Road to Passion

by Piper Davenport

  Flick was sitting in the common room with Barney on his lap (seriously, my dog was a whore), reading Outlaw Biker (no surprise there), and probably waiting for orders. It’s what soldiers did. “Flick?”

  “Yeah, babe?” he said without looking up.

  “I don’t know how long Mack and the boys will be, but do you want to let anyone else who’s here know we’ve got breakfast on?”

  “Not really,” he said, again without looking up.

  “Well, we’ve got bacon, eggs, hash browns, and pancakes that are getting cold, so if you don’t let the rest of the guys know; I’ll make sure Barney suddenly hates you... and believe me, when I want him to, he holds a grudge.”

  He raised his eyes above his reading glasses and stared at me for a few seconds. “You’re a fuckin’ hardass when you wanna be, aren’t ya?”

  I grinned. “You have no idea.”

  He set his glasses on top of the magazine and moved Barney to a couch cushion, then headed out of the room, let out the loudest whistle I’d ever heard, and then bellowed, “Soup’s on, assholes. Get it while it’s hot.”

  I shook my head and Millie broke into giggles. “These people are crazy.”

  “I know it. But I’m finding they’re my kind of crazy though, and that’s even crazier, don’t you think?” Millie bobbed her head up and down and I laughed. “Suck it, Millie.”

  “I’ll grab plates,” she offered.

  Men filed into the kitchen with varying grunts of, “Thanks, babe,” “Fuck, yeah,” or just a nod, but to me, it was as good as a thank you. Millie and I made ourselves scarce, settling in the common room on one of the sofas.

  Our attention was drawn to the main entrance of the common room as Mack, Ace, Knight, Booker, Hawk, and Crow walked in with three men in suits. “That’s a group of illegally hot men,” Millie whispered.

  “God, I know,” I breathed out.

  Mack smiled, splitting off from the group and making his way towards us. “Hey.”

  “Hi.” I raised my head for a kiss and grinned. “You done with whatever it is you needed to do?”

  “Yeah, babe.” He sat on the coffee table in front of us. “It’s out of our hands now.”

  “What does that mean?” Millie asked. “Can I go home now?”

  Mack shook his head. “You need to stay here until I get word from Jaxon. They’re putting a case together, and until it’s done and the Kozlovs have been picked up, you need to be somewhere they can’t get you.”

  “And my family?”

  “They’re fine, Millie,” Mack assured.

  I slid my feet onto Mack’s lap and he raised an eyebrow. I grinned and sipped my coffee. “Pregnant women need foot rubs.”

  “Do they?” he asked, and slid my shoe off, wrapping his hands around my socked foot and squeezing.

  “Yes, yes, they do.” I grinned at him over my mug. “But... you can do that later, honey. You should grab some breakfast before it’s all gone.”

  “Did you eat?”

  I shook my head.

  “On purpose?” he challenged.

  I sighed. “Sort of.”

  He rose to his feet, leaning down to get nose to nose with me. “I’ll get you some toast.”

  “Thanks, honey.” He walked away and I turned toward Millie. “I’ll stay here as long as you have to.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes.” I smiled. “I can work anywhere and Mack can as well, so it’s fine for a while.”

  She giggled. “I thought our slumber parties were over.”

  “We could always have a pillow fight and throw the men into a tizzie.”

  Millie gasped. “Darien Alana Aherne, you naughty minx, you.”

  “Right?” I giggled. “You can blame Mack for my newfound filthy mind.”

  “Oh, it was always there, darlin’, you just kept it to yourself.”

  I covered my mouth when nausea attacked me suddenly.

  “You okay?” Millie asked.

  I took several deep breaths just as Mack returned with a piece of plain toast and another Sprite. He frowned. “You need a bowl?”

  “No, I don’t need a bowl,” I snapped, and covered my mouth again. Mack waited for a minute and when it passed, I sighed. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to snap.”

  “I get it,” he said, and handed me the toast before walking back to the kitchen.

  I took a bite and swallowed, grateful my stomach handled the food.

  “When did your morning sickness start?” Millie asked.

  “The worst part started last night. I hope it doesn’t last long. This sucks.”

