Roman

6 - Shock of my life

Roman

“And you think he loves you back?” Sasha laughs and rips her arm from Tank’s grasp. “He doesn’t love you. All the time you’ve been gone, he’s been fuckin.g me and any other girl he can get his hands on, anything to forget you!”

I wrap my arm around Marley’s shoulders. She’s stiff but doesn’t push me away.

“I really don’t care what Roman got up to while I was gone.” Marley huffs. “He thought I wasn’t coming back, and he had every right to move on with his life.

“However, I thought he would’ve had more class than to lower himself to sink it inside someone like you.” A few of the guys snigger around me. I’d laugh if I weren’t so angry. “He must’ve been either really low and missing me or really drunk.”

“BITC.H!”

“One more word!” Is all the Prez yells before Sasha is ripped away from us.

I watch Nova spin Sasha around and punch her in the jaw, knocking her off her too-high heels. Nova then straddles Sasha’s body and continues to beat on her. This is nothing new where Nova is concerned, I might add.

Tank stands by with a smirk on his face, watching his wife, the Prez’s daughter, beat the hell out of Sasha. I’d break it up, but I care nothing for the whor.e. She laid hands on my woman, and now she’ll get what’s coming to her.

“Listen to me,” Nova says while grabbing Sasha’s face in her hand. “You are nothing but a club whor.e. That is what you chose when you came here looking for a job! Your position here is to relieve the men who require your services. You signed up for that when you asked my father for a job. You ever touch one of my sisters again, and I will kill you.”

Sisters. Yes, that’s what Nova refers to all the Old Ladies as, and for her to refer to Marley as such speaks volumes.

“Now get to your fuckin’ feet, get your shi.t together, and get the fuc.k outta here. You are no longer welcome in this clubhouse.”

“That’s enough, Nova,” Prez tells her with little effort.

Dragged to her feet, Nova pulls Sasha toward Marley. “I would make her apologize, but I doubt she can talk.”

I doubt Sasha can even see; her eyes are rolling so much.

“Did she hurt you?” Marley shakes her head at Nova. “The baby?”

Baby?

I look down at Marley; she’s looking up at me, her face red, her eyes scared.

My eyes travel the length of her body. Sure enough, there it is a small bump under her shirt.

“Shi.t, this is what you came here to tell me? That you got knocked up? Why the fuc.k would you think I’d give a shi.t?!”

Did she just come here to rub salt in the wound?

She got knocked up by some douchebag, and she came to tell me?

What sick shi.t is this?!

“No, it’s not...”

“Go home, Marley!” I walk away from her.

“Don’t walk away from me, you prick!” There’s my little firecracker.

I hear Shepard telling everyone to go about their business, and I don’t even give a fuc.k what that is right now.

I manage to get to my bedroom door before Marley starts thumping my back with her fists. “I said: don’t walk away from me!”

I twist and grab her wrists, pulling her inside the room and slamming the door behind her. Marley leans back against the door and looks at me with tears in her eyes.

“Why, Marley? Why would you...”

“Because you’re the father, Roman!”

I stumble backward.

What the hell?

“I knew coming here was a mistake, but I needed to tell you. You deserved to know. Then that skank attacked me. If I weren’t pregnant, I would’ve ripped her head off! But I couldn’t risk her hitting me in the stomach and hurting my baby.”

“It’s been eight months since we were together, Marley. What are you, four, five months?” She can’t be any more than that her stomach is too small. When Nova, Willow, Coral, and even Elie were pregnant, they were huge.

“I’m eight months, Roman. The baby is yours. I haven’t been with anyone since you. Why the hell would I when I can’t bear to be touched?”

“Right. How am I to know it ain’t Bulldog’s?” I snapped that one out, and it fuckin.g hurt her. I saw the pain flash in her eyes.

“Because you are the only man who ever came inside of me. Bulldog didn’t cu.m inside of whore.s like me. I didn’t stop you because… It doesn’t matter. I can’t blame you for thinking such things, especially after what I did. I just...” She rubs her forehead with her fingertips and bursts out crying.

