Callous Criminal (Vicious Vipers MC Book 3)

by Lynn Burke

  There was nothing left of Ted Griffey except the broken-hearted wife who was better off without him, and the young woman he’d raped. Wherever she was.

  Devil couldn’t find her, so I knew no one would unless she turned up on her own.

  None of my contacts in Southie had seen or heard a thing.

  Into the third week of fucking hell, one of my guys called me up, the one I had tailing her to and from work every day like the obsession, protective prick I couldn’t help but be.

  “What’s up?” I asked, striding into the chop shop’s office, leaving Sully to the blow torch I’d been using when my cell had vibrated in my back pocket.

  “Nothing serious,” my man said, “but you told me to call if she did anything out of the ordinary—she went to the doctor’s office this morning instead of work.”

  “What doctor?”

  He paused for a second. “Porter OBGYN the sign on the door says.”

  All women had a yearly check-up—but the memory of her vomiting at my house over the news of Dasia, then vomiting again when I’d shown up at her house… Pia hadn’t ever mentioned a sensitive stomach and never once seemed upset to the point of nausea when dealing with the Dasia situation before she’d run away.

  A fucking light bulb went off in my head, tightening my chest and making me dizzy.

  I sat in my office chair. “Follow her afterward and text me where she goes,” I managed to toss out before hanging up.

  If what I concluded was true, she’d be hitting up a pharmacy for those horse pills Warden told me Shaun started on the week before.

  Prenatal. Warden was going to be a father.

  I should have feared becoming one myself, but I didn’t. The fact I had a chance to prove to myself I was nothing like the bastard who raised me, a chance to redeem my bloodline, sparked something inside my head. The cracked heart lying inside that damn chest like looted pirate booty began to beat again.

  A text dinged, and I glanced down, realizing I’d been staring at the office’s gray wall for over an hour.

  Pharmacy.

  Sure I was right, I packed up my shit for the day and headed out, Sully’s big wave following me out the door.

  An hour later, knowing Pia had gone to work after the pharmacy and a quick stop at home, I jimmied my way into her apartment. The fruity scent of her flooded my nose, and I stood inside the door, noting the changes she’d made since I’d been there.

  The couch had been angled more toward the windows which new drapes framed. A new rug lay beneath my feet, and different coffee mugs hung on the hanger thing she had sitting beside the French press.

  Best damn coffee I’d ever tasted. Fuck, had I missed it.

  I moved into her bedroom. New bedspread. Plumper pillows.

  Had she been trying to erase the memory of me? The scent I might have left behind on her bedding? Or had she decided she needed a fresh start for her and our child?

  An actual growl sounded in my chest.

  My gaze landed on the bed stand. A book on what to expect when you’re pregnant sat there, confirming my thoughts.

  A well of protectiveness rose inside me like a goddamn swell, ready to knock down anything or anyone stopping me from reaching my fate’s shore—Pia. She carried my kid. She was my woman.

  And both of them were mine, whether she liked it or not.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Pia

  No word from Dasia.

  No word from Ryker.

  Not that I expected any from either. The hurt I’d seen on Ryker’s face as I’d spewed out in hysterics over his being a murderer let me know my words had done damage I hadn’t truly intended. Over two weeks had passed, and every morning that I hugged the damn porcelain god, dry heaving my innards up, I wished for his presence.

  The apartment felt so empty without him, my bed cold. My heart, even colder. I couldn’t even sum up excitement over knowing I would have a child, that I would have the chance to lavish love on a little soul all my own. Give that baby everything I’d never had. Spoil it rotten with hugs, kisses, and love.

  For the first time in my life, I had my own forever home—made real by the tiny heartbeat I’d heard.

  It had been one hell of a long Monday from getting my first ultrasound and hearing the baby’s heartbeat to going to work and finding I had three new clients needing homes. Add in stopping at the grocery store on the way home for a few things, and I wanted nothing more than to collapse and sleep straight through the night.

