I stared at the man who I had come to know over the years. He was like a brother to me after I lost one of my own years before. Although I had two other brothers, they were nothing like Benny was. And then he died. And now I was staring at a man who had taken over the role.
“Greyson.” His voice was thick, his deep green eyes hard and focused. “Tell me what the fuck happened to my wife.”
Tray had taken over and held Trixie while I followed Butcher out into the hallway.
“Tell me she’s okay,” he continued, holding on to that last little bit of hope I couldn’t give him. “Tell me so I can go home to our boys and let them know their mama is okay.” He gripped my leather jacket, pulling me against him. “Tell me.”
But I didn’t answer him. I couldn’t for fear that I would fall to my knees and weep like a baby.
“Greyson,” he demanded. “Tell me. Tell me that Trixie is okay.”
I didn’t.
“No. She can’t be … she can’t be gone.” He released me roughly. “Fuck,” he bellowed, falling to his knees.
I crashed with him, wrapping myself around his shaking body.
He tried shoving me away but I only held on. It was the only thing I could do before I lost him. He had to be strong. He had to be there for his boys. And I had to avenge him.
“I … I can’t breathe. I can’t do this. I can’t be here without her.” The desperation in Butcher’s voice, shot right to my heart. “It’s not fair. It should have been me. I should have made her stay at the hospital. I should have insisted.” He looked up at me then. “She wanted to be with Eve. She wanted to make sure she was okay. She loves …” He swallowed. “Loved her baby and it wasn’t even born yet. It wasn’t even fucking hers and she loved it.” His voice rose with each word that left his mouth. “Grey.”
“You’re strong,” I whispered.
“No.” He shoved me. “You don’t get to say that to me. You don’t know the shit we’ve been through. You don’t know what we’ve done to be together. You don’t … you …” His breath hitched.
“I know about the rumor she spread so you would notice her.” I cupped his nape. “I know how hard she loved you and your boys. I also know that she instilled all of her amazing qualities into them. They will be the best husbands, the best fathers, the best everything they can be because of her. Because of both of you.”
I wasn’t sure how I kept it together.
“Say it,” Butcher ground out. “Say the words, Greyson.”
“Butcher,” I murmured, squeezing his neck.
“Fucking say it.” He pushed me. “Say it. Now.”
I took a breath and braced myself. “Your wife is dead.”
TRAVIS STARED DOWN at me with cold, calculated eyes. His jaw ticked. His mouth set in a grim line. He was devilishly handsome but he still wasn’t Greyson.
A cry sounded off in the distance, my heavy breasts becoming fuller at the sound of it. “He needs to eat,” I said through clenched teeth.
Travis pushed off of me just as the other back door opened. Rough hands grabbed me from under my arms, pulling me free from the vehicle.
“Travis,” I cried, my knees buckling under me. “Please.” I struggled against the man holding me. “Don’t keep me from my baby.”
Travis ignored me and pulled my son from where he lay on the front passenger seat. “How does it feel knowing that all of this time, you’ve actually been pregnant with Greyson’s baby?”
My heart thundered inside my chest. “Why? Why are you doing all of this?”
“Take her inside and bring her to my room.” Travis’ gaze zeroed in on me. “I would behave if I were you, or else I will get a wet nurse to feed him.”
My mouth snapped shut and I stopped struggling. I would rather die than watch another person nurse my son. It would be like taking that ultimate right I had as a mother away from me.
“Good girl.” Travis came toward us. “You will do as I say or I will rip your boy from the very heartstrings beating inside your chest. He’ll be taken from you so damn fast, you won’t even have a chance to love him.”
But that was where Travis was wrong. I already loved him. My son. The only piece of me that made any sense in this fucked up life I was given.
“I’ll do anything you want just please let me feed him.” I looked down at my feet.
A calloused hand pinched my chin, forcing my head back. “Always submissive.” He thrust my son into my arms. “Take them and call the in-house doctor. I want them both checked.”
