by Jessica Ames
The only people I do care about are Sasha and my daughter.
I move over to the cot bed and peer down at my kid, my heart cracking open for her. She’s perfect. I don’t deserve such innocence, such purity in my life. Not with my filthy history, but I can’t bring myself to walk away. I want this. I want the family. I need it more than ever now.
“Hey, baby girl.” I move my finger over her cheek like I’ve seen Sasha do a hundred times. Lily’s mouth pulls into a smile, and I find myself mirroring the gesture as she talks to me in broken English I can mostly understand.
“I’m going to leave you guys to it,” Lucy says, making her escape.
“Go easy on Lucy,” Sasha says once the door snicks shut behind her. “She’s used to being my protector.”
I snort. I don’t give a fuck what she’s used to being, but for Sasha’s sake I dial back the anger. I glance down at my daughter and that rage vanishes completely.
“I’m buying a house.”
Her brows pull together. “Okay.” She draws the word out, as if unsure where this is going.
“I want you and Lily with me.”
I watch as her eyes soften. “I want that too, but what about Lucy? I can’t just leave her. She took care of us all these—”
I silence her with a kiss. “I’ll make sure she’s taken care of. Let’s get our girl her treatment and get her home.”
34
Sasha
Tyler squeezes my hand for the third time in as many minutes. I know he’s nervous. We both are. We’re sitting in the hospital waiting area while Fury is in with the doctors and Whizz. So far, it’s been quiet, but I’m braced for whatever might happen. The man might be a fierce bastard, but he’s also shit-scared of needles, and they need to take a blood sample to confirm he’s a match for Lily-May. I’m eager to get this side of things handled. I know a few days won’t make a difference, but every second that ticks by feels like a second too long. I want my daughter well and fast.
“Should we be worried by the silence?” I ask, biting my bottom lip and wondering if Fury has gone on a killing spree.
Tyler cups my face and I manage to receive his touch without flinching in pain. It’s been a week since Sin attacked me. My bruises are still ugly and prominent, but the cuts to my face are starting to scab over. I don’t know if they’ll scar, but I’m hopeful they won’t. I don’t want to have that constant reminder of that day looking back at me in the mirror, staring Ty in the face every time he looks at me.
“He’ll do this,” he says, and I smile, putting my faith in the man at my side.
Ty has been amazing the past few days. I didn’t expect nightmares, but the first night Ty ordered me back to the clubhouse to rest, they came. I was back in that room with Sin and every dream ended with him raping me again, not being saved by Ty and the guys.
I know he’s having his own dreams. He doesn’t talk about it, but his sleep hasn’t come easy. Nox told me it would stay with Ty for a while, what he did to Sin, but I hope he can eventually make peace with his decision. He deserves that.
“I know he’ll do it. I just don’t want him to kill Lily’s doctor.”
Ty snorts, but doesn’t deny that could happen. It doesn’t help my anxiety. A yell sounds from the room, and I brace. Shit. The sound of something knocking over has my unease going through the roof. Ty squeezes my hand again.
After a few moments, the door opens to the exam room, and I sit up straighter as Whizz comes out looking a little ruffled, Fury on his heels.
“Done?” Ty asks.
Whizz huffs out a breath, giving Fury a sidelong glare. “Yeah.”
Fury holds a little cotton ball against the crook of his arm, his face pale. I come to my feet.
“There’s not enough thank yous in the world for what you’re doing for Lily-May.”
His brows draw down at my words. “You’re family.”
My heart soars at his words. Family. Being accepted back into the fold by the brothers is a relief. I thought I lost my family after I left. Sin made me believe they’d never welcome me back. He was wrong. These lads have opened their arms and hearts to me as if I never left at all, and they’ve opened to Lily-May too. I know she’ll always have the protection of the club, and it makes me feel safer knowing that.
Whizz juts his chin at Fury. “You ready to head back to the clubhouse?”
He nods.
We watch them head for the exit before we make our way back to Lily-May’s room. She’s been doing well this week, better than usual, but she still needs the transplant desperately. I wish they would hurry things up. I can’t bear seeing her in this place, suffering, but the doctors seem to be in control of things.
“Sash.” He stops me before we go back into the room. I peer up at him, feeling my stomach flip at the seriousness of his expression.
“What?”
He pulls an envelope from the inside pocket of his kutte and taps it against his fingers.
“It’s the paternity results. They came this morning.”
My mouth dries and my heart rate starts to accelerate until I can barely get air down my windpipe.
“I don’t need to see it.”
“I already opened it.”
I peer up at him. “You did?”
“I wanted to know first.”
I try to swallow through the dryness, but I can’t.
“And?”
