Saving Scout (Charon MC, #5)

by Khloe Wren

  “Got a problem there, Charlie?”

  Fuck, I loved how she said my birth name. No one had used it in so long, which had never bothered me because I never cared for it. But from her lips? Fucking loved it. She didn't give me a chance to respond before she was gripping my hips and lowering herself down onto the tiles.

  “I've never done this before...”

  She was gonna kill me. “You'll do perfect, babe. Just follow your instincts.”

  Part of me wanted to order her to do exactly what I wanted her to do, but the fact this was the first time she'd given a blow job, together with the fact she'd instigated this, meant I was content to let her take the lead and play as she wished this time. Well, at least for now, anyhow. I wasn't sure how long I could play the indulgent lover before my inner caveman came back out.

  All my thoughts emptied out of my mind as I hissed out my breath when she began to tentatively explore my length with first her fingers, then her mouth. Gentle little kisses and licks that were driving me fucking insane. I was about to say fuck it and grab a fist full of her hair to guide her when she took the head of my cock into her mouth and sucked.

  “Fuck!”

  I'd received hundreds, maybe thousands of blow jobs over the years, but this? Marie on her knees in front of me with her mouth full of my cock and a sparkle in her eye? This was fucking heaven and blew away any memory I had of any other woman. I would never give this up, give her up. I knew in that moment that I'd do whatever the fuck I needed to in order keep this woman happy, safe and by my side.

  It didn't take long before a tingle ran down my spine and landed in my balls. When they drew up ready to blow, I stroked her cheek to get her attention.

  “I'm gonna come, babe. If you don't want to swallow, you need to stop now.”

  Without releasing me, she shook her head, the sensation making me groan again. Then she took me deeper in her mouth and lifted her palm to cup and stroke my balls. That's all it took and I was gone. Delving my fingers into her hair, trying to keep it loose enough so she could pull away if she needed to, I held her as I pumped into her mouth until I came. Her throat moved as she swallowed but there was too much for her, and two little white trails leaked down from the edges of her lips that were stretched around my dick. The sight had my cock twitching, wanting more. But that wasn't gonna happen right now. Pulling free from her mouth, I reached down and helped her to stand then moved her under the spray. It killed me to see my seed get washed off her, but knowing I'd filled up her pussy twice last night on top of what she'd just swallowed down, helped ease the need to have her marked as mine.

  We stayed silent as I slowly, carefully, washed her from head to toe. It was a comfortable quiet, with just the water hitting the tiles and our breathing filling the air. After I took some extra time to make sure her tits and pussy were very clean, she took the cloth from me and returned the favor, leaving me hard and ready to go again. Damn, I hadn't been this fucking insatiable since I was in my early twenties.

  She wrapped her hand around my length and started stroking me.

  “Babe, as great as that feels, we really should get moving. Got a shit load to do today.”

  As though reality had just crashed down on her, Marie gasped and jumped back from me, nearly slipping on the wet tile. I reached for her and pulled her back against me before she hurt herself.

  “Shh, Marie. We're good. It's perfectly okay to take some time out for yourself. Both Sarah and her daughter are in good hands, getting everything they need medically.”

  She shook her head and tears filled her eyes, which gutted me all over again. I fucking hated seeing her cry.

  “I can't believe I forgot about them. What kind of monster does that make me?”

  I cupped her face and tilted it up so I could stare straight into her eyes.

  “It makes you human. I made you wait over twenty years for last night and this morning, don't let outside factors ruin it. We had an extremely long-overdue beautiful, glorious night of passion. Now, we'll get dressed and deal with all the other shit going on out there before we come back here again tonight and repeat last night. That's how this is going to go. The real world can have us during the day, but after all that shit is done, once it's just the two of us alone? Then it's gonna be all about us, baby.”

  I didn't give her time to speak, instead sealed my words with a kiss as I reached behind her to flip off the taps. Taking her hand I led her out of the stall and grabbing a towel, I dried her off first, then myself. By the time I got to the bedroom, Marie was going through the bag Bulldog had brought to the hospital for her.

