by Isabel Wroth
She’d sat on her couch with Squatch at her side, allowing the big dust bunny up on the furniture because truth be told, she missed Roar. She missed waking up and feeling him give her a squeeze before she got out of bed, or better yet, waking her up with some awesome sex. She missed him shouting the house down from one room away when he couldn’t find something, and the sound of his pipes roaring up the driveway. Two whole months and he was an ingrained part of her life.
Jerk.
She was walking the nursery now, checking stock herself, enjoying the nip in the air and the fact that since she was carrying around her own personal space heater, she wasn’t wearing a god awful amount of layers. She was in fact enjoying it so much, that she was humming that goofy song from the movie last night, Lavender’s Blue, while thinking about Roar. She blamed it on him that she was off in lala land, so that when Todd cleared his throat to speak to her, she turned around smiling. “These men are here to speak to you, Miz Nolan.” Todd said, hopping from foot to foot a little nervously while she stared at a ghost from her past,
“Hey babe,”
Chapter Sixteen
Top was in his office, enjoying the thick Cuban one of his snitches had sent him, laughing inside at how quickly Roar was making his report, eager to get home to his woman. Boy had smarts, coming here first to get it over with so he could spend the rest of the time with Ever. She was the sort of woman a man gave his undivided attention to, or else find her boot up his ass. She reminded him a lot of his wife, in ways that sometimes made him laugh his ass off, and other times just made him miss his bitch all that much more. He wasn’t really listening to Roar, just enjoying his discomfort, and the fact that he hadn’t cottoned on yet that Ever was the reason he’d been given the shitty assignment in the first place.
Absence made the heart grow fonder, and he was betting on Ever having missed her old man, quite a bit. So he was kind of grinning, smug like, when the phone on his desk rang and he frowned to bring the numbers into focus, refusing to wear his damn cheaters in front of the boys. Why was he getting a call this early in the damn morning from the cops? If those mother fucking Prospects had got caught again, he was going to bury them in Everly’s compost. Apparently bodies decomposed a fuck of a lot faster in there. “Perdition,” He grunted, and frowned harder when it was not the voice he was expecting. “Hey Top, it’s Ever.” She sounded weird, and he could hear the rumble of voices and phones ringing in the background. “Why are you calling the compound instead of my cell? You okay?”
“I’m good. Fine. I left my cell at home with my purse, I couldn’t remember anyone else’s numbers, and Roar didn’t pick up, so I called the compound, because I did remember that number.”
“Why’s your cell at home with your purse?”
“Roar’s not back yet, right?”
“Sittin right here starin at me,”
“Fuck,” She hissed, and his blood pressure spiked with worry.
“Talk.” He ordered, in his most no nonsense voice, and saw Roar perk up from across the desk, eyes narrow like he knew it was his woman on the phone.
“I um, kind of got arrested.” She muttered, then rushed on to tell him she was fine, it wasn’t a big deal.
“We’ll be there in ten.”
“I don’t guess there’s any chance you’d leave Roar out of this?”
“Not a single fuckin one. But that begs the question, why do you want me to?”
“Um, you know that picture you gave me, when you were being a big ole meddlin softie? The one with my supposedly dead fiancé?”
“Yeah?”
“He’s apparently not dead, and works for ATF. Showed up at the nursery with an FBI and a DEA agent, and I may have um, lost my temper a wee bit. There’s some talk of assaulting three federal officers, and a few other minor charges,”
Torn between gut searing rage and gut tearing laughter, he pinched his nose and put his elbow on the desk to ask in as serious a voice as he could manage. “You need bail money?” She laughed outright, “No. We’re actually not to that stage yet? I um, asked for a lawyer and my phone call. The desk sergeant is a sweetie and looked the other way since this is my second phone call.”
“Jesus. I’ll bring Nasa too. Be there in ten.”
“Thanks. Sorry to impose,”
“Girly, I told you, you’re Perdition. No sorries.”
