Pierced and Inked (KO Ink Book 2)

by Harley McRide

  “Now see here,” Reilly said and I shook my head.

  “Sir, please,” I said softly, hoping to head this off at the pass. “I promise we will come out here when we find anything out.”

  “Oh,” the nurse said hesitantly, “Um…Ms. Maddie already made arrangements for the ultrasound to be patched in the back office as well. They can watch but they won’t be in the room for the examination.”

  My mouth fell open when I turned to my mom and snapped, “Fucking really?”

  The woman then shrugged and winked at Reilly, “You owe me.”

  “This is so righteous!” Brit squealed and raised her arms in the air. “We get to see the baby!!”

  I rolled my eyes and pointed at my mother, “Your fault, if someone gets arrested or thrown out, I am not bailing anyone out, I am serious.”

  “Go,” Ms. Maddie said with a roll of her eyes. “Come on ya’ll, I know where we are going.”

  Zoey and Michael turned and looked at me and I shook my head and threw up my hands, “I am so done with trying to control them. I swear, we are buying an island and moving as soon as possible.”

  Michael snorted, “You know they would find us, right?”

  Zoey nodded and looked worried. “They could totally pull a Silence of the Lamb thing too, you know, keep us in a hole, prisoners producing children for them or they would kill us. I can totally see all of them lowering a bottle of lotion down the hole and saying, ‘It puts the lotion on’.”

  The nurse laughed loudly and then put a hand over her mouth and shook her head. “I am so sorry.”

  I rolled my eyes and followed them as we walked to our doom.

  Zoey

  “Okay, Zoey,” Dr. Stevens said with a smile. “Exam first and then the big show.”

  I grimaced and looked at both Michael and Reese, who suddenly looked very fierce. If we got out of here without jail time we were so going to be lucky. The nurse had taken my blood pressure, which was normal and my weight, which had shockingly seemed a lot more than what I had expected. Talk about depressing!

  Then she had shown us into the small exam room and handed me a lovely gown to change into. Yeah, not my idea of a good time.

  “Okay,” I said and then laid back on the table as both of my men moved to stand on either side of me. When they both reached for my hand I instantly relaxed. They would be so easy to love if I would just admit to it.

  The exam went okay, the doctor had only measured my stomach and asked questions about how I was feeling and how far along I thought I was. I did become worried when he asked twice how far along I thought I was. But then quickly forgot it when he said he was going to do a very quick internal exam since both of my men had glared at the doctor and growled, yes, they actually growled at the poor man who laughed and mumbled “First time dads.”

  But it was painless and only slightly uncomfortable since he didn’t use a speculum. When he announced everything was good, I swear I heard cheering in the next room. I closed my eyes when Michael hit the wall and yelled, “No listening until the ultrasound!”

  The doctor chuckled and shook his head. “You know, I have to say, in all my years I think this is the first appointment where we had spectators in the next room. I kinda feel like I am on candid camera!”

  “Good lord!” Reese muttered and then kissed me on the forehead and whispered, “Deserted island is sounding better and better.”

  The doctor opened the door and his tech rolled in the machine, which sadly enough was the same kind Mr. O’Malley had been playing with the in ER.

  “Okay,” the doctor said, smiling and pulling out a tube of gel. “Now, since you are not too far along, we are going to do this vaginally. It will be a little uncomfortable, and if it hurts you need to tell me right away.”

  “No problem,” I snorted and then let him put my heels in the stirrups again.

  “A little pressure,” he murmured and I felt the wand moving at my entrance. With a grimace I felt it being inserted. I tightened my grip on my guys’ hands but when the screen came to life I totally relaxed. Oh my God, I thought as he turned up the sound on the panel.

  “There is the heartbeat,” the doctor said and tears began to gather in my eyes.

  “Shit,” Reese said, staring at the screen transfixed.

  “Cool,” Michael whispered as he also stared.

  “Hang on there,” the doctor said and I tensed.

  “What?” I squeaked. “What is wrong?”

