Jan stepped forward and grasped my arm. “Come and sit down and I’ll go and get a test from the grocery store a block over.” I followed her, my legs feeling like they weighed a ton. “Sit down.” I did as I was told and stared at the wall I’d just painted as my ass hit the sofa cushions. “I’ll be back.”
I couldn’t formulate a reply as the door closed behind her, all I could do was hold my stomach and wonder. Wonder what would happen if I was. Wonder what the next step would be. Wonder where I’d end up. I’d managed to avoid Brody since he came back to work in Hut’s crew, but I wouldn’t be able to avoid him forever if I was pregnant.
Pregnant.
My god. This wasn’t in the plan. This wasn’t how things were meant to go. But then, weren’t all the best things that happened totally unexpected?
The door swung open and clicked closed, and I finally turned. Jan held up a bag, a grin on her face. “I hope you need to pee.”
* * *
BRODY
The street was silent when I pulled up outside Hut’s house. There was no music ringing out from any of the houses, no people walking on the sidewalks, and not a single car driving down the road. It was quiet. Too quiet. They always said the calm came before the storm, and I couldn’t help wonder if there was one on the horizon.
I turned the engine off, the car shuddering to a complete stop, and glanced around. Ryan and Kyle were around here somewhere watching the house while I’d caught a few hours’ sleep at my apartment, but it had been interrupted by Hut’s phone call not long ago.
It wasn’t unusual for Hut to call me at odd hours throughout the night and day, but the frantic tone he had when he told me I needed to “get my ass to the house right now or else” was out of character.
My immediate thought had been that he found out who I was, but I disregarded that right away. If he knew I was undercover, he wouldn’t wait for me to go to him. He’d come and find me without a doubt.
I’d relayed all this to Jord, who said he’d tell Ryan and Kyle, but I needed to figure out where they were just in case something went down that I couldn’t come back from. There was no use in me sitting outside, wondering what was about to go down.
I pulled in a deep breath and got out of the car, my feet carrying me toward the front door of Hut’s house. The screen door was wide open, along with the main door, and then I heard crashing, things being thrown at walls.
“What the…” My voice trailed off as I took in the living room. The sofas were turned over, the TV smashed to pieces, a leg missing off the small table that sat next to one of the sofas. And then there was Hut, standing in the middle of the wrecked room, his chest moving rapidly as he pulled in breaths.
Ford and Quinn lingered by the kitchen door, and I glanced over at them, silently asking what was going on.
“She’s gone,” Hut announced. “Fuckin' gone!” He bent down, picked up the table, and flung it at the wall. I managed to jump out of the way just in time for it to smash right where I’d been standing and fracture into smithereens.
“Who’s gone?” I asked, my stomach dipping. There was only one she he could be talking about, but I had to be sure.
“Lola,” Ford told me, his face carefully blank of any expression.
I held my hands up in the air and stepped inside, shutting the door after me. The neighborhood didn’t need to know what was going on in this house. I didn’t need people to know what was going on.
“Back up a second.” I moved toward Hut and widened my eyes. “Sit and take a breath. Just calm down.”
“Calm down?” he screamed in my face, his spittle flying everywhere. “How the fuck can I calm down when she’s been gone for three
days?”
“Three days?” My pulse raced, and I had to keep my feet planted to the floor so I didn’t stumble back. I hadn’t been at the house much, and even when I had, I hadn’t seen Lola apart from that first morning. I had just thought she was achieving what she’d set out to do: not see my face. But if she was gone…
“Did someone take her?” It was my first thought. Hut had enemies upon enemies, and people who wanted to take his territory. Maybe one of them had taken her in exchange for—
“No.” Hut laughed, but it was a sinister sound that had goose bumps breaking out along my arms. “She took her shit and disappeared.”
Wow. She’d said that she wanted out of this house, and I had to admit, I was damn proud of her. But…
She was gone.
My hand drifted to my chest, and my palm rubbed against the pain emanating there. She may have left this house and Hut, but in a way, she’d escaped from me too. She hadn’t told me she was leaving, which meant she didn’t want me to know.
“Have you tried calling her?” I was stalling, trying to get all my thoughts in order. She’d left without telling me, but then, she didn’t trust me anymore, did she? I’d decimated that within a matter of seconds when I’d walked into Sal’s diner that day.
I’d told myself once Hut was taken care of, I’d be able to fix things with her. Maybe not resolve them fully, or have any kind of relationship with her, but I could make peace if only to see her face once more.