Epilogue
“Christopher, put those scissors down!”
I’d heard that motherhood was hard, but I never knew how difficult it would be chasing a toddler while being seven months pregnant in the middle of summer. Christopher was in his terrible two’s and his little sister was due a few months before his birthday. Chaos was out in the garage repainting the crib, leaving me all alone with his mini-me. That boy was the spitfire image of his daddy, right down to the bone. There was never a dull moment as long as he was around.
“But mommy, I’m going to help daddy.”
“Let’s go see if he needs help, but for right now I need you to put those down. They’re very sharp and they could hurt you. Come on, follow me.”
Holding his hand, we made our way through the kitchen and out to the garage. Chaos was sweating as he brushed on a thin layer of pink paint for the second time. I loved watching his hot, sexy body glisten in sweat.
“Hey babe, your shadow here wants to know if you need help.”
He stopped what he was doing and looked up at our boy. “You bet I do! Hey bud, can you hand me that rag over there and get daddy’s water?”
“Are you almost finished?” I asked as Christopher jumped off the top stair and ran through the garage.
“I still have to paint that end and this side,” he pointed with his paintbrush. “Hopefully I’ll be done by lunch.”
“Is he okay out here with you while I go get the food started?”
He nodded as he gulped his entire glass of water down in one drink, his Adam’s apple moving up and down as he chugged the last drop from the glass. “Yeah.”
Leaving the boys to work, I went inside and started to make lunch. It was a difficult task to say the least. We’d bought the house three months ago, but I was still organizing and arranging everything a little at a time. It was nice living in a place bigger than our previous two-bedroom apartment, but I was nesting like crazy with this pregnancy. I remember nesting when I was pregnant with Christopher, but it was nothing like this. I’d put all the plates and cups in one cabinet and then rearrange them two days later. It drove Chaos nuts because he could never find anything, and neither could I.
Our new house wasn’t anything special but it had all the room we needed. An old fixer-upper, the MC offered to help us restore it so we wouldn’t have the hassle of hiring and paying contractors. It was a four-bedroom, two bath house that we stole off the market for a ridiculously low price. My dad put down our down payment as our engagement gift since Troy and I still weren’t married, though I’ll never forget the way he proposed to me. Let me tell you the story, though Troy will say it goes completely different. We were sitting at Michael’s shortly after Christopher was born. It was our first date night in nearly four months. I thought I was going crazy in the house all the time with a baby by myself so my dad took the baby, giving us a break for the night. I ordered my usual—actually, Chaos ordered it for me—and as we were finishing up with dinner, he ordered dessert for the two of us. He asked for two slices of chocolate cake—my favorite. I thought it was odd the way he kept staring at me as I ate my food, but whatever. I’d developed some rather strange eating habits since I’d gotten pregnant with the baby and continued on with them even after he was born. Anyway, he was inhaling his cake while I picked through mine. Suddenly, he slowed down and watched me as I took the last bite of my dessert, his jaw dropped in horror.
“Didn’t you find it?”
“What? And I swear Troy Wayne, don’t say the bottom of the plate.”
“No, seriously! You didn’t see it?” He reached over and started picking through my crumbs with his fork.
“Stop it. What are you trying to do?”
He stood up and yelled for the waitress to come to the table. I tried shushing him but he waved me off as if I were an annoying fly.
“I think there’s been a mistake.” His face flushed as the veins on his forehead drew to the surface of his skin. “You fucked up our dessert!”
“Chaos! It’s what you ordered. They brought exactly what you asked them to. Will you sit down?!” People in the crowded restaurant stopped eating and started staring at us. You have this big, burly, tattooed bad ass standing in the middle of the restaurant yelling about chocolate cake. Then he did the unthinkable. He began going from table to table, inspecting everyone’s plates. There was another couple who had also ordered chocolate cake, a few tables away from us. He dug his hands into their desserts and twisted them into a heaping mess and threw the pile of chocolate goo back on their table.
“Where is it?” he demanded. I was so embarrassed, I put my face in my hand and tried to hide my identity. “Tell me what you did with it?”
The poor waitress was in shock. She didn’t know what to say as she stood there with her arms stretched out as she shrugged her shoulders. “We brought you what you asked for,” her tone was hushed as she gritted her teeth through every word that she spoke.
“No, you didn’t. You see my girl over there?” Oh please, God. No, don’t do this. Don’t point me out. He pointed right at me. “You ruined her night! This was supposed to be special but nooooo, you guys had to go and fuck things up!”
“Sir!” The waitress was now hissing. “I assure you, we brought exactly what you asked for.” She walked over to the table. Great, keep up the show guys! She examined our plates—mine was near empty, just a few crumbs here and there. Her face looked surprised, she quickly sat my plate back down on the table and picked up his. “Oh,” her voice was much quieter. “It’s here.”
At this point, I had no clue what was going on but I was starting to piece the puzzle together. She picked up his fork and started digging through his piece of cake. “It’s right here!” she proudly announced.
