1
LUKE
Aslow burn courses through the pectoral muscles in my chest as I pull the bar towards me. The strain is almost too much, and I grunt as my muscles fatigue and threaten to give up.
“Come on, Luke, one more.” Arlo hovers over the bench with his hands under the bar, ready to catch the weights if my muscles give up.
But I’m not giving up. I push through the strain and raise the bar one last time, letting out a grunt as every muscle in my upper body screams.
“Nice one.” Arlo grabs the bar and helps me hook it back into place.
I lie on the bench panting as my muscles ease back to their normal state. I’ll be sore tomorrow, but a good sore. The kind that means I’m getting stronger.
Arlo chucks my gym towel at me and offers a hand. I grip his hand, and he pulls me up to a sitting position. My useless limbs stick out under my gym shorts. Butwith just the two of us here, I don’t bother to hide the stumps where my legs used to be.
Arlo checks his phone for the hundredth time since we started the workout.
“Still no word from Maggie?” I ask.
“Not since she picked Isla up at the station.” He runs a hand over his beard and a frown line creases his brow.
He glances out the one grimy window of the basement gym. It’s up high and shows the snow-covered parking lot.
“I should have gone with her,” he says for about the hundredth time.
It’s no use telling him what he already knows, that Maggie snuck out of the kitchen without telling Arlo because she wanted to go alone. Without knowing the situation of the woman she was meeting, I’m guessing she didn’t want her big hairy biker husband scaring her off.
“Maybe they needed to get supplies for the baby. They might have gone shopping in Hope.”
Arlo grunts but doesn’t seem convinced. “We’ve got plenty of baby stuff here. The damn club’s turning into a nursery.”
He’s not wrong. Since I joined the MC as a prospect two years ago, I’ve been to six weddings, I’ve lost count of the number of babies born, and at least two of the old ladies are pregnant right now.
There’s a pang in my chest so strong that I close my eyes.
Marriage and babies, a family. My young self neverthought of those things when I signed up for the military at eighteen. Having a family was the last thing on my mind. I wanted adventure and to follow family tradition. My dad served and my grandad served. Joining the army was all I ever wanted to do.
Now at twenty-seven, I sense the loss of all the things I’ll never have.
The pang of loss goes through my body, and a violent itch makes my missing left leg twitch. The stump thumps against the bench and I grit my teeth, waiting for the phantom itch to dissipate.
Arlo notes my discomfort, but he knows better than to say anything. The last thing I want is pity from the men.
“Do we know the woman’s situation?” I ask, trying to distract my brain from the itch that isn’t there.
“She left her fiancé.” Arlo paces to the window and back, frowning at the snow falling against the windowpane.
It must be a shitty situation for a woman to take her baby and leave her fiancé on Christmas Eve. We’ve got a woman’s refuge in the mountains that Lone Star’s old lady set up. It saddens me how much it’s needed.
“Maggie was at culinary school with Isla’s brother. I’ve met him a few times. He does the competition circuit as well.” Arlo’s referring to the pastry competitions Maggie loves taking part in.
“Can’t the brother take her in?”
Arlo shakes his head. “He’s away in Europe and his wife is having complications with her pregnancy, so shecan’t fly and he doesn’t want to leave her. He gave Isla Maggie’s number.”
Arlo glances out the snow-covered window again. “They should be back by now.”
What he needs is a distraction until Maggie gets back safely.
