by V. Theia
“Love you, Icy.” He said into her lips, feeling them stretch apart with a smile. She wound around him like a sloth. He’d clean her up in a second and tuck her into him again so she could drop into sleep.
“Sixteen days, hubby-to-be.”
It couldn’t come soon enough for him.
SIX
“Mini Prez on board.” – Rider
Wedding: T-minus 15 days.
It was the wheezing noises which brought Rider out of sleep.
He always slept up against Zara’s back with his face in her hair.
Sometimes he held his tinier woman tighter than intended to, and she’d elbow him in the ribs and accuse him of being a boa constrictor. That wasn’t the case this morning.
The cough-wheezing was coming from Zara, and then she woke herself by sneezing.
“Dammit,” she groaned.
“You okay, Icy?”
“Ugh. I feel like death.”
Frowning, Rider moved his hand to her forehead, and sure enough, she was burning up. Cupping her cheek, he waited for her to turn around. She appeared flushed, her eyes a little opaque as she burrowed into his chest. “I think you sexed a cold into me, honey.” She joked. He chuckled, kissing her warm face.
“I have many talents, but I don’t carry the flu in my dick. Were you feeling sick last night?”
“No, just tired, but that’s wedding prep for you. Something always needs checking and double-checking.”
“You’re supposed to be letting your mom see to it.”
She snorted and then started coughing. “It would be bigger than it is if I didn’t keep her in check. I already had to nix fifty people from coming from Dad’s firm.”
From listening to conversations, Rider had an inkling of how big his wedding was becoming. Long as Zara turned up, he wasn’t bothered about the details. Though paying for a bunch of Boston attorneys to eat his steak wasn’t something he’d have chosen.
“Don’t worry, biker-man.” She patted his bare chest, “there won’t be lawyers at our wedding. I wanted an intimate ceremony, and she’s making it into a clown circus.”
“You want me to talk to her?”
“I can handle it.”
Another round of coughing, Rider slid out of bed. Zara moved to do the same, and he stopped her. “You stay there.”
“I need to pee, Rider!”
He chuckled and let her go to the bathroom but ushered her right back into their bed.
“You realize those three kids you put in me will be awake soon and demanding food?” She argued, sitting her blonde-self up against the headboard.
A brow arched. “I’m capable of slopping food into a bowl. You get some more rest, and I’ll bring up some meds for you to take.”
“Rider, I’m fine. It’s only a little sniffle, nothing to keep me in bed.”
The fever and hacking cough told him differently.
“There’s too much to do for me to waste time in bed.”
“You’ll keep your butt there.”
“And you have to go into the club.”
Leaning over the bed, he pressed his lips to her forehead, and she sighed into him. “If you’re a good girl, I’ll bring up something sweet soon.”
On cue, one of the boys started wailing, which kicked off the other one. Any second now, Harper would let herself out of her room and run to theirs, demanding cartoons, and toaster waffles.
“Already gave me something sweet last night,” she grinned.
“Don’t be giving me dick jokes, woman.” He smirked dirty, proud of her, slipping into a pair of denim jeans and a gray t-shirt. “Lie back and get some rest.”
“Okay,” he knew she was sick when she gave in so quickly. She was tucked in and almost asleep before he carted both boys downstairs with Harper hanging onto his leg.
Leaving them in highchairs, Rider ran back up to feed Zara the meds, then let her fall back to sleep. Then gave his mom a call about babysitting. Afterward, he got food into his rambunctious kids. He wasn’t a novice dad. Rider did his share, Zara did the bulk of it, but he never shirked from diapers or snot noses. He’d witnessed Harper in more than one meltdown over something damn stupid. She was smart, was his girl. So when he watched her poking at the waffles on her plate, he smiled to himself. “Eat it, doodle-bug, don’t play with it.”
“Mama does yello.”
“What jello do you want?”
“Gwape.”
“Grape what?”
She smiled so big with the few teeth she had. “Gwape, please, Papa.”
