Bones and Mountain rejoined the group.
Bones nodded. “Hawkeye called me back. He said he found two men watching the compound. He tried to talk to them but they didn’t want to talk back.” Bones shrugged.
Iceman added, “Hawk called me from Boston. He detained a couple of guys too. At first they were uncooperative but he finally got the info he needed. They were there looking for a woman named Cricket.”
“Damn.” Deke swore as he looked at his men. “He really is declaring war, the stupid fucker. His club is gonna be wiped off the map.” Running his fingers through his hair, he searched the faces of the men around him. “I’ll make some calls and find out what’s going on.” Looking around he warned, “Nobody goes outside. I’m not giving Bane another target to shoot at. I’ll be right back.” Deke turned and walked down the hall to his office where he slammed the door shut behind him.
The men and women of the club looked worried. Tension grew as time passed.
It was a full half hour later when Deke came back. His face was a thundercloud looking for a place to rain. “I just heard back from Reaper, Hawkeye and Hawk. The Dragon MC has about two dozen members more or less. We had three, Hawkeye has two, Hawk had two and Reaper had two. That leaves about a dozen or so still at home with Stark. We’ve heard at least four of his men just kept going when they got the orders.”
“What do you think they’ll do next?” Mountain asked.
“I think Stark is getting ready for a battle he’ll never win. Whether it’s us or one of the other groups, war is coming and unless he’s a total idiot, he’s getting ready for it to come to his front door.”
“What are we going to do?” Bones asked his son.
Deke looked at his men. “Cricket belongs to us. We should be the ones that face him.”
The back door opened and Bane walked in. He was dressed for hunting. His clothes were dark in color and he was carrying a rifle across his shoulder. Around his waist were a couple rather large knifes sheathed in leather. On his shoulders, he wore a double holster housing two weapons. “Personally I think you should wait on going anywhere.” He told them as he reached the group.
Deke froze then turned slowly to face him. “And why would we do that?”
“Waiting for death or a showdown plays on a man’s nerves. The longer you make him wait the more nervous he gets. When he gets nervous, he makes mistakes that might work in your advantage,” Bane stated then shrugged. “Stark is losing it. His club, his authority over his men and his mind.”
“How do you know all of this?” Bones dared to ask.
Bane snarled. “His man Crank filled me in before he passed. He got very chatty, very quickly. It was too easy. He barely put up any fight at all. Lord, I hate a coward.”
“We can’t just sit here and wait for the man.” Deke glared at him. “That would make us look like cowards and that’s not something I can do. We protect what’s ours in a timely fashion.”
“I didn’t say wait that long,” Bane said dryly.
“I thought you would be gungho to see this contract done.,” Deke stated.
Bane smiled. “You misunderstood what I said yesterday. All I came here to do was to let Cricket know the contract existed. I never said I was going to fill it.”
Cricket pushed her way through the lineup of men between her and Bane. “Then you’re not here to kill me?”
“I never was,” Bane stared her.
“Then why did you agree to give me three days?” She practically screamed at the man.
“I never agreed to give you anything,” Bane reminded her. “You asked for three days. I allowed you to think you had made a bargain, that’s all I did.”
“You bastard.” She swore at him. “Why would you do something like that? Why?” She turned and walked away from him.
Deke, Raine and Bane watched her walk down the hall and a moment later, they heard a door slam.
“Answer the question old man,” Raine demanded. “Why would you do something like that to her?”
Bane glared at him for a moment before answering his question, “I wanted to test her, to see what kind of woman she really was. You see, from the moment I met her, Cricket has intrigued me. She was more like her mother than I was comfortable with.” He sat down at the table and glared at the men around him. “I cared for Grace in my own way but I can’t say I ever loved her the way my brother did. I know that doesn’t make any different to you and it means nothing at all to any of you but when I first met Cricket, I knew what she was and who she was. She was her mother’s daughter in every way and I was curious. “
The men around the club stood and listened, some looking fairly stunned.
