I wanted to help, but I sucked at directions too. I looked around desperately.
Then I saw the little compass bobble thing on the dash. I pointed to it for Claire.
She took a deep breath and nodded.
“North and there’s a marker. We are traveling north on Interstate 7,” Claire breathed out.
“FUCKING BITCH!” Ellie had pulled up beside us in a black Jeep and took a sharp turn into us.
“CRAZY PSYHO!” Claire yelled back.
I screamed. I couldn’t help it.
Claire dropped the phone.
She looked at me and yelled, “Raine. Hold on. I’m going to have to force some road rage on this LUNATIC”—she spared a glance in Ellie’s direction—“or she is going to run us straight off the damn road!”
I braced myself with my feet and hands. Then I thought again and reached for the blanket and put it between my pregnant belly and the dash. Damn old heap did not have air bags. That was a good thing for my baby, I thought. But I still wanted to provide as much protection as I could if things went bad.
“Ready?” Claire glanced at me.
“Yeah,” I answered. I put my hand to Claire’s briefly. Our eyes met and misted over.
“I love you,” we both said at the same time.
Then Claire swerved violently to the left, catching Ellie off guard on a sharp corner. The Jeep veered on two wheels, throwing sparks as the muffler dragged on the ground. I looked in the rearview mirror and saw the damn SUV right itself.
She was coming at us again.
Claire looked at me and said, “I don’t think I can outrun her.”
I looked back at the SUV and at the road ahead. “Look, there’s a steep embankment to the right up there.”
“Yeah, I see it.” Claire was looking ahead.
“She can’t see past this van. If you stay in front of her, just enough so she doesn’t ram us, and then swerve to the left at the last minute, she won’t have time to corner the turn and will drop off the cliff.”
“Yeah, or she’ll lock on to us with her fucking bumper and we’ll both get pulled over.” Claire looked at me.
Then the bitch bumped us again. Really hard.
“We have to try it. Claire, I think we have to try.” I was crying too by then.
Claire took her eyes off the road long enough to search mine for a moment.
I could see the terror in her eyes.
“It’s our only chance, honey. You can do it. I know you can.” I smiled at her through the tears and took my hand off the dash just long enough to clasp hers in mine.
Claire squeezed my hand and nodded once.
“Damn right I can do this.” Claire sat up straighter in the seat.
She swerved the wheel and looked into the rearview. She positioned the van right in front of Crazy Ellie. I looked in the mirror and helped Claire navigate to stay in front of her. Claire had the pedal pushed to the floor.
“Ready?” Claire’s hands were white-knuckled on the steering wheel.
I just nodded.
“RAINE?” Claire had the pedal to the metal.
“READY!” I yelled over the roar of two engines.
Claire veered sharply to the left then, and the whole van careened and squealed on two wheels for what must have been a mile before it finally landed upright then halted to a dead stop.
We looked behind us just in time to see the Jeep miss the turn and fly high over the embankment. We listened for it and heard it land heavy in a sea of bent metal. The sound of thick tree trunks being broken in half filled our ears before the raging bull finally succumbed to broken glass and torn gas lines.
It went up in a roar of deep crimson flames.
Claire and I got out of the van and walked towards the edge of the cliff. Even though the crash was well beyond the steep ledge, we could hear the hiss and pop of explosions going on around the vehicle. The heat was so intense I could feel it on my face.
I suddenly felt Claire clap her hands tight against my ears.
I looked at her face and her eyes were bright. Tears were streaming down her cheeks.
Then I heard them.
The sounds that my sister met full-on in her attempt to spare me from them.
Through the warmth of her hands I heard them.
The tortured screams of Ellie being burned alive.
CHAPTER 77
A roar of engines sounded towards us. We listened to them approach. The pavement reverberated with the sound. The welcome vibration ran through our bodies. We could feel them. A fleet of steel horses ridden by dark knights charging to our rescue. We knew before we saw them. Our men had come to take us home.
Our family would be waiting for us.
Our outlaw father and brothers and lovers. And their women.
The shadow people. The brotherhood. The ones I had hidden Claire and myself from so long ago when their dark images had given way to my every childhood nightmare.
They had now become the heroes in our story. Our dark avengers.
They were now our hope.
They were now our loved ones.
Loved ones.
This not-so-merry band of outlaws had taken us in. Had made us feel warm and welcome.
Had made us feel wanted.
They had opened up their own careworn, damaged, hard hearts and saw what had been broken in ours.
And they had fixed them.
They had held our hearts in their hands. They had glued and stitched and hammered and nailed until we were whole again.
Our outlaw family had succeeded where even royalty had failed.
They had done what all the king’s horses and all the king’s men could not do.
They had put us back together again.
Putting my hand on the life growing inside me, I knew that someday the shadow people would cast firelit images on the walls of my own child’s bedroom. My silhouette would merge with theirs as they formed the dancing shapes.