Spreading the waffle with the jello of choice, he made sure Knox was eating his food and not smearing it on his face before he parked his ass down with Zane on his lap and popped a bottle of breast milk into Zane’s mouth. The kid had an appetite like Rider, and it was empty in moments. His second son burped like him and was napping with a fresh diaper before Annie turned up.
When it was Rider’s turn to shower, after getting Harper ready for the day, he leaned over the bed to check on a sleeping Zara. She came awake when his lips brushed hers, and she wound her arms around his neck. “Hm. Why don’t you climb back in?” She was like a snake wiggling against him, and it stirred his body. Naturally.
“Being sick gets you horny.” He chuckled, getting more meds into her. She was worse than Harper who hated taking medicine. He almost had to pinch her nose.
“I’ll show you how much if you pull down your pants.”
Rider barked out a laugh and kissed her softly again, drawing up the comforter to the chin. “Get some rest, and we’ll see how horny you are tonight.”
Her sleepy eyes were already closing. “Yeah, honey. Love you.”
“Love you too, stay in this bed, you hear? Mom is taking Harper and Zane home. Knox is coming with me. If you want anything, just call me.”
He was a bad man because he was dying to climb back into bed with her and screw the sickness away. He gave her another kiss and let his woman sleep, then ambled down the stairs, got the kids’ stuff ready, and helped them into his mom’s car. Leaving him and Knox alone.
“Never too early to learn how to be a Prez, huh, Son?” His son babbled, chewing on his toy. Rider smiled, kissing his head. “Let’s get to the club.” He took his son’s gibbering for agreement.
* * *
“No fucking way.”
Another brother chimed in. “Maybe Zara was mistaken, Prez.”
“Maybe so, but I ain’t gonna let my old lady be scared out of her fuckin’ mind. She saw what she saw, and now I need to know if some fucker has reincarnated the assholes.” Rider thought someone must have shoved a firecracker into his ribs for all the heat, temper, and anger he was feeling. It wasn’t as though his boys disbelieved her word, but he wouldn’t trust them as he did if they didn’t question every angle first.
He still wasn’t sure if Zara saw what she did, but now he needed to be sure that she didn’t.
“Grinder, can you put some feelers out?”
“Sure, Prez. We going widespread with it, or local?”
“The guy was in Denver, but go further afield to make sure. I’m gonna reach out to Jamie Steele and see if he’s heard anything about the Rebels reanimating.”
“What a fucking thought.” Added Preacher, stroking his long, pointed beard, “not like they had a good rep even when Hades was around. People gotta be cracked in the head to think that’s a good idea.”
They’d known a lot of cracked in the head people, so he wasn’t ruling it out.
“Prez,” called out Reaper from the other end of the table, all eyes turned toward the ghost, “what happens if the Rebels are resurrected? New leader, recruits, nothing to do with Hades.”
“Far as I’m concerned, the sins of the father will follow generation after generation. Don’t care if they don’t know Hades personally. If they have a fangirl hard-on to follow in his footsteps, but they toe the line, they’re guilty by association.”
There were a few grumbles of agreement around
the table.
Rider locked eyes with an ashen-faced Snake.
They’d never spoken directly about the Rebels raid years ago, but Rider heard second-hand from Lawless how affected Snake had been by the killings.
Whatever Rider did, it wouldn’t fall on his brother’s shoulders, not this time.
He spoke up. “I’ll deal with whatever we find. Not gonna let some wannabes walk around scaring my old lady, not happening again.”
“They’ve slipped under our radar if there is a new chapter emerging,” said Tag. “But you got back up here, Prez.”
He was grateful, but this was his to deal with. He hadn’t been able to kill Hades, wasn’t gonna let his woman suffer from anxiety over this.
Being the prez meant he was the one who made the shitty decisions. He’d ask nothing of his boys he wasn’t willing to do himself.
He called the meeting to a close and went to collect his boy from Winter, who was watching him while he held church. He found his son throwing out the snores on her lap.