  “Mom puked through her entire pregnancy with me.”

  “Shut up, really?”

  Millie nodded. “She said she thought she’d escaped it because it didn’t start for almost nine weeks. She lost weight in her first trimester. It was scary.”

  “Don’t tell her shit like that, Millie,” Mack scolded as he sat next to me, setting his coffee on the side table. “It’ll freak her out.”

  Millie shrugged. “Just keepin’ it real.”

  “Well, fake it a little for now.”

  I giggled. “I’m okay, Mack. I’m not freaking out.”

  “We’ll have a bowl close during the ceremony,” Millie added.

  I gasped. “Oh, crap, I didn’t think about that.”

  “Millie!” Mack snapped. “Damn it!”

  “What if I puke on our wedding day?”

  “It’ll be fine, baby,” Mack assured. “You’re seein’ the doctor this week and she’ll be able to help.”

  “That’s true.” I leaned against him and he wrapped an arm around my waist.

  “So, Millie’s gonna keep her doomsday speak to herself,” Mack continued.

  “Millie’s gonna do whatever she damn well pleases,” she muttered. “Unless Darien says otherwise.”

  I dropped my head on Mack’s shoulder and giggled. “You won’t win this one, honey.”

  “I already have.”

  “Oh, okay, honey.” I heard Millie’s quiet chortle as I took one more bite of toast then reached for my laptop, snuggling closer to Mack. I scrolled through my email and saw a familiar name. “Oh, wow.” I leaned forward slightly. “Mill, remember that agent I contacted ages ago?”

  “Yeah, the one who requested your book?”

  I nodded. “She just emailed me. She wants to sign me.”

  “Ohmigod, that’s awesome.”

  “Is it? I’m not so sure.”

  “How come?” Mack asked.

  I leaned back again. “I just feel like she wants me now that I’m on the NY Times. Before that, I didn’t feel like I could even get arrested and she didn’t contact me sooner, so I don’t know. It just feels weird.”

  “You could tell her you’d like her to help with movie and television options, but you don’t need her for your print options.”

  “Can I do that?”

  Mack smiled. “You can do anything you want, babe. I can help with the contracts.”

  I grinned. “Sometimes I forget just how useful you are.”

  He kissed my cheek and whispered, “I grabbed something from the house, so I can remind you how useful I am later.”

  I shivered and kissed him gently. “Can’t wait.”

  “Email her back... no, hand me your computer, I’ll email her, you can approve it and send.”

  I nodded and handed him the laptop. He wrote a much better response than I could have, and then I made it sound like me and sent it off.

  “I found the perfect song for our first dance,” I said.

  “Yeah?”

  “Yep, here, listen.” I handed him my ear buds and he slid them in, I pressed play.

  The next thirty seconds seemed to happen in slow motion as our happy banter and conversation went from light and easy to the world exploding around us.

  A sharp pain sliced through my arm and then Mack’s body was on top of mine as we lay on the back of the sofa. Somehow, it had been flipped on it
s side and he’d come to rest on top of me. Through the cloud of smoke, I could see his lips moving, but I couldn’t hear him. “What?”

  He waved his hands in a “stay” motion and I nodded. The sudden pain and ringing in my ears pulled focus from my arm as I craned my head to see Millie beside me, her left leg soaked in blood. Once I saw her, my pain seemed to disappear.

  Before I could crawl to her, I was picked up and dragged out of the common room and away from my best friend. I tried to protest, but we were in chaos. “Mack!” I screamed. “Mack!”

  Strong arms held me tight, but I knew they weren’t his. I looked frantically around, swallowing down bile to see part of the building at the front gone, bloodied bodies stumbling around, some lying on the ground... I didn’t know if they were alive or dead, it was total carnage.

  I tripped and as I was righted, I saw Train holding me to him. “Where’s Barney?”

  He mouthed something to me, but I couldn’t hear.

  “Where’s Barney?” I screamed.

  He scowled and then lifted me in his arms, running toward a van. I don’t remember anything after that as my world went black.

