by Ada Stone
“Candy. You better be getting your ass home right away. I’m headed there now. It’s not what you think, not by a fucking long shot. I want you home when I get there.” The last sentence dropped off in volume, more worry than order.
“Go. I was just coming to talk to Craig. It’s fine.” Michael waved him off. “When you find her, maybe take it easy. She’s new to this whole thing, too, you know.”
“Whatever, her ass is mine.” Sniper shoved his phone into his back pocket and stalked to his bike.
Wanting to get back home to his own bundle of trouble, Michael pushed through the front doors of the clubhouse and headed straight for Craig’s office.
“Hey!” Craig waved him in from his desk. “Shut that door.” Michael noticed how red Craig’s eyes were, not puffy like he’d been crying but red like he’d been digging into some of the supplies out at the warehouses.
“You okay?” Michael shut the door and took the seat across the desk from Craig. He’d known Craig since he was too young to ride a bike. He’d been friends with his father, and he’d never once seen him high—drunk, sure, but never high.
“Yeah. It’s this COPD shit. Doc actually suggested I toke up, and who am I to argue?”
Michael laughed. “I guess not.” He looked around the office. “Have you talked with Devlin?”
“Yeah. About an hour ago. Man’s pissed as hell.”
“I bet.” Michael nodded. “What’s the next step?”
“Next step, we wait. He could man up and get over it, or he could blow his shit.”
“I think he’s going to blow his top, and he’s going to come after us.” Michael scratched behind his ear. “That asshole talked to Belle. He actually went up to her and talked to her, and worse yet, he fucking put his hands on her.” As hard as Michael tried, he couldn’t keep the anger out of his voice. “He grabbed her arm and took her to the car, saying shit about our decisions. That we better make the right call at the vote.”
“What?” Craig’s eyes narrowed. Getting the women involved was bullshit, especially before shit even went down with the vote. You don’t talk to the women to get messages to the men. It just wasn’t done. “She okay?”
“Yeah, she’s shaken up and scared now that I’m too dangerous for the kid and her, but she’s fine. I have her at the house. Prank and Jackson are there watching the house. I want him, Craig. I want that fucker all to myself.”
“I get it.” Craig nodded and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his stomach, which was growing at a rapid speed thanks to his inability to move around much anymore. “We continue on as usual. Business is getting better with the expansion of services. The medical docs are happy with the shipments coming in, and Devlin doesn’t know who our growers and buyers are at the moment. For now, we just keep on as we have been but with wide eyes and open ears. We hear so much as one fucking peep that those Devils’ Nest fuckers are in our area, and we’ll go after them.”
“We need more than that, Craig. We need to send those fuckers a message that they aren’t coming into our town. Let them run their shit around us, outside of this place. They don’t need this small a town for their products.”
“What do you think we should do? Have a sit down with them?”
“Why not? Let them know they can’t touch this town—next door, who cares, but not here. What’s this place have that they want so much anyway? They can peddle their shit anywhere else.”
“They want the medical line; they want that revenue stream. You’ve seen how well we do with it. They want a taste. You think we should partner with them?” Nothing about the way Craig was looking at him suggested he liked that idea.
“Fuck no. We don’t partner with them for anything. The medial line stays ours. It’s the only hand we have out there in that shit. They can have everything else. Now that the garage is picking up and the house out back is starting to bring in more cash, we don’t need to reach any further than that medical shit.”
“I agree with you, but it’s those assholes that don’t see it that way. They want what we have.”
“No shit.” Michael rubbed the back of his neck. “This has to get settled. I’ll reach out to Devlin, get a sit down. Maybe we can try the civilized way, not that those fuckers are civilized in the least.
“Fine. Set it up for tonight. Let Sniper know, and I’ll get the VP on board. Maybe we can roll his ass out of his house for once.” Craig laughed but quickly started coughing.
“Yeah, about that. Some of the guys are starting to call for him to step down, get someone in that chair that will actually be in that chair.”
Craig caught his breath and nodded. “I know it. And right after him, it’ll be me they want stepping down.” He’d been president since Michael joined up as a prospect. Having Craig step down would start an entire new generation of board members.
“You wanting my seat?” Craig asked with a wry smile.
“Fuck no.” Michael stood from his chair. “The view from my chair is just fucking fine.” And he meant it, too. Belle already had trouble with the club. If he took on the responsibility of the whole fucking thing, she’d really have an issue. And he couldn’t blame her. He’d be busier with club business than he would be with her and the baby, and that’s not where his needs were anymore. Settling down, being a husband and a father, now that started to sound fucking appealing. He was finally starting to understand what his father was talking about when Michael joined the club.
His father always told him to get his priorities in order, make sure he never let the club become more important than his family. His dad never took a board seat because his priorities were at home, and Michael never thought he’d make the same call. Fucking and riding, those were his priorities when he signed up.
