Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 57341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 287(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 287(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
Her wide, dark eyes met mine. “Are you sure?” she asked, nerves and uncertainty glimmering in her eyes at the thought of facing Tristan without me. But she would be fine. She was strong, and I’d be there before she even realized it.
I nodded, leaning down to press a hard kiss to her lips. “Go,” I ordered.
She needed to be with him. I may not like how much she seemed to lean on him, but I understood it.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Adelaide
Istepped into Tristan’s hospital room, my heart beating rapidly in my chest. I was so fucking happy that he was awake, yet at the same time, I was nervous as hell to face him without River by my side. The last time we’d seen each other, he’d gutted me, and I’d ripped him to shreds.
Tristan was sitting up when I walked into his room, texting on his phone. He looked up as I entered. “That was pretty fucking fast,” he noted, breaking the silence as I let the door fall shut behind me.
I shrugged at him and stuffed my hands into my back pockets. “River brought me to town as soon as Jesup called him and told him you had been shot.”
Tristan shook his head, a scowl on his features. I bristled. “I’ll never understand River,” he quietly admitted.
I shifted my hands into the pockets of my leather jacket, hating how unsure I felt around him. “River is secure in the knowledge that I’ll never leave him or cheat on him with another man,” I informed him. Tristan scoffed. That familiar guilt surged within me. “And he knows that despite our past, I do still care a lot about you, and I worry about you.”
Tristan leaned his head back against the bed, seeming to drop that specific topic of conversation. “Dumb of him to let you come here by yourself considering the mother fucker that shot me is still running around,” Tristan grumbled.
I scowled, defensively crossing my arms over my chest. “For your information, River had Sam bring me up here since he had to get Axel’s shit together,” I snapped. “I’m not fucking alone.” As if my man would ever send me out somewhere un-fucking-protected. The mere thought made me scoff.
“Who the fuck is Axel?” Tristan demanded, his eyes flickering to my stomach, only to see that I was still very much pregnant.
“My nephew,” River spoke up as he strode into the room, holding Axel’s car seat in one hand with the small diaper bag in his other hand. He set Axel and the diaper bag down and pressed a light kiss to the top of my head, immediately relaxing me.
Kneeling, I unhooked Axel from his car seat, lifting him and cradling him in my arms as he opened his beautiful, blue eyes and looked up at me. I smiled down at him as I rubbed my fingers over his chubby cheek. He gurgled as he reached up to put his hands on my face.
“Kid looks a hell of a lot like you, River,” Tristan admitted as he looked at Axel.
River shrugged. “Red didn’t want him, so Adelaide told him she would take him. We’re parents a bit earlier than expected.” But River smiled at me—that smile that told me everything was okay, that everything would continue to be okay.
I looked at Tristan. “So, Jesup said that Frederick was doing some shit on the side, and when you confronted him, he shot you,” I said, spiking up that conversation. I wanted to know what the fuck was going on.
Tristan shrugged. “Something like that,” he said gruffly. Evasively.
Fuck, I hated it when he did this shit. He didn’t like anyone outside of the members that sat at his table knowing anything, and he liked it even less when women tried getting in the middle of things.
“Spill,” I snapped at him.
Tristan scowled at me. “You’re in no fucking position to be making fucking demands, Addy,” he snarled. “You’re a club woman. Remember your fucking place.”
I glared at him, opening my mouth to snap back at him, but River beat me to it. “Watch your fucking tone with her,” River warned coolly. “What exactly happened, Grim?” River demanded to know. “And don’t you dare fucking hold back information just because she’s in the fucking room. She’s my old lady. I determine what she knows and doesn’t know. She deserves to know this.”
Tristan glared at him for a moment. River’s expression didn’t change. He just looked at Tristan with cool eyes, waiting on Tristan to begin explaining what the fuck had happened.
Finally, Tristan grunted in displeasure. “Some-fucking-how, he got wind of Adelaide’s pregnancy, and he was under the pretense that it was my kid.” I tensed. River stepped closer to me on instinct, his hands settling over my hips. “I confronted him to tell him to keep his mouth shut about it. Told him that no one else was supposed to know. But Frederick is being paid by someone to get his hands on Adelaide because they know I will go to extreme lengths to make sure that she’s safe and protected.” Tristan clenched his jaw. “I don’t know what they want from me, but Adelaide isn’t safe—especially not here.”