by Penny Dee
I was making love to Indy and she was my wife.
My wife.
I started to come, and my groan was long and drawn out, syphoned out of me by an orgasm that was equally as powerful as it was euphoric. I gripped at the sheets beneath her and buried my face in her hot, slick neck, overwhelmed by the pleasure as I jetted hotly into my wife.
When our breathing eased, I rolled onto my back and drew her into my arms, kissing her forehead. It was 5 am, and outside a hint of pale light was breaking over the treeline as dawn slowly began to rise above the town. It was the beginning of a new day.
And for us, it was the beginning of our new life together, finally, as husband and wife.
INDY
Two weeks after we got married, I was finishing up a day shift at the hospital when one of the nurses told me Mirabella was in the waiting room asking for me.
After I finished with a twenty-five-year-old who had managed to break one of the trickiest bones to break in his hand doing some weird sex act even Tito would raise his eyebrows at, a nurse led Mirabella into the cubicle where I was typing up my notes. I greeted her with a warm hug.
“What a wonderful surprise,” I said. “But I’m anticipating this isn’t a social visit.”
Mirabella beamed. “I think I’m pregnant.”
“You do? That’s wonderful.”
“I’ve been feeling a bit strange now for a few weeks. And my period is late.”
“That’s a good indication.” I smiled. Jacob and Mirabella were going to make beautiful babies. “Well, let’s find out, shall we?”
While Mirabella visited the bathroom with a sample jar, I checked my phone. Cade had sent me a message.
I’m taking you to dinner.
I smiled as I sent one back.
Do I need to change first? I’m in work clothes.
He texted me back straight away.
The sexy doctor look turns me on. I’ll take them off you later. See you soon.
Mirabella reappeared and handed me her urine sample.
“I’m trying not to get my hopes up,” she said, taking a seat. “But I can’t wait to give Jacob a baby.”
“Are you trying?” I asked as I stood at the cubicle bench and tested her urine.
She nodded. “We want a big family. I’m an only child and Jacob grew up in foster care. He never knew his parents and he never stayed in one place long enough to really feel like he belonged anywhere.” She laughed, a beautiful but nervous laugh. “Listen to me carrying on like garrulous fool. I’m nervous, I guess.”
I held up the pregnancy test and grinned.
“Is it positive?” Mirabella asked, calmly.
“Yes. It’s positive.”
“I’m pregnant?”
I nodded and she stood up and came toward me, and pulled me into a big hug. “Thank you!”
I laughed. “I swear, I had zero to do with it.”
“I’m so happy,” she said, her face bright with joy.
“I’d like to do a quick ultrasound, see how far along you are.”
Mirabella agreed, and ten minutes later the grainy black and grey image of her baby appeared on the ultrasound machine. I rolled the transponder over her slick belly so I could see her womb from different angles.
“You’re actually quite far along,” I said, clicking a button to record the image. “You’re almost fourteen weeks.”
“Fourteen weeks!” She laughed. “I guess I was so caught up with the wedding preparations I didn’t notice how late my period was. And I’ve only really started to feel different in the last few weeks. I did have some spotting a few weeks ago. I thought it was a light period. Is that normal?”
“It’s quite common. Did you experience any pain?”
She shook her head. “Very minor. Does that mean there is something wrong with my baby?
“Everything looks really good,” I reassured her. I moved the transponder around her belly, pressing it in deeper just below the bikini line. “Do you want to know the sex?”
She looked surprised. “You can tell this early?”
“Yes. And you’re little one seems quite happy to let you know.”
Her beautiful face broke into a smile. “Yes. Please. I want to be able to tell Jacob if he is having a boy or a girl.”
“Do either of you have a preference?”
“No. We just want our baby. A little human made up of the two of us.”
“Well, you can tell Jacob he is going to meet his daughter in about six months’ time.”
“A girl?” Mirabella whispered.
“Yes. You’re pregnant with a baby girl.”
