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“Fuck you, Kingpin, I’m not running. I don’t want her,” he said.
Part of me wanted to believe him. It would make everything so much easier. I would have Sky and Eve would be alone.
“I can make you come back,” I reminded him.
“Yeah, but you can’t make me be with Eve, pregnant or not.”
He was right. You could lead a horse to water and all.
“I should just come back to Charleston, for good.” Hallow floored me.
“Maybe so,” I quipped, thinking of telling the bastard to stay. But then I thought of Eve. I’d wronged her. I’d taken her but she didn’t love me. “But Eve loves you. Are you willing to give her up? Another man would gladly take her, I’m sure, even if she’s carrying another man’s child.”
“I can’t go back to Eve. I’m with Steph.” I couldn’t understand Hallow’s fascination with Stephanie Hambert. She was nothing to Eve.
Eve expected Hallow to come running, like I’d promised he would. “Eve will be heartbroken. Is there nothing I can do to convince you?”
“If you care so much, why don’t you take her in?” he hollered.
There it was. The man was in anguish. Hallow was lying. He needed to man up and come back. “What can I do? I mean anything. I won’t have Eve suffering anymore on account of you.”
“Yeah, make me an officer, give me a house, and I’ll think about coming back to Eve. And Eve will have to get used to me fucking other women. I won’t make her my Ol’ Lady. I’m not going to be mortified by her again.”
Fuck. Maybe I was wrong. I couldn’t imagine he didn’t care for her, but he was a dumbass. “An officer and a house, I can do that. You can move into Goliath’s place. I’ll find a spot for you. With Levi gone, I need another Enforcer.” I’d give Thorn the job and Hallow could be our new Cleaner. He didn’t need to know this now.
He replied, “I’ll think about it.”
“If you come back, I can’t make you stay faithful to her. But you aren’t to lay a finger on Eve. You won’t hurt her. You do, I’ll skin you alive,” I warned him. What was I doing? The fool didn’t deserve her. I added, “She’s not okay. You have to know. If you come back, she’s not supposed to have relations. Get my drift? You think about it, but I need to know soon.”
Chapter 18
Eve
Holding my wool coat tight around me, I told Donette, “I never intended for any of this to happen. They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Well. I had nothing but good intentions, and I'm in hell right now, torn between an angel and a devil. And I hardly know which is which anymore. All I know is that I've been given a second chance, a chance to have everything I want, or at least everything I wanted. I have a chance to turn back the clock. All I have to do is take the advice I should’ve taken in the beginning of this whole mess. Well, you remember, I was here talking to you… All I’d have to do is lie. But I know what my Gran would say about all this. You can’t get happy in the same britches you got mad in.”
The wind whipped, blowing snow and my coat up. Someone tapped me on the shoulder, scaring the living daylights out of me. I thought I’d twirl and find Donette’s ghost staring at me. She’d hug me and tell me to lie my ass off. Get Hallow back.
But why the hell would I listen to her? She got herself killed.
Nevertheless, when I turned around, Kingpin was there. He wore a long black coat over his leather. That’s how cold it was. Panting, he’d been running. “What the hell are you doing out here in a graveyard?” He bent and clutched his knees, out of breath.
“I’m here having a private conversation, mind you.” I could see my own breath.
Donette would say he’s an old man, almost as old as our old boss Grady. God rest his soul. She’d ask what I ever saw in this biker. I’d tell her it wasn’t like that. It wasn’t premeditated. I’d plead insanity.
Fiddlesticks. Who was I kidding? My best friend would’ve loved Kingpin, everything about him. She was a wild one like him, bigger than life and full of herself. Just like him.
The biker seemed bewildered. “I’ve been runnin all over Hell’s half acre.” Kingpin was just as country as me. It came out when he was flustered. “Gunn told me you left out of Royal Road in an Uber. You know that’s against the rules. I had to threaten quite a few people to find you.”
“I’m supposed to believe you give a damn? You left me over in that house, during Christmas, trying to starve me out so I would have to go parade my condition around Royal Road. Thank God for Jassica. She’s an angel.”
Kingpin stepped in close, blocking the cold wind. He smiled. “You told her.” He was so close the puff from his breath temporarily blinded me.
“Fucking, Jassica. Damn snitch.”
“She told me you’re unwell.” Kingpin took my hands. He was wearing leather gloves. Of course, he was. His head drooped as he eyed my bare hands.
They’d been in my pockets where my gloves were. I wouldn’t explain myself, and I wouldn’t let him lecture me. I wasn’t a child. “The baby’s fine,” I promised.