  “We'll head to your place today for you grab some more stuff, 'kay?”

  She nodded as she got dressed, but clearly she'd gone from my soft, teasing lover to the concerned sister and aunt.

  “You wanna eat here or grab something at the hospital?”

  She glanced at the clock and gasped at the time.

  “No time to eat. We should have been at the hospital an hour ago.”

  I didn't bother trying to calm her down this time. It was now past ten am, so she had a point. We were late. I quickly dressed and snatched up my phone and keys and followed her, trying not to chuckle, as she raced toward the front of the house like a kid about to miss the school bus.

  Fifteen minutes later we arrived at the hospital. Marie wanted to go straight to Sarah's daughter's room. We really needed to give that kid a name. “Sarah's daughter” was too fucking long to keep saying. But I convinced her to stop at the reception desk to see if we could see Sarah's doctor first. Once I suggested it, Marie was all for it, and looked a little guilty over not wanting to do that in the first place. Her big heart was one of the many reasons I loved this woman, but I hated when it caused her to beat herself up like she was at the moment.

  It took a little doing, but we finally got to talk with Sarah's doctor. After he shook both our hands, he wasted no time explaining the situation.

  “We've done all we can for now. She's in a coma, but is stable. Physically, she will recover. There are no breaks to any of her vertebra or damage to her spinal cord. She has bruising to around sixty percent of her body and the concussion isn't helping things. We’re concerned she’s not waking due to the swelling of her brain. We’ve started her on Dexamethasone to reduce that and hopefully that will have her waking up soon. We can't know what damage will be left behind until she wakes, if she wakes. At this point, we just need to wait for the drugs to do their thing. Hopefully her will to live is strong and that’ll help speed things along.”

  Marie caught her sob with a hand over mouth, and I pulled her in against me to hold her while she regrouped.

  “Doc, we were thinking of taking her daughter up to see her today. You think that'll be a good idea?”

  The doc was silent for a few moments.

  “Hearing her voice might be what it takes to pull Sarah out of her coma.” He paused and with a frown, shook his head. “I forgot the child is mute. Still, maybe her touch will remind Sarah what she has to live for and help bring her around. But if the child shows any sign of distress, she needs to be removed immediately. That girl has a hard enough road ahead of her as it is, we don't need to go adding to it.”

  “Of course. First sign of distress, we'll have her out of there in a flash.”

  After saying goodbye and the doc promising to come up to see Sarah later, hopefully while we had her daughter there, I guided Marie to the child's room. Silently praying the whole time we didn't do more damage to the poor kid by taking her to see her mom.

  CHAPTER 9

  Sarah

  Images and sounds all jumbled together and floated around my mind. I couldn't quite grab hold of any one thing, but it wasn't so bad. My body was light, so light. And there was no pain. I didn't feel happy, but I wasn't sad either. It was a strange sensation, this floating in nothingness. With nothing to worry about, I could stay here forever.

  Then a scent flowed through the mix and things grew more defin
ed. Images of me pushing out my baby girl. Being so scared because Bruce refused to take me to the hospital. But my little angel had made it safely into the world. She was so beautiful. My little Ariel. I hoped she'd break free from our prison to live her life like the little mermaid had. Bruce had been so mad that I'd gotten pregnant, even though he was the one who had refused to replace my birth control. My nights had been nothing but a blur for so long, I never remembered them, but Ariel was proof of what must happen.

  Another breath in and more of her scent filled me. She needed me, Ariel needed her mommy. I fought to swim through the mess of my mind to find a way out, to get to my little girl. To find out if we were safe. Was this some new trickery that Bruce was pulling on me? The next images that flashed through my mind were of me, digging the knife I kept in my boot deep into his gut. Had I killed him? The image went black after that and before I could try to grab it again, a small voice whispered to me.

  “Momma, safe now. Wake up.”

