Free Shadow: Cerberus MC Book 3 by Marie James

quietly.
    “She told me she was on birth control.”
    I look up at Kincaid, who’s being extremely quiet. He rolls his lips behind his teeth as if he has something to say but is holding off for some reason.
    “You didn’t even use a rubber?” Kid asks. I know he’s shocked as hell. I’m shocked at my actions also.
    “It broke,” I explain.
    “While you were having sex with her?” Kincaid finally says.
    “Before.”
    He takes a deep, agitated breath. For some reason, it pisses me off. This is my fucking life, not his.
    “Are you telling me you wrapped up with Em every time before you guys started trying to have a baby?”
    He slams his fist hard down on the table. Pointing toward the clubhouse, he says, “Are you telling me you love that woman in there?”
    I shake my head no.
    “I didn’t stick my dick in Emmalyn until I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. My situation is nothing like yours,” he seethes.
    I dart my eyes to Kid causing him to hold his hands up by his ears in surrender.
    “Don’t look at me, man. Khloe is only eighteen, she’s on birth control, and we use condoms every time,” he says.
    “So I fucked up. This is on me. Why are you so pissed? Do you not want them here? I can find a place for us to go if you give me a few days.” I look at Kincaid, begging with my eyes not to be thrown out on my ass.
    He’s really not the kind of man that would do something like that, but this situation is a little different than any other that has been brought to our doorstep. Babies are a game changer for sure.
    “No, goddamn it. I don’t want you to leave.” He takes a long swig of his beer and sits back in his chair.
    “Well, you’re pissed about something.”
    “I know it’s too late,” he begins. “They’re here already. Short of keeping your dick out of Misty nine months ago, this couldn’t have been avoided, but did you ever consider what Em is going through before just handing that baby off to her?”
    “Fuck,” Kid and I say at the same time. Evidently he never gave Em’s struggle to get pregnant pause either.
    “She loves babies, but I don’t know how she’s going to take a baby being in this house when it’s all she wants for herself.” Kincaid twists the knife in even further.
    “We can leave. I’d never want to hurt Em.” It’s the truth, plain and simple. I don’t want to leave. I don’t want to distance myself from my club, from my brothers, but I will. I can’t send Misty off by herself. It’s obvious she’s struggling. If things were fine back in Denver, I never would’ve even met that little boy. That knowledge upsets me more than her showing up out of the blue with him.
    “I’d never ask you to do that.” I look up at him. “She’d never ask you to do that either.”
    “The doctor is going to do a paternity test when he gets here,” I tell both of them.
    Kid raises his eyebrows, tips his beer back, but doesn’t say a word.
    “You don’t believe her?” Kincaid asks. I shrug and take a long pull on my own beer. “Man, if you can’t trust her…” he lets his voice trail off.
    “I don’t know what to believe. She shows up after all this time. I mean the timeline seems right, but who knows. She doesn’t seem like the type, but I honestly don’t know her that well.”
    “She may have to go,” Kincaid says. “That changes things.”
    “It doesn’t,” I insist. The stress of the day has just reached a tipping point. I stand from my chair and slap both of my hands on the table top. “Did you see the state she’s in? Even if the test comes back and that baby isn’t mine, I don’t think I can just toss her out on her ass.”
    Kincaid smiles at me. “Now, that’s the man I know.”
    Kid looks between us, confused on what just happened between Kincaid and me.
    “You’re an asshole,” I tell him sitting down and finishing my beer.
    “This is where they need to be.” He begins to peel the label from his beer bottle.