PowerHouse_Anti-Hero Game_Power Chain Book One

by Chelsea Camaron

  Onyx rolled to me, wrapping his leg between mine and hand on my stomach. “Fucking hot as hell. Didn’t know you were a squirter.”

  Panic hit. “A squirter? What the hell is that? And please tell me it’s not piss.”

  He chuckled, and it hit me deep. Onyx didn’t do it often when it was from happiness, but when he did, I felt it in my bones. “Good to know I’m the only one who gave you that.”

  His lips brushed mine in a way that was sweet and kind, two words that should never be used with Onyx’s name.

  “Gave me what?”

  “That feel like the other orgasms I gave you?”

  A blush crept my cheeks, and I had no idea why. “No.”

  “More intense. More heart pounding. You’re G spot, baby.”

  I rolled then halted. “Can you uncuff me?”

  A smirk graced his face. “Yeah.”

  He was like a proud peacock, and I was just a squishy mess. My body was liquid, while my mind was shut off, and my heart, well, that muscle was overworked and didn’t know if we were liking or hating Onyx Blake.

  Had I fallen into some Stockholm Syndrome situation? No, that couldn’t be because I was certainly still conflicted about all things Onyx Blake. Frankly, I might not have known what I was feeling, thinking, or rationally doing, but what I did know was everything about this man was different for me.

  More than anything, as my body calmed from my intense orgasm, I realized one thing… no one had ever worked me up like this man had, and I wasn’t sure anyone ever would measure up again.

  23

  Onyx

  One Week, Three Days Later

  Leaving her this morning without a word wasn’t my plan. I may have been a cold-hearted bastard, but callous enough to disregard her completely, I wouldn’t do it without a good reason. Things had shifted between us since the mind-blowing sex where she had her first g-spot orgasm. I was pretty sure she still hated me, but a part of her acknowledged she craved me just as much. I’d take what I could get because waking every morning to sex with her wasn’t a bad thing.

  Less than thirty minutes ago, I got a call from Judy, our charge nurse, saying it was time. We were not quite a full week from the due date, but some things I couldn’t control no matter how hard I tried. I made the drive in record time to the Corbin Avenue house. Since it was four in the morning, I left Torryn asleep in my bed, naked and sated. Business called and in my world, it wasn’t something that would wait.

  The place was a duplex. We housed four women in the unit. Each two-bedroom side had two expectant surrogates. The house was set on a private two-acre lot with farms surrounding it. We built each facility to be picture perfect with a fenced-in backyard, garages, and all the privacy a woman under a contract could need.

  Currently, our business had sixteen surrogates in rotation. Every ethnic background, eye color, skin color was covered between our backlist carriers and the women pregnant now. It was how the system worked. We lined up the mother with a sperm donor to be closest to the genetics of the purchasing parents as possible and vice versa. We had a fertility specialist on staff who controlled the injections and fertilization processes. We even owned a small lab to handle using an egg from the mom with her significant other like a traditional surrogacy. The specialty we had was the lack of a paper trail. No one would ever know how your baby was conceived, nor would they know if it was an adoption like the situations we faced where both the mother and father couldn’t be part of the egg or sperm process.

  No matter what the circumstances, our business insured our clients a baby, discreetly. Sometimes, like the case of the Lanier’s, the egg belonged to our surrogate and the sperm was the father’s. It was why it was so difficult for them to let go. They knew if I pulled the contract, I kept their baby, a baby who was biologically Malcom’s.

  Why they didn’t use traditional surrogacy? Well, they wanted an egg that would resemble Kennedy as much as possible. There was no guarantee of that anywhere else. Believe it or not, we provided a one hundred percent promise that the baby would have certain features that would favor the parents. The doctors on staff were paid well for this. Every step of the way we included our expectant parents while our mom’s didn’t know who they were servicing. It protected everyone involved. Yes, the surrogates talked to the parents over the phone, but names and personal information were never exchanged. It was part of the contract both ways.

  To some, what we did was unethical. To us, we provided a service and a product.

  A baby was a life a client once told me.