  * * *

  Mack saw the explosion, more so than he heard it and flipped the sofa as quickly as he could. When he ripped out the ear buds, he realized they may have saved his hearing. Millie had just stood up to get more coffee and she was flung backwards, hitting the ground, hard. Mack shielded Darien the best he could and checked her for injuries, tying off her arm, before inching toward Millie. He tore a piece of his T-shirt and tied off her leg, but it was a mess. She’d taken the brunt of the hit as the blast went off just as she was passing them.

  Surveying the room, he waved Train over. “Get them somewhere safe. They need to get to the hospital. Make them priority, Train, yeah?”

  “Yeah, brother.”

  Confident Train would take care of his woman; Mack rushed into the fray and found a bloodied Flick curled in a ball by the television, white fluff squirming in his grip. Mack knelt beside him and forced back his emotion as he felt for a pulse. There was nothing.

  “Fuck!” Barney squealed in pain and Mack helped to free him from Flick’s grip. The dog barked at Mack, growling and showing his teeth the closer he got to Flick. “Barney, boy, it’s me.” He continued to snarl. “Come here. We’ll get you to Darien.” Barney wouldn’t leave Flick, so Mack had to make a decision. It was dog or human at this point, so he rose to his feet and Barney curled up next to Flick. The man had protected him this far, he hoped he’d continue to.

  He headed to the safe room where he was relieved to find they hadn’t lost anyone in the meeting today. Jaxon, Brock, and Dallas were still there, on their phones giving orders to their superiors, Mack assumed.

  Everyone was bloody. Whether it was theirs or someone else’s, Mack couldn’t be sure, but it was a sobering sight.

  Hawk stepped forward and hugged him. “I’ve got the recruits sorting through injuries.”

  “Flick’s dead,” Mack said.

  “Fuck!”

  “I can’t get that damn dog to leave him, so we’ll need to get him to the vet as soon as we can. Darien’s gonna be frantic if she doesn’t know what’s going on.”

  Hawk nodded. “Dallas called Macey to alert her to the situation, and we’ve got ambulances on the way.”

  “I didn’t think they’d go this far.”

  “Me neither, brother.”

  “It’s war,” Mack said.

  “No it’s not,” Jaxon countered.

  “Where the fuck did you come from?” Mack snapped.

  Jaxon gave a wry smile. “Give us two days, Mack.”

  “No! They almost killed Darien and our baby, not to mention her dog. They killed Flick and we don’t know how many others yet.” Mack shook his head. “We’ll deal with them.”

  “You deal with ’em and we have no case, you get sent up for murder, and we’re mutually fucked. We’ll deal with ’em.”

  Mack dragged his hands through his hair.

  “Jax has a point,” Hawk said.

  Before Mack could respond, his phone buzzed in his pocket. It was Train. “She okay?”

  “I got them both to the hospital. Some red-headed nurse took it from there. Fuckin’ hot, man,” Train said.

  “That’s Dallas’s wife, dumb shit,” Mack ground out.

  “Fuck, seriously? Damn.”

  “How’s Darien?”

  “They haven’t come out to tell me anything yet. Want me to come back?”

  “No, I’ll be there soon and then you can,” Mack said, and hung up. “You’ve got two days. I’m going to the hospital. Call me if you need me.” Mack walked out of the room, scooped up Barney, despite the barking, and cradled him as gently as he could while he headed to his car. His bike had been parked in the front, so he could only assume it was destroyed, along with the front of the building.

  The BMW was intact, so he reached under the wheel well and grabbed his spare key, setting Barney in the passenger seat and starting the engine. He tried to take a minute to check Barney for injuries, but the dog wanted nothing to do with him, so he grabbed his phone, found the closest emergency vet and took off. He’d sort things out with him first and then head to the hospital.

  I CAME TO slowly and the lights on the ceiling whizzed by me. “Where am I?”

  “Hold on a second,” a gentle voice said, and then Macey’s face came into view. “Hi again.”

  “I’m in the hospital?”

  “Yes,” she said. “We need to get your injuries checked out.”

  “I’m pregnant.”

  Macey gave her a surprised smile. “Okay, honey, I’ll make sure that’s in the chart.”

