by London Casey
That’s when a shotgun blast echoed in the yard.
A siren started to wail and whine.
We all knew the fucking drill.
Get down, arms out, and get ready. Anyone who had balls enough to stand there after the warning shot would get themselves either killed or tossed into solitary for a long damn time.
With my body on the ground, I looked to my right.
I was next to the guy who attacked me first.
“Eat shit,” he growled at me.
“You couldn’t even kill me the right way,” I said. “Your boys are going to go after you next.”
“Fuck you, Kye. Fuck your club. Heard there’s more murder charges rolling your way. You’re done. No way you’ll survive in here for another week.”
“I won’t have to,” I said. “I’ll be long out. Asshole.”
The guy was right though.
I couldn’t survive forever in prison. Not without a clear mind and a chance to make some deals and align myself the right way. The only thing I could think about was Dakota. I needed to reach out to her. I needed to explain the truth.
Fuck, I just wanted to touch her belly one more time and kiss it. Tell my son that everything would work out someday.
The attacker turned his head away from me. I poked my head up and around, surveying the yard. There had to be fifty of us on our stomachs, hands out. The guards walked slowly in and out of us, really loving their sense of power.
The one with the shotgun walked right to me and stepped on my back.
“There you are, asshole,” he said. “We have to go for a walk.”
“I can’t walk with a foot on my back,” I said.
“How about a bullet in your head…”
“Try me then,” I said.
The guard lifted his foot and stomped on my back. Pain shot through my body and I groaned.
“Stand the fuck up, prisoner,” the guard ordered.
I climbed to my feet.
He grabbed the back of my shirt and twisted. Then he whispered to me, “Your club is here to see you.”
That’s all I needed to hear.
Fucking finally.
My face swelled with pain. My shirt was covered in sweat and dirt. I was a fucking mess but at least I’d get to see someone from the MC. I needed some goddamn answers on the bogus murder charge. More than that, I needed a release date. I had to get the fuck out of prison before it was too late.
The guard took me to a white room. I was chained to the table. There was a window with what looked like a small chain linked fence on it. It was all too white. Too clean for the truth of what the prison really was.
A buzzer went off and the guard left as Trev entered the room.
The two shook hands, Trev spotting the guy some cash. That would ensure us some time and the cameras turned off.
I stood up as the Prez walked in.
“Brother,” he said.
“Jesus Christ, Prez,” I said.
It felt like I hadn’t seen him in a year.
We hugged and Trev grabbed my shoulder, shaking me. “You look terrible in orange.”
“Thanks.”
“What happened here?” he asked, pointing to my other shoulder.
Blood soaked through the shirt.
“Hell Five,” I said. “I’m a target in here. Bad.”
“Shit. I’ve been making calls, Kye.”
“What’s the deal on the outside here?”
“Everything is circumstantial right now,” Trev said. “But there’s no good alibi here. Something is happening behind the scenes. Someone going after you directly? Someone going after the club? I don’t know yet. But I do know you left the clubhouse…”
“Shit,” I said. I shook my head. “Prez, I got a woman pregnant.”
“You what?”
“That’s why I left.”
“You got someone pregnant?”
“I met her a long time ago. A little fling and something happened. Her father was killed in an old war between MC’s so she is against the club. She asked me to keep things under wraps.”
“Christ,” Trev said. “How far along?”
“Nine months.”
Trev’s eyes went wide. “What? That’s before I took over.”
“I know, Prez,” I said. “Look, I didn’t plan any of it. I was trying to do the right thing for her and the baby. Just trying to keep her safe. I never thought this would happen.”
“Shit, brother, we could be helping her right now,” Trev said. “Where is she?”
“She was crashing at my house. I doubt she’s still there. She’s probably on the run.”
“With your kid?”
“Yeah.”
Trev made a fist and smashed the table. “I don’t do secrets, Kye. I don’t play that bullshit game at my table.”
“I’m sorry, Prez. It wasn’t a club issue. I was worried she’d bolt on me. I figured once the baby came I’d settle in with things. I didn’t want to be the kind of father I had.”
“One in prison?” Trev asked, taking a low blow at me.
“Exactly,” I said with gritted teeth.
“I know nobody at my table or in my club killed that guy,” Trev said. “Someone is fucking with us. Maybe Ivan? Maybe the Hell Five getting back at us? Shit, maybe they arranged it to get someone on the inside to make a revenge kill.”
I nodded to my shoulder. “It was damn close not too long ago.”
“I’ll try to make some more calls.”
“What about getting out?” I asked.
“I’ll have to take this to the lawyers. See what they can do. It would help if your woman could say something in all of this.”
I hung my head. I couldn’t imagine where Dakota was by then. Out of Daurian… out of the state… shit, maybe even across the country. With my unborn son.
“I’ve got nothing then, Prez,” I said. I looked at him. “So if I’m going to go down in here, then let me know what I can do for the club while I’m here. Make deals. Settle old beefs. Just name it. I’ll take my hits with a sense of honor.”
Trev stood up. He rubbed his chin and started to slowly pace the room. “You really fucking pissed me off, Kye. Our family is growing…” Trev looked at me. “And you’re denying that.”
