As we walked back to the clubhouse, I tried to imagine what our lives would have been like if I’d told him when I was pregnant with Trix and Draco. Five years ago, we’d been in completely different places in our lives. He’d been newly patched into the club, and I’d been running as fast as I could. Who knows if we would have been able to make it work?
I had no doubts now. We’d been through more than most couples dealt with in their entire lives, and we’d survived. I couldn’t picture the rest of my life anywhere but by his side, raising our babies, and ignoring the sideways looks we’d get from the outside world.
Chapter 32
Dragon
Brenna and I were walking back to the clubhouse the night of my party when a car came up the drive, swerving and spitting gravel. We were pretty close to the doorway of the club, so I called out to the boys inside as I pulled Brenna behind me.
I didn’t recognize the car as it pulled to a stop about fifty feet away from us, but the chick who climbed out looked familiar. It was starting to get dark outside, but I could see her face just fine, and she was pissed. She was tiny, even smaller than Brenna, and she had pitch-black hair that was cut to her chin in front but shorter in the back. I glanced down her body, but I couldn’t see much as she yelled and raised one of her arms around, waving what looked like a pistol in the air.
Before I could push Brenna toward the door, brothers came rushing out in a wave into the yard, taking in the scene quickly. I felt Brenna jerk behind me as the woman looked at us and pointed her gun our way.
“You fucking dick!” she screamed. “Where the fuck is my brother?”
I was about to yell back at her that I didn’t know what the fuck she was talking about when Grease took a step forward, so we were standing almost shoulder-to-shoulder.
“The fuck are you doing here, Callie? You’re outta your goddamn mind!” he yelled back, walking toward her.
“What did you do with my brother?” she yelled again, retreating a little every time Grease took a step forward until her back was against the side of her car.
I could feel Brenna shaking behind me with every step closer that Grease got to the woman with the weapon.
“Your brother’s fine. Now, put that fuckin’ thing away before you get your ass shot,” Grease told her calmly as he reached her and pulled the weapon from her hand. “Fuckin’ idiot. What did you think you were gonna do with a fuckin’ Taser in a clubhouse surrounded by armed men?” he asked as he dropped the black thing to the ground.
All the boys in the forecourt breathed a sigh of relief. None of us wanted to take out a woman, but nobody moved.
As soon as the Taser hit the ground, she went batshit fuckin’ crazy. She was swinging her fists and her legs, intent on hitting Grease anywhere she could reach. He grabbed her around the waist, but she didn’t stop. I could see her trying to bite him, and I winced as she got a hold of a good chunk in his shoulder. That had to fuckin’ hurt.
I couldn’t understand what she was yelling about, but I could hear Grease just fine, and the way he was talkin’ to her made me wonder where the fuck I’d seen her before.
“It’s okay, baby. He’s fine. He’s fine. It’s okay. Shhh,” he told her softly as her struggles finally ceased, and she went limp in his arms, her mouth falling off his shoulder where her teeth marks had caused blood to run down his chest. “Fuck, baby, what were you fuckin’ thinkin’?”
I shook my head and turned Brenna toward the clubhouse. I knew the crazy bitch from somewhere, but I wasn’t gonna waste time trying to figure it out. Grease could take care of it. I had more important shit to do, like making up for lost time with my woman.
Epilogue
Brenna
My pregnancy went really well. I didn’t have any of the problems with this baby that I’d had with the twins. My blood pressure stayed steady, my hips didn’t ache, and my feet didn’t swell. The doctors told me it was the difference between carrying twins and a single baby, but I thought it was Dragon.
He still went on runs, and when he did, Casper stayed with us. Tony was no longer a threat, but Dragon didn’t want us home alone for an entirely new reason. I didn’t know if it was the baby’s uneasy beginning, our history with the twins, or just Dragon’s overprotectiveness, but he wouldn’t leave until he knew someone was going to be around the house. It drove Slider crazy, but I loved it. I loved that he was taking care of us. I never felt stifled or annoyed. I felt protected, cherished.
We’d wanted to find out the sex. I was too anxious to wait, but every ultrasound had been a bust. I’d been really annoyed. I’d wanted to start planning early, but Dragon just laughed when we never got a clear indication either way. I thought he was just relieved that the baby was healthy. We never fought about things even though I knew half the time I was being a total bitch. Dragon would just shake his head at me like I was crazy and go on doing whatever he was doing at the time.
It wasn’t until I decided I would try to have the baby naturally, rather than a C-section, that Dragon put his foot down. He’d sat with me during the consultation when the doctor gave us all of the worst-case scenarios, and he was pissed as hell that I was willing to take any chances. The fight went on for weeks, but it finally came to a head when I was about seven months along.