  No, a baby was my product. I was a product of my mother and her lover. A product she discarded to an Amish orphanage in the hopes her asshole husband wouldn’t discover me. Adryan Blake was a twisted son-of-a-bitch, and he knew about me all along. He even left his mark on my life by giving me his name and paying the orphanage to keep me without ever having a chance for adoption.

  I was a product of a failing marriage. I was a living, breathing reminder of her betrayal.

  I watched kid after kid come through that home. Some stayed and some left. The guys and I made a decision over a fucked up game of Monopoly that we would one day have an empire built on the power of life. It was the only solace we had those days and turned out the best thing to happen. It gave us the motivation to keep going, seeing a light at the end of our dark tunnel.

  “You’re dilated nicely,” I heard Judy say as I came into the house.

  A pool was set up in the living room because Bianca was a surrogate who preferred a natural water birth. We catered to each carrier as best we could, including the ones who wanted a hospital birth and all the drugs. While we didn’t allow them to go to a public hospital, we had a hospital set up in our Carsen Lane building. The second floor of the old apartment complex was a maternity ward of sorts, while the bottom floor was where we had all of our equipment for prenatal care and check-ups. The top floor, third level, was home for our surrogates who, for whatever reason, found themselves in a high-risk pregnancy.

  Every care and precaution was taken without a single dollar spared. No matter the cost, we carried it. And producing no less than twelve babies per year, we had a twelve-million-dollar budget to work with annually easy. Some years we had more and the clients like the Lanier’s, who paid more. Any client who pushed limits learned we pushed back, and the only way they would get their product was to open their wallets.

  Some lessons in life you learned by experience, some had to hit you in the pocketbook. I didn’t care how anyone learned a fucking lesson as long as they got shit straightened out.

  Pulling out my phone, I slid the screen on. Under contacts, I made the call to Case. “Get Torryn and bring her to Corbin Avenue, now.”

  I hung up. I didn’t need his reply. He would do the job. It was early when I left, and I wanted to check things out first.

  “Hi, Mr. Blake,” Bianca said as she panted, breathing through her pain.

  “She went fast, Mr. Blake,” Judy explained from the edge of the pool with her hands down in the water.

  “No need to explain. I have someone coming to help with the baby.”

  “That isn’t necessary, Mr. Blake,” Judy said as Bianca groaned in pain.

  “Consider it a favor to me. I’m trying to see if this woman is really ready for this life.” I lied but knew Torryn had given up enough for her sister to have this baby so if she arrived in time, I would allow her the experience.

  “I’m sure anyone you have vetted is ready, Mr. Blake,” Bianca tried to spit out between pants.

  Bianca had delivered for us three times. This one was her last as she earned what she needed to put her youngest through college. Her family accepted that she worked out of town for a year at a time. Her husband handled the house and their two kids while she earned a quarter million for their time apart. The first baby she paid off their debts. The second, she covered their retirement and her oldest going to school. This being her final, she would cover the youngest and have a nest egg sh
ould they run into unexpected expenses.

  “Take a deep breath in,” Judy instructed, and my heart rate picked up.

  Lifting my phone, I made the call.

  “Hello,” Malcom answered.

  “Ready yourself, apparently your little girl decided to make her entrance a bit early.”

  “Is she here?” he asked, excited and terrified.

  “No, I’ll be in touch.”

  I hung up on him just as Paxton pulled up with Torryn. Walking outside, I looked at her with her hair wild and eyes huge in confusion as she scanned the area.

  “Your niece is on her way. If you step inside the door and wash up, Judy will allow you to aid in her delivery. Bianca is the name of the surrogate. You tell no one in that room who you are, Torryn, or this is all over.”

  Her eyes were wide in shock and amazement. She didn’t speak to me, only nodded slightly before she rushed inside.

  Paxton grabbed me as I turned to walk away. “Onyx, you okay?”

  “Why the fuck did you bring her and not Case?”

  “Dane called me when the alarm went off for Bianca. He said you’ve gotten too close.”

