“Yeah, babe,” he said with another wide grin. “How’s my son doing?”
I patted my bump. “Well, we don’t know that it’s a boy for sure. They said ninety percent chance… there’s still that ten percent that could come into play.”
He stood up and stretched, exposing a small sliver of his stomach. It was like a magnet, drawing my eyes down to the trail of light blond hair running down the middle of his six-pack. “Ten percent, really? Babe, we’ve had three ultrasounds. Sooner or later, you’re gonna have to admit that you’ve got a dick growing inside you.”
My nose wrinkled. “Ew, please don’t ever say that again. I’ll never be able to get that visual out of my head.”
Zane caught the screen door as I opened it and followed me into the kitchen. I grabbed a glass from the cabinet and placed it under the faucet.
“Doesn’t seem to gross you out when it’s my dick inside you,” he noted dryly. “In fact, I’ve gotten the impression that you liked it with all of your moaning. ‘More, Zane… more.’ Isn’t that how it goes?”
Water spilled over the edge of the glass and onto my hand. I glanced around the kitchen before hissing, “Lower your voice.”
He moved behind me, wrapping the front of his body around mine and lowering his massive hands until they cupped my belly protectively. “Hate to break it to you, Cap, but I think everybody here knows we’ve had sex at least once.”
My cheeks heated as I squeaked out, “I get that, but they don’t need to know the… the sounds I make, or the things I say.”
Zane tilted my chin up to meet his gaze before turning an invisible key against his lips as if locking them up before tossing it over his shoulder. “Your secrets are safe with me, babe.”
I dropped my cheek to rest just under his chest. “Thanks, Big Guy. I gotta get back out there, or Jimmy will move on to Little Ricky, and I don’t want him to get better than me.”
His chest rumbled against my face as he laughed. “Yeah, wouldn’t want that, would we? Is your mom still planning on coming out here later?”
“She said she was…” I hedged.
“Are you gonna ask her?” He prodded.
I lifted my eyes up to his. “I don’t know. I want to, I do, but you should’ve seen her face yesterday. It was like she was reliving it all over again. I’ve tried piecing together what she told us about her gambling and the men who’d threatened to hurt her and us—”
“Threatened or did? There’s a big difference.”
I thought back to the day she’d appeared in my living room, remembering the way she’d had to stop to catch her breath just telling us about something that had happened decades before.
In the boutique she’d specifically mentioned our pregnancies and how it made us more of a target, giving me the impression that she’d been hurt by my father’s enemies. I understood what it was like to feel powerless, the fear in not knowing what was going to happen.
So, with Little Ricky’s help, I’d learned how to defend myself. And while jiu-jitsu had saved me from being hurt before, Jimmy was insistent that I learn how to handle a gun. Once I had that down, I was going to be unstoppable.
“I,” I paused to collect my thoughts. “I don’t know, but I don’t want to upset her by asking, you know?”
Zane turned me around until we were facing each other. “Who could you ask?”
“What do you mean?”
He scratched at his beard. “I mean, who would your mother know that you could ask? You could kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. Get answers and avoid upsetting her.”
“Molly,” I exclaimed excitedly. “Little Ricky’s mom has known her since they were in high school. If anyone knows what happened, it’d be her, right?”
I stumbled back in his arms at the sound of a gunshot from outside before laughing nervously. “Still getting used to that.”
His face tightened. “I wish like hell you never had to. Dakota, I’m still not convinced this is the best idea—”
“C’mon, Big Guy,” I said, hurrying back out to the porch. “Jimmy’s waiting on us.”
We’d had this conversation already, and he’d made it abundantly clear that he wasn’t on board with Lauren’s plan. He also knew it was futile to try to stop me.
“Babe,” he pleaded from behind me. “Please.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and took a deep breath before turning to face him. The light was gone from his eyes, making it appear as if he was on the verge of tears.