  By the time I parked my car outside my apartment, darkness descended like a heavy blanket, and I cursed the time of year when the nights began to overshadow the afternoon.

  It was going to be a long, lonely winter full of ice cream and pickles. I hadn’t began the craving thing yet, but I expected it wouldn’t be long before I packed on the pounds.

  I trudged up the stoop, two bags of groceries in my hands. The door swung inward before I could put them down to fish my keys from my purse.

  Ryker stood inside my apartment’s doorway, face deadpan, eyes shuttered—wary.

  “What are you doing in my house?” I squeaked out, and he took the bags from me without answering.

  I followed him inside and shut the door behind me before slipping off my light coat. Morning sickness still plagued me, but at least I wasn’t puffed up like a fat cow, yet.

  He set the groceries aside and turned to face me, waiting for me to hang my coat in the tiny closet and put my purse on the table where I usually left it.

  “If you think you can just toss me out of your life, not giving me a say, you’ve got another think coming.”

  I stared at him, beyond exhausted. “I don’t have the energy for this right now.”

  “Is it mine?”

  He knew. Somehow, he’d found out—I shouldn’t have been surprised.

  “Yes,” I whispered, wrapping my arms around myself.

  “Will you keep it?”

  “Yes.”

  His shoulders lowered a little, my answer alleviating stress I hadn’t realized rode him. His eyes softened, and he held out his hand.

  Hope bubbled up inside me, and I couldn’t find it in myself to care about what he’d done. I pushed aside thoughts of his criminal actions and peered up at the man whose heart shone in his eyes. The heart I’d come to learn existed in his hardened shell. The softness and hatred of vulnerability he hid from the world.

  My eyes stung—damn hormones.

  “I don’t hurt people that don’t deserve it,” he said, his voice low but steady. “Yes, I’ve used these hands to do bad things, but I want to learn how to use them for good. Show me, Pia. Give me a chance.”

  I swallowed against the tightness in my throat.

  “I want to learn how to touch you—how to hold our child someday. I want to be able to give them the affection my father refused me when I begged for it.”

  A sob broke from me.

  What could I do but nod? I loved him with every part of me, regardless of his past, and he offered me the chance to press my ear to his chest and drown in his heartbeat.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Ryker

  Tears rolled from her eyes, but she gave me the green light.

  Teeth clenched, I moved in, focusing on my love for her—yes, fucking love—and the similar emotions I could see in her wet eyes. I clenched my eyelids shut and wrapped my arms around her, pulling her softness against my chest.

  A heavy sigh escaped her as she melted against me, arms by her sides, but allowing me to hold her, her cheek against my chest. My sweet, discerning woman simply rested. Submitted. Her sniffles continued as I breathed in the sweetness of watermelon, continuing to focus all my thoughts on her—our baby—rather than the clenching in my gut.

  I would beat the fucking fear one day. Rip it from my goddamn head and burn it to a fucking crisp. It held no authority in my life. I refused to allow it to fuck up my chance at the future I’d only ever dreamed about.

  “You’re hold
ing me,” Pia whispered without moving her cheek from my chest, and I realized her tears had stopped.

  “Yeah,” I said, my voice all gruff and pansy-assed. I cleared my throat. “Feels pretty fucking amazing.”

  Pia tipped her head back, her focus lingering on my eyes for a few seconds—reading my goddamn soul, most likely—before dropping to my lips.

  “Can I kiss you?” I asked, knowing where her mind went, that thought stirring my dick to life.

  “Only if I can kiss you back.” She returned her attention on my eyes, the challenge tossed out with a firm voice.

  Fuck baby steps. I’d taken enough of the goddamn things—and they’d gotten my woman knocked up. I decided it was time to jump in and see how much I could take without flipping the fuck out.

  I leaned down and pressed my mouth to the soft cushion of hers, a deep groan vibrating in my chest.

