by Brook Wilder
Rising out of bed, I stumbled into the closet, pulling together clothes to put on for this raid on Mac. Maybe things would look up once I killed the fucker. For a while there, I’d thought my life was starting to change, that I had found something other than the club to occupy my time.
Leigh had crushed it all last night when she told me she needed space and that she thought I was going to be just like Brad. I wasn’t fucking stupid. I knew what had scared her. The bit with Alisha had scared her, thinking that I could be above the law whenever I wanted because I knew people in high places.
Truth was, I couldn’t blame her for being scared. Hell, I was scared. These feelings I had for Leigh, the kid on the way; I didn’t know what I was doing.
Give me a gun and a bike and I could rule the world.
Give me a woman that I was in love with and a kid on the way? Hell, I couldn’t even put my shoes on right.
And I knew she cared. I knew that it had nearly killed Leigh to have that conversation with me.
Well, I had figured it out after I had gone back home and punched a hole in my wall in frustration. I wasn’t pissed at her. I was pissed at myself that I had walked away and not forced her to confront her fears about this relationship.
Hell, I didn’t know what I was gonna do.
After dressing, I grabbed my keys and my phone, heading outside to my bike. It was hard not to look over at her house, see her car in the driveway, and wonder if she was up already.
Or how the baby was doing.
Or if she had slept good the night before.
I doubted it.
Remembering the task at hand, I climbed on the bike.
It was time to do some hunting.
***
Two hours later, I was riding with Chains in the cab of the club’s delivery truck, rumbling down the highway toward Mac’s location. After gathering a few guys together, Chains had put out the plan. We would go to the location and ambush whatever they were doing with heavy firepower. A deal, a meeting; it didn’t matter.
We would be taking Mac in today, dead or alive.
“You look like shit.”
I looked over at the club president, quirking a half smile. “I feel like shit. I think I am getting too old to drink.”
Chains chuckled, his eyes on the road. “You fighting?”
Damn, the man could be some sort of shrink. “Yeah.”
“What did you do?”
“Why do I have to do anything? It could be her.”
Chains barked in laughter. “Not fucking likely. It’s always our fault. They are right, all the time.”
“You sound like you’ve been there a time or two,” I added, attempting to stretch my legs.
“Try a hundred times,” he said softly, his expression serious. “I know how you feel man, trust me. Ain’t been no love in the Harper household lately. That’s why I need to finish this shit and try to pull this club back together.”
I knew all of this was weighing heavily on him and his marriage. We all needed to put this behind us.
But while Chains had someone waiting at home for him, I didn’t know if I would have the same thing at the end of the day.
Leigh had underestimated me. I was going to be the best damn father-to-be that she had ever experienced. I wasn’t about to disappear just because she thought I was like her ex.
“Apologize,” Chains said after a moment. “Whatever the hell you did, apologize. You got a kid on the way. That’s, man—that’s special.”
“Yeah, I know,” I said, rubbing a hand over my face roughly. The more pregnant Leigh became, the more excited I got about the fact that I was gonna be a father.
It was gonna be my chance to make things right in my life. “She thinks I’m gonna screw her over like Walker did.”
“And that surprises you?” Chains asked, taking a right, the sound of the bikes following us kicking it up a notch as they stretched out on the highway. “That girl, she went through some shit and she’s stronger than the lot of us combined for doing so. Yeah, she’s gonna have reservations about you and your relationship. The thing you have going for you is that she can’t get rid of you totally. Show her you aren’t that bastard.”
“You should go on the road with that shit.”
“And you should fucking listen to me. I know what I am talking about.”
I chuckled as Chains pulled the truck over to the side of the road, throwing it into park. “Duly noted.”
He flipped me off before climbing out of the truck. I pushed every thought of Leigh aside for now, knowing I had to concentrate on the job at hand. The other bikers were already raising the door on the truck and passing out the weapons that we had packed in there earlier.
“You think this is gonna be it?” Halftrack asked me as he grabbed a Kevlar vest and slid it on.
“I hope the hell it is,” I growled, doing the same. Normally I didn’t think about putting the vest on, but with others depending on me to come home now, I wanted to take the extra precaution.
Halftrack sighed. “Yeah, me too, man. I’m fucking tired of hunting this bastard.”
I grabbed my weapons of choice, checking the chambers before walking away. I wasn’t in the mood to carry on a conversation now. I wanted to get the job done and over with.
After everyone was suited up, Chains led us down a sharp downhill slope through a nest of trees that camouflaged our impending arrival. The plan was clear. We would get as close as we could and start the assault, killing anyone in sight. If Mac took a bullet, then so be it.