Now he had a pregnant girl at home waiting for him, and he couldn’t wait to get back to her.
Michael left the clubhouse with every intention of going straight home, waking up his girl, and sinking his cock straight into her. He hadn’t touched her in too long, and he needed her, needed that connection and that reclaiming of her body.
Just as he swung his leg over his bike, his cell rang.
“What?” Michael answered it.
“Man, your old lady just took off.” Prank yelled into the phone. The roar of his bike was in the background. “Jackson tried to stop her, but she gave him the finger and got in the truck. She took off.”
“Where are you?”
“We followed her. We’re outside some house on the other side of town. There’s a medical truck here.”
“Her mom.” Michael sighed. He was still pissed but relieved that she didn’t hightail it back to her own house. “She’s at her mom’s. Stay there until I get there. Don’t let her leave. If she tries, take out the tires.”
“Cut the tires?”
“If she tries to leave, yeah.”
“Whatever you say, man.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Belle walked up the steps to her mother’s house, making sure to give one last glare at the two young assholes Michael left at the house. It wasn’t enough that she didn’t have her own car and had to drive the big ass truck of his instead or she didn’t have most of her things with her at his house because he’d made her pack so fast, but now she had babysitters that were at least five years younger than her.
Putting them out of her mind, she entered her mother’s house, immediately taking in the smell of baking cookies.
“Mom?” She dropped her purse on the entry table and went to the kitchen.
A middle-aged woman stood over the stove, transferring cookies from a baking sheet to a cooling rack.
“Oh!” The woman jumped a bit and clutched her chest. “I’m sorry, dear. I didn’t hear you.” She put the spatula down and turned to her, wiping her hands on the apron she wore over her nurse’s uniform.
“You’re the nurse?”
“Yes. I’m sorry, you must be Belle. Your mother mentioned you might stop by today.” She untied the apron as s
he spoke and draped it over the kitchen chair. “She’s napping right now, but she had quite the appetite this morning. Said she wanted a chocolate chip cookie, so while she slept, I thought I’d throw a batch together.”
“Mom was hungry?” Belle smiled. She couldn’t help herself. Her mom had lost so much weight over the past months, she worried the weight loss would be more harmful to her than the cancer she was fighting.
“Yes.” The nurse nodded and pointed to her mother’s closed bedroom door. “She should be getting up soon if you want to sit with her.”
“I think I will.” Belle nodded. “The hospital called me this morning. They are all set for the procedure. They’re going to have a medical van come the morning of to take her to the hospital.”
“That will be easier for her then. While you sit with her, I’m going to do some of the laundry. The night nurse had to change the sheets a few times, so I’ll get those going.”
“Mom had a bad night?”
“No worse than usual.” The nurse patted Belle’s arm. “Don’t worry too much. It’s part of the medicine. She’s a strong woman.”
“Yeah. She is.” Belle agreed. Her mom hadn’t had a choice in the matter. Being a single mom didn’t exactly give her a lot of free time to sloth around. She didn’t have many friends, and she worked harder than she should have, all so Belle wouldn’t feel the effects of not having a father in the house.
Belle sat beside her sleeping mother and placed a hand on her growing belly. The baby was starting to show a little bit, and she was beginning to feel little kicks or movements now and then. The worry over Michael being too dangerous hadn’t gone away just because he put his foot down and took control of the situation. As much as her mom tried, Belle still felt the longing for her father. She wanted him to be there like so many of her friends’ fathers were. Did she want that for her own child?
Michael told her he loved her, and she knew him well enough to know the man didn’t say things he didn’t mean. And she could tell by the surprise in his own features when he made the proclamation, that he’d never said those words before, either. Hell, he was probably as surprised by the feeling as he was by expressing it out loud.
She hadn’t returned the sentiment, at least not verbally. Waking up beside him, sleeping in his arms, having him sit across from her at the dinner table—all these things felt right, like he’d always been there. But he hadn’t been, and if whatever this deal he was working on with Devlin got violent, he might not be in the future.
The same excuses played through her mind, all things to consider before getting involved with him, but they were already involved, and so was her heart. She did love him, otherwise she wouldn’t be so afraid for him. He was arrogant and bossy, but he held her when she was moody. His touch alone could soothe almost all her worries.
“Belle?” Her mother’s soft voice filled the room. Belle sat up straighter in her chair, leaning over to take her mom’s hand, so frail and chilled. “I thought you’d be at work.”
“I wasn’t feeling great, so I took the day off.” Rather, Michael decided she needed to rest and had called her boss, an act she still wasn’t sure she liked or not. “How are you feeling?”
