by Khloe Wren
I risked a quick glance back to the girls, and Ariel’s lips had firmed into a straight line as she glared at the man holding me. Then she made the most of Zara holding everyone’s attention and silently disappeared behind the protection of the counter with little Cleo. Hopefully she was heading into the back room and through the newly added door into the neighboring shop that Cindy, Nitro’s woman, ran. I had complete confidence Cindy would take care of the girls and call the club in to deal with these bastards.
When Zara crashed to the floor, I jerked against the man holding me and cried out for her. With no one to guide her fall, she hit hard, taking a chair down with her. Blood flowed from a cut on her face. I tried to pull forward to get to her, but his grip tightened as he growled low, near my ear. If only he didn’t have his gun up against my stomach like he did, I’d have some hope of trying to break free of his grip. But I couldn’t risk my son like that.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”
While the man holding his gun on Mercedes continued to curse up a storm, he didn’t shift his aim. I guessed the one holding me was just here for muscle. He had barely moved, or made a sound since he’d grabbed me and told me not to move. The only blessing in all of this shit was that they’d allowed the few customers we’d had to flee when they’d first come in with their weapons out. It was just us three now that the kids had slipped away.
“Please, let Mercedes help her. Just—”
“Shut the fuck up and give me your fucking phone.”
“It’s in my bag. I can’t reach it unless you get this one to let me go.”
Without taking his gun off Mercedes, he came over and grabbed my bag off the floor near my feet and upended it on the table. Grabbing my phone from the mess he’d made, he handed it to me.
“Unlock it and pull up your man’s number, but don’t dial it. You dial, I’ll start shooting.”
The bastard holding me didn’t loosen his hold on my neck so I held the phone up to unlock the screen, tap in my password, then pull up Scout’s phone number. As I did that, the other guy had Mercedes sit next to Zara. But not to help her. Fucker pulled out zip ties and used them to tie Mercedes’ hands together, around a leg of the table Zara was near.
He then came over and snatched my phone from my hand. “Put her over with the others.”
As the one holding me shoved me forward, a shot of pain ripped through my lower belly and I cried out as I wrapped one arm around my stomach, and gripped a chair with the other one. Holy fuck, that hurt.
“Stop fucking around and get her tied up already, Tank.”
“You see how far fucking pregnant she is, Rumble? Last thing this situation needs is her to go into fucking labor on us. Make the call. I’ll deal with it.”
Every word he said faded away except for one. Labor. I knew stress could bring on early labor. Since I was older, I was considered high risk so the doctor had explained all sorts of shit that could go wrong. Unfortunately while Scout was there, which was why he had the entire damn town treating me with kid gloves. I breathed through the pain and before I got a gun shoved against me again, I spoke as I moved.
“Could you let me sit in a chair rather than the floor?”
He sighed like he didn’t want to, but could see that getting me on the floor wasn’t going to be easy for either of us.
“Fine, just hurry up, ‘k?”
Breathing through another jolt of pain that had me getting really worried, I lowered myself into the chair beside Mercedes. I ran my palm over her head when she leaned it against my thigh before I put my hands out for him to do whatever he was going to do with them. He was being somewhat gentle with me now and I didn’t want to do anything that would make him get rough, especially if I really was about to go into early labor.
Putting the gun away, he set about using zip ties to secure my wrists to either side of the chair. I would have preferred have my hands to hold my aching stomach, but at least he didn’t put them together behind my back. Another stab of pain rolled through me and with a groan I closed my eyes and prayed.
Chapter 3
Scout
Walking out of church, we all grabbed our phones and powered them on. Each one of them lit up like a fucking Christmas tree as they came online. Naturally, Keys was the first to get into his messages.
“Fuck, prez. We got trouble already.”
My vision tunneled in on my phone as I read the text that flashed up. Cindy, Nitro’s old lady, had sent a text out to each of us since she couldn’t get anyone to answer a phone. Ariel had brought Cleo over through the back door, and she’d been distraught over “men with guns in the cafe with mommy.” Looked like the Ice Riders were in town already.
