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17
Nadia
I’m coming off my shift at the café when Carla texts me. The sun is setting beautifully, reds and pinks melting over Anaheim, and I stare at the screen for a hot second, noticing the image attachment.
Your boyfriend says hi, Carla writes in her text.
The image, however, makes me instantly nauseated. She’s kissing Orion’s cheek. He doesn’t look too happy about it, but the mere fact that he allowed her to get that close sends my thoughts reeling, my reason exploding into sheer fury. “That bitch,” I growl and struggle to take deep breaths.
Red taillights melt into the late-afternoon traffic as people try to get home sooner rather than later. All I can think about is how long it will take me to get from here to the clubhouse. I’m going to teach that bitch a lesson once and for all.
She’s teasing me, trying to piss me off, stirring shit at the worst possible time. The Blackthorn Riders are dealing with unprecedented violence and the constant threat of death from Colton Harrow. They’re keeping me away from the clubhouse for precisely that reason. They’re struggling to save their MC and to gather enough manpower to hold their defense against the Black Devils when they come.
On top of that, I’m pregnant and have zero patience left for this kind of nonsense. If I don’t react, if I don’t do something, Carla will take it as a sign of weakness. She’ll try something else. And while I don’t think it’ll work out in her favor, it could land her in a different sort of trouble.
As I get behind the wheel and take a look at myself in the rearview mirror, it hits me. I’m jealous. I shouldn’t feel this way but given the tension that we’ve been entertaining in an already complicated relationship, I can’t help but worry. What if Carla is capable of worming her way back into their bed? She’s desperate enough to take the three of them if it means she gets to keep Orion all to herself. Oh, God, just the thought of it makes me want to throw up.
I drive up to the clubhouse, cursing like a sailor through every single red light.
When I arrive, the atmosphere is wholly different from what I expected. As soon as I walk through the door, the thick and damn near unbreathable air hits me.
“Nadia? What the fuck are you doing here?” Orion blurts out, eyes wide with shock.
Carla is keeping her distance and has a broken bottle of beer pointed at him. “You stay the fuck away from me, Orry, I am not giving you my phone!” she says.
“What the hell is going on here?” I ask.
Drake and Kai are just as stunned, staring at me in sheer disbelief while Travis freezes behind the bar. I give him a curious look, but all he can do is shrug, sincerely ignorant of whatever has been unfolding right under his nose.
“You’re not supposed to be here, Nadia,” Orion says.
“I just got a photo from Carla,” I reply, then look at her. “What the hell was that about?”
“When the fuck did you send her the photo?” Orion asks Carla, then scoffs as he seems to put two and two together. “That’s what this was about? Driving a wedge between us and Nadia? Stirring up shit?”
Carla’s self-satisfied cackle captures my attention. Orion, Drake, and Kai seem genuinely infuriated and confused, yet one look at her and I understand precisely what she’s been doing. “Girl, you’re such an idiot to think you’d ever have a shot with them in the long run,” Carla tells me. Bitterness drips from her every word as she takes a couple of steps back.
“So, you’re still trying to prove your dumbass point,” I reply bluntly. “It’s pathetic, Carla. I thought we got past that.”
“We’ll never get past it, not while you’re still breathing.”
Orion reaches her in a flash and grabs her by the arm. “That’s it. You’re fucking banned from the club and all of our premises, the clubhouse, in particular,” he says, his voice stern and furious.
“Orry, hold on, I was just messing around,” she tries to plead with him, but it’s too late.
A split-second later, she practically flies out the door while every single club member present stares in blank disbelief. I’m not sure anyone knows precisely how this whole thing escalated; however, Carla clearly tried to drag me into a situation of her own making to hurt me. All she managed to do was get herself thrown out.
“Crazy bitch,” I hear one club member say to another.
Orion comes back with an alarmed look on his face. “You can’t be seen here, Nadia.”
“Well, tough luck, I’m already here. But I wouldn’t be if Carla hadn’t—” I fail to deliver the last part of my statement as Orion takes me upstairs. Drake and Kai followed closely behind.
Once we’re upstairs behind closed doors, the atmosphere shifts considerably. They soften as they look at me for what feels like forever. It’s as if the tension flooding the ground floor of the clubhouse cannot possibly ascend beyond the four walls of their private office.
It's been days since I’ve seen my men, and the last time we spoke, I was so angry, so scared, and insecure. “I could’ve handled that whole conversation better,” I tell them, feeling the need to concede, my gaze darting from Orion to Drake, then to Kai and back, “at the gas station, I mean.”
“We weren’t too considerate either,” Orion says with a heavy sigh, running a hand through his messy, salt and pepper hair. “We’re in the middle of a bloody war, Nadia. It’s hard for us to allow ourselves even the slightest vulnerability.”