And my child would feel warm and safe and secure in the seeing of it.
My child would not be afraid.
CHAPTER 78
Claire and I stood on the edge of the road and waited for them. Holding on tight to each other like we always had.
It was going to be okay. We were safe. We were together and help was on its way. We were golden.
I looked at Claire and started laughing. “Little sister, I am so relieved I think I just peed my pants.”
She looked at me smiling too.
“Seriously?”
Then I felt a deep pain in my belly that doubled me over.
“Raine, you okay?” Claire was holding on to me.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Except I don’t think that was pee.” I was trying not to panic.
“That’s okay. It’ll be okay.” Claire was looking at me.
Then she really looked at me.
“Oh, my God, Raine! Do you think your water just broke?” I could hear the rising panic in my sister’s voice.
I nodded.
“But it’s too early.” Claire was really scared now.
I looked at her, feeling that panic too.
Because she was not wrong. The baby was coming and it was too early.
And for the first time in a long time, I started to pray.
CHAPTER 79
They were waiting. They were pacing. They were waiting and pacing and filling up the small room with their big bodies. Their inked biceps flexing as they brought cups filled with strong coffee and splashes of a little somethin’-somethin’ from the flasks they kept hidden on the insides of their worn leather cuts.
And they were scared. Prosper could see it in their faces, could feel it in the way they moved. They were frightened for Raine.
He looked around him. His boys. They were li
ke caged jungle cats. Revved up on strong coffee and hard liquor, trying to keep themselves checked and on their best behavior waiting on the arrival of Raine and Diego’s baby.
Raine’s first baby.
Maggie would have been proud. Prosper couldn’t help but think of her. She would have been so proud of Raine.
And of Claire. That one had turned out to be a little firebrand. She sure had. Still waters . . . yeah, in Claire’s case, they sure as hell ran deep.
The first thing she had done, the very first thing she had done, after they had gotten Raine safely to the hospital, had been to move towards Diego and hit him.
Hard.
Claire had walked up to Diego and without a word had slapped him so hard that the sound had echoed against the cold tiles of the hospital waiting room.
Dolly had gasped and Reno made a move to stand in front of Claire. Diego put his hand out to halt him.
She had let them have their reunion. Had let them have their hugs and kisses and had allowed Diego to show Raine how worried he had been.
Claire had kept herself in check for hours.
Little sister had stepped aside while Diego had pushed past her to ride in the ambulance with Raine.
She had listened respectfully and intently with him while Dr. Gideon had explained the risks of delivering the baby a month early.
Then when she was sure it was all said and done, when she was sure that everything was stable and in place and working towards the good, she had walked up to Diego and slugged him.
Without a damn word, the little bit of a thing had let him have it, and she had to stand on tiptoes to do it.
She cracked him so hard that Prosper, sitting across the room, had felt it.
Everyone had held their breath.
“That’s for—” Claire began.
“I know what that’s for, Claire, and I fucking deserve it. Have at it. You might as well get it all out because I ain’t going anywhere and when Raine and my baby get on the other side of this, I don’t want anything getting in the way of us being a family. And I get that you being okay with this is a big part of her being happy. I get that my woman, my baby . . . you come with that.”
“Damn right!” She spat at him.
Then she looked at him hard. “You in this?”
“All the way,” Diego replied.
“You know, Diego, what’s gonna happen in that room? That baby being born, that’s just the beginning of it. I know what happened to you before, and I’m sorry for it. But it’s done. It’s over. I pray to God it never happens again to you or to anyone you love. But the truth is, Diego, it could. Getting past this day, that’s the first part. Babies, they get sick. They puke, get ear infections and have been known to cry at ear-splitting decibels for hours at a time. You showed up today. That’s one day. One day. Being a father, that means showing up every day.”
The whole room held their breath. Reno placed his feet wide apart, getting ready to lunge between D and Claire if it came to that. Claire was going for it, and after what D had been through in the past few hours, Reno wasn’t sure how he was going to react. But then, his girl had been through some crap too. D was right; better she get it out.
Prosper folded his arms over his big chest. Shit had to be said, he thought to himself. So he let Claire continue.
Claire continued. “Diego, you cannot, cannot fall apart on them every time something happens because of letting those old memories get in the way. Later on when the kid falls off a swing or a bike or a goddamn high chair, you gonna be there to catch that fall, Diego? You gonna be able to get past that old grief and man up?”
At man up half the brothers in the room unwound their crossed arms and legs and stood straight up.
Prosper raised an eyebrow. Reno tensed.
“Because, Diego, Raine and I, we were raised by a man who could not get past his grief. And I cannot even begin to count the many, the very many ways that it sucked. This baby does not deserve that. If you don’t think you have it in you, if you have one shred of doubt of what you feel for my sister and this baby, it’s better for everyone that you leave right now. Because if you stay, I am going to be there every step of the way making sure you do what the good daddies do.” At that she looked at Prosper.
