Death Dwellers Motorcycle Club:: Fifteen Bad Boy Biker Books

by Kathryn C. Kelly

  He hadn’t called either.

  And then she opened the door and there he was, eyes steady, shoulders broad. He was everything a man should be: brave, strong, and good to the core. Everything Stein and Silton weren’t.

  The worst thing was seeing the disappointment in Cam’s eyes. She’d let him down. He thought she was throwing him away. That brought a hysterical laugh to her lips.

  Leaning there, against the door, Jordan suddenly felt as if something in her had changed. She felt stronger and mentally ready to deal with Stein and Silton. She could be the woman Cam deserved to have in his life.

  Perhaps, Stein and Silton would always hold Cam’s life over her head. She’d have to put up with their visits, but she’d no longer keep her mouth shut.

  She’d show them she had a brain and thoughts of her own.

  Her doorbell rang again, and she drew in an unsteady breath. If Cam had returned, she’d have to find the strength to send him away again. Ignoring his calls had taken everything in her, when all she’d wanted to do was share each of Ava’s milestones with him.

  Hardening her expression to her best scowl, she yanked open the door again, preparing to give Cam the business for being so insistent.

  Christopher “Outlaw” Caldwell released smoke from his mouth and nose, then threw his cigarette to the ground and stomped it beneath his motorcycle boot. Long, black lashes encircled his green eyes. The wind had blown his thick, black hair in all directions. He was such a beautiful man. Totally scary. But beautiful.

  Without waiting for an invitation, he brushed past her and walked into the house, stopping in the hallway. Once she closed the door, she turned and found him glancing in all directions before he continued down the hall and went to the family room.

  She rushed behind him. “Hello, Mr. Caldwell,” she said. “What can I do for you?”

  He stayed silent for a minute, continuing to look around before focusing on her and studying her from head-to-toe. “Ain’t able to protect your fuckin’ ass if you ain’t tellin’ me the fuckin’ truth, doc.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Sulley got fuckin’ brothers. I shot the fuck outta him, but I left them motherfuckers alone. I ain’t had them investigated to fuck them up to keep you fuckin’ safe. Now, I think they fuckin’ with you.”

  She squinted at him, then opened her mouth.

  “You ain’t got shit to say, cuz I already looked at your fuckin’ phone records. One of them been callin’ you. It could be another motherfucker, but you a solid bitch and you like motherfuckin’ Cameron Baptiste. You ain’t a bitch to fuck over a motherfucker. That mean Sulley brothers fuckin’ with you.”

  The club president’s ability to piece two and two together was legendary. She wanted to shout, yes! Everything he said was on point, but she had to remain silent for the sake of him and Cam.

  She offered him a bitch face. “That’s an invasion of privacy!”

  “Don’t give a fuck. You Megan doc. She trust the fuck outta you. I’ma do what the fuck I gotta to keep you safe. Be-fuckin-sides, the number registered to a motherfucker named Stein Ward. The last name of your girl old man was fuckin’ Ward. That ain’t a coincidence.”

  The club president was overprotective of everyone in his inner circle. She was lucky enough to be included under that umbrella. Yet, it did her no good. Stein and Silton had her place bugged. Not wanting to get the club president in trouble by telling him anything, she kept that information to herself. If she didn’t act like a complete bitch and get him out of there, he’d be in danger of jail.

  Stein and Silton preferred to terrorize her than take on the man in front of her, face-to-face. But they had those photos. They could take them straight to the police.

  She’d already protected Cam. Now, she had to do the same with one of her favorite patient’s husband.

  “Get out, Mr. Caldwell. You aren’t welcomed here anymore. What you’ve done is a total invasion of privacy. I’m afraid that I have to drop Meggie as a patient.” She indicated the door. “Now, please leave.”

  For a moment, he stood in speechless surprise, then he gave her a half-smile, the look not reaching his eyes. “Lemme get this fuckin’ straight. You wanna drop my girl as your fuckin’ patient cuz of me?”

  Lifting her chin and folding her arms, she gave him an imperious look. On the inside, she cringed. “Did I stutter?”

  They faced off. Few people won against Mr. Caldwell, but when he turned on his heel and walked out without another word, she knew that she had.