  My little lamb kept her hands to herself, but nothing else. She kissed me back, flicked her tongue along the seam of my mouth, and I let her in, soaking up her whimpers, breathing in her exhales, drawing her so damn deep into my lungs she’d always be a part of me.

  I’d been missing heaven for over forty years. Even my stomach relaxed while I drowned in my very first ever real kiss. No wonder Warden and Stone couldn’t keep from sucking their woman’s faces off.

  Goddamn.

  Pia rubbed against my aching dick, drawing another groan from me. She pulled back, putting a finger to my lips when I chased after her mouth like the greedy bastard I’d suddenly become.

  “I need you inside me, Ryker.”

  She tugged my arm from the band around her back and I let go—not too willingly. A giggle escaped her as she laced her fingers through mine and tugged me back down the hallway.

  We stood in silence, drinking the sight of each other up while stripping down to bare skin. A flush covered Pia’s chest, her face, her nipples tight and begging for my teeth. She finished first thanks to my damn boots, and I stared as she sat on the bed, legs parted enough I could see a hint of wetness on her pussy lips.

  “Whatever you want,” she whispered, “however you need me to be. I want this, Ryker. I don’t give a shit what you are, who your brothers are. I want you. Every awful, beautiful part.”

  Fuck, I’m a goner.

  Once rid of my boots and jeans, I kissed my way up her legs rather than feather my fingertips over her satiny skin. The scent of the wetness dampening the curls atop her pussy drove me fucking insane, and for the first time in my life, I took a long, slow as hell lick of the most addictive silkiness on the goddamn planet.

  Tangy, salty, and yet sweet, Pia’s arousal flooded my senses. Taste buds. The musky scent of her filling my nose and turning me light-headed as fuck as all the blood rushed to my straining dick.

  I kissed up over her pubic bone and back down, nudging my nose through the curls and over her clit.

  “Goddamn, woman,” I muttered, nosing up her soft belly, her legs widening for my hips as I slid higher.

  Tits for fucking days… I lifted them together and buried my face between them, breathing in her skin as she shifted and panted beneath me. Not one fucking ounce of acid burned in my gut.

  “Ryker…”

  I lifted my head from rubbing my beard and cheeks against her tits to find her grasping the headboard, her face a gorgeous shade of pink, her lips parted and eyes luminous in the overhead lights.

  Shifting higher, I planked—and slid fucking home. To the goddamn hilt, in one easy glide.

  “Fuck.” I hissed through clenched teeth as her pussy contracted as though trying to pull me deeper. I pulled out. Slid back in—but I hadn’t yet reached my limit on skin. I wanted more.

  “Put your legs around me, Pia.”

  She obeyed without hesitation, but brushed my hips with the insides of her thighs gently, giving me time to adjust.

  “Higher,” I said through clenched teeth while flexing my ass and burying deep again.

  Skin. So much goddamn skin. Softness. Satiny fucking heaven.

  God, the things I’d been missing out on all because of fucking PTSD and fear.

  Pia locked her heels behind my ass and pulled me back in after I’d dragged out, trying to memorize the slick grasp of her pussy.

  “Keep your hands there,” I told her while leaning down, my words whispered over her lips.

  “I will.”

  I pressed my lips to hers, and got so damn caught up in the swell of emotion, need, that I forgot my name. Forgot everything but her, the sweetness of watermelon, the slickness of her tight sheath, the taste of her on my lips.

  Mine. My woman. My life—my fucking future.

  My hips jolted with frantic thrusts, and the second before I exploded, she gasped against my mouth, her pussy clamping down on me like a vise. My balls released, spurting deep inside her, coating her—claiming her.

  Chapter Thirty

  Pia

  I thought I’d been exhausted when I’d gotten home, but Ryker had wrecked me in the best way possible. I passed out seconds after he used a warm, wet towel to clean between my legs. Dreamless. Dark. Peaceful.

  Waking came easy as I felt refreshed for the first time in weeks.

  Ryker lay on his side facing me, his eyes already open and alert as though he’d been watching me for some time. One of his hands clasped over mine in the space between us.

