by Jessie Cooke
“Okay,” Doc said. “But I want updates. I don’t want to get another call when that baby is born, telling me I’m a proud papa.”
“Absolutely. Doc…you do want her to abort it, right?”
Doc wasn’t a political man. He kept up on current events so that he could use the system and the laws to the full advantage of his club. He knew about Roe vs. Wade and the ongoing fight over what they called “a woman’s right to choose,” but he’d never had any feelings about it either way. Of course, it was never his flesh and blood on the chopping block. He thought about Dax. The little boy made him smile at least a dozen times a day. He liked that he looked like him, and even more that he could tell when the boy was a man, he’d be even smarter than his old man. He liked knowing his genes had created that life. Could he live with knowing that he’d paid to stop another one from being created? Again, he thought about Dax. If Dallas found out about this, she would leave. Doc would try to dissuade her. He’d threaten to keep Dax from her. But Dallas wasn’t weak and she wasn’t stupid. He knew she’d ultimately stayed with him all of these years because she genuinely loved him. Something like this might just be the push she needed to realize that the law would actually be on her side if she really wanted to take Dax and go. He couldn’t take that chance. Abril was the wild card, and now that baby. He looked at Hawk and said:
“Yes. She can’t have that baby.”
Hawk nodded, squeezed Doc’s shoulder again, and said, “Consider it handled.”
“Thanks, man. Now come on.” Doc put his arm around his VP and together they walked back into the club. This time everyone pretended not to notice them. Doc looked over at one of his guys, Carter, who was standing next to the jukebox. He made a slashing motion with his hand and Carter leaned down and unplugged the jukebox. “Everyone, Hawk and I would like to apologize for the interruption to the festivities a few moments ago. As you all know, Hawk and I are closer than brothers and sometimes brothers fight about stupid things. In this case, it was me, your president, who was wrong. Some of you may have never heard me admit that I was wrong and might not ever hear it again. So, savor it. But in the meantime, if you don’t want to experience my wrath yourselves…what happened here tonight is forgotten. Now somebody give me a drink so I can toast the newest member of the Skulls, Cody Miller!” The room exploded in applause and the party went on. None of them would forget what they saw, but when they remembered it, they’d have to also imagine that if Doc’s best friend could almost get the shit kicked out of him for pissing him off…what might happen to them if they did the same? Everything was an opportunity for growth in Doc’s eyes, and he wasn’t going to treat this incident any different.
“He’s funny-looking.”
“Dax Marshall!” Dallas scolded. Everyone else in the room, Badger and Molly and Doc, just laughed. Molly was more alert and fully oriented than Dallas had ever seen her. Maybe she had really quit the dope this time.
“He is. Why is his face all scrunched up like that?”
“Be nice, Dax,” Dallas warned again. “He’s brand new. Sometimes it takes a while to work the wrinkles out of brand new things. I think he’s beautiful.”
Dax looked up at his mother and raised an eyebrow. He looked exactly like his father when he did that. Dallas almost smiled. Dax was the one that was beautiful, and he was kind of right about baby Cody. The kid had a wild shock of blond hair and his light blue eyes were too big for his tiny little face. Doc told Dallas the kid wasn’t born positive for any drugs, which was good, but something about his color didn’t look healthy to her either; he was kind of yellow. “I didn’t mean to be mean,” Dax said to her, talking slowly like his father did when he was trying to control his temper. Dax was not quite ten years old, but he already hated it when his mother corrected him in front of anyone. He was like a little king on the ranch. No one ever said anything to him about his behavior except his mother or father. Of course, they’d been lucky in the fact that Dax was as smart as Doc. He usually kept his temper in check, unless they were behind closed doors. Sometimes Dallas wished that weren’t the case, and he was just a brat like other kids. Because after he’d let things build up for a while, she was usually his target when he released them, and sometimes it got ugly. He looked over at Doc then, instead of at the baby’s parents. Dax always deferred to his father first, which was a double-edged sword too, Dallas thought. “I’m sorry if that sounded rude to anyone besides my mother.”
