Greatest MC Romance Box Set

by Blair Grey

  Slowly, the blackness that had come into my vision, ebbed and ebbed until it was gone. Everything got quiet – except for the rhythmic beep of my heart monitor. “I’m okay,” I whispered.

  “You are now.” She sighed. “But you can’t talk about anything like what you were just talking about. It seems that the subject upsets you. After you’ve recovered, then you can answer what they want you to.”

  “How long will it take me to recover?” I asked as I knew the agency wouldn’t wait that long.

  “Six to eight weeks,” she said as she threw the empty syringe in the toxic waste receptacle.

  “They’ll never wait that long.” And I wanted my side said before the people Dean had in his back pocket said their side. “I can’t wait that long either. Please ask Agent Smith to come back in here. I’ve got to talk to him before the others do.”

  “I can’t do that. Sorry.” She walked out of the room before I could protest.

  I had no idea what I would do. I couldn’t get out of bed to do anything on my own. And I knew the women Dean had been working with would spin it, so I was the bad guy in this thing.

  One fear resonated in mind. It’ll be me and Garrett who go down for Dean’s death if I can’t get my side out there first.

  “Hey,” I heard a gravelly voice whisper.

  My eyes flew open. “Lyle, I need your help. I need it like right now.”

  “You’ve got it. Settle down now. I overheard everything. Agent Smith – the nurse – everything.” With his hand on my shoulder, he looked into my eyes. “Tell me what you need, and I will get it done.”

  “Dean Strong was into BDSM. I think my supervisor was one of his subs. And I also think the cop I was dealing with here in Baltimore was too. He also found some woman here in the last couple of days to become his submissive too. She came to me this morning, acting like she was Garrett’s pregnant wife. I think these women have been told to cover for Dean. And I would assume they will do it – even if he’s dead. I think they’ll say I was his submissive too. I think they’ll try to make it seem as if I got Garrett to kill Dean Strong. He and I will both go to prison over that. And there might even be implications toward the Iron Cobras. You know how Dean was trying to shut your MC down. He might’ve been telling his subs things about that too. What I’m saying here, is that we’re all in danger of getting accused of the murder of Dean Strong unless my side gets out there before theirs does.”

  “Not a problem at all,” Lyle said with confidence. “I happen to know a man with ties to that world. He can find out who in Baltimore belonged to Strong. And he can get to them before the authorities have a chance to. He’ll find out where they stand and what they’re ready to say and do for the guy – dead or not.”

  Relief spread through me. “You guys really are great. Garrett said you were. I’m not going to lie, I was doubtful. A biker gang doesn’t sound like it’s made up of a bunch of sweethearts.”

  “We’re not always sweet.” He rubbed my shoulder gently. “You can count on us to straighten things out before anyone fucks them all up. You have to remember that there are two sides here – good and evil. Now you tell me which side always wins.”

  I knew he wanted me to say that good always wins over evil. That hadn’t been my experience. But then again, I never had a bunch of good people in my corner either. “Good always wins.”

  “That’s right.” He kissed my forehead. “The kid’s still out. But I told him what you wanted me to. I’ll be back. But there’s going to be one of us from the MC with him most of the time. All you have to do is ask them for anything else you might need. We’re all here to help you, Johansson. All of us.”

  “Thank you. I know that I’m in good hands.”

  Maybe good will win over evil this time. I hope so anyway.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Garrett

  A soft hand touched mine, sparks of electricity moved in a slow wave through my body – all the way up to my eyes that came open. The light made a circle around the golden head that loomed beside me. “There are those gorgeous blue eyes I’ve been waiting to see.”

  “Nicki,” I breathed out.

  She was sitting there next to my bed. How? I didn’t know. All I knew was that I felt a million times better with her next to me.

  “Welcome to Baltimore’s most prestigious Intensive Care Unit. The staff here is phenomenal. They let me leave my room to come to see you.” She looked down at the chair she sat in. “Sure, they made me take a wheelchair over here, but still, I got to come to see you. So, are my eyes the first you’ve seen since waking up?”

  “They are,” I found it hurt to speak and winced with the pain.