His jaw tightened, and his nostrils flared as he admitted, “I—I thought I lost you once. I’ve worked undercover and seen so much shit go down, but when you got into the car with Jackson, I realized I’d never been so fucking scared in my life. It’s not just you anymore, Cap. We’ve got a son to think about too. If something were to happen to either of you, I wouldn’t survive it.”
My lip quivered, and I bit down on it before nodding. “I won’t let anything happen, Big Guy. I swear.”
It was a promise I hoped I’d be able to keep.
He gripped my fingers in his and brought them up to his lips before leading me back onto the porch. Little Ricky held the Glock sideways in one hand, firing round after round into the fence post.
“Like that?”
Jimmy approached him with a furrowed brow. “What the fuck was that?”
“That’s how we do it in the hood, son,” Little Ricky said proudly. “Bust a cap—”
Lauren reclined on the tailgate of Jimmy’s truck, one hand resting lightly against her baby bump, red lips twisted up in a smirk.
Even though she was nine weeks behind me, our stomachs were the same size. And since she was carrying twins, her due date was going to fall within a month of mine.
Maybe our babies would be cousins and best friends.
“Good way to end up dead, LR,” she called over to him. “Funny, I’ve never seen you shoot like that at the range. How in the hell did you earn a patch with aim like that?”
“Mi sirenita, my aim is perfect—”
“You missed every bottle up there,” she noted with a raised eyebrow. “How is that perfect?”
He shrugged with a laugh. “I was aiming for the fence.”
Jimmy pinched the bridge of his nose. “We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us. What time is it, Laur?”
She glanced at her watch. “Quarter to two. I’d love to stay and help, but I’ve got a check-up. Ooh, since I’m eighteen weeks now, we might even find out the sex. Weren’t you that far along when you found out, Dakota?”
“What?” I asked distractedly, still trying to figure out why Little Ricky was messing around as if the entire thing was a game to him. “Oh, the gender thing? Yeah, they’re still not entirely certain. You know, it’s such a crapshoot with ultrasounds. The only way to be one hundred percent sure is to meet the baby and check between its legs.”
“We’re having a boy,” Zane deadpanned. “Found out at eighteen weeks.”
“Okay, that was… informative,” Lauren said as her eyebrows moved toward her hairline. “Congratulations.”
“I’m coming with you,” Jimmy stated, putting the guns back into their cases.
“I don’t—” Lauren protested.
Jimmy shook his head and began boxing up the unused ammunition. “You know the rules. Buddy system. It’s safer that way.”
“Wait, there’s a buddy system? Who’s my buddy?” I asked, earning an eye roll from Little Ricky.
“Obviously me, Cap—”
Zane cleared his throat with an amused expression.
“Well, Big Guy and me. You got you two buddies, girl.”
“Good, because I’m going to need a little favor while Lauren’s at her doctor’s appointment.”
* * *
“Are you sure I can’t get you something to drink? Maybe a glass of water?” Molly hovered near the couch. “Or coffee, I have coffee. Betsy stopped by earlier and I made a whole pot, but she turned me down. Just wanted to moan about how bad Mike
’s gotten. Anyway, I made it extra special, just like everyone likes.”
I shook my head, remembering what she did to coffee. “That’s really sweet of you…”
“Ma, she’s good,” Little Ricky insisted. “We stopped at Baskin-Robbins on the way over, gave that baby thirty-one flavors of deliciousness. Right, Dakota?”
“Um, right. So, thank you for agreeing to meet with us. Is Sir—uh, Bear, is he going to be joining us?”
I had a feeling my chances of obtaining information would decrease drastically if the biker were anywhere in the vicinity.
Molly reached down to retrieve a magazine that had fallen off the coffee table and laid it with the others as she sat down in the chair across from me.
“Don’t you worry a thing about Bear,” she said with a wave of her hand. “He and a few of the other guys stopped by earlier, but I doubt he’ll be back anytime soon. They’ve got more than enough to keep them busy at the club for a while. Have you checked in with him today, Little Ricky? He said he might need your help later tonight.” She moved her eyebrows up and down meaningfully while staring him down, some silent code I wasn’t fluent in.