  Full to bursting had a whole new meaning for me, and I smiled, wanting nothing more than to stay in bed with him for the rest of our lives, taking new steps, progressing to the point there would be no limits, no restrictions between us.

  I realized my hands still ached from clenching the head board with every bit of strength and stubbornness I had the night before.

  “I’m proud of you,” I whispered, knowing we’d get beyond my hands staying to myself someday.

  “I’m a bad man.”

  “You’re also protective—passionately so, and I love that about you. I mean, there’s a lot I love about you—I’m falling in love with you,” I blurted and snapped my jaw shut.

  Ryker studied me without a flicker of emotion on his face, his entire body still.

  “I know it’s quick,” I couldn’t help but rush to fill the silence, “but you’re cautious, courageous, observant, and whether you admit to it or not, you’ve got a heart of gold—”

  He captured my mouth, shutting me up, spinning my brain, and waking up the hormonal beast inside me who couldn’t seem to get enough of him.

  “I’m fucking dead gone on you, woman,” he grumbled, pulling back enough to peer into my eyes, his fingers tightening their hold on mine even though we didn’t touch in any other way. “You’re mine now. No changing your fucking mind, leaving me, and ripping my goddamn heart out of my chest, got it?”

  “You’re going to have to clean up your mouth when the baby arrives.”

  Ryker snorted. “Don’t fucking count on it.”

  “I’m serious.”

  “And you can kiss my ass.”

  Biting back a smirk, I touched his beard lightly with my free hand. He didn’t pull away—he didn’t reach for me, either. But, I had patience, and his touch, his affection I’d gotten a taste of, promised to be worth the wait.

  “So, now what?” I asked, searching his face.

  “You’re moving in with me.”

  “Just like that?”

  “Yep.”

  I considered what to say even though I knew my mind had been made up the first minute I’d grasped his arm outside Dunks. “What about my work?”

  “You’ll have your own kid to nurture now.”

  “And if I want to work outside the home to help those who aren’t mine?”

  “Then do it. Just closer than Boston. Near our home.”

  “Home.” I smiled too wide for pre-dawn hours. “I think I’d like that.”

  “Good.” He grunted and rolled off the bed, my fingers cooling without his warmth.

  “Where are you going?”

 
; “Coffee.”

  I laughed lightly. I should have known.

  Epilogue

  Ryker

  A few weeks later…

  “How’s it going, daddy-o?”

  I flicked Devil off, watching Pia and Shaun across the club pouring over baby magazines. We’d painted the second bedroom a sage green and she’d hung white, light-blocking blinds, frilly lace-type material along the top to make it pretty.

  Pretty. Whatever she wanted, I hopped aboard, even if the little shit was a boy. She’d glared at me over the nickname, so I made sure to keep that one inside my head whenever referring to the little avocado-sized McGrath growing in her belly.

  My house no longer felt like a cold shell. Pia had brought warmth, her books, her knickknacks scattered all over the place. I didn’t mind one bit.

  I fucking lived for the first time in over forty years,

  “Got names picked out yet?”

  I finally glanced over at Devil. He sat brooding over a beer while I drank a tonic. I’d given up alcohol for good. No point in drinking at all and getting wasted even on beer when I had responsibilities more important than my own selfish desires.

  “We’re going to find out what it is first,” I answered, wondering over the usually happy-go-lucky’s lack of fascial expression.

  He nodded and swigged, his focus on the two women as well. “You know, seeing that gives me hope.”

  “What’s that?”

  “That I can find someone who fits me as well as Pia does you.”

  “I think there’s someone out there for everyone,” I told him a bit gruff, trying to hide my new pansy-assed side. “Even your twisted, fucked-up head.”

  “I’m not fucked up,” he muttered and sipped again.

  “Don’t argue that twisted part though, do you?”

  He tipped his head to the side and shrugged. “Nothing wrong with a little kink to exorcise the demons.”