  A man’s voice came from the other side of me. “I’m Doctor Healy, Garrett. I’m the surgeon who took care of you. The bullet wound in your upper left bicep was a clean shot. I was able to fix that up for you. There was a nine-millimeter bullet that went completely through your right lung. I fixed that up for you as well. You were lucky that your lung didn’t collapse. The quick thinking of those around you made that possible. You’ve got six to eight weeks of recovery time. You will have to take it easy – and I mean easy. No work. None at all. Bedrest. Tons of it. I shouldn’t have to tell you this because I’m sure you can feel the weakness in your lung, but that’s a vital organ and it’s important for it to heal completely.”

  “Got it.” I gave him a thumbs up.

  Nicki squeezed my hand. “I’ll be your sickbed buddy if you’d like.”

  The doc was quick to nix that. “No physical activity. Especially the sexual kind. Not until your personal physicians release you both for that kind of activity. That’s important for both of you. Miss Johansson, I didn’t do the surgery on you. But I know about abdominal injuries and the same thing I told him goes for you too. I’m sure the surgeon will see you sometime soon to tell you that himself.”

  “I bet you’re right,” Nicki said with a smile. “I did mean platonic sickbed buddies.”

  With rolling eyes, he made a sarcastic comment, “I bet.” Heading to the door, he shook his head. “Seriously you two, no messing around. Good luck to you both.”

  “We understand, and thanks,” I said. Looking back at Nicki, I thought she looked beautiful for a woman who’d gone through getting into a fistfight with a man and being stabbed as well. “You look amazing. How do I look? No. I don’t want to know. I bet I look like shit.”

  She leaned in and kissed my cheek. “You look handsome as ever, hero.”

  “It’s good to see you smiling, Nicki.” I Ran my hand through her hair. “He’s gone. He’ll never hurt you again.”

  “Thank you for that.” She pulled my hand to her lips and kissed it. “I’m forever in your debt. I know I told you that I could handle him. Obviously, I’d been wrong.”

  “If I was you, I would look at it this way. You gave it your best shot.”

  She gasped. “Oh, wait. You don’t even know the half of it. Dean snuck into my apartment and used a syringe to get me to drink vodka – a whole point of it. He’d been doing that all along. And here I was thinking that I was a closet drunk who might have a split personality. Anyway, so I had a hangover from hell and on top of that, he gave me some sort of drug in a glass of water and I passed out.”

  My heart monitor began beeping like crazy and we both looked up at it. “Uh, oh.”

  She looked over her shoulder as the nurse came toward my room. “Well, I’ll tell you more when we’re not so fragile. Let’s just say that I did well, considering what was in my system. I’m proud of my effort. And I’m ecstatic with the effort you made while in such dire straits.”

  My nurse gave Nicki the stink eye as she came in. “Am I going to have to restrict your visitation, Miss Johansson?”

  “No.” Nicki looked at me with a smile. “I’ll watch what I say. Just being with my hero makes me feel stronger and better already.”

  “Well, as nice as that is for you,” my nurse said, “Mr. Robertson is my main
concern. So it’s how he feels that matters the most to me.” She looked at me with kind eyes. “How are you feeling since you’ve woken up?”

  “When I felt this beautiful young lady’s hand wrap around mine, I thought I might’ve died and gone to Heaven. But it was a pleasant surprise to find out that we’re both alive and have the chance to find out where we can go from here.” I wanted to go places with Nicki. Lots and lots of places. “I think we’re going to be private investigators together – among other things.”

  Nicki nodded. “I’d like that.”

  “As long as you don’t start working until after you leave this hospital, then I’m cool with that idea too.” The nurse left us alone again, smiling all the way out.

  Nicki watched her go then looked back at me. “Okay, I know she said we had to wait to do any work. But I think there’s something that needs to be done pretty damn quickly. See, there were three men who I saw one time each. And nothing really happened between me and any of them. Only each one of them went missing.”

  I held my hand up as she had no idea that Strong had already told me about this. “Strong told me his skewed version of this story. I’ve even talked to the wife of one of the men.”

  She went on, “Well, I think Dean kidnapped them.”

