by K. J. Dahlen
“Because I asked him to,” her best friend replied. “I also told them Janelle was the biggest god damn liar on the planet and not to take anything she said at face value.”
“Enough talking,” Deke ordered as he pulled the covers up around Cassie. Looking over at Peaches he said, “She needs to rest.”
“Okay,” Peaches whined. Leaning toward her friend, she pressed a kiss on her forehead. “Get better soon sweetie.”
Cassie smiled slightly as she closed her eyes. “I’ll see you all