Junior stands as close to his new Dad as he can and looks up at him, his face alight with adoration.
I know the feeling. I guess because Crew rescued both of us from hell.
The little boy was the son of Crew’s cellmate, who was stabbed to death on the inside. Crew had rescued him once from the gang that had him in their sights, hence when the guy found out his girlfriend on the outside was pregnant, he vowed to name the kid after Crew, whether it was a boy or girl.
But after Crew escaped, he couldn’t protect the man any longer. When he got the call about Troy’s murder, Crew was overwhelmed with guilt, blaming himself. He went to share condolences with the dead man’s wife.
He had to half break down the door and once inside found her overdosed. The little boy was kneeling beside her trying to shake her awake.
Crew quietly led him out of the carnage inside the house and brought him home to me. It was a shock, but if Crew felt like he wanted to take the kid on, I was totally with him.
After a couple of false starts, where we thought he’d never come out of his, what I guess was depression, Junior warmed to Crew’s affectionate nature and going out on the road with the club. Now he seems like the happiest kid in the world, all in the space of eight months.
Yeah you did the math right, the day after Little Crew arrived, I realized I’d missed my period over a week ago. A quick piss on the stick and the test confirmed my suspicions.
“Insta-family.” I told Crew, who grinned his ear to ear sexy smile.
“Hardly surprising.” He said. “It compliments our insta-love.”
“Just get back here soon.” I say.
“We will.” Junior tells me.
“Yeah we will.” Crew adds and allows himself to be tugged out the door to where the bikes are revving, waiting for him.
I close the door with a wave but leave it open a crack, watching the club roll out of the yard, my heart pumping. How can I be sure today won’t be the day?
The day they catch up to him and take him away from me.
Back to prison where his sentence will be made longer on account of his escape.
Sometimes I still long to run away but Crew says it’s safer here, buried inside IronClaw with all the protection that guarantees. He’s right because no cops have dropped by looking for him. There’s some unspoken agreement, or actual agreement for all I know, that the cops leave the club alone.
But what if they know he’s here and some new rookie with something to prove decides to bring Crew in? What if a run they’re on, Crew never tells me about his activities but I know they aren’t all above the law so to speak, what if it goes wrong and he’s caught?
I lean back against the door and breathe. It isn’t good for the baby to have to put up with a mother in anxiety mode.
If I didn’t love Crew with every ounce of my body, which is significantly more ounces right now, I wouldn’t be in such a state whenever he’s not with me.
There’s a rush between my legs.
A strange feeling like peeing, but not. I look down and then have to push on the door to support myself to lean further so as to clear a view around my huge belly. There’s a bunch of water pooled on the floor.
Crew
We only got the call when we stopped the bikes for gas. The entire club turned back with me, riding formation at top speed. I appreciate them more than I can say - after Raven and my kids, these guys are my life, have always been my life.
We’d planned that I would go collect the nurse we have on the payroll but Skylar, one of the Pass Arounds, had already ridden to pick her up for us. Raven had insisted on having the baby in the clubhouse. She wouldn’t hear any disagreement, even if that involved potential risk to her health.
“I want you with me at the birth.” She said flat out, discussion over.
I’d have risked the danger of sitting around for hours in a hospital where anyone might recognize me, where the cops were in and out a little too frequently for comfort.
But Raven wouldn’t hear of it and what Raven wants is written in stone. When Callus, the newly made Sarge, told Raven that I was born in the clubhouse, that sealed the deal for her. What he neglected to mention was that my mother almost died, with me being stuck and her laboring for almost thirty hours.
I brush off those memories now. Raven is going to be just fine, soon as I get back to her.
We roar into the yard and I try to hand Junior off to a Pass Around, but he’s having none of it. Just like his mother, he knows what he wants, and just like her, he clings to my hand, insisting on remaining at my side.
I’m working out how to educate the kid on the screaming, red-faced mother he’s about to come face to face with when a wild cry comes through the closed door. I bust through it, just in time to see my baby emerge beneath the sheet covering Raven’s legs.
The dam of emotion collapses and I have to suck my cheeks in to keep tears falling.
The nurse bustles my kid off to one side to do all the clean up and I dash to Raven’s side.
“Where the hell were you?” She barks.
I grin and lean down to kiss her forehead.
“Looks like we got insta-baby.” I joke.
“That is not funny.” She tries to be mad at me but fails.
She reaches her arms up for me and I bend over to pull her up into my embrace as her little hands go around my neck. Her face and hair are soaked with sweat.
“I love you baby.”
“I love you too. Is it okay?”
“It’s perfect.” I tell her, praying inside that it’s true. “You’re perfect.”
“Is that normal for a baby to come so fast?” She whimpers, fear etched across her brow that I kiss away.
“Your son couldn’t wait to join you.” The nurse says as she hands me a teeny bundle wrapped in white cloth that fits into the palm of my hand.
“My son.” I gasp and lean down to brush my lips lightly across his tiny forehead.
I set him down at his mother’s breast and stretch a hand out to bring Junior into the family huddle, for a look at his new brother.
Thank you for reading Flash Fantasy No. 2
Quinn Peachwood is the author of the Flash Fantasies series of instalove short reads, perfect when you need a quick pick-me-up of steamy yummies.
QP loves a good road trip, sampling local food and cocktails, shopping for vintage and best of all, meeting readers.
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Also by Quinn Peachwood
Keeping Her Safe - Flash Fantasy no. 1
Mountain Man Snatch - Flash Fanatsy no. 3
Ghosted - Flash Fantasy no. 5
Biker Escape Page 7