Bloodlines: Sin City Outlaws (Book #5)

by Forgy, M. N.

  “So when we get there, just follow my lead,” I explain to her. Her lips purse, and that unnerves me. I swear to God if she goes in there thinking she’s running his show, I will pull her by her hair and lock her in her own fucking trunk.

  Staying back a block, I pull close to Lopez’s house. One-story white house, with a palm tree planted in the front yard. Her car parked in the driveway.

  “Ready?” I ask Raven. She smiles and opens her door to get out.

  Following her, we head to the white house with red shingles. The shrubs outside dying, and walkway cracked from the heat. She’s not much for lawn keeping, is she.

  Stepping onto the patio, Raven tucks her back up against the house so she’s not seen by Lopez, and I knock on the front door.

  Seconds pass before Lieutenant Lopez opens the door. The smell of lemon and tea wafting around me. She’s wearing a baby blue slip, her nipples hard and poking through the sheer material. Her hair is down, and she’s makeup-free. Looks as if our little backstabber was readying herself for bed.

  “You’ve been ignoring my calls,” her tone dry, and face smug. I shove my foot inside the door jamb and jerk the door open.

  “I’ve been ignoring you because you’re fucking nuts!” I point to my head to indicate how screwed up she is thinking we were anything than fuck buddies.

  “Mac, what is wrong with you?” She stumbles back, and I invite myself in. Stepping inside, Raven marches in right behind me like a shadow. Her face stoic, and eyes drawn on the target.

  “Who are you?” Lopez’s voice wavers. Raven ignores her, and gently shuts and locks the door behind us.

  “You’ve been a bad girl, Lieutenant Lopez.” I act aloof, running my finger along the table next to her front door. A candle, a bowl for keys, and loose change scattered about. Her house really is nice. Black plush sofa, nice entertainment center that hugs an entire wall. The interior not matching her unkempt yard.

  She has the taste more than a lieutenant of a police department can afford that is for sure. She’s a dirty, dirty girl.

  “Get out or I’m calling the—”

  “Cops?” I finish for her and laugh. Her face falls, her hands searching behind her for something to protect herself as she stumbles backward. If she was going to call the cops, she should have before we came inside.

  “You ain’t calling anyone.” Lowering my head, I let my eyes convey just how fucked she really is. She swallows, her throat bobbing as tears fill her eyes.

  Sauntering toward her, she backs herself into a corner like an idiot. Everyone knows not to corner themselves. Her hands flat on the wall behind her, she lifts her chin; feigning confidence.

  “What’s the matter, babe. You’re not so tough now, are you?” I run the pad of my finger up her delicate throat. “You can only scare defenseless pregnant women, huh?”

  Her eyes widen as if she now understands what my visit is all about.

  “Is this- is this about Simone?” Her voice colored with surprise.

  My eyes widen at the mention of Simone’s name. Did Simone tell her, her name?

  “How do you know her name?” Her tense body relaxes, a cocky grin spreading across her face.

  “I know everything about Simone Ray.” Her tone of voice drives the final nail in her coffin. I turn away from her, feeling my hands shake with the longing to dismantle her pretty little face.

  “Don’t- do not say her name.” I wave my hand at her mindlessly as I step into the kitchen. I jerk the fridge open. “You don’t deserve to say her name,” I mutter, trying to distract myself with the contents of her fridge.

  “She wasn’t that hard to figure out actually.” Lopez laughs under her breath, and this grabs my attention.

  “What exactly do you think you know about Simone?” I chuckle, pulling out shit to make a sandwich. Every time my adrenaline pumps like it is, I get hungry. It’s fucking crazy.

  “I know why you’re hiding her… fucking her, and she’ll be gone very soon.” Her threat seals her fate. I see black and rage.

  Dropping everything, I round the counter and grab Lopez by the throat, shoving her against the wall.

  “You fuck with my club, you fuck with my girl, and now you can fuck with the reaper,” I snarl.