“Love you too, Top.”
Just like that, the gut churning laughter won over, because he melted like ice cream on a hot day. He was still somewhat amused when he told Roar to follow, informing him on the go that they were headed to the police station. “I was hoping to get home, Top. Haven’t seen my woman in almost two weeks.” He grunted, because it had been nine fuckin days. “She ain’t home. She’s at the station, in custody on assault charges. Apparently you didn’t pick up the phone, so she called the compound.” He’d never seen that mother fucker blow his stack so fast. And he’d thought the boy had got it under control by the time they got to the cop shop, but the desk sergeant who was such a sweetie, according to Ever, wouldn’t let them back to see her because she was in interrogation. “Mother fucker, my wife asked for a lawyer, and I’ve got one,” He hooked a furious thumb over his shoulder to where Nasa was standing, looking around, rocking back on his heels and trying to pretend that he was four feet tall and invisible, instead of nearly seven feet of pure tattooed Scandinavian muscle. “So if my wife is in interrogation, someone is infringing on her mother fuckin rights. Is that what you’re telling me?”
He was kind of enjoying this, not having expected this kind of excitement today, but was not amused when he saw two suits, two torn up and dirty suits, sitting in the waiting room chairs. One with paper napkins shoved up his very broken nose, a massive black eye forming on his left, a split lip, one arm cradled over his ribs protectively, and a major sack of ice on his balls. He was leaning his head back against the wall, the look on his face one of total agony while he tried not to breathe very hard. If that was Ever’s handiwork…Dayum.
The other one had ice on his wrist, a fat lip and blood drying at the top of his hairline. He was guessing the one with the ice on his balls was the ATF agent who was supposed to be dead, and he took a step to get himself between those busted up dirty suits and his boy, before he saw them and went to prison for murder. After a bit more ball shakin, they were taken back to where Everly was calmly, pointedly ignoring the two suits, one of whom looked a little more rumpled than the other, sitting across from her, handcuffed to the desk and picking blood out from under her nails.
He thought he was going to have to peel his boy off the ceiling when Everly looked up and smiled at him, and there was a very light smear of blood under her nose from where she must have tried to wipe it away, thereby hiding the evidence that she’d been hit hard enough to make her nose bleed. “Hey baby, you’re home.” She greeted, like it was totally normal to be cuffed to a desk, while Roar went off on the cops for handcuffing his pregnant wife to a mother fuckin table. “Uh, I guess you didn’t see two of my federal agents in the waiting room, or rather, what’s left of them after your pregnant wife beat the shit out of them.”
Everly smiled a little sheepishly at Roar, like that look would work on him right now, murmuring a thank you when he yanked his own keys out of his pocket to unlock her cuffs and jerk her to her feet to check her over for more injuries. She had dirt on her, from shoulder to ass. His amusement had faded at the sight of the blood under her nose, but now he was close to needing a peel off the ceiling himself. “Which one of them hit you?” Roar snarled, and Ever rolled her lips under while she appeared to think about it. “I don’t really remember. I um, kind of lost my temper.”
“Kind of?” One of the suits guffawed incredulously, lifting a remote to click on a video someone had shot from a cell phone of just how she had “kind of” lost her temper.
Ever tugged on her bottom lip with her teeth, sitting there all lady like while they watched the three suits approach her from behind
with one of her employees leading the way. She was smiling when she turned around, but her expression melted into one of total fury when who he could only assume was the ex, put his hands on her belly like he had right to touch her. She’d cussed out several of the boys who’d touched her growing bump, and they knew better not to touch without her invite. His eyebrows climbed up in his hair to see her quick as a flash, circle her arms to get the dick’s hands off of her, grab him behind the neck, drive her knee into his balls, then slam his face down on the same knee.
Which explained his very broken nose. She kicked him in the balls again when he went down. And he was back to warring with pride and amusement, and total meltdown. Roar seemed to be having the same problem, standing with one arm crossed over his chest, the other braced on top, his hand covering his mouth. And maybe his smile.