He hands me the envelope. For a moment, I stare at it like it’s live ammunition. I don’t want to know the results, but if Tyler’s seen it, I’m assuming the news is good. He would never have shown me this if it confirmed Sin was Lily-May’s father.
Hope flares through me at that thought. I slowly pull the paper from the envelope and open it out. There’s a load of science shit at the start I don’t understand, so I skip to the main part of the letter, the part that says Lily-May is Tyler Jenkins’ kid.
My heart canters in my chest as I read those words. I must have already been pregnant when Sin raped me. The thought makes me sick to my stomach, but relief also floods me knowing he doesn’t have this final hold over me. That Lily won’t be dirtied by what happened to me. She can love her father. She would never have been able to love Sin.
Tears well in my eyes and I let them fall unchecked. Tyler swipes them away with his thumb.
“She’s mine.”
“She’s yours,” I sob out and then he pulls me into a bone-crushing hug. His hand brushes over my hair as I cling to him, feeling my legs wobble beneath me.
“You’re mine too.”
I smile through my tears. “Always.”
Epilogue
Ravage
Two months later…
The smell of meat cooking fills the air as soon as I step out of the car. My gaze moves across the compound towards the clubhouse, towards where the crowd of kuttes are gathered around the barbecue. From here, I can tell Titch and Levi are arguing over who is doing the cooking. I know because they have this same fucking debate during every monthly club cook out. Something about grilling meat outside brings the arsehole out in them both.
I shrug out of my kutte and turn it the right way around before settling it back onto my back just as Sasha climbs out of the car. My woman looks amazing tonight. She’s wearing a pair of skin-tight jeans that should be fucking illegal, my property kutte and a tiny vest top beneath it that shows a slither of her stomach. The tattoo of Lily’s name is visible on her wrist. The moment I laid eyes on her, I wanted to drag her upstairs and fuck her brains out, but we were already running late because of Lily-May.
My daughter does not like doing anything in a hurry.
She had the transplant a month ago. So far, it seems to have taken well, but it’s still early days. All I know is my daughter has grown from strength to strength, completely changing from the sickly little girl in the hospital to a bubbly toddler with an attitude that reminds me of Sasha when she was young. She was only let out of the hospital this week and this is the first tim
e we’ve taken her anywhere, so there are banners hanging from the walls of the building with ‘welcome home’ written on them. It warms me in a way I didn’t think was possible to know my brothers have embraced my daughter the same way I have.
I move to the back door of the vehicle and pull it open. Lily-May peers up at me through long lashes and smiles a radiant smile that reminds me why I did all the shit I did, who I did it for. My family. And it feels amazing to be able to say that. I love them both. It’s amazing how fast this little girl has wormed her way into my stone-cold heart. I didn’t think I was capable of loving anyone, of letting anyone in but Sasha. Lily-May proved me wrong. The love I have for this little girl scares me sometimes.
Being responsible for her scares me.
I unfasten the straps in her car seat and pull her out of it, into my arms, tugging down the Untamed Sons tee she’s wearing. When I start to lower her to the ground, she grips my neck, making me chuckle. I straighten, and she circles my neck tighter.
Holding out my other hand, Sasha takes it and together the three of us walk over to join my brothers.
“Hey! Look who’s here!” Titch yells, a pair of tongs in his hands. He tickles under Lily’s chin and she giggles a high-pitched sound that makes the ice around my heart thaw a little more.
“Really, Titch?” Sasha says, gesturing towards him even as she rolls her eyes at him. He’s wearing an apron with a picture of tits and a snatch on it.
“What?” he demands, holding his arms out as he peers down at himself.
She shakes her head at him, but there’s a smirk on her lips. Sasha grew up here. She knows what the guys are like. Lily will probably learn a few new words from the brothers, but each one of them would die for her.
Nox strides over and hands a bottle of beer each to Sasha and me.
“Food should be done in a few, if those two dickheads can stop arguing for five seconds.”
I don’t care about the food. All I care about is the people here. My family by choice.
I let Lily-May down and she rushes over to Fury. She’s taken a shine to him, although I don’t think he knows how the hell to handle it. He stiffens but then after a moment is taken in by her raised hands, demanding he picks her up. He leans down and sweeps her up and I find myself grinning as she chatters a million miles per hour at him.
I move over to a bench, taking Sasha with me, one eye on my daughter as Sasha sits and talks to Briella, Levi’s sister and Francesca, Daimon’s cousin. Titch’s boys, who are seven and five, are running around making bike noises, racing each other.
After a few moments, Fury puts her down and I stiffen as I watch her scampering over in our direction, my heart in my throat until she’s at my side.
She surprises the fuck out of me by yelling, “Catch me!”