After cleaning her belly and redressing, Mirabella pulled me into another big hug. “I’m so happy. Thank you.”
“I’m guessing you’re dying to tell Jacob?”
“He dropped me off. I told him I had a female situation that I needed your advice on, that way he wouldn’t ask too many questions. You only need to mention the word menstruation or tampon around him and he turns green.”
“Well, I’ve finished up here, so I’ll walk out with you.” I handed her a few pamphlets on pregnancy. “Give me a couple of minutes to sign out and I’ll grab my bag, okay?”
Five minutes later, we walked out into the late afternoon sun.
“How are you going to tell him?” I asked, enjoying the buzz of Mirabella’s happiness.
She linked her arm through mine. “I’m going to take him home and make love to him. Then I am going to sit him down and very calmly tell him that our life is about to change.” Her smile was bright and her glorious hair shined in the hazy golden light of dusk. “I’m so happy, Indy. I don’t even know the words.”
“I’m sure Jacob is going to feel exactly the same way,” I said.
“Speak of the devil,” Mirabella said, nodding toward Jacob and Cade who were walking up the road together. She waved to her husband who grinned back at her. “He doesn’t even realize that his life is about to be turned upside down.”
That was the moment everything changed. The moment when everything slowed down and happened in a blur.
I heard the sound of the bullet as it ripped through the air and thrust into Mirabella’s forehead. I saw her eyes widen and then go vacant as her body went limp. I grabbed her to stop her from falling, but the weight of her lifeless body dragged us both down to the sidewalk. I felt the thud of the pavement beneath me and the scrape of my skin against the concrete. I looked up and saw Cade and Jacob pause on the pavement, and then all of a sudden sprint toward us, Jacob’s face twisting in terror as he bounded along the street. When he reached us, he fell to his knees and grabbed his wife, crying as he tried to scoop her skull up from the concrete and piece her head back together again.
Cade tried to shield me from the invisible gunman. He ripped his gun from the back of his jeans, scanning the buildings that towered above us. It was like everything was happening in a vacuum where there was no sound. Everything was slowed down and muted. Blood whirled in my ears and my brain spun, trying to understand what had just happened in the silent scene unfolding before me. Then, quite suddenly, the sound returned and Jacob was screaming, and screaming, his heartache spilling onto the sidewalk like the blood from his dead wife’s open skull.
People ran toward us from all directions, and Cade shoved his gun back into his jeans. He crouched down, his face pale, his eyes bright.
“Are you hurt? Indy, are you shot?”
I looked at him, dazed and confused, and shook my head. I tasted the familiar metallic taste of blood on my lips but knew it wasn’t mine.
Suddenly, there were so many people. So many. But I felt too stunned to move. Jacob pulled Mirabella from me and cradled her in his arms. He petted her face as he cried, and clutched her motionless body to his chest. Her eyes were half-open and dull, staring unseeing out at a world that had erupted into chaos. With a sob, Jacob pulled her tighter to him, and her arm slid free and fell limp to the concrete.
Mirabella was dead.
Cade pulled me into his arms, and even in my stupor I knew it was so he could protect me from any more bullets.
A siren broke into the confusion. I raised my shaky hands to my face, they were covered in Mirabella’s blood and all I could do was stare at them as I slowly descended into shock. Cade held me tight. “It’s okay,” he said. But he was wrong. It wasn’t okay.
Someone had just shot Mirabella and her unborn baby dead.
CADE
That night, a melancholy descended on the club.
Mirabella’s death shook us all. Bull called a lockdown the moment he heard about the shooting, and everyone immediately associated with the club was ordered to the clubhouse. For the night, at least. Club members. Wives. Girlfriends. Kids.
Extra security detail was called in to protect the club.
