Bait

by Mia Carson

  House sealed, I prepared dinner. I felt much better after my four-hour nap, though the events from last night weighed heavily on my mind. Thom wasn’t his normal, jovial self, for obvious reasons, and Bailey craved his father’s touch. Dinner was a subdued affair with little talking as we each kept council with our own thoughts.

  “Bláithín, can you get Bailey into bed tonight?” I asked as she and I cleaned up the kitchen. “As soon as I’m done here, I’m taking Thom to bed.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Dad?”

  “Yeah, buddy?” Thom asked as he continued to sit at the table. Bláithín and I refused his offer of help, and because his feet were sore, he didn’t argue.

  “Bad guys aren’t coming back again, are they?”

  Thom smiled. “No. The bad guy is in jail.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “I’m sure. I saw the police put the cuffs on him and take him to jail myself.”

  “And there are no more bad guys?”

  “None that will bother us.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I don’t know, Bailey, but it’s very unlikely. Don’t worry about it, okay?”

  “What if you’re wrong?”

  “Then your dad will kick their ass too,” I said. It was an unspoken rule not to use ‘adult’ language around Bailey, but I made an exception this time to drive the point home.

  Thom chuckled. “It’d be nice if they’d wait a few days, but Carolyn’s right. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you, Carolyn, or Bláithín.”

  Bailey watched his dad’s eyes a moment before leaning in and giving him a hug. I saw Thom grimace in pain as Bailey squeezed, but he was smiling when Bailey released him and stepped back.

  The kitchen tidied, I helped Thom hobble to the bedroom, and undressed him. He lay back with a long groan of pain. It was early, barely seven o’clock, but sleep would do him good. The doctor told him to take over the counter pain meds, and he was, but I knew of something else that would help. I stripped out of my clothes and joined him in bed. I kissed him on the lips, a barest brushing of my lips to his.

  “I love you,” I whispered.

  He smiled, his eyes closed. “I love you too.”

  I began kissing down his body with gossamer lightness, kissing his hurts as I moved ever lower. As I neared his cock, he groaned.

  “Carolyn…I can’t.”

  “Shhhh…let me,” I breathed, moving lower still.

  He was firming, his body knowing what it needed. Often, when the brothers came back chewed up from doing whatever they did, they were ready to fuck. Not only did it help burn off the tension and stress, but sex was a natural pain suppressant, and it would help him fall asleep.

  I took him into my mouth, flicking the head of his cock with leisurely swipes of my tongue. I’d have to be careful, but I wanted to reward my brave knight and take away his pain.

  “Carolyn…” he gasped as I teased him.

  I covered him with butterfly kisses. “Don’t fight it,” I whispered as I gently scratched his balls with my nails. “I want you to come,” I breathed. “Let it happen. It’ll help.”

  Normally when I blew him I was somewhat aggressive, his gasps and groans turning me on, but tonight I refrained. I didn’t want to hurt him more while trying to ease his pain. I kissed and licked, tickled and stroked.

  “You’re going to make me come,” he gasped after many long moments.

  “Don’t fight it,” I reminded him as I tickled the head of his cock with the tip of my tongue.

  He began to tighten as his orgasm approached. Thom was a gentleman and had never come on my face or in my mouth, but not all my lovers were as kind. It was nothing new for me and I was going to allow him to come in my mouth so there would be no cleanup afterwards. I held him between my lips, teasing his shaft with lips and tongue until he erupted with a soft grunt. I smiled as I let him down easy, his sigh of relief my reward.

  “Better?” I purred as I began kissing my way up his body.

  He pulled me higher, kissed me gently but with gusto. Even after coming in my mouth, he kissed me, his slickness on my tongue not seeming to bother him.

  “Yes,” he breathed as our lips gradually parted.

  I snuggled into his side, enjoying his warmth and closeness. I was starting to get drowsy when my phone rang. I jumped, its ringtone breaking the quiet as I scrambled for it so it wouldn’t wake Thom.

