A Twist of Fate Read online

  “I’ll take care of that. She’s crossing a line now.”

  “Maybe, it’s just a coincidence and she was headed here too?” I questioned, even though I didn’t believe it.

  “There’s no such thing as coincidence.” He got out of the car, walked around, opened my door and offered his hand to help me out. “Let’s go enjoy our afternoon together. We’re not letting anyone ruin it.”

  That was what I loved about Toby. He wasn’t having any bullshit come between us while we were on this path of getting to know one another. Instead, he was carving his name deeper into my heart with each of his actions and all of his words.

  Unfortunately, the Jetta and the whore were both there again when we left the movie theater after another date two nights later. This time, she didn’t bother to leave. No, the bitch was leaning against Toby’s motorcycle waiting for us to arrive.

  “He’s mine!” She stated clearly, while also trying to pull off an air of nonchalance. Toby’s hand clamped down harder where he was holding tight to my own. “Listen, I don’t mind sharing and all, but it’s my turn now sweetie, so you’re going to have to get lost!”

  I have no clue what she thought was going to happen, but the woman had clearly lost her damn mind somewhere along the way. It would have been one thing to attempt this type of tactic while I was alone, but Toby was there to refute her claims, and refute them he did.

  “So help me fucking God, you’re going to get your nasty ass off my bike and get the fuck out of here, and if I see you approach my woman again, you will regret every second you’re still able to suck breath into your disgusting body.” His words were snarled out and filled with venom that hit their mark. I watched as the woman recoiled momentarily.

  “Oh, I get it. She doesn’t know about our arrangement, right?”

  “You crossed a big fucking line tonight, bitch! Get the fuck out of here while you’re still breathing!”

  She huffed out a laugh and then slowly stood to her full height. She cocked her hip out and had the nerve to blow him a kiss before she turned to walk away. “We’ll see,” she told us as she walked off, confidence oozed from her pours. She was not concerned in the least about Toby’s threats, and that worried the hell out of me.

  Toby leaned in and kissed the top of my head. Despite the gesture and the fact that it was meant to calm me I could feel his body shaking against mine with the pent up fury he wanted to unleash. Normally, I wouldn’t condone violence against women, but she wasn’t someone I wanted to be lumped in a box with either.

  “I’m not the usually suspect to offer this up, but I will smash those kneecaps of hers. Just give me the okay. You don’t have to get your hands dirty, and I’ll enjoy doing it,” I told Toby. It helped break the tension because he chuckled slightly before placing my helmet on my head and making sure the chin strap was secure.

  “Babe, as hot as that offer was coming from you, I need you to not worry about that fucking cunt. I’ll handle her ass with the club later.”

  “No handling of her ass, honey,” I teased. “You just get rid of her.”

  “You knew what I meant,” he laughed as he said it and the best I could hope for. He had stopped shaking and I knew he’d deal with the problem. Unfortunately, the club didn’t want to handle her and for a while that put Toby and I in a rocky place until he told me everything about what his mom and dad had gone through because of the whores in the club. I knew in abstract before, but hearing how they all lost so much time as a result gutted me. It also made me realize that Toby was a victim in all of this, and he was doing his best to handle an impossible situation.

  Three months later

  “I saw her again outside of the studio,” I told Toby.

  “What the fuck? Did you get a picture this time?”

  I shook my head. “It was too dark. She wasn’t in her car. The bitch was just standing there watching. Someone needs to do something about her.”

  “I know, babe. I really thought her obsession would have run its course by now. I’ll talk to the guys and get her out of there. Hopefully, without them propping up her living situation, she’ll move on somewhere else.”

  I shivered. “Toby, I’m not sure that will be enough. This is crazy. She’s been following us for months, and now I’m really worried she might try to hurt me, and it’s not just me anymore.”

  His head snapped back at that, attention on high alert. “What do you mean by that? Is she harassing Ever now too?”

