With lightning reflexes, Ax shoots his hand out in front of the woman who’s busily chatting his ear off and rips the shot glass out of Jessa’s fingers while also shooting to his feet. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he roars at Jessa, always having my back.
After what feels like forever, I finally make it to the bar and tear the shot glass from Ax’s hands and throw it back at the bar staff while Jessa looks on, not having caught up with what the fuck is going on.
Anger pulses through her as a scowl stretches across her face. “What am I doing?” she screeches at Ax, looking as though she could murder him where he stands. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
“Umm,” the poor woman currently sitting between our group says, looking around in confusion at the angry people hovering over her. “What the fuck is going on here?”
Everyone ignores her as ferocious glares are busily being shot at Jessa. “You’re fucking pregnant,” I yell. “What the hell do you think you’re doing having fucking shots?”
“What’s it to you?” Jessa demands, motioning to the bar staff to pour her another as Chief instantly tells the guy ‘no.’ “You don’t give a shit about me or this baby.”
“No,” I roar. “I don’t give a shit about you, but that’s my fucking kid. Do you have any idea what drinking during pregnancy can do to the baby?”
“Yo, Harley,” the guy behind the bar says to the woman who was hitting on Ax. “Is there a problem here?”
“Fucked if I know,” she says, holding up both hands in innocence and sliding her stool back so she can stand. She briefly glances at Ax, “But I don’t need this kind of bullshit drama in my life. I’m out.”
With that, Harley barges past Jessa and hightails it out of here, only briefly making Ax’s eyes flick over at her departure. As Jessa slips into Harley's vacated position, his eyes fall back to her.
Jessa jams her finger against my chest. “Don’t give me this shit and start acting as though you care. It was supposed to be you and me, and now you’re getting around with this whore,” she says, flicking her gaze toward Amelia before bringing it back to me. “Do you have any idea what a fucking fool you’ve made me look like? I got pregnant for you, so you’d see just how much we belong together, but now I see what a fucking mistake it was. You don’t want me, or this baby, so what does it matter if it comes out deformed? I should just get rid of it anyway.”
I clench my fucking teeth together, trying to rein in my anger, but Amelia doesn’t have such problems. She steps into the middle of the circle, putting herself in Jessa’s face. “Listen here you bitch,” she growls. “I don’t give a shit about your fucking sob story. You’re a delusional slut. The only thing stopping me from whooping your ass is the fact you’re pregnant with my man’s baby, a baby who’s fucking innocent in all this. Pull yourself together, you’re a fucking mess, and quite honestly, you’re embarrassing yourself. You were a fucking nobody with no future in high school who used your sexuality to get what you wanted. You were a whore, and clearly, that still hasn’t changed. So, I swear to you, Jessa, if you ever put this baby’s life at risk like this again, I will hunt you down and make you pay. Fuck with Bull or me if you have to, but don’t fuck with this child.”
I curl my arm around Amelia’s waist and drag her back a step to stop her from clocking the bitch in the face, and naturally, Jessa doesn’t miss the move. “Get the fuck out of here and sober up.”
“I ain’t going nowhere,” she says. “I came here to drink, and that’s exactly what I intend to do.”
Chief shakes his head as he steps into the circle and curls his fingers around Jessa’s forearm. “Over my dead fucking body,” he says, looking up at me. “If she’s not going to sober up voluntarily, then I’ll force her too. One of the nurses at Avalon Lake Hospital owes me a few favors.”
I’ve never been so fucking grateful. “Thanks, man,” I say, feeling a wave of relief wash over me. But I can't silence the fear within that tells me Jessa is going to fuck up this child’s life before he or she has even had a chance to be born into the world.
Chief drags Jessa away, kicking and screaming, and I’m thankful for the staff at the bar who mind their own goddamn business.
Amelia turns in my arms and looks up at me as I rub my hands up and down her back, trying to find comfort in her. “So, I guess dirty sex behind the bar is off the cards?”