Released (Devil's Blaze MC #3)(52)

“Explain what? That you’re ignoring my orders again?”

“Orders?” I squeak.

“Oh, shit,” Candy mumbles.

“Again, this is why I only deal with women,” Louise mutters, but I can’t pay attention to them right now because I’m busy staring at Skull. He seriously did not just say that.

“Orders,” he confirms.

“I’m not a damn dog, Skull. You don’t give me orders, thinking that’s the end of it.”

“I do about this. We had this out. I’ll deal with it and handle it and you will keep yourself safe. There will be no more secret girl power blitz attacks. Mierda! You girls have watched too many f*cking movies. This is not the movies, and it sure ain’t f*cking blanks they’ll be shooting at you! What the hell do you think you’re doing? It’s not been two days since you promised me you’d let me handle this. Where is your damn brain?”

My head goes back like he slapped me. Which really he did, just verbally. Where’s my brain? Right now, I have to ask the same question, but only because I’m wondering why in the hell I ever thought he and I could work things out.

I push away from the table, standing up without taking my eyes off of him. “If you had come in a little earlier, you would have heard me tell them that you were handling it, you horse’s ass!”

“Mi cielo,” he starts, but I stop him.

“Don’t you ‘mi cielo’ me! If we’re in a relationship, you aren’t going to give me orders and expect I’m so simpleminded that I’ll do it just for the chance to ride your cock!”

“Oh, shit,” Katie mumbles.

“Damn, I wish she hit for my side,” Louise says, and right now, I wish I did too; it has to be less complicated.

“You will not put yourself in danger, mujer!” he demands, his eyes dark and alive with energy. I shouldn’t be turned-on, but shit, I am.

“I wasn’t! But if I wanted to, I would! This fight belongs to me. The shit done to me and Katie was just that: done to us. Not you!”

“The f*ck it wasn’t!” he growls.

“It wasn’t!” I insist.

“My life was just as f*cked up, querida, and if I want to make sure that you don’t f*cking disappear on me again, then you will follow my damned orders and stay in one f*cking place! Christo! You would think you’d want to keep yourself safe for Gabby, if nothing else. Or did you forget our daughter?”

“Of course I didn’t!”

“Then why wouldn’t you do everything you could to make sure you’re safe so you can be there for her? For me?”

“Damn it, Skull.” My frustration is starting to ebb. I’m not even sure why I jumped on him so quick, except that with Skull, I seem to react first and think later. I realize he’s just worried about me. It’s just that I can’t take being another man’s prisoner, even if he’s doing it to protect me.

“If that’s not enough, querida, why can’t you take care of yourself for the child inside of you? Mierda! It shouldn’t be so hard to get you to think. I’m not…”

“I’m not pregnant!” I interrupt him, his words making something twist inside of me. My hand goes to my stomach.

“You f*cking could be! Or don’t you remember begging me to fill your * up the other day?”

“Oh, shit,” Katie whispers.

I find the chair behind me and sit back down. We had sex without protection. We had sex without protection a lot. My hand goes to my stomach. I couldn’t be… could I?

“We didn’t use a condom,” I admit, holding my head down.

“Exactly,” Skull says, but he’s not yelling now. I can’t look at him; I’m busy staring at the floor.

“You haven’t been using a condom at all,” I whisper, trembling.

“I haven’t,” he states matter-of-factly.

That makes me drag my eyes back to him. He’s standing there giving nothing away, and I have to know. I keep my hand on my stomach, not looking away from him.

“You did it on purpose,” I whisper.

“Absolutely,” he states boldly.

“Oh, f*ck.” This comes from Torch, but I don’t take my eyes off Skull.

“Why?”

“Because you’re mine. Your smile is mine. Your laughter is mine. Your motherf*cking tears are mine, Beth. Your mouth is mine and your lips are mine. Your * is mine and the babies you give birth to are mine. They will always be mine and if I have to keep you knocked up from now until you’re eighty f*cking years old so that you’re tied to me in every f*cking way I can manage … then by God, mi cielo, I will. You’re not leaving me. You’re never leaving me.”

I’m trembling with everything inside of me now. There’s a lot to what he said. A lot.

“So you’re going to keep me knocked up so I never leave you?” I ask, my voice full of shock, but I doubt he can hear it because it’s barely above a murmur. I don’t have the energy to make it louder right now. There are too many emotions pushing through me.

“If I have to, then yes.”

I swallow, rubbing my lips back and forth against each other while I digest all of this. What do I say? How did I not realize the wounds my leaving him before had caused?