  “No,” I told him as my hands moved down toward my belly. His eyes followed the movement and before I could say anything else, he was on me. Toby lifted me off my feet and spun me around.

  “Are you serious? Did that mean what I thought it did?” I just wrapped my arms around him and squeezed him harder. “Holy shit! I’m going to be a dad? You’re gonna be the best momma a kid could have. I hope you know that. You just made me the happiest fuckin’ man alive!”

  “Wow! I wasn’t sure what to expect,” I admitted as he put me back on my feet.

  “I love you, babe. I love you more than life. How could you expect anything else?”

  “Well, we’re still hiding the fact that we’re together, so…”

  “That ends. Ever’s feelings aren’t greater than the family I’m building. Hell,” he started to say as he ran his hands up and down my arms. “I’ve been wanting to properly introduce you to the family for a while now anyway.”

  My brows pulled together in question. “What’s been stopping you then?”

  He chuckled before pulling me into his body. “Honestly?”

  “Always,” I whispered into his chest.

  “Selfishness. I didn’t want to have to share you with them. I know my mom, she’ll be happier than a debutante with a crown on her head to meet the woman who was making an honest man out of her son.” I had to laugh at that description. “Ever, once she gets over the initial shock, will love that you’re in my life and then she’ll want more time with you too. Then there’s Anna. She’s always been in her own head and daydreams, but knowing that I plan on marrying someone will have her jumping headfirst into wedding planner mode, if I know her. That will obviously take up some of your time too. All of it means less time with me.” He poked his fat bottom lip out and pouted about the potential for lost time together, but my mind was still stuck back on ‘marrying someone’.

  “You plan to marry me?”

  He laughed again before he chucked my chin with his finger. “I planned on asking eventually. I was trying to give you time to fall so deeply in love with me that you wouldn’t have any choice but to say yes.”

  The vision of him before me blurred as tears pooled in my eyes. “I’m already there, Toby. You are the love of my life, and there is no doubt in my heart about that.”

  “That’s good to know, babe, because I feel the same damn way, and now we’re going to have to get a wedding date set quick, because I want you to be Mrs. Brothers before our baby is born.”

  “You’re forgetting a step,” I informed him as I grinned in his general direction. He was still a bit blurry standing before me.

  “What’s that?”

  “You haven’t actually asked me yet,” I reminded the man I couldn’t imagine spending another day without.

  “It’s funny, because I feel like I ask you every day in my head. Every kiss, every breath I take, every damn smile you give me. I question whether you’ll be mine forever with every single moment we share together. I guess I just forgot to say the words out loud.” He pulled a little white box out of the pocket of his leather jacket then and bent down on one knee. “This wasn’t how or where I pictured doing this,” he started to say before taking a hold of my hand in his. “Gretchen, will you do me the honor of becoming my one and only, my ol’ lady, my bride, my everything?”

  “Y-y-yes!” The word left my lips on a whimper because there was no way I was going to be able to get a solid damn word past all the emotion that was filling me up to the brim.

 
“I forgot one,” Toby told me as he rose back up in front of me and trailed his hands from where they had been holding mine, skimming up my arm, back down my sides, and finally landing where his palms could cup my belly. “The mother of my children,” he whispered in reverence as he stole yet another piece of my heart.

  Chapter 5

  A Plan too Late

  Kane

  Once again, I watched Gretchen move to the shop windows and glance worriedly outside. “Something wrong with G?” I asked as Zeke moved to head towards the back.

  “Not that I know of, why?”

  “She’s been acting weird. Anxious all the time these days, watching out the window, ducking out of view sometimes.” I turned to Zeke. “You haven’t noticed?”

  He shrugged his shoulders. “I’ve been booked solid. This is the first break I’m getting today. Why don’t you check on her and let me know if there’s anything we can help with?”

