Bad Apple (The Uncertain Saints MC #4)

by Lani Lynn Vale

  “My guess is that my woman did it,” I answered, twisting my foot.

  All of the men that were at my back cringed when we heard something inside his balls pop.

  “I think that’s enough,” Barrow sighed. “Back away please.”

  I did, but only after the second testicle popped, too.

  ***

  I had Emily in one arm, and Kitt in the other, as we stood outside the house.

  “We’re not going to tell Ridley a damn thing,” Kitt insisted. “Because he has enough to worry about right now without adding me to the mix.”

  “He’s going to want to know,” I tried to be the voice of reason, but Kitt wasn’t having it.

  “Is he your brother?” She snapped.

  I held onto my smile.

  “Yes,” I said, and it was true.

  He may not be my flesh and blood brother like he was to her, but he was my brother. My MC brother, and in some cases, that was tighter than blood would ever be.

  Certainly not in this case.

  Ridley and Kitt were like two peas in a pod.

  Ridley and me, not so much. But we tolerated each other, and I wouldn’t hesitate to come to his aid or even go and have a beer with him.

  She sighed in defeat.

  “I don’t want to tell him, because I want him to focus on what he’s doing in there. I don’t want his head to be anywhere but where it’s supposed to be,” she whispered. “Please?”

  That ‘please’ paired with those big green eyes of hers, and I was a fucking goner.

  “Okay,” I said. “But the moment he steps foot outside, I’m telling him. He’s not going to hear about it from anyone but me.”

  “What about the rest of you?” Kitt asked, looking around at the rest of The Uncertain Saints.

  Not a single one of them was trying to hide the fact that they were paying attention to our conversation.

  But wasn’t that what brothers did? Butt into your business?

  “Up to you, Core,” Griffin said. “You tell us what you want to do, and we’ll do it…maybe.”

  Kitt growled, and it was so cute that I pulled her into my arms again and kissed her forehead.

  “Chill, baby,” I urged. “He’s joking.”

  “Am I?” Griffin challenged, a small smirk kicking up the corner of his lips.

  I looked up to the sky where we were still waiting outside the stupid fucker’s house, and smiled for the first time in over an hour.

  “By the way,” Griffin asked, changing the subject. “How are your balls?”

  “Can’t even feel ‘em,” I said honestly. “That pill the chick at the hospital gave me is making me feel no pain.”

  “What chick?” Kitt asked, stiffening in my arms.

  “Her name was Hannah. I met her before in one of our many trips to the ER.” I said. “She took pity on me when she saw me grimacing when we were questioning the stand in that Jake kicked out of the car.”

  This time Wolf was the one who stiffened.

  “Hannah?” Wolf asked, “What’d she look like?”

  “Blonde. Big tits. Long hair down to her ass. The bluest eyes I’ve ever seen,” I recalled.

  Kitt pinched me on my side.

  “You’re not supposed to say that you noticed her tits when your woman’s in your arms,” she hissed.

  I looked down into her face, took in her angry eyes, and said innocently. “My woman’s not in my arms. My old lady is.”

  She blinked.

  “I’m not old,” she said testily.

  I grinned.

  “Oh, darlin’. You most certainly are. Trust me,” I said, pulling her to the truck and away from the rest of the group before this got too heated.

  She took Emily from my arms and put her into her car seat, and I watched in fascination as Wolf ran past me, hopped on his bike and was out in a spit of gravel and dust.

  “What was that about?” I demanded of Griffin, who passed me to get to his bike.

  His woman went to her car that was next to Griffin’s bike, but stopped and turned to say, “That was Wolf going to get his Old Lady.”

  Then a commotion came from inside as a screaming Jake was finally pulled from the house.

  Tears and snot mingled on his face as he sobbed, and I couldn’t help the full out shit eating grin that transformed my face.

  “Hope you have fun in jail!” I called to him.

  His eyes turned to me, and I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped my lips at seeing the blood still around his mouth. Remembering how it got there would forever be ingrained in my memory, and I chose to remember her walking out with a grin on her face rather than having to be in that position in the first place.

  Fucking A.

  “Apple?” Kitt called from inside the cab of the truck.

  I turned and got in.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Does being your old lady come with a ring?” She batted her eyes sweetly.

  I smiled at her.

  “Fuck yeah it does,” I said. “I have some chicken rings at my place we can cook up for dinner.”

  She slapped my arm in affront.

  “That’s not what I meant, and you damn well know it.”

  I fluttered my eyelashes at her, and she rolled her eyes.

  “You’re incorrigible.”

  “I’m fucking happy.”

  “You may be fucking happy, but you’re still incorrigible.”

  I shrugged.

  “No, baby. I’m happy,” I said. “I haven’t been that in a very, very long time.”

  Her eyes went soft, and I started the truck up, turning back to the road and heading in the opposite direction of home.

  “Where are you going?” She asked softly.

  “To Sam’s to get some more chicken rings for my old lady,” I said.

  We didn’t go to Sam’s.

  We went to Jared.

  Where Kitt proceeded to tell everyone and their brother in a seemingly endless flurry of text messages.