Travis continued barking orders but all I could focus on was my baby boy. Now that I finally had a chance to look at him. I saw the full head of blond hair on his head. His high cheekbones. His little button nose. And the full pout of his mouth.
I didn’t know if he was actually Greyson’s or if Travis was just fucking with my head again. We would find out. I would demand a DNA test. But what I did know, was that I never thought I could fall in love again. Even in the midst of this chaos, my baby boy gave me the strength I needed to survive.
(Greyson)
“I can’t do this,” Butcher mumbled over and over.
I was losing him.
“Butcher.” I cupped his nape, stopping him from pacing back and forth. “Listen to me.”
His eyes were red rimmed. “I can’t.”
“You can do whatever the fuck you want. You can take your boys and leave. You can quit the biker life. I don’t give a shit. But right now, Trixie would want you to help me find Eve. You know that. Can I count on you?” It was a shitty and selfish move on my part but I needed him. I needed all of them. My men. My crew. My fucking family.
Butcher’s gaze moved back and forth over my face before he blew out a slow breath. “There was a lot of blood.”
I nodded. “There was.” If Eve had given birth to the baby, I prayed with everything in me that both of them were okay.
“When Trixie gave birth to the boys, there was a lot of blood then. I think Eve had the baby. I think …” His eyes shone. “Trixie would have made sure she was as comfortable as possible. She would have … she would have done everything she could to keep them safe.” He swallowed hard, the cords in his neck working with each rough movement.
“She would have.” I pulled him forward, leaning my forehead against his. “I love you, brother. I will fucking avenge her.”
“I want to bathe in Travis’ blood,” Butcher growled.
And there he was. The man who had stood by my side for years. “We’re in this together.”
“With me too.”
I turned at the sound of Tray stepping up behind us followed by the rest of my crew.
We had been through a lot. All of us. Most of my men had families of their own but with one call, they dropped everything and did as I said. No questions asked. And I could never repay them for it.
(Eve)
It took everything inside of me not to take my son and run away. But I wouldn’t. I couldn’t with the men standing around the building. If I learned anything while being with Greyson, I knew we weren’t alone. Even though it was just my son and me in Travis’ bedroom, I could see the shadows moving every so often underneath the door.
“We’ll get out of this, baby boy,” I told my son. God, I hadn’t even named him yet. But I couldn’t. Not without Greyson. Even if it ended up being that he was in fact Travis’, I still wanted Grey to raise him with me.
“We’ll find out who your daddy is too,” I told him, brushing my finger over his forehead and down his nose.
I sighed, leaned against the headboard, and fed my baby.
It had been several hours since Travis brought me to his home. I could only tell by the fact that it was now dark outside.
He had the in-house doctor check me out. She had been an older woman: determined and to the point, with no bedside manner at all. But my baby was healthy and that was all I cared about. She had said that even though he was tiny, he was strong and would be fine. I didn’t tear too much whe
n he was born so I would heal naturally, but I was sore. God was I sore. I just wanted to sleep. My eyes became heavy. Maybe if I could sleep for a little bit …
“Tsk tsk, Marlowe.”
My eyes popped open, landing on Travis leaning against his dresser. “What do …” I sat up, my arms were empty. I must have fallen asleep. “Where is he?”
“He’s safe,” Travis said nonchalantly.
“Where the hell is my baby, Travis?” I demanded, pushing off the bed. My knees wobbled beneath me, forcing me to the floor.
He chuckled, the sound dark and evil. Kneeling in front of me, he cupped my cheek. “You’re beautiful when you’re on your knees.”
Bile rose to my throat. “Please give him back to me.”
“I will but, first, I want you to do something for me.” He pulled a folded-up piece of paper out of the inside of his jacket. “Sign this and you’ll get your son back. Sign it and everything goes away.”
I took the paper from him, my gaze moving over each word. Each syllable. Each letter that threatened to destroy my life. A sob escaped me.