  As Zeke took off to the back room, I moved closer to the window Gretchen was staring out of. “Hey G,” I started to say as the woman damn near jumped out of her skin. She breathed a quick sigh of relief at seeing me there and clutched her chest over her rapidly beating heart.

  “Jesus, you scared me.”

  “Probably because you’re on edge over here. What the hell has got you so wound up? The biker giving you trouble?”

  “No, of course not. Why would you even think that?”

  “Um, maybe because he’s a biker and sure as fuck isn’t perfect. Also, could be because he’s still keeping you as his dirty little secret.” I didn’t mean for it to come out the way it did. Honestly, I couldn’t account for the jealousy I felt when I thought about Gretchen being with another man. Not that she had ever been with me, but as the old saying goes, you want what you can’t have. I never noticed her until she was off the market. That was my damn luck too.

  Gretchen sighed, then placed one of her trembling hands on top of mine. “Listen, everything is great with Toby. We’re actually going to tell his family at their next Sunday dinner when he knows everyone will be there so we can do it all at once.”

  “Oh!” Color me shocked all to shit. I didn’t think the asshole was ever going to grow the balls to put it out there. “So, what has your hands trembling so hard then?”

  She glanced back toward the window then. “Do you see that green car parked across the street?”

  I took a look out the window and saw what she was talking about. “The beat-up Jetta?”

  “Yeah,” she whispered, but didn’t elaborate.

  “What about the Jetta, honey?”

  “Well,” she sighed and looked away from me. “This is going to sound stupid. I swear, I’m probably just imagining things at this point. Coincidence and all. This is still sort of a small town, you know?” She was babbling.

  “Spit it out, G.”

  “I think one of the club whores is following me. She was showing up at places when I was with Toby once in a while. Now, I’m seeing her places I go too. Like, that car. It’s hers. It’s been there most of the day, even if she hasn’t. She’s probably out stalking Toby down somewhere, but I swear she parks there to get to me. She wants me to know.”

  “Toby knows about this?” She nodded her head in confirmation. “And what the fuck is he doing about it?”

  “He said he would handle it, but the guys he talked to at the club didn’t want to lose another girl at the club right now. Apparently, she’s a favorite, and they don’t think she’d be stalking him since he doesn’t give her the time of day.”

  “Seems like all the more reason for a crazy woman to stalk a man,” I assessed.

  “That’s what I thought too.”

  “Tell you what, I’ll look into her and see what I can do to get her off your back. Maybe Toby’s hands are tied by the club, but mine aren’t.”

  “Seriously? You’d do that?”

  “Of course I would, G! You’re family here, honey.”

  “That means a lot, Kane!”

  I nodded and pulled her away from the window. “So, things are getting serious with the boy then?”

  She laughed. “Boy? He’s only a couple years younger than you.”

  I grinned down at her. “Couple of years makes a big difference, G.” Gretchen laughed at my playful tone, and mission accomplished because she also stopped shaking. Whether she knew it or not, part of me taking care of the problem was going to mean having a little talk with T-Bone and his crew about their fucking priorities. I was seriously beginning to think those assholes were all gay for the way they prioritized one another over the women in their lives. I didn’t care if they were smokin’ pole in the back room though, if one of my girls was in trouble, they were damn sure gonna need to look out for her. To hell with this half-assed bullshit because some dickwad wanted his favorite cum-dumpster around. If he couldn’t take better care of G, I’d do it for him, and the fucker wouldn’t be walking away with the girl if it came to that.

  “Kane,” she whispered, no doubt sensing the anger that had boiled to the surface while thinking about the bikers who had no problem stealing my girls but every problem taking care of them. “Someone else’s crazy isn’t Toby’s fault.”

  “I know that, but if he isn’t doing everything in his power to get that bitch leashed and out of your lives for good, that is his problem. Don’t you worry though, G. I’ll see that shit gets handled this time, okay?”

  “You’re not a brother though,” she reminded me.

