“She wouldn't have been the first of the sluts to try to trap a member to take her for his old lady,” says Bear with a hint of sympathy edging into his voice. “Fuck, probably not the first one that week.”
“And then what? You just stopped trying?” If Viking is fury, Hawk is pure acid. He finally turns to look my way, and the look on his face makes me take a step back. “Didn't think it was worth us knowing?”
Just like I imagined earlier, he would deal with anyone who hurt Izzy, brutally. It just never occurred to me that might be me.
“Of course not!” A tear slides down my cheek. I brush it off and sniffle. “But I couldn't get through to you, and then I started showing, and there was no hiding it from Dad. You know who I am now. The Family can't ever find out. Dad got us this apartment in secret, together with my friend who was at the party, but no one else knows. I can't even imagine what would happen if Dario—well, if they found out I had been knocked up.”
“By a bunch of dirty bikers?” asks Snark, with a bitter laugh.
“No! Not even Dad knows that. I haven't told them who the father is. Just that I got unlucky and stupid at a party.”
“I say you got pretty fucking lucky.”
“Shut the fuck up, Snark,” growls Viking. His icy look is withering. I've been ashamed of not telling them since I found out, even if I tried. It always seemed like if I tried harder, did something different, that I could've reached them. But I never managed, and after a while I had enough on my plate just getting ready for Izzy and then taking care of her. “What matters now is the baby, and us. Obviously, you're moving in with us.”
“Wait, what?” I blink at him in confusion. Moving to the Screaming Eagles clubhouse?
“This baby's gone for eight months without fathers. I don’t know what the fuck is going to happen, but we’re going to be a part of figuring that out and at the clubhouse, we can watch out for both of you.” He says it like it's obvious.
“But… no. I live here. A clubhouse isn't somewhere to raise a baby. I've got this place set up the way I like it. The neighborhood is safe. Campus is close. I'm not moving down to South Side from this.” I look around at the place that's become our home since the baby came. “I'm safe here. I've been safe here. At least I was until you guys showed up.”
Bear rolls his shoulders and they're like boulders in an avalanche. “You have never been as safe in your life as you are right now. You and our little girl just came under our protection.”
“He's right.” Viking nods in Bear's direction. “We're fathers now. Not how I expected this day to go when I woke up, I'll be fucking honest, but this is where we are. And the safest place for you is where we control who comes and goes, where we have the backing of the whole club, and the means to protect you, and her. All of us.”
“Fathers? Don't you care which one of you it is?” I look between them. “I thought you’d want to… I mean, three of you could be off the hook.”
“Off the hook?” Hawk says with deadly calm, sliding a hand through his spiky hair as he glares with all the weight of his accusation. “You say it like she doesn't deserve all of us. No, it doesn't fucking matter who the father is, because we were all there. We all fucked. Don't fucking cheapen it.”
Snark hops off the stool to stand with Hawk. “He's right. You get all of us. It could be any one of us, and it doesn't change a fucking thing.”
I don't even know how to process this. I look at them, one by one. If they all want to protect me and Isabelle, that's… I don't even know. It's just like I dreamed, but scary as hell, with a big dose of how the hell is this going to work? But I'm not leaving my home.
“You're not dragging me out of here. I'd be isolated from everyone and everything except for you. It'd be like a prison with you as my wardens. I wouldn't even be able to tell my Dad where I am without it starting a war, and despite how much he disapproves, he’s risked our family’s honor to take care of us.”
Viking pushes off the wall and loosens his shoulders. “By hiding you away? Honor that turns away his pregnant daughter isn't worth wiping my ass with. I should just throw you over my shoulder and go.”
Is it wrong that even now, his caveman possessiveness is turning me on? “I'm not leaving.” I clutch Izzy harder, enough to get a little squeak of a sleepy protest out of her. If he means it, I know there isn't much I can do other than kick and scream and do my best to get someone's attention. “What are you going to do, kidnap me?”