  “Just a second,” the doctor murmured and then I felt the wand moving a little. I was freaking out and I heard Reilly in the other room.

  “Go back, we can’t see my grandbaby anymore.”

  My eyes flew to the screen, what was happening?

  “Hang on,” the doctor said again.

  “You know, talking would be good here,” Michael snapped.

  “Well I’ll be,” the doctor chuckled.

  “WHAT?” I yelled.

  “Okay,” the doctor laughed. “Give me a second, I believe we will be able to see better this other way right now.”

  He removed the wand and lowered my legs and lifted the gown and squirted warm gel on my stomach. I was scared, and so were the guys, I could tell.

  The handheld thingy moved across my stomach, spreading the gel and then the doctor pressed it into my pelvis. I heard the thumping return but much faster and it didn’t seem to be beating regularly.

  “Oh yeah,” he laughed and pointed to the screen. “Here is your first baby,” he said and I stared at the little bean on the screen, tears gathered. I should have listened to his wording, I should have, because it would have saved me from once again scaring the shit outta of the guys when I fainted.

  “My baby.”

  “Now, here is why your stomach is a little bigger than what I would expect it to be right now,” the doctor said and moved the thingy and continued, “here is your second baby.”

  There was silence as Michael and Reese both stared at the screen trying to absorb what the doctor had said. I heard screaming but everything faded away when I actually realized what the doctor had said and I sat up quickly, too quickly and scared the doc.

  “EXCUSE ME!” I screeched and then promptly passed out back onto the table.

  It was only for a second, I knew it because I heard the doctor swear when neither of the guys caught me and my head hit the pillow thankfully.

  “Zoey!” the doctor yelled over the screaming in the other room. It must have snapped my guys out of their shocked state because when I opened my eyes they were staring at me with concern.

  “Shit, Zoe?” Michael said and Reese grabbed me to make sure I was stable on the table.

  I didn’t give a shit, ‘cause yeah, this was sooooo their fault. “TWO? I am having two babies?” I squeaked and the doctor smiled and nodded.

  “Congratulations!” he crowed and my eyes narrowed as I heard the parents in the other room already planning for the first overnight.

  “Okay, we got one and Ms. Maddie will get the other one for the first night, and then we will switch.” Reilly laughed. “You know Michael got his good genes from my side.”

  “Seriously?” Mrs. O’Malley yelled. “There are twins on my side of the family idiot, not yours.”

  “And my grandmother had twins as well.” Ms. Maddie laughed.

  “Nope, it is me,” Reilly said and then continued, “and now I am gonna go and call Anthony and tell him, ‘cause yeah, I totally won this bet, with two I have a better chance of getting my roster filled out faster than him. He is gonna need to step up the pressure on Brooklyn.”

  I moaned and threw my arm over my head, Brooklyn was gonna hate me now, hell, all of them were. This is so not my fault, damn it and I snapped, “In about an hour I will be extremely happy about this, I know it but right now, I am frigging pissed. Leave it to you two to not only have awesome swimmers and getting me pregnant the first time we had sex, but hell, you have to be overachievers and impregnate me with not only one, but two b
abies. I cannot not believe you two, it is like you are trying to drive me bat ass crazy. Is that your plan? To drive me nuts, ‘cause I gotta tell you it is working. I can feel my grasp on reality slipping away. I am gonna end up in the nuthouse. Oh my God, two, two babies, I am having two babies!”

  The men were silent but they should have made sure Reilly was silent too because when I heard his comment, I totally freaked out.

  “I hope their heads aren’t as big as Bry’s was ‘cause you were in labor for days, Ma, and it kinda stretched you out. Thank God I slipped the doctor a twenty to stitch you up a little extra back then. Hey, we can start a pool for how big we think their heads will be.”

  Michael

  “Yeah, Dad, I will tell her again that you are sorry she heard that. Well, when she starts speaking to us again I will,” I snarled into the phone, then hung up and glared at the door Zoey and Brit were behind.