Then back again at Diego. “I need you to be what we never had. I need you to be that for Raine. I need you to be that for the baby. And I need you to be that for me. Because I have got to tell you, Diego, I am getting really fucking exhausted.”
Then she slumped forward just a little bit.
Reno was all over that, but Prosper put out his hand and stopped him.
Diego’s eyes went soft when he saw Claire finally let herself feel the tired. When he answered her, he did it from his heart.
“I love her, Claire. I love that baby. And even though you are a little pain in the ass, I love you too, Little Sister. So yeah, I am here. For the puking and the falls and the infections. For the croup and the nightmares. I am here for the first day of kindergarten and the first day of college. I am here on Sundays, Saturdays, and every day in between. I am here every night and every fucking morning. I am here.”
“That good enough for you, Little Sister?” Diego was looking at her.
Claire looked at Diego long and hard.
Well, finally.
Yeah, that was good enough for her.
Dr. Gideon came bursting through the swinging doors.
“Ready to come help me deliver that baby, son?” The good doctor twinkled.
And he was. Oh hell, yeah. Diego was.
EPILOGUE
It was Willow’s second birthday. We had decided to celebrate it together with the housewarming of our newly built home up on the grassy knoll beside the little stream. Crow and Diego had begun drawing up the plans right after Willow’s birth. The house was made of stone and timber. It was beautifully rustic and filled with large windows that let in lots of natural light.
The house sat in the middle of the meadow where I had made love to Diego and had thanked the heavens for sending him to me. And I still gave thanks for him. My beautiful bad man had given me this perfect little dark-haired, blue-eyed baby girl. Willow Magaskawee Montesalto was a happy, chubby imp and the apple of her father’s eye.
We had gotten married as soon as our whole little family had been up to it. The birth of the baby had gone quickly, but Willow had been small and had needed some extra time in the hospital. Diego and I had kept a constant vigil. I honestly believed that I heard the entire nursing staff heave a collective sigh of relief when little Willow had been released.
Diego kept his word to Claire. He did what the good daddies do and he did it all the time. He left us only once and that was to go to Nevada. He had stopped at the florist and brought Janey and his son a beautiful bouquet of flowers. He also brought the ring that was now too small for him, the one he had kept in his wallet under the only picture he had left of Janey. He took the picture and the wedding ring, buried them deep in the soil below the gravestone, placed the flowers lovingly on top, and said his good-byes. He had explained to me that it was not the memory of them he was saying good-bye to, but the crippling fear that had risen from their ashes and had almost destroyed him.
Then he had come home to Willow and me. That night he’d planted the seed of our next child deep within me. I rubbed my round little belly lovingly. Willow would have a baby brother or sister in the fall. I could not be happier.
It had been a good couple of years for the brotherhood. The deal that Prosper had been working on came through and had proven as lucrative as he had known it would be. Apparently the Italians had been instrumental in seeing it through. Gianni’s crew had worked alongside the Saints on a couple of deals since then. In an odd turn of events, I had met Gianni’s family and I had liked them.
The MC had used the money to move towards more legitima
te enterprises and they were all taking off. The brothers were rolling deep in green. Life was good.
Gradually, Glory began to open up to us more and more. And although she stayed on at the lake house, she eventually found the courage to step back out into the world.
Claire, secure in the knowledge that Diego was going continue to do right by Willow and me, finally felt free to follow her dreams. And some of those dreams included Reno.
Dolly and Pinky remained as thick as thieves and spent a whole lot of time spoiling Willow.
Dusk was setting in and the boys had begun to stoke the fire in the pit. Prosper was playing Seger on his harp. Reno and Jules were setting up the deck table for a poker game. The women were beginning to clean up from the cake and presents.
Willow was rubbing her sleepy little eyes with her chubby fist. I picked her up from the middle of her cache of new toys. She held on to me sleepily until she saw her daddy. Then she wiggled out of my arms and into his. Together we walked with her into the house. I watched as Diego washed her little hands and face, changed her diaper, and put her into her little pajamas. It always amazed me to see how much he loved doing both the “mommy and daddy” things for her. I settled into the rocking chair and he handed her to me. I snuggled her little body against me. Softly singing, I rocked her. Diego kissed me, then her, and moved to the door.
I stayed with Willow, holding her in my arms long after she had fallen asleep. I rocked her lovingly, watching the light of the shadow people dancing on the warm wood patina of the light pine.
I watched as the silhouettes caught in the firelight, casting long shadows on my daughter’s walls.
I looked at her sleeping peacefully under the dancing images, satisfied that she had nothing to fear.
I kissed her softly, placed her in her warm, safe crib, and gently closed the door.
Then I went to find my husband.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank my husband, Pasquale, for being the hero in my story. Thank you for everything you are, and for everything I am when I am with you. This would not have been possible without your love guiding me.
Raine Falling (Hells Saints Motorcycle Club) Page 29