“Oh, uh, thank you.” He took the small dessert plate from her hand and picked up a napkin from the table. On bended knee, he held out the most beautiful diamond engagement ring I’d ever seen. “Raven Harris, I love you with all my heart. You’re a wonderful old lady and mother to my son. Will you marry me?”
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Nodding my head yes, I slowly extended my hand and allowed him to place the ring on my finger. Everyone in the restaurant clapped and cheered as he leaned up and kissed me. He whispered in my ear, “I think we oughtta leave her a good tip, huh?”
“I think that would be the right thing to do after putting her through hell.”
“Hey, you’re my girl and I asked them to put that in your dessert so I could surprise you. How was I supposed to know they’d switch our cakes? I wanted everything to go smooth, ya know?”
“Yeah, I see that.”
It was definitely a night I’ll never forget. After we had left the restaurant that evening, there was a big celebration party at the clubhouse for us. The whole MC knew he was going to pop the question and had everything all set up by the time we got there. Duke welcomed me to the family with open arms and told me how happy he was for the two of us. The other old ladies congratulated me as they admired my ring. Now if you ask him about the night, his version is a different story. According to him, they switched our desserts and he’s the one who caught it—not the waitress—and he saved the day.
We were waiting until Delilah was born to get married. I promised myself that I wanted to be back down to my pre-pregnancy weight before I even started trying on wedding dresses. She was due the week of Thanksgiving, which isn’t good for anyone’s waistline, especially a pregnant woman. There was no way I was starting any dieting or exercising until after New Year’s. It would be too stressful going through the holidays with a newborn and a toddler while trying to watch my weight and plan special meals. Troy was very supportive of my decisions and told me I looked great no matter what weight I was.
The police department finally reassigned Matty’s position. Our new Sergeant was a woman, Sergeant Elizabeth Conner, from Sacramento. When she took over her new position, she immediately became acquainted with all of the local area M
Cs, but she took special interest in the Lords. She had an interesting way of looking at things. Instead of wanting to work against the MC, she wanted to work with them. She regularly came in to the lab to chit chat with me and talk about the biker culture. I couldn’t say she was a bad cop, not like Matty. He’d totally had me duped from day one. Sometimes when I look back on things, I realize how stupid I was. It only took Troy killing him for me to finally realize and figure things out.
Amber was still working with me, though she was no longer my assistant. She was now my equal, earning her qualifications as a medical examiner. Much to my surprise, she and Zipper didn’t work out. I thought they would, but after they got together, he didn’t see a future with her. She didn’t hang out with the club as much, but I still saw her on a regular basis. Christopher was so cute that she couldn’t get enough of him and babysat regularly for me. She had actually helped me quite a bit with setting up his room and some of the nursery. Delilah’s room had already been painted with a custom design before we officially moved in. I’d seen the most beautiful pattern of butterflies and cursive writing. Chaos and a few of the guys immediately went to work on that room while I was still packing at the old house.
The boys were coming in for lunch, covered in paint. Christopher—who didn’t even have a paintbrush—had paint all over his hands, clothes and face.
“How did he—”
“He was helpin’ me mommy. Isn’t that right?” he ruffled his hair.
“Uh-huh?”
“But I thought he was getting you a towel and some water. What happened to that?”
“Boys will be boys.” Chaos beamed a smile at Christopher, who smiled back at his daddy. Those two were like peas on a pod.
§
Frantically, I dialed Troy’s phone as Christopher colored at the kitchen table. My water had broken and Amber was on her way over to babysit while I was in labor. My calls kept going to his voicemail. At a last ditch effort, I called Duke’s cell phone. Thankfully he picked up.
“Duke! You gotta tell Chaos to get home. I went into labor and my water broke. I need to get to the hospital right now!”
“Darlin’ I’m ‘fraid that’s not possible.”
“Why? What do you mean that’s not possible.” The tone in his voice made my heart sink to the pit of my stomach.
A long sigh came through the phone before he spoke again. “I’m sorry I didn’t call you sooner, but all hell’s broken loose over here. Chaos was in a bad motorcycle accident. The bad news is he’s not comin’, but the good news, I guess, is he’s already there.”
“Duke, how am I going to get to the hospital? I don’t wanna call an ambulance.” My contractions were getting stronger by the minute and lasting a little longer with each pain that came.
“I’ll take you. Pack a bag or whatever you women do and I’ll drive you. Can you wait about 15 minutes? That’s how long it’ll take me to get there.”
Sure, I’ll just tell little Delilah to hold it in a big longer! “Yeah, Duke. I’ll try. Hurry, please!”
My contractions hurt like hell. I laid on the couch, waiting for Amber to get there. At least once she got there, Christopher could show her all of his wonderful pictures instead of bringing them to me every five minutes. Don’t get me wrong—he’s the best damn colorer in the world! But right now, I needed to rest. I heard a car door slam shut in the driveway. In too much pain to get up, I laid there and prayed it was Amber. She bounded through the door like she was there to save the world—at least my world.
