Off Limits (Kings of Mayhem MC 5)

I remembered her. It was Astrid. His ex-girlfriend.

She was beautiful. Blonde and well put-together. And closer to his age than me.

A bad feeling started to tingle in the base of my spine. Especially when Ruger let go of my hand.

“Ruger,” she said his name affectionately.

“Astrid,” he said her name with no affection.

I just stared at her.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

She ran a hand over her round belly, and the dread I felt was like ice water in my veins.

“I hope you don’t mind. One of your biker friends said I could wait for you in here.” She smiled and sighed. “I had to see you.”

All the air left the room.

“Well, here I am.”

There was more belly rubbing and I started to feel sick.

“Do you think we can talk?” She looked at me and then back to him. “Alone?”

“Whatever you have to say, you can say in front of Chastity.”

A flicker of irritation gleamed in her eyes but then she smiled, and nodded.

“I wasn’t going to tell you. I wasn’t going to come here. But you deserve to know.”

I held my breath.

Please don’t say it.

Please don’t tell him you’re pregnant with his baby.

In the end she didn’t have to.

Because Ruger did.

“Are you telling me it’s mine?” He gestured to her big stomach.

She smiled and blinked back a sudden onslaught of happy tears. “Yes.”

And just like that, my world crumbled beneath me.

“No,” I breathed. And both of them looked at me.

She closed the steps between them and took his hand, placing it on her stomach. The baby must’ve kicked because she started to laugh between her tears. “Did you feel that? Did you feel your son kick?”

His son.

I looked at Ruger. Yeah, he felt his son kick. I could see the barely disguised emotion on his face.

“My son?” he asked in disbelief, his dark brows drawn together.

She nodded through more tears. “Yes, Ruger. Your son.”

I stepped away from them, barely capable of breathing.

I was gutted.

“Congratulations.” The word left my lips with an edge of bitterness. Again, they both looked at me.

“Chastity…”

I couldn’t stand another moment of it. Not only had my world suddenly changed in a matter of seconds, I also felt like I was intruding on a deeply intimate moment.

I had to get out of the room.

“I’ll leave you both to it.”

Ruger tried to stop me. “Chastity, please don’t leave…”

But I was already out of the room, although not far enough that I couldn’t hear her say, “Let her go, Ruger. We have a lot to catch up on.”

Tears blinded my eyes as I fled the clubhouse, somehow not running into any of my brothers or other Kings, and drove away from the compound with my heart breaking into a million pieces.

Fuck my life.

She’s pregnant with his baby.

RUGER

She’s pregnant.

And she assures me it’s mine.

“Remember that night I visited you a few months back?”

I did.

“You made love to me all night.” She smiled and closed the door. Taking my hand in hers, she pulled me to her so her pregnant belly hit the hardness of my stomach. “That night we made a baby, Ruger.”

It was bittersweet. Finding out I was going to be a father. But at the same time, possibly losing the woman I had fallen in love with.

Things were too new between us to handle something as monumental as an ex showing up in my room pregnant with my baby.

Not for me.

But I knew this would throw everything for a loop.

I knew my mind should be solely focused on the woman in front of me who was allegedly carrying my baby. But half of it left with Chastity when she fled my room and now I was distracted with worry.

I quickly texted her.

Me: Baby, you didn’t need to leave.

Me: Text me when you get home.

Astrid huffed with irritation.

“Ruger, please. We need to talk about this.”

“I agree.”

“Then if you agree, put down the phone and give me your full attention.”

Astrid was the jealous type. Not to mention demanding.

But she was right. I needed to focus all of my attention on this. We had a lot to talk about.

“Whatever you need, I’ll give it to you. My son will never go without.”

“What about a mother and a father who are together?”

I looked at her, caught off guard. “What?”

“We were always good together. Three years is testimony to that, surely.”

Was she crazy? Our three years together was like a sick carnival ride of fighting and great make-up sex.

“The last time we argued you gave me a concussion and broke my thumb with a baseball bat.” I shook my head. “That’s not healthy, Astrid.”

“I know I used to get a little crazy. It was only because I love you so much, Ruger. But since you’ve been gone I realized how much of a jealous psycho I was and how it pushed you away. But I’ve changed. I guess you can say I’ve grown up.” She rubbed her stomach. “And now we have a son to think about.”