Over the past few years, Doc had gotten a lot better not staying on Dax about doing things just so. But Dallas quickly realized that it was too late. Dax wanted his father’s approval in everything and at nine years old, he was already just like him. Doc smiled down at Dax, and with the knowledge that no one else in that room was going to correct either of them at that point he said, “I’m sure they knew you weren’t being rude. Now go on out and get that bike out of the shed. Toolie said he had some time to look at it this week.” Dallas caught herself before she opened her mouth. She had learned a lot too over the past few years.
Doc wouldn’t argue with her anymore. If he was angry, he would walk away and they’d talk about whatever it was later…sometimes weeks later. It was both a blessing and a curse. But something she learned about handling his anger was that there was less of it when she treated him as deferentially as everyone else did in public and expressed her opinions to him behind closed doors. They were back to where they used to be as far as his respecting her opinions and actually talking to her about club business. If he took one of her suggestions, he rarely gave her credit for it…but that was okay by her. His taking it was enough. His being willing to at least listen to her sometimes even if it didn’t change things was enough also, and today she’d decided a long, serious conversation about their son was in order. Dax wanted a dirt bike. Doc had told him he’d buy one for him. Dallas had told Doc she didn’t think he was old enough and after several conversations, she’d convinced Doc to wait until Dax was twelve. But her son, Doc’s son, didn’t take being told no lightly. He didn’t have a fit about it or call her names and tell her she hated him the way he did sometimes. That night he’d just quietly smoldered and the next day he acted like he’d forgotten about it.
But of course, Dax Marshall never forgot anything, especially when it had to do with what he wanted. He had gone out to the trailer with some of the guys the day after Cody was born to help move some of the baby things. He saw the old dirt bike in the shed, and he’d come home that day with a compromise. He looked his mother in the eye, while really talking to his father, and said, “Badger said I could have his old dirt bike. Toolie said when he had time, he’d fix it up. If you still think I should wait until I’m twelve to ride it, then I’ll respect that. But I don’t see why we should pass up on this opportunity in the meantime.”
Dallas could feel her jaw hanging open. Sometimes the way he talked almost frightened her. What other nine-year-old talked about “opportunity” and planned things out like that in his head? Before she could say anything, she heard her old man chuckle. She looked at Doc and he said:
“The kid is a chip off the old block. Alright, Dax, we’ll pick it up when we go out to see the baby in a few days.” Dax’s beautiful face had lit up with a smile, but one that was solely directed at his father. He turned and ran off then, and it still took Dallas several seconds to find her voice before she said:
“He’s manipulating us.”
Doc frowned at her. “How do you figure that? He came to us like a man and straight up told us what he thought, I would think you’d appreciate that, instead of him having some screaming, kicking fit like a little kid.”
“He is a little kid, though, Doc. Sometimes, because he’s so smart and so mature beyond his years, I think you forget that. We said no about the bike, so he found a way around that.”
Doc smiled proudly again and said, “And that, my love, is why he’s going to make an excellent club president one day.”
So, Dallas stood in the Millers�
� cramped little trailer and said nothing. When Toolie finished getting it running before Dax’s tenth birthday and Doc let him ride it, she said nothing again, even when Dax looked at her smugly and waved as he rode it by where she was sitting. She wondered if she had created a monster…literally and figuratively…the day she made Doc promise not to ride their son too hard. It seemed like he’d gone the complete opposite direction. She’d tried to bring that up to him more than once, but each time he shut her down with “You’re the one that told me I was acting like my own father and I needed to lighten up. You can’t have it both ways, Dal.” She knew that’s what had done it for Doc. Her pointing out how controlling he was with Dax had made him examine how much like Landon he was becoming, and he hated that. But Dallas had hoped he’d find a happy medium. Dax’s ruling the roost was not the solution either. She loved that little boy more than life itself. She’d give up her next breath for him. But everyone needed limits and if Dax wasn’t taught that soon…she was afraid she might be doing a lot of driving out to the state prison to visit him in a few years.
