“Okay. Jase heard me apologize?” Taylor asked.
“He did. He’s just… processing.”
“Got ‘cha. I’m sorry, Jase. I really am.”
“Later, Tay. Don’t feel bad, okay?” Bailey said. “I’ll call you later.”
***
I scowl as I shove our front door open.
When she closes the door, our eyes meet.
“Don’t feel bad?” I ask, incredulously.
“She didn’t do it on purpose,” Bailey reasons, tossing her handbag to the console table inside the door. “Um, for your information, I’m not an athletic girl,” she says.
“What?”
She’s holding her side.
“I don’t do cardio, Jason. I do cupcakes. And I just had to powerwalk for six blocks to keep up with you. I have a cramp!”
I blow out a frustrated exhale and flop onto the couch, rubbing my eyes, feeling beyond frustrated. “Sorry, baby. I’m so fucking pissed. At Sherry. Pissed at Taylor…”
“Don’t be mad at Taylor–” she starts to say, but my phone rings. It’s my dad.
I’m also pissed at myself for leaving my mate alone this morning. Because of what would’ve happened if I hadn’t gotten there when I did. Because if I’d been home when Taylor called, I’d have been the one to sit with Sherry and this wouldn’t have happened.
Bailey goes upstairs while he tells me Sherry understands where things are at and prefers to be sedated, because if she’s beingforced to carry Wyatt’s kid, she doesn’t want to be awake until it’s out of her. She claims the pregnancy is stopping her from thinking straight, which is a fucking excuse if I ever heard one. Pops says that furthermore, if that kid is being adopted by anyone in this pack, Sherry wants it known she’s not staying. She’ll move to our aunt’s pack in California. She wants us to make sure the kid is adopted by someone in another pack, preferably far away.
“Pops, I want her gone. I want her the fuck out of here, so I’ll do my best to make sure we offer that kid to someone local if it makes sense and I hope it does. But even if nobody local wants to adopt, even if she thinks she’ll change her mind about leaving, she’s got no choice. She’s gone.”
He tells me Sherry wants to talk to me before they put her back under.
I refuse. My father says he understands and we end the call. Should’ve turfed my sister out when Mase wanted it, when Sherry told Amelia hurtful shit that turned Mase’s world upside down. It still shits me that my sister had the nerve to do that in the middle of Tyson and Ivy’s wedding reception. That was a happy day for the pack. And she shat on it.
I’m still fucking seething, but I’m about to go find Bailey so holding her can soothe my anger when my phone rings again with my mother’s name.
I answer. “Ma, I’m not fuckin’ talkin’ to her.”
“Jase, please… let me apologize.”
Not Mom.
“Fuck you, Sherry,” I say. “You’re dead to me.”
“I th-think it’s his evil kid in me. It’s evil, like he was, and it made me do that. I would never hurt your mate, I–”
“Bullshit. That’s exactly who you are. A vindictive, mean-spirited bitch who’s shown those are your colors your whole life. I have nothing more to say to you except this: you ever threaten or get anywhere near Bailey, you ever make any plan to cause her any harm whatsoever, I’ll kill you slowly with my bare hands. As soon as you wake up after that baby is born, you’re no longer welcome in Arcana Falls. If our parents or other family members want to see you, they can do it somewhere else.” I end the call and turn the fucking phone off.
“Hey,” Bailey whispers from the bottom of the stairs.
I rush to her and pull her close, burying my face in her hair.
“Squeezing me too tight, Jason,” she squeaks.
I loosen my grip but lift her and take her to the couch, sitting her on my lap, burying my face in the crook of her neck.