Angel gasped while Eva just felt sick. This was not something she wanted to be hearing. All of her illusions about Rose and Hardy were flying out of the window.
“Yeah, that’s right. He cheated on me with a f**king slut who slept with all the club members.” Rose chuckled. “I left his ass, and he came crawling back to me, not giving me a chance to really leave.”
“What happened? I mean, you had to take him back because you’re together,” Eva said.
“I did after he begged and begged. No one at the club knows what happened. I stayed away for the longest time. I wouldn’t talk to him. We lived in the same house, but I wouldn’t talk to him or let him touch me. Then, we started talking, and he apologized. He begged me to take him back. Hardy wouldn’t leave me alone. He wouldn’t divorce me. For days he’d beg me to take him back, to talk to him at every chance. I caved and started talking to him. I’m not happy with my weakness. Slowly, we started to get back together.” Rose was crying harder. “The bitch turned up three months later pregnant with Hardy’s kid. Everything we’d been building was torn from us because she came back for me. I wondered if I was even supposed to be giving Hardy another chance. I mean, what kind of woman takes a cheating ass**le back?”
Eva looked at Angel.
“I don’t know.” They both answered in unison, neither knowing what could be the right answer.
Eva felt for the other woman. This sudden revelation was more than she could stand. Rose had been hurting for years, and she’d never known.
“What happened?” Angel asked.
“I can’t have kids, so I offered to be the mother to the kid providing she stayed away,” Rose said. “She didn’t make it. Seven months pregnant she got into a car accident, killing herself and the unborn child instantly. I’d gotten the nursery ready, read all the books. I was happy, or as happy as I could be. This is the anniversary of a lost dream.” Rose raised her glass for them to join in.
Angel had tears streaming down her face. Eva swallowed down the lump.
“I’m celebrating everything I’ve lost, and I’m tired of doing it in private. Hardy is with me most of the time, but as usual the club comes first. Well, guess what, secret is out,” Rose said.
For the rest of the day, Angel and Eva comforted Rose as she sobbed and laughed, mourning her life. They took her up to be around the kids. Watching Rose with their children, Eva’s heart went out to the woman. Today’s revelation just went to show how little she knew about some of the members.
Angel left with Lash when he came to collect her, taking her son with her.
Hardy arrived with Tiny. By the time her husband turned up, Rose was back to crying. The moment Rose saw Hardy, she started to attack him.
“I f**king hate you!”
“What the f**k?” Tiny asked.
“Don’t,” Eva said, placing a hand on him. “This is between them.”
“It’s over, Rose. Ten years now. You’ve got to let it go or let us adopt.”
“You hurt me,” Rose said.
“I know, but I love you. There has not been another woman since. You own me,” Hardy said, picking her up in his arms. The other man looked tired. The cracks in their marriage had been long in coming.
****
Closing the door behind Hardy, Tiny turned to his woman.
“Tate picked up Simon an hour ago. She wanted to murder Hardy over what happened,” Eva said.
“I don’t doubt it. How did Angel take the news?”
“How did you know?”
“Hardy told me when he turned up with a red face from Rose slapping him. I’ve never known her to be like this.” Tiny banded an arm around Eva’s waist.
“They kept secrets from the club.”
“It was personal secrets. I didn’t need to know that Hardy had cheated on his woman. It sucks.” Tiny led her into the kitchen where the remains of Rose’s drinking lay. “Makes me wonder if she danced because he liked it or to make him jealous.”
“They’re a complicated couple.” Eva moved out of his arms to put the bottle in the recycle trash can and clean up the glass. “Are you hungry?”
“Yeah, starved. Have the kids eaten?”
“Yep, they’ve eaten and they’re settled for the night. Rose calmed down a little when we got her to help. I’ve never seen a woman so desperate for a child before.” Eva started to make him up a sandwich.
He watched her working, feeling the need to f**k her come over him. It had been a long day, and all he wanted to do was sink inside her warm cunt.
“Lash said Angel came here?”
“We were talking about the club. She likes Gash, thinks he’s a nice guy.”
Tiny chuckled. “It took four sweet-butts to calm him the f**k down. I kid you not, they were going in and out of his room, taking turns.”
“Did you get anything done today?” Eva asked, turning the conversation to a more serious matter.
“We’re working toward taking out Gonzalez.”
“What?” Her eyes were wide as she handed him a sandwich. Tapping his leg, he waited for her to sit down before he started to eat.
“Whizz came up with a plan. I’ve never seen him like this. It’s like he’s his old self. He got a plan, and we’re working to put it into effect.”
“You’re not going to keep me in the dark about this, are you?” she asked.
Tiny had learned his lesson the hard way. “No, I’m not going to keep you in the dark. We’re thinking of taking him out in the town hall. Inviting him to a fake wedding and when there is some commotion, Butch is going to slit his throat while we take out his men.”
“What have you learned to make you decide this plan?” Eva nuzzled his neck.
“For as many men that Gonzalez has favors owned to him, there are the same number of men who hate his guts. Whizz has got several of the men in agreement. We take him out, and they’ll back off. Also, your father phoned me. There’s a group of men who want to take their businesses back from Gonzalez. Gonzalez went to them offering them a better deal and then took what they had, hurting them. Women started to turn up dead as he took what they weren’t prepared to offer. Girls, boys, and women, they were all found dead at some point. Men are no long prepared to take the fall for a man who won’t do shit to help anyone. They want him gone, and they’ve sided with us. We can start to get ahead. Gonzalez has f**ked with too many people to get where he is, and now they want him dead.”