  Yes, she was pissed and I couldn’t really blame her but damn, walking out of the doctor’s office and jumping into a cab with Brit while flipping us off had been a bit harsh. We were fucking lucky Brit had at least made sure she had come home to be pissed.

  But now we were locked out of the master bedroom because the two women were in there talking and crying with each other while Reese and I stood in the hallway glowering at the door waiting for them to exit.

  “How long do you think they will be in there?” Reese asked.

  “Well, I figure it could be most of the day, I smell pizza, which means they have food, and the bathroom is there, so they won’t have to come out for that,” I said and Reese grunted.

  “Shit,” he said. “They don’t have sweets; I give them an hour!”

  “Way wrong answer, asshole,” Zoey yelled through the door. “We stopped at the Cum-n-Go and got snacks and cherry Icee’s the 44 oz.”

  “Fuck,” I said and shook my head, hitting him on the shoulder and groaning. “They could be in there until morning.”

  Reese nodded and then looked at the floor and then yelled loudly, “I am not sleeping on the couch, woman, that is our bed.”

  I closed my eyes and shook my head, fuck, we needed to talk about when to keep our mouths shut.

  “Really?” Zoey yelled in a high pitched voice, which made me wince. “Really? You think you can order me around now that I have two babies cooking? Get a clue, until you both apologize for getting me pregnant and provide the right amount of sucking up, you are frozen out. The va-jay-jay is closed for healing. It is gonna take a lot of King Size Almond Joy’s to make this cootchie open again.”

  “Did she just use va-jay-jay and cootchie in one speech?” I whispered and Reese nodded sadly.

  “Yeah, she did. Fuck, we better go to the goddamn store or we will be sitting out here for days. I do not put it past her to call Ma and have her smuggle in food,” I said.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Zoey

  I frowned as I set the phone down the third time. First thing this morning I had started to call Cora, so far nothing. I had only a half an hour before she was supposed to be at the office, I guess I could wait to call her there. With a smile, I turned to the fridge and pulled out the makings for ham and cheese omelets for the guys.

  This morning they had been so sweet, waking me with kisses and sweet words. I had overreacted of course, but I had also wanted to spend some time with Brit, so we had stayed in our room until late last night watching movies and laughing before I had let them in to apologize. They had done a good job, and so I allowed them to sleep in the same room as me; however, I had not had sex with them, which had upset them but when I explained what Reilly had said, they had also understood and called him and yelled at him.

  I am sure Reilly hadn’t known I could hear him when he asked the doctor about when the babies got a little bigger, and they didn’t have as much room, if they could feel when I had sex with both me. Yep, it freaked me the fuck out.

  I told them to get ready and I would make breakfast, was this what it was going to be like the rest of my life? ‘Cause if it was, I could totally dig this. I sighed and then started breakfast.

  Halfway in between flipping the eggs my phone rang. I figured it was Cora so I didn’t even look to see who the call was coming from. I should have waited, I knew this, the guys had warned me about checking my phone first.

  “Hello?” I said, smiling at the pan and waiting. There was no one on the other end, I pulled the phone back and looked down at the screen and it said ‘Unknown’. That was weird. Thank God I pulled the pan off the stove, thinking I needed to go find the guys ‘cause pretty sure wouldn’t have thought of a possible fire when sound filter in from the other side of the call.

  “Where is the file?” I heard a man yelled and then crying. What the heck?

  “Hello?” I said again, pausing.

  Again nothing, but I heard someone slap someone else, the sound of flesh hitting flesh was distinct.

  “Bitch, I asked you where the fucking file was!”

  “I don’t know what you are talking about!” I heard Cora scream. Oh my God, oh my God, I thought and then started running for the stairs. I listened as I heard more slapping and crying over the receiver.

  “Reese! Michael!” I screamed, not giving a crap if they could hear me at that point.

  My men ran out of the bedroom, Michael still dripping with water and a towel around his waist and Reese already dressed but his hair not combed yet.

  “Zoey?” Reese said.

  I threw the phone at him and cried, “It’s Cora!”

