To Awaken a Monster (In the Arms of Monsters 1)

He smiled at her, and in a weird way, that one single smile actually gave her comfort. She wasn’t alone.

He was there.

She could handle this.

No matter what O’Klaren tried to do or even the kids at school, she could handle whatever was thrown her way. She’d dealt with worst and would probably keep on having to deal with worst.

“You okay?” Bishop asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Thank you for staying with me.”

“You think there’s a rat in the club?”

“I have no idea. He seemed to know stuff. He asked about Milly. Do you think he was sleeping with her and knows about it?”

“What, Milly sleeping with O’Klaren? He’s barely been here. I doubt she’d have had the time.”

“Do you care if she had?”

“What are you trying to ask me, Robin?”

“Did you have feelings for her?”

Bishop burst out laughing. “Hell, no. I knew what Milly was. She means nothing to me. Put it this way, if she had a thing for O’Klaren it’s a good thing she’s gone and dead now.”

“Dead?”

“You don’t think Dad would let her live after what she did, did you?”

“Milly planned what happened. What if she told O’Klaren? He seemed to question the baby’s paternity.” She didn’t know if to call her baby, she, he, or it. The baby seemed like the safest of all options. Her life had gotten way too complicated of late, and she actually didn’t have a clue what to do.

“I don’t know. Sounds a reach to me.”

“Unless she wanted Preacher out of the way.”

“Not going to happen. You need to get it out of your head. In fact, I demand you get all of that negative shit out of your head. You don’t need it. It’s completely unnecessary, and seeing as I’m your husband, you’ll do as you’re told.”

They arrived at Preacher’s house, and she looked up at the large home. It was a nice place, spacious.

“Speaking of husbandly things, I was thinking, maybe we could … make it official.”

“You want to have sex?”

“I’m just thinking, you know, you’ve had it. Dad took care of that, and it won’t hurt with me.”

She was … speechless.

“I think right now I just want to go in and study.”

“Ugh, what’s with you? It’s not like you don’t know what is going to happen. You’ve already done it with my dad.”

“Done it with your dad. Do you even hear yourself right now? I didn’t have a choice. The woman who had a thing for you, took it out on me. That’s the reality. I didn’t choose this.”

“Well you could be making the fucking most of it, but instead, you’re only seeing the bullshit.”

She felt the tears building up. Opening the car door, she slammed it closed behind her.

“Where the fuck are you going?” he asked.

“I’m going inside to study. I’m sorry that I’m not in the mood to screw my selfish husband!” She yelled the last bit.

“Fine. I can have whoever I want.”

With the key in hand, she turned toward him. “Go, Bishop. Just freaking go. I don’t care.”

He pulled out of the driveway as she slammed the door closed.

Collapsing against it, she tried to gain her composure, but nothing seemed to be working. “Why did it have to get so messed up?”

Removing her jacket and bag, she made her way into the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water before going into the dining room.

She sat down, ignoring the fact she had so much homework.

It didn’t take long for Preacher to arrive.

He entered the dining room, keys in hand. “Where’s Bishop?”

“He took off.”

“From the look on your face, did you two get into a fight?”

She burst out laughing. “When are we not fighting these days?”

“It was a tough one?”

“Yeah, real tough.” She took a sip of her water, wondering if she should tell the father of her husband and current baby that his son wanted sex?

“Anything I can help you with?”

“You don’t want to know.”

“Try me. I could surprise you.”

She snorted. “Okay, my husband wants his rights in the bedroom.” She didn’t know a more delicate way of putting it.

“He wants to fuck.”

“Yeah.” She looked down at her stomach. There was something there, a roundness, but that was about it. “I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“You and him not done anything before or after?”

“Nothing.” Her cheeks heated. “I better do some homework.” She got to her feet and paused. “What happened to Milly?”

Preacher looked at her. “Do you really want to know?”

“Yes.”

“Be aware, Robin, somethings in life, you don’t want to have the answers to.”

She thought about Milly. “You know, I thought she was being nice. That she was being my friend. I had no idea how much she hated me. How can anyone hate you so much without even knowing them?” She sniffled. “She was so spiteful, and she thought it was funny what she did. I don’t … I need to know what happened to her.”