Change?
“Um, okay,” I murmur with a nod.
“So, tell me Sloane, or would you prefer I call you Tiny?” he asks, throwing me for a loop. I rarely hear my real name and other than last night I hadn’t heard it since I was in the hospital with the twins.
“What the fuck?” I inwardly cringe at the sound of his harsh voice and barely keep myself from flinching away from him as he places his hand on the back of my seat directly behind my head. “Scoot over, Bitsy,” he orders and I immediately do as he commands. How did I not hear his bike?
God I should have just kept on going and said screw the thought of food. But I was pregnant and had a little one to take care of.
As Chains takes a seat next to me, he wraps his arm firmly around my shoulders and pulls me into him. I allow myself a brief second to savor his touch before trying to push myself away from him.
“Don’t even think about it, baby,” he murmurs into my ear. “You and I are gonna talk.”
I close my eyes and nod my head. I should have known getting away from him wouldn’t be easy and honestly, I didn’t want to. I love him but I don’t want him to take something I find so precious away from me.
Maybe he’s changed his mind? Or maybe it’s guilt for the way he acted, either way he came after me and that has to mean something, right?
At least I hope so.
Chapter Seven
Chains
As grateful as I feel to find Tiny in one piece, I’m furious as to who’s sitting with her.
Why the hell is Félix DeLancy sitting with my ol’ lady? In fact, what is he doing in this area at all? He’s not supposed to be meeting me until nightfall.
“You want to tell me what the fuck you’re doing in my territory before we’re supposed to meet tonight?” I ask my attention solely on Félix as I keep Tiny in my arms.
I’m gutted by her reaction to me wrapping my arm around her, but I don’t blame her. I fucked up royally last night. Soon as I get rid of Félix I’ll apologize and make things right. Afterwards I’m taking her ass down to the courthouse and tying her to me.
My mind played through her letter the entire way to town and when I spotted her sitting in a window seat of the diner just inside town, I felt relief.
“Well, Chains, considering I was already seated before your beautiful ol’ lady came in. She sat and I decided to join her as she decided to only eat toast this morning,” Félix says, motioning in the direction of said toast Tiny hasn’t even touched.
“Bitsy, eat your toast,” I urge her.
“I’m not hungry anymore,” she protests without looking in my direction.
“Baby, you’re pregnant and need to eat something,” I say, placing my hand on her stomach as I did on multiple occasions when she’d been carrying the twins. Tiny lifts her head to finally meet my gaze with widened eyes.
“How nice to see you two growing your family?” Félix states with a grin.
Kissing Tiny’s forehead I focus back on the man sitting across from me. “Why don’t you go ahead and tell me what you wanted now since we’re already seated together,” I demand.
“I don’t think this is a conversation we need to have right now. I’ll be by the clubhouse later this evening. I have a meeting this morning I need to get to. It was nice to meet you, Tiny, and congratulations on the pregnancy. Take care of yourself,” Félix says as he slides out of the booth across from us.
“Uh, nice to meet you too. Thank you,” Tiny murmurs meekly as she sinks further into me.
I don’t know what they spoke about but I intend to find out.
Nodding in our direction Félix drops a twenty on the table and leaves through the front door.
I drop my arm from around Tiny’s shoulders and rest it on the back of the booth we were sitting in. I twist my body to be able to see her better. “Bitsy,” I murmur but stop as she shakes her head.
“Please don’t,” she murmurs with a shake of her head.
“Don’t what?” I mutter.
“Don’t talk so softly when you don’t mean it. You made yourself clear last night.” Fuck if I did. I was angry and my mind twisted shit around as thoughts of losing her to another pregnancy took hold.
“Listen to me, Bitsy, and listen good,” I growl, leaning into her a bit. “Last night I said some fucked up shit that I shouldn’t have. I admit I fucked up royally with what I said, but you’re gonna know I didn’t mean a word I said. I love you, Sloane. You’re it for me. I felt fear at the thought of losing you and it got to my head. I’m not saying this shit as an excuse for the way I acted. I hope you’ll forgive me because I can’t live without you, baby.”
“But you wanted me to get an abortion.” She furrows her brows as she casts her eyes down to her lap.
“Bitsy, I don’t want you killing this baby. I didn’t mean it and I fuckin’ regret saying it. This is our kid, same as River and Brook. We’re a family and I’m not about to ruin that. I got your letter and wish you would have told me this stuff about your past yourself,” I murmur, lifting my hand not resting on the booth to cup the side of her face and guiding her to look up at me. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. Please will you come home.”
“You . . . really hurt me,” she whispers, tears welling in her eyes.
“I know I did, baby, and
