“Sasha, I need you.”
“What’s wrong?” Sasha asked, sounding like she had just woken up.
“Did I catch you at a bad time?”
“No. Uh, I just had a late night out with this new guy I’ve been seeing and was taking a nap like an old woman. You want to come over?”
“If that’s okay.”
“Sure. I’ll be waiting for you.”
Lucy spilled her guts to Sasha about the baby and how scared she was and Sasha listened intently. It had always been her best trait, listening when you needed it most.
“You don’t have to tell him, you know. You can take care of it and pretend it never happened.”
“I don’t think I could live with myself if I did that. Knowing that I’d ended it without discussing it with him would just eat at me. You know that.”
“Why are you so scared to tell him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do. From what I’ve seen, you and Ryan talk about everything, share everything. Why wouldn’t you be able to tell him?”
“He doesn’t want kids. He told me the first night that we went out.”
“Do you want kids?”
“I didn’t think so, but now . . .I mean, I’m scared, but I kind of like the idea. I’d just prefer that I was like normal women and having one instead of maybe a half dozen.”
“I get that, but it’s just life. You have to accept what you’re given. My point is, that you were never keen on the idea of kids either, but now you’re thinking it might just be okay. If you talk to Ryan, there’s a good chance he might think it’s okay too. If he doesn’t and he doesn’t, you’ll make that call together and, if you can’t agree, you might have to make a hard choice.”
“See, that last part is what I’m afraid of. What if I lose him and end up a single mother of six Alphas that I can’t even relate to?”
“Then, I will hold your hand and date only men who can help you raise your little bastard Alphas,” she said.
Lucy laughed, despite herself.CHAPTER TWENTYRyan
Just as Ryan had expected, things weren’t over. Though huge chunks of both drug factions had been hit in the factory explosion, there were still plenty of people out there who fancied themselves the new leader and the turf war between them had continued on for weeks after Jameson and company left this earthly realm.
He and Tate had spent long hours collecting information from various informants and hookers that led them to take out a number of dealers, but new ones continued to pop up. Along the way, he came across associates of the men who had taken Lucy and eventually found out where they were storing and cutting the worst of the Fentanyl backed speedballs. Rather than reporting it in, he put in a call to some of his pack members who had also lost loved ones to this nasty faction of wolves.
Wolves deal with wolves. He might be a cop, but he was a wolf first and this was payback for his brother and for Lucy. At just the right time, he and his pack launched an attack on their warehouse and wiped them all out, setting fire to the place when they were done. When forensics arrived, they would find dead cons, useless drugs and DNA that matched nothing that made any sense to them.
It was the beginning of the end for most of the drug lords on the east side. It would never be a clean place, but the deadly dealers were gone and all that remained were some low level guys that were much easier to track and control. Vice took over most of that for them and begin cleaning up as much as would ever be done in the area.
“I think this is a good time for me to retire,” Tate told him.
“Not yet,” Ryan told him.
“You can’t retire until after the Valentine’s dance.”
“Surely you don’t think I’m coming to some stupid dance.”
“I do and I’m going to show you why,” Ryan told him, standing by their lockers at the station.
“Oh, I can’t wait.”
Ryan reached into his locker and pulled out a small velvet box, opening it up to show him. Tate smiled broadly.
“I’m going to propose at the dance.”
“Isn’t that a bit overdone? Proposing on Valentine’s Day?”
“Probably, but that dance is the only reason she agreed to go out with me a second time. She felt sorry for me, I think. It seems like the perfect place to propose to me.”
“Haven’t you only been dating this girl for a couple of months?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t think this is a little quick?’
“No. Sometimes, you just know.”
“Well, I guess congratulations are in order then, but I don’t see that I need to be there for it.”
“You’re breaking my heart with your lack of support.”
“Win me back by throwing me a drunken bash for my retirement.”