  I laughed. “So you’re my keeper now, Pax? Is that how this works?”

  “Dane’s on assignment. He knows you got shit twisted with Torryn. I thought you could use someone at your back.”

  I didn’t say anything, just blew out a frustrated breath.

  “Onyx, honest as fuck we all got demons, but ain’t one of us got our shit so twisted we blackmailed a woman into staying with us just to fuck with her head and your brother’s.”

  “Told you I had a plan and had shit under control.”

  Paxton took out a cigarette and lit it. “Never once did I think you didn’t have it under control. Just didn’t want you to feel like you had to do it all by yourself. Ain’t one of us a good damn guy. We’re a bunch of assholes on a good day. We don’t have shit in this world but each other. How many times you take a beatin’ from Amos for me?”

  “What’s that shit got to do with you bein’ here with her?”

  Absently, I rolled the Zippo lighter around in my hand and stuffed it inside my pocket.

  “Just figured I could take a hit for you. I’ll take Torryn and the baby to the Lanier’s for you.”

  Shaking my head, I didn’t know what to say, but that wasn’t happening.

  “Already called them. They’ll be ready when we make the second call. They will meet at the Clever House when we allow it.” We never showed a client where we housed our surrogates. It was a safety measure.

  Paxton took a long drag off his cigarette. “You want me to drive her and the baby to Clever?”

  I thought about it, but Torryn in a car with anyone but me didn’t feel right. I shook my head. “Nah, motherfucker, new baby doesn’t need second-hand smoke the first few hours of life.”

  “Alright, man. You need something, you got your family. One call, man.”

  I nodded. “’Preciate ya sayin’ that, Pax, and bein’ here. She’s nothing, and I’ll leave her once they arrive.”

  He smirked back at me. “You took her to your house. You gave them three opportunities which is two more than you give anyone else. You set your sights on her long before this, we all know it. You wanna keep that shit closed, I get it. You do you, but don’t you fuckin’ lie to yourself. That woman is far from nothin’, Onyx.”

  Well, that may be, but I wouldn’t be admitting it to anyone.

  Pax turned and took off. Staring at the door, I went inside and my damn breath caught. Torryn was kneeling on the floor beside the pool holding Bianca’s hand and taking direction from Judy.

  “Hold it so she can squeeze. She’s a feisty thing so it may sting.”

  Bianca tired to laugh, but it came out a pained groan instead.

  “She’s crowning, let’s count,” Judy ordered as Torryn began to count and Bianca pushed. Torryn’s face was priceless. Utterly and completely priceless. Something that would be engraved in my brain for the rest of my days.

  She was patient, kind, and had the biggest smile across her face. There were a few times when I gave her that smile. My chest hurt and I itched to rub it, but didn’t.

  Bianca’s scream turned into a whine. “This never gets any easier”—she looked over at Torryn—“not that you shouldn’t do it. The money is great, and you get to help families who can’t have babies. It’s a win win.” Her face tightened then relaxed. “The big thing is being able to let the baby go. It sucks because you carried it for so long in your body.” She huffed in and out, then blew out a gust of air. “I find it better if I don’t hold the baby.”

  Torryn gasped, but said nothing.

  “That look right there. Either get your feelings in order or…” Bianca stopped mid-sentence as she pushed and screamed.

  Even with everything going on in the room, the only person I could look at was Torryn. Her time would be up with me. There’d be no way that I could keep her anymore. A deal was a deal, even if it felt so damn wrong.

  24

  Torryn

  The baby was coming and I could see its head, something I’d never seen before in my life. A head full of hair was just stuck like a watermelon in this woman’s crotch. Hell, seeing it expand was a sight in and of itself.

  This Judy chick knew her stuff, including that Bianca had a tight grip. Fuck, each time she squeezed, I thought for sure she was going take my hand with her. Childbirth was a bit scary and hell of a lot painful, judging from the screams and grip.

  But it was beautiful. Utterly and totally beautiful. I had Onyx to thank for that, for allowing me to come here and see my niece enter the world. My eyes gazed over to his, and he was watching me intently. My insides twisted. How could this man do something like this and then turn around and use someone to get back at his brother, then turn around again and show me compassion. He was a complex puzzle that I’d never have the opportunity to solve.