  “Mikki, it’s Hearts.”

  “Hearts?” I whispered. Thom rolled over with a groan. If he’d been asleep, he wasn’t now.

  “Can you talk?”

  “Yeah.” I placed the phone on speaker so Thom could hear. I mentally crossed my fingers this was going to be good news.

  “Is your man there?”

  “Right here. He can hear you.” There was a brief pause.

  “This is Scooby Buehler, President of the Ravens. I’m calling to tell you that the Ravens had nothing to do with your recent troubles. That was Rock working his own side deal.”

  My ears perked up with Scooby’s statement that he was the President of the Ravens, but I said nothing. Scooby was talking man to man with Thom. My input wasn’t welcomed.

  “Okay,” Thom muttered, his voice hard.

  “You have every reason to be upset. If someone came after my kid, I’d kill the fucker with my bare hands, but you have my word, the Ravens had nothing to do with it and we have no complaint with you. Don’t give us a reason to.”

  “Why should I believe you? You heard what went down here last night?”

  There was a pause. “No, what?” Scooby asked.

  “Rock broke into my house in the middle of the night, pulled a gun on me and Carolyn, and tried to kidnap her and my son. He’s your president, right?”

  “Not anymore, not since thirty minutes ago. He’s been excommunicated. When was this?”

  Thom looked at me, his brows furrowed as he tried to remember. He’d been in a fight for his life at the time and probably didn’t even know. “About two this morning,” I said.

  “Is everyone okay?”

  “Yes.” Thom said.

  “Thom kicked his ass all over the bedroom and put him in the hospital,” I said, not even trying to hide my pride and delight in the outcome.

  There was a short pause. I smiled as I imagined Scooby and Hearts reevaluating Thom. He might drive a Volvo, but having him kick their former president’s ass in a straight-up fight proved he wasn’t the pussy they thought he was.

  “Where’s Rock now? We’re looking for him. He and the Ravens have…business.”

  “What business?” Thom asked.

  “That’s none of your concern.”

  I knew what business. “He is, or was, in Eastside Baptist Hospital,” I said. “After that, he’s going to pull time for a long list of crimes.”

  “Thank you, Mikki. We’ll handle it from here.” There was silence, but I knew more was coming. When Thom opened his mouth to speak I touched my pointer finger to my lips, urging him to wait. “The Ravens would never agree to kidnapping or threatening your son. You have nothing to fear from us. Mikki told Hearts you’re a reasonable guy. Prove it by letting this go before it gets out of hand.”

  Thom stared at the phone a moment and glanced at me. I nodded. “Agreed. Don’t give me a reason to regret this decision.”

  “As I said, we had nothing to do with what happened, and we have no interest in you. If you don’t fuck with us, we won’t fuck with you.”

  “Understood.”

  “What about the men that were riding with Rock?” I asked.

  “We know three of them,” Scooby said, his voice deadly cold. “You won’t have to worry about them again. We’re looking for the other four. You don’t know who they are, do you? I’d like to have a word with them.”

  “No,” I said. “I didn’t recognize any of them.”

  “If you see any of them again you’d be doing us a solid by letting us know where you saw them.”
<
br />   “I will.”

  “I think our business is done, but let me give you another piece of advice,” Scooby said.

  Thom’s face hardened as a chill passed through me. We were so close to putting this behind us without more bloodshed, and Scooby was going to fuck it up with a threat.

  “You hold onto Mikki and don’t let her go. She’ll make you a hell of an old lady. You’re damned lucky to have her. Rock, the stupid shit, didn’t know what he had.”

  I relaxed with a slow exhale as Thom smiled. “I think I can handle that.”

  “Yeah, it sounds like you probably can.”

  “Mikki?” Hearts asked.

  “What?”

  “Are you happy?”

  “More than I would have believed possible.”

  “I’m sorry for what went down, but I’m glad for you.”

  “Thank you, Hearts. You were a good sister.”