“Ma, I got shit to do. I’ll call him later,” Little Ricky grumbled before reaching over into the front pocket of my purse where my cell phone had begun vibrating. “It’s Nate.”
“Excuse me for just a moment,” I said to Molly before walking out onto the large covered patio. “Hello?”
“Dakota, it’s Nate.” He sounded as if he’d been running.
“Yeah, I have caller ID.”
Why are you calling was on the tip of my tongue, but I held back, choosing to be the bigger person even though I suspected he was behind my sister’s decision to ghost us.
“Is Kate with you? Have you talked to her?”
“Nate,” I said with a mock sigh of exasperation. “This is why we have a buddy system in place. She’s your buddy, so it’s your responsibility to keep up with—”
“I woke up this morning, and she was gone. Her phone’s going straight to voicemail. Jesus Christ, I don’t know what to do. What if—what if they got her?”
“Who?” I asked, even as a cold feeling of dread settled over me. Kate hadn’t been in contact with any of us since that morning in the graveyard. Why would the Sons go after her?
“Bikers, Dakota. This is exactly why I didn’t want her talking to you—fuck!” he roared the curse.
The temper I’d kept in check was dangerously close to boiling over, and it took everything in me to keep my voice calm as I bit out, “She hasn’t been talking to me or anyone else. At least now, I know why.”
“You know it’s not like that. I’m trying to keep her safe—”
“From her own family?”
There was a rustle, followed by another muffled curse before Nate came back on the line. “I did something, Dakota. Something stupid. The night of your wedding I was on-call when Grey came in.” His voice got softer. “I’m the one who did the surgery.”
The blood drained from my face, and I stumbled into a small folding chair with a gasp.
“You? You knew he was alive the entire time! Why didn’t you tell us? Do you know where he is?” I asked, doing my best to quash the note of hope in my tone.
“It’s not like that. I performed the surgery, and he was stable. It was fucking New Year’s though, and the ED was a shit show. I was in the middle of another surgery when I got word that he didn’t make it. I hadn’t even had a chance to round on him yet. I didn’t know that there was a cover-up until Mike revealed it at the cemetery.”
“Nate,” I said slowly. “Did you see or talk to anyone suspicious that night? Maybe someone who didn’t stand out right away?”
He paused before saying, “There was a man—he showed up within hours of them declaring on your father. At first, I thought he was lost and tried directing him to the right floor, but he… he told me to keep the details of the surgery to myself. He said that the other club was going after anyone associated with Grey. Warned me to keep my mouth shut and stay out of it. I thought he was with Silent Phoenix, but now? Now, I don’t know who the fuck I was talking to or where the fuck my wife is!”
I pulled the phone away from my ear with a wince. “Geez Louise, eardrums. Okay, so someone warned you not to tell anyone you’d done the surgery, but why? How is that important? Do you think Kate found out somehow?”
“I don’t—I mean, maybe? I don’t see how. Maybe they knew I was his son-in-law and how that would look to his enemies? I just did what he told me to. I kept Kate away from it all, and something still happened.”
I pulled my glasses off to rest against my thigh before brushing the stray flecks of mascara from under my eyes. “Your last conversation with her, did she say anything? Anything that might help us know where to look?”
“She wanted to talk about that night. I’d been on for forty-eight hours, though, and was delirious. I think I told her we’d talk about it in the morning maybe. But if she’s not with you, where would she go?”
“Nate let me call you right back. I think I know someone who can help.” I quickly ended the call and dialed the only person that I thought might know where my sister was.
“Hey, Dakota.”
“Jeremy,” I snapped. “Is Kate with you?”
“Uh—”
“Don’t try to think of a lie or a way to make it sound better. It’s a simple yes or no.”
“Yes, but I—”
“Maybe remind her that we’re in the middle of a war. She can’t run off without telling people.” I pressed the end button before scrolling down to highlight Nate’s name.
“Did you find her?” He asked, by way of greeting.