“For thirty years I wondered about what made Grace tick. What made her so different from me. I will admit that I used what Grace and Orrin did against her and I did threaten your club to get her to do my bidding.” He shrugged then looked at Deke. “I would have killed whoever I needed to, to get my task done and I let her know it, in no uncertain terms. I wanted to see what she would do. When she came through for me, let’s just say I was intrigued by her actions.”
“What did you think she would do?” Deke had to ask.
“I thought she would run and let the chips fall where they might,” Bane replied, keeping the other man’s stare.
“But she didn’t,” Deke stated.
“No she didn’t,” Bane admitted. “She went out of her way to protect this club from my wrath. Then she broke into my home to return something her parents took when they left a long time ago. That impressed me. After all, she had no ties to this club. She could have run but she didn’t.”
“She damn near got herself killed doing your bidding.” Deke snarled.
“I know and that made me want to study her even more. I watched over her even after I found my son. And when I brought him here to meet her again, I was impressed by her actions. She gave up a big part of her father’s past to safeguard that child after Michael kidnapped them both. I never understood that part of her. She even warned me against Michael’s betrayal when she didn’t have to. When we left that day, I asked him if it was true. He admitted it. I don’t know why I was surprised or maybe I just felt disappointed by someone else who I should have wanted to be close to. It doesn’t matter. I am who I am. I can’t be anybody else.” He shook his head. “It was then I realized it never mattered. Nothing I ever did in my life mattered. No one would ever miss me if I were no longer on this earth. My wife was long gone, my brother was dead, and both my children were out of the picture. I realized that she was the only person on this earth that might care about me. She might spare me a fleeting thought every once in a while. That’s when it hit me. I was her only living relative too.”
“What difference would that make to a man like you?” Raine asked. “You’ve done nothing but hurt her since the day you found her.”
“That’s true enough. I’ll give you that much but if I were you, I’d not show your disrespect so blatantly.” Bane snarled.
Raine started to take a step forward but Mountain pushed him back.
“So why did you let her think she only had three days left to live?” Deke asked. “That seems cruel even for a man like you.”
“I don’t know?” Bane admitted. “Maybe I wanted to test her yet again, to find out if she would finally run to save her own life or if she would stand her ground.”
“Well, she stood her ground, didn’t she?” Raine commented.
“You have to know that I had to see it for myself. I’ve never found her kind of courage before. The people I deal with in my profession would have offered me money or tried to run to save their own miserable lives. She did neither.” Bane reasoned. “If those men wouldn’t have shown up and tried to kill her, she would have been fine.”
“But they did show up and they did try to kill her and now we have to go to war to protect what’s ours.” Deke glared at him.
Bane got to his feet crossing his arms over his chest. “I�
�m demanding twenty four hours before you do anything.”
“What makes you think you can demand anything from us?” Deke asked.
“Because I want one last chance in this life to do something right. Cricket has proven herself worthy in your eyes by doing something right, by giving up a piece of her soul she knew from the start she might not ever get back. She brought your children back to you and your wife when she knew it could cost her, her life, she stood before a tribunal and faced a death sentence to allow the truth to come out about crimes she’s been accused of but was innocent of. And now she put her whole life on the line for this club without hesitation. She offered herself up to die in your place.” Bane paused then went on to say, “All my life, I’ve never had emotions like normal people. It was as if I was dead inside, or maybe it was that I had no soul. I don’t really know nor do I care, but I did care for another human being even if it wasn’t enough to keep her. I did care in my own way for Grace. I cared enough to look for her after she escaped me when she was pregnant with Michael, and I cared enough to allow her to run away from me with Orrin. I don’t think I would have come after them if he hadn’t taken the key to the safe. And I finally admitted to myself that I cared enough about her mother to want to protect Cricket by coming here to tell her about the contract on her life.”
The clubhouse went stone cold quiet.
Bane shrugged. “I know that may not to mean much to you guys but it means a hell of a lot to someone like me. So yes, I am demanding one day before you move against this other MC. I want to find out, no I need to find out if I possess the same kind of courage Cricket has.”