While the old ladies and other family members united in the clubhouse, Bull called chapel. All OC members, plus a few charters still lingering in town from Irish’s funeral, were in attendance. Except Jacob. When the police had tried removing Mirabella’s lifeless body from his arms, he had really lost his shit. He’d fought them off with his fists, his strength, and finally, his Glock. It took three cops to take him down and an EMT to sedate him. Now he was sleeping it off in St. Gabriel’s.
Fuck.
A few inches.
That’s what I struggled with more than anything. And I felt like a real dick. But a few inches to the left and it would’ve been Indy lying dead on that sidewalk and me sleeping off sedation in the hospital. The thought made me sick. I banged my fist against the table and the sound reverberated through the room. Talking stopped.
“We’re under attack,” I said, my teeth gritted and nostrils flared. “For whatever reason. Someone is out to hurt the club. Isaac. Irish. Now Mirabella. And Tex, too. There is no way his death was a fucking accident.”
“Buckman said the FBI are now involved,” Bull said, and the room rumbled with the response of twenty-three Kings and their opinions about law enforcement.
“Pretty quick of them to get involved,” Vader said.
“They’re saying Isaac and Mirabella’s deaths are serial killings.” Bull turned his head in my direction, but he had on his glasses so I couldn’t see if he was looking at me. “They’ll look into Irish and Tex.”
“So we just wait around pulling our dicks until they do something?” Cool Hand asked.
“I’m sure law enforcement will be all over the murders of three bikers and an old lady,” Griffin added sarcastically. Since Isaac’s death he seemed to have aged another ten years. “I want justice for my son. For Irish, Tex, and Mirabella.”
“And you’ll get it,” Bull said calmly. “We’ll find our own justice. But first we need to piece this shit together. Work out who has the motive.”
“What about Freebird?” Elias said. “Is there a chance he’s involved?”
“I’ll pretend you didn’t say that,” Maverick said, giving Elias a murderous look. He and Freebird were tight. “Freebird is a brother.”
“But he is also missing,” Joker said, ignoring the look of wrath from Maverick. “You can’t dispute that.”
“And he’s ex-military,” Elias added.
“Half the goddamn club are ex-military.” Maverick’s nostrils flared. “Freebrid isn’t responsible for any of this.”
“Then where is he?” Joker asked.
Maverick stood up. “Asshole!”
Joker stood up and the situation spiraled out of control because tensions were high.
“Enough!” Bull demanded from his chair at the head of the table. “Sit the fuck down. Both of you.” He removed his dark glasses and his bright blue eyes narrowed against the light. “Cade is right. Someone has got a beef with this club. Now instead of puffing our chests and letting our emotions get the better of us, let’s work this fucking thing out!”
INDY
I was in shock. Devastated. I had seen people die in front of me many times, but watching Mirabella die knocked the wind out of me.
While Cade went to chapel, I went to the roof. It was out of bounds, but I needed the space because we were two hours into lockdown and already the walls were closing in on me. I needed to escape the other women and find some comfort in solitude.
I sat down on an old deck chair and stared up at a starless sky. The full moon was too bright for stars and it bathed the night in bright white light. I sank back into the chair and lit up the joint I’d scored off of the prospect. I closed my eyes and let my emotions rise to the surface. Today I watched a beautiful young woman, who was pregnant with her first baby, get assassinated by an invisible evil out to destroy the club.
“Indy?”
I opened my eyes and turned my head. It was Elias. He looked apologetic.
“I’m sorry, but you can’t be up here, ma’am.”
I didn’t say anything but instead offered him my lit joint. He shook his head. “No, ma’am.”
I shrugged and took a toke, dragging the sweet-scented smoke deep into my lungs. “Whatever floats your boat,” I said, slowly exhaling the funnel of smoke. “But for fuck’s sake, stop calling me ma’am.”
Elias looked uncomfortable. I liked him. He had gentle eyes and he was always very kind.
“I’m sorry to wreck your solitude, Indy. But you really can’t be up here. Cade won’t be pleased if he finds out. Chapel is over. He’ll be looking for you.”
