by Penny Dee
“Now, just relax,” she said, leaning forward and hitting some of the buttons on the ultrasound machine.
“Thanks for doing this,” I said softly.
“I take it this wasn’t planned?”
I shook my head.
“And I’m hazarding a guess that it’s bad timing.”
“Boy, you’re good at this,” I said.
She smiled. “Practice. I’ve seen that look a zillion times.”
“That’s depressing.”
Lani’s smile was warm as she looked at the screen of grey shadows in front of her.
“Listen, if we all waited for better timing, then it would never happen.” She gave me an empathetic look. “I’ve seen that handsome man of yours. Seen the way he looks at you. The love in his eyes. I think those baby blues of his are going to sparkle even brighter when he finds out he is going to be a daddy.”
Love flared through me when I thought about Cade and our baby, and the tears welling in my eyes finally spilled down my cheek.
Our baby.
I looked at Lani. “Am I pregnant?”
She winked and hit another button on the ultrasound machine, and suddenly the whop whop whop of my baby’s heartbeat filled the little cubicle.
“That’s a big yes,” she said with a grin.
I felt both dazed and elated at the same time, mesmerized by the rhythmic thump filling my ears.
Our baby.
But then I thought of Mirabella and Jacob. And then Isaac, Freebird, Irish, and Tex, and my heart sank. This couldn’t have come at a worst time. The club was under attack and Cade was distracted. He didn’t need another thing to worry about.
“Here,” Lani said, handing me a print-out of the sonogram. Again, my heart flip-flopped and my spirits lifted when I saw the image on the paper. Nestled deep inside me, a new life was beginning to take shape.
Lani winked at me and gave me a reassuring smile. “I have a feeling everything is going to be just perfect. You and that honey of yours are going to make wonderful parents.”
I had no doubt Cade was going to be an incredible father.
But was now the right time to tell him?
I finished my shift three hours later and went home, mentally exhausted from the should I or shouldn’t I question pushing and pulling against my brain.
Running a bubble bath, I stripped off and sank into the warm water, breathing in the heady scent of soap as I tried to still my mind from all the chaos taking place inside.
Tonight I would tell Cade about the baby.
I had made up my mind.
He needed to know.
CADE
Bull called Chapel, and when he did, everyone was expected to attend, no matter how short the notice.
When everyone was settled, he filled them in on our meeting with Churchill and the assurance he gave us that it wasn’t related to any of the clubs he and the Southern Sons were affiliated with. But he left out Churchill’s warning about it being personal, because bringing it up would only lead to wild speculation. Distrust was already shimmering beneath the surface, and left to get out of hand, cracks would form within the ranks of the club and we could slowly break apart.
We couldn’t afford for brother to turn against brother.
But I knew that once chapel was over, Bull would turn his investigation inwards, and he would start looking into every King and their family.
Toward the end of chapel, we discussed Jacob’s funeral. Because of the FBI investigation surrounding Mirabella, Irish, and Isaac’s deaths, his body hadn’t been released. Mrs. Stephen’s was making funeral arrangements in the meantime. Jacob had spent his childhood bouncing between foster homes and didn’t have any other family, other than Mirabella and the club. With Mirabella gone, Mrs. Stephens was in charge of the arrangements. His coffin was already in Picasso’s shop.
Just as Bull called an end to chapel, his phone rang, and when the tone and subject of the conversation became obvious to everyone in the room, we all paid close attention. Finally Bull closed his phone and grinned.
“That was Viper up in Kansas. Said he and Barney got some intel from an informant. Said they knew about some scumbag claiming to have killed a couple of Kings down south, including an old lady. They got an address and paid him a visit.” Bull paused, and even though I couldn’t see through the sunglasses, I was could tell he was looking at his brothers gathered around the table. “Asshole got himself all beat up, courtesy of Viper and the B-man. Ended up confessing to the whole thing. Isaac. Irish. Mirabella.” He grinned and pounded his fist against the table. “Goddamn confessed to all of it.”
The room rumbled as the gathered men banged on the table, stomped their feet and cheered. But despite the celebratory vibe in the air, Bull warned us to keep our heads.
“Let’s not start pulling each others’ dicks,” he cautioned. “Until we know if this guy is legit, we’re still in lockdown.”
“What do you think, Bull? You think it sounds genuine?” Elias asked.
“Viper sounded confident. Said he knew details only the killer would know. But I won’t be convinced until I look the asshole in the eyes and ask him myself.” He turned to Elias, Cool Hand, and Grunt. “You three get an early night. We leave for Kansas first thing.”
I clenched my fists. I didn’t feel like celebrating. My lust for revenge was as strong as the day Isaac had died, and I wanted nothing more than to come face to face with the man who murdered him.
“I’ll go,” I said. My eyes remained firm on my clenched fists in front of me.
“You’ve got an old lady in lockdown,” Bull said.
“She has the entire MC protecting her and a security detail that won’t leave her side,” I replied. And it was true. There would be no way in hell I’d leave if I didn’t think she would be safe while I was gone. This development sounded genuine. Bull had said it himself, the scumbag knew things only the killer would know. I didn’t want to fuck around. I wanted to make sure that our MC justice was delivered hard, fast, and lethally.
