by Erin Trejo
“You did so good. Fuck, babe. I couldn’t have done that,” he says through tears, forcing a chuckle out of me.
“You want to know what you have?” the doctor asks when the nurse takes the baby to the small bed. My eyes follow their movements remembering that they said they would put it on my chest when we took the prenatal classes. That was the plan. They would put the baby on my chest after I had it and now they are taking it.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, panic lacing my voice. Blade moves quickly, obviously noticing the same thing.
“Your daughter just needs to have a little oxygen. She looks good, though,” the nurses says when I hear her little cries again.
Tears spill down my cheeks when Blade looks between me and the baby. The look on his face is priceless.
“Go see her.”
“We have daughter, Lola. A baby girl,” he says a tear slipping down his cheek. It makes my heart leap that he’s this emotional about having her.
Chapter 25
Blade
I’m hypnotized by her beauty. I get lost in her breathing and the scent of her. I never thought I could love something so much, but seeing her lying here in my arms is the most precious thing in the world. She’s nearly bald except for a tiny bit of fuzz on the top of her little head. Annabel Marie Hopkins. She couldn’t be any more perfect. Of course, I gave her my last name, she’s mine.
“Her looks haven’t changed in the last thirty minutes,” Lola teases me through her yawn.
We’ve been home a little over a week and I just can’t stop looking at her. The guys all came by and saw her but it was Diablo that shocked the shit out of me. If I thought he was protective of Lola, I was dead wrong. Annabel is his. Where she goes, he goes. He follows me from room to room when I take her to get a bottle or just to sit out on the porch. I never knew a dog could sense these things but he is for sure her big brother.
“I just can’t believe she’s finally here in my arms. You know, it’s the best feelin’ in the goddamn world, Lola. Just look at how perfect she is,” I tell her, feeling my eyes tearing up again. I’m not much of a crier but for this little girl, I will be.
“She loves you too.”
Looking up at Lola as she lies on the bed, I can’t stop smiling. Life is perfect. This is everything I could have wanted and more. I now have a family that I have to provide for and care for. My time as the president of the Satan’s Flame MC is coming to an end and a new chapter in my life is opening. I can’t say that I didn’t see it coming because I did. I always knew it deep down but having them here with me, that makes it all the more real and I couldn’t be any happier.
“I knew I loved her when she was inside of you but damn. Holdin’ her and feedin’ her, it’s everything, babe.” Lola giggles and lays her head back on the pillow. I stand and walk over to the bed, climbing on with Diablo right next to me. I lay Annabel down in the middle and watch as D climbs up laying his head near her feet before I lay on the other side.
“I was a little worried about him,” Lola says, nodding toward D.
“You know, I was too but he is the best big brother. I don’t think any boys will be gettin’ near her anytime soon.” Lola smiles as she reaches down and pets his head. He lays there like the well-trained dog that he is.
“How are you feelin’?” I ask getting the attention back on me.
“Good. A little tired but I feel good.” Leaning over Annabel I press my lips to her mom’s lips.
“I love you,” I tell her.
“I love you too. Thank you for being everything to me, Blade. I don’t think you know what that means to me.” Just as she finishes speaking, my cell rings. I pull it from my pocket and bring it to my ear.
“Yeah?”
“We got a situation,” Ransom’s voice comes over the line and I don’t like the tone.
“What is it?”
“Ryan has made an appearance. He’s tryin’ to run out all our incomin’ jobs. When he took that coke shipment, he had plans. From what I’m hearin’ he is down at John’s right now tryin’ to fuck over the next gun shipment.” Anger races through my veins knowing that he’s this close to us. What the hell is his end game? What is he trying to prove by fucking with us?
“You got guys on it?”
“You know I do. Prospects are on their way to your place as we speak,” he adds. I blow out a breath and thank fuck that he has all this taken care of.
“Appreciate it, Ransom. I’ll leave as soon as they show up.” Hanging the phone up, I look over at Lola and the sad look in her eyes.
“Gotta go handle some things. Prospects will be here in a few and will stay until I get back.”
“Is it him?” She asks hesitantly. I run my hand over my face and sigh as I nod.
“Yeah. He’s fuckin’ with some of our shipments and we know his location. I wanna get him handled before he moves again and we can’t find him,” I inform her.
“I know you have to do this. I get it but I still don’t know what to feel, Blade.” I reach over and rest my hand on her cheek trying to assure her as best I can.
“I know that and I hate that this is how it has to be, but I promised to protect you and our daughter and that’s exactly what I’m gonna do, Lola. I don’t need you to understand or accept it. This is just somethin’ that has to be done.” I watch the tear as it slides down her cheek before I wipe it away.
