’s had to make before.

“That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have told me. I get the rest of the club, but I’ve been your friend for a long time, and now I’m your man. I’m the one who takes everything inside of you, all your secrets, and holds them close to my chest.”

“You’re also a brother, Wyatt,” she says, her voice pleading for me to understand where she’s coming from. “There’s no way you wouldn’t have been able to not tell Ozzy.”

“Don’t you get it, Maizie? You’re my woman now.

That comes before everything. Means everything to me.

Would the club know eventually? Sure, but we would have figured out a way to tell them together.

Instead, I had to watch you break down in front of everyone, and they all found out when I did. That wasn’t fair to me.”

“I’m sorry,” she says softly. “I’ve spent so much time being the only one who knew.

I thought if no one ever found out then it wouldn’t matter.

It was dumb. Never in a million years did I think Nolan would try to use my son against me to try to get information from the club.

I don’t even know how he found out about us. ”

That’s something that’s plagued my thoughts as well.

“I should have known that secrets don’t stay buried,” she says.

“Did you see him after the park with Mia when he was in town?”

She presses her lips together and nods. “He found me at Thorn and Thistle. When I was taking out the trash that night, he was waiting in the alley for me.”

“I was there that night, and you didn’t tell me?” I’m trying to be understanding, but fuck. The fact he cornered her behind the bar is ratcheting my blood pressure to dangerous levels.

“I was scared, Wyatt. He wanted to know if Colby was his, and I told him the same thing I tell everyone. He’s mine. He seemed to take it in stride and said he didn’t want a kid anyways.”

“Is that why you were so tired that week? Because you were afraid he was going to come looking for you?”

She nods again. “I didn’t sleep. I would lie on my couch with my gun in the safe next to me, loaded and ready to go if Nolan somehow found out where I lived and tried something.

That’s how I knew about the family of raccoons living in my backyard.

” Her lips tipped up in a smile that I didn’t return.

My woman was lying on her couch every night, not sleeping and scared that her one-night stand was going to come take her kid. That makes me fucking furious.