“Do it.” He kissed my head. “Sign it, Eve.”
“You … you want me to sign over custody of my son?” I couldn’t believe what I was reading.
“He’ll have a good life.”
“I can’t. I refuse.” He couldn’t do this to me. He couldn’t take my son away.
“Sign it and I’ll send you back to Greyson. Unharmed. Untouched. Don’t sign it and I’ll still send you back to him but you will be so broken and battered, he won’t want you.”
I glared at him. “I showed up at his club broken and battered the first time. I healed. Trixie saved me and you shot her.” My eyes burned. “And he still fucking wanted me. He still had sex with me, Travis. And he still fell in love with me.”
Travis’ eyes darkened, his cheeks turning a deep shade of red. “Sign. It.”
“No.” I shoved the paper at him. “You can go fuck yourself.”
In a quick move, I was on my back with Travis straddling my waist. “You will sign it, Marlowe. You want to know why?” He brushed his mouth over mine. “Because you love your son. You want to make sure that he has a good life. I’ll give him all of that. He’ll be the heir to everything I’ve created.”
“Is that what this is about? You want me to sign over my rights to you just so he can continue creating your fucked up movies?” I struggled beneath him, my bones vibrating with the need to kill. To kill him. The man on top of me. The man who threatened to destroy my life even more. The man who took my son from me.
Travis sneered, leaning down, and stared intently into my eyes. “I promise you, Marlowe. Don’t sign that paper and you won’t have the tits to feed your fucking son.” He shoved off of me and rose to his full height. “You have an hour. After that, I’ll come for you and then I’ll unleash you to my men. And I promise, they won’t be as nice as me.” He left the room, taking all of the air in my lungs along with him.
I was fucked.
A BABY’S CRY sounded off in the distance. Was that all in my mind? Could I be imagining what I wanted to hear? No, what I had hoped? My breasts ached, the milk painfully filling them the longer the baby cried.
My baby. My son.
Jaron.
I didn’t know why or how but I knew that needed to be his name. Jaron Mercer. God, Greyson. My chest tightened and my body ached, but I couldn’t give up. I refused. I had to fight.
Could Greyson be looking for me? If I knew him as well as I thought I did, I’d bet my life he was burning the world down to get to me. To us.
“I will fight Travis for you.”
His words bounced around in my head.
If he could fight. So could I.
The crying became louder. Jaron.
“I’m coming for you, baby boy.”
“Shut that fucking kid up,” I heard someone yell.
Asshole.
Sliding off the bed, I went in search of something heavy. Something hard. Something lethal. With a bookcase sitting by one wall, paperweights sat on the shelves. I picked one up, testing it in my hand. It was heavy but I wasn’t sure if I had the strength to hit someone with it.
“One hour.”
Travis’ voice boomed through my head, his threat slithering along my skin. I didn’t know what he had in store for me but I also didn’t want to stay to find out.
If when I was running through the woods was any indication, I had a feeling he treated me like the other victims in his movies. Whether I was married to him or not, money talked. He was power hungry and the fact he wanted to pass that power onto my son sent hot rage searing through me.
Spending who knew how long searching for something heavy, my gaze finally landed on a stand resting beside the fireplace. It held a fire poker. My heart jumped, excitement coursing through me. It was exactly what I needed.
Running to the door, I hid the poker behind my back and knocked.
“What?” came a muffled reply.
“I want to see Travis,” I said, trying with everything in me to have my voice sweet, but firm.
“Why the fuck would you want to do that?”
“I’m bored.” I jiggled the doorknob, not surprised in the least that it was locked, but disappointed just the same.
“He’s busy. Now leave me the hell alone.”
“Asshole,” I muttered under my breath. This time, I resorted to banging my fists against the door, not caring in the least who heard. “Let me out, you bastard.”