  Jerking her against the wall, I give Raven a look letting her know she can take over.

  “If I go missing—”

  “Nobody will care. You’ll be replaced at the department, and someone else will move into this house playing out their life. Maybe they will be smart enough not to cross an Outlaw,” my voice dips with hostility.

  “Mac, please. I just… I want us—”

  I smash my lips against Lopez shutting her the fuck up and kissing her to her grave.

  “There never was an us. Just a mediocre fuck, and you doing my dirty work,” I whisper against her lips. Her eyes widen at my harshness, but it’s the truth. What did she expect? For her to be my girlfriend or some shit. We’d never work. Turning away from her, I flick the dial on the stereo, the classical music she had on turning to Seether’s “Let You Down.”

  Raven pulls her knife out, and Lopez screams. Raven slashes it against her arm, playing with her prey, and Lopez falls to the floor trying to crawl away from Raven. Droplets of blood trail behind her as she tries to escape and Raven laughs, causing chills to rise along the back of my neck.

  Man, she’s wicked.

  “Hide and seek? I can play that.” Raven cracks her neck, her face lit up like it’s Christmas morning as she chases down her wounded animal.

  Nodding my head to the music, I turn it up a little more to cover the hysterics echoing down the hall. Biting into my sandwich, I hear Raven tear into Lopez. Screams echo down the hall, and shit being knocked over bangs into the wall.

  This is a really good song, sad you don’t hear it very much anymore. I take a bite of my sandwich and decide to see if Raven has everything under control.

  My feet pad on the carpet making sure to miss the blood trail, the pictures on the walls all sideways from Lopez falling into them dramatically. Finding the main bedroom, Lopez is on her back on the floor, tears streaming down her face as her eyes set on me.

  “Shouldn’t have fucked with my girls,” I tsk, and Raven drives a bullet into Lopez’s head.

  Her body jerks and the look of the lost crosses her face. I feel nothing for the loss of her life, but I sigh in relief knowing she can’t fuck with Simone or my club.

  Looking over the room that looks like a scene from Stephen King, I shake my head.

  “Damn, you made a mess,” I say with a mouth full of lettuce and turkey.

  Raven laughs, proud of her murderous artwork.

  “I did make a mess, didn’t I.” She scratches her forehead, blood smearing across her face. “We’re a good team,” she states, putting her gun away. I nod, looking the bloody scene over. Crazy how I’m used to a dead body, but not used to feeling for another person. You’d think it’d be the other way around. Well, for a normal person anyway. Goes to show just because I’m the quiet guy out of the Outlaws, I’m still far from normal.

  I sigh, my shoulders sagging.

  “Time for clean up, I guess.”

  “I’ll call Machete to help,” Raven informs, pulling out her phone.

  “Good, idea.” Machete is a pro at making bodies disappear, and quick about it.

  “Your girls, huh?” Raven side-eyes me, and it occurs to me during Lopez’s final seconds I claimed Simone and the baby. “Can’t wait to meet them.” I inhale a ragged breath.

  “I wouldn’t jinx them with my ownership,” I mutter, dropping my gaze to the stained carpet.

  Raven stands straight, her face stoic.

  “You’re just like Machete, you know?” She shakes her head.

  I’m not anything like Machete.“What’s that supposed to mean?” I sneer.

  “You self-sabotage yourself, just like he does. When anything good comes your way, you talk yourself into believing you’ll screw it up, or
don’t deserve it,” she explains. “Respect yourself enough to take the best of things without imprisoning yourself into accepting imperfections.”

  Rubbing my chin, I look at the dead body on the floor. Her and Machete are perfect for each other with their puzzling lectures. She’s right in every aspect though, I am a pro at self-sabotaging. But I can’t help it when I was brought into this world killing the only person that may ever care for me. My mother.

  “They call it atelophobia—”

  “I know what it’s called,” I mutter, Tinker, our main club chick told it to me once.