  She just didn’t know if that was a victory or not.

  Her heart knew the truth.

  Not.

  That was another protection gone, another person who cared for herself and Ava, gone.

  Later that afternoon, Cam walked into the firm he co-owned with Knox. They’d known each other for over twenty years, even joining the police force together. Knox came from a wealthy background, but had always been civic-minded. He’d wanted to spread his wings before he one day took over the reins of the family business.

  Before that happened, Cam hoped the firm would’ve grown to include more investigators, but he’d cross that bridge when he got to it. At the moment, he was happy to find their offices unoccupied. Instead of working the firm’s cases, he meant to check into Jordan and, perhaps, find an explanation for her sudden about-face toward him.

  He didn’t have much information to go on. Her birthdate, license plate number, phone number, home address, and the information on her medical practice. As he checked into everything, he discovered a new phone number that had begun to crop up in recent weeks on her records.

  Cam’s heart twisted. Earlier today, when he’d visited her, he’d seen what he wanted to see. Apparently, she’d moved on to another man and didn’t know how to tell him.

  Hurt and disgusted, he stared at the computer screen, then slammed it shut. He was acting like a fucking stalker. The woman didn’t want him. He needed to move on.

  There were other fish in the sea.

  It’s just that he’d caught a spectacular one already and had fallen in love with her.

  He scrubbed a hand over his face.

  “Knock, fuckin’ knock-knock,” a voice said, scaring the shit out of Cam.

  He jumped as Outlaw walked into his office. Cam searched his mind, going over any possible offenses he might’ve committed that would have the man visiting him.

  Shit. He’d gone to see Jordan, after she’d ignored his calls and—

  Outlaw dropped into the chair and leaned forward. “Listen up, motherfucker. Your woman in fuckin’ trouble.”

  That grabbed Cam’s attention and he straightened. “I beg your pardon?”

  “You fuckin’ heard me. Doc Will. Remember the Monsters’ Inc. motherfucker, Sulley?”

  Cam wouldn’t soon forget the ass. “What about him?”

  “He got fuckin’ brothers. Them motherfuckers scarin’ your woman some fuckin’ kinda way. Ain’t figured how yet. Ain’t even figured where the fuck they at. Don’t even know what the fuck they look like. Yet.”

  “So you’re basing this on…?”

  “Doc Will. She fuckin’ told me my ass invadin’ her privacy and she givin’ up my Megan as her patient. Ain’t ever happenin’. Not as much as Doc Will care about my girl. She in trouble.”

  “She’s not in trouble, Outlaw. She has a new man. I brought her flowers and found her behavior unsettling. I decided to do some digging. There’s a new number on her records. She’s seeing someone else.”

  “No the fuck she ain’t.” Outlaw glared at him. “What the fuck kinda investigator you and Knox is, huh, motherfucker?”

  “I take umbrage to that,” he snapped.

  “Don’t give a fuck and watch your fuckin’ tone, before I knock your fuckin’ teeth out. If you knew what the fuck you was doin’, you woulda looked into who the number was registered to and saw Stein Ward.”

  “That name means what to me?” So far, Cam wasn’t ma
king a connection.

  Laughing without humor, Outlaw shook his head. “Her girl pops was named Sulley Ward, assfuck. Now, it fuckin’ mean somethin’ to you?”

  Cam’s mind ran a million miles a minute. He knew Sulley had brothers. Jordan had mentioned it a time or two. That meant the regret, sadness and fear he’d seen earlier…fuck!

  He lunged to his feet as the club president stood.

  “I see you finally puttin’ it to-fuckin-gether.” Outlaw started for the door.

  “Why’d you come to me?” Cam asked, gathering his suit jacket and shrugging into it. He wouldn’t question where the man got his information from. It wouldn’t do any good, anyway. Outlaw wouldn’t divulge the means to his end.

  “I fuckin’ came to you cuz my wife in the last weeks of her pregnancy and our oldest boy clingin’ to me and Megan. I promised her to try my fuckin’ best not to fuck up no motherfuckers til after she fuckin’ deliver. Since Jordan your woman, you the motherfucker I ex-fuckin-pect to take care of it. You want her? You gotta be fuckin’ worthy of her.”