“Prez, I’m not denying anything. This has been killing me for months. Watching you take over the charter. What you’ve done. What we’ve gone through. But for a second, just look at it through Dakota’s eyes. She was a kid when her father was gunned down. Those old turf wars. Guys just swinging their dicks. I know it’s not like that now, but she doesn’t. She thinks we’re a bunch of criminals.”
“Says the guy in prison for murder,” Trev said.
“Exactly,” I said. “So that’s why she’s afraid. I didn’t want to lose…” I turned my head away. “Ah, fuck. I didn’t want to lose her.”
“So you’ve got a thing for her? There’s something there?”
I nodded. “Yeah. She’s the mother of my unborn son.”
Trev curled his lip. “Well, at least we have something in common there. That bond between father and unborn child. You’re having a son?”
“Yeah.”
“Another outlaw in the world.”
“Don’t tell that to Dakota.”
Trev walked to the table. He grabbed my shoulder again. “I need you to hang tough, brother. You’re not going to die in prison. I’ll talk to the guards on the way out. You may get tossed into solitary for a little bit. But it’s only for your safety.”
“How do we get out of this?” I asked.
“We’ll get out of this,” Trev said. “We always do. Someone is just poking at the MC. Seeing how we react. We will figure it out. Trust me, brother.”
“I trust you, Prez,” I said. “I didn’t mean for this. To get Dakota pregnant. Have her be like this. And now I’m in prison and can’t even talk to her.”
“You just focus on the inside,” Trev said.
Trev broke away fro
m me. I caught a sense of hesitation and turned my head. It was just in time to see Trev’s massive fist as it crashed to my face.
I flew off the table to the floor, my arms flying up as they were chained to the table still. I saw stars and tasted blood.
Trev crouched down and grabbed my shirt. He put his mouth near my ear. “You don’t hide shit from my club, brother. I’m sorry it has to be this way.”
I shut my eyes and did the honorable thing.
I took my beating like a man.
*
EIGHT WEEKS LATER
chapter ten.
(dakota)
“Where have you been?” I asked him.
He stood there, leaning against his motorcycle. The super hot tough guy that he was. No shirt on, his muscles ripped up.
“Just riding, darling. Now come here and kiss me.”
I ran my hands up his chiseled chest to his scruffy face. I jumped and he caught me. I wrapped my legs around his body and our mouths came together.
Oh, fuck, he tasted so good. Whiskey and outlaw.
Nobody could kiss me like Kye could.
“I’ve fucking missed you so much,” he whispered to me, our lips touching.
“Kye… I…”
Kye spun around and we were no longer outside. We were in a bedroom, his bedroom. I was naked. I felt the heavy tip of his cock throbbing between my legs. He gently placed me on the bed and stood up, towering over me. His cock was massive, full, ready to unleash on me.
My thoughts were running wild and dirty and I couldn’t help myself. I craved him in a way I never craved anything in my life.
“I’m here,” Kye said. He placed his hands to my breasts, squeezing them. His fingers raced across my nipples. “I’m never leaving you again, darling. It’s you and me forever.”
“Please, Kye, I need you,” I said. “Right now. Inside me.”
His hands inched down and he took a firm hold at my sides.
Bending his knees he lined his cock up to my pussy and then thrust forward.
I groaned at that first…
My eyes popped open and I saw two small hands sticking up out of the bassinet.
Ellis was hungry. And it was three in the morning.
I hurried to throw the covers off my body and when I moved I felt a gush between my legs. It made me gasp. Then my face started to burn from embarrassment. That’s what I had become. A single mother living in a stranger’s house having a wet dream about the criminal outlaw that got her pregnant.
I ran a hand through my hair and stood up.
Ellis’s mouth was open in an endless cry. I reached down and picked up my baby, cradling him to my shoulder, gently bouncing him as I grabbed for the pillows so I could get myself situated and feed him.
A second later the bedroom door swung open and Debbie came rushing in.
She had worked in the ER years ago and was used to a midnight kind of schedule. She had been the one in the delivery room with me when Ellis was born. My water had broken in her shower. She held my hand, wiped my forehead, and cried when the baby was born. It was hard to imagine life without Debbie. She saved me in ways I could never repay her.
And now she was awake because of my baby.
“It’s fine,” I whispered.
“He was crying for a few minutes,” Debbie said. “Why don’t you grab extra sleep? There’s some milk in the fridge.”
“No,” I said. “I’ll take…”
“Please?” Debbie asked.
She teetered between mother and grandmother with the way she acted and smiled at me. She made it impossible to tell her no.
I agreed and Debbie left the room. We met up in Ellis’s nursery, the room only used for him to take naps and get changed. Debbie sat in the rocking chair she insisted on buying and took the baby from me.
“Go to sleep,” she ordered to me.
“I can’t,” I said. “Bad dreams.”
“Of what?” she asked with an eyebrow raised.
