Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 94313 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 472(@200wpm)___ 377(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94313 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 472(@200wpm)___ 377(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
“No,” I replied, shaking my head. “At my doctor’s appointment they only listened to the heartbeat.”
“Appointment?” Heather said slowly. “Just one?”
“Just one,” I confirmed, shame burning quietly in my gut. “I’ve been living kind of far away from everything.”
“I try not to be that mother-in-law,” Heather said, pausing like she was trying to find the right words to say. She looked at Callie and then back to me. “I have a good one, so I’ve tried to follow her lead and not overstep. I’m not always successful, but I try.”
I nodded, unsure where she was leading the conversation.
“I have to ask, honey,” she said kindly. “Do you think we need to make you an appointment just to make sure everything’s okay?”
My knee-jerk reaction was to say no. Heck no. The thought of having another doctor poking and prodding at me, the invasion of it, made my stomach roll with nausea. But directly after that was a sense of intense relief. I needed to know that everything was okay. I needed someone to tell me if I was doing anything wrong. I wanted to know that the little person was safe in there. That I hadn’t hurt it by chopping wood or eating freeze-dried meals constantly or holding my poop in until I couldn’t stand it anymore and used the outhouse at the cabin.
I hadn’t been able to ask any questions when I’d gone the day before. I hadn’t even felt able to speak.
“Yes, please,” I whispered after a moment.
The look of understanding and kindness and pure maternal worry made my breath freeze in my throat, and then unexpectedly I was crying, big racking sobs shaking my entire body. Otto’s grandma wrapped her arms tightly around me.
“It’s going to be okay, sweetheart,” she murmured into my hair. “You’re safe. We’ll get this all figured out. Everything is going to be just fine.”
“I’m not sure who, yet,” I vaguely heard Otto’s mom mutter angrily. “But I’m going to kill someone.”
“Get in line,” Otto’s voice responded from the doorway.
Chapter 8
Otto
My entire body jerked forward, and I barely kept myself from stumbling. I hadn’t anticipated the hard slap to the back of my head, but I should’ve. I braced for the second one.
“The fuck were you thinkin’?” my gramps snapped the moment Esther disappeared into the back hallway.
“Forget the fact that you defiled that sweet girl,” Uncle Casper added quietly. “God knows how you fuckin’ managed that. You also didn’t think it was pertinent to disclose your connection to the Brothers of fuckin’ Calgary?”
“She was gone,” I replied defensively, knowing in my gut it was no excuse. “I tried lookin’ for her but they’d already stashed her in that cabin.”
“You think you’re talkin’ your way out,” Dragon said, her voice completely devoid of any emotion. “It’s fascinatin’ to watch you dig the hole deeper.”
“I fucked up,” I blurted, looking between the men who were staring at me with varying degrees of disgust.
“Understatement,” someone murmured under their breath.
“I’ll fix it,” I promised, swallowing hard.
“You’ll marry her,” Uncle Casper replied firmly. “As soon as fuckin’ possible.”
“What?”
My stomach lurched as I stared at him in horror. I’d barely even spent any time with Esther, for fuck’s sake. I didn’t know her, and she definitely didn’t know shit about me.
“That girl is—” Uncle Casper started.
“Naïve,” Cam finished.
“Scared,” Dragon added through his teeth.
“And goddamn pregnant,” Gramps barked.
“That doesn’t mean I should marry her,” I replied dubiously. “She can live with me, obviously.”
“Oh, obviously,” Leo muttered dryly.
“We don’t have to be fuckin’ married,” I blurted, my heart pounding. “It’s not the 1950s.”
“You a member of this club?” Dragon asked softly. His voice may have been low, but there was a thread of steel in it that made me stiffen.
“Yes.” I fisted my hands at my side.
“You give your word to this club?”
I ground my teeth. “Yes.”
“You agreed to give your life to this club?”
“Yes.”
“Then you’ll do what you’re fuckin’ told.” His voice rose with every word until I was staring at him in shock. I didn’t think I’d ever heard him raise his voice in my entire life.
“Of course I will,” I replied automatically, everything inside me clenching. I looked around the table.
“She’s loyal,” Casper said after a moment of silence, glancing over his shoulder toward where the women had gone. “To the point of stupidity, maybe.”
I beat back the urge to fly across the table. Esther wasn’t stupid.
Uncle Casper must’ve interpreted the look on my face, because his lips twitched with understanding. “You’re protective of her? That’s good.”
“Decent marriages have started from less,” Mack said quietly, the first comment he’d made in a while.
I gaped at them. All of them had seemed to come to some kind of consensus without saying a word to me. I couldn’t figure it out.
Gramps huffed and shook his head. “She’s loyal, Otto,” he said, speaking slowly like I wouldn’t be able to understand him. “She was raised in a highly religious family—”