Off Limits (Kings of Mayhem MC 5)

“Two months we can do for the sake of your son coming into this world safely.”

I looked at my girl, my heart relieved she wasn’t going anywhere, but my brain already forecasting the problems ahead for us if I went to New Orleans.

“Let me tell Bull,” I said.

“Are you kidding me? No way.”

“He needs to understand the situation.”

“Oh, he will and you’d better believe you’d be riding out of Destiny minus your balls. Don’t add fuel to the fire. Don’t make this any worse than it already is.”

She had a point. Telling Bull now might be more unwise than I thought.

“We’ll do it your way. But when I get back, I’m telling him, baby. I’m not messing around. I want you. And I don’t want to scurry around like frightened mice.”

She looked pensive. “If we get through the next two months, I’ll tell him myself.”

The look of doubt on her face made me frown. I took her hand. “There’s no doubt for me that we will. I love you. And unless you decide you don’t want me, then I’ll be coming home to the only woman I want.”

I told Bull about Astrid and the baby the next day.

It was the worst timing in the world. The tension with Martel was continuing to rise and the club needed their sergeant-at-arms. But family came first. Bull insisted I go and make sure my son made it safely into the world.

Plus, there was a situation unfolding in New Orleans, and Bull thought it would be good to have me there. I would be his eyes and ears. As president of the original chapter, he was like the High Priest of all fifteen Kings of Mayhem chapters. He had a stake in everything and always made sure to have every base covered.

Astrid and I were due to leave in two days.

But until then, I was going to do everything in my power to show Chastity that I was her man and that no matter what happened, I wouldn’t let her down.

CHASTITY

Ruger and Astrid left early Sunday morning.

I didn’t see them go. Ruger slipped from my bed after waking me up with his body, a thousand kisses, and a mind-blowing orgasm. The kisses were because he loved me, he said. The orgasm was to remind me how good it was going to be when he got back. I smiled and laughed, and did everything you’re supposed to do when you’re trying to show your boyfriend that him moving interstate with his ex-girlfriend who was pregnant with his son didn’t really break your heart. I didn’t want him to go and I knew if I told him, he wouldn’t. But that wouldn’t be fair on him. This was about family. His son. Ruger deserved to be there. To play a part in him coming safely into the world. And this was the only way.

But the truth was, I hated it.

I knew Astrid wanted him back. And no amount of reassurance from Ruger was going to calm this awful niggle that something was about to go terribly wrong.

But I had to trust him.

We didn’t stand a chance if I didn’t.

Not in our world.

I also knew a thing or two about regret. If he didn’t go and something happened to his son…

So when they left, I refused to cry. Two months and he’d be back.

I tried to keep myself busy, and between school and my job, it wasn’t difficult to do. I took my biology exam and nailed it, earning an impressive ninety-four and putting myself in the top five percent of the class. Bryce didn’t sit with me anymore. And he wasn’t interested in keeping up with our coffee dates either, despite accepting my apology for our disastrous date. I felt bad about it until I saw him walking around campus, hand in hand with another girl from our class, and realized things had worked out better for him too.

Ruger rang every night before turning in, and then again, first thing in the morning. And when he could, he would ride home to see me and we would spend hours wrapped in each other, making every second count before he had to leave again. He was living at the New Orleans chapter clubhouse—his old home— and was busy with club business, following up on a few things for Bull while he was there. He saw Astrid every day, but only to check in or to take her to a doctor’s appointment, which was reassuring and comforting.

But even so, despite what he said, I couldn’t shake my sense of foreboding.

Slowly, the days turned into weeks, and then the weeks into a month.

I was relieved when six weeks after Ruger left, my best friend Emma flew into town for an overnight stay. She had been traveling throughout South America for weeks, and our communication had been limited.