32
Abril answered the door with a huge smile, as always. She was wearing jeans and a tank top with the name of the bar where she worked. She looked like she had lost weight and there were dark circles underneath her eyes. She tried to put her arms around Doc, but he nudged her back and stepped inside. The smile fell, slightly, and she nervously said, “Doc, why do you look so angry?”
Doc walked past her to the window on the other side of the room. The dust floated in the stream of light that hung in the air when he moved the curtain. It had been three weeks since Hawk told him she was pregnant. Two since the investigators had told them she didn’t appear to be seeing anyone else. One since they watched her walk into the abortion clinic with the money Hawk had given her and walk out an hour later…not looking any the worse for wear. The investigator had been suspicious. For one thing, it usually took more than an hour, and for another, Abril looked as fresh as she did when she went in. It took some doing on the investigator’s part and some money on Doc’s end to find out that Abril didn’t go through with it. Not only that, but she had never even made an appointment. She sat in the lobby for an hour that day, chatting everyone up…and then she’d left. She had to have known that she was being watched.
“How’s the baby?” Doc said, turning to look at her. He saw her swallow hard and her eyes flit to the side for just half a second before she said:
“Why would you be so mean? You know how the baby is. Our baby is gone.”
“Really? You had the abortion?”
“Of course. I told Hawk I did, didn’t I?”
Doc sat on the couch and she tried to move over and sit by him. Once again, he nudged her back. He didn’t want her close to him. He didn’t think he would ever put his hands on her in anger…but he wanted distance between them, just in case. He couldn’t remember ever being so angry with a woman in his life. Dallas made him crazy sometimes, but maybe the fact that he loved her so much cushioned his anger. With Abril, right at that moment, he wanted to strangle her. “You lied.”
“Excuse me?”
“You don’t want me to repeat that. You’re a fucking liar. You got pregnant on purpose, thinking you were trapping me. Then, you took the money I sent for the abortion, pretended to have the abortion…and now what, Abril? What kind of scheme are you cooking up now? You going to use that kid to bribe me? Break up my family? What do you want? Just tell me now and save us both the trouble.”
She tried a look of righteous indignation first, but something on Doc’s face or in his eyes must have warned her…he was in no mood to be lied to again. “What do I want?” she said, softly. “I want the same thing I’ve always wanted. I want you. I want you and me and this baby.” She put her hands over her flat belly and said, “I want us to be a family.”
Doc shook his head, groaned, and stood up. “You knew, before you snuck around and made that baby, that I already had a family. I told you a long time ago not to try this with me. I won’t be forced into a relationship because someone was too sneaky or stupid to take her birth control.”
“Regardless of how you feel about me, this is your child,” she said.
“No. It’s your kid, Abril. I gave you an out and you didn’t take it…so good luck.”
“That’s it? Really?” Doc was already on his way to the front door. He stopped, turned back toward her, and said:
“No, actually that’s not it. This is it. You do not come near my family, the ranch, or anyone in the club. You do not call there. You do not try to contact me in any way. You are just someone I used to know now, Abril. Someone I don’t want to know any longer.” He reached for the door handle and felt her jump on his back like a wild animal. She was slapping him and clawing at his face. He bent forward slightly, and she clutched onto his vest. Putting all of his weight into it, he threw himself back then, causing her to slide down to the floor, on her feet. She was still holding onto his kutte and cursing him in Spanish, calling him “Diablo del ojo azul,” or “Blue-eyed devil.” It was quite a tussle between Doc’s trying not to hurt her and Abril’s refusing to let go. He finally had to pull off his kutte while he was standing, and she still had her claws into it. She fell to the floor with a thud, gripping it tightly. Doc reached down for the vest and she swiped at his face with her long, red fingernails. He pulled back and started to reach for it again and she spat at him like a wild animal.