Deke just stared at the man as if to judge his sincerity. Then he nodded. “Okay, I’ll give you just one day. Tomorrow at this time we’ll make our move, but not until then.”
Bane didn’t say anything, instead he turned and walked out the back door, leaving in his wake a group of men who were confused and a bit stunned by his request.
“What do you suppose that man is up to?” Bones finally asked.
“I’m not really sure Dad,” Deke answered. “If it was anybody but Bane Jessin, I’d say he wanted to find out if he had the same courage Cricket does, just like he said. But Bane Jessin doesn’t have to prove anything to the world. He’s already made his mark in history and there’s no one left alive to say otherwise.”
Deke glanced over at his father and the rest of his men. “And that scares me just a little bit.”
CHAPTER TEN
Raine took a deep breath then opened the door to his bedroom. He found Cricket standing by the window looking outside. Tears ran down her face as she cuddled Max in her arms.
Closing the door behind him, he just stared at her for a moment. Then he had to ask, “What are you thinking about right now?”
“Right this very moment, I’m thinking about how it would feel to kill a man,” she spoke the words softly.
Raine could hear the truth in her statement. “Well, I for one hope you never have to go through that. Taking another man’s life destroys a piece of your soul that you can never get back.”
“I don’t think I would miss that particular piece at the moment. Bane Jessin has destroyed my life in the last day and a half, and he did it deliberately.”
Raine knew a moment of doubt. “How did he destroy your life?”
“He crushed forever any real feelings we might have had.”
“You mean you didn’t want to marry me? You don’t really love me? Is that what you’re saying?” Raine was beginning to get angry, but not at Bane… at his wife.
Cricket frowned and turned to face him. “What the hell are you talking about? Of course, I love you and of course I wanted to marry you but the question is did you want me? Did you really love me enough to make me your wife if he hadn’t pushed me into thinking he was going to kill me tomorrow?”
“How the fuck can you ask me that?” Raine exploded. “Of course I do, I did, whatever.” He rushed toward her wrapping his arms around both her and the dog. Max began to lick his face and Raine gently took him out of Cricket’s arms and put him down of the floor then he wrapped his arms around his wife and held her close. “I have loved you a very long time. Before all this came up, I knew you were the only woman I would ever love and I was planning to ask you to marry me. This just moved up the timetable a bit that’s all.”
Cricket searched his eye for the truth and found it. “You really love me?”
Raine nodded. “Yeah, I really do and yes, I really wanted you to be my wife.”
Cricket leaned forward and rested her forehead on his chest. “That a good thing because I’m not sure I could have let you go anyway. I love you too much.”
“I’m not going anywhere, not without you,” he assured her.
“Then how about we wander over to that big old bed over there and get us some? Then we can take a nap,” she suggested.
Raine chuckled. “Get us some?” he asked.
“Well, we do have a marriage to consummate, don’t we?” She ran her finger up and down his chest. “I mean it might not be legal if we don’t follow through with consummating it.”
Raine grabbed her around the waist and lifted her high in his arms. Laughing all the way over to the bed, he tossed her down on the mattress. “Then by all means let’s go and get us some, wife.”
He fell next to her and began kissing her hungrily. His hands tore off her clothing, tearing the fabric in his hurry to get her naked. When she was bare, he took a moment to get rid of his own clothes. Then he fell on her and his kisses took her breath away.
“Please don’t make me wait, I need you so much.” She whispered.
“I need you more,” Raine told her as he plunged into her waiting core.
His hot hard cock pinned her to the bed and Cricket couldn’t have been happier. She screamed in pleasure and Raine covered her mouth with his own as he began to snap his hips.
The heat between them rose, and sweat beaded on forehead as he pumped his cock into her. Cricket wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him in deeper. “Please…” she moaned. “I’m so close.”
“Come now then, because I can’t wait,’ Raine told her breathlessly as he hammered into her. He could feel her shattering under him. It was enough to carry him over the edge into insanity and he roared her name with pleasure.
Cricket couldn’t catch her breath for a moment. Raine’s weight was like a blanket and when he tried to move, she held him to her. “Stay just for a moment,” she whispered in his ear.