“Let him go, I’ll make sure Indy is safe,” Elias said. He turned to me and gave me a nod. “You go and do what you gotta do. Take care of business for Isaac.”
I returned the nod. That was settled. I would leave for Kansas in the morning.
I wanted to unleash some family justice on the man responsible for Isaac’s death.
And tomorrow I planned to do just that.
INDY
I was still in the bathtub when Cade arrived home. I heard the rumble of his motorcycle, heard him talking to one of the guys from the security detail he had tailing me, then heard the pounding of his boots as he climbed the staircase to the second floor.
When he found me in the bathroom, he took one look at me in the bathtub and his eyebrow went up, a lascivious look heating his face as his eyes focused in on my naked, wet breasts. I watched with sudden arousal as he removed his cut and lifted the hem of his t-shirt, revealing a body that was pure man. He kicked off his boots and I watched, spellbound by the ripple and curve of his abdominal muscles as they flexed and deepened with every move he made.
“Does this mean you’re joining me?” I asked, the muscles between my thighs clenching at the site of him undoing his belt buckle and pulling off his jeans.
He threw me a heated look. “In a big way, baby.” He removed his boxer briefs, his semi-erect cock coming into view. Even at half-mast, it was impressive. And I watched with hungry eyes as it moved and dipped as he walked toward me.
Again, the muscles between my thighs throbbed and pulsed with a need to feel that delicious cock nestled deep inside.
Climbing in, he slopped water over the sides as he eased his big body into the soapy water. Using his phenomenal strength, he pulled me over to him until I was straddling his hips and my very ready pussy was pressed up against the hard ridge of his now fully erect cock. Without words, I took him in my hands, and spurred on by the moan that fell from his wet lips, guided him into me, moaning with th
e delectable feeling of being filled with so much man.
Our bath was luxuriously large, which was just as well, because my man was huge, and even with so much space, I still only had just enough room to fit my knees comfortably on either side of him as I rode him.
“Fuck, baby, you’re so fucking beautiful,” he said roughly, running his wet hands over my breasts. He was breathing hard and his brows were drawn in with pleasure as I slowly moved my hips over his, my pussy stroking and clenching around his cock.
I was driven on by the fierce masculinity of him and the idea that he had planted his baby inside me. I trailed my fingers down his powerful chest and over the bumps and grooves of his abdominals, making him flinch and clench beneath my touch. He smiled and it was devastating. White teeth. Dimples. I bent my head down and kissed him, drinking in his beautiful smile, my tongue plunging deep into his mouth, shamelessly desperate and needy to possess all of him. Slowly, I rocked against him, and my orgasm began to unfurl deep within my belly, and I moaned against his lips, pulling away to straighten. Using his shoulders for balance, I rode him faster, his gloriously hard cock hitting all the delicious nerves and building the hunger in me. My head fell back as my climax overpowered me and I cried out, my moans echoing around the bathroom as I pulsed and came all over Cade’s cock.
I stilled, my body quaking above him as the last lingering sensations of my orgasm slowly eddied away.
“Damn, baby, you look amazing when you come,” Cade rasped. I felt his pulse throb inside of me, and when my sensitivity eased and I could move against him without jolting and flinching, I slowly started to ride him again. I’d taken my orgasm, now I was going to watch him as I gave him his. I licked my lips and he watched my tongue slide across my mouth, his breathing coming quicker as I rolled my hips slowly over his, my pussy caressing him, my inner muscles clenching and releasing, stroking him, driving him toward the madness of coming. His big hands found my hips and took command of my thrusts. He groaned, his brows drawn in, his breath coming in pants as he continued to grind me back and forth over him. Powerful waves of pleasure rolled through me, sending me toppling over the edge again, and my second orgasm crashed into the crescendo of his first. We both cried out, our bodies working furiously together until the tension in us burst into flame and we came in unison.
I collapsed against him, utterly spent, and enjoyed the thunderous thumping of his heartbeat against my cheek. He reached up and guided my face to his, and kissed me tenderly, his lips moving leisurely over mine, his fingers pressing into my jaw as he held me to him.
When our breathing leveled and our heartbeats eased, I settled against him again and enjoyed the calmness and comfort of his tender fingers as they trailed up and down my bare back.
“I love you,” I murmured. Then I thought of our baby and I smiled against his warm, naked chest.
“And I love you, angel,” he replied, his deep and masculine voice echoing around the bathroom.
I sat up. It was time to let him know he was going to be a father. I moved and felt him leave my body as I eased across the bath to sit opposite him. The water had cooled, so I turned on the faucet until the water was warmer.
“I’ve got something to tell you,” I said, the butterflies in my stomach taking flight.
“Me, too,” he said. And I was momentarily distracted by him as he washed cum from his cock. It was still hard and impressive.
“What?” I asked, surprised.
His cock disappeared under a layer of soapy bubbles.
“I’m heading up to Kansas City tomorrow. We’re leaving early in the morning.”
“Kansas City?”