“Yes. Kate’s safe, and I’m sure as soon as she’s ready to talk to you, she’ll call, okay?”
Nate exhaled loudly. “Thank god. Did she—did she sound okay? Was she upset? Did she say why she left?”
“Just calm down. Everything’s going to be fine. You’re her Bucky, remember?”
“Can you keep what I said between us? I want to be the one to tell her the truth about that night. She should hear it from me first. Fuck, I should’ve made a pot of coffee and just told her everything last night. Just—if you talk to her again, just tell her that I love her.”
I agreed and disconnected, wondering how Kate managed to do it every day. My only patient for the day was Nate, and that had left me in desperate need of a nap.
Some superhero I made.
“Everything okay?” Little Ricky asked, holding the back door open with his foot.
I slipped my glasses back up onto my nose with a slight shake of my head. “Not really. Kate’s with Jeremy. We need to know why. Also, while we’re there, we need him to pull security tapes from the hospital. Nate was the one who operated on my dad after he was shot, Little Ricky.”
He made a sign of the cross over his head and chest, sputtering, “Did he—he just felt like that wasn’t worth mentioning?”
“That’s just it. Someone warned him to keep quiet and stay out of it. If we get those tapes, we might be able to identify who that someone was. Worst-case, we get Jimmy or Zane to use their connections and run it through some facial identification software, see if we get a match.”
“One dumpster fire at a time, Cap. First, we gotta find out what happened to your ma, then we’ll track down Hail Mary and Jarvis, which I totally called, by the way. Pay up.”
I ground my teeth together and growled, “Does now look like the best time to collect on a bet, Rick?”
“What’s that? Oh, my ma’s calling us. Coming, Ma!” He jogged back into the house.
I shook my head and followed.
When Molly saw us, she shoved the paperback in her hand down in between the cushions on the couch with a yelp and quickly stood up. “I didn’t hear you come back in. Change your mind on water? Maybe a lemonade? Whatever you want, I’ll get.”
I glared at Little Ricky before taking a deep breath. “I need to
know what happened to my mother… when she was attacked.”
“Sweetie, I don’t know the details. No one does, really. You’d have to ask your mother, but even then, I know she doesn’t like to talk about it.”
“She was pregnant,” I pushed, searching for a reaction, something to indicate that she knew what I was talking about.
“That can’t be right. Let’s see, the attack happened in 2000, so you and Kate would’ve been how old?”
“We were six and ten.” I frowned, struggling to remember my mother back then. I’d pictured the lost pregnancy as something that had happened before we were even in the picture.
Had anything happened that year?
“Oh my god of thunder,” I mumbled. “It was around the holidays… we had to stay with my grandparents for a couple of weeks just out of the blue. One morning, Pops came to take us to school and then we had to pack our suitcases.”
She nodded. “Lucy stayed with her for a while, said she was in bad shape. I know she was insistent that you girls never see her like that, but Dakota, she wasn’t pregnant. As far as I know, it’s always just been you and Kate. Your dad… he wasn’t really around during that time.”
“But she told us, Lauren and me, that being pregnant made us a target to the Sons… that they would use their bodies to break ours until the thing we loved was ripped away from us. What does that sound like to you?”
Molly’s face took on a greenish hue and she sank down onto the coffee table with her hands pressed against her chest. “It sounds like…” Her lips quivered. “It sounds like she went through a living hell that night.”
Little Ricky made another sign of the cross before kneeling beside his mother. “Ma, is there anyone else who would know what happened? It might help us to catch estos bastardos.”
She looked down at her lap. “Besides Grey? It’d have to be Angel. Lucy said he was the first one there, and I know he stayed close while she healed.”
I nodded to Little Ricky. After figuring out what was going on with Kate, we’d track down Angel and get the answers we needed. Maybe it wasn’t relevant to finding the Sons, but I needed to know the truth.
I needed to believe that the woman who’d stayed up late baking our birthday cakes or sewing costumes for the school play hadn’t abandoned us for a casino.
Savior: Silent Phoenix MC Series: Book Five Page 13
