Game Changer (Hell's Saints Motorcycle Club)

by Marinaro, Paula

  I knew it was important. I knew I should find a way to ask him but I just couldn’t. So I crossed my fingers and toes and hoped for the best.

  “Okay Raine, everything looks good. Get dressed and meet me in my office.” Then the doctor was out the door.

  Well, this was new. Except for the initial meeting we had always had all our discussions in the examination room. I had a moment of panic but quickly squashed it down. Everything had looked good during the exam so I figured we would just be talking about what was to come in the next few weeks. I finished getting dressed and went to meet Dr. Gideon in his office.

  He was pouring himself a cup of coffee from the side board table in the corner of his room near his desk. When I walked in he had his back to me. Dr. Gideon turned when he saw me and instead of going around to the other side of his desk, he walked in front of it and he leaned against it. Then he took a sip of his coffee and sighed deeply.

  “Nectar of the Gods.” He said and winked at me. “Can I get you some water or juice, Raine?”

  “No thanks, Doctor.” I smiled back. Then because I was nervous, I asked him if everything was okay.

  “Oh yeah.” He nodded. “Absolutely, no worries. It all looks fine.”

  “Then why...?” I started.

  Just then the door opened. I knew it before I saw him. The way you know who is going to be on the phone when it rings or that the next card pulled from the deck is going to be the ace of hearts. I knew it was Diego entering the room.

  “Dr. Gideon.” Diego extended his hand.

  “Diego.” Dr. Gideon took his hand and shook it.

  “Hey, Raine.” Diego ignored my astonished face and sat down in the chair next to me. I was speechless and probably in shock. No, definitely in shock.

  “So I brought that family history in for you.” Diego was handing over a form to the good doctor.

  “Dr. Gideon?” I managed to croak out. Had he really gone behind my back and asked Diego for the medical history? How had he even known Diego was the father? We had never had that talk, I had carefully avoided that particular discussion.

  Dr. Gideon took in my flushed face and shaky voice and raised an eyebrow. “Raine?”

  “It’s okay babe. I called the doc here and came in and grabbed the forms.” Diego said like it was the most natural thing in the world.

  I looked at him then. It occurred to me that I had never really seen him much outside of his “element.” When we had been outside the compound, we had been on the bike, or alone or with people we had known. I had never really looked at him from the perspective of what other folks saw.

  He looked so big in the small office. His forearms hung over the arm rests of the chair he was sitting in. He was hunched forward, the worn cut screaming outlaw biker, his long dark hair tousled, and his biceps straining against the sleeves of the his white tee shirt. His jeans were clean and worn and fit him like a glove.

  He was beautiful.

  He was a beautiful dangerous man who had stolen my heart, then broken it.

  I put my hand protectively over my stomach. Diego was talking. He was talking to the doctor in earnest. And he was talking about Janey and the baby. He was talking about the stillbirth and he was handing him two pieces of paper. I was sitting in a daze and was trying hard to listen, I really was. But the voices sounded so far away.

  “Doc.” Diego was explaining. “I think these might help you. Janey’s father ordered them and because Janey had a sister who might be having babies someday, I agreed. I knew she would want to spare her sister the pain she went through if the baby’s death could be avoided with some sort of testing ….” His voice trailed off.

  The papers in Diego’s hand were the autopsy reports from Janey and their son.

  My heart broke again. But this time for him.

  Then Diego looked at me. “I’m sorry babe, I should have thought of this sooner.”

  The doctor was looking through the papers. Intently. And he was frowning.

  “I know these are old. I don’t know if they will help or not….” Diego was wringing his hands.

  I looked at them sitting in his big lap and thought dully that he was lucky he could still feel his limbs. I had stopped feeling anything the minute he had walked into the room.

  Then the doctor looked up. He refocused on us and what he saw written on Diego’s face scared him into looking at mine. Then he hurriedly spoke up.

  “No, no. Everything looks fine. There’s a lot of medical terminology here which I could put in layman’s terms for you, but basically there’s nothing here to indicate that the baby Raine is carrying would be at risk.” He smiled at us then.