“Nitro, call your girl. Bulldog, get on Tiny and get him to meet us there. Keys, get me the camera inside the cafe. Mac, you armed?”
His old lady, Zara was working in the cafe, as was Tiny’s woman, Mercedes. This would be a good test of Mac’s ability to stay calm under pressure. We hadn’t made it public knowledge, but Bulldog was looking to step down soon from his role of VP, so we’d discussed who would take over and Mac was the front runner.
“Always, prez.” He pulled out his knife and gun to show me before he tucked them both away, after double-checking his weapon was loaded and ready to go. Mac had been a Gunnery Sergeant in the Marines, so of course the man was armed and ready to roll. Gotta love a Marine.
I turned to Nitro, who’d just hung up from his call.
“She went out front and peeked in through the window. Two men armed with pistols have our women in there. No customers.”
“Right, no time to waste. Keys, we’ll need that feed up and live by the time we roll in.” I looked around the room at the few brothers who had been hanging around before this shit hit the fan. They were all watching and waiting for my orders. It was good to be king. “Bash, need you to grab the bus and go get Donna on your way to the cafe. No matter how this pans out, I want Marie to go in to be checked over. Everyone else, on your bikes. We’re rolling out as soon as I can start my fucking bike.”
Donna was Keys’ old lady and a nurse. The woman was a gem, always coming through for us.
Confident my orders would be followed, I headed out the door. Not wasting time with my helmet, I swung my leg over my ride and started it up. The moment I could, I peeled out of the lot and roared over to Marie’s Cafe, praying I made it in time to save my heart.
With me disregarding my personal safety, I arrived a few minutes ahead of the rest of the club. My phone started vibrating as I killed the engine. Pulling it free, I saw Marie’s number and a cold chill ran up my spine. I doubted this was actually my woman calling me. To answer or not? They were about to hear a whole heap of bikes roll in and realize we were onto them, so in order to keep an element of surprise in our favor, I declined the call and made my way around to the front of the building, Ideally, I would have liked to have seen where they were standing on the video feed, but the few minutes it was gonna take Keys to get here and get it loaded up could be minutes too long.
The sounds of a couple bikes pulling up behind the building, along with the sounds of the other bikes approaching, had me confident that I’d have back-up within moments, so I didn’t stop or turn around as I marched up the pavement in front of the shop. A growl rolled up my throat when, through the glass, I saw some motherfucker strapping Marie’s arms to a chair. My heart skipped a beat at the pinched expression on her face. She was in pain. Zara was out cold on the floor, blood on her face, while Mercedes was tied to the table near Marie. Girl had her head resting on Marie’s thigh and the blank look on her face made me think this shit had triggered memories from her past that were messing with her head.
The second man had Marie’s phone and was cursing up a storm as he hit buttons. Guess he didn’t like me not answering.
Hearing boots running behind me, I knew I had armed back-up so didn’t hesitate to shove the door open hard and fast and step inside.
“What the fuck do you
two bastards think you’re doing? Fucking with the Charon MC isn’t good for your health, and taking three of our women—one heavily pregnant, really isn’t good for your fucking health. You got less than thirty seconds to explain yourselves before my brothers start shooting.”
My vision clouded red when the bastard who was tying up Marie pulled his gun and pressed it against her stomach. That shit-stain was a dead man for that move alone. Threatening an unborn baby. Fucker.
The asshole with the phone didn’t bother pulling any weapon, like he didn’t think we were a fucking threat. He just kept hold of Marie’s phone as he ran his gaze over each of us. The one holding my woman spoke, drawing my attention back to him.
“I don’t think you’ll shoot us. Not when it’ll put your kid at risk.”
Rage continued to pulse through me, stealing my voice for a moment. Mac stepped up next to me, gun trained on the one with the phone.