  I turn, leaving Raven to make her phone call to Machete and me to finish my sandwich.

  22

  Simone

  I wake up to the sound of the main door closing. I’m naked, and my hair is a knotted mess from epic sex earlier. God, I really needed that. I feel like I’m floating I’m so at ease and relaxed.

  “Mac?” My voice heavy with sleep.

  Grabbing the sheet, I hold it to my chest and slide out of bed to see what he’s doing.

  Just as I reach the doorway, I stop, my brows furrowing as a sharp pain presses into my abdomen. Dropping the sheets to the floor, and my eyes widen as a warm trickle drips between my legs like a crack in an old pipe.

  “Yeah?” Mac replies.

  I look up at him in a white panic. He’s fully dressed and looks like he’d been somewhere.

  “Mac…um.” I look down to the floor, and water suddenly gushes down my legs. “Oh no, my water just broke.” My voice wavers.

  “Oh fuck!” Both of his hands swipe through his hair, his eyes on the mess around my feet. “Okay, don’t panic,” he breathes heavily.

  “Don’t panic, got it.” I’m totally panicking.

  He pulls out his phone with one hand, using his free hand he swipes it back and forth over the top of his head frantically.

  “Zeek, it’s happening, brother!” Mac hollers into the phone, obviously panicking. “Ok. Got it.” He hangs up and is by my side in seconds. “Let’s get you cleaned up and get some clothes on you.”

  “What are we doing?”

  “Getting you cleaned up and to the hospital,” he mutters. I don’t argue, but fear inside my chest whispers Veer’s name.

  Going into my room, he grabs a towel from the bathroom, his shirt from the floor, and some clean panties and jogging shorts from my drawer.

  He positions the shirt over my head, and I raise my hands to pull it on. I feel fine, so far there’s no pain. He bends down and starts wiping my feet and legs down gently; drying me off. Tossing the towel over his shoulder, he holds a pair of my dark blue boy short panties open for me to step in.

  “One foot at a time,” he instructs, and I do. I let him dress me, because him taking care of me is a feeling I’ve never felt before. Cherished; if I have to label it.

  Reaching out, I run my fingers through his hair, a smile on my face despite the slight pain starting to reside in my lower back.

  “I’ll be right back. Don’t move.” His voice firm as he stands.

  “Where the fuck am I going to go?” I laugh sarcastically.

  He jogs into his room, and I rest my head on the door jamb. Practicing breathing like I’ve seen in the videos. In. Out. In—

  “Ok, every time you have a contraction, press this,” Mac interrupts my deep breaths.

  He hands me a fob looking thing with a red button in the middle.

  “What’s this?” I take it from him. It’s lightweight and looks like something that would go to locking a car.

  “It will time your contractions precisely.”

  My mouth parts and I look up at him with doe eyes.

  “You got this for me?”

  “I made it,” he shrugs, a boyish grin fitting his face.

  “Really? You made this?”

  My eyes fill with unshed tears, he made it. He freaking made me a device.

  A sharp pain throbs in my back and I press the button like I might break it. My knees buckling beneath me. Ok, it’s getting worse. I take a deep breath, my body shaking from the pain.

  Mac’s hands are quickly on my hips, the smell of him blanketing me.

  “Ok, just breathe through it, baby.” His voice almost soothing. I nod, inhaling through my nose, but it’s not helping with the pain at all. The videos lie, the books fib. This shit hurts!

  The front door opens and Zeek, Jillian, Felix, Alessandra, Machete, and Raven are all standing there staring at me. The whole crew, all here for me.

  Jillian rushes to my side, the sight of another woman comforting.

  “If her water broke, we need to get her to the hospital now!”

  “Shit!” Zeek turns where he stands, looking at the floor for answers.

  Raven hustles to my other side, wrapping her arm around me. She smells of bleach oddly.

  “Come on, let’s get you down to my car.”

  Mac steps in, pushing their hands off me.