  Then because Dr. Gideon was who he was, he looked at Diego. He saw passed the outlaw cut, the hard eyes and the inked biceps. He looked passed all that and saw the worried look of a father for his baby. Of a man for his pregnant woman. And when he saw it, he did his best to ease it.

  “Son, I can see you’re worried. I’m sorry for your loss. Twenty years ago or yesterday, a loss is still a loss.” He reached in and put his hand on Diego’s shoulder.

  Then he leaned back to take the both of us in.

  “Can genetics play a factor in stillbirths? They sure can. Would this information have been helpful a little sooner? Maybe. But only to relieve you both of any worry that you’re experiencing. Worry that I wish you had shared with me.” Now the good doctor was looking pointedly at me with an arched brow. I blushed uncomfortably.

  “Because this,” he waved the paper in front of us, “is not that.” He gestured towards my baby belly.

  “Now, stillbirths can happen. I don’t want to force statistics down your throat but they do happen and not too infrequently. Childbirth is a risky business with chromosomes and pre-genetic dispositions and a host of other factors. In many ways it’s a crap shoot really.” Then he smiled, “I guess that’s why they call it a miracle. But the two or you….err…. the three of you are in good shape.”

  Then he stood up. “So if that’s all. I’ll see you in another couple of weeks.”

  He shook Diego’s outstretched hand and smiled warmly at me.

  I could hear my heartbeat but I could not feel my feet, which made it hard to stand when it was finally time to go. So I gripped the rails of the chair and, like pregnant women everywhere, led with my belly. I held on tight for a few minutes letting the blood flow back into my limbs.

  “Doc, I know this is your office and shit, but you mind giving me a minute alone with my woman?” Diego had stood up. I don’t know if he meant to be intimidating, but he towered over the doctor. He was practically stepping on his toes in the small office.

  To Dr. Gideon’s credit, he did not seem to be the least intimidated.

  He clapped Diego on the arm and said, “Alarm is set, I got my own woman to get home to. Take your time. Just make sure door is locked when you’re done.” And off he went closing the door behind him.

  Diego turned to me then. “That was me taking care of shit.”

  “Taking care of shit?” I stammered.

  “Damn. I ain’t good with words Raine and you know it. I mean to say that was me stepping up. Reaching into the past to take care of you and the baby. My baby. Our baby.” Diego was looking at me.

  I was still standing but I thought I should probably sit.

  “Prosper told me about Janey and the baby Diego.” I don’t know why, but I felt it was important to say her name.

  “Yeah, I know that babe.” Diego’s dark eyes narrowed like a cornered jungle cat.

  “I’m sorry that happened. I’m sorry. I get why maybe me springing a baby on you out of the blue was a lot a lot to handle. But I was……” My voice trailed off.

  “You were what, Raine?” Diego asked warily.

  “I was happy. Diego.” And there it was.

  He was hardly breathing and I couldn’t look at him and find the courage to go on. So I looked at my folded hands instead.

  “I was happy, Diego. I wanted this bab
y. From the minute I thought it was the smallest possibility that I was pregnant I was filled with utter and complete happiness.”

  And because at this point I really had nothing left to lose I decided to tell him exactly, exactly how I felt about him and the baby and well, everything.

  I was done being angry.

  I was done being hurt.

  I was done playing the “He is invisible to me” game. Because that was not me. I was not her. And I just didn’t want to pretend any longer.

  “Diego, I was happy not only because this baby was mine, but because it was yours. I was happy because us being together had created something beautiful and miraculous and wonderful.”

  Then because I didn’t want him to misunderstand, I looked at him and added quickly “I was careful about taking the birth control every day. It’s important to me for you to know that I never ever set out to get pregnant. I want you to know that I would never knowingly put you in a position of being the father of a child that you had no intention of having. I know it sounds stupid, but I’m still not really sure how it happened.” I took a breath.

  “It was those pills that Jules gave to me to give to you, to calm you down after the shit with Gino.” Diego was looking at me. “Jules, the fucking idiot, never thought to tell me they could interfere with the birth control, and me the fucking idiot, never thought to ask.” He reached out and covered my hands with his.

