Damien laughed softly. “According to Miles, she was a fucking handful for Tyrone and his brothers before they got married. Tyrone was always fucking up with her—wanted a woman that shut the hell up and did as she was told, but she wasn’t like that.”
I arched an eyebrow at him. “Sounds awfully familiar,” I laughed.
Damien shrugged. “I just wish that I had realized I was ruining you sooner than I did. It would have saved both of us a lot of heartache.”
“You’re here now,” I told him softly. “Just . . . just please don’t leave me again,” I quietly begged him.
He softly rubbed my belly. “I’m not, darlin’,” he promised me.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Miles called from the bedroom. “But we’ve got company. Kaden and Natalie have just rolled up.”
“Kaden?” I asked incredulously as I looked up at Damien. “Wasn’t he in prison?” I’d met Kaden four years ago around the time Damien and I had gotten engaged. He was in high school still, but he was a dangerous guy, someone you definitely didn’t want to cross.
And he’d gone to prison for shooting a guy while in school to protect the girl he was with at the time.
Damien nodded. “Last I heard he was,” he told me. He released me and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “I’ll meet you out in the living room.”
He stepped out of the shower. A few minutes later, I got out, too, quickly getting dressed to go see why Kaden and Natalie were here. Plus, the last I had heard, Natalie had disappeared off the grid—no one could find her. She ran a few months after Kaden got locked up.
Kaden had definitely changed while he was in prison, I noted when I saw him. His shoulders were wider, and he had actually gotten a little bit taller. Ink crawled up his neck and out onto his hands from under the sleeves of his flannel. His blonde hair was longer and slicked straight back, his blue eyes cold and hard—emotionless.
The last time I had seen Kaden, he was a teenager—still in high school—only a VP in his father’s club. But now, he wore a president patch on his chest.
Natalie was sitting on the couch holding a sleeping baby—close to a year old—on her chest. Her belly was slightly rounded with the signs of another baby—probably four or five months along now. Her long brown hair was pulled up into a messy ponytail, her face clear of any makeup. Unlike Kaden, she had no ink visible except for the inside of her arm where I knew she had a scar with a guy’s name who had decided to scar her permanently.
“Heard you two got back together,” Kaden commented as he looked over at me.
Damien nodded silently, not offering any other comment on it. “So, to what do I owe the visit?” Damien finally asked.
“Wanted to see if we could work out something with some guns,” Kaden told him. “I just pulled out of business with the Reapers. They’ve got a lot of shit going on right now—Jayden thought it would be best that I pull out for right now to save myself from any damage. He told me to look your way.”
Damien nodded. “Shouldn’t be an issue. You’ll have to give me a couple of weeks to get in an extra supply for you.”
“That’s fine. Just let me know whenever.”
The baby that Natalie was holding began to cry, and Kaden instantly walked over and took him from her, cradling the baby in his arms. I swallowed down the knot in my throat, my mind instantly flashing back to the first time I had gotten pregnant—how excited I was to have a little piece of Damien I got to love and care for, only to lose it.
“Want to hold him?” Kaden asked me, noticing my gaze locked on his son.
Swallowing hard, I nodded. Kaden walked over to me and gently eased the little boy into my arms. I smiled down at him as he opened his blue eyes, locking them on my own. “Hi, little guy,” I whispered.
Damien
I walkedinto the kitchen with Kaden as Natalie began to talk to Hayley about Adrian and the baby that she was pregnant with.
“I saw the look in your eyes, bro,” Kaden told me suddenly. I looked over at him with an arched eyebrow. “Is there something I missed while I’ve been inside?”
“She was pregnant once,” I quietly admitted. My chest still ached when I thought of all Hayley had lost because of me. “She miscarried a couple of days before she gave me my ring back. Seeing her hold your kid,” I swallowed hard, “it just made a really good image,” I confessed.
Kaden nodded. “I get it,” he told me honestly. “I never thought I wanted kids until Natalie ended up pregnant. She lost our first one when I was in prison. Fucking Carlos—“ Carlos was a sick son of a bitch. I’d heard he was dead, but now, I had no doubt Kaden had been the one to end his life.
Kaden cut himself off, shaking his head. “When she got pregnant with Adrian, I was fucking ecstatic, believe it or not.” He looked over at me with a half-grin. “Wait until Hayley starts showing. You’ll never get enough of her being pregnant.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “How the hell—” I asked, my body tensing.
Kaden shrugged. “I saw the look in her eyes as she looked at Adrian and the way she touched her own belly when she saw Natalie’s stomach.” He shrugged. “I’ve always been a really good people reader, Damien.”
I cocked my head to the side the slightest bit as I studied him. “You’ve changed,” I finally settled on.
He shrugged. “So have you, Damien.”
“Touché,” I commented, looking back out into the living room where Hayley was now gently bouncing Adrian who was fast asleep in her arms.
My chest swelled with love for her, and I couldn’t help but imagine what Hayley would look like holding our own baby.