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Quietly, I left the bedroom, shutting the door on my way out.
Wiping the sweat off my brow from having just spent the last half hour throwing up everything in my stomach, I was exhausted, but there were things I needed to take care of.
In the kitchen, I found Raven and asked for the keys to her Challenger.
“You okay?” she asked as she readily handed over the key ring.
I met her gaze, let her see everything in my eyes, but I didn’t say the words that wanted to trip off my tongue. Green eyes widened, and then she shook her head. “Something in the freaking water,” she muttered.
“I don’t know when I’ll be back. Don’t tell Matt where I’m going.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know where you are going, so no worries there. Just be careful. If it looks like someone other than a brother is following you, call me or Matt.”
Driving into town, I left the window cracked, and I didn’t miss the man on the motorcycle following me like a dark cloud over my head. But I refused to think about the constant babysitter I had whenever I so much as left the clubhouse compound.
The chilly breeze felt good on my flushed skin. First stop was the drugstore. I needed a pregnancy test, stat. Raven was right. There was definitely something in the water. If I was pregnant like I suspected, that would make four of us in the clubhouse who were expecting. Gracie and Willa both announced their pregnancies the previous week, and with Quinn pregnant too, at least I wouldn’t have to go through all this crap alone.
I touched a hand to my stomach, unsure how I felt about being a mother this early into my relationship with Matt. If I were honest, I was still having issues with the three years we’d been apart. I’d thought I was okay with everything after we talked about him hooking up with Steph while I was gone. But then Joslyn showed up with her son, and I realized I wasn’t nearly as over it as I kept telling myself I was.
Reid wasn’t Matt’s son, but it drove home to me just how easily he could have been. The man I loved hadn’t been a monk while we were apart. He could have fucked any number of women during that time, and it was driving me crazy.
Was I ready to bring a baby into this relationship when everything was so up in the air with my feelings?
What if I couldn’t get over this jealousy that ate at me just thinking of all the other women he’d had sex with?
“Pull your shit together, Michaels. Find out if you are or not before you go buying more trouble.”
I walked into the drugstore and straight back to where the pregnancy tests and condoms were kept, grateful the MC brother waiting outside wouldn’t be able to see exactly what I was about to buy. I grabbed the one that would give me a
digital reading and headed for the checkout. Thankfully, the place had had a recent update, and there was a single self-checkout, which I took full advantage of instead of having the woman behind the counter know my business.
Tossing the test in a bag, I swiped my card, took my receipt, and stomped out.
As I walked through the automatic door, however, someone was walking in. Catching his gaze on me, I clenched my hands on my bag, glad the gray plastic would hide the contents as I glared up at my father.
Dressed in one of his thousand-dollar suits, his hair slicked back, and his face glowing from a recent facial, no doubt, he looked like the politician he was. His bid for governor had already been announced, and it was only a matter of time before he started campaigning. He just needed me to release the money I’d promised to start the ball rolling.
“Hello, Aurora,” he greeted with a tight smile.
“Dad,” I bit out and kept walking.
“It’s good to see you,” he called after me.
“Can’t say the same,” I said as I jerked open the car door.
Tossing the bag into the passenger seat, I got in and locked the doors before starting the vehicle. Ten minutes later, I pulled up outside of Jenkins’s office. As I walked in, Jenkins was coming out of his office, as if he were expecting me.
“You didn’t have to come in,” he said by way of greeting. “I could have brought the contract and release papers out to you.”
I shrugged. “I was already out. Might as well get this over with.”
Something in my tone had his eyes widening, and I quickly pushed down everything else that was bothering me. One thing at a time. I would deal with this first, officially shutting my father out of my life and the MC’s business, and then I would conquer the other shit on my never-ending list.
“Come on back,” Jenkins urged, and I followed him to his office. “Gracie already drew up everything, but she’s out of the office this morning. She said she had to go to the hospital for Tanner. How is he doing?”
“Matt said he’s lucky to be alive.” I didn’t know how much to tell the lawyer, so I kept it at that. I wasn’t even sure I knew everything. Matt hadn’t talked to me much the last week, and I’d been a little distant to him ever since Jos and Reid arrived. “It surprised everyone when we found out Tanner didn’t die from the bomb that was in Matt’s truck.”
I was still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that he was alive. I was so happy to have him back, not just for Matt’s sake, but because I loved Tanner like a brother. He never treated me like an outsider, always put me at ease, and joked with me. I wanted to visit him at the hospital, but Matt asked me to wait until later in the week, after his brother had gotten through the surgery to fix his broken arm. They didn’t want to overwhelm him with too many visitors at once, I guess.