  Thirty minutes later when she walked into my pop’s place and shoved the ring in his face, I couldn’t find it in me to care that she kept repeating the same sentence over and over again.

  “He went to Jared’s!” She crowed. “Yee haw!”

  My pop smiled at her indulgently.

  “That’s good, sweet girl,” my dad slurred slightly. “Now, maybe, he can stop fucking around and get some of that wood cut up.”

  Kitt got the baby out of her car seat and handed her over to my father, and I turned to survey the woodpile my dad had just gestured to.

  “You did good, boy,” my dad said to my back.

  I turned back to look at my dad who was now holding Emily, then looked at Kitt who was on her phone with one of the old ladies, and I walked to the wood and started cutting it up.

  The life I lead may not be perfect, but it was mine. And that was perfect to me.

  Epilogue

  Sorry I’m late. I didn’t set my alarm. I didn’t set my alarm because I didn’t want to come.

  -Kitt’s secret thoughts

  Kitt

  Two months later

  “I need you to come inside,” I whispered into the telephone.

  “Why are you whispering?” Apple asked, sounding somewhat alarmed.

  “Because it’ll hear me,” I whispered back.

  “What’ll hear you?” Apple asked, fully alarmed at this juncture.

  As he should be.

  “There’s a bug. A cockroach. In the middle of the kitchen floor. He’s talking to his friend, Mrs. Cockroach,” I continued whispering.

  “Jesus Christ,” he said. “Just step on it.”

  “No. Come inside or I’ll scream,” I ordered.

  He sighed, and hung up, and I hoped that meant he was coming.

  And twenty seconds later when the door opened, I was happy to know he’d complied.

  But the man wh
o stepped into the kitchen was most assuredly not Apple.

  “Step on them!” I ordered, pointing to the bugs.

  He did, stepping on them with a loud crunch that threatened to cause me to lose my lunch.

  “Where is he?” Ridley snapped.

  My eyes widened at the anger in his voice.

  Apple stepped in through the back door, and I turned to see Ridley launch himself at him.

  “You can’t just not tell me that!” Ridley pushed Apple.

  I sighed and started forward, knowing exactly where this was going.

  “No, he can’t. But I can,” I said, pushing my brother back.

  He looked fucking crazy rough, and I was actually a little intimidated by the fact that he’d bulked up so much while in prison.

  He didn’t look like the old Ridley, but a new, harder Ridley.

  One that was hell bent on vengeance, and I wasn’t sure I liked it.

  But he was my brother, and I knew all his ire wasn’t due to the fact that he was mad at anyone, but rather it was concern for me.

  “Ridley!” I cried out loudly. “Would you listen to me for a freakin’ minute?”

  He turned his glare on me, and I smiled at him before running toward him.

  He’d walked into the house today without even telling me he was coming and then proceeded to start yelling.

  How he’d known before we’d told him about it, I didn’t know. But there was no use figuring it out now. What was done was done, and my brother was now home.

  He caught me and wrapped both of his large arms around my shoulders, and I buried my face into his neck.

  “I missed you, big brother,” I whispered.

  “Missed you, too,” he said gruffly. “Proud of you. And sorry. Really fucking sorry.”

  I squeezed him tighter, and then tilted my head back to study his face.

  “What’s going on with you?” I asked. “You look rough.”

  “Lots of shit that I do not want to talk about right now,” he said. “I want to drink a beer and watch you get married.”

  I smiled at him.

  “How are you going to pull that off?” I asked him. “We’re already married.”

  His eyes narrowed.

  “Don’t think we’re not going to talk about that, either,” he growled. “Vegas? Really?”

  I smiled at him and pulled away, walking to the kitchen where Emily was busy making a mess of her applesauce.

  “Watch this,” I called to Ridley. “You’re going to be so surprised!”

  Emily automatically reached for me the instant I got to her, and I pulled the tray back on the highchair then hooked my hands under her armpits.

  Immediately, I set her down on the floor, and she sat there staring at her uncle who came in looking a lot scruffier than when he’d left.

  “Call her,” I said to him.

  I moved to the kitchen counter and leaned my behind against it directly next to Apple, who immediately hooked an arm around my neck and pulled me in close.

  “Emily,” Ridley called, dropping down onto his haunches.

  Emily’s head whipped around from watching Apple and me to her uncle, and her mouth opened wide into a single tooth baby grin.

  “Oh, man,” he said. “You got your first tooth while I was gone.”

  Drool started to leak out of her mouth, and she leaned forward until she was on her belly.

  Then she immediately started to army crawl to Ridley, who thought it was the cutest thing in the world. Mostly because he’d said so.

  “Oh Jesus,” he groaned when she started making her way to him. “Fucking cutest thing in the world.”

  I snorted and laughed when he dropped to his ass and then crossed his legs.

  Leaning forward, he scooped her up the instant she was within reach and then covered her with kisses.

  His shirt became soaked with applesauce, but he didn’t seem to care.

  Emily had changed a lot in the last two months. She’d gotten her first tooth a couple of weeks prior.