“Brenna, there is no fuckin’ way that I’m gonna let you put yourself in danger just because you wanna commune with motherfuckin’ nature or whatever the hell it is you got in your head,” he told me one night as we were lying in bed.
“They can get the baby out in like sixty seconds if something goes wrong. The chances of anything happening are slim. Baby, seriously, they know what they’re doing.” I laid my head on his chest and traced my finger over where he’d gone in and had Trix’s star enlarged on his Orion’s Belt tattoo.
“They give you all of these things they say could go wrong, make you sign a fuckin’ paper that says you’re not gonna sue them, and you don’t see nothin’ wrong with that?” He shook his head. “You’re not doin’ it, baby. You’re havin’ a fuckin’ C-section, like they advised you to fuckin’ do. Not gonna lose you. End of story.”
And that was that. I’d been willing to give him the peace of mind that he needed. It wasn’t like I’d been looking forward to hours of labor anyway. I’d just have to let my fears of another C-section go.
So, there I was, lying in an operating room, surrounded by doctors and nurses, waiting for them to cut me open and get our child out. I didn’t sleep last night because I was too anxious, but when we got out of bed this morning, I was completely calm. I could do this.
My arms were strapped to the table by my head, and it was scary, but Dragon was there holding my hand. His face was covered with a surgical mask, and he was dressed in scrubs, the sleeves so tight around his chest and biceps that he looked like a stripper. All he needed was a stethoscope and a boom box. The thought made me smile.
“How you doin’, Little Mama?” he asked me quietly, his face close to mine.
The doctors were speaking around us, but it felt like we were in our own little world.
“I’m okay. I’m ready for this to be over,” I whispered back as I felt them tugging on my torso. I didn’t know if they had already cut me, and I was trying not to pay attention to what they were doing on the other side of the little curtain.
“You’re doin’ so good, baby.” He brushed the curls that had escaped my ponytail out of my face. “It’s almost ov—”
His words were cut off by the screaming of an infant, and he immediately raised his head over the curtain.
“Hey, Daddy, you want to let Mom know what she’s got?” my doctor asked with a smile in her voice.
I looked around, trying to get a glimpse of anything, when Dragon’s face leaned back down over mine.
“Thank God. Another fuckin’ dick in the house. Gettin’ tired of all those fuckin’ Barbies,” he told me, a huge grin on his face. “We got a boy, Mama.”
The doctors were rushing aroun
d us, and tears were running down the sides of my face as a little wrapped bundle was set in Dragon’s arms. He was no longer crying. He was asleep. I could barely see his face, and the doctors were still working on me on the other side of the curtain, but I was completely content in this moment.
“You did good, baby,” Dragon told me as he pushed down his mask, a tender look in his eyes. “Now, give your man a kiss.”
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Epilogue
Prologue
Callie
I’d gotten a call from my baby brother almost three months earlier, telling me he’d been shot, but not to worry. Who did he think he was talking to? I’d been taking care of him since the day they brought him home from the hospital—that wasn’t likely to stop just because he was doing God knows what in some town in Oregon. I’d never stop worrying about what was going on with him, just like he’d never stop standing between me and the world. That was why he was in this mess in the first place—why he gave up his education at one of the most prestigious universities in the country and joined a motorcycle club—leaving me all alone.
I hadn’t had any say in the matter. He’d left with Asa that day a year ago and I’d been too wrapped up with holding myself together to be able to stop it. I’d been such a mess—in shock and trying to figure out how it all had played out the way it had. But I was no longer that broken girl who allowed herself to be patted on the head and told that everything was going to be okay. I was going to bring my brother home, no matter what I had to do.
When I pulled up to the gate, there was a man leaning against the fence outside. When he saw me, his shoulders stiffened for a minute before relaxing again as if he wasn’t overly concerned about what I was doing there. That was his first mistake. Then he grinned at me, checking me out and staring at my chest as he started toward my car. That was his second mistake. His third mistake was to walk up to my window and lean in, never even glancing at my hand that rested in my lap.
If he had seen me as a threat instead of staring at my boobs, he wouldn’t have been so surprised when I pressed the Taser against his chest.
Once he was down, I got out and rolled open the gate in front of my car. I was glad, but a little baffled, that there was no lock on the gate. They must have trusted whoever was guarding the gate to keep intruders out. Their mistake.