The second agent tried to subdue her by wrapping his arms around her from behind, his intent obviously to get her to stop whaling on the ATF fucker, and she stomped on his instep, drove her elbow into his ribs and after reaching back to grab him around the neck, used her hip to throw him to the dirt like a sack of dirty drawers. He landed on the ATF fucker, and they watched the third agent, who was unfortunately sitting across the table from Ever, tackle her to the ground. He watched that happen, how the much larger son of a bitch hit her like he was going for a defensive lineman tackle, and how Everly dropped her weight to land on her ass just right to roll down and use her legs to toss him in a perfectly executed tomage throw, over her head. Except for the part where the guy’s head made contact with her face on the way over and bloodied her nose. “I think you get the idea,” The dumbass who’d tackled her said, and turned off the video. “How long ago was this?” Nasa asked, seeming to be the only cool head in the room, and the agent who hadn’t been in the video, cleared his throat. “Three hours.”
The tension in the room shot up another notch, and he thought for a second he was going to have to tackle Roar to prevent Everly from getting mixed up in the ass kickin about to happen in the tiny room. Nasa’s voice was so cold that he was mildly surprised ice didn’t form in the room. “You tackled, a pregnant woman to the ground, and you’ve had her sitting here for three hours?” Ever wasn’t dumb, she very quickly made it clear that the paramedics called to check on the other agents had checked her over first and she was fine. “Who the fuck are you people, and why did you send the ATF agent involved in the deaths of Mrs. Morningstar’s family, to her place of business without warning?” Ever jumped a little to be referred to as Mrs. Morningstar, but didn’t say anything to contradict Nasa. “I’m Special Agent Granger with the FBI, this is Special Agent Fredricks, my other agent in the hall is DeJohns, and ATF Agent Jackson. I’m in charge, and I realize now it wasn’t a good idea to send in a familiar face Miss Taggart trusted to-“
And that was when Ever, ‘lost her temper’, a little bit more.
She slammed her hand down on the table and made Agent Fredricks flinch, “A familiar face I trusted? Until three hours ago, that mother fucker was a Nazi gang member who had part in the murder of my family, and my ex-fuckin fiancé. You thought him showing up in my nursery was a good idea? Are you out of your god damn mind? Not a single fuckin one of them identified themselves as law enforcement, no one flashed me a badge, that asshole put his hands on me and ‘hey babe’d’ me like we were best buddies. And helpful that you have a video, you’ll see my employee Todd, right there to verify that fact. Your agent’s are lucky I wasn’t-”
Her sentence was muffled by the gentle hand Nasa put over her mouth, “Hush.” He told her, and she huffed, crossed her arms over her chest and obeyed. But not before licking Nasa’s hand to get him to let go. “Your ex-fiancé, is sitting out in the waiting room right now?” Roar growled, and after shooting Nasa a look, she nodded silently. “You two, clear the room while I talk with my clients. And yes, I’m a fuckin lawyer.” Nasa growled, and with a huff both agents got up to leave. Roar stopped Fredricks dead with a look. “You, stay the fuck out. I see you again, I don’t give a fuck who you are or what your badge says, I will fuck you up.” He didn’t raise his voice, he didn’t get in the other guy’s face, and he didn’t have to. He scared the fucker shitless in two sentences. FBI, ha! Must just be giving away those badges these days.
The second the door shut behind the agents, Roar pulled her out of the chair and up into his arms, curving himself around her with a hard swallow. She sighed as the smell of him permeated her senses, the strength and heat of him surrounding her while he palmed her head and touched a kiss to her throat. “I’m okay,” She told him, and he made a hissing sound when he drew back far enough to look at her face, his expression thunderous and seriously pissed off. “How many times did you kick that fucker in the balls?” Not the question she was expecting him to ask, but okay. “Um, I lost count. Five, maybe six times?”
“Jesus.” He rasped, “Who taught you how to fight like that?”