  She’d also gotten her first major boo-boo that had required a trip to the ER.

  An ER visit where she was treated for a laceration over her right eye.

  And that had been my fault.

  I’d left her on the couch like I’d done so many times before, but instead of staying there, she’d fallen off in her search for me, and had cut her head open on the coffee table.

  I’d been promised by not just the ER docs, but also by the other ladies in the club that had children that accidents happened. Frequently.

  She’d also finally started to sleep through the night and eat solid foods.

  I’d stopped breast-feeding, and we’d switched over to only formula in hopes that she would stop throwing up so much.

  Which she did.

  And she, as did my life in general, became a whole lot sweeter with less vomit.

  Apple had also done a lot of changing.

  He’d continued his trips to his psychologist to help him with the guilt and pain he suffered, even now.

  And he got a lot better. I could definitely see a change in him, that was for sure.

  He hadn’t told them his real reasons for being there, only touched on the fact that his friend had died, but he’d told them all that he could, and they’d been able to help him come to terms with a few things.

  He’d also stopped working so much overtime as a game warden when he could. When hunting season rolled around two weeks ago, I’d lost him again. And I was sure that would happen every hunting season. But a plus was that his father had completely closed his wood cutting business.

  Now Apple only cut wood for fun in his spare time.

  And I was one happy person.

  My seizures, although still present, were back to my normal. Which meant every once in a while I would space out for about thirty seconds, and then I would snap back.

  I hadn’t had one more bad seizure since I’d been placed on the lowest dose of anti-seizure medication available.

  And I was fucking ecstatic about that.

  Life was good.

  “So tell me what happened with the douche canoe that kidnapped you,” Ridley ordered.

  I looked up at Apple, then to Emily.

  “I’m going to go give Emily a bath while you boys talk,” I said softly, picking Emily from Ridley’s arms and hurrying away. “And get ready to go to lunch! I’m hungry!”

  I didn’t wait for a reply.

  It wasn’t that I was embarrassed by what I did to Jake.

  In fact, I was okay with it. Happy, in fact.

  That day two months ago had been terrible.

  I wasn’t sure if I was going to live or die and that had a way about bringing out the worst in a person.

  What I’d experienced with Jake was not nice. It was not pretty, and to be honest, it haunted my nightmares.

  Every night my dream would be the same.

  I’d wake up after passing out from him covering my mouth to being in a chair. A chair that I was not tied down to or anything.

  I looked around at the room, taking in the knives on the kitchen counter, as well as the baseball bat that was leaning against the wall in the corner behind the door.

  Once I was sure my legs would hold me, I stood up and walked carefully to the bat.

  A knife was nice and all, but that would put me too close to the person that’d taken me, and I needed distance.

  Once the solid weight was in my hand, I looked around at the room I was in.

  The house I was in was only a single open room with large beams acting as support. It looked like it’d recently been remodeled to look like this, because the drywall was still exposed over most of the walls and there were tools all over the place.

  My next step was to look outside and, once there, I saw the same man that I’d seen in the elevator earlier.

  “What the hell is going on?” I whispered, running acr
oss the room to the closed door.

  I waited there, watching him do something outside on the porch, for what felt like hours but was likely only minutes.

  Then he turned. There was something that looked like plastic bags and tape in his hand, as he reached for the doorknob.

  The moment he opened the door and stepped inside, I’d come up at his back and slammed the bat upside his head.

  He dropped like a stone.

  When he’d come to, he’d been the one taped to the chair.

  I’d been the one asking questions, and what I’d heard hadn’t been nice.

  In fact, it’d been down right sickening.

  Hearing what he’d done to the woman before, one that looked so much like me that it could’ve been me, had flipped my switch and left me feeling cold.

  The icing on the cake had been him coming at me with his dick in his hand, ready to do the same damn thing to me.

  Which was the reason I did what I did next.

  Everyone knows the story from there.

  Apple had been so proud of me that it was hard to feel bad about it. I’d been appalled at my actions but something had come over me at hearing that man’s promise that he would do the same thing to me. And the next lady he felt like doing it to.

  And I couldn’t let that happen. So I’d done what I had to do, and had nightmares about it as a consequence.

  During each nightmare, though, Apple would be there to chase the bad away.

  He’d wake me up with a soft kiss to my lips, and then hold me while the remnants of the dream drifted away into nothing.

  He hadn’t been able to convince me to speak with anyone, either.

  Why? Because why would I when I had my own personal dream catcher that chased away the bad dreams for me? Why would I need to speak to someone that couldn’t do for me what Apple could?

  “Oh, baby,” I said when I saw the mess Emily had made of herself. “You’re a big ol’ mess.”

  She chattered away at me while I got her changed into her clothes for the day.

  Tonight would be a welcome home party for Ridley, and I was fairly sure we would be spending the night at the clubhouse in celebration. Likely a good bit of us would be drunk and too smashed to drive home, so I made sure to grab some extra clothes and diapers to take with us.

  Once Emily was dressed, I took her to my room and let her play on the floor while I folded laundry and genuinely ignored the living room where I knew Ridley and Apple were talking.