by Jessie Cooke
She ran alongside the river until she came to the slightly wooded area of the path. There were trees and bushes and although it occurred to Nicole that it might not be a good idea for her to veer out of the more populated area, she was feeling confident and the sounds and smells of nature drew her in. She pulled off her headphones and reveled in the chirping of the birds in the trees and the chittering of small furry animals as she continued to jog. She was in her head and it was a pleasant place, until she was rudely and terrifyingly jolted out of it by slamming into a brick wall. The wall was leather and smelled like strong weed and old whiskey. Before Nicole even looked up to see Spider’s face, panic had attacked her system. She reached for her phone but Spider’s strong hand clamped down around her wrist. He squeezed it so tightly that she wouldn’t have been surprised to hear the bones snap.
“Hello, Nicky.”
“Let go of me!”
“Or what? You’ll bite me again?” He leaned down close to the side of her face. She could smell the beer he’d probably been drinking all night on his breath as he said, “If you ever bite me again, I’ll take out every one of your pretty teeth, one by one. Do you understand?” Nicole didn’t respond, so Spider reached for her ponytail and wrapped it around his fist, pulling so tightly that she thought he might rip out part of her scalp with it. In a low, menacing tone he said, “I asked you a question.”
“Yes. Fine. Let go of me, Spider.”
“You don’t tell me what to do. I tell you…” His words were cut off by a grunt, and Nicole screamed as she felt his full weight pull on her hair, tugging her down to the ground with him. All she saw was a steel-toed black boot as it mashed down on his wrist and he let go of her. He was grunting and cussing and she heard the crunch of bone as that same boot slammed into his ribs.
“Fuck!”
Nicole looked up into the brown eyes of Zack’s friend Hashtag. “Are you okay?” Hashtag asked her. Nicole nodded slowly, but as she listened to Spider cursing and rolling back and forth on the ground and no one came to help him, it dawned on her what was really happening. Spider knew Hashtag was watching her. He’d probably been waiting days for this opportunity. Fuck!
She looked up at Hashtag and said, “He’s alone!”
“As far as I know…”
“No!” She scrambled to her feet. “You don’t understand. Spider never goes anywhere alone. He always takes backup, especially if he knows that he’s likely to get into a fight. He lured you here.” She tried to begin running the opposite direction along the path again, back toward her apartment, but Hashtag stopped her with a strong hand on her shoulder.
“Wait, Nicole…”
“Let me go! You don’t understand. He didn’t come here for me. He came here for my baby.” Spider still sounded like he was in pain, but he chuckled through his wheezes.
“Not as stupid as you look.” Nicole suddenly felt like a house had been set down on her chest. The world around her spun and adrenaline once again surged through her. She felt Hashtag let go of her to turn around and kick Spider again.
“Shut the hell up!”
While Hashtag was distracted, Nicole took off running at full speed. She heard the big biker cuss and then his boots began to pound after her. Nicole burst through the opening of the wooded area back into the bright sunlight and kept running. Hashtag was weighted down by his heavy boots and riding gear, so she had a good head start. He was yelling at her to stop, but she ignored him. She didn’t stop when she came to the road and barely glanced to the right as she ran across it. The sound of a horn honking barely registered; still, she didn’t stop. She heard more horns honking just before she reached the front door, and the curses of Hashtag once again. The door was open as she pushed through, and she nearly stumbled over the prone form of her friend Stacey in the doorway. She was unconscious. As much as Nicole wanted to check on her friend, she needed confirmation that the real nightmare had just begun. She stepped over Stacey and ran to her bedroom. Liam’s crib was empty, as she knew it would be. She gripped onto the side of it and howled. The motherfucker had taken her baby…and now she was going to kill him.
“Where’s Spider?” Nicole stood over Stacey, tending to a cut on her friend’s head. She’d been hit with the butt of one of the Defender’s guns and probably had a concussion, but she was refusing to go to the hospital. Nicole had called the police and she was talking to Hashtag now. He was pacing the floor behind where Stacey sat, looking like he wanted to kill something.
