“So what, you told Vinnie, then bailed? He rang me, fucking frantic, wondering where the fuck you are,” he says, sounding like he feels sorry for Vinnie.
I wince and look out the window. “I didn’t tell him.”
“You what?” Talon practically yells now.
“I didn’t tell him! I panicked, and I left, okay? I didn’t want to watch him get angry or to tell me to kill my fucking baby because he doesn’t want it! I don’t want to hear it, Talon. Imagine hearing those words from the man I love.”
Talon curses under his breath and slams his hands down on the steering wheel.
“Is it safe for me to come to the clubhouse?” I ask him. “I know you had your own shit going on there . . .”
“Vinnie is not going to want you staying at the Wild Men clubhouse,” Talon says, green eyes pinning me to my seat. “I’m going to become public enemy number one for bringing you there.”
“I can stay at a hotel, but I want to bring my dog with me wherever I am.”
“I’m not going to take you to the clubhouse, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to look after you. I have a house you can stay in—consider it yours, all right? I’ll move in there with you for however long you need me, but to be honest, I don’t think that’s going to be very long.”
“Why?”
“Because Vinnie is a Wind Dragon, Shay. You’re his, and they always come for what’s theirs.”
I lay my head back and close my eyes. “How did things turn out like this?”
Talon’s eyes gentle. “It’s all temporary. Things will work out for you, Shayla. I promise.”
I’m glad he’s so confident, because me?
I’m not so sure.
FORTY
Vinnie
I STALK through the clubhouse, phone in my hand, waiting for Talon to call me back. He said that she’s fine, and that he will get her to call me ASAP. I got no fuckin’ sleep last night, instead I kept calling her and Talon’s phones, wanting some damn explanations. We were meant to talk everything out, she said we would, but then she just leaves?
When Faye rang me and asked where Shay was, I felt it in my gut that something wasn’t right. And it wasn’t. She was gone. Without a word. Fuck, how she played me yesterday morning in the kitchen, letting me think everything was going to be okay between the two of us, when really she knew she was going to leave without giving me any kind of explanation as to why, or without giving us a chance.
Faye leans against the wall, hand on her protruding stomach, watching me as I pace.
“Vinnie, why don’t you let me make you something to eat? You haven’t eaten or slept.”
“I’m fine,” I tell her, waving off her concern. I won’t sleep until I get to talk to Shay. I’m so angry at how she’s handled this whole thing, yet at the same time I’m worried and just want her home.
“Vinnie,” Faye says quietly, looking unsure. “Shay confided something in me, and I think it has to do with this whole thing.”
I stop, turn to her, and approach. “What are you talking about?”
“Fuck!” she snaps. “This isn’t my place to say, it should come from her. I just don’t want you to find out that I knew, and then lose your shit at me. She spoke to me, woman-to-woman, and it doesn’t feel right telling you when it isn’t my thing to tell.”
I study her for a moment, and then yell out one word, “Sin!”
Faye mutters something under her breath, I’m pretty sure she called me a snitch, but I’ll have to deal with her ass later, because right now all I want to know about is what Shay confided in her.
Sin walks in from outside, shirtless. “What the fuck is going on now?”
I look at his wife. “Faye knows.”
“Knows what?” he asks, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand.
“Everything.”
“For fuck’s sake, someone give me more than that,” he growls, losing his patience. “I’m trying to build a higher fence. I don’t have time for this shit.”
“I think I know why Shay left,” Faye tells her husband. “She confided something in me, and after Vinnie told me what their last conversation was about, it all makes sense.”
“Faye,” Sin says in warning.
She turns to me, her hazel eyes narrowed. She doesn’t look very happy with me all of a sudden, and I’d like to know why. “You said that you told her you never want kids, or marriage, and that you’d be a terrible father, and that you never plan on moving out of the clubhouse. Basically, in a way, you gave her an ultimatum. You set the rules, leaving nothing open for compromise. That’s not how a relationship works, Vinnie. You gave her nothing to work with, no hope for the future, except for a life staying exactly how it is now. What about what she wants? Did you even ask her that?”