by Ryan Michele
Leo stared at me while I put my coat on.
“Fine,” he finally said. “But you’ll stay back.”
“Of course.”
“I’m serious, Lily.”
“So am I,” I replied, grabbing my purse. “Do what you have to do.”
“I’ll drive,” Brenna said, coming up beside me. She rubbed my back lightly. “You shouldn’t be driving.”
“Thanks, Ma,” Leo said.
After a quick stop at my brother’s so Leo could grab his bike, we were on our way to Portland in Brenna’s SUV, following a group of Aces that grew larger as we drove through town. By the time we reached the highway, there were at least ten bikes ahead of us.
“Make sure you stick with them,” I told Brenna, shivering. “I wouldn’t put it past Leo to try and lose us.”
“I’ve been doing this a long time, baby girl,” Brenna said confidently. “I’ll keep up.”
“I can’t believe that bitch,” my mom exclaimed from the back seat. She and Trix hadn’t been willing to stay behind, and they were crammed in next to Gray’s spare car seat. “What in God’s name is she thinking?”
“I just hope Leo keeps his cool,” I replied, my knee bouncing with suppressed energy.
“My dad will keep him reined in,” Trix said, reaching up to squeeze my shoulder. “Don’t worry.”
“I just keep thinking that if we hadn’t tracked the tablet—” I bit the inside of my cheek, my heart thumping hard in my chest. “We waited for hours thinking she’d show up.”
“You gave her the benefit of the doubt,” Brenna said, glancing at me. “All of us did.”
“She could have completely disappeared with him while we sat around waiting for her to fucking call,” I bit out, my eyes watering. “Jesus.”
“But she didn’t,” my mom said. “You know exactly where she is. Stop going down that road.”
I nodded and looked down at my phone, watching the little dot blinking, blinking, blinking. That drive was the longest two hours of my life.
“You stay here,” Dragon ordered, standing at Brenna’s window. We were parked in the lot of a crappy motel, and I could see Kathy’s car less than fifty yards away. “We’ll bring Gray out to you.”
“We got it, baby,” Brenna said. “Go get our grandson.”
From our vantage point, we could see everything that was happening. I watched as my dad went into the front office and came out a few minutes later, lifting a keycard up and waving it a little from side to side. He met Leo and Dragon in the middle of the walkway, and they strode toward a room on the bottom floor almost directly in front of where we were parked. The rest of the boys hung back, talking to Leo’s uncle, who’d been waiting for us when we got there in a parking spot at the side of the lot.
Leo used the card and pushed into the hotel room.
Then, nothing. I waited and waited and waited, and he still didn’t come out.
“Fuck this,” I said, throwing open my door.
“Lily, stay here,” Brenna called.
I ignored her, running across the parking lot. My dad and Dragon were still standing outside the room, and they turned in surprise when they saw me coming.
“Dammit, Lil,” my dad bitched as I reached them.
Thankfully, he didn’t try to stop me.
Everything inside me quieted when I saw Leo holding Gray against his chest, our little boy sucking his thumb tiredly.
“Bitch, I should fuckin’ end you,” Leo said, drawing my attention to the woman across the room. Kathy was sitting on the bed furthest from the door, so pale that she looked ghostly.
“Mama,” Gray said, picking his head up off of Leo’s shoulder. I couldn’t move fast enough when he reached for me.
“Hey, bud,” I said, holding him tight against me. “Did you go on an adventure?”
“Told you to stay in the car,” Leo barked.
I just stared at him.
“Gray belongs with me,” Kathy said, making both of us turn to look at her. “Not with some hoodlum and his teenage girlfriend.”
“Who says hoodlum?” I asked, grimacing.
“You’re seriously fuckin’ crazy,” Leo said at the same time.
“My daughter would be rolling in her grave if she knew—”
“Your daughter don’t have a grave because you fuckin’ cremated her without even havin’ a goddamn funeral,” Leo roared.