  Reese hit the speaker button and Michael came closer.

  “I don’t know where it is, why is it so important?” Cora cried.

  The men frowned and Michael turned and shook his head and pointed into the office like he wanted me to go. I was not going anywhere, Cora was in trouble.

  “I am getting sick of this, punta! You know where it is, you had it, now who did you give it to?” the man snapped and we heard more hitting and Cora screaming.

  “What file, I have a million of them, I have no idea who you are asking for!”

  “Shit, you know what fucking file, I gave you the name,” the man said and we heard someone laughing in the background as the man continued to hit Cora.

  “I have never heard of him before!” Cora screamed. “He is not part of my case load!”

  “Fuck we know that, bitch, we said the other chick, the one whose bag you took from that police prick to return. You should have just fucking left it in your office,” the man said and Cora groaned.

  “Zoey’s?” she whispered.

  My eyes closed, oh my God, they were looking for my briefcase. What the heck was in the file that freaked them the heck out so much? Jorge Vasquez’s filed was thin, he had only been in holding overnight prior to the prelim hearing. I looked at Michael and Reese who had begun walking to the office. Reese holding the phone while Michael grabbed his cell and called someone. It wasn’t until I heard him whisper into the phone I knew he called the gym.

  “Fuck,” Michael whispered. “Get Reed to run a trace of Zoey’s phone, some asshole has Cora, Zoey’s supervisor, and is trying to locate the file.”

  I sucked in a breath as the tears began to fall. Cora, she didn’t know any more than I did about this. What was going on? An illegal fighting ring kidnapping a social worker, for what? What could we possible know about this to hurt us. It made no sense at all. All of this was completely whacked.

  Reese yelled into the phone, “Motherfuckers, if you want the file, hurting her is not the way you are gonna get it. We have it, let her go, tell us where she is and we will talk.”

  Michael nodded at Reese and I sat down on the chair. They were trying to help Cora, oh please God, let them help Cora. The men on the other side of the phone though ignored it.

  “Who did you give the briefcase to?” the man asked.

  “Prosecutor Maria Roark,” Cora yelled loudly, then she screamed and I heard them laughing.

  “Yeah, we alrea
dy knew that,” the man snarled and then said to someone, “This bitch don’t know nothing.”

  “Do it,” we heard someone say and then Cora screamed again, followed by the sound of a gunshot.

  Michael and Reese stopped and didn’t even breathe while we waited. Finally, we heard a man who must have put the phone up to his mouth because what he said came across loud and clear.

  “We are coming, you should have kept your fucking nose outta our business.”

  I heard the click of the phone knowing he had hung up. I looked at Reese and Michael who both looked grim and whispered, “They are going to kill me.”

  Reese dropped the phone and came to me and crouched in front of me and took my hands. “No, baby, they are not, I swear to you, they will not get to you.”

  “Is Cora dead?” I asked, already knowing the answer but needing them to say it out loud to me.

  Michael swore into the phone and put it on the desk and came to me as well. He put a hand on my head and whispered, “We don’t know yet, sweetheart, I promise we will find her though. Hang in there for a while, Tony and the rest of them are on their way here. We are not going to let anything happen to you.”

  I nodded and sobbed, “You can’t promise that, you can’t.”

  “Like hell I can’t,” Michael said and looked at Reese who nodded.

  “Baby,” Reese said. “We can because know this, if anyone comes for you, they have to get through the O’Malleys, the Roarks, the Macaroys, and the Marshalls. We are a family, and, baby, I know you are freaked out, but stay with me, I swear, they will not get to you.”

  I sniffed and nodded slowly, “I don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

  Michael sucked in a breath, “I hear you, sweetheart, trust me, I hear you, and we will try to make sure no one else does but, baby, hear this, please, hear this. We will lay down our lives for you and the babies you are carrying, both of us, hell all of us. We will be careful, we will be smart, but starting right now, you are out of this, we are calling in the big guns, and those fuckers are going to go straight to hell where they belong.”