“Try me.”
“Okay,” Darcy said slowly. “I don’t care.”
“What? What do you mean you don’t care?” I asked in shock.
“Told you,” Darcy said. “Look, this world, this club…it isn’t for everyone. Okay? I get that. But Gray is the best man I’ve ever known. He’s loyal, he’s protective, he’s an amazing father, a wonderful husband, and a very thorough lover.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Make fun all you want.” Darcy grinned. “But sex matters.”
“Hell, yes, it does,” Mia agreed.
“But the cartel thing?” I looked to the direction of the stairs.
“She’s out cold,” Darcy said. “And I closed the bedroom door. We’ll know if she wakes up.”
“We don’t live an ordinary life,” Joni added.
“Ordinary? You’re so far from ordinary it isn’t even on the map. The cartels are brutal, and now you’re telling me the club isn’t just involved in criminal activity, but involved in actual violence with a cartel? How am I the only one freaking out about this?” I looked at Allison. Allison, the quiet one, who always seemed to have her head screwed on straight.
“We’ve had a lot more time to come to grips with this than you have. Listen to me for a minute, okay? I was married before,” Allison said. “Before Torque, I was married to a lawyer. On the surface he was friendly and outgoing. But you know what he really was? He was a piece of shit who hit me, but never in the face. He’d bruise my ribs and throw me around, but he never hurt my face so no one would know what he was doing behind closed doors. He wore a tie and went to an office like everyone else and blended in fine, and society loved him. But he was a wife beater. You’ve seen my new husband. The man makes me look downright chatty, doesn’t he?”
“That’s putting it mildly,” Mia said, smiling. “Torque barely says two words in one go.”
“He’s never been one to say much with words,” Allison said. “When I met him and he found out that my husband was beating me, you know what he did?”
“What?” I murmured.
“He tracked down my husband and beat the living shit out of him, and then threatened his life if he didn’t sign the divorce papers that I’d served him. My problems became Torque’s problems when he fell in love with me. He’s battled for me, even when I wasn’t ready to battle for myself. That’s the kind of man Torque is. That’s the kind ofclubhe belongs to. So, no, I don’t care if they’re criminals. I don’t care if they’re involved in some nasty business. I’ve seen nasty. I’ll choose Torque and the club over anything else, any day.”
I was humbled by her impassioned speech.
“You just have to decide if it’s something you can accept,” Mia said. “There will be times when you’re going to be left in the dark. You have to make your peace with that as well.”
“What happens?” I swallowed. “I mean, if one of them…”
“Dies?” Joni supplied.
I nodded.
“Then you have a family that will stay by you, no matter what. Your kid will never be without, and you’ll never be alone. No matter what. Fuck tradition,” Mia said. “You know what tradition gets you? Nothing. Nothing but playing it safe in a boring life. Sure, you can go find a good man to love you, but there will always be a part of you that yearns for something deeper, with a man who will go to bat for you at a moment’s notice and a club that will protect you at all cost.Thisis living.Thisis loving. It’s just grittier, and not everyone can handle it. That’s all.”
I heard the words, felt them in my bones. I wanted it all. The excitement, the passion, the love. The highs and the lows, the exhilaration of passion and the feeling of truly living.
I hadn’t meant to get pregnant, and I certainly hadn’t meant to get pregnant by a biker. But sometimes life threw you curveballs, and it was up to you if you ducked or swung.
“Is Linden coming back?” I asked, looking in the direction of the door.
Darcy got up off the couch and went to the window. “She’s still here. She’s sitting in her car.”
Mia sighed. “I’ll go…”
“Let me,” I voiced. “Please?”
Mia nodded.
I rose from my seat and took the banana cream pie tin. Darcy handed me a clean fork and a few napkins. When I got to Linden’s car, I gently rapped on the passenger side window.