“I know. Just come back to me, please.”
“Always babe. I’ll always come back to you. Both of you.” I kiss her once more before climbing off the bed and heading out the front door to gather my thoughts. As I sit here and contemplate my life, I realize that this is what’s been missing from it. This is how my life was supposed to play out and I’d like to think that my parents played a big part of Lola and I coming together the way we did. I believe in fate and it was no coincidence that Lola was dumped off at one of my jobs. It was something more than that and I thank God every day that I get to have her in my life.
Chapter 26
Blade
Neo already had Ryan tied to a chair by the time I got here. I’ve taken my time looking the bastard over as I stand leaning against the wall with my arms crossed over my chest. I’ve waited for this day to come for a while now, but now that it’s here, I don’t think there is anything I can to do to him to make him feel the amount of pain that Lola had to.
“So, you’re the piece of shit she’s using now, huh? How’s it feel to have her used up pussy wrapped around you?” The bastard chuckles from his place zip tied to the chair.
“Can’t say for another six weeks,” I tell him gauging his reaction. I know he thought the baby died but I want to watch the look in his eyes when he finds out that little girl is in fact alive and well sleeping in my house under my roof.
“She’s worthless. Nothing but a quick fuck.”
“We’ll see later on when the doc releases her.” This bastard must be a little slow to catch on.
“What did you do? Knock her up?” he laughs, tipping his head back. I smirk and keep my gaze on him until it all sinks in and he figures it out. His laughter stops, his head coming back to look at me.
“Figure it out?” I ask, keeping that smirk in place. I’d love to slit his throat and walk away but that wouldn’t be fair to Lola to let him die that quickly.
“It was dead! She told me it was!” he screams making me laugh.
“She lied to you, pretty boy. She protected that baby from the piece of shit you are,” I growl.
“My family will come after it! You have to know that.”
Shaking my head, I shove off the wall and walk toward him. My nerves are on edge but I know that there isn’t a person on this earth that I wouldn’t kill to keep that little girl safe.
“Thing about that is, she’s mine. Birth certificate says so. Her momma says so. Even that bullshit of a blood test I had to pay the doc to forge for me says so. You and your worthless family have nothin’ on me or her. Lucky for us all she looks just l
ike her mom,” I tell him, leaning down closely to his face. I can practically taste the anger on the tip of my tongue as his eyes follow me.
“You put your hands on my woman. You stole from my club and now you make empty threats. I don’t know what we should do with you,” I taunt before looking to Neo. He grins like a damn fool when I nod my head. He reaches into the back of his jeans, pulling a knife and a pair of pliers free. Pretty boy’s eyes move from mine to Neo’s and hold there as they widen. It’s an amusing sight to see. Neo walks toward him slowly, opening and closing the pliers in his hand before stopping in front of him.
“How much pain you want him in, Prez?” Neo asks glancing over at me. Reaching over I grab the asshole by the back of the neck, jerking his head so that he’s facing me.
“How much did she scream? Huh? How much pain did you inflict on my girl?” His eyes are wild with fear which is exactly what he should be feeling right now. I want him to hurt before he dies. Prying his mouth open, I smile at Neo.
“Make it painful.”
Neo chuckles, taking the pliers to one of Ryan’s teeth. He wiggles and tugs all while Ryan screams in agony until blood fills his mouth. When Neo stands with a single tooth in his pliers, I let Ryan’s head go. He gasps and spits before looking up at me.
“What do you want? Money? I can pay you!”
Laughter erupts out of me. I take a step back and cross my arms once more. “You almost killed her and her child. I want your death.”
His eyes widen when I nod to Neo. He pulls his knife free and I watch as he cuts and carves the son of a bitch. Ryan screams but no one can hear him out here and I love that fact. I watch Ryan pass out when the pain becomes too much just to have Neo wake him up again and keep going. There’s something about watching the bastard in pain that gives me a high. I want to see his blood drain from his body for what he did to Lola. I want him to understand that he caused her more pain than any blade could cause him. Some of her internal wounds will never heal and I blame all of that on this asshole. When he barely clings to life, I walk over and grab his hair in my hand. I lean in closely to his face and take in his eyes.
“I’ll meet you in hell one day,” I whisper before stepping back and letting Neo get to work. I stand against the wall and watch as he finishes him off and the other guys come strolling in. They all chuckle as they take in the scene. Ransom saunters over to stand next to me, a smirk on his face.
“What the hell are you so happy about?” I ask him.