“A couple of Kings ran into a tweaker who bragged about killing a couple of Mississippi Kings and an old lady.”
“You think it’s genuine?”
He placed his hands over the rim of the bath and hauled his large body into a more upright position. “We’re going to check it out. It could be. They said he knew a lot of the details. It’s worth checking it out.”
“And if it is?”
His face darkened. “Then I’m going to kill him.”
I didn’t tell him about the baby.
After hearing about his planned visit to Kansas City, the timing didn’t seem right.
So I spent the night with him, silently holding my secret close to my chest, occasionally smiling to myself when I thought about the tiny life growing inside of me. When he got back from Kansas I would tell him.
After dinner, he took me to our bed and made love to me again with an exquisite tenderness. He moved slowly into me, his bulk blanketing me as his mouth and tongue devoured me. He made me tremble with sensation and cry out with pleasure, and somewhere in the back of my mind there was a whisper urging me to tell him about the baby.
But I didn’t.
We fell asleep in one another’s arms, naked and warm, but at eleven o’clock my phone rang, pulling us out of our restful sleep. It was the hospital. Two of the doctors rostered on to work had come down with a bad case of the flu and they needed me to go in.
“Let me drive you,” Cade urged, his voice husky with sleep.
“I will call the security guys. They can follow me.” I kissed him and he wrapped his arms around me. “Plus, you’re leaving early. You need your sleep.”
“I don’t like you leaving so late,” he said.
I kissed his jaw. “I’ll have security with me the whole way.”
He murmured. “I’ll ring them. I want to make sure they see you inside the hospital. What time does your shift end?”
“They only need me until five.”
While I showered and dressed, Cade organized the security detail.
“I’ve told them to make sure they collect you from inside the hospital when you finish,” he said.
I crawled across his body to kiss him goodbye.
“Don’t worry, baby. I’m perfectly safe.”
CADE
I was supposed to leave early but I wanted to see Indy before I left. I didn’t know what was going to happen in Kansas City and I needed to know my queen was behind me in what I was about to do.
I arrived at the hospital a little before dawn. Laura, the cute little blonde receptionist, gave me a smile as I walked through the sliding doors, and when I gave her a nod and a smile, she got all coy on me.
“How you doin’, Laura? Looks like a quiet night.” I glanced around the near-empty waiting room. “You keeping busy with your crosswords?”
She held up the crossword from the paper and smiled sweetly. “Keeps me honest,” she said with a shy smile.
I winked at her and her cheeks went a shade of pink.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. “I thought you’d be taking Indy to breakfast by now.”
“That’s exactly why I’m here, sweetheart. I’m going to take my girl for breakfast as soon as she’s finished.”
Laura looked confused. “She finished an hour or so ago. It’s been quiet, so Dr. Burdett told her to clock out an hour early.”
“Are you sure? Her car is still in the parking lot.”
“Yeah, I’m sure. She said goodbye as she walked out those doors.”
Alarm was a slow tingle at the base of my spine.
“Maybe you’re mistaken, darlin’. Want to check with some of the other staff in the ER? Make sure she hasn’t been called into an emergency or something?”
“Sure thing, Cade. But apart from a couple of split eyebrows from a college brawl, we haven’t had an emergency come in for a few hours,” she said as she picked up the phone.
As I waited for her to talk to someone still in the ER, something began to take hold of me. If Indy had finished an hour ago and her car was still in the parking lot, then something had happened to her and she was missing. When I’d phoned the security detail to let them know I was picking her up, they didn’t say anything about her finishing early. As far as they knew, they were still due to pick her up at five.
Laura put the phone down
. “Sorry, Cade, but Indy definitely clocked off just under an hour ago. No one has seen her since she left.”
Fear stormed through me.
Indy was missing.
INDY
I finished work early. It was a quiet night, and apart from a couple of kids with a few scrapes and scratches from a drunken brawl outside The Suds Bar, not much was going on in the ER.
I knew I should call Cade and the security detail. But it was just after four in the morning and I knew he had a long ride ahead of him, so I decided to surprise him by slipping into bed next to him and showing him just how much I was going to miss him while he was in Kansas.
It was a stupid mistake.
A stupid, stupid mistake.
Walking to my car, I was too caught up in other things to really notice what was going on around me. By the time I recognized the sweet pungency of chloroform, it was too late. Within seconds, I was plummeted into darkness.
When I came to, I was on a bed, my hands shackled to the headboard. I was blindfolded, but it was a little too high, so if I tipped my head back I could see a small sliver of my surroundings. I was in a room, a bedroom, perhaps, and it was still and dim, the only source of light was a small curtained window to my left.
That was when it hit me. I had been kidnapped and I was now a prisoner.
My instinct for survival kicked in and I began to struggle against the binds around my wrists. The bed shook and rattled against the wall as I twisted and jerked on the mattress, tugging on the ropes that held me prisoner. When that failed to work, I started to yell. I started to yell for my damn life. And that of my baby.
Almost immediately, the door burst open and a blurred shadow rushed toward the bed.
“Please, I’m pregnant . . .” I rasped.
“I don’t give a fuck,” came a growl.