Unbeautifully (Undeniable, #2)(54)

Sucking in a breath, I squeezed my eyes shut and turned away from her.

I was a wreck, my life was a wreck, everything was just…wrong.

Irreparable.

And all I could think about was Ripper.

I loved him and missed him and hated him for leaving me. Leaving me all alone with my screwed-up family and both my beautiful and horrible memories of him and us and all the horrible pain and the gut-wrenching guilt that came with them. All of it had piled so heavily on top of me, I could barely stand any more.

I was tired all the time, physically and emotionally, and eventually I was just too tired to get my life in any semblance of order and back on track. I showered as often as I ate, which was nearly never because I couldn’t seem to keep anything down.

Then, on top of everything else, two weeks ago I’d discovered I was pregnant. After sharing my secret with Anabeth, she’d given me the number and address of a clinic in Billings that accepted patients without health insurance, or in my case, patients who had health insurance yet couldn’t use it without their father finding out.

So I’d borrowed some money from my father’s bedroom safe and taken a bus out of town.

And all of this had happened in just three short months. Ninety days. It had taken a mere ninety days for my entire life to fall apart.

“Here we go,” the nurse said, holding my elbow as I struggled to sit up. On shaking legs, I followed her out of the procedure room into the recovery room, and slid into the medical reclining chair she gestured to.

“Can I have some water?” I said hoarsely.

“You need juice, honey,” she replied. “I’ll go get some.”

I nodded and she walked off. A quick survey of the room showed me three other women, also seated in recovery chairs, avoiding eye contact while several busy nurses walked back and forth. Closing my eyes, I let my head roll off to the side.

“Here’s your juice,” the nurse said, handing me a small paper cup. She began flipping through a chart while I sipped on apple juice.

“Remember that bleeding and blood clots are normal, as is cramping, but if you’re bleeding excessively—”

I stared up at the kind nurse, not really listening, thinking about Ripper, wondering where he was and what he was doing. Wondering if he’d known that I was pregnant, if it would have made a difference. Would he have come back home? Wondering why he had left in the first place and why wouldn’t he answer my phone calls.

Wondering if he’d been with another woman.

“Do you have a ride home?” the nurse asked, handing me several small squares of paper. I glanced at the prescriptions, wondering how I was going to fill them without anyone finding out.

I shook my head. “I’m taking the bus.”

When the bleeding had slowed and I could stand without shaking, I was discharged. Exhausted and nauseous, I pushed through the front door of the clinic and stopped dead. Standing in the snow-covered parking lot, leaning against his pickup and smoking a cigarette, was my brother.

Seeing me Cage cursed, flicked his cigarette away, and strode quickly toward me. I tried to shrink away from him but he was quicker than me, bigger and stronger, and grabbed a hold of my shoulders. “Who?” he demanded. “I want to know who did this, right the f*ck now.”

Clutching my abdomen, I gaped at him. “What are you doing here?” I demanded weakly.

“Tegen told me,” he gritted out. “Now f*ckin’ answer me!”

Tegen? Tegen!

“How did Tegen know?” I shrieked, my pain turning suddenly into mortification and terror that my father or Eva knew as well. Did the entire club know? The whole world?

“Ellie,” he said, growing angrier by the second. “She was worried about you and called me this morning. Ana-f*ckin’-slut let it slip and when Ellie couldn’t get a hold of you, she called me.”

I narrowed my eyes. “That still doesn’t explain how Tegen found out.”

“I was in the f*ckin’ shower and she answered my damn phone.”

“She’s gonna tell someone!” I cried.

“No she ain’t, I made sure of it. Now, tell me who the f*ck knocked your ass up so I can find ’em and f*ckin’ kill ’em.”

“Stop it!” I hissed. “It’s none of your business.”

“Like f*ck it isn’t!” he yelled.

“Cage.” I sighed. “Just take me home, okay? I’m really tired.”

He let loose a string of curses. “So you’re not tellin’ me, huh? You’re gonna protect some sorry-ass motherf*cker who let you deal with this shit all by yourself?”

“He doesn’t know,” I whispered.

Cage’s brown eyes bored into me, watching me intently. I knew the exact moment he put two and two together. His entire demeanor changed and his expression turned hard and violent.

“You in bed with a brother, Danny? ’Cause if you are, Dad is—”

“Cage!” I yelled. “Don’t you dare tell him anything! What I do is none of his business! Or yours!”

“Fuck!” he bellowed, spinning away from me, running his hands through his hair. “You are! You’re f*ckin’ a brother!”

“Why was Tegen in your bedroom while you were showering?” I demanded, the only reason why Tegen would have been in my brother’s bedroom suddenly occurring to me. “Does Dorothy need to know you’re screwing her underage daughter?”