  If the club president deemed him unworthy, he was in trouble. Not that he gave a damn. If it came to a showdown with Outlaw, he would face it head on and pray he survived the confrontation.

  “By the way, she’s not my woman,” he said. He couldn’t claim a woman who didn’t want to be claimed. “We were friends.”

  “I ain’t gonna say this but once, so take it however the fuck you wanna. Doc Will was fuckin’ excited about some fuckin’ trip you was takin’ her on. I got that shit on good authority.”

  It must’ve been Roxy.

  “Doc into you, motherfucker. She gotta be if she fuckin’ agreed to go away with your ass after the abuse Sulley put her fuckin’ through. Get your fuckin’ shit to-fuckin-gether and check into these Ward motherfuckers. I ain’t gonna leave you completely the fuck on your own. While me and my boys takin’ care of things on the inside, you fuckin’ handle your business on the outside.”

  Cam froze. “She’s going to have me arrested for stalking.”

  Outlaw narrowed his eyes. “Look, motherfucker, go there and tell her ass you heard she fired us and be-fuckin-cuz you found out the Ward brothers still out there, you ain’t restin’ without knowin’ they ain’t gonna fuck with her.”

  He started toward the door again.

  “What’s that supposed to get me?” Cam called, stopping Outlaw’s departure once more.

  “A place on her fuckin’ couch,” he answered with aggravation.

  “Really? Just like that she’ll open her door to me and let me sleep under her roof?”

  “Jesus, Mary, and all that’s fuckin’ holy.” Outlaw faced him again. “It ain’t gettin’ you in there immediately. You tell her you gonna sleep out in your fuckin’ car all fuckin’ night to make sure she safe. Sometime, in the middle of the night, she gonna start feelin’ guilty and shit, and let you the fuck inside.”

  Cam snorted. Outlaw didn’t know how tough Jordan was. “I doubt that,” he said.

  “Doubt it all the fuck you wanna. You do that shit or I’ma scoop her and her kid and bring her to the clubhouse til I scope out the Ward motherfuckers.”

  “When you say scoop, you mean take her whether she agrees or not?”

  Outlaw offered his chilling grin. “I do what the fuck I gotta to keep my fuckin’ family safe. I count her as part of my fuckin’ family. It ain’t always the best fuckin’ method, but I work with the fuck I got and I ain’t makin’ no apologies for that. So, what the fuck will it be? You handlin’ this or me?”

  No one was taking care of his woman but him. If Outlaw scooped her up, he’d put her out of everyone’s reach.

  Cam’s jaw tightened, deciding not to waste his time on the unbearable thought. He had more pressing matters at hand. Ava’s uncles, for instance. It was one thing when he thought Jordan had moved on to another man. But if she was terrified? Being pushed around by an asshole brother-in-law?

  That was on him.

  He was the man to be her husband and Ava’s father.

  He slipped his piece into the holster under his jacket. Knox didn’t know Cam was armed. They needed to be fully licensed to carry a concealed weapon, but Cam wouldn’t take chances after his run-in with Sulley almost cost their lives. “You could be wrong about this, Outlaw.”

  “I could fuckin’ be,” Outlaw agreed, “but I ain’t.”

  Cam had once told Knox that Outlaw stayed alive and ahead of the law by having a keen sixth sense. In the weeks he’d known the man, that hadn’t changed.

  If Outlaw was right once again, then Jordan and Ava were in danger, and that was something Cam wouldn’t abide.

  Hours after she threw Mr. Caldwell out, Jordan adjusted the lacy pink blanket over Ava as her baby girl slept in her baby bed without a care in the world. She stared at the little miracle before her in adoration, tears rushing to her eyes. Since giving birth, she’d become so emotional. Pregnancy hormones ran rampant inside of her.

  She knew that. She’d seen it in her patients and, although she’d been empathetic, she hadn’t understood the true extent of the upheaval new mothers went through. For obvious reasons, single mothers seemed to experience the tumult on a deeper level.

  Now, she knew why on a gut level. She, and she alone, was responsible for Ava, her beautiful, tiny, helpless daughter. The prospect was daunting, frightening, and awe-inspiring.