“My father.”
“Figures.” He grunted, then tucked her back to his chest and held her there like he was considering never letting her go again. “After you pop out that kid, you want a job?” Top asked teasingly, and Roar snarled at him. “What? That was the sickest thing I’ve ever seen, a pregnant woman, beating up three trained federal agents in under five minutes.”
Which brought Roar to the lecturing portion of the days fun fest, ranting at her that she was pregnant, and could not be kicking some mother fucker’s ass, “Risking herself and their son like that,” and while it hit her in the feels, the concern behind his bellowing, she gave it right back. “What, I was supposed to let Jack-off touch me and sweet talk me like we were still an item? I don’t fuckin think so!”
“Everly, so help me god, you ever do something like that again,”
“Don’t you threaten me, I am not above kickin you in the balls either!”
“Children, settle down now, okay?”
They both rounded on Nasa, but it was hard to intimidate a guy that large. She hadn’t seen him standing up much, and she hadn’t realized until then just how massive a man he really was. Just a big fucker, that looked even more like a Viking than Roar did. Shaggy ice blonde hair, blue eyes, jaw like an anvil and tattoos up and down his arms that looked like armor. He definitely did not look like a lawyer, or a computer geek. He looked like a shit hot bad ass who’d crush your skull with one of his mammoth sized hands. “They tell you why they’d suddenly shown up at your place yet?” She shook her head, and he gave a grunt, glancing at Top for orders. “Can you make it through the next however long this takes, without us having to peel you off the ceiling?” Top asked her, definitely amused, but still pissed as fuck. “Do my best.”
“Good. They gonna have anything on you we need to know about?”
She thought about it and shook her head, “Not that I’m aware of. I wasn’t involved with dad’s business, at all. I knew where the safe houses were, obviously, and I took the cash hidden away like he told me to, but I didn’t break any laws that I’m aware of.” He nodded, then lifted his chin at Roar, “You gonna be cool when they start bringing up her history with an undercover agent?”
“No, but I’ll deal. When did you eat last?”
She looked up at him, at his gorgeous face that she’d missed for nine whole days, and took a minute to roll up on her toes to touch a kiss to his amazing mouth. “Breakfast.” He scowled at her, but kissed her again and whipped his phone out to tell one of the prospects to go get her something from the R-Bar, didn’t care what so long as there were sweet potato fries and extra ranch and nothing with onions. Right then, that’s when she knew she was ass over ears in love with him. Because he remembered that she liked extra ranch, with her sweet potato fries, and didn’t like onions. He sat down with her in his lap so Nasa could sit next to them, and when only Agent Granger came back inside, Top took the third chair. Agent Granger asked Top who he was, and after identifying himself, Agent Granger grunted. “Saves me a trip later, Miss Taggart,”
> “Morningstar,” Roar corrected tightly, though it wasn’t actually legit and he hadn’t asked so she could say yes. It made her snuggle more comfortably on his lap, comforted by the leather and smoke smell of his cut against her cheek. “Right, Mrs. Morningstar, in exchange for your cooperation, my agents and Agent Jackson are willing to drop the assault charges.”
She snorted derisively, clamping her lips shut when Nasa slanted a silencing glance her way. “And just what kind of cooperation exactly, do you need from Mrs. Morningstar?” He asked, and Agent Granger pilled one of the many files from his pile to flip open, trying to slide crime scene photos under another page. Photos of her father’s compound, of the burnt, twisted bodies of her family. Her stomach churned. “She’s been wanted for questioning in the deaths of two rival motorcycle gangs, for the past eight years.” Roar stiffened underneath her, his hand settling on the curve of her stomach to rub soothingly. Though she wasn’t sure if he was doing it to calm himself, or her. “Why now, after all this time?” Nasa asked, and Granger pulled his hand down the length of his tie, “Agent Jackson reported her missing after the firefight and subsequent fire to the Tornado motorcycle compound, when by all accounts she should have been there.”