As long as the former Jester was done with his work, it didn’t matter if we kept him alive.
Chains made the motion for us to fan out and we did so, me staying close to the club president as his flank. My gun felt heavy in my hand as I started my approach, my heart pounding in my ears. Up ahead, there was a dirt road on which the meeting was to take place. Out in the middle of nowhere, no one would see the meeting. How our informant had found out was beyond me.
But it was the perfect place for an ambush. We would come in from both directions. Mac would be trapped in the middle, with no way to escape unless he killed all of us.
After all, we had our orders.
Chains held up his hand and I crouched down on instinct as some of the bikes came into view. Whatever they were discussing, it sure took a hell of a lot of them to do so, which could be good and bad. Good because we could take out more of the rogue club members instead of having to hunt them down.
Bad because that was going to be a shitload of bullets flying around. The vest wasn’t going to protect my damn head.
The group was crowded around a truck similar to ours and I could only hope that there wasn’t a cache of weapons in the back. Damn, I was anxious, ready to get this over with.
After everything Mac had done to this club, it was about to all be over with.
Chains dropped his arm and we started firing, hearing the shouts as we ran toward the fray. I felt my second wind kick in the closer I got, putting a bullet into any biker that wasn’t one of ours as I did so.
Bam.
Bam. Another down.
I lost sight of Chains the moment they started firing back, taking cover behind one of the bikes so I could keep most of my body out of the line of fire. Bullets pinged off the chrome as I looked up over the leather seat, firing my assault rifle with precision so I didn’t miss my intended target.
Another down.
Then another.
I felt a bullet whizz by my cheek, slicing the tender skin open in its wake. I dropped behind the bike again, not bothering to blot the blood that started to flow from the cut.
Damn, that was close.
Sucking in a breath, I raised up over the seat and fired bullets in succession, taking down the gunman. Crouching low, I started back toward the group when a large blast shook the earth in front of me, causing me to be thrown backwards against the bike.
A shower of dirt and grass rained down as I shook my head a few times to clear the rin
ging in my ears, trying to figure out what had just happened.
A hand grabbed my shoulder, shaking it hard. “You okay, Two Tone?”
I looked up at Halftrack. “What the hell happened?”
“Damn booby-trapped grenade pit,” he said in disgust, pushing his gun over his shoulder.
I pushed back up to a standing position, locating my rifle a few feet from me. “Where’s Mac?”
Halftrack and I started toward the crater that the grenades had left, stepping over the bodies of those that had gotten caught up either by a bullet or the grenades. Many of the faces I recognized, which didn’t make me feel great about what we had done today. I knew they were deserters, rogues of the club, but they at one time had been brothers-in-arms.
“He’s fucking gone,” Halftrack said. “There’s no one here.”
“Shit,” Chains said as he caught up with us. “You sure he’s not among the dead?”
So, methodically, we checked each body. One or two were our own, but the rest were part of the rogue club. “He’s gone,” I said, fury raging in my blood. He had slipped us again. “Dammit!”
Chains looked around at the carnage. “We bury them.”
“You’re shitting me, right?” Halftrack said, laughing. “With what? Our bare hands?”
I looked at the club president, whose sad expression wasn’t what I would usually see on his face. “We can put them in the truck.” Besides, Halftrack was right. We didn’t have anything to make graves with.
“Fine,” Chains said, his jaw clenched. “Let’s get this shit done so we can dump the truck.”
It took us over an hour to get all the bodies in the truck, working silently side by side as we stacked our former brothers-in-arms.
After the deed was done, I pulled out my cell, frowning as I saw a number of missed calls from Leigh.
A cold, dead shiver slid down my spine as I hurriedly dialed her cell phone, getting her voice mail in return.
Shit.
There was only one text from her, sent nearly an hour ago, stating that she was at the hospital.
The fucking hospital.
I tucked my phone back into my pocket and strode to Halftrack. “I need your bike.”
He arched a brow. “What?”
“Your bike,” I repeated, barely able to get the words out. “It’s an emergency.”
“What’s wrong?” Chains asked instantly.
“It’s Leigh,” I said. “She’s at the hospital.”
Chains gave me a nod. “Give him your keys, Halftrack.”
***
The ride to the hospital was the longest I had ever experienced. I pulled the bike into an empty parking spot and hurried through the doors, knowing I had to look like hell.
The lady at the reception desk confirmed my suspicion, even sliding her chair back a few inches when I approached her. “Leigh Greene,” I said in a near growl, a thousand thoughts running through my mind.