  Then he went on.

  “Yeah, I was shocked. I was fucking out of my mind when you told me you were pregnant. But, despite what I said to you Raine, despite those horrible fucked up words that I threw at you like a fucking grenade, it was never about not wanting it, babe. It was never about not wanting you. Fuck, I hadn’t even gotten that far in the processing before I lost my shit.” Diego let go of my hands leaned back in the chair and scrubbed his hand over his face.

  “When you told me that’s all I could see was a dead you. I didn’t want to lose you, Raine. Fuck babe, I still don’t want to lose you. I want you. I want the baby. I want it all. I want the white picket fence and the tire swing in the yard. Cookouts on Sunday and fucking family vacations. I want this baby and a few more like it if you’re game.” He looked at me then, straight in the eye with his heart on his sleeve.

  I couldn’t move. I couldn’t think. I just know I wanted and needed to feel myself in the arms of this big beautiful bad man. I made my eyes meet his and in them I saw the love that I was looking for. I knew by the way he smiled down at me that he saw that same love reflected in my own. Everything was gonna be alright.

  It was all going to work out.

  I was going to get my happily ever after

  Diego and me and baby makes three.

  I stretched up to him as he reached down to me.

  I was singing that happy tune in my head right up until the time I saw my man do this weird little full body dance then crumbled down in front of me.

  I was singing that happy tune right up until I felt something hard hit me on the back of my head.

  Fall back. Fall back. Protect the baby, I thought to myself just before it all went black.

  Chapter 60

  “I’VE BEEN FUCKING TASERED” Diego was shouting into the phone.

  “AT THE FUCKING DOCTOR’S OFFICE.”

  “THEY TOOK RAINE. THEY FUCKING TOOK HER.”

  “YEAH, IT TOOK THREE FUCKING TIMES TO GET ME THE FUCK DOWN BUT THE MOTHERFUCKING COCKSUCKERS FUCKING SUCCEEDED.

  Then louder.

  “NO FUCKING IDEA.”

  Then at a pitch that could be heard two towns away.

  “DO NOT! DO NOT FUCKING TELL ME TO CALM THE FUCK DOWN. I NEED YOU TO GET HERE NOW. FUCKING YESTERDAY. MOTHER FUCKERS BLEW OUT MY TIRES.”

  Diego was gonna fucking kill his brother if he asked him one more fucking question.

  “NINETY-EIGHT FUCKING LIBERTY STREET YOU FUCKING MORON. I JUST FUCKING SAID IT.”

  He hadn’t said it. He knew he hadn’t said it.

  “YOU FUCKING TELL ME TO CALM THE FUCK DOWN ONE MORE GODDAMN TIME I AM GONNA RIP OFF YOUR BALLS AND SHOVE THEM DOWN YOUR FUCKING THROAT.”

  He took a deep breath because Jules was right.

  He had to calm the fuck down and figure out what the hell had just happened. His hands were shaking and he felt like he was going to be sick. He put his hands on his knees and took three deep breaths.

  “Jules?” He croaked out.

  “Yeah, brother. I’m with you. Right here man. Right here.” Jules was working hard to keep his voice steady. Because if they had any hope of finding Raine, they had a very short window of time and they had to keep their shit straight up and fucking think. The club had to start putting it out, calling in favors, taking out marks, doing whatever the fuck they had to do to get D’s woman and baby back to him.

  Everyone in the club had a job to do and when it worked, it worked like a fine tuned clock. Jules had no doubt, no doubt that they would find out who did this. Finding out in time, well that was another story.

  And they all knew it.

  Diego was losing his shit. Losing his shit. Jules could hear it in his voice.

  “Stay with me brother. Look around, you see anything? Doc have cameras up? You got anything?” Jules had a pencil in his hand.

  Diego looked to the eaves of the building. “Yeah, brother. He has cameras up. Lights fucking flashing.” Then with a little hope in his voice, “Looks like they are recording and trained right on the lot.”