  “So were you.”

  “Take care.”

  “You too.” The call ended. “It’s over,” I sighed.

  “You’re sure?”

  I nodded. “Yes. We won’t have to worry about Rock or the Ravens anymore.”

  “You’re sure?” he asked again.

  “Very. Scooby mentioned they had business with Rock? Rock isn’t going to like doing business with the Ravens. He went against the best interests of the club and almost dragged them into a war. They excommunicated him, and if they’re still looking for him, Rock better hope they can’t find him, if you know what mean.”

  “They’ll kill him?”

  “I don’t know, but excommunication means you’re less than some random guy on the street. If they’re looking for him, that means if they find him he’s going to have to answer for something. Unfortunately for Rock, they know right where to find him. I suspect he’ll be lucky if he makes it to trial.”

  “And you think I can trust this Scooby guy?”

  “Yes. He’s given you his word. So long as you follow the agreement, he will too. None of the Ravens will bother us.”

  “So it’s over?” he asked, almost as if he couldn’t believe it.

  I nodded and smiled. “It’s over.” He sighed and rolled to his back. I placed my phone on the nightstand and scooted in close. “Want another sleep aide?” I asked, my cadence and tone teasing.

  He snorted. “Always, but let’s save it for later.” He was quiet for a long moment. “I don’t know if I trust the Ravens.”

  “You can trust them. They may be thugs and drug dealers, but they do have a certain honor.”

  “I think you should stay here, with me, until we can be sure.”

  “How long?”

  “Until we’re sure they’re not going to try anything.”

  “Thom, they’re not going to try anything.”

  “Better to be sure.”

  I sighed. I couldn’t blame him. He didn’t understand the life like I did. “For how long?”

  “I don’t know. Twenty or thirty years should be enough.”

  “Twenty or thirty…?” I began, the absurdity of his suggestion clear in my voice, but I realized what he was saying. I smiled in the darkness. “I guess better safe than sorry, right?”

  “My thinking exactly,” he murmured as gently tugged me into a kiss.

  DADDY SECRETS

  DADDY SECRETS

  Ella

  Five years ago…

  “Happy birthday, dear Ella… happy birthday to you!”

  Everyone clapped as I took a deep breath and blew out the two candles on my cake. My party was a low-key affair with just my parents, paternal grand-parents, and Levi in attendance. Mom’s parents lived in Houston, which was too far to travel for a birthday.

  Mom and Dad had treated us to a steak dinner at Lytle Land & Cattle Company in Abilene, and Levi McCormick had tagged along. He was practically family anyway, the son Mom and Dad never had and the man I was going to marry someday.

  I’d known Levi almost my entire life. His family, along with mine, farmed sorghum near Hamlinton, Texas. Our families, the Johnsons and the McCormicks, owned two of the three largest farms in the area and were well respected in the community. We’d played together as kids while our fathers met to talk business with other farmers, had always gone to school together, and had started dating in high school. He was a couple months older than me, and the best day of my life was when he got his driver’s license. After that, we could see each other whenever we wanted without one of us having to beg our moms to drive us to the other’s farm. It was only fifteen minutes away by car, almost fifteen miles and too far to walk or easily bike. We visited each other a lot. When I wasn’t at the McCormick farm, Levi was here.

  Since Levi got his license, it had become a running joke with our families that Mom and Dad had gained a son and Levi’s parents another daughter. We almost always ate together, and the only rule was we had to let our moms know so one would know they were going to have an extra mouth to feed and the other would know they’d be short one. Except when we were working on our respective farms, where one of us was, the other was nearby, and everyone in town knew we were going marry one day.

  We were being smart, though. In the fall I would leave for Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas, to get my BSN in nursing. In less than two weeks, Levi would be leaving for Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio for boot camp, or BMT—Basic Military Training—as he called it. He was joining the United States Air Force to become an MP, a police officer, with the goal of working with, then training, police dogs. I knew his parents wanted him to stay home to help work the farm, but he felt a strong calling to serve his country, which I admired him for.