What if it was the baby?
What if she had been injured?
I should never have left this morning without talking to her first. I should have apologized.
“She’s still in the ER,” the woman said, pointing down the hall. “Room twenty-five.”
I started that way, slowing my steps as I recognized the asshole coming my way, a shit-eating grin on his face. “Why the hell are you here?”
“I’m doing what you should have done,” Nathan said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Leigh fell at school. She tried to call you but, well, clearly you had other priorities.”
I balled my hands into fists to keep from knocking him out right then and there. “I thought I told you to stay away from her.”
He took a bold step forward. “You don’t scare me, biker. You don’t deserve her, you know. The only reason you are still around is because you knocked her up.”
I wanted to hit him. I wanted to pummel my fists into his face and not stop until his own mother wouldn’t recognize him. It would feel so damn good to do so, to give him a piece of what I was really capable of.
But the moment I did that, I would lose Leigh.
If I hadn’t already. “Where is she?”
“Through the doors, down the hall,” he answered, his grin disappearing. “The baby is fine, by the way, and so is Leigh. Shaken up, but she’s gonna be okay.”
“I’ll find out for myself,” I growled, pushing past him.
I had screwed up. Even after our argument, she had called me to come help her. She had wanted me to be there while they checked on our kid and I hadn’t been there.
I hadn’t even acknowledged her calls or her texts.
If shit could go any further south, it just had.
Chapter 16
Leigh
I picked at the cotton blanket covering my body, wishing they would go ahead and discharge me so that I could end this miserable day. I was still embarrassed by what had happened, but glad that everything had checked out fine.
I really hadn’t seen the book bag that had been left on the floor, my feet tangling up in the straps and pitching me forward. I had tried to stop myself from falling, but the moment I had hit the floor, my first concern was the baby.
What if I had harmed the baby?
I had cried out, as it was an in-service day with very few staff in the building to begin with. Unfortunately, the first to arrive had been Nathan.
While I hadn’t been excited about seeing him, he had actually taken charge of the situation, refusing to let me move until the ambulance got there. I had tried to refuse, but once the principal and the school nurse had been called, there was no doubt I was going to the emergency room.
Nathan had offered to escort me and though I wanted to tell him to back off, I couldn’t with a room full of people concerned about me.
So he had ridden in the ambulance, even going as far as holding my hand and telling me that everything was going to be all right.
The moment they had taken me back to a room, he had been kicked out and I had tried to phone Jonathan numerous times, hoping that he would come up here and hold my hand instead. Even with the rift I had caused between us, I wanted him there, especially if there was something wrong with the baby.
That, and I was scared to death. I didn’t want to be alone.
When Jonathan hadn’t responded though, I felt the despair well up inside. Why was the only person I could even count on the one I didn’t like?
The curtain pulled back and I found myself staring into the angry eyes of Jonathan. His gaze immediately softened when he gave me a once-over, concern filling his expression. “Are you okay?”
“I am fine,” I said, finding my voice. He looked like someone had dragged him behind a truck, with bits of dirt and grass all over him. There was a nasty-looking cut on his right cheek, the dried blood looking more like makeup than actual blood now. “You look like you need to be in this bed more than I do.”
He dropped the curtain, closing us together in the small rectangle. “I’m sorry. I didn’t—hell, I couldn’t— just know I wasn’t ignoring your calls.”
Clearing my throat, I moved over in the bed, patting the edge. “Sit down, please.”
He did as I asked, flinching when I touched his cheek with my finger. “It’s nothing.”
“It looks like something.”
Jonathan captured my fingers, holding them in his hand. “I’ve had worse. Tell me what happened, Leigh.”
So I told him, leaving out the parts about Nathan attempting to be my savior. “The doctor told me to rest up through tomorrow and I should be just fine.”
Jonathan’s gaze strayed to my stomach. “The baby?”
“Is just fine,” I finished for him, attempting to take that worried look out of his eyes. “The heartbeat is good and there’s no blood.”
He paled at the word blood. “Are you sure?”
Despite trying to break away from him, I couldn’t help but feel the warmth of his concern spreading throughout my body. “Yes, th
ey are sure. I’m just waiting on my paperwork.”
Jonathan blew out a breath. “Thank God.”
I bit my lip as I watch the emotions play across his face. I wanted to trust him, trust that he was nothing like Brad and was going to be the perfect partner in raising this child together. Actually, after a horrendous morning, I had given consideration to apologizing for my rash conclusion, admitting where I might be wrong.