Chapter 19
It took a while for me to recover and remember what happened. By the time I’m once again fully aware of my surroundings, I’m already admitted into the emergency room, doctors and nurses buzzing around me like supersonic bees until I’m deemed safe and stable for one of their private rooms.
Orion and the guys had to stay back and deal with the police. Detectives are already waiting outside to take our statements.
“You’d better tell them the truth when they come to ask you questions,” my father says. As soon as the police secured the scene, Paddy called him and had him come straight to the hospital. Understandably, he’s furious but doing his best to keep it together, for my sake, but also his. The great Michael Kessler can’t be seen losing his marbles while his precious angel recovers from a bloody shootout. The stain on his reputation is damn near indelible at this point. “You hear me, Nadia?”
“For God’s sake, I have no reason to lie. All I did was witness a violent event. I don’t know anything about who or what,” I reply dryly, even though that’s not exactly the truth.
Half a gallon of water and vitamins via IV later, my head is clear and I’m able to judge my physical and emotional condition better. Granted, I’m a mess, but he doesn’t need to know about that. I’m more worried about the baby, and I have no idea how to get him out of the room so I can speak to my doctor in private. This sure as hell isn’t the place or the time to break such news.
“Honey, remember who I am, who I was, and who I was married to,” Dad says, half-smiling. For a moment, the glint in his blue eyes reminds me of that past version of him, the wrangler I saw in those clubhouse photos. “Your mother was an expert at lying to the cops for me. She covered my ass more times than I can count.”
“I’m not covering anyone’s ass,” I insist, thankful to be in bed for once.
The adrenalin has worn off, and now my body is mush. It will take a while for the shock to subside. Right now, I feel like I’m still ready to jump into my fight-or-flight mode in the blink of an eye. I’m still on edge. My ears twitch at every sound. My head snaps every which way at the slightest hint of motion anywhere around me.
“Nadia, what happened at the clubhouse?” Dad asks. The anger is slowly subsiding from his features, and fatherly concern is setting in. “What were you doing there in the first place?”
“I was just getting some papers for my employer at the café,” I lie, straight-faced.
I’ve always hated lying to my father, yet I seem to have been doing it more and more lately. I know he knows—deep down, he knows. He just can’t bring himself to say it out loud because we’ve already argued so much about so many things. He is exhausted, and so am I.
“At precisely the same time that the Black Devils decided it was time to shoot up the place,” Dad mutters.
I notice the top buttons of his shirt. They’re loose, insinuating that he left his tie behind, and his jacket looks worn out. I realize he’s probably been sweating and pacing the waiting room from the moment I was brought in. I’m his only child, his only family, and he almost lost me today.
Whatever is going through this man’s head, I need to be patient. He is processing some intense emotions.
“I don’t think anybody knew they were coming,” I say to him. “I was upstairs, talking to the guys when the prospects spotted them and alerted the club. By the time I got downstairs, determined to get out of there before anything started, it was too late. Bullets were already flying.”
“Paddy took a bullet for you,” Dad sighs. “He’s going to be okay, though. I saw him before I came to see you.”
“Where is he?” I ask.
“I talked the doctors into putting him and the other members in a private room at the other end of the hall. You should keep your distance, though. If the Devils are going to retaliate tonight, they’ll likely come here. They’re brazen and then some,” he says.
“What about the cops, the sheriff? Why isn’t anyone doing anything?”
Dad shrugs, briefly gazing out the window. “Rumor has it there’s a whole RICO operation being mounted against the Devils across federal agencies. The trouble is, they don’t have enough inside intel. The clubs keep their cards close to their chests and I know they wouldn’t cooperate unless they had to—unless the Feds had some kind of bargaining chip.”
“Ah, right, biker’s honor and whatever,” I scoff. “Meanwhile, their people are getting gunned down in broad daylight.”
“I spoke to Orion about this as well. I hope I got through to him. They need to do something,” Dad replies. “I don’t necessarily agree with collaborating with the Feds, but desperate times call for desperate measures. They need to do something before it gets worse.”
“Worse than having the clubhouse shot to smithereens?”
Dad pauses and gives me a long, intense look. “Nadia, I need you to be straight with me. For once in your life. It’s not a game anymore. This is beyond serious. You’re in the hospital, for God’s sake.”
“I’m okay. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“You’re more like your mother than I care to admit,” he scoffs.
The doctor comes in, and my joints stiffen at the sight of him. He’s in his mid-forties, with salt-and-pepper hair and kind eyes. He smiles at me before looking at my dad. “And how is Miss Kessler doing? Feeling better after that IV?”