“Mama,” Gray said, pressing his face against my neck. I needed to get him out of there.
“You’re not his mother,” Kathy hissed, coming off the bed like she was going to stop me.
“Take one more step,” Leo warned, pointing at her.
“How could you allow that?” Kathy asked in disgust.
“Allow it?” Leo said incredulously. “Who you think gives Gray a bath? Cooks his meals? Brushes his teeth and reads him stories before bed? Woman, she’s his mother, no allow about it.”
“He has a mother,” Kathy snapped.
“No, he had a mother,” Leo replied as I reached the doorway with Gray. “But she’s been gone so long, he don’t even remember her.”
“You’re just replacing her—”
I stepped out of the room and took a deep breath of the cold, clean air. Thank God, we’d found him. Thank God he was okay. I pressed my lips against his dark hair and held them there, my body trembling with relief.
“Cold out here,” my dad said, coming up behind me. “Better get Gray to the car.”
I nodded, glancing back over my shoulder. “Make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.”
“I will,” he assured me. “Go.”
By the time I had Gray buckled into his seat, he was asleep, and Leo was crossing the parking lot. I met him outside and let out a huge sigh of relief as he wrapped his arms around me.
“Do you ever fuckin’ do what you’re told?” he asked.
“Only in bed,” I replied immediately.
He chuckled tiredly. “Jesus Christ, what a nightmare.”
“Did she say what her plan was? Why would she do this?”
“Takin’ off,” he said with a shake of his head. “Fuckin’ nutcase. She lost it when she heard Gray callin’ you mama.”
“I didn’t even think about that,” I confessed. Kathy was a complete cunt, but I couldn’t help but imagine how hard that must’ve been for her.
“Don’t,” Leo said. “She could feel bad about it all she wanted, but takin’ off with my son was fuckin’ crazy. She doesn’t get an ounce of sympathy from you.”
“I know,” I mumbled.
Leo let out a huff of laughter. “You’ve got the softest fuckin’ heart of anyone I’ve ever met.”
I smiled against his chest. The relief in his voice matched my own.
“We better get Gray home,” he said, tipping my head back so he could kiss me softly.
“I wish you could ride with us,” I said, blinking against the sprinkling of rain.
“Hell, me, too,” he said, glancing up in disgust. “Gonna be a long ride.”
He walked me around to the other side of the car and opened the back door.
“We figured you’d want to sit back here,” Trix said, crawling out of the car. “You get to ride bitch.”
“I’ll see you at home,” Leo said, smacking my ass lightly.
“Love you,” I said over my shoulder as I climbed in the warm car.
“Love you, too.”
My hip pressed painfully against the side of Gray’s car seat, but I didn’t mind. I held his hand the entire ride home.
“We should have had him sleep in here tonight,” I said the minute Leo stepped into our bedroom. He had a towel wrapped around his waist and his hair was still soaking wet from the shower, but I couldn’t even enjoy the view. I’d been sitting in the middle of our bed waiting for him to finish so I could argue with him.
“And we’d be startin’ at square one, tryin’ to get him back in his own bed tomorrow night,” Leo replied, dropping the towel in the midd
le of the floor.
“So?” I said, watching as he moved around the room, turning off the light. “It’s a special circumstance.”
“It ain’t to Gray,” he said, pulling back the blankets. “To him, it’s just a regular day.”
“Well, it wasn’t for me,” I shot back, my eyes watering. I’d already been in Gray’s room to check on him four times since we’d gotten home thirty minutes ago, and the thought of going to sleep with him in another room made my stomach hurt.
“Dandelion,” Leo said softly, climbing into bed beside me. “It’s all good, baby. It’s over.”
“I just want him next to me,” I said, unable to keep the pleading out of my voice. I knew it was irrational, but I couldn’t help it. My nerves were shot.
“I do, too,” Leo said pulling me down to lay with him. “But I don’t wanna give this day more importance to him than I have to. He ain’t gonna remember this shit as anythin’ other than goin’ on a ride with his Granny, and his mom and dad pickin’ him up.”