What the fuc.k am I supposed to do with this shi.t?

I never wanted kids, that’s why I always use protection, except once when I was eighteen, and that left a fuckin.g hole in my heart that will never be filled. I didn’t with Marley either.

Why didn’t I?

Yes, I imagined us married with kids, but I didn’t honestly think it would happen. In my thirty-odd years of life, almost fuckin.g forty, I put all the kid’s bullshit behind me.

What the fuc.k am I meant to do?

“I’m sorry, Roman. I am so sorry. Hate me all you like, but please don’t take it out on the baby; it needs its father.”

“I need a fuckin’ drink.”

“Okay,” Marley nods her head. “You need time. I know. I should’ve told you when I found out I was pregnant, but I was afraid, Roman. My head was such a mess with everything that happened, and I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t think I could be anyone’s mother. I have nothing and no one.

“However, I never once thought about not having this baby. I sat in my room one evening, stroking my flat belly, and I fell in love with our baby.” She sighs. “I’m really sorry about everything, Roman. You don’t have to have anything to do with this baby; I can manage alone. I just thought I’d give...”

What the fuc.k am I doing?

I’m a grown man, for Chrissake, and here I am, making the woman I love feel like fuckin.g shi.t about the baby she’s carrying. My baby. Goddamn, my baby.

There’s no way on this earth I’ll let my child go. I could be a good father. I know I could. I am many things, but I will love my child so well. I don’t want to be a deadbeat dad. I won’t be!

Seeing Marley crying like this brings back some of my worst memories. Memories of her the night I rescued her from those p*****s Devils Roadkill, right before we ended the lot of them!

I never gave love a thought in the past, but the moment I met Marley, something changed inside me forever. I needed to be near her, to touch her, to taste her. She made me want to do things I’d never done before, like slow dancing with her, talking about dumb shi.t that meant nothing, bringing her dinner, and telling her jokes so that I could see her smile. I wanted that every day for the rest of my life.

Has that really changed?

Fuc.k it all!

I grab Marley’s hand and pull her into my arms. She holds onto me tightly while crying into my chest. “I’m so sorry, darlin’,” I kiss her head. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. God, I would never hurt you.”

“It’s yours, Roman. I swear the baby is yours. I wouldn’t lie to you, I swear, I wouldn’t.”

“I know, sweetheart. I know.” I do know. Deep inside of me, I know. “There’s a lot for us to talk about.” She nods against me. “I want you with me, Marley. You’re my girl. You have been since the first moment I saw you. I let you go because I figured I wasn’t good enough for you, that maybe you just needed time to get over everything, but I won’t let you go now that you’re with me.”

“I want to stay with you,” She looks up at me. “I meant what I said out there. I love you, Roman.”

I breathe deeply. Marley isn’t the first woman to ever tell me that she loves me, but I know she’s the first girl I’ve ever loved in return. She left because she needed to get over what happened. Everything was too raw, too soon, I know that, but she’s here now with me, and she loves me.

“I love you, too, darlin’.” I tuck her hair behind her ear.

The beautiful smile on her face is something to behold. “Do you mean that?”

“I do, more than I’ve ever meant anything in my life before this moment. Don’t know what you did to me, Marley, but I haven’t been the same since I met you. I fell in love with you so deeply it fuckin’ scared me.”

“I know what you mean.”

“I also mean it when I say we’re moving into our own place just as soon as I find somewhere. I can’t have the two of you living here. It’s not right.”

“We might not have much choice.”

I chuckle. “Baby, trust me, I’ll have a place by the week’s end.”

“No. Roman,” She looks down, my eyes follow hers. There’s water on the floor between her legs. “My water just broke!”

“Shi.t!”

Shi.t, indeed.

I’ve had half a damn hour to get used to becoming a father, and now she’s in labor?

Oh, hell.

This is all Sasha’s fuckin.g fault! She attacked Marley, and now she’s in labor. For Sasha’s sake, I hope my baby comes through this. Because killer of women or not, I will murder that fuckin’ bitc.h in ways no one will recognize her!