I started back for my car, skirting around the man lying on the gravel. I wanted to just leave him there. I really did. But the light was fading, and I was afraid if I left him lying there in the middle of the driveway someone would drive right over his ass. So instead of hopping in my car and heading down the road before someone could catch me, I leaned over and grabbed both of his ankles. It took me forever to drag him to the side of the road, and by the time I got him settled he’d begun to twitch as if he was waking up. I needed to get the hell out of there.
I once again walked toward my car, grabbing his phone off the ground as I passed it. If he woke up before I got to the big house, or whatever the fuck it was called, I didn’t want him warning anyone I was coming. I didn’t need them waiting for me. The only thing I had going for me at the moment was the element of surprise.
When I pulled the car through the gate, my conscience wouldn’t let me just leave things as they were. Jesus, I needed to stop having such a freaking bleeding heart. I left my car running and quickly ran back to shut the gate before heading down the road. They weren’t going to be thankful that I knocked out their guard, but at least I didn’t leave the gate open. That had to somehow work in my favor.
When I pulled up to the huge building, I could see there was some sort of gathering going on, but it didn’t stop me. Not once did I think I should come back or wait until a better time. I was on a mission to get my brother the hell out of there and nothing was going to stop me.
I knew it was a bad idea—knew the entire trip was one step away from a clusterfuck—and as soon as I saw Asa I took that final step. I was so consumed by rage; my vision had darkened at the edges. It was his fault. All of it; from the son I had at home in some shitty worn down apartment, to the fact that my brother was living in some biker compound in the middle of goddamn nowhere ruining his life and ultimately getting shot. It could all be traced back to Asa. The bastard.
There was a couple standing outside when I pulled up, but before I could even get my rental car’s door open, the man was shouting toward the building. I couldn’t understand what he was saying over the pounding in my ears. I was finally there; I knew it from the leather vest that the man was wearing. It was almost identical to the one Asa had worn for as long as I’d known him.
I knew I looked like a crazy person, but when men started swarming out of the club, I used the only protection I had and started waving the Taser around. I was hoping they wouldn’t be able to tell what it was until I could figure out what the hell I was going to do. I hadn’t thought things through very well. I’d been so anxious to get there that the ramifications of driving into a Motorcycle Club’s compound uninvited had barely crossed my mind.
Just as I was beginning to get really scared, I saw Asa walking through the group and all the anger inside me wiped away any fear I had felt. That’s when I started screaming.
“You fucking dick!” I yelled, my voice sounding tinny and quiet in my ears, though my throat was aching with the power behind it. “Where the fuck is my brother?”
He started walking toward me, and the look on his face had me retreating. “The fuck are you doing here, Callie?” he yelled back, running his fingers through his hair. “You’re outta your goddamn mind!”
I wasn’t thinking straight. I was scared that I wouldn’t see my brother in the sea of faces before me, afraid that he hadn’t been telling the truth when he’d told me he was fine. It had taken months of eating ramen noodles to save up enough money to come get him, and I was terrified that I was too late to help him.
I was still taking backward steps toward my car as I screamed at Asa, searching
the crowd for any sign of my baby brother and finding none. He wasn’t there. Oh God, he wasn’t there.
I’d started to panic by the time Asa reached me and didn’t hear much of what he said as he pried the Taser from my fingers. My heart was so loud in my ears, and my breath was coming at such a fast pace, that I knew it was only a manner of minutes before I passed out. It had happened once before, and though I tried to beat it, I just couldn’t get enough air in my lungs. Oh God, where was Cody? Why wasn’t he there, in between me and Asa, making peace and wrapping his arms around me? He had to have heard us yelling; if he were there, he would have come for me by then.
When Asa tossed the Taser to the ground, effectively disarming me and making me completely defenseless, I snapped. Completely and utterly lost it.
I swung my fist at his face, grazing his jaw as he twisted to dodge it. I didn’t stop there, though. I was on autopilot, using every single move I knew to hurt him. I wanted him to hurt as much as I hurt. I wanted to punish him and I set out to do it with a single-minded intent that would have scared me, had I been thinking clearly. He let me hit and kick him for a few seconds before wrapping me up in his arms and lifting me off the ground. When I swung at his face again, he pressed it into my neck where I couldn’t reach, so I pounded on his back instead. My mind was completely blank beyond the need to hurt him, my throat making little sounds of distress that I wasn’t even aware of.
The harder I struggled, the gentler he became; his arms more comforting than punishing, even though I was acting like a crazy woman. When I ran out of options and my arms and legs felt like lead, I made a last ditch effort to punish him and bit down on his shoulder as hard as I could, tasting blood but refusing to let go.
His voice broke through when my body became too exhausted to fight anymore and my mind finally began to clear.