Chapter 6
Cade
I could hear the crew talking in my ear, but I had no idea what the fuck they were saying. I was in a daze. Harper… she was more beautiful than I had remembered. Her strawberry blonde hair reflected the light in a way that made her look almost angelic. And it was a bit longer, which called to my fingers in a way that hadn’t happened in months. The dress she had on framed her body nicely, especially that little dip in her waist. I could remember the feeling of her waist in my hands. How she jumped up into my body and wrapped those thick little legs around mine.
But her stomach. It was rounder. Much rounder than the last time I’d seen her. She was pregnant, and as I stood there and did the math in my head, I felt my stomach drop to my toes. We met in early April, and now it was the middle of September. If I had gotten her pregnant, she would definitely be showing by this point. Especially with how toned her stomach had been.
Holy fuck, was that child mine?
I had to see her again. I had to talk with her. I had to know if she was all right. If she was being taken care of. Even if the child wasn’t mine, I still wanted to know how she was. If the pregnancy was being kind to her and what she was doing with her life. I felt a pull towards the stage as I slowly started walking towards it. But her eyes were scanning the crowd. I knew she’d seen me. Our eyes had connected like they did at the biker rally all those months ago.
Was she intentionally avoiding my gaze?
The crowd erupted into cheers, and I scanned the audience. It was an automatic reaction. One that came with years of doing protection details like this. I saw Harper’s mother begin to drag her off stage, and once again her eyes were on me. There was a small chance that child she was pregnant with wasn’t mine, especially if she had been with someone else at that rally. But even though I’d only spent one night with her, I knew.
I knew in the pit of my gut that child was mine.
I wanted to be angry with her about not telling me, but I had no box to stand on. I didn’t have her number and she sure as hell didn’t have mine. I never thought I’d see her again, and the look of shock in her eyes told me she thought the same. I watched as her mother finally got her off stage, disappearing behind the curtain.
I couldn’t let her get away.
I had to see her.
“Doc?” I asked.
“Go for Doc.”
“The mother and the daughter, you see them backstage, right?” I asked.
“Yep. Got the mom. The daughter just ran off to the bathroom. We’re posting someone outside of it.”
“Don’t worry about that. I’m gonna make a perimeter run; then I’ll come stand by the bathroom. The crowd’s quiet and Blade can clock it from where he is,” I said.
“On it,” Blade said. “Rifle set and scanning.”
“Escorting the mother to the car. Daughter’s still in the bathroom. She’s probably sick or something,” Ink said.
“Roger that,” I said.
I pushed myself through the crowd and made my way to the outer rim of the audience. I walked quickly through the mass of people. There were police officers lining the entryway of the backstage. Standing in front of the fence that separated the crowd of people from the car that would take the family home. That death threat must’ve really spooked Ryan Thomas because having us here and the police here was overkill otherwise.
The police officers were looking at me as if I had just grown a second head. I walked around the fence and held my hands up, telling them I was checking the car. I had to argue with a police officer for a second before I turned around and showed him my leather cut, showcasing my name and our logo. The police officers were still wary of letting me around the car, so I relented and made my way around the back.
And I found my opening there.
There was a police officer playing on his phone and eating a sandwich. He looked like the type of officer that never once passed the physical training portion of his placement exams. He was standing at the only back entrance into this entire place, and he was face-deep in his fucking cell phone. Part of me was irate with him. Jeopardizing the family’s safety just to play some bullshit game on his phone.
But his downfall was my success, and I ran by him before he could get his head out of his phone.
I ducked into the shadows and watched as he jogged by. His head was darting from left to right, trying to figure out where I’d gone. He said something into the walkie-talkie on his shoulder, and I watched as three other police officers rounded the corner. They drew their weapons and began scanning the perimeter of the area I was in, so I bobbed when they weaved.
I knew I was out of place. Everyone backstage was in suits and clean-cut outfits. Every single one of The Black Angels was sorely out of place, but I didn’t care. The only thing I could think about was finding Harper. She had rushed into the bathroom and every minute she was in there alone was another minute where she thought she was alone.
And she wasn’t.
She wasn’t alone because I was here now.
I bobbed while the police officers weaved, and eventually, they gave up. Grinning, I watched as they retreated out towards the back gate I’d run through, then I stepped from the shadows. People gave me odd looks at first, wondering why the fuck I was hiding in the darkness. Then they saw my leather cut and the intercom in my ear and paid me no attention.
I looked around for the restroom, but I couldn’t find it. I was ten seconds away from asking someone where the fuck it was, and then I heard it.
I heard a door slam open, and it caused me to whip around.
Harper came slamming out of the bathroom as her dress fluttered around her legs. Her stomach was much larger up close than it had been on stage. There was no doubt in my mind that she was carrying my child. There was no doubt in my mind that I’d gotten her pregnant that weekend.
Holy fuck, pregnancy looked good on her.
Striding over to her, I reached my hand out for her arm. The moment my hand touched her skin electricity shot through my veins. The same electricity that set a fire in my gut that night at the rally. That wonderful night in South Dakota that forever imprinted this woman into my memory.
“Harper,” I said.
She ripped her arm out of my hand before she turned around, and I watched her eyes take me in before they widened in shock. Her lips parted to speak, but as I waited for her to say something, it was only silence that loomed between us. So, I asked her one of the two questions I wanted genuine answers to.
“How are you doing?”