  “I got this, just—just lead the way,” he barks at the women. Both of the girls look at each other before cautiously stepping out in front of us and heading toward the elevators. Mac is protective and panicking. It’s cute.

  My finger bites down on the device as another contraction rips through me like an earthquake splitting concrete.

  My jaw clenches, and I groan, trying to keep up with the crowd, I have to force my feet to walk through the pain.

  “Let’s take the back way, we don’t want people staring,” Zeek states in a calm voice, his boots stomping onto the floor loudly.

  Hunched over from the last contraction, Mac keeps his arm tucked around me tightly. I feel like nothing can get between us, that we’re safe. Inside the elevator, it smells like stale smoke, and there’s glitter sprinkled all over the floor. The song “Him & I” by G- Eazy & Halsey plays.

  “I like this song,” Alessandra states, and everyone just gives her an odd look.

  “What?” She shrugs with doe eyes, and Felix just chuckles.

  Mac leans down, his eyes in line with mine while rubbing my back.

  “I got you, and I’m not letting anything or anybody take you out of my sight, Pocahontas. Do you understand?” His determined eyes stare into mine deeply. I could drown in them, like a little girl twirling in a forest caught on fire. Embers and ash blanketing around him.

  He is so serious, it makes me nervous that someone is actually attempting to take me from him.

  He presses his lips to my sweaty forehead, and I close my eyes. Taking it all in.

  I’m escorted outside a back entrance, the air outside making me hot and irritable. Pressure slowly builds in my abdomen, and I stop where I’m standing. My bare feet burning on the hot asphalt.

  “Another contraction,” I breathe heavily.

  I grit my teeth and press the button on the device Mac gave me.

  “Come on!” Zeek waves us on.

  “Fuck off!” Mac shouts at him, his hand on my face while I push through it. “You got this, baby. Take a deep breath, here.” He fists my hand. “Squeeze it as hard as you need.”

  Intertwining my fingers with his, our eyes silently locking as I tightly grip his palm.

  Pressure builds, my body feeling like it’s being ripped apart from the inside. Sweat drips down my face, my chin trembling from the terrible pain.

  Before I know it, the contraction has passed, and we’re moving toward the car.

  Mac helps me into the back of the seat, Raven and Machete are in the front, and Zeek and Jillian climb on Zeek’s bike with Felix and Alessandra. That’s when I notice a couple of other motorcycles revving up beside them.

  “What are they doing?” I ask, looking at the men and women climbing on the motorcycles.

  “Escorting us, making sure we don’t have any surprises before we get you to the hospital.”

  I look at Mac, surprised at the great lengths everyone is taking to get this baby safely into the world. I clench my eyes shut. I won’t cry.

  “Are you having
another contraction?” Mac whispers in my ear.

  I shake my head.

  “I just… I’ve never had anyone do so much for me before.” A tear slips from my eye, and I quickly swipe it away. My mother and father have done things for me because they’re my parents, but they’ve never shown such loyalty. Not like this.

  He presses his forehead against my clammy temple, his arm wrapping around me and pulling me close. I lean into him, drinking him in like a cold glass of water.

  “Get used to it, I’m… I’m claiming you, Pocahontas and I’m going to give you everything I can.”

  Wrinkles form on my face. “Claiming?”

  “Yeah, claiming you as my ol’ lady.”

  Raven gasps, and they look at each other in knowing.

  “It just kind of happened.” He smirks.

  He lays his hand on my belly.

  “You make me quiet and loud at the same time. Fast and slow, hard and soft. When I’m not with you, I feel nothing and though that used to be my normal, I find it scary as fuck now. I need you and this baby in my life.”

  My eyes bounce back and forth between his. Our fingers interlocking into one.

  The car pulls into the emergency drive of the hospital, and everything happens so fast.

  Motorcycles roar and park all around us, shielding us from any citizen.

  Mac gets out of the car, and just as my feet hit the pavement, he’s swooped me up and is jogging us inside the hospital doors.