Though our time together wasn’t all that long, Debbie learned very quickly that over the passing weeks it grew on me more and more that I didn’t know what really happened with Kye. Whether he was in prison or not. Whether it was true about the murder charges or not. Whether I should go to the MC to have them tell Kye that Ellis was born.
Every week I would drive by his house and see if there was any action.
So far, nothing.
“You’re thinking about him again,” Debbie said.
“Of course I am. My son has no father. Well, he has a father. His father is out there. Maybe in prison. Maybe dead by now. It just breaks my heart…”
“It’s not only that,” Debbie said. “You want to be cared for. You deserve it. You carried this beautiful little boy for nine months. Now you want someone to hold you.”
“Is that so wrong?” I asked, wiping a tear from my eye. “And it can’t be you, Debbie. You’ve done far too much for me.”
“I could never do enough,” she said. “You’re helping me just the same. I have bad dreams too. I wake up and still reach for my husband. Somedays I can understand it, somedays I cannot. You just have to accept what’s in front of you.”
“But I don’t get it,” I said.
“That’s the beauty of life. Not getting it.”
“I don’t find that beautiful at all,” I said. “I think it’s ugly and cruel.”
Ellis let out a little whine and Debbie put the bottle down. She then propped Ellis up on her shoulder and started to burp him. I loved watching Debbie do this. She seemed happy. But in my heart it should have been Kye doing it.
“You have to decide what to do next,” Debbie said. “If you really want to find him, you can. You know that. The truth is sometimes scary to hear and accept. I wish there was more I could say.”
“He’s an outlaw,” I said. “What kind of father would that make him then?”
“Don’t judge a person on that,” Debbie said. “Judge him by the father he is.”
“So I just trust in it all? My baby’s safety? My safety?”
“Anyone could get hurt in life,” Debbie said. “You know that.”
I folded my arms and leaned against the wall.
Ellis started to whine again.
“I think your son wants you,” Debbie said with a grin.
I took Ellis and held him. His head went right to my shoulder. His little hands and arms trying to hold me. I never felt a love like that before in my life. Instant. Instinctual. Something so powerful and deep it made me cry.
Debbie kissed my cheek. “You have a lot on your mind. You need to take it slow and breathe. What’s happened has happened. You can’t go back and try to redo anything. Just look forward, Dakota. You can stay here as long as you like. Raise your son. Find your purpose. Live it.”
“You’re like the best nurse ever,” I said.
“No. I’ve just seen a lot. Car accidents. Drug overdoses. Those passing from age or cancer. So many times I’ve seen people confess their regrets to me before passing. And it’s not always what you think. I say just live. Live until you don’t.”
“Goodnight Debbie,” I said.
“Goodnight Dakota.”
I walked to the chair and sat down, rocking Ellis to sleep.
My mind thought about everything.
I had to take it for what it was worth. The first thing would be protecting Ellis. No matter what.
But tomorrow… I was going to go by Kye’s house again… just in case…
**
I didn’t want to have Ellis with me but Debbie had to work.
It seemed like a bad idea right up until I saw the motorcycle in the driveway. I drove right by the house, my hands shaking. I wasn’t sure if I was more scared or excited. I went all the way down the street and sat at a stop for two minutes instead of the legal two seconds.
Then I slowly turned around.
Kye was home…
I pulled up to the house and stopped. I turned my head and looked a
t the mirror attached to the backseat so I could see into Ellis’s carseat.
I had to do this.
Kye needed to see his son. Maybe that would make him understand things in life better. Did he really want to live an outlaw life, on the edge of prison and death? The second he saw Ellis he would have to rethink everything. Even if we lived paycheck to paycheck and struggled… we’d still be a family.
I got out of the car and grabbed Ellis from the carseat.
Even if things didn’t go well, there was something I wanted from the house.
My fingers had gotten so swollen that I had taken off a ring my father gave to me as a young girl. I left it on the nightstand and forgot it the day I bolted from the house.
I went to the door and instead of knocking, I opened it. I walked right inside.
Everything looked the same.
I peeked to the left and saw the kitchen. There was a mug on the table. A Back Down Devil MC leather cut hung from the back of the chair.
He’s really here.
I called out for Kye but heard nothing in response.
I walked, carrying Ellis, going up the stairs and to my old bedroom. I called out Kye’s name a few more times but nobody responded. I didn’t know where he was. Maybe messing around in the backyard in the shed.
To my surprise my ring was still on the nightstand. I grabbed it and squeezed it tight. Then I slipped it into my pocket.
As I turned, I heard a voice say, “What the fuck…”
I let out a scream and stepped back, looking at a man in the doorway.
A man that wasn’t Kye at all.
A man who was huge with a rough looking face and the eyes of a poisonous snake ready to strike and kill.
“Who…” He then looked at the baby. “Holy shit… it’s you.”
“Where’s Kye?”
“Kye’s in prison,” the man said. “I thought you knew that.”
“Prison… still…”
“You’re Dakota?”
“Who are you?”
“Max,” he said. “I’m Kye’s closest friend. I’m the one who called you that day. I had no idea about you… or the baby… where have you been staying?”
“Kye is still in prison?”
“Yes.”
“I have to go,” I said.