“Shut the fuck up or I’ll be your worst damn nightmare.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oooo … so scary. Come at me, big boy. You sound way tougher than Travis.” My stomach churned but I was desperate. I needed to save my son. I needed to get us both away from this hell and the clutches of the devil himself.
Much to my surprise, the lock clicked free.
I raised an eyebrow. Seriously? It worked?
The door slowly opened, revealing …
A whimper escaped me.
Travis.
“Come at me, big boy?” he said, repeating my words. “I think you can do better than that. Try it again, Eve. Flirt with me. Do to me what you do to Greyson.”
I backed up, my body breaking out in a cold sweat.
“No words now?” Travis chuckled and ran a hand through his dark hair. “I actually liked you. A lot. You gave great head, even when I had to force you to do it.”
Bile rose to my throat.
“But you don’t remember.” He feigned a dramatic sigh. “Too bad. We were good together you and I. Kind of like Bonnie and Clyde, except I did all the killing.”
“Tell me how I lost my memory.” If I was going to die, I at least wanted the information I had been searching for the past several months.
“We were making a movie. You were the star. You still could be. Some people pay for the broken and damaged ones.” He shrugged. “Anyway, the Dom took it too far and you ended up hitting your head a little harder than I would have liked.”
“That doesn’t explain why I was running through the woods.” I backed up until I hit the bookshelf, suddenly remembering I held the fire poker behind me.
“Because I let you. You see, Marlowe, Eve, whatever the fuck you want to call yourself these days, I let you run free. After you hit your head, I killed the bastard who hurt you. If anyone is going to be beating your ass, it’s me.” Travis started pacing back and forth, rubbing the dark scruff on his angular chin. “But I was getting bored. The movies paid well but they weren’t enough. And then when you lost your memory, it was damn near perfect. I let you run free through the woods. And then you brought me right to Greyson.”
“You would have known I’d end up there.” The guy was a bastard but he wasn’t stupid.
“The woods are a big place, beautiful girl. I actually wasn’t sure where you would go. But Greyson is smart. He knew it was odd that I showed up out of nowhere one day. It took him awhile to figure that shit out though. Didn’t
it?”
I didn’t know what to say or do. The revelations I was hearing made me weak in the knees. To think I had been with this man. Multiple men from what it sounded like. It didn’t make sense. None of it made sense.
“I had a shitty life before you,” I said, gripping the fire poker tightly in my hand. “So you brought me out of one hell only to thrust me into another?”
“I did.” Travis stopped pacing, staring at me dead on. “And I suggest you stop with the questions. You only have ten minutes left. So, what will it be, Eve? Will you sign the paper or not? I’m good either way.” He took a step toward me. “I’ve always wondered what you’d feel like after giving birth. Would you still be tight as hell or nice and loose?” He groaned, cupping himself. “I bet I could slide my whole fist right into that sweet cunt and tickle your soul.”
I screamed, charging for him and swung the fire poker against the side of his head. “Batter up, baby,” I yelled, swinging over and over again. The need to save my son won out as Travis brought up his arms to fight me off, but I was done. Finished. Completely taken over by the need to survive.
He fell to the floor, crumpling at my feet.
“This is for hurting me. Raping me. Making me your wife. Beating me. And every other shitty thing you’ve done in your worthless life.” I swung the fire poker, hitting him again.
When he stopped moving, I jumped over his still form and ran to the desk where I had placed the paperweight.
Rough hands grabbed my ankles just as I was able to wrap my hands around the heavy object.
Travis pulled me to the ground.
And I swung again. The crunching sound of the paperweight hitting him in the temple made my stomach roll.
He dropped against me.
My heart raced, all of the adrenaline I had been feeling before only intensified at this very moment.
Needing to move fast, I pushed Travis off me and searched his pockets. When my fingers wrapped around a cell, I praised whoever was listening up above. Sticking the cell down the front of my dress, I searched Travis and found a gun. Pulling it free from its holster, I made sure the safety was off.