“Yeah, thanks for that,” I say. “I’m fine, right?”
Please don’t say anything else.
I keep looking at him, a tense smile begging him to keep his mouth shut. I can barely breathe at this point.
“Yes, the baby too,” he says.
Well, shit.
Dad exhales sharply, staring at the doctor in disbelief. “Baby?”
“Don’t get mad—” I try to keep it light, but he immediately cuts me off, his face red with anger and his eyes wide with shock.
“Are you fucking kidding me, Nadia?”
“Ah, I see I’ve stepped in something here,” the doctor casually remarks.
The cat’s out of the bag. I might as well brace for the fallout. I’ve already gone over every possible scenario in my head anyway. Over the past couple of months, I have imagined every worst-case scenario, every possible insult, and every potential outcome to my unexpected condition. In the following few minutes, one of these instances will come true.
“I take it you weren’t aware of your daughter’s condition,” the doctor says, looking at Dad.
“I’m twenty-two, Doc. I know what I’m doing.”
“Do you?” Dad shoots back. “Who’s the father?”
“Oh, you don’t want to ask me that, trust me,” I reply bluntly. I think part of me secretly enjoys his current discomfort. Maybe it’s payback for the way he left me to take care of Mom when she got sick and for the way he kept his distance while she was waiting for him to come to see her one last time I look at the doctor. “So, we’re fine, you say.”
Dad steps in. “Hold on, Nadia. As long as you’re living under my roof, as long as you are my daughter and sole heir, I have every right to know these things. What the hell happened?”
“Mr. Kessler now is not the time. Your daughter has been through major trauma today, and you will not cause her more stress in my hospital,” the doctor cuts in.
“Thank you, Doc,” I say, grateful to him for his speaking up. “You said the baby appears to be all right, yes?”
“We ran a few blood tests, and I’d like to do an ultrasound if that’s okay with you,” he replies. “I want to confirm something.”
“Yes, sure, anything you need to do,” I tell him.
I’m weak. Scared out of my mind. The longer I keep the truth from my father, the worse it’ll be not necessarily for me, but for Orion, Kai, and Drake. The club was there long before I was born, and if they survive Colton Harrow, it’ll be there long after I’m gone.
A little while later, I am lying on a bed in the ultrasound room, the doctor rubbing a wand over my belly, which is covered in gel. “Congratulations, Miss Kessler. Just as I suspected, you’re having twins!” the doctor quips as he wipes my belly with a paper towel, and I pull my gown back down. “Your blood tests gave me a clue, but I needed to be sure.”
“Nadia,” Dad says, also staring at the screen. We can’t make out that much, but we can see two shapes, two tiny droplets of life evolving in my womb. There’s no hiding it. “I need you to tell me the truth. You have to tell me the truth.”
“I’ll give you two some privacy,” the doctor cuts in, then gives me a confident wink. “A nurse will take you back to your room. I’ll be coming in to check up on you in about an hour, Miss Kessler. Remember, no extra stress if you can avoid it.” At this, he gives my father a pointed look.
As soon as he’s out the door, my father comes closer and takes my hand in his. I feel his tremor. He’s angry and scared, having lost control over the one situation he probably thought he still had a handle on and had a clear grasp of.
“Nadia …”
“Dad, you’re going to want to sit down for this. I’m not sure you will understand, but I need you to know that I did everything of my own accord. It was my free will. I was fully conscious of possible repercussions, except, well, this,” I say, briefly pointing at the screen. “I’ll be honest, we got so carried away, we completely ignored the possibility of pregnancy. It’s not coming at the best of times, and I swear I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to tell you.”
“What happened?”
“Orion, Drake, and Kai have a very tight friendship, as you probably know or have heard, at least.”
As soon as their names roll off my tongue, I see the blood draining from my father’s face. His shoulders drop slowly, and he stills in his seat as I tell him the whole story—spicy details excluded, of course. I don’t want him having a stroke; there’s a vein twitching along his temple as I try to explain.
But the more I speak, the more inclined I am to believe that this will not end well.
I can see rage simmering behind his blue eyes, hotter and hotter until it boils over and consumes everything in his path. Yet he needs to know the truth. I fell in love with Orion, Kai, and Drake. And they fell in love with me, against all odds.
“I don’t know which of them is the father, for obvious reasons,” is how I conclude.
A split-second later, my father nods and darts out of the room while I’m left scrambling to find my phone. I can’t remember where I put the damn thing, though. I need to warn the guys.
My father is likely headed for the clubhouse, and it’s not going to be a courtesy visit.