Then she throws herself into my arms and I’m glad I have fucking good reflexes. I wrap my arms around her and pull her to me, kissing her head.
“Daddy!”
I freeze. She’s never called me that before. I wasn’t entirely sure she understood when Sasha was trying to tell her who I am.
I glimpse Sasha behind her who is grinning like crazy. “Yeah, baby. He’s your daddy.”
I hold my daughter close to me, breathing in her baby shampoo and powder smell, and Sasha grips my hand.
“I got something for you,” I tell her.
She frowns. “What?”
I dig in my pocket around Lily-May and pull out a set of keys.
Her eyes flare. “Is that—”
“The keys to our new house.”
Sasha comes to my side and dips down so she can press her mouth to mine.
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
The roar of an engine catches my attention, and I move quickly, putting myself between my daughter, woman and the danger, fear clogging my arteries as a car peels through the gates, taking them off their hinges with a creak that hurts my ears. It crashes into a stone pillar at the side of the drive, the sound so loud it reverberates around the compound like an explosion.
Smoke pours from under the hood, making it hard to see what’s going on. I hand Lily to Sasha and keep them both behind me as I reach around my back for my gun, ready to go to war with anyone here to harm my family.
“Get the women and children inside,” I yell, knowing one of my brothers will see to it.
I see Sash, Briella, and the other women clamouring towards the clubhouse, Levi with them.
Kyle approaches the vehicle from the gate’s security booth, gun drawn. The other brothers move closer, their own weapons aimed at the car.
Yells go up as my brothers shout instructions as they move to the car to see what the hell is going on. I can’t see shit past the airbag which has deployed, smothering the occupant of the vehicle.
Nox moves like a panther next to Fury, gun raised, signalling to the others to close in.
The car door opens with a creak of protest and someone falls out of the driver’s seat. All I see is blood, a fuck ton of it, but she’s female. I can see that much.
Titch curses and cocks the hammer back on his firearm.
Nox moves forwards, then something dawns in his eyes and he stops.
“Fuck! Lower your guns!” Nox yells, “Lower your fucking guns.”
Then he’s moving and is in front of the car.
“Lucy?”
She peers up at him through the blood covering her, as if she’s struggling to focus on him.
“Help.”
The End
Did you love Ravage?
The Untamed Sons will continue in book two, Nox, coming November 2020!
If you would like a reminder when this book goes live, please click here.
Nox
As Vice President of the Untamed Sons MC, my first loyalty is to my club and my president, that is until Lucy walks into my life. For her, I'm willing to give it all up. I'll stand against my brothers, question my loyalty and even consider giving up my patch. Too bad everything I'm building isn't real.
Lucy
Nox is falling for me, but he shouldn't. I have secrets and if he knew the truth he'd drop me in a heartbeat. The problem is I'm falling for him too, but when my past comes out he's going to hate me. Nothing is as it seems. My whole life is a lie. Everything except Nox.
Because the truth is Lucy Franklin doesn't really exist.
If you would like to preorder Nox, click here.
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Also by Jessica Ames
Have you read them all?
In the Untamed Sons MC Series
Ravage
Leaving Rav was the hardest decision I've ever had to make, but I didn’t have a choice. Staying and facing my past wasn't an option. I suffered through hell, but I'm stronger than I've ever been, at least I was until my daughter got sick. Now, the only person left who might be able to save her is her father. Only, I have no idea who it is. Ravage, or his brother, Sin.
Download here: https://books2read.com/Ravage-USMC
Nox
Nox is falling for me, but he shouldn't. I have secrets and if he knew the truth h
e'd drop me in a heartbeat. The problem is I'm falling for him too, but when my past comes out he's going to hate me. Nothing is as it seems. My whole life is a lie. Everything except Nox. Because the truth is Lucy Franklin doesn't really exist.
Download here: https://books2read.com/Nox-USMC
In the Lost Saxons Series
Snared Rider
A decade ago Beth fled Kingsley for one reason and one reason only: Logan Harlow. Sure, the man is a sex on legs biker, but he's also a thief; he stole her heart and broke it. Now, she's back in town and has no choice but to face him.
Download here: https://books2read.com/SnaredRider
Safe Rider
A new life; a new start—that was what Liv needed after escaping her violent marriage. Moving to Kingsley was a chance to show the world she wasn’t defeated by her past. No part of that plan involved falling in love with a biker.
Download here: https://books2read.com/SafeRider
Secret Rider
A one-night stand—that was all she was supposed to be. She wasn’t supposed to walk into his bar a week later and demand a job. Wade is used to dealing with formidable women but Paige may just be his match. She’s fiery, feisty and he wants her, but before they can be together, he needs to learn what she’s hiding.
Download here: https://books2read.com/SecretRider