  God, her whisper-quiet voice. Ariel had never spoken to anyone other than me. Bruce had made it clear from the very start that “the kid” was to not only be not seen, but not heard, either. My poor little girl had been forced to learn so much in her short life. I'd done my best to save her enough food from meal times, two of the men helped too, smuggling in tins of formula and bottles when she'd been a baby. But it wasn't enough. She was so tiny. She was four years old but looked only about two. My eyes stung with tears. Pain roared up my spine and over my head as I broke through the last of the fog to find my way to my daughter who was pressed up against my left side, her little hand over my heart.

  “Baby.”

  A feminine gasp, followed by a sob and male cursing followed my single word. I tried to wrap my arm tighter around Ariel, to protect her from whoever was with us. But I couldn't be sure I'd managed the move. Holding my breath and focusing the little bit of energy I had, I forced my eyelids to open. The bright light stung so bad that I slammed them shut right away.

  “Someone turn down the lights!”

  I knew that voice, from long ago. Who was she... Marie! My foster sister. That's right. Warmth surrounded my right hand and I knew it was she who had picked up my hand. If only I'd stayed with her.

  “C'mon, Sarah. Come back to us.”

  I tried again to blink open my eyes, this time keeping them open as the bright, white light had been dimmed. I turned my gaze to the left, my head was too heavy to move, but my eyes could move enough that I could see my little girl.

  “Ariel, my sweet girl. You be good for Marie, okay? We can trust her and Scout.”

  “Yes, Momma.”

  “Oh, my―she can speak!”

  Marie's words cracked my heart. My poor baby must have been so scared. I turned my gaze to Marie.

  “Bruce? Is he?”

  “He's dead. The compound was cleaned out and blown up. You're both safe.”

  Deep down I knew my mind wasn't going to allow me to enjoy that safety. I was already struggling to hold on to reality. Memories and thoughts were fading and coming back, but altering slightly each time. I couldn't move my body, as though I was paralyzed, but I could feel so I mustn't be. I could easily feel the warmth of Marie's hands, the heat of Ariel's little body against me.

  “There's a book in my room at the compound. About Ariel. Find the book.” Then I looked back to Ariel.

  “Baby, you hear that? You're safe. You can talk as loud as you like, to whoever you like. You stay with Marie and Scout. That was my mistake. I left. I'm sorry, Ariel, so very sorry. Love you, baby.”

  Then my time was up, and as though I'd been sucked down a deep dark hole, I was jerked away from reality and back to the emptiness inside me. What had seemed so peaceful and nice earlier was dark and hollow now. I wanted to see my baby again. Wanted to hold her, read her a story, take her to the park... all the normal things I'd never been able to do with her. I wanted to catch all the memories I could only see glimpses of. Her birth, first steps, the first whispered words.

  It wasn't fair! I wanted to scream, to throw things. But I couldn't do a damn thing. Then suddenly, dark black liquid began to rise up around me. It rose fast, soon I was treading water to keep my head above it, but then I couldn't kick anymore. Something wrapped around my ankles and pulled me under and with a silent scream, my mouth and lungs filled with the blackness and I choked as I was pulled further down, further away from my life, my daughter. I knew when my heart was about to beat its last beat, knew this was the end and I prayed Marie would take care of Ariel better than I had. That my girl would have a good, happy life with Marie as her mother.

  Marie

  I could barely process the last few minutes. Had any of it been real?

  Sarah had woken.

  Her daughter had spoken.

  One of the positives was Sarah calling her daughter Ariel so we finally had a name for the little girl. Then, just when I was getting my hopes up that Sarah was going to be okay, her eyes shut and she went limp against the bed. The hand I held between mine was lifeless. I moved my fingers, searching for a pulse until I found it, refusing to give up this time. I’d found it, but it was incredibly weak. Suddenly, Sarah's whole body went tense, her back arched up and her mouth opened in a silent scream. Ariel began to silently sob and shake. Scout had been standing near her, and he quickly gathered her up off the bed and rushed out the door, getting the little girl away from whatever was going on here. I knew I should go too, but I couldn't move. Frozen to the spot, I watched as her doctor raced to her side just as Sarah suddenly began to struggle to breathe. Machines began to make all sorts of horrid noises and nurses came running into the room, yet still I couldn't move, even though I knew on some level I was in the way and not helping anything by staying. Why couldn't she breathe? She was fine a minute ago. When I was scooped up I jolted from my stupor to look up at Bulldog’s stoic face. He'd gathered me up like Scout had Ariel and was heading toward the door.