On cue, Knox came awake when he was in Rider’s arms. He might only be two, but he was a nosy kid hanging over Rider’s shoulder collecting tiny fist-bumps from everyone. His boy erupted into laughter like he thought it was the best shit ever.
“You ready to eat again, kiddo?”
“Yeahhhhh, Papa, nuggo’s,” Knox said enthusiastically, grabbing handfuls of Rider’s hair.
He could have asked one of the hangarounds to knock up a plate of food for Knox, but he was gonna kill two birds with one stone by going to the diner to meet Jamie Steele.
Two president heads were better than one.
SEVEN
“The agreement of Prez’s.” - Jamie Steele
The Apollo Kingsmen boss had been waiting twenty minutes when Rider and mini-Rider strode into the diner. The kid let go of his father’s hand and headed to the counter on little legs, and started thumping it to get attention.
Jamie grinned, watching.
It was another minute when Rider plonked the kid in a highchair and reached across the table to slap his hand. “How’s it going, Jamie?”
“Can’t complain. You’re training them young these days.”
Rider half-grinned, taking his seat as the server came to drop off a mug of coffee and to refill Jamie’s now empty cup. “Zara’s sick, so I’m carting this one around with me. We can talk, but I gotta make sure my kid has some food first, or he’ll scream the place down.”
“I might have to remind him of this moment one day when he’s the Souls president. The day I watched him shoving chicken fingers in his mouth.”
“And where’s your sidekick today? Didn’t know the Velcro detached you two.”
Jamie snickered and inhaled the coffee steam. He was so tired needing the boost. “Amos is at the club, probably sleeping off a bender. Your call came when I was about to head home to sleep for a week.”
“Been busy?”
“You could say.”
His chop-shop was going from strength to strength but kept him out at all hours. Because of his close alliance with Rider and his Souls, he was able to use their ports to transport his goods across to Europe. Plus, he’d been to a few rallies down south lately, then sorting out shit with a chapter and then boosting funds into another chapter, so it didn’t go belly up. It was only in recent years he’d been able to make a profit from his club endeavors. His father, the then president, was more about fighting, fucking and taking drugs than making a buck. Jamie wanted hard-working businesses. He could fuck any other time, but his dick wasn’t earning him money.
When Rider’s kid got stuck into a plate of chicken fingers and carrots, Jamie asked Rider. “Has your place been hit with more cop focus?”
“Let me guess,” Rider smirked. “Officer Fielding?”
“Blonde bit, massive attitude?” Rider confirmed. “Yeah, that’s her. She’s come by my club five times like she wants to audition for a hangaround, pulling my boys over.”
“Yeah, I think she’s been taking lessons from that FED we had sniffing around a while back. She has a killer hard-on to make Chief of Police, I think. We have an inkling she’s on the mayor’s payroll. Wouldn’t worry too much about it.”
“It’s fucking annoying. She tailed Amos to the ports the other night; he had to double back.”
“The mayor tries to hit the MC’s every few years around election time to make it look good. His shit stinks worse than ours does, so he’ll bring his little sheepdog into line if I have to make him.” Jamie smirked. Cops would always come after MC’s, they were an easy target, or so they thought. He wasn’t dumb enough to leave anything to chance. One of the first things he’d implemented as president was to siphon all their money into legitimate businesses. Not like they were advertising about getting rid of enemies. Amos could dig a grave and never have it discovered, call it a skill. His VP was a lunatic with that shit. He used his magic potion, as he called it, which dissolved bones and DNA.
“My reason for the call is,” Rider went on, “have you heard anything about the Rebels’ rebranding?”
Jamie blinked. “Huh? Not a thing. No one even talks about those assholes anymore. It’s like Hades and crew never existed.”
“There was a sighting in Denver city the other day, a guy wearing the insignia on the back of his leather jacket.”
“Did he have a cut?”
“Unsure.”