“But I’m too heavy for you,” he protested. He groaned and she slowly let him go. Raine slid off of her but didn’t go far. He settled for her left side and snuggled in.
Cricket knew the moment of truth had come. Now that she didn’t have a sword hanging over her head there was something she had to tell him. Something she hoped he’d be happy about. “Mmm, Raine, I need to tell you something… and I’m not sure how to say it.”
Raine got very still at her side. “Is it something good or something bad? Cuz I don’t know if I can bear to hear something bad right now.”
“Well, that’s just it. I think it’s good news but you might not.” Cricket hedged around telling him.
For a moment, she said nothing then Raine sighed and said, “Just fucking say it.”
“I’m going to have your baby,” Cricket’s words were spoken softly.
“What? What did you say?” Raine exploded, he sat up and turned his head to glare at her. “Say that again.”
“I’m going to have your baby,” Cricket repeated her earlier claim.
Raine just stared at her for a moment then got up and pulled his pants on. Then without saying a word, he left the room, slamming the door behind him.
Cricket stared at the door with tears running down her face. Apparently, fatherhood wasn’t something Raine wanted. Her hand drifted to her lower belly and she cradled her slight baby bump. By her figures, she was just over three months along. She knew she couldn’t h
ide the changes in her body anymore and she had hoped he’d like the idea of becoming a father.
* * * *
Raine stomped over to the bar and grabbed a bottle of Black Velvet off the shelf.
Several brothers turned to watch as he slammed down three shots in a row.
Bones looked over at Deke then at Mountain.
All three men got to their feet and walked over to where Raine was standing.
“What’s going on here Raine?” Deke asked.
“My wife just told me something.” Raine growled.
“What was that?” Bones asked.
“Apparently, she’s carrying my child.”
“Well hell, boy that’s great news. Isn’t it?” Mountain asked.
“Under normal circumstances it would be, but now I have to wonder if she was going to take this with her to the grave. I mean if Bane was actually going to kill her tomorrow, would she have even told me about the baby?” Raine snarled.
All three men looked at each other then looked back at Raine.
He caught their looks and nodded. “That’s what I thought. You would be pissed too, if she were your woman.”
“But she’s not their woman she’s your woman,” Cassie spoke from behind the men. “And you’d better get your head out of your ass or you’re going to lose her for certain, you big dummy.”
Raine turned to glare at the small woman. “What the hell would you know about it?”
Cassie shook her head. “Are you men really this stupid? Don’t any of you realize just what you all mean to her? The lengths she would go to, to protect this club and this way of life, what she’s already done to get this far?”
“Suppose you tell us.” Raine growled.
He saw from the corner of his eye Deke’s hands curling into fists and he turned to his president. “I don’t mean any disrespect to your woman Pres, but I need to hear what she has to say.”
Deke studied him for a moment then nodded at him and turned to his wife. “Tell us.”
“First of all, Cricket loves you Raine. In the short amount of time she’s been here, she’s given you her love and her life. She didn’t do it freely or without thought. She had to learn to trust you first and believe me, she didn’t trust anyone when she first got here. But I can see why it was so hard for her. Growing up with her sister from hell, she never knew what would happen next, what new hell Cordy had in mind for her. Plus, she had Dusty to look out for. She would have put her life on the line for that boy. He meant everything to her and yet, she turned him over to your family without any fuss. Then she brought my babies back to me too. Because it was the right thing to do. Cordy had no right to take them to begin with but Cricket righted that wrong by bringing them back.” Cassie swung her gaze over to Raine and her expression softened. “But you won her over completely. With you, she found her ever after home. She’s been looking for a place to call home all her life. It didn’t matter that it was inside a clubhouse or that it was only a single bedroom. To her, wherever you are that’s home. I found the same thing when I found Deke, so I know where she’s coming from.” Shaking her head, she went on to say, “That girl has so much love to give you and she wants to, but she’s afraid to try. She gave you a pretty big piece of it today when she gave you her father’s ring. That was all she had left of him and she just gave it away to you.”
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