“He was gone by the time I got back. I’m sorry, Nicole.”
She didn’t acknowledge his apology. She knew he felt bad and she knew she should reassure him that it wasn’t his fault, but she barely had the energy to tend to Stacey. All her energy was wrapped up in the thoughts in her head. It was taking all her willpower not to crumple into a ball in the corner and lose her mind. “He’s at the clubhouse,” she told Hashtag. “He won’t hide. He’ll sit there surrounded by his brothers and he’ll dare me to come in and get him. No one at the club will say a word about Spider taking Liam the way he did. They all think the same way he does, that Liam is one of his possessions.”
Hesitantly, Hashtag asked her, “How long did the police say they’d be?”
Nicole looked up at the clock over the mantle. It was only 8:30 a.m. She felt like time was standing still. “They said ten or fifteen minutes. It’s already been twenty. You should go, before they get here.”
Hashtag looked sick. “I’m sorry…I don’t know what the fuck I was thinking. Zack said to stay on you so that’s what we’ve been doing…”
“It’s not your fault,” Nicole finally told him. He was looking at her oddly, and so was Stacey. They were both surprised that she wasn’t falling apart. She was talking calmly and tending to Stacey like a nurse in the ER. Outwardly, she probably looked like she didn’t have a care in the world, but inside, she was completely shredded. She felt like someone had reached into her chest and taken out her beating heart and she’d die very soon if she didn’t get it back. But she knew that panic wasn’t going to help. She needed to keep her head while she spoke to the police. If she was hysterical, they might be less inclined to help her. She prayed that it would be as simple as telling them that Spider took her baby and they’d go get him, and take Spider to jail for violating the restraining order. Rationally she knew, however, that things would not be that simple. When Liam was born, Spider was her old man. They had a life together, or so she had still thought. His name was right there on the birth certificate next to hers and even now that they didn’t live together, that gave him just as much right to the baby as her.
“I should call Zack,” Hashtag said. Nicole nodded, feeling a slight pang of guilt in her chest. She hadn’t thought about Zack since this happened. She couldn’t focus on anything but Liam
“You should take off now like Nicole said, Hash. Things will just get more complicated if you’re here when the police get here.” He looked at Stacey. Nicole’s friend hadn’t said much since it happened, other than to apologize profusely the way Hash had. She smiled at him.
“You’re okay?” Hashtag asked her, and for the first time Nicole noticed that he looked at Stacey the way her friend looked at him, with a blossoming interest.
“I will be.” She smiled, then touched her fingers to the cut on her head. “It’s just a little bump.” Nicole sighed and shook her head. It was much more than a bump, it was a gash, and she wanted Stacey to go to the ER and see if she needed stitches, but she was refusing.
“Good,” he said. He looked back at Nicole and said, “I’ll stay out there until the cops get here, just to be sure.”
“Spider won’t be back today,” Nicole said. “He took what he wanted.”
17
Dax had dinner with Zack and listened to what the other man had to tell him. He knew that the information Zack gave him was going to affect the whole club, so he needed to spend some time processing it before he shared it with anyone. Between the stress of that, an
d the emotional turmoil he’d had to witness earlier between Cody, Harley, and Kyle, his head was throbbing by the time he got back to the house. He didn’t see Angel when he walked inside, so he grabbed a beer out of the fridge and took it out back. The sun porch was Angel’s project and her favorite spot in the house. It wasn’t finished yet, but she had it filled with leafy green plants already and comfortable furniture. She’d recently ordered a hammock, and she was so excited when Dax hung it up for her. When she had down time, that was where he usually found her. Tonight was no different. She was lying back on it, dressed in a little jeans skirt and a tank top. He watched her for a few seconds before she knew he was there. One of her shapely long legs was stretched out over the side and she was using it to rock the hammock gently back and forth. One of her arms was lying across her flat stomach and the other was behind her head. She was staring out the screened-in porch toward the teen center, which was also still a work in progress. The sun was almost down beyond the new building and a few stars already dotted the clear night sky. A little smile tugged at the corners of her lips and he wondered what she was thinking. He wasn’t one to pry into her personal thoughts, however; he trusted her to let him in on anything important. Just being near Angel made him feel better. The headache began to disappear, and he felt the familiar calm that Angel brought to his chaotic life begin to settle down over him as he watched her.