“Where’s Chaos?”
“At the…ohhhh….hospital.” The contractions were taking my breath away.
“Um, did you tell him that he has to take you there with him or it does no good?”
“He was in…ohhhh….God, a bike accident. But Duke…ohhhhh…shit! Said he’s gonna come pick me up.”
“Are you okay?” she stared at me like I was giving birth to the queen alien.
“I’m in fu….ohhhhh….cking labor! You tell me!” I started doing the breathing techniques that I’d learned in Lamaze class when I was pregnant with Christopher.
“Okay, I’m gonna color with Christopher. Let me know if you need anything.”
Poor girl. I think I scared her away. I’d be scared of me too to be honest with you. A few minutes later I heard another car door slam, but this one sounded rusty. It had to be Duke. Before I could even tell Amber that he was there, he was already inside the house helping me off the couch.
“Slow down, Duke. It’s not going to come out this second! Let me cat….oooohhhh, fuck!…ch my breath.” He backed off, putting his hands in the air like I was the cops. After my contraction went away, he helped me up off the couch again.
Heading to the hospital in his dirty, stinky ass truck was a hoot. I kicked every beer bottle and Styrofoam cup out of the floorboard after I swept the seat clean so I could sit down in the truck. Warning him to drive carefully as every little bump hurt me like hell, he did the exact opposite and sped through all the lights like a fucking Tasmanian devil! I literally thought I was going to kill him on the way there. I do have to give him props though, he did get me there in record time—and in one piece. Pulling up to the hospital doors, he slammed on the brakes—damn near putting my through the windshield—and jumped out of the truck as he ran into the hospital hollering and hooting like a crazy man. When he returned, there were two men following him, one sporting a wheelchair. I don’t know what he said to them when he went inside, but the promptly yanked me out of the truck and took me straight to the fourth floor—labor and delivery. There was no stopping at the admissions desk or checking into the the E.R.
I told the nurses that my husband, okay—I lied, was in the hospital and he had to be there for the birth. After checking the computer, she saw that he was there and said she’d ask if he could be moved. Waiting impatiently, I struggled to fight the urge not to push. I refuse to give birth unless he’s in this room. Come on, Raven. You can do it. Hold it out a little longer. I really need to push. God, I feel like I need to go to the bathroom. No girl, that’s the baby talking. Don’t do it. This is what it was like when you had Christopher. I heard commotion outside my room in the hallway. Listening closely, I could hear some heated debate taking place. That’s it! My last fucking nerve! I snapped.
“Excuse me! Pregnant woman in here about to deliver solo! Wanna get your asses in here?”
A group of nurses and two doctors came running in the room.
“Get my husband now! I wanna have this baby but I’m not delivering until he’s in here.” I’d been clenching my teeth so long and so hard that they were beginning to ache.
“Mrs—” one doctor began. I presumed his doctor because it wasn’t my doctor.
“Get to it!” I snapped.
“I don’t think it’d be wise to move—”
“It won’t….ooooooohhhhh….. be wise for you if you don’t move him! I’ll get out……oooohhhhh fuucckkk, of this bed, walk right to his room and squat…….fuuuucccckkkk….. on his floor so he can witness his daughter being born if…….shiiiiiiiiitt……. that’s what it’s gonna take!”
My doctor looked his doctor right in his beady eyes and said, “She’s dead serious. You better get him up here or she’ll do it. I know her. I delivered her last baby—and they’re high to do with the Lords of Sin motorcycle club. There’s an old man out in the lobby.”
“Yes! Get….shhhoooohhhhfuuucccckkk, him!”
Within minutes, both Chaos and Duke were in my room. That’s what I’m talkin’ about. I looked over at the old man and told him he didn’t have to stay and watch me give birth. I’d only wanted him there for backup because the jackasses weren’t listening to me. He fervently nodded and vanished in to the hall.
“Babe, I’m so glad I’m here for you. Sorry about the accident. I was—”
“SHUT UP! Just SHUT…ooohhhhh…..UP! I need to push!”
My OBGYN got everyone in position and ready to go. Exactly 12 minutes later,
Delilah Louise was born. A healthy baby girl weighing in at 6 pounds, 10 ounces. She was a tiny, cute, fussy little thing, just like her momma. After giving Chaos and me the opportunity to hold her, the nurses wheeled her off to the nursery to do some testing. At my request, they allowed Chaos and I to share a room until we were released. His bike accident was minor, no broken bones but he had large areas of road burn all over his arms, stomach and sides. His helmet had come off during the accident, so they were keeping him overnight for observation to ensure that his brain wouldn’t suffer from any swelling or other damage. Two days later, he walked Delilah and me out of the hospital and took us home so she could finally meet her big brother.
CHAOS (A Lords of Sin MC Novel) (Motorcycle Club Bad Boy Romance) Page 14
