Page 56 of Triplets for the Rival MC

I place my hand protectively on her stomach. The babies roll under my hand, a strong shift that makes her inhale softly. I press my palm firmer against her belly.

He watches the movement, noting it but not commenting. “You always had her in you,” he says. “I just refused to see it.”

“You refused to see it. To see me,” she corrects.

His shoulders sag. “I thought strength was only shown in one way,” he admits.

“And now?” she asks.

“Now I don’t have a club.” There’s no bitterness in his voice, he’s just stating a fact.

“You lost them when you put a gun to your pregnant daughter’s head,” I say sharply.

He flinches. Good, he should feel ashamed. “I was wrong,” he says. The words hang in the air like they don’t belong there. King isn’t a man who admits he is wrong. Though I notice he’s yet to say the words ‘I’m sorry’, perhaps a genuine apology is a concession too far.

Flint’s jaw tightens. Hunter stays silent, but I feel the tension radiating off him.

“You don’t get to rewrite history by admitting you were wrong,” Flint says.

He fixes Flint in a steely gaze, unwilling to back down or leave until he’s said his piece. “I’m not asking to.” King’s gaze shifts back to Tori. “For months I told myself you’d come crawling back. That staying with the Ghost Riders was rebellion. That I didn’t have to pay to get you back, you would come on your own, and I knew they were honorable enough to let you.” I’m surprised by the concession, that he’d admit to our honor. It seems he can’t be too complimentary though as he adds, “I thought that they were using you and once you realized that, you’d come home.”

I laugh under my breath. Tori doesn’t.

“By the time I realized my mistake things had gone too far, I was humiliated and angry by your decision to stay. I lost my temper and the more I realized my grip on you and my men was loosening the harder I tried to hold on. Even as my men deserted me and I was arrested, I believed I was in the right.” He takes a deep breath, looking Tori in the eye. “Then, when I got out on bail, I saw the footage,” he says.

“What footage?” she asks.

“Some bystanders caught part of that night, recording us on their cellphones. The footage went viral, of you stepping in front of me.”

I remember that moment too, how the world stopped for a moment and I almost lost everything. The gun pointed at Tori’s head. The way my heart stopped.

“You didn’t flinch,” he says.

She answers honestly. “I was afraid. I just didn’t show it.”

His lips twitch. “Your mother used to say that.”

Something is shifting in him, a real, palpable change. Could King really be finally noticing the error of his ways?

“You called me a whore, worthless,” Tori says quietly. “You said my babies were bastards.”

He closes his eyes briefly. “I was trying to hurt you.”

Tori cradles her stomach but her eyes don’t waver from King’s. She doesn’t mince her words, but she is brave enough to admit that he succeeded in his goal. “You did.”

The cicadas buzz louder, as if they can sense the heightened emotions.

“I thought humiliation would break you,” he says. “It would’ve broken most. The humiliation I felt broke me,” he admits. Tori was right, humiliation was the key to taking him down in the end, he thought he could use it as a weapon against her.

“It didn’t,” she replies. “I’d had my entire life to grow a thick skin, to be able to handle humiliation.”

He studies her fully now. Really studies her, as if seeing her for the first time. “You’re stronger than I gave you credit for.”

The babies move again. A solid kick this time, making their presence known, showing their agreement, showing their strong like their mother. I grin despite everything.

He sees it. “They’re not my legacy,” he says slowly.

“No,” Tori agrees. Too much has passed between them for her to pretend otherwise.