Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 92782 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92782 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Six. Another one of Blaise’s men and one of the few who wasn’t already claimed by a woman. He was a regular here. Bellatrix was his current favorite.
Well, Six, she’s pregnant. Stick with the strippers. Less drama.
“She’s dating Marlow Gabler’s youngest son,” Blaise said.
Not anymore. Looked like they didn’t have the updated information on Liberty.
I shrugged as if I didn’t know her current relationship situation, like it didn’t matter to me. I had to be careful. I might be Blaise’s father-in-law, but lying to him wasn’t something he’d forgive. Even if this wasn’t his business.
“As much as I love a good soap opera, can we get back to the fact that there was a motherfucking Viper in here last night? If one of them survived and they are rebuilding, then we need to know,” Gage said.
Blaise stared at me for a moment more, as if trying to decide if he should be concerned about Liberty being at my club, before glancing over at Gage. “You take Huck and go question the girl. Find out what she knows. Levi is already looking into things on his end. If they have a paper trail, he’ll find it.”
“Diamond is being held downstairs. Drifter can take you to her,” I told them.
Gage stood up and followed Huck from the room. Blaise didn’t move. His focus remained locked on me.
When the door closed behind the others, he leaned forward, narrowing his eyes slightly. “You need to tell me something, Liam?”
I wanted to tell him my personal shit was just that. Mine. But I also didn’t want to have a bullet removed from one of my body parts today either. He wouldn’t kill me, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t shoot me.
I leaned back and smoothed my beard with my hand. Leaving out anything would bite me in the ass. Levi could find anything on the internet, and if he couldn’t, Wilder Jones, their very own cyber genius, sure as fuck could.
“The week before I went on my first date with Selena, I was on my way back from Miami. It was storming, so I stopped at Abernathy’s to get a drink until the rain lightened up. Liberty was the bartender. We talked. I enjoyed her company. The crowd was thinning out, so her boss let her off early, but she didn’t have a ride.” I paused, wishing like fuck I could stop this story now. “She was staying at a motel—she’d broken up with her boyfriend, who she had lived with recently. I went inside. We …” I stopped again.
He raised his eyebrows. “Fucked?”
I nodded. We had definitely fucked. Several times.
“Anyway, I left, didn’t think I’d see her again. But she called her sister, needing somewhere to stay until she could get a place of her own. Selena took her in.”
I was hoping that would be enough.
Blaise tilted his head. “Why’s she here?”
Dammit.
I leaned forward, putting my elbows on the desk. “She and Selena had a falling-out. She had nowhere to go. And … she’s pregnant. Until I know if it’s mine, she’s here. I would appreciate it if you didn’t tell this to Madeline. I don’t want her to know I fucked some thirty-one-year-old bartender I didn’t know and knocked her up if I didn’t, in fact, knock her up. If it’s mine, I know I’m gonna have to tell her. But I …” I rubbed my temples, why hadn’t Liberty just stayed in her room.
“You don’t want her disappointed in you. Why? Because you got a woman pregnant from a one-night stand or because she’s only six years older than Madeline?”
I frowned. “Both.”
He nodded and stood up. “I don’t keep things from Madeline that affect her. What you do affects her. But I’ll wait until you know if it’s yours. No reason she has to know about her father’s sex life otherwise.”
There was that at least. If it wasn’t mine, she’d never know. I had a small amount of relief. If the baby was mine, I’d have to tell her eventually.
Blaise shook his head as a low chuckle came from his chest. “Siblings with a twenty-five- year-old age gap. Jesus,” he said in an amused tone.
I didn’t want to look at it like that. It made me feel like an even bigger disappointment to Madeline.
“Could be worse,” he said as he headed for the door. “It could have been one of your strippers.”
14
Liberty
When Liam walked into my room, I was writing down another phone number for a job I’d found while searching online. I hadn’t wanted to do what he’d ordered me to do earlier, but he had a point. Walking three miles in that kind of heat was dangerous. I had to think about the baby. It wasn’t just me I was abusing anymore.
“My office,” he said before turning and walking out.
I set my phone down and glared at his back before getting up and following him. Was this how it was always going to be with him? Once he knew this was his baby, what would happen then? I sure as heck wasn’t going to stay in that room, and he wasn’t going to tell me what I could and couldn’t do.