Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 56628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Honestly, had Joey not come to Adelaide for help, Jessie might have died there. I didn’t even want to think about what she’d endured at his hands.
And the woman had no idea that her brother was still very much alive. Hell, I wasn’t even sure if she was aware that she was still alive. Jessie was basically a shell of herself. She hadn’t uttered a fucking word since I unbound her and Jesup gave her clothes to put on.
But hell, none of us had known Joey was even alive. If any of us had known, it would have saved Adelaide all of the pain and heartache she had gone through.
It had killed a part of her to think that Joey was dead.
When she had dragged him into the clubhouse, her beautiful, dark eyes had lit up with a true fire—a fighting fire. Something I was beginning to realize only Joey could bring out in her.
I was beginning to wonder if he had become the other half of her soul.
And that shit cut me deep.
“How did you know where I was?” Jessie finally asked me as we strode towards my clubhouse, her voice rough and weak.
“Your brother,” I informed her. She swung her wide, shocked eyes to mine. I released a quiet sigh. “He’s alive, Jessie. He came to Adelaide for help.”
“How is he alive?” she choked out, disbelief coating her voice as tears glistened in her dark eyes.
I shrugged at her. “I don’t know,” I told her honestly. “He only woke up long enough to inform me and Adelaide of where you were.”
I strode into the clubhouse, my eyes instantly landing on Adelaide, who was still sitting on the couch. She was talking to Joey. He looked to be mostly awake, but he looked exhausted and in a shit ton of pain. He had taken a hell of a beating, too. That was for sure.
“Joey!” Jessie exclaimed.
Joey jerked his head up to look at his twin. “Holy shit, he fucked you up good,” he breathed as he pushed himself up off the couch with a pain-filled grimace, opening his arms up to his sister.
“I’ll be fine,” she choked out as she leaned down to wrap her arms around him.
I walked over to Adelaide. “How are you feeling, Addy?” I gently asked her, knowing her morning sickness was beginning to seriously kick her ass. Instead of it being only in the morning, it was becoming a fucking all-day thing.
She leaned her head back against the back of the couch, a tired, weary look in her dark eyes. “Exhausted,” she admitted, her tiredness seeping into her voice.
I kneeled in front of her, running my hands over her jean-clad thighs. Her eyes flickered toward Joey for a moment as he moved to sit up, but she didn’t push me away, for which I was relieved. I knew shit between us was about to get complicated once again. In my gut, I knew I’d always come second to Joey, and it cut.
“Have you eaten anything yet?” I asked her.
She nodded. “I just threw it up right back up, though.” I frowned at her. “My stomach has been upset since two this morning,” she reminded me as if I could forget spending half the night sitting in the bathroom with her.
“You need to rest,” Joey said to her. “You always had a problem with resting to get better.”
Adelaide snorted. “Going to take me about another eight months to get over this,” she told him, her dark eyes clashing with his as she dropped the bomb of her pregnancy like it was nothing.
Joey sucked in a harsh breath at her words, and then, he narrowed his eyes at me, anger flashing in his dark depths. “That goddamn fast you got her knocked up?!” he roared at me.
I clenched my jaw, reining in my temper. I wouldn’t fight with him, not over this and not with Adelaide sitting there to witness it. She had just gotten him back. I wouldn’t put her through the stress of us fighting. But it didn’t mean that I wouldn’t put him in his goddamn place and give him a reality check. “Not me,” I snarled at him as I stood up to my full height. “You fucking did.”
Joey looked like I had punched him in the gut. His wide, shocked eyes snapped to Addy. Adelaide clenched her jaw and stood up from the couch, running her hands down her face in exhaustion.
“How far along are you, Adelaide?” he asked her quietly.
“Six weeks,” she said, her voice quiet.
He swallowed hard as he stared at her. “Fuck,” he finally managed to utter.
Addy suddenly gagged, her hand flying up to her mouth as she rushed past me and down the hall to the bathroom. I rushed after her, getting there right as she dropped to her knees in front of the toilet, throwing up stomach acid since she hadn’t been able to keep anything down all day.