Page 6 of Captured By the Alien Captain
“No one else cares,” I informed him. That probably wasn’t exactly true. I could call my mom or Ever and they would be here to get me in a heartbeat. I just didn’t want to see their faces when less than a few hours into my marriage I admitted defeat and asked to be bailed out. My father’s words echoed through my head once more. “You made your bed…” he kept saying every time he even caught wind of me complaining about the morning sickness I’d endured, or the tears I’d cried because pregnancy hormones were kicking my ass.
He wasn’t saying it to be cruel, just to make me face the reality of my situation, and he was right. I had made this bed, and now I was watching as other women were about to lie in it while I was forgotten on the sidelines on my wedding day. Two hours went by at a sluggish pace considering I wasn’t one of the party revelers who was having fun. Time was probably speeding by like a bullet train for them. It was weird how all that worked. I had finally relented and had another soda and then some water. I needn’t have worried about drawing Joker’s attention as I made my way to the bathroom though because he didn’t notice any of the three times I made the trip down the back hallway that was situated just past the pool tables. Instead, I’d managed to get all the way back to the bar to be offered yet another pitying look from the prospect who was fetching more drinks as the number of people attending this particular party picked up.
“Are you sure I can’t take you home, or to someone who you can stay with until Joker…” The prospect, who appeared to be leaving now, asked as he glanced over his shoulder. I wasn’t sure what he’d been about to say though. Until Joker remembers you’re alive? Until he sobers up? Who knows. It was all the same thing anyway. Obviously, I wouldn’t be getting back in that truck with him tonight. Not that I’d risk myself to riding with someone who was drinking and driving, but I definitely wasn’t about to risk my baby. I shook my head at the man.
“No. If it goes too much later, I’ll see if I can borrow a room for the night.”
“No offense lady, but the rooms are for the brothers and visiting guest, not chicks that were brought here and forgotten,” he countered. I knew he didn’t intentionally mean to be cruel because I watched as his face flushed. “I didn’t…”
I held my hand up. “It’s okay. I get why you’d think the worst,” I told him as I glanced back at Joker, who now had two women hanging on him. I pointed in their direction. “It certainly doesn’t seem like I am someone who would need a room here tonight, unlike Joker there. I’m Anna, Double-D’s daughter,” I finally divulged. The prospect’s eyes went wide.
“Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize. Does he know you’re here? Do you need me to call him?” He cautiously glanced back at Joker then. “Does he know Joker’s supposed to be your ride?”
“He knows, and I don’t need you to call him. Thank you though, for checking on me. I’ll be sure to tell daddy how nice you were to me.”
I could see the relief in the man as his shoulders slid back down from where they were darn near plastered to his ears with tension. I smiled brightly at him and wished him a good night. I noticed him texting someone on his phone before he walked out, but other than a brief glance back at me and a quick wave of his hand he was gone and I was left there at the bar utterly alone for the first time all night. Sure, there were people hanging around, but none of them even bothered giving me a second glance, let alone caring about what might happen to me tonight.
When I turned my attention back to the pool tables my stomach rolled and tumbled with the sight that greeted me. Joker had his hand wrapped in a blond woman’s hair and the other firmly holding her waist close to his own. Their lips were locked in a steamy kiss that seemed to go on forever. Her hands were each buried in a back pocket of his jeans and his hair. The clinch they were in was more along the lines of what I’d expected at my own wedding when the Justice of the Peace informed Joker he could now kiss his bride. Instead, I was given the cold shoulder, and now I was forced to watch as he gave that kiss to another woman and did it right in plain sight of me. If I thought anything else in this messed up day had hurt me, I’d been wrong, because nothing could top what I was feeling in that moment.
Glancing down at the glass of water in my hand I suddenly wished, for a moment, that I wasn’t pregnant because then I could drink this day away too. Then again, if I wasn’t pregnant this day wouldn’t exist. I could have mourned the loss of Joker early on and then moved on with my life. Eventually. Instead, I had that image emblazoned on my mind as the only kiss that happened on my wedding night. My lips were doomed to be lonely for a long time, it seemed.
“Anna?” I glanced up to see my father’s best friend – Merc – standing there watching me cautiously. “What are you doing here so late, honey? Aren’t you supposed to be staying at Joker’s house?” He glanced around then and stiffened as he took in the site I was about to be sick from watching. Joker was still going at it hot and heavy with the blond. “Fucking hell, I’ll kill the bastard.” He moved, as if to go after Joker then, but I placed my hand on his arm to still him.
“Please, don’t do that. He didn’t marry me because he loved me. I already know that,” I reasoned.
“Honey, even if I thought for a minute you were okay with sharing your new husband with other women – and for the record I do not believe that – he has no business leaving you here this late at night like this. Especially not when he’s allowing you to witness this bullshit on top of knowing you’re pregnant with his child.” Merc shook his head, as if he could just make the anger disperse that way. “Told Double-D this was a bad fucking idea,” he mumbled under his breath. “Come on, I’m going to take you home with me. Tiger Lily will be there if you need someone to talk to about all this. Honestly though, I’m guessing you could use the rest. You look dead on your feet.”
“I am sleepy,” I told him needlessly when I was overcome by a yawn that wouldn’t be contained. I hopped up off of the bar stool and moved to head in Joker’s direction.
“Where are you going?”
“I just want to let him know where I’ll be so he won’t worry.”
“No!” Merc was adamant in his response as he grabbed hold of my upper arm and started moving me toward the door of the clubhouse. “Let’s allow him to stew in that worry. Honestly, I don’t expect him to remember you were even here until sometime tomorrow anyway.”
My lower lip trembled and for the first time in hours I found myself trying really hard not to cry again. “He forgot me before I ever even made it in the building after him,” I admitted. I glanced back once to see he was still wrapped up in the blond woman’s presence and her arms. My heart plummeted into my stomach all over again at the sight. This was not the marriage I had always dreamed of having as a girl. I could have dealt with the shitty wedding, but I never thought for a minute that my own husband would cheat on me on our wedding night and do it so blatantly in front of me.
Then again, it was made painfully obvious that he had been oblivious to my presence. So, maybe he hadn’t put on the blatant display for me, but it was just as bad that he’d forgotten about his pregnant wife being there, let alone being alive somewhere. He wasn’t concerned about hurting me or making a fool of me either. I guess I deserved the latter since he felt I’d made a fool of him not long ago when I didn’t tell him my full name or correct his assumptions about my age. I didn’t do it to be hurtful to him or play games though – as he’d accused me of doing. I did it because for once, I wanted something for myself without who my family was taking it away from me. I sighed as I tucked myself in on the back of Merc’s motorcycle and hung on to him as he sped us away to his house. My bag was forgotten in Joker’s truck. The only thing I had in my possession now was the cell phone in my back pocket. I hoped like heck it didn’t fall out onto the ground as we rode, but honestly who would be calling me anyway? Not my husband, that was for sure.