“You went to a lot of trouble to get us here, boys. How about you quit wasting our time and tell us what you want?”
Mac was already acting like a VP, staying calm under pressure and having my back. I could see things working out well on that front. But in this moment all I could deal with was the gun pointed at my boy and the pain and panic on my old lady’s face. I was so focused, I nearly missed when someone moved behind them. Oh, Nitro needed to get a handle on his fucking woman. Forcing my gaze from the scene, I turned to face the asshole with the phone, who was standing further forward in the room than his buddy, and since he was looking at Mac, he hadn’t seen our little Harley Quinn wannabe coming in the back with a fucking baseball bat raised.
“Been told you were planning to use some fucking book John Bennett wrote on our business to blackmail us. We’re here to make sure you understand that ain’t happening.”
“You don’t know shit. We’ve had that fucking book for two years and haven’t fucking touched it. You want it? You should have had your fucking president contact me and we could have sorted something out. This is not how you get favors, boy.”
That had him pausing. What the fuck was going on here? Their cuts declared them Ice Riders MC, but I wanted to know who exactly sent these fuckers.
“Who sent you?”
“Our president, Chains. Told us to get down here and get shit sorted.”
“And your first choice was to hold our women hostage? Not real fucking bright, are you?” I gave Cindy a nod and before these two assholes knew what was happening, one took a bat to the side of the head and Mac put a bullet in the other one a split second later. “Mac, don’t fucking kill him. Need to ask some more questions and I think our resident Harley fucking Quinn, here, may have made it impossible to ask that one anything.”
“I’d say I’m sorry, but it got the job done. Now, I’ll leave you boys to it. I got two little ladies to go look after.”
With that, she dashed up to Nitro to give him a quick kiss before she fled through the back room to return to her store.
“That’s some woman you have, Nitro.”
“One that’s not gonna be able to sit comfortably for a while. Fuck me. When I saw her come in with that bat...”
I tuned them out and rushed to Marie, pulling out my knife as I went.
“Babe, where does it hurt? What’d he do to you?”
I cut her wrists free and she grabbed her belly and leaned forward, her head finding my shoulder.
“I think I’m in labor.”
Icy fingers gripped my heart and I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment. It was too soon, she still had over a month to go.
“Let me through!”
I’d never been more grateful to hear Donna’s voice. The cafe was crawling with my brothers now, everyone getting shit done before the cops made an appearance. I scooped Marie up in my arms and made my way toward Donna, who had Bash helping her push the gurney inside. Fuck, that prospect had earned his patch time and again. If fuckers would quit messing with us, we might get around to voting the kid in. But that was a worry for another day. I laid my woman out on the bed.
“Says she’s in labor, but it’s too soon.”
“We need to get her to the hospital, anyone else need to go?”
I looked around. Tiny had Mercedes sobbing in his arms. And Zara had come to from her attack and Mac was wiping the blood off her face. “Tiny? She good?”
“Nothing I can’t handle.”
“Mac? Does Zara need that stitched?”
“Nah, I’ve got it. You get Marie where she needs to be, we got this covered here.”
“Cindy and I will take Ariel. I’ll bring her in later to see you at the hospital.”
I winced that I had to leave Ariel behind. This whole situation wasn’t going to do her mental state any favors, but right now, Marie and our boy needed my full attention. I knew Nitro and Cindy would take good care of my girl. I clapped Nitro on the shoulder. “Thanks, brother.”
Then I was out, helping get Marie into the bus. One of the best things we ever did was kit out this rig as a private ambulance. Even if we did use the fucker way too often lately, today I was definitely grateful we had it.
Ariel
Everybody left.
I might have only turned five last month and was still a kid, but I knew things. One of those things was that I wasn’t good enough for anyone to stay. I thought I’d done the right thing. When the men came in with guns, I got baby Cleo and snuck out the back, through the door to Cindy’s shop and told her what happened. Wasn’t that the right thing to do? Get the baby to safety and tell an adult. Mommy had given me a smile when she’d seen me taking baby Cleo. I hope she wasn’t mad at me.
