Since Tanner’s and Warden’s deaths, she had been trying to be strong. Tried to show us all that she was okay. I knew she wasn’t, but I was so busy with everything else, I hadn’t called her out on it. Now with Uncle Chaz and Uncle Jack gone too, it all seemed to have caught up with her.
Tears pricked my eyes as I stretched out on the bed beside her and pulled her head onto my chest. She jerked at the feel of cold hands on her back, but she only wrapped her arms around me, clinging to me just as tightly as she had the pillow moments before.
“Shh,” I murmured softly, kissing her brow. “It’s okay.”
“Why did they have to die, Rave?” she whispered brokenly. “Why did we have to lose them all?”
“It was just their time, babe.” I tried to comfort her, but I knew that wasn’t what she wanted to hear. I didn’t have an answer that would help, however.
“Uncle Chaz was always so good to me. And Uncle Jack… Oh God! Raven, I miss him so much already.”
I clenched my eyes shut, but not before a few tears spilled over my lashes. “Me too,” I choked out.
From the door, I heard low male voices and glanced up to find Jet and Bash standing in the doorway with Hawk now. Gracie squeezed between them and joined us on the bed. Lying down behind Flick, she wrapped her arms around the both of us, pushing her face into Flick’s back. “Me too,” she whispered.
My chilled fingers found hers and gave them a squeeze. For most of their relationship, Gracie had resented Jack. Had refused to let herself love the grandfather she felt had abandoned her mother. But in recent months, they had been closer, and I could feel the strength of their relationship growing.
Now he was gone, and I could see it was killing her. The regrets and what-ifs were agonizing, and I could feel her pain because it was my own. What if we had noticed Uncle Jack wasn’t well sooner? What if one of us had done something, made him go to the hospital earlier? Would this heart attack have been so bad?
Would he be in the hospital right now instead of the morgue?
Chapter 10
Colt
The floor was not where I wanted to spend the night, but that was exactly where Kelli put me. I was lucky to have gotten a pillow and a blanket, and I was thankful for what I could get. Even more so that she hadn’t locked me out of our bedroom.
If she had, I would have found somewhere else to sleep, probably in the hall outside the door because I didn’t trust her not to leave in the middle of the night. Fuck, I was just glad she finally gave in and came back to the clubhouse with me instead of wanting to go back to the house she rented with Quinn.
I knew she was pissed at me, but I didn’t realize just how hurt she was by what happened back at the cabin. Now I knew if I didn’t fix this with us, I was going to lose her. Just thinking about her leaving me was enough to kill me. I wasn’t letting her go, not without a fight.
A light tap on the door had my head lifting with a curse. I knew who it was and didn’t want to have to face her. Who knew what Raider told her after I left the night before. Cursing, I got to my feet and opened the door.
Quinn pushed a mug of coffee into my hands and walked into the room. Her gaze went to the bed where Kelli was stretched out across the entire mattress, then to the thin pillow and blanket on the floor where I’d spent the night.
Her lips twitched with the beginnings of a grin. “You totally deserved that,” she informed me with a shake of her pretty blond head. “Raider told me some of what happened, by the way. Not all of it, I suspect, but enough that I would completely understand if she kicked you in the balls and walked away without a look back.”
Quinn crossed to the bed as I shut the door, and she smacked a hand over Kelli’s ass through the thin sheet. “Wake up!”
Kelli groaned and pulled the extra pillow over her head. “Go away. It is way too early for your perkiness.”
“Wake up anyway,” Quinn commanded. “I’m so pissed at you right now, I might decide to pour ice water on your head if you don’t get up and talk to me.”
Muttering a curse under her breath, Kelli sat up in bed. Her dark hair was tangled around her face. One shoulder of her baggy shirt had fallen down her arm, giving me a peek at the top of one perfect tit. Grumbling, she pulled the sheet and blanket up over her and leaned back against the headboard.
“Fine,” she groused, pushing her hair back from her face and lifting her lashes to meet Quinn’s gaze. “Let’s hear it.”
“How could you just walk away last night without saying goodbye to me?” Quinn demanded, hurt making her voice wobble.
Kelli’s face pinched with confusion for a moment. She blinked her eyes then glanced from Quinn to me and back again as if she didn’t understand the words that just came out of her friend’s mouth. “Wait, what? That’s why you’re mad at me?”
“Of course that’s why I’m pissed!” Quinn grabbed one of the pillows and hit Kelli in the face with it. “We’ve been roommates and friends for a long time. I think I at least deserved a ‘See ya later,’ don’t you?”
“Just give me a sec here,” she grumbled. Her eyes landed on my mug of coffee with longing. “Can I have a drink of that?”
I handed it over wordlessly and dropped back down onto the floor, folding the pillow under my head and trying to get comfortable as I watched two of the most important people in my life closely.
Kelli took a few swallows of the strongly brewed coffee before focusing on Quinn again. “To answer your question, yes. You deserved more than a ‘See ya later,’ actually. But I didn’t think I could do that without one of us crying. And as hormonal as you are right now with the baby biker in your belly, I knew it would be you.”