“Might be something he bought from the Goodwill. A sour old lady selling her old man’s shit to make room for her new fella.”
“I considered that.”
“Who in their right mind would wanna start up the Rebels again? They only had one chapter, right?”
“Far as we know. My boys did months of searches and came up with nothing. Hades was too lazy to branch out. He wanted all the glory for himself.”
Jamie snorted. “He might as well have been running a pig pen for all the good that club of his was. Some of his guys had the brass balls to try to join my ranks.” Then added, “so you think this sighting is on the money?”
“My gut says yes. We’re looking into it now. If you hear anything…”
“Sure, man. I’ll keep you in the loop if I learn something new. We hated them as much as you guys did. The best thing about them going boom was there was no one else to work a deal with the Mexican’s. Ruiz is desperate to have another MC to help move his drugs.”
“One problem at a time,” laughed Rider, wiping food from his kid’s face.
Jamie loved his sister’s kids, could see Sebastian and Tanner joining the Kingsmen ranks one day. It was only recently he realized he wanted to be a father, but he needed an old lady first.
The pair continued to discuss shit for the next twenty minutes.
What he knew of Rider Marinos was he was fair, if you were fair with him. The pair often shared info when it suited both their MC’s. Allies stood side by side. They weren’t best friends who shared everything but the Rebels stepped on both their toes in the past. Hades had been that annoying dick rot no medicine could clear up. If they were coming back from the dead, Jamie wanted to know about it.
He stayed in the diner a while longer, flirting with the new waitress until he’d gotten the shy girl’s number and a promise of a date that night.
Then, instead of heading home for much-needed sleep, he went back to the club, where he shared the conversation with his VP.
Understandably, his lunatic friend wanted to hunt and kill.
Only the few knew Amos had a lousy history with the Rebels. Hades’ men had kidnapped, raped, and murdered his sister. If anyone had enough motivation to find out if one of those rats had survived Rider’s firebomb lesson, it was Amos.
Christ, it was hours still before Jamie got his head down at his house.
A warm body against his ribs meant he didn’t sleep alone that night.
EIGHT
“We might not wear a cut, but the old ladies are every bit as loyal.” – Zara
Wedding
: T-minus 14 days.
“You should have called us, babe. We would have been here for you.”
The sentiment went around Zara’s living room as five women looked on as she told them what happened in Denver.
“I wasn’t around to see for myself how bad the Raging Rebels MC was, but Beau has told me enough, and they sound vile,” Winter spoke, sipping her green tea.
On the other couch was Luxe nursing her son. If anyone thought for a second motherhood would change their Latina friend, they were mistaken. She was as temperamental, outspoken, and brilliant as ever. She was even back working part-time, doing her light-fingered thing for Jamie Steele, only a month after she gave birth to Dax.
“I heard stuff about them when I first started going to Jamie’s club. So they’re back?”
“Probably just my imagination.”
“Don’t do that, babe.” Poppy soothed, sitting closest to Zara. She rubbed Zara’s leg, “we’re all here for you, even if it’s just to swear and have shots.”
“I could go for some shots.” Said Roux. “Do we need to dump the kids on the men?”
Zara laughed.
She loved these women. If one was worrying, then they all worried.
Going up on her knees, she leaned over the coffee table and offered a plate of freshly baked cookies, thanks to Annie. “Let’s save the shots for this weekend, or I won’t be able to cook dinner tonight.”
“Bachelorette party!”
“I can’t drink, anyway.” Groused Luxe, stroking Dax’s milk coma face. “This boob feeding crap sucks. He eats worse than Nathan does.”
Paige piped in, grinning as she played with the end of her pink braid. “I can’t wait for the strippers. I hope they’re hung like elephants.”
“We are not having strippers. I’d die.” Gasped Zara.
“We’ll see,” smirked Roux.
Zara dashed worried eyes to Gia, her maid of honor and the woman in charge of the bachelorette party. She wasn’t comforted at all when Gia grinned and shrugged a shoulder. Oh, jeez.