  Nope. I wasn’t, but it sure as fuck looked like I was about to have to become one like Zeke and I had discussed a while back. “Trust me sweetheart, when I point out that they’re failing to care for one of their real women again, and choosing the whores over the real women, I think someone will get shit done. Seems T-Bone’s father would have a lot more to say about shit like that considering his history with them.”

  “I guess. I don’t think Toby’s told him, exactly. He’s brought it up to some of the other men.”

  “Gretchen, I don’t want you to worry. All that fear and anxiety that had you shaking while watching that car earlier?” I questioned while her wide, azure blue eyes stared up at me. “That’s not okay, G.”

  “I just don’t want to put any more stress on Toby right before we tell his family. We have a lot to…” she cut herself off as Zeke walked back up the aisle toward us.

  “Everything okay over here?”

  “Yeah, I was just about to leave,” Gretchen told him.

  “I’ll walk you to your car,” I told her.

  I walked her there and watched as she pulled away. Zeke came up beside me as I continued to stand there and watch both Gretchen’s car and the green Jetta that was still parked across the street. “You want to tell me why you’re staring off into the sunset after a taken woman?”

  I tipped my head to the side. “The green Jetta parked there belongs to one of the club’s whores who has been following her and T-Bone around. It’s been parked there all day and that’s what had G on edge.”

  “When are those assholes going to get that shit under control?”

  I shrugged and turned to look at him. “Zeke, we’re going to have to intervene here. G is family. She says this has been ongoing for a quite a while now, and even though Toby’s brought it up to some of the brothers, they insisted the whore be kept around for her skills. Obviously, they aren’t doing enough.”

  Zeke nodded in agreement. “I have a buddy on the force. I’ll grab the plates and put in a call.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Don’t thank me just yet. It’s looking like you need to get your ass ingrained with that damn club after all.”

  I hung my head then. “I know it.”

  Zeke chuckled and slapped me on the back. “Come on, I’ll buy you a drink tonight. You’re going to need to figure out how to look a little more enthusiastic about joining or they’re going to see right the fuck through you.”

  “Know that too,” I mumbled. “Give me tonight
to be a brooding, sad-sack motherfucker. Tomorrow I’ll be shittin’ biker rainbows, okay?”

  Zeke’s laughter actually helped lighten my mood about as we walked further down the street. “I’m shooting Sully a text. He can close up tonight.”

  We were two beers deep at the little corner bar down the street from the parlor when Zeke finally brought up the elephant that had been weighing me down. “So, you’re 0-for-2 with the shop girls now, huh?”

  “What?”

  “Come on man, no need to play games with me. I have eyes. Hell, everyone in the shop cringed daily as you mooned over Ever while Gretchen was busy being so hung up on you, she forgot to do her job half the time.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know how I never noticed that.”

  Zeke’s shoulders moved up and down once. “Beats the fuck out of me, man. It was pretty fucking obvious. Then again, your head was lodged firmly up Ever’s ass, so it’s possible you went blind in there.”

  “Shut the fuck up!” I told him before sipping my beer to keep from laughing at myself right along with him.

  “At least you might still have a shot with Gretchen since those two are still running around playing secret lovers.”

  I shook my head. “They’re not. She told me earlier they’re planning on telling his whole family this weekend.”

  “Well, shit.” He tipped his beer back, but then changed his mind before the liquid could hit his lips and set it down on the table. “Sorry, I would have never brought that shit up if I thought the kid was that serious about our Gretchen.”

  “It’s fine. Like you said, I was blinded by other shit, and when I noticed it was already too late. Never claimed to be lucky in love.”

  Zeke scoffed at that. “Okay, then. Let’s have a pity party for the man who didn’t nut up and go after either one of the girls he wanted. Be honest with yourself man. You let both of them slip through your fingertips. I’ll be honest with you too. Only one of them was right for you, and it wasn’t the one you were stuck focusing on for too damn long.”