Bad Apple (The Uncertain Saints MC #4)

by Lani Lynn Vale

  I shrugged and Apple placed a kiss on my forehead while he dropped his license onto the counter in front of Katrina.

  “Going to fill this out, baby,” he left, taking Emily with him.

  I watched him take a seat as far away from the reception desk as he could, his back to the wall, and smiled before turning back to the front.

  “I didn’t like it,” I explained. “And I don’t think I could leave Emily right now. I’m enjoying this mommy thing.”

  Katrina was nodding with me.

  “I can see that,” she said. “Rob wants to try for some babies soon, too. I’m nervous.”

  I snickered.

  Rob and her had been together for ten years. He was a mechanic at one of the shops in town, and he loved Katrina like crazy.

  And it showed.

  “Well, are you?” I asked.

  We spoke in detail about her fears of having children since she was just starting out her career. So long, in fact, that Apple’s name was called from the door leading back to the procedure rooms.

  Apple stood, Emily in one arm, and his paperwork in the other and walked toward me.

  “Love you, baby,” he handed Emily over.

  I took her and reached up to offer my lips to him, which he took.

  “Be good for your mama,” Apple instructed Emily.

  Emily promptly barfed all over herself and me.

  “Shit,” I said, stepping to the side.

  Apple laughed his ass off all the way to the door and to the woman that was still holding it open for him.

  “Should I say ‘break a leg’?” I called to him.

  He tossed me a glare over his shoulder.

  I smiled and waved, blowing him a kiss.

  He turned without answering the question, nor catching my kiss, and I snickered.

  The woman closed the door, and I turned back to Katrina.

  “Still want kids?” I teased.

  Her eyes were wide.

  “Did you just tell him to break a leg as he was going back to get a vasectomy?” she whispered.

  I burst out laughing.

  “Yeah, I did.”

  She shook her head, and I laughed all the way back to the chair where Apple had left the car seat.

  Placing Emily in it, I moved to the diaper bag.

  But after searching it for clothes that I had put in the top of the bag just before leaving, I realized that they were gone and I didn’t have anything to change her into.

  “Little girl,” I said to my daughter. “You need an award for inopportune puking.”

  She gurgled, making me sigh.

  She was cute; I’d give her that.

  Groaning, I stood, taking her with me, picking up the keys that I kept in my diaper bag and headed to the door.

  “I’ll hold onto her for you,” Katrina called to me as I reached the door.

  I turned and handed her off.

  “Thanks,” I grimaced. “I think the clothes fell onto the floorboard of the truck.”

  She waved me off, and I hurried down the hall to the elevators.

  I’d just stepped inside when a man stepped in with me.

  I smiled at him out of habit, crowding myself into the very corner to allow him room.

  He didn’t turn around like most passengers did when they enter an elevator, though.

  No, he got into the corner directly across from mine and stared.

  I stared at the lights as they went from the third floor to the first floor and then ground level.

  When the doors opened, I breathed out a sigh of relief and hurried out, thankful to get away from him and the uncomfortable way he made me feel.

  What the hell had been up with him? And who didn’t turn around and face the doors when they were in elevators.

  Creeps, that’s who.

  Looking over my shoulder as I walked out through the main doors, I was thankful not to see him anymore.

  Which was why I went to the truck instead of asking one of the security guys to walk with me like I probably should have. Especially when my gut churned with nerves, and my head was screaming at me to ask for an escort.

  Thinking I would be just fine, I started weaving through the parking spots until I finally reached the truck.

  Why Apple had to park so freakin’ far away was beyond me, but I was winded with how fast I’d walked in order to hurry.

  I’d just opened the back door to the truck when I felt someone creep up close to my side, likely wanting into their car.

  “Sorry,” I said when I sensed someone close. “These parking spaces sure are tiny, aren’t they?”

  Whoever it was didn’t reply, so I looked up and immediately felt ice drift through my veins.

  “Get in the truck,” he demanded, pointing at the backseat.

  I swallowed at the sight of the man in the elevator.

  “I can’t,” I denied.

  “You can,” he informed me, lifting his jacket enough that I could see the gun he had hidden there. “Or I’ll make you. Your choice.”

  I looked from him to the gun again, and then said, “You’ll have to make me.”

  Chapter 22

  Wicked chickens lay deviled eggs.

  -Coffee Cup

  Apple

  A knock sounded on the door that was the only thing shielding my balls from the rest of the office, and I looked over at the doctor that had this fucking burning tool so close to my cock.

  “You gonna get that?” I asked him.

  “Yeah,” he answered, leaning forward slightly. “As soon as I finish this one part.”

  The nurse that was helping looked over at me sympathetically.

  “Dr. Norris hates interruptions,” she smiled sympathetically. “He’s on a schedule, and when people interrupt him, he has to get off that schedule.”

  “Schedules are made for a reason, Bridget. You should try to follow one sometime and you wouldn’t be late to the office and interrupt my schedule every morning,” he countered without looking at either of us.

  I snorted and brought Bridget’s eyes back to me.

  “What Dr. Norris fails to mention is that I bring him coffee every morning, which is why I’m late to begin with,” she informed me.

