Chapter 16: Rebel
I came awake as the sun was rising. I looked over at Madisen. She was still asleep. I heaved a sigh. I decided to make her some breakfast. She’d need to eat something when she got up. She hadn’t had dinner last night. Easing out of bed, I tossed on some clothes and slipped out of the room.
In the kitchen, I raided the fridge and pantry. I found pancake mix and bacon. I got started on frying the bacon. While it was cooking, I fixed a glass of milk, and a bowl of fresh berries for her tray. When the bacon was close to done, I started mixing up the pancakes. A few of the guys came in looking for food. They tried to take mine until I told them it was for Madisen. They quickly backed off. None of them would take food out of my baby mama’s stomach.
When I got back to our room, she was in the shower. I set her tray down on the desk and waited for her to get done. If I thought she wouldn’t kill me, I’d join her, but I don’t think she’d appreciate it this morning. God, I was not looking forward to our talk, but we needed to settle this fight. No way was I accepting back her ring. She wasn’t leaving me. I stood up to pace as I heard the shower turn off. When she finally came out, she stopped in surprise. I guess she didn’t expect me to be there. She lowered her eyes and went to the closet. I saw her rummaging through it. Seeing her pull out a duffle bag, I went over to her.
“What’s that for, baby?” She gave me a look like I was stupid.
“It’s for my things. I’m going to see if I can stay with Jocelyn and Bull at their house. That way you can have your room back. Hopefully this situation will be resolved soon, and then I can get back to my own place. I’m calling my landlord to be sure he hasn’t leased it yet.”
“Madisen, sit down. We need to talk. You’re not moving out of this room or leaving the compound. We have a house being built and it should be ready in a matter of weeks. I know things got hot last night, but we’ve calmed down now.”
She shook her head and pulled some clothes off hangers in the closet and stuffed them in her bag. She wasn’t going to listen or talk. She was serious about leaving. I grabbed the bag and threw it on the floor. She swung around with an angry scowl on her face.
“Rebel, keep your hands off my stuff. We have nothing more to say. I told you last night, I’m not the kind of woman you need. Your ideal one is someone who will fuck you on command, maybe cook and clean and do as you tell her. Sorry, that’s not me. As for the baby, if you decide you want anything to do with it, I won’t stop you from seeing it. But there is no obligation for you to do anything. He or she doesn’t ever have to know who their father is.”
Her pigheaded refusal to talk about last night made me angry, but her talk about if I wanted to know my kid or not was the last straw. I roared out my anger. She jumped in surprise and maybe a little fear. I grabbed her and hauled her ass to the bed, where I took her down and straddled her. Before she could fight, I pulled silk ropes from under the bed and secured her arms. She went from surprised and fearful to full-on pissed.
“Rebel, undo my arms right now! I swear to God, if you don’t, I’m going to fucking kill you.”
“My name is Ronan to you, not Rebel. And you’ll stay that way until you listen to me and we come to an understanding.”
“Fuck you, I don’t want—” I cut off her tirade by stuffing a handkerchief in her mouth. I knew it would piss her off more, but she needed to hear me out. She was struggling. I smacked the side of her ass.
“Stop that. You’re going to hurt your wrists. Now calm down and listen. I didn’t want to go this route, but you left me no choice. You wouldn’t talk to me or let me explain.” Her eyes were spitting fire. Was it wrong that she was turning me on right now? I worked to keep my cock under control and sat down beside her. She tried to move away from me, but the ropes didn’t let her get far. I straddled her and leaned down so she had no choice but to look me in the eye.
“I don’t want a drone. I want you. Our baby will be raised by both parents in a home filled with love. He or she will know their father loves their mother beyond all reason. We are going to eliminate the threat to you, move into our house, get married and have this baby and more. What we won’t do is have you leave me, or take my kid to be raised alone or with another man. I’d never let that happen, Madisen. If another man touches you, I’ll kill him.”
She swung up her knee, hitting me in the back. I sat back so I had them trapped. She was mumbling behind the cloth in her mouth and glaring. I ran my thumb along her cheek and tucked her hair behind her ear. She tried to pull away, but I had her caged in. I leaned down and placed my forehead on hers.
“I’m sorry you felt you were being treated like a child. We don’t discuss club business with our women. But I had a conversation with Bull last night. He told me that at times he does tell Jocelyn more, especially when it involves her. I’m not sure if I want to do that. I want you and our baby to be safe. Period. We’re the ones who’ll take this threat out. I need you to have confidence in your man to deal with it, and for him and his club to have your back, no questions asked. Yeah, it’s blind faith, but we need that right now. With that said, if you can sit calmly and talk to me like an adult, I’m willing to tell you a little bit about our plan, but I can’t have you going off, throwing a fit.”
Her face had gone flat. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking. Her eyes looked a little wet, like she wanted to cry. She had stopped struggling. She raised her chin and shook the cloth in her mouth. I took it to mean she wanted it out. I cautiously removed it.
“Move, I’m going to be sick,” she said. I scrambled up and tried to get her the trash can, but I was too slow. She hung her head over the side of the bed and threw up. I rushed to untie her. As soon as her arms were free, she dragged herself off the bed and into the bathroom. Shit! I forgot about the morning sickness. It had been mostly gone. Damn!
She kneeled on the floor, heaving up her guts. Since she hadn’t eaten, she was bringing up bile. I pulled her hair back. She heaved a few more times, then laid down on the tile floor beside the toilet. I rushed to clean up the floor then curled around her.
“Baby, I’m so fucking sorry. I didn’t mean to stir up your morning sickness. I just wanted you to listen to me. What do you need? I have some food out there or I can go get you some ginger ale and crackers.”
“I can’t handle food right now. Would you go get the crackers and ginger ale, please? There is a supply in the back of the storage pantry off the kitchen. Tate hid some for me back there.” I kissed her temple and got up to get her stuff. No way I’d be continuing this conversation while she was feeling sick. It took me several minutes to find the stash. They had it well hidden on a bottom shelf, clear in the back. I hurried back with them. When I swung open our door, it was to find it empty. The bathroom door was open and she wasn’t there either. I swore. That sneaky shit. She distracted me with being sick and then took off.
I knew she couldn’t have left the grounds. We had guys at the gate, or at least there should be. I ran out of my room. As I streaked through the common room, several of the guys hollered, asking me what was wrong. I didn’t have time to tell them. Slamming open the clubhouse door, I frantically looked around. Her car was still in the lot where she’d parked the last time she drove. Seeing a couple of the guys at the compound garage, I ran over to them. They looked up at me expectantly.
“Have you seen Madisen come by here in the last five minutes or so?” All four of them shook their heads no. Shit, where could she have gone?
“Why? Is something wrong?” Thrasher asked.
“Other than she’s pissed at me, wants to leave, and I can’t find her? No, everything’s great.” They winced.
“Want us to help you look for her? She hasn’t left through the gate because we’ve been here for the last hour,” Thrasher volunteered.
“Naw, I’ll find her. Probably better if I don’t get the whole place looking for her, or she’ll never forgive me. Thanks.” I headed off toward Bull’s house. She’d mentioned earlier going there, maybe she went after all.
I took a fortifying breath before I knocked on the door. It was still a little early. Hopefully I wasn’t waking them up. Bull would kill me if I disturbed Jocelyn’s sleep. I heard hard steps coming to the door, then Bull swung it open. He looked at me in surprise.
“Rebel. How can I help you?”