“I was so scared,” I whispered, my chin quivering.
“So was I,” Leo whispered back, gently brushing my hair away from my face. “But we got him back.”
“What’s going to happen with Kathy?” I asked, wrapping my arm around his chest.
“Told her I wouldn’t press charges if she took that flight she was plannin’ on,” he said, his jaw clenched tight. “Maybe, in a couple years, she wants to make contact again, we can make that happen.”
“I don’t ever want her alone with him.”
“Oh, fuck no,” he agreed. “She can write him a fuckin’ letter.”
Leo reached out and shut off the bedside lamp, and we laid there in the darkness for a long time.
“If we have more kids,” I said, tipping my head back to look at him, “it’s just going to multiply this godawful fear.”
“Multiply the love, too,” he replied.
“I know.”
“You thinkin’ about more kids?” he asked, his hand sliding underneath my tank to softly rub my back.
“Yeah,” I breathed. “But I wasn’t sure if you wanted any more.”
“’Course I do,” he said, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise. “Why’d you think that?”
“You just keep saying later,” I replied. “I thought you were just trying to put me off.”
Leo chuckled. “When I said later, I meant later, not never,” he said with a smile. “You got your hands full now.”
“I guess we could at least wait until I graduate,” I grumbled, making him laugh again.
“Probably a good idea,” he agreed.
I sighed and glanced at the quiet baby monitor.
“You wanna check on him again?” he asked quietly.
“I really do,” I replied, throwing back the blankets.
I tiptoed across the hall and stopped in the doorway of Gray’s room. Our boy was sleeping in the middle of his bed with his thumb in his mouth, his knees tucked under him and his butt in the air. He didn’t even stir when Leo spoke.
“I wanna marry you,” he said, sliding his hand around my waist until it rested low on my stomach. “And I want you to legally adopt Gray, so if somethin’ happens to me—”
“Don’t say that,” I whispered.
“I want you to adopt him,” he continued, kissing the side of my neck. “And I want to knock you up and watch you get round with our kid.”
“Is that a proposal?” I asked, putting my hands over his.
“Yeah, Dandelion, it’s a proposal,” he said. “You wanna marry me?”
“I’ve been waiting for that question since I was ten years old,” I replied, giggling as he bit my neck. “Of course I want to marry you.”
“Good,” he said. I could feel his smile against my neck. “Now, wave goodnight to our son so we can go back to bed.”
I waved at Gray and barely stifled my laughter as Leo swung me up into his arms.
“I hope you don’t plan on sleepin’,” he said as he carried me back to our room. “Because I’m gonna fuck you until that monitor lights up in the mornin’.”
My Brother’s Old Lady by Nicole James
1
She stands across the room totally unaware of me; instantly, my lust for her flares to life as if it hadn’t been put out two years ago. No, that’s not right, it was never extinguished, just biding its time—smoldering embers waiting for that one poke, that one blast of air to re-ignite it. And now it’s roaring like an out-of-control bonfire.
She licks her lips, perhaps out of nerves, but all I can think of is how I want her on her knees before me. I want to see those pretty lips part with that half-innocent, half-knowing expression on her face as she stares up at me. I want to bury my fingers in her silky hair, pull her head toward my crotch and sink my cock into her wet, waiting mouth. I want to control her every motion and feel the nails of her dainty, trembling fingers slide up my jean-covered thighs and dig into my flesh. I want to hear her moaning around me as I pump into her cherry lips, and see those blue orbs looking up at me, pleading silently to keep going, to give her more …
“Settle down!”
My president calls the room to order, breaking into my thoughts. I look across the space of our New Orleans clubhouse from where I stand by the bar and down my drink, trying to wash away the dirty images in my head.
“Paige, honey, could you come up here,” Undertaker asks.