  “Good man, that’s great. I’m calling the doctor right now, we’re gonna get him over there with that tape. Now, anything else? Look at the ground man, you got anything?” Jules was already on the other line to Dolly getting Gideon’s number.

  Diego heard the calm in Jules’s voice and it brought him back to where he needed to be. He could not, could not, could not fucking fall apart right now. Everything. Everything depended on him not fucking falling apart.

  Diego was looking at the contents of the spilled purse lying next to the open door of Raine’s car.

  Then he said with deadly calm. “Brother?”

  “Yeah, D right here man.” Jules heard the calm and felt a hell of a lot better.

  Until he didn’t.

  “You better call Reno. Looks like they got Claire too.” Then Diego turned off the cell and waited.

  Chapter 61

  The doctor showed up not fifteen minutes later. His black Mercedes escorted by four of Prosper’s crew. He was out of the car before the bikers had pulled their bikes back to park.

  Dr. Gideon went quickly to Diego and putting his and on his shoulder forced him to look him in the eye.

  “You okay son?” Dr. Gideon’s concerned face came into focus.

  “Yeah, yeah….They must have hit her…I don’t know. I think they hit her. On the head. The baby? Raine…I don’t know.” Diego was looking into the Doctor’s eyes.

  Doctor Gideon had been dealing with Prosper’s crew for years. He had delivered half the babies born into the MC. He had done his homework. He knew not one of those kids had ever wound up in an emergency room with any unexplained bumps or broken bones, none of them had ever ended up in foster care. While he knew all that, he also was not naïve enough to think that most of them would end up to be pillars of the community either. However, the way he figured it, the grown up part was not his concern. He knew Prosper made sure his crew treated those kids right, and that was enough for him.

  He also knew that having a waiting room filled with the hard women and their hard men from a disreputable motorcycle “club” would be cause for most doctors to turn their heads the other way at accepting these new patients. This was one of the reasons Gideon had stayed in practice for so long. And one of the reasons he worried about getting out. But his wife had laid down the law, and he grudgingly had decided she was right. Forty years was long enough.

  He had dealt with many a hard man in his days, but the look of fear and panic on the face of a man like Diego scared the hell out of him.


  “Okay. I’m going in to get that tape for you. But first I want you to listen, I doubt very much whoever this was, would hit Raine hard enough to do any permanent damage. My guess, is if they had wanted her dead, she would have been killed on the spot. You know better than I do, but I think it is safe to say that for now, Raine is okay.”

  The doctor held Diego’s eyes.

  “Now for the baby.”

  He took a breath and went on.

  “A fetus needs adequate oxygen and nutrition. A blow to the head is not going to interfere with these vital necessities. Not even to a small degree. Nature has provided a very well protected environment for fetuses, otherwise the whole race would be too fragile to survive.” Doctor Gideon smiled faintly, hoping he had gotten through to Diego.

  Diego looked into the doctor’s eyes and took a deep breath. He had heard him. Raine and their child were okay for now. While it made him sick inside to think of Raine being hit like that, Diego agreed that if whoever did this had wanted Raine dead she would have been. If Raine had been dead from that blow, they wouldn’t have taken her. No, they hit her just hard enough to knock her out, he was sure of it. But he hadn’t known if Raine being unconscious for even a short time would hurt the baby. He felt only a little better at the news. But he would take it.

  “Let’s go get that tape. Doc.” Diego was back.

  Because Dr. Gideon was not only a good doctor but a good god fearing man. He looked into the blackness that reflected back to him from Diego’s eyes and said a silent prayer for whomever it was that had abducted Raine. Because no matter what the outcome, Diego was not only going to kill that someone. He was going to make him suffer unbearably first.

  Chapter 62

  The next few hours served to prove why Prosper was one of the most influential and feared men on the eastern seaboard.

  Within twenty minutes of hearing of the girls kidnapping Prosper had made contact with three federal agents and four congressmen, all of whom were in his pocket. They were all on standby waiting for information that they could use their extensive influence to act upon.