“Oh, you know.” A slight squeeze of her hand let her know her mom was still fighting. The tiny smile she gave Belle reminded her of how much her mother used to laugh. Even after her father walked out, after the bills became too much to pay on just her salary, even after they’d almost lost the house, her mother smiled and laughed, never giving into the pile of crap being dished out to them.
“There’s cookies. The nurse said you wanted cookies?”
“Oh, yeah. I did have a taste for chocolate chip. One of these medicines keeps giving me a sweet tooth. But if I eat it, I’ll probably toss it up. You take them home with you, to that big guy of yours. He looks like he could eat a dozen or two.”
“Michael. Yeah, he probably could.” Belle laughed and tucked mom’s her hair back behind her ears.
“I know you’re worried, but I’m not sure about what—me or him or you?” Her mom struggled to sit up, and Belle was quick to move the pillows and push the button on the hospital bed they’d rented to help her.
“We haven’t exactly had the best luck with men, you know.” Belle tried to joke. After her dad bailed, she didn’t remember her mom dating anyone else.
“Better to have loved and lost,” her mom whispered with a whimsical look in her eyes.
“Really? Even dad?” They didn’t talk much about her father. Belle didn’t need to know much about him to know he was a deadbeat. He walked out, never looking back and leaving them dangling in the wind. He never even bothered to divorce her mother; he just left.
“Your father was decent enough before he changed. He took good care of me and you.” A frail finger pointed at Belle.
“Yeah, by deserting us.” Belle started straightening the sheets and blankets.
“Listen, Belle, I didn’t tell you everything about your father. I didn’t want—” Her voice broke off, and Belle looked over at her. A tear ran down her cheek.
“Mom, I’m sorry. Don’t. It’s okay. We don’t need to talk about him.”
“No, you need to know.” She grabbed Belle’s hand and held on tight. “Because you look like you might make the same mistake.”
Belle sank back into her chair and listened.
“Your father did walk out on us. That was true.” Watery eyes looked away from Belle as she continued. “A few years later he tried to come home. But in the time he’d been gone, he’d changed. Maybe for the better, I don’t know. I never gave him the chance.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’d joined some biker club, not the one your guy’s in. The patch, it was different, red with horns or something.” Belle swallowed. She’d seen that patch before. “But I was scared. Too scared he’d run away again or that he’d get in trouble because of that club. So I told him to go and never come back.”
Belle blinked a few times, letting what her mother told her settle in her mind. “He’s in the Devil’s Nest?”
“I’m sorry, but you can’t do the same thing I did. Don’t try pushing Michael away because you’re too scared.”
“He’s still there? Is he still in that club?”
“What?” Sienna closed her eyes for a brief moment, then let out a slow breath. “What did you ask?”
“Mom. Is he still in that club? Do you know?”
“What’s all the ruckus?” The nurse showed up in the doorway with her pristine uniform and genuine smile.
“I don’t know.” Sienna patted Belle’s hand. “I’m sorry I never told you.”
“If you’re up for it, let’s get you cleaned up and your nightgown changed.” The nurse gave Belle a nod of her head, a sign to get going so she could do her job.
Belle looked down at her mom. Her father hadn’t completely abandoned them? “Yeah. Uh, Mom, I have to meet Michael back home anyway.”
“Okay.” Her mom nodded and leaned back against her pillow. Their conversation had taken a lot of out of her.
“Her speech has gotten a lot better,” Belle commented to the nurse.
“The new medication is helping that, but it takes so much out of her when she talks.”
“I’ll be back tomorrow.” Belle kissed her mother and scooted around the bed and past the nurse. Michael had taken care of everything for her mom—around the clock care and the best medical treatment, and so far, all she’d done was doubt him.
Now there was her father to deal with. Could he still be in the Devil’s Nest? Would he make trouble for Michael, and really, did she care?
When she walked out of the house, she noticed her babysitters parked behind the truck. She sighed. He was trying to protect her, she knew that and did appreciate it, but it was the fact that she needed protecting that was concerning.
As she walked to the truck, her phone started ringing, and she grabbed it just before it went to voicemail.
“Hey, sweet cheeks.” She could almost envision Michael grinning, thinking he was clever with the nickname.
“Hi, Michael. You know… don’t you think it’s weird that your name is Michael, not Mike or Mikey or some other nickname like Sniper has?” She leaned against the truck door, giving the prospects on their bikes a little wink. They just looked at each other, just like a little boy would when be dealing with a woman.
“It’s not weird at all.”
“I think I’ll call you Mikey from now on.” She smiled, enjoying the small banter between them. All of their conversations were so tense recently. She just wanted to hear a little laughter, feel a little lighter before everything got more serious. Because once she told him that her dad could possibly be alive and a member of Devil’s Nest, things could get a hell of a lot tenser.