She stands and my eyes sweep over her. A short floral skirt flows around her slender thighs, and a white tank top hugs her breasts. Her blonde hair is short, but cut in a Marilyn Monroe style that has always done it for me. Paige moves toward Undertaker, and I watch that cute skirt sway with her hips. My eyes latch on to her ass as she steps up onto the small raised dais in the corner, the one with the stripper pole. Not that it’s being used tonight; this meeting is more of a solemn occasion, and every brother in the room knows the significance of this anniversary even before Prez reminds us all.
Undertaker wraps his arm around Paige’s shoulders and pulls her close. “Two years ago we lost a brother. Ransack was a special member of this club.”
There’s a round of “Hear, hear” as beer bottles are lifted across the crowded room.
Undertaker nods. “His old lady has always been dedicated and loyal to the club and his memory.” He meets her eyes. “And even though she’s been away the last two years, we welcome her back into the fold tonight.” There’s another round of cheers as Prez pulls Paige close and kisses her forehead.
She looks almost uncomfortable with the gesture, and if I know Paige—and I do—she hates to be the center of attention. Being up there with the eyes of every brother in the club on her is not her cup of tea.
Ransack was my sponsor when I prospected years ago, and then somehow after I’d earned my full patch, we’d continued to be close, riding together everywhere. I’d been in his home on a regular basis and saw the love those two shared. They were everything to each other.
I’d also been there the night he’d met Paige and had watched them fall in love. Hell, I had a front row seat. I’d even watched them struggle with trying and failing to have a baby the last few years before his death. She’d been crushed. Ransack had been less than thrilled about the pressure she’d put on him to go and get checked out. He’d even bitched to me about not wanting to “wiz in a cup” for some doctor.
I knew how much motherhood meant to Paige. I thought he was being a whiny little shit and had told him so straight to his damn face right here in the clubhouse one night. Ransack hadn’t wanted to hear it, but it was the damn truth, and he knew it. He’d slammed me against the wall next to the pool table and told me to mind my own damn business. I’d lifted my hands and told him he was right, it wasn’t my place.
Later, after he’d cooled down, he’d run a ragged hand through his hair and apologized, admitting I was right. Said he wanted to make Paige happy, and if giving her a kid would do it, then he’d make the appointment Monday morning.
But by then, it hadn’t mattered, it was too late; Ransack had been hit by a pickup truck the next night—a night I’ll never forget.
I was riding with Ransack that night on the outskirts of town. I watched him pull away from a stoplight, giving me a wild-eyed, waggle-tongued look, yelling “Yee-haw” as he hit the throttle and dropped through the gears. He roared down the two-lane road with its cotton fields on the left and new subdivision on the right.
It had always been a great road to really get out on and burn rubber and drag race. At least it had until they’d begun building that damn subdivision.
That moonless night, a late-shift construction worker pulled out in front of Ransack’s motorcycle, crossing the lanes to make a left. Ransack locked his brakes and skidded into a power slide, dropping the bike onto its side moments before he slammed into the rear axle of the truck bed. His bike literally split in two pieces around the axle, and his body smashed into the side, before he vaulted up over the truck and was thrown thirty yards beyond and into the ditch between the pavement and the neat rows of cotton.
He was still alive when I got to him, but as I cradled his head and watched him struggle to breath through the blood and shattered, broken bones in his face, I almost wished he’d been killed on impact.
Ransack clutched my arm as his terrified eyes stared up at me. But he hung on like I told him to as I fought back my tears. He hung on until the state troopers arrived on the scene, and he hung on until the Life Flight helicopter landed on the road. But by the time I made it to the hospital, arriving just before Paige and my brothers, he’d taken his last breath.
I held her as she collapsed in my arms in the trauma bay, her wailing sobs tearing my heart out. Somehow I felt I’d failed her; somehow I felt I was to blame for all of it. If only I hadn’t egged him on at that stoplight … If only I hadn’t rolled my eyes when he’d shouted over the revving of my Harley Super Glide that his bike would bury mine at the drag races coming up that weekend.