“Is there room in there for one more?” he said, startling her.
She smiled up at him and slid over in the canvas hammock. Dax dropped down next to her and put his arm around her waist, pulling her up against him and kissing the side of her face. “Miss me?” she asked.
“Every second that you’re not in the same room,” he said with a sigh.
She ran her hand up his back and let her fingers play with his long hair as she asked, “Are you still worried about Cody?”
He shook his head slowly and took a sip of his beer. Sitting it down on the table next to them, he wrapped her up in his arms and laid them back into the hammock. “Nope. Cody’s a big boy.”
She laughed. “You can pretend to other people, but not me. I know you’re worried about him. I am too. But I can see Kyle’s side here too. He has a right to know if Ian is his son.”
Dax nodded again. “I agree.” He pulled her in tighter and kissed her lips and smiled against them then said, “I just wish he wasn’t such an asshole.”
Angel giggled. “Hey, that’s my brother you’re talking about.”
“Sorry.”
She was still smiling. “Don’t be. If anyone knows what an asshole Kyle can be, it’s me. But you know he’s a good man at heart. If Ian turns out to be his, he would never take him away from Harley and Cody.”
Dax wasn’t as convinced of Kyle’s good heart as Angel was. He tucked her head under his chin and said, “I don’t think he’d take him from Harley. Cody’s right about Kyle wanting her back.”
“Why do you say that?”
“You honestly can’t see the way he looks at her? He didn’t say one negative thing to her today either; all of his venom was directed at Cody.”
“It’s just a territorial thing with him, I think. A pissing contest between him and Cody. Not that I don’t believe he’d be a good father, but being that baby’s father would give him an edge over the man he believes stole the love of his life.”
“Cody couldn’t have taken her if she didn’t want to go.”
“I agree with you. I’m just trying to see it from both sides.”
Dax laughed and buried his face in her silky hair. “You’re just trying to get me to see it from your brother’s side.”
“Okay, maybe…a little. Let’s not talk about that anymore. What else is new?” Dax groaned. He’d made a promise to Angel when they first got together that he wouldn’t keep her in the dark about anything that would have a major impact on the club or their life together. He’d rather not talk to her about the situation with Gunner, just because he knew it would give her one more thing to worry about, but he didn’t see that he had a choice. “Was the meeting with Zack Leoni bad?” she asked.
He sighed. “Yes and no. Zack did something today that he didn’t have to and I’m sure is not the norm for him. He came to let me know that Randall Covey was voted in as president of the Head Hunters and Zack’s mother has hooked up with him, I guess.” Zack also had club business from his own club to discuss, but nothing Angel would be interested in.
“Wow, is his father’s body even cold yet?”
Dax chuckled. “According to what Zack tells me, his mother is even colder than a corpse. Unfortunately, her main order of business for her new old man is to have him avenge Swinger’s death.”
“Oh shit,” Angel said. “They’re going to come after Gunner.”
He nodded. “That’s what Zack thinks. He didn’t have any more confirmation than that, though.”
Angel rolled into him so that her face was buried in his side and one of her legs stretched across his. Dax felt his body responding. It always did when she was close enough for him to touch, or smell…he loved her in a way he hadn’t even known he was capable of. She said, “You ever think we should just skip having kids?”
That statement surprised him. Angel came from a huge family and she’d always told him that she wanted to make a big family of her own. “Really?”
She held her head back so that she could see his face and said, “Well, we have the new teen center, Cody, Gunner, and all of my brothers to take care of already. Maybe we have enough kids.”
Dax smiled and bent to kiss her nose. “Are you mothered-out already?”
She laughed. “Some days.”
“Let’s pretend that none of them exist for the rest of the night.”
“Mm,” she said, snuggling into him tighter. “That sounds like a wonderful idea.”