  “What my wife fails to mention is that she could ride to work with me, if she would only be ready on time,” he said. “But she’s constantly late, and I leave her behind most mornings.”

  I would’ve replied, but the door opened without permission, bringing my attention away from Dr. Norris and Bridget, and to the lady that was, for some reason, holding my baby.

  “Done! Bridget, please remove the sterile field, and we’ll get him up and moving,” Dr. Norris said. “Katrina, you better have a good reason for barging into this procedure room.”

  I didn’t wait for Bridget to clear the field, I ripped the dressing off that was covering everything but my balls, and stood.

  Katrina’s eyes went wide at my cock hanging free, but something in the way she’d looked at me the moment she walked through the door had my heart nearly beating out of my chest.

  “Where’s Kitt?” I barked, walking to the chair that held my pants and yanking them on.

  I ignored the fact that my balls screamed at me for that sudden movement.

  “You need to sit down and wait until the glue at least dries,” Dr. Norris scolded me. “Katrina, spit out whatever you need to say and get out!”

  “I haven’t seen your wife. I called security when she didn’t come back, and they said some woman was abducted from the parking lot. I’m not sure if the woman is Kitt, but my gut says it is.”

  My eyes took in Emily, and a sense of relief so great hit me so hard and fast that I staggered as I buttoned my pants.

  With Emily not being with Kitt, she’d be able to fight harder. She wouldn’t be so worried about Emily that she’d forget to take care of herself.

  “You really need to sit down,
Sir,” Bridget urged. “You’re going to be a little woozy for the first hour or so, until all the medications we gave you wear off.”

  I ignored her, took a seat, and shoved my feet into my boots.

  Once they were laced, I sat back up, grabbed my cut off the chair where the rest of my belongings had been and walked to Katrina.

  “You okay with my baby?” He asked.

  Katrina nodded hurriedly. “I am,” she promised.

  I nodded, pressed a kiss to Emily’s forehead as she watched me curiously, then hurried down to the parking lot, my balls pinching with each stride I took.

  By the time I made it to the first floor, I’d managed to call not only Peek, Wolf, Griffin, Casten and Mig, but the Sheriff as well.

  The first person I found, as I made my way down to the parking lot, was a cop I’d never met before.

  “The woman,” I snapped without preamble. “She is mine.”

  The cop’s shrewd dark eyes studied me, took in my cut and scars, then nodded his head.

  All the while, I was seconds away from shaking him to get him to speak faster. I needed answers.

  “Go on over there,” he pointed to the back of the lot. “I’m just crowd control. The person you need to speak with is Officer Lyons.”

  I nodded my head and jogged to the back of the lot where I’d parked, sweat from the pain I was going through popping out all over my arms and face.

  “Yo,” the city cop that was directly next to the police line stopped me. “You can’t come over here. Give it a few minutes and we’ll release the vehicles to be moved.”’

  “I don’t give a fuck about my vehicle right now. I want to know who took my woman,” I said through gritted teeth. “I need to know what you know.”

  “She your wife? Black hair down to her backside? Black tee and jeans?” he asked.

  I nodded, the confirmation that it was in fact Kitt who’d been taken burning a hole in my gut.

  “Yeah,” I croaked. “That’s her. Not my wife. Fiancé.”

  Well, she wasn’t really that since I hadn’t officially given her a ring yet. But she was mine. She was my old lady. Something I hadn’t officially asked her to be, either. But I was planning on it. I just hadn’t found a way to do it, yet.

  I’d been too scared of her answer to do so just yet.

  But now I was kicking myself for not asking her. Now it might be too late.

  The sound of pipes had my heartbeat slowing, and I looked to the side to see Griffin and Wolf swing off their bikes.

  They had offices that were right on the edge of the city limits. It wasn’t a surprise that they were the first to arrive.

  Marshall was only about a fifteen-minute ride if you went the speed limit, and I highly doubt either of them went the speed limit.

  I turned back to the cop in front of me, then my eyes went to the truck where I could see Kitt’s set of keys laying on the ground, partially under the truck.

  “What do you know?” I asked him.

  “Witnesses say they saw a white male around the age of thirty-five or forty approach the woman from behind and cover her mouth with something, and the woman collapsed. She only got two screams out before she went limp, but she caught the attention of two elderly women who saw her being dragged into an older model navy blue Chevy Blazer. The Blazer II, not the full size,” the cop explained.

  Something sparked in my memory, and I closed my eyes and tried to trace that line.

  No one interrupted me, but I could hear Wolf and Griffin asking questions of the officer as I thought, and then my heart started to pound.

  “There was a smaller sized Chevy Blazer on our street today as I was leaving,” I said. “Had a woman and a man in the front seat. Fits your description of thirty-five or forty. Our house has cameras and we can confirm. Was the feed pulled from the lot?” I asked the cop.

  Another officer sauntered up, this one not in uniform, but plain clothes.

  “Feed doesn’t cover this lot. It’s technically an overflow lot that’s not owned by the hospital, but the city. Which means we don’t have anything to pull,” the plain clothes cop said.