  Bianca practically ripped my arm out of socket as she groaned loudly. That’s when it happened. A small, innocent little baby fell into the pool of water, turning everything around it pink. While Bianca caught her breath, Judy reached in and grabbed the baby, tipping it upside down and tapping on her back.

  Alarmed was an understatement. What the hell was she doing? I released Bianca and started to rise, ready to grab the baby and hightail it out of there.

  Then I heard it, piercing, and it was the most beautiful sound I’d ever heard. She cried, or more like screamed like a banshee. Only then did Judy flip her upright, supporting her head with a wide smile on her face. Judy wrapped the baby in a cloth and looked over at me. “Do you want to cut the cord?”

  I didn’t know why, but my gaze went over to Onyx. His approval meant something here. When he nodded, I answered, “Yes.”

  Judy held the baby in one hand and added two clamps to the cord. She must do this a lot considering the practiced skill she had. She handed me small scissors. My hand shook as I slipped the cord between the blades. Thank you for this precious gift. I cut the cord.

  Bianca had her eyes closed, head tilted back on the inflatable pool. Judy, on the other hand, was buzzing around the space like a bee. She put the baby down on a tray and started entering things into the computer, all the while the baby cried.

  The urge to hold her was too strong, and I moved the baby. Judy looked up. “One more second and you can hold her.”

  She looked like a wrinkly dried prune with splatters of blood on her that Judy wiped away. She was definitely a girl, and tears sprung to my eyes as I counted all of her adorable fingers and toes. She was perfect. Utterly and completely perfect.

  Judy wrapped the little girl in a pink blanket nice and tight, only then did the baby begin to calm.

  “Can I?” Anxiousness filled me along with excitement. I was about to hold my niece, and there was no way the smile would leave my face.

  The littlest eyes looked up at me as she took in her surroundings. I’d bet whatever she saw
was scary as hell. Holding her close to me, I moved over to the lone rocking chair off to the side and sat down with a creak.

  She was beautiful. The most beautiful thing I’d ever had the pleasure of meeting and holding in my arms. My heart swelled, bouncing all over the place. It killed me that I didn’t know her name, but it would come soon enough.

  Her little hand poked out of the blanket. She reached up and wrapped her tiny fingers around my index finger. Tears streamed down my face. Happiness. Pure happiness. I felt him next to me and when I looked up, his smile was electric.

  “Thank you.”

  Onyx did something so out of character that it took me a moment to remember to breathe. He leaned down and kissed my forehead. It was soft and gentle, making the happiness of my niece being here so much stronger.

  He broke the spell looking at Judy. “Is the baby safe to go?”

  Bianca groaned as Judy muttered about delivering the placenta. Judy looked to Onyx and gave a nod. Onyx stood and went to another room, returning with a diaper bag and a car seat. This powerhouse of a man, this sometimes uncaring, unwavering, dominating man, moved to the kitchen to wet a cloth before returning to me and dropping to his knees.

  “Let’s clean her up. In the bag are a few diapers, wipes, and a few outfits to choose from. Pick one, I’ll wipe her down. Then you dress her and I’ll ready a bottle.”

  I held her comfortably on my legs, keeping her steady with one hand while I dug through the diaper bag with the other. The wrinkled bundle had found her hand, suckling her fist while Onyx took such care in truly cleaning her up. He was on his knees in front of me, and for the first time since he crashed into my world six weeks ago, he looked truly at peace.

  I could see the passion for his work. The giving of life meant something to Onyx Blake. Having my niece in my arms was amazing, seeing Onyx and the care he gave to her tiny body was powerful.

  Overwhelmed, I choked back my emotions.

  In a matter of moments, we had her diapered, dressed, and in the car seat. Onyx stood, giving a quick kiss to my forehead, he went to Bianca and Judy, making sure everything was okay with them before coming back from the kitchen with the tiniest of bottles in his hand.