Page 57 of Vengeance (Ruthless MC 4)
I still. She knows. She now knows all the stuff I couldn’t tell her about when she came to my door.
“Also, because we took over a lot of Waylon’s duties when he decided to settle down,” Hyena adds. “But yeah, mostly that.”
She tilts her head disbelievingly at us. “So that’s true? Along with the part where you, Vampire, the guy I practically had to beg to kiss me, actually met with local officials to get funding for a bigger clinic on the town line? One that would be open to the public—not just the biker residents of Angel Pond? One that I was slated to run? She also said something about you all offering to make a huge donation to the University of Nebraska-Butte in exchange for giving me a finishing spot in their residency program.”
Vampire’s neck is red again. But he’s done keeping things from her just like the rest of us. “Yes.”
“Why would you have arranged all of that for me?” she asks her voice barely a whisper. “After only being with me a couple of weeks.”
“Because we knew you for four years before that,” Hyena answers.
“We knew you were the one we wanted to be with forever after you gave us your virginity,” I tell her. “We knew you belong to us…with us as long as we are breathing on this earth.”
And Vampire adds, “Because we love you, Allie. From the moment we laid eyes on you studying from some medical textbook while everyone else in the place was gossiping and standing around.”
“Oh my God, guys …” she shakes her head, her entire face screwed up in utter disbelief.
Then she says, “That was a really good plan. I mean, an excellent plan. And I’m saying that as the queen of good plans.”
We all still. Shock warring with disbelief and regret.
Only Vampire manages to talk. “So you would have said yes if we told you what we had planned from the start?”
“No! Of course not!” she answers just as adamantly as she told us our plan was actually good. “I was obviously incredibly freaked out, not to mention triggered by what turned out to be a ton of unprocessed trauma.”
She shakes her head and looks down at her feet. “There is no way on heaven or earth my trusty voice of reason would have signed off on that. I wasn’t mentally and emotionally capable of going along with your plan.”
Oh…
I’m not looking at Hyena or Vampire—only her. But I can feel their disappointment filling up the room, just like mine.
“Back then,” she says into all our disappointment, still looking down at her feet.
We all stare at her, confused.
“I wouldn’t have gone along with the plan back then,” she clarifies. “But now…”
She raises her head. And for the first time in the history of our acquaintance looks us directly in the eye—first Vampire, then Hyena, then me.
“But now,” she continues, “I’ve had your baby and two and a half years of feeling like I was certifiably crazy because I missed you so much. Now, I’m tired. I’m tired of listening to the trusty voice of reason in my head because, yeah, maybe it was right. And maybe I hit all my goals because I kept on listening to it. But I’m lonely and closed off and unable to experience true happiness or adult love because I don’t think I can trust anyone but a single innocent child. You know, the little boy I kept from his fathers because of my stupid pride.”
Allie begins to cry, tears rolling down her cheeks along with regrets. “But I’ve loved you from the start too. I couldn’t admit it. But I did. And maybe that’s why I saved myself for you all those years, although I insisted that wasn’t what I was doing.”
She flicks her watery gaze to me. “I know you must have met Dennis and scared him away. And I wasn’t angry when I realized that. When I saw you standing there in front of my place instead of him, I wasn’t upset like I thought I’d be. I was just so, so relieved. Because I didn’t want Dennis, even though I told myself I should. I haven’t touched another man since our time in Nebraska.”
My heart bursts with the news. It had been a feat for me to let that guy off with a call to Doc to cancel their date. I wanted to do all sorts of violence to him for even looking at Allie and our son.
She turns her gaze on all of us. “You’re my loves—the men I want to spend the rest of my life with. I love your plan, and I love you three even more. I really, really do. Like, yes, Hyena, I want you all to breed me. And I know I’ve been a psycho in the past—ironically untrustworthy myself. But I hope you believe me now. Because all I want is to bring B2 back over here and start my life with you. If you can forgive me.”