“This the end of it? Takin’ this fucker out fix it all?”
Nodding my head, I blow out a breath and sigh. “I can fix this for her, yeah, but the emotional shit? I can’t take that away. Never will be able to.” Ransom slaps a hand on my shoulder until Neo walks over huffing for air.
“You tired?” I ask, turning around to look at him.
“It’s over. He’s dead.”
“Hey, brothers!” I call out to the rest of the guys. “Come over here!” I wait until they all stand around me, waiting to hear what I have to say, knowing this might be the hardest thing I ever have to say to them.
“This wasn’t an easy choice for me to make. You know I love you all like family, because that’s what we are. We’re family and nothin’ will ever change that, but now I have Lola and the baby. I have to work them into my life much like I used to this club. I know where my head’s at and I know what I’m doin’ right now. I’m steppin’ down as president of this club. My heart was always in it and you all know that. Family was always important to me and now that I have that, I need to move forward. They need me and my heart needs them.”
“We’ve been through hell and back as a club. We’ve made a difference in the lives all around us. I for one respect your choice and understand your decision,” Ransom says, extending his hand to me. I reach out and take it in mine when he pulls me into a hug. “I mean it, brother. Much fuckin’ respect.” Pulling away the others do much the same. Once I’ve had a minute with all of them, I pull away.
“I need to get home to my family. As my last duty, I wanna say this. Get the prospects to clean that shit up!” I roar pointing at the dead body with a grin on my face. The guys all laugh as I head out the door ready to get on with my life. We found out that Ryan took the drugs to try and peddle them himself to make some more cash. That didn’t work out the way he planned. We also learned that he had friends in the area we were working when we found Lola dumped outside of our jobsite. But all that is in the past now. It’s time to move forward.
Chapter 27
Lola
I sit on the porch swing with Annabel in my arms and Diablo lying close by my feet. As I watch my daughter sleep, I wonder to myself if I’ve made the right decision keeping her. I never had much of parental presence on my life and deep down I’m afraid that I will somehow mess this up. I know I love her and that she’s part of me but the fear of failure is still there nagging at the back of my mind.
“You are so precious, Annabel. I hope mommy doesn’t ruin you the way she was ruined. You are far too perfect for that.” Nuzzling her cheek with my nose, I press a kiss to her cheek when I hear the bike pulling in. My head snaps up and so does D.’s. We both watch as Blade pulls in and parks. He climbs off the bike with ease, setting his helmet on the seat before sauntering up the steps. His eyes find mine and the world melts around us.
“You okay?” he asks, looking from me to the dog and back.
“Just apologizing to our daughter in advance.”
Blade sighs and walks closer, sitting on the swing next to me. He reaches over and pulls Annabel from my arms and into his. He watches her face in amazement.
“She’s beautiful, yeah?”
“She is. I’m still scared, Blade. I don’t want to mess her up. What if I ruin her? What if I can’t be the kind of mom that she needs?”
Blade shifts Annabel into his other arm before wrapping his free arm around my shoulder and pulling me into his side. “Nothin’ in life is easy, Lola. You of all people know that first hand but we can’t look at the future the same way we did the past. We have to move forward, and as we do, new things will come into focus. You won’t ruin her because you love her. We both do and that’s what we need to focus on.” His words warm my heart and steal my breath away.
“Do you always have to know exactly what to say?” I ask as I reach up and wipe a tear from my eye. Blade leans in and presses a kiss to the top of my head.
“I know because it’s true. We messed up a lot before we were thrown together, Lola. We can figure everything else out along the way. I just need to know somethin’,” he says softly, his arm tightening around me.
“What is it?”
“Do you love me?” he asks sweetly.
Of all the things I thought I would have been doing right now in my life, sitting on a porch swing with Blade, Annabel, and Diablo professing my love wasn’t one of them.
“You brought me back to life more than once. You showed me what it was to live and love, and I can say with all honesty that I love you more than life.” Blade moves so that he’s facing me before leaning in and kissing me roughly. Resting his forehead against mine, the world slowly fades and all that’s left is us. His breath mingles with mine as love races through me.
“I want everything with you, Lola. You’ve crushed every wall I had around my heart and let yourself in. There is nothin’ more I want than you and this baby.” Hearing him say the words cause tears to spring to my eyes.
“Marry me!” I blurt out without thinking about it. Oh my God. I didn’t!
“Are you askin’ me to marry you?” Blade chuckles under his breath.
“Blade…I…”
“Yes. I’d marry you a million times.”
Thank you for reading Blade! If you enjoyed his story please leave a review!
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