  “I do too.” He’d said that odd thing about a sex dungeon. “You don’t happen to know if the man had a BDSM room or sex dungeon, do you?”

  “I don’t know a thing about that. But I think we should tell your MC guys about that and see if they can find that out.” She grinned. “But why’d you ask me that?”

  “Strong said this odd thing about you might be keeping those men in a sex dungeon.” I thought we might be able to become a pretty great private investigation team one day.

  Clyde came walking into my room and he was surprised to see Nicki there. “You’re up?”

  “I am.” She nodded proudly. “I’m a lot stronger than I ever knew I was.” Nicki looked back at me. “Should we tell him what we think?”

  “We should,” I agreed. “And he’s just the man to tell this information to. Clyde, we need you to see if you can find out if Strong had any type of a BDSM sex room in Arlington.”

  Nicki raised one finger. “Wait. Maybe it’s not in Arlington. Maybe it’s here, in Baltimore. He’s been coming here for some reason. I think the whole – take down the Iron Reapers thing – was just a reason for him to get the DEA to pay for him to come and stay here. But I bet he was more interested in being here for other reasons. Like the sex dungeon you spoke about, Garrett.”

  “Sex dungeon?” Clyde asked with a knowing grin. “I happen to know about that type of thing. First things first. How are you both doing? I’ve got to report back to everyone because each and every one of the Iron Cobras and their lovely female counterparts are worried sick about you both.”

  “Me too?” Nicki asked with surprised eyes.

  “You too,” he confirmed. “See, you’re a part of our MC family now, girl. When we save a life, we have this belief that it was meant to be. We believe that the people we save are a part of the whole that we belong to. So, welcome to the family, Agent Johansson.”

  She wiped her eyes. “Nicki. Call me, Nicki. I’m quitting the DEA anyway.”

  “She and I are going to open a private investigation company. We’re teaming up to be private eyes.” I loved the idea. And I had the money to get it all going too. “We’ll have a nice office downtown.”

  Her smile lit me up inside. “Overlooking the harbor?”

  “Yeah. Close enough to Giovanni’s Baked Goods to get breakfast every morning.” I couldn’t stop smiling. “Open Monday through Friday – ten to three. We’ve gotta leave time for the good stuff too. All work and no play – you know.”

  “I like the idea.” Taking my hand again, she sighed. “I’ve got loads of money saved up too. Since I began working, I’ve put most of my money in a Money Market Savings Account. It’s tripled in value. I’m sort of rich.”

  “I am too.” Looking at Clyde, I asked, “Is this how it’s supposed to feel, Clyde? Like everything just snaps into place?”

  “Sometimes it snaps into place and then you’ll have times where it won’t snap no matter how hard you try. It’s not magic, it’s love. And love can be easy as pie sometimes – well, most of the time. But other times, it’s hard work, staying together. Me and my wife love each other to the moon and back. And our son is the most important thing to us. Now and then we butt heads. But mostly we find our differences enhance us as a couple.”

  I liked that idea. Searching Nicki’s eyes, I asked, “You wanna give this thing a real try this time?”

  “You and me?” A sexy little smile curved her plump lips. “Like a couple?”

  “Exactly like a couple, Nicki.”

  “Well, I am going to have to nurse you back to health. And you’ve already shown me how far you’ll go for me. So, I say why not? Let’s do this. Let’s make it official.”

  My nurse came back into the room with a scowl in her face. “You two are getting too hyped up. Calm down now or I’ll be forced to separate you. You’re both very sick right now.”

  “Okay.” I whispered to Nicki, “It’s official though. We’re a couple.”

  “And I’m out of here so I can find out what you asked me too. Plus, Lyle wants to meet with me about something.” Clyde turned to leave.

  Nicki squeezed my hand. “Should we tell him about the missing men?”

  “Definitely. Hang on, Clyde.” Looking around the room, I needed to get the keys to my apartment out of the pocket of my jeans. But I had no idea where the clothes I came in wearing were. “I need my jeans.”

  Nicki pointed at a big plastic bag. “I think your things are in that bag.”