  I nodded and closed my eyes again, finding the darkness too hard to resist.

  I woke to darkness and thankfully no pain. I blinked, forcing gritty eyes open, and glancing around the room.

  “Babe?”

  I looked to my right and smiled. Mack stood from his place in the chair next to the bed and leaned over me. “Hi, honey. Are you okay?”

  He nodded. “Millie took the majority of the blast. I have a few stitches, but they’re superficial.”

  “Is she okay?”

  “She’s still in surgery.”

  “How’s Barney?” I couldn’t stop the tears as he took my hand. “Is he dead?”

  “No, honey. I took him to an emergency vet. He got a few cuts and bruises as well, so they are getting him sorted. Pauley’s there with him. Flick must have been holding him because he was still cradled in his arms.”

  “Flick?”

  Mack shook his head. “He didn’t make it.”

  “Oh no,” I whispered, and my body shook as the sobs took over.

  “Shhh, baby, I’ve got you,” Mack whispered as he climbed into the bed with me and pulled me into his arms.

  “He died protecting my dog, Logan. I love him for it, but I’m kind of mad too.”

  “I know, honey.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “Why are you sorry?”

  “Because it was my dog,” I cried.

  “You didn’t set off a bomb at the club, Darien. This is not your fault.”

  “Am I okay?”

  “Yeah, baby. You had to have a few stitches and you bumped your head again, but you and the baby are good.”

  “Then why am I here?”

  “Because I want you here.”

  “Shouldn’t you be at the club?” I pressed.

  “I can’t do anything there right now, so I need to be wherever you are.”

  “What do the FBI say?”

  “They say fuckin’ nothing,” he spat out. “But they’ve got thirty-six hours to deal with it, then we take over.”

  I gasped. “They agreed to that?”

  “No. But it’s the deal.”

  “Don’t, honey.” I slid my arm over his stomach. “Please don’t do anything that might get yourself hurt. We need you.”

  “I won’t get
hurt, Darien.”

  “Those people just blew up the club, Logan.” I looked up at him. “They’re capable of anything.”

  His face tightened and he shook his head.

  “Can we go home?” I asked.

  “Not yet, baby.”

  “When?”

  Mack stroked my hair. “Depends on what Jaxon tells me tomorrow.”

  “You don’t think our home is safe?”

  “Not from a fuckin’ bomb, Darien, no.”

  I couldn’t stop the tears from starting again as I buried my face in his chest. “Why would someone do this?”

  “Money and power are enticing, Darien.”

  “Is this the life you’re okay living?”

  Mack shifted so he was face-to-face with me. “This isn’t a life I’m livin’, Darien, and it’s not a life we’ll live. This is a shit storm created by bad people and made worse by the actions of Millie. I don’t mean to throw her under the bus, but this escalated because we were watchin’ out for her. It’ll be dealt with and then we’ll live our quiet, suburban life. I won’t let you leave me over this.”

  I reached up and stroked his face. “I didn’t say that because I was thinking about leaving you, Logan. I just figured we might need to make some adjustments.”

  He relaxed. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah,” I mimicked,

  “I can’t lose you, Darien.”

  I kissed him. “You’re not going to lose us, honey. I love you. A tiny little bomb isn’t going to make me run away.”

  “Baby, don’t joke.”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to joke.” I smiled. “I just want you to realize that I’m in it for the long haul. I’m wearing—” I gasped and sat up. “Crap! My ring. I took it off before I went to bed.”

  “We’ll find it,” he promised.

  “Well, if we don’t find it, it’s obvious we should just break up.”

  “Fuck me, Darien.”

  “I’m kidding!” I said, and stroked his cheek. “I’m sorry, honey.”

  He sighed. “I get it. Humor’s your defense mechanism.”

  I gripped his chin and frowned. “Do you really think I’d leave you over this? Do you really think I’d leave you for any reason... outside of cheating, of course?”

  “I—”

  “Scratch that,” I interrupted. “Because even if you cheated, I still wouldn’t leave you... technically... because you’d be dead. Not a fiber, not a hair. No one would find any part of you. Although, I might bronze your—”