  My teeth gritted, and I turned to Wolf.

  “Ridley has cameras set up outside and in. They run twenty-four seven and are monitored by a company that’s out of Kilgore. Ridley shut off everything inside the house, but the stuff outside was left on because he liked the idea of having some security while he was gone,” I told him. “You got anybody that could check that for us?”

  Wolf nodded and paced a few feet away so he could make the call, and I turned to Griffin.

  “You think you can get your woman up here to come get Emily?” I asked.

  Griffin nodded and pulled his phone out of his pocket, walking away as well.

  I turned back to the plain clothes.

  “You have a BOLO out on the vehicle?” I asked.

  A BOLO was a ‘be on the lookout’ alert for law enforcement, notifying them to watch for a particular vehicle or person as the case may be. So every cop in the area would be looking for this Blazer and my woman now.

  “What about…” I stopped and turned when he pointed at something over my left shoulder.

  “We have a woman in the ER across the street they found on the road about five miles South of here. She’s telling some wild things, but there’s a blue Chevy Blazer involved in this one, too. She’s wanting to talk to a man named Apple.”

  My back stiffened at the young cop’s words.

  “Why?”

  The young cop turned to me and said, “You Apple?”

  I nodded.

  “She has information about your lady,” he answered.

  Five minutes later, and a pain pill thanks to a nurse who could clearly see I was hurting, I walked out of the ER doors and found the men of my MC waiting on me. We had interrogated the woman who was with the man who kidnapped Kitt.

  “Whatcha got?” Peek asked, his accent thicker than normal.

  “Woman is fucked up,” I blew out a breath. “Said she was thrown out onto the road once the mother fucker Jake took Kitt.”

  “Jake?” Peek asked.

  “Motherfucker who monitors the feed at our house,” I growled.

  “Jake Carothers,” Wolf walked up with a packet of papers in his hand.

  He handed them out to all of us and then to the cop that was standing off the side, Detective Mick Barrow, I’d learned.

  My eyes went to Jake Carothers’ picture on the page, and I wanted to rip his face off.

  “This is the same man I saw this morning as we were leaving,” I confirmed. “Where does he live?”

  Wolf passed that paper out, too, conveniently leaving out the cop this time.

  The cop noticed, too.

  “Give me,” Barrow ordered.

  Wolf held up his empty hands.

  “Let’s go,” I said, hurrying to the truck that thankfully someone had pulled around for me.

  I got in and Peek got in next to me.

  Barrow hopped his happy ass in the back, and I wanted to scream at him to get out, but I didn’t have time.

  “Lenore have my baby?” I confirmed before I left the lot.

  “Yep,” Peek nodded.

  I left the parking lot, and hit seventy within thirty seconds.

  “Tell me where to go.”

  Chapter 23

  Rise and shine, mothercluckers.

  -Coffee Cup

  Apple

  “Put that away,” Barrow ordered when he saw me pull a gun out from under the seat.

  “No,” I ignored him.

  “I’ll arrest you,” Barrow said, his eyes hard and unwavering.

  I lifted my brow at him.

  “I was a cop, and I am a game warden. I’m not stupid. But you’re not going to convince me to go in there without a gun. It’s just not going to happen. Now, move the fuck out of the way, or I’ll move you,” I said through clenched teet
h.

  My shoulder was grabbed from behind and I turned to the front of the house and saw the best thing I’d ever witnessed in my life.

  I started running toward Kitt, who looked at me in horror.

  “Stop!” She insisted.

  I stopped.

  “Why?” I asked roughly.

  “Because you just had surgery on your balls!” She whisper yelled.

  I blinked and a few of the men started to snicker behind me.

  I would’ve turned to glare at them, but the sight in front of me was too beautiful to turn away from.

  “You okay?” I asked her, still not moving.

  She nodded her head.

  “Where’s Jake?” I wanted to know.

  “In hell,” she replied through clenched teeth.

  My eyes widened.

  “Did you kill him?” I asked hopefully.

  She shook her head again.

  “No, but I’m sure he probably wishes he were dead right now,” she informed me vaguely.

  “Are you hurt?”

  “No,” she shook her head.

  “Do you need me to carry you?”

  “No,” she repeated.

  With that, I took myself, and my gun, around Kitt and walked straight into the house, and immediately started laughing.

  “You stupid fucker,” I snickered as I walked slowly up to the man that’d been watching my woman and creeping her out over the last year. “You’re going to die.”

  The man didn’t say anything.

  He couldn’t.

  Not with his dick in his mouth like it was.

  And literally. There was a dick in his mouth.

  And, as I looked down at the mangled mess of meat and flesh between his legs, then back up to Jake, I wanted to laugh at him

  Lifting my booted foot, I placed it along his groin and pressed, causing Jake to finally scream.

  His balls were still there, so likely he wasn’t feeling all too good right then.

  “What the fuck’s in his mouth?” Griffin asked as he came up to my back.

  “His dick,” I answered.

  “Did you do that?” Wolf sounded pained.

  I shook my head.

  “Who did?” Barrow asked, looking dispassionately down at the man’s balls that I had pinned to the floor.