31

STEEL

You wouldn’t think it would so hard to find someone who worked for us, but it seemed it was.

After we called all the members into the war room, we spent fucking hours trying to locate Tori. We checked the Bar and Grill first, of course, since she was scheduled to work today. But she didn’t turn up for her shift, and when I called, Vegas answered, explaining that she got a call from Tori asking Vegas to cover her shift for her, something to do with her son’s father giving her shit.

Bullshit! She had to be onto us. Somehow, the bitch figured it out, and now she had disappeared.

Fuck.

I pulled myself up faster over the high bar, resting my chin on the top of the bar for a millisecond before releasing, and then repeating. Since losing my leg, I had worked on my upper body and arm strength. I spent a great deal of my downtime in the compound’s gym, not just to work out my body but also my mind. The hell of deployment, particularly the last one, lived so deep inside my brain, the nightmares, the screaming of my brothers in pain and torment. Working out was my coping mechanism, my solace from the memories. I thrived on the exhaustion my body felt after punishing it for hours on end. Lately, I hadn’t been in here much, preferring to spend time with Mia. She was aware of my workouts and what they meant to me. She knew so much about me, had taken the time to sit and find shit out about me, about my dreams, my nightmares.

The hell I’d survived.

Barely.

Callie never did, nor did she give a shit. Fuck, I was so pissed off at myself for all the time I wasted on the bitch. And I was disgusted with myself for the way I acted towards Mia because of my so-called relationship with Callie.

Feeling the anger starting to build up in me, I pushed myself past the pain, the fatigue, and the burning in my arms. None of it mattered except for the pain I’d inflicted on my beauty. The woman who loved me, adored me, and forgave me no matter what venom I threw at her in the past. The woman who was carrying my baby. The woman who I loved with every single breath I took.

The woman who saved me.

The woman standing behind me.

I felt her the second she entered the gym. The years of training would never allow her to sneak up on me.

“You okay, Beauty?” I asked without stopping the gruelling chin lifts.

“I’m fine, babe. I’ve been waiting for you. The others came into the kitchen and collected their women over an hour ago.”

Fuck! I had been here working out my guilt and aggression while Mia sat waiting for me. Dick move, Cooper. Immediately releasing the bar, I landed on my good leg first and made sure it took most of the impact before letting my prosthesis join it on the ground.

“Fuck, Mia, I am so sorry. I got stuck in my head here and lost track of time,” I apologised, but Mia waved away my apology. Then I felt even worse because she always gave me breaks and chances when she should have kicked my arse and fed me my balls. “Mia, why do you let me get away with all my bad shit?” I blurted out the question without thinking. The last thing I wanted to do was start an argument. My woman had already proven she could go toe to toe with me.

“Babe, seriously, it’s fine. I was with the girls, and we went into town to get Shiloh a new bed for her puppy.”

They left the compound! Did they take detail? Jesus, fuck, how did I not even know that they left? That my woman left? I, of course, had to open my big, stupid mouth and verbalise my displeasure.

“For fuck’s sake, Mia. You can’t just leave the compound without telling me. Did you even take protection? You have to take this shit more seriously. You are pregnant, and this arsehole is out to get you. He nearly got to you once already, not to mention he fucked with you at work,” I yelled at her louder than I intended, but come the fuck on—she had to start being more careful. She was pregnant, and this guy, whoever the fuck he was, wanted to hurt her. If he succeeded, then I might as well be dead, too.

“I beg your pardon?” Mia asked, her lips thinned and her eyes narrowed at me.

Why was she pissed at me? She was the one who left without detail. Again. But something was telling me that I had fucked up, and I should either run or apologise. Which one, I wasn’t too sure.

“Maybe if you asked instead of talking out of your arse, you would have known that yes, we did take detail with us. Two prospects, in fact, and Darth met us at the shopping centre, as well, on his way back into town from the run he went on. And also, Charlotte, Stella, and I texted our men before we left to inform you all of our adventure, and when we received no replies twenty minutes later, Stella wrote a note and slipped it under the war room door.” Mia bent to pick up a bag I didn’t even notice she had brought in. The insignia had a baby pram on it, and I could make out the words Baby World.

Shit, fuck, arsehole.

Reaching out to her, I tried to grab her hand, but she snatched it back and held it behind her back.

“Mia, please. I am sorry.”

“I bought our baby her first outfit today. Thanks for taking the shine off what had been a great moment for me, Cooper.” Spinning on her heels, Mia took off at a fast clip. “Don’t bother following because I am not in the mood to talk right now,” she warned as she tossed the bag at me before disappearing out of the gym and down the hallway—away from me. I couldn’t even make my feet move, so I just stood there like an idiot with the bag Mia threw at me clutched to my chest. I wanted to go after her, plead that I was the king of dickheads, and hold her to me while I begged her to forgive me and promised her anything she wanted just as long as she said we were okay and she would never leave me.

But I didn’t. I was not doing any of those things.

“You really are an idiot, aren’t you, Cooper Steel? Surely mum didn’t raise two idiot sons.” Mannix laughed from the doorway.

Oh, great, this was all I needed. Big brother. Literally. Taking in a lungful of air, I wrapped my hands around the back of my neck and counted to ten.

“What are you talking about?”

“You.” Mannix pushed off the doorframe and sauntered in. “You have a great woman in Mia. Hell, you have one of the best. She has stuck by you during your rehabilitation and your arsehole period when all you could see was that bitch Callie. Now, here she is knocked up with your kid. Yours. Not some other guy’s, yours, and you talk to her like she is some dickhead prospect,” he said, getting right up in my face.

I cringed inwardly when he mentioned the baby being mine. I knew the baby was mine, there was absolutely no doubt in my mind about that, none, but I understood why he said it. My brother had been through hell with his ex, our whole family suffering with the shit Alannah put him through.

“Is all this crap going on with Rogue the women’s fault? No, mate, it’s ours, but they are paying for it, and, brother, considering all that’s going on, they are coping really well with it. Constant detail, looking over their shoulders all the time, us taking off to the war room for hours at a time without telling them what we are doing. Come on, brother. Take it easier on her. She is doing really well.”

Well, fuck.

Mannix, my manwhore brother, just put me in my place. I hated that he was right, which he was, but I was so scared something worse was going to happen to Mia and the baby. This fucker wanted her dead.

Ignoring the smirk on the arsehole’s face, I pushed past him and ran out of the gym.

It was time for me to get down on my knees, only this time, for the right reasons and the right woman.