  Once I completed school, we’d evaluate how our lives had changed and try to determine where we went from there. Hopefully, I’d join him where he was stationed, we would resume our relationship, and if everything went the way we hoped, we’d be married a year or two later. The four years I was away at school and he was off in some godforsaken country helping keep the men and women under his care safe were going to be the hardest and longest of my life. I was, mostly, confident our love would survive the separation, and he was too. If it didn’t, it was just as well we didn’t get married in the first place.

  I shook myself out of my thoughts. I’d been musing on our separation a lot lately. I knew, deep down, it was the right thing to do, but that didn’t make the impending separation any easier to swallow.

  “Happy birthday,” Levi said as he gave me an innocent smooch.

  In front of our parents our kissing was innocent. After all, we were only nineteen. We hadn’t made love yet, but some of our kissing and touching was pretty heated. I smiled to myself. For his nineteenth birthday I’d given him a lap dance that had left me panting with desire. I didn’t know if our parents suspected we’d gone all the way or not, because in front of them, we kept it clean, and saved the rest for when we were alone.

  While Grandma cut her famous pineapple cake and placed thick slabs on plates, I began opening my presents. Normally I got one from Mom and Dad and one each from my two sets of grandparents, but this year there were far more than normal. Most, I knew, were practical gifts, items a young woman bound for college needed to start life on her own. As I started opening, I noticed Levi talking to Grandma, and I eavesdropped as I turned over the new computer to look at the back of the box.

  “It’s nothing, really,” Levi said. “With me leaving in a couple of weeks, it’s all becoming real now.”

  Grandma patted him on the hand. “It’s going to be okay. You and Ella have something special. I think you’re being smart, waiting like this, before you get married. That shows you both have good heads on your shoulders. You’ll get through this and be stronger for it.”

  “Four years is a long time.”

  She smiled at him. “It’s nothing compared to the life you two will have together. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, you know. You’re practically part of the family. That’s never going to change.�
�

  “Thanks, Mrs. Johnson.”

  She patted his hand again before handing a piece of cake to Grandpa.

  Levi and I had talked about our separation, both of us promising to wait for the other, but I was still nervous. I found some small comfort that he was slightly worried about the upcoming separation as well. I worried the stress and dangers, if he were deployed to the Middle East or some other danger zone around the world, would drive him to seek comfort in the arms of another. Everyone heard stories of soldiers, men and women alike, destroying their families by fucking around on each other while on deployment. We weren’t married, and him fucking some Air Force bimbo to relieve stress probably wouldn’t mean anything. I supposed at some level I could even understand it, but Levi was mine and I didn’t want to share him.

  Of course, cheating cut both ways, and those who were left behind also betrayed their loved ones, but for that part, I was in control of myself and knew it would never happen.

  “Thanks, Dad,” I said, gesturing with the laptop so Levi wouldn’t know I’d been listening.

  I opened packages containing bed linens, pots and pans, dishes, and other household items. After I finished I hugged everyone. I was grateful for all the gifts, but there hadn’t been one from Levi. He never forgot my birthday, and I wondered what surprise he had up his sleeve for me.

  I’d just finished hugging Grandpa when Levi pulled a thick packet of envelopes, neatly tied with a red ribbon, from behind him.

  “Happy birthday, Ella,” he said softly, holding them out for me. He looked almost ashamed or embarrassed. “I didn’t know what to get you so…” he shrugged.

  I took the envelopes, unsure of what they were or why he was giving them to me. Levi wasn’t exactly the letter writing type. He was very much a Texas farmer, tough and self-reliant. He was also a practical joker par excellence, and I wondered if he was having me on. I pulled the ribbon to release the packet. The letter on top was labeled Open When You First Receive These Letters. I carefully opened the envelope and read the letter inside, my eyes filling with tears before I looked over the top of the paper at him. He was looking at me with a mix of fear and hope. I cleared my throat.