  Clyde walked over to it. “What do you need your jeans for, Garrett?”

  “My house keys. I need you to get the keys and go to my place. Get on my computer and you’ll find a document I made called, Missing.” I noticed the way Nicki was looking at me and felt I should explain. “I’m a bit of a researcher. When Strong told me about these men who went missing after one date with you, then I did my research. And anytime I do research, I save what I find in a document.”

  “That’ll come in handy with our business.” Cutting her eyes at me, she said, “You’re going to be an awesome partner.”

  “In more ways than one.”

  Clyde cleared his throat.” Anyway – back to what you need me to do, Garrett.”

  “Oh, yeah.” I could get caught up in Nicki so easily it was crazy. “Anyway, I’ve got pictures and names of the men who Nicki and I are pretty damn sure Strong kidnapped and may have been keeping locked away in a BDSM dungeon. So, finding them is our top priority right now but neither of us can do a damn thing about that for weeks. Think you can handle that for us?”

  “I’m on it.” He grabbed the keys out of my jeans, then stuffed them back into the bag. “I think Carl’s coming by next. He’s excited about meeting Nicki. He’s bringing his wife too. He wants Nicki to get to know our ladies so she’ll feel comfortable at our gatherings. Plus, I think he’s got something to tell you, bro.”

  A deep voice came from just out of my line of sight, “I do have something to tell him.” Carl and his wife, Brittany, came walking into my room.

  Clyde quickly left. “Only three visitors at a time. I’m out. I’ll come back to let you both know what I’ve accomplished.”

  Nicki called out, “Thank you so much, Clyde.”

  “No problem, Nicki,” he shouted back.

  Both of our nurses came to my room. Both wore frowns as my nurse reprimanded us, “That’s it, you two. Miss Johansson, back to your room.”

  Her nurse went around Carl and Brittany, grabbing the handles of the wheelchair. “Come on.”

  Carl touched the nurse on the shoulder. “Can she stay to hear this? It’s pretty important.”

  With a huff, Nicki’s nurse crossed her arms. “I’ll give you fifteen more minutes,”
she told Nicki. “Then you’re going to your room so both of you can get some rest.”

  “Agreed,” Nicki said as she looked at me.

  “I agree too.” I wasn’t tired at all anymore, but I felt I had to agree or Nicki would be taken away from me.

  “Fifteen minutes,” my nurse said as they both walked away.

  Carl rolled his eyes. “Bet you two can’t wait to get the hell out of this place. Geeze.”

  Brittany reached across him to shake Nicki’s hand. “I’m Brittany, Agent Johansson. It’s nice to finally meet you. I’ve heard about your ordeal. It’s a real nightmare.”

  “Call me Nicki. And yes, it was a nightmare. But I’m pretty sure the bad times are going to be behind me now that I’ve partnered up with this guy.” She tugged my hand to pull herself back to my side as the nurse had moved her away a bit.

  “You and I are going to be good friends, Nicki. I’ve got a nightmare of a past too,” Brittany said. “But since this guy kidnapped me, things have gotten a hell of a lot better.”

  Nicki just blinked as she looked at Brittany. Carl ran his hand over his face. “Britt, baby, I’ve told you - the me kidnapping you thing - isn’t the way to start our story.”

  “But it’s true,” Brittany said with a frown.

  Nicki looked at me with wide eyes. All I could do was shrug. “It is how it began. And it ended up being a romantic story.”

  “See?” Brittany said as she smacked Carl in his chest. “Garrett gets it. Why can’t you?”

  “I guess because I’m the God damned kidnapper, Britt.” Carl shook his head and lowered his voice. “Okay, back to the reason we’re here.”

  “Yes, that,” Brittany took over. “As the wife of the Iron Cobras president, I would like to officially invite you, Nicki, into our MC family. As a family, I want you to know that you can count on us Iron Cobra ladies to help you with any and everything you will need during your recovery. I mean anything too. We know you were stabbed in the stomach. It might hurt for you to bend over to shave your legs. We’ll do that for you. We’ll do your laundry. We’ll bring you all of your meals. Anything you need, you had better ask or you’ll hurt our feelings.”