  “No! I can't leave her!”

  I looked back toward Sarah―the doctor had paddles on her chest, shocking her―trying to bring her back, but it wasn't working. The machines still screamed. Then a nurse flipped a few switches and in the new silence, I heard the doctor call her time of death.

  “Noooo!”

  “She's not there anymore, darlin'. She's gone. Bruce's drugs fucked her up too badly, the concussion made it worse. She tried, we all saw her try to come back.”

  With a wail I clung to him and sobbed. My sister, she was gone? For real this time. I was unaware we were moving until I was laid on a hospital bed. I was crying so hard, I could barely see. Not that I wanted to. My grief was too strong. Then a tiny little hand touched my face. I blinked clear my eyes until I could see a watery vision of Sarah's daughter. Ariel.

  “Oh, baby. I'm so sorry, sweetheart.”

  I held out an arm, and the little girl crawled in next to me and buried her face in against my breasts before her whole body trembled with her own grief.

  “Let it out, Ariel. You cry, scream, yell, whatever you need to do. You go right ahead, sweetheart. I've got you.”

  I looked up over her to see Scout, Bulldog, Rose and Donna all standing in the room. All with red eyes, and all swiping at tears. I focused on Scout. How had this day gone from heaven to hell so fast? I was really over this roller coaster my life had become recently.

  Holding my gaze, Scout came to me. Leaning down he pressed a soft kiss to my lips before he stroked a hand over Ariel's head. Then, he moved to sit in the seat beside the bed and kept a palm stroking either my hair or Ariel's, until my tears ran out and Ariel had fallen asleep.

  I locked my gaze with Scout's before I spoke in a quiet voice.

  “Did anyone gather up anything before you destroyed that place?”

  Scout turned from me to Bulldog, who cleared his throat before he spoke.

  “Yeah, we did a fast but thorough search of the place. When a couple of the brothers found what looked like Sarah and Ariel's room they
grabbed boxes and shoved everything they could into them. They're safe back at the clubhouse.”

  “I need to find that book, see what she wrote in there about Ariel.” I looked back to Scout. “Do you think they'll let us keep her?”

  The thought of Ariel ending up in the system was enough to make my heart bleed. I was lucky, I got good foster parents first off, but I knew so many others that weren't so lucky. Ariel had been through enough already. She didn't need more drama.

  “I've already got Arrow working on getting us listed as her foster parents. I'll call him in a bit and get him to change things from foster to adoption, if he can.”

  That had me frowning. “Don't we have to petition the court and pass tests and stuff?”

  “Normally, yeah, but I'm calling in some markers to get this done fast.”

  I didn't ask anything else, knowing I didn't want to know anything to do with club business. So long as I got to have Ariel to raise and protect, to love, I’d be happy.

  “But even if what Arrow is doing fails, I promise you this, Marie. I will move heaven and earth if I have to so Ariel can stay with us. I fucking failed Sarah so badly, I refuse to ever fail her daughter in any way.”

  I knew if we weren't careful, the guilt over Sarah was going to eat us both up. Considering how much I was struggling, I could only imagine how Scout was feeling.

  “She made her choice. I tried everything I could to get her to stay, but after what happened she wanted to be far away from all things biker. Guess she'd never considered there were people out there more evil than the Hammers.”

  I stroked Ariel's soft hair. Even after telling her to let it out, she'd cried silently until she fell asleep against me. What had happened in that place to make such a small child so quiet? Would she talk to me now that Sarah had told her it was okay? I hoped so.