Cade’s need to protect me was only going to ramp up after this. I would be lucky if I got to go anywhere without an armed escort again. I had seen the look on his face and the fear in his eyes when we had given our statements to the police. Only a few inches over and it would have been me dead and cold on the medical examiner’s slab. That fact hung silently between us during the car ride home, and I knew Cade’s fear had taken a sharp shove into terrified.
I rolled my head to face him.
“Have you ever lost anyone, Elias?” I asked.
He thought for a moment, hesitated, and then nodded. “Yes, I have.”
I took another drag on the joint. “Want to tell me about it?”
He shrugged a little. “Nothing really to tell. My sister died some years back. Then my mom and stepdad.”
I blew out the smoke. “It hurts.”
He nodded.
“I lost my brother when I was twelve. Then my daddy. Now Isaac. Tex. Irish. Mirabella . . .” I let my sentence slip away. The smoke was starting to take affect and I was feeling calmer. Numb.
“What gets me is that there are so many assholes out there who just float through life with all their fuckery and nothing happens to them. They just float on by doing whatever ghastly deeds they want. And nothing fucking happens to them.” I closed my eyes against the image of Mirabella being shot and collapsing in my arms. “But then you get an angel like Mirabella—” The words choked in my throat. The emotion rose up from deep within me and lodged in my windpipe.
Elias looked around us and then crouched down beside me. I offered him the joint again, and this time he accepted it.
“I heard you were with her when it happened,” he said, taking a drag and holding it in before letting it out in a cloud of sweet smoke.
I exhaled deeply and nodded, my body flooded with grief. “Yes.”
“Did she say anything?” he asked softly, handing the joint back to me.
I shook my head. “It happened too quick. We were just walking and then . . . the bullet went straight between her eyes. Killed her immediately.”
Elias exhaled deeply, and I could see by the look on his face that he was affected by it.
“Jacob is going to take this hard,” he said. “But we’ll do everything we can for him, Indy. And you.”
I could still hear Jacob’s cries as he tried to piece his wife’s head back together. A wash of sadness spread across my skin, and I let out a deep breath of heartache.
“Thanks, Elias. You’re a good guy.”
“Thanks.” He smiled and gave me a wink. �
��But I won’t be if your old man finds you up here. How can I convince you to go back inside?”
“It’s alright, Elias.” The voice with an edge to it came from behind us and we both turned to look. It was Cade. He’d made it onto the rooftop without being heard. “She’s not going to listen to you. I got this.”
Elias stood up and gave me a wink. “Stay safe, okay, Indy.”
After he left, Cade pulled a crate over to where I was sitting and sat down.
“I know you don’t like being told what to do, but, Indy, we’re in lockdown—”
“Want some?” I cut him off, offering him my joint. I didn’t need the safety speech. I needed to be numb.
He shook his head. “I can’t protect you if you do things like this.”
“Come to the rooftop for a joint?”
“We don’t know who is doing this, Indy. Who they are. Where they are. You can’t be out here, exposed.”
“We can’t stop living our lives.”
“No. But we can take precautions.” His face softened. “Baby, work with me here. You’re my number-one concern. If anything happened to you—”
“I get it. I’m sorry.” I reached for his hand and squeezed it, exhaling deeply as I fought back my tears. I slumped back into the chair. “She was pregnant.”
Cade’s eyes widened, just for a moment, then settled as the realization set in. His jaw tightened. “Jesus Christ,” he growled, running his hand through his hair. “Does Jacob know?”
I shook my head and finally my tears broke free and spilled down my cheeks. I didn’t want to think about Jacob finding out. It would kill him.
Cade scooped me up and held me against his big chest, and I cried in his arms as he tenderly soothed me. I cried for Mirabella and her unborn baby, and for Isaac and Tex, and Irish too. And I kept crying until my eyes were raw and my chest ached with exhaustion and grief.