  The pregnancy had been an accident. As much as she lectured her patients about contraception, double protection if necessary, her own birth control had failed. What irony.

  Meggie Caldwell crossed her mind. The tears that had been loitering in Jordan’s eyes slipped down her cheeks. She’d sent Mr. Caldwell away and told him she’d give Meggie up as her patient, when that was the last thing she wanted to do.

  At the initial meeting with the young woman, she’d felt an affinity to her. In the beginning, she’d been concerned for her. Mr. Caldwell, with his tattoos and leather cut, seemed so controlling. But, as she got to know both of them, Jordan realized it was Meggie who had the power in the relationship. That man would walk through the fires of hell for his young wife. Whatever Meggie wanted, he found a way to give to her. He’d been an emotional wreck when she’d gone through several medical crises.

  Swiping at her tears, Jordan bent and stroked her baby’s bald head, then touched the blanket. The one Meggie had given to her at the baby shower thrown at the clubhouse.

  Besides Viola and Roxy, Meggie and the other women were the closest thing Jordan had to family. Her mother had disowned her, accusing her of trying to seduce her stepfather. Her mom hadn’t believed Jordan’s assertion that the pig had tried to molest her.

  She’d been in her first year of medical school, deep in educational debt, and ended up homeless. For a year, she’d survived in shelters, working at McDonald’s, praying she didn’t lose her scholarship. Somehow, she’d made it through.

  The ringing phone interrupted her thoughts and she raced across the room to where it lay on the daybed, before the noise awakened Ava.

  Stein’s name flashed across the screen. “What do you want?” she asked when she swiped across the screen. No point in pleasantries. She loathed him.

  “I want to see my niece.”

  He’d just invaded her house, two days ago. “No. It’s late. I’ve done everything you’ve asked of me. Cam is out of my life as is Mr. Caldwell. Please, just leave us alone for now.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t do that, Jordan.”

  The sneer in his tone as he said her name sent a shiver through her.

  “You were my brother’s ticket out of the jam he found himself in. But you thought you were too uppity for him. You left him with a broken heart, then had him killed.”

  “I did not,” she snarled, tired of this same old, tired conversation. “He was going to kill me and Ava,” she told him, like a dummy. It didn’t matter to Stein. Logically, she knew this, but words were her only defense.

  “Once we helpe
d him dispose of your body, he would’ve share the money he expected to receive from your life insurance.”

  “What the hell are you talking about? I have life insurance, but Sulley wasn’t the beneficiary.”

  “That isn’t what he told us.”

  “He lied to you.”

  “Or, maybe, you lied to him.”

  She gritted her teeth at the menace in his tone. As long as she cowered, they’d pounce. “I’m a woman of my word. He was an asshole, plain and simple. If you want to tussle with Mr. Caldwell, have at it, but I don’t think you have the balls to. You’re too busy terrorizing me to confront a real man.”

  Stein snickered. “Do you want to test me, dear?”

  She hated the term dear. Sulley had always called her that. From him, in the beginning, she’d thought it was so sweet.

  “There’s not much Caldwell can do from behind bars. He might even end up dead. Then, there’s Cameron. We’d make him suffer before he died. Do you want that on your conscience?”

  Her lower lip trembled. If she responded, he’d hear her voice waver. Instead, she stared at the nursery’s beige-colored walls, blinking away tears.

  “Don’t piss me off any more than you have by scrambling my feed.”

  A sniffle escaped. “I didn’t scramble anything, asshole. I knew the house was bugged, but I can’t find any of them.” As much as she’d looked.

  “A single woman living in a huge mansion is quite a target for…mischief.” He laughed again. “It amused Silton and me to no end, watching as you searched for our hidden devices. But the joke’s on us, huh, bitch? I want to see my niece, then we’ll discuss restitution for your insolence.”

  “Go to hell. You aren’t seeing my child today,” she snapped. “Maybe your stupid surveillance equipment is malfunctioning.”

  “I’m giving you one last chance. Either you allow me to see Ava today or I’m putting my plans in motion. Do you want to test me? Risk Caldwell and Baptiste just to show me you have balls?”

  Dropping in the rocking chair by Ava’s crib, Jordan hung her head. Maybe she should call Mr. Caldwell and explain the situation.