“You need help.”
She looked up at him with her big, brown eyes through the wild hair that was hanging down in her face and said, “You’re going to need an ambulance if you don’t get out.”
Doc laughed. “You don’t want to threaten the devil, baby. You can keep the vest, I have another. We’ll call it a souvenir. You can give it to the kid one day. Don’t forget to tell him his father was a legend.”
She came at him again, claws out. Doc pushed her down with one hand, and then left, before he did something he couldn’t take back. He was really, and truly, finally done with her.
Doc got back from San Antonio on a Tuesday morning. When he got to the house, Dallas was just getting back from taking Dax to school. She smiled when she saw him drive up and he breathed a sigh of relief. He’d had all the numbers on the ranch changed…again…and he was having Abril watched for a while…but he still didn’t trust her not to do something crazy.
He slid off his bike and Dallas met him in the yard halfway. Without a word, they shared a kiss that set his core on fire and hardened his cock, just like that. She still did it for him, even after eleven years and all the shit they’d been through. Of course, he hadn’t seen her in a week, but sometimes even when he saw her every day, all it took was a look. He couldn’t understand why he had been so stupid, cheating on her with the likes of Abril. But he promised himself then and there that it would never happen again. She was everything he needed, all he wanted…and he was going to make sure she never doubted that.
When she broke the kiss she said, “Wow, that was…nice. And I can feel someone else is happy to see me…”
He smiled. “He is not as happy to see you as I am. I missed you.” He held his breath again. To this day, every time he went to San Antonio, there was either a fight and accusations made, or tension and awkwardness, when he got back. But her smile looked genuine and her voice sounded sincere as she said:
“I missed you too, baby.”
“Good,” he said, walking her backwards toward the house. “Because I have about two hours before I need to call church…”
She giggled. “And you think I have nothing better to do than have sex with you?”
He grinned. “Oh, baby, I know you’ve got nothing better to do. The only person you like more than me is at school, and I don’t care if that house looks like a tornado hit it, you’re not cleaning it. You’re going to go to bed with your old man and I’m gonna send you to heaven.”
“Promises…promises,” she said, as he walked her backwards up th
e steps. When the got to the door he pushed her into it with his body and kissed her again. He licked every surface of her mouth, tasting her…she was always so sweet. He rocked his hips into her as they kissed, giving his aching cock a slight relief. She was panting when he finished licking her lips and finally let her take a breath. Her eyes were half closed and her cheeks were flushed. With a sexy little smile on her face she said, “I really do have a lot of housework to do…you might just have to tie me down to keep me from it.”
Doc chuckled and reached behind her for the doorknob. Once the door was open, he guided her inside, closed and locked it and said, “Where’s the rope?”
With another mischievous smile she said, “Oh, we don’t need rope.” She took his hand and led him down the hallway to their bedroom. Once they were there she said, “I went shopping yesterday, in anticipation of your return.”
Doc grinned and sat on the bed. “You did, huh? What did you buy?”
“Toys,” she said with another giggle. “I’ll be right back.” She stepped into her walk-in closet and closed the door. Doc chuckled again, wondering what she was up to. After a few minutes he said:
“Don’t make me come in there after you!”
“What are you going to do? Spank me?”
“You know, that might well be what you’ve needed all along.”
She laughed out loud and said, “Right. Look who’s talking. Now hush, I’m trying to concentrate in here.” Doc raised his eyebrows at that.
“You’re not in there starting without me, are you?”
“Not yet,” she said. He could hear the sounds of her taking things out of a plastic bag.
“Should I get undressed?”
“If you want to.”
He laughed and stood up. He wanted to. He didn’t want anything between them. He stripped off his clothes in record time and was about to sit back on the bed when the closet door opened. His jaw almost hit the floor when he saw her, and he came closer to having a spontaneous orgasm than he ever had. “Oh my fucking God.”