I sniffled back my tears and tried to curl up into a smaller ball. I wanted to go home. Did I still have a home? I wanted my rabbit. Why hadn’t I brought him with me? I used to take him everywhere, but lately I hadn’t been remembering to grab him when we went out.
“Oh, sweetie. It’s gonna be all right.”
It wasn’t. That was just what adults told kids. Scout and Marie were gone. My mommy and papa had gone, just like my momma had. I knew it was different. Momma had died and gone to heaven. Mommy and Papa were still alive—at least I thought they were. They just weren’t here. They’d left without me. Without telling me why or where they were going. They’d never done that before.
Cindy reached for me but I pulled back. I didn’t want to be touched. Didn’t want someone else to make me like them, only to vanish on me too. Plus, she was holding baby Cleo, I didn’t want her to get hurt because of me.
“Nitro, what do we do? We can’t leave her like this. Poor little munchkin.”
The big man stood tall, frowning down at me. Would he be like some of the men that Momma and me had lived with? Was he going to hurt me because I didn’t do something he wanted me to? Or was he going to be like the ones who just ignored me, pretending like I didn’t exist.
“Not sure, Cin. Doesn’t help she doesn’t know us real well. Here, let me take Cleo and you ring Donna. She should be done with Marie by now and know what to do with Ariel.”
I sniffled again as they passed the baby between them. I was jealous of her. I didn’t want to be, but I wished I could be like Cleo. Happy to go to Nitro, trusting him. Her baby hands smacked at his face as she spoke words that made no sense at all. The moment Cindy started speaking into her phone, I blocked out everything else and zeroed my attention in on her, trying to find out what was going on. Were they deciding how to send me away?
My heart thudded inside me, almost too loud for me to hear over it. I rubbed my hand over the ache, trying to soothe it like Mommy did her belly when the baby in there started kicking her from the inside. But it didn’t work. It still hurt. Was that why they left me? They had their own baby now so they didn’t need me anymore?
I sniffled again, trying hard not to cry. No one likes a crybaby. That was something else those mean men had taught me. No one liked having to deal with tears.
Wiping my eyes on my shirt, I blinked up and je
rked back when Cindy was only a little way away from me on the floor. She’d crawled in behind the rack of clothes where I’d tried to hide from them all earlier.
“Sweetie, can you come over to me? I’m not going to hurt you and I want to tell you what’s happening with your mommy.”
I shook my head. I didn’t want to move. I liked being in this corner, in the dark.
“Alrighty then, guess I’m coming to you.”
Shocked that an adult would do what she was doing, I held my breath as she got closer to me, waiting for her to lash out or maybe grab me to drag me out, but she didn’t. She just crawled in and curled up next to me.
“I know you’re scared, sweetie. What happened was really awful. But you were so brave. Getting Cleo like you did, and bringing her here? That was the perfect thing to do. Because of what you did, I could call in your papa and he came with the others and stopped the bad men before they could hurt anyone.”
I cleared my throat and sniffled again. “Then why’d they leave me? If I did good.”
“Oh, sweetie. That’s not why they left without you. When the bad men came in with the guns, your mommy got a shock and that upset the baby. Enough that the baby thought he might like to be born early, so she had to go to the hospital so they could convince him to stay inside your mommy for a little bit longer. Your papa went with her to help get her there faster. The only reason they didn’t come say goodbye first was that they had to rush to get there. They’re not abandoning you at all, Ariel. They’ll always be there for you, we all will.”
This time when she reached for me, I went to her, moving until I was curled up in her lap. She stroked her hands through my hair and it felt so nice, I started to relax and tangled my hand in the long necklace she wore.
“We’ll just sit here for a little while, then we’ll take you up to the hospital so you can see them, okay?”
“Uh huh.”
They hadn’t left me. I wasn’t being sent away.