Dax used one arm to pull her up on top of him and went for her lips. He loved kissing her. He loved the way she tasted and how responsive she always was to him. He let his tongue explore her hot, wet mouth like it had never been there before while her fingers tangled themselves up in his hair and his hands ran up and down her back and across the curve of her sexy butt. He let her come up from the kiss for air and he laid soft kisses along her jawline until he reached her neck. Angel laid her head to the side to give him better access and he felt her hips wiggle into his while he sucked on it. He slid her skirt up to her waist in back and put his hands on the now exposed cheeks of her ass. Angel always wore a thong, and Dax fucking loved it. He used his hold on her ass to press her into his growing erection and she writhed against him. She was so fucking sexy. Dax turned to the side just enough to drop her back down into the hammock and let his hand come around to the front of her smooth thighs as he kissed down to her collarbone. He worked the skirt up in front and let his hand find the smooth V between her legs. The crotch of her little lace thong was soaking wet and she moaned as he ran his fingers up and down, pressing the panties into her lips as he did. Meanwhile, he pulled up her shirt and she sat up enough to let him pull it over her head and toss it to the floor. As soon as it was gone, he dove in for a mouthful of one of her sexy, firm breasts and began to suck and bite at it as he worked his fingers underneath her little panties.
While he stroked her wet pussy and her swollen clit with his fingers, he felt her hand pulling at the button of his jeans. He used his free hand to help her and once it was open, she pushed down the zipper and slid her hand down inside. He sucked in a breath when she wrapped her warm hand around his throbbing cock and began to stroke in time with what his fingers were doing to her pussy. He could feel himself growing even harder and longer in her small hand. She knew just how to stroke him to make every fiber in his body come alive and light the fire in his core. He slid his fingers through the crotch of her thong so that his hand was grasping it and he pulled, ripping it off her and tossing it aside. She looked hot with her skirt up around her waist and nothing else on. He kissed her lips again and then gently
moved her hand off his shaft and stood up slowly. The hammock rocked with the shift of his weight and almost threw her off. Angel laughed and caught herself with one of her sexy long legs and then watched Dax strip off his clothes. He reached down then and pulled her skirt down her legs and all the way off and then he took hold of her small waist and moved her so that her butt was on the hammock, but her legs dangled over the side. He spread her legs open and lowered himself down to his knees and buried his face in her sweet pussy. Angel gripped his head and pushed him in tight as he licked her from top to bottom and swirled his tongue around her swollen clit. He felt the muscles of her thighs tighten around his head when he sucked her clit into his mouth and let his teeth run back and forth across it. The fingers she had his hair wrapped up in were digging into his skull, and he could hear in the way she was breathing and whimpering that she was about to come. He let his tongue slide up inside of her as she cried out and her warm juices bathed his face.
“Jesus, fuck, you’re good at that,” she said, breathlessly. Dax lifted his face and grinned at her.
“Just good at that?”
“No, baby, everything. I am afraid if we try and do much else on this hammock, though, we might end up on the floor.”
Dax stood up and took her legs with him. He turned her so that she was lying flat on her back and then he stepped over her and the hammock with one long leg. Angel was smiling up at him like she couldn’t wait to see what happened next. He winked at her and reached down and scooped his big hands underneath her butt and pulled her up so that their hips would meet and then he let his cock slide into her. He felt her body tremble and she cried out when he plunged into her deeper. He moved his hips and hers, driving into her deeper and harder as the hammock swayed in time with their movements. Angel reached up and ran her fingertips down his chest and across his abdomen, down to the place where his cock was buried inside of her. She worked her fingers between them and gently caressed his balls while he fucked her. Dax wasn’t in a hurry. He took his time, moving in and out of his beautiful woman and wondering how he got so lucky. He hadn’t lived the most respectable life, but somehow the way he lived had brought Angel into it, and he wouldn’t trade her for anything in the world…even if he did have to deal with her asshole brother. He wasn’t about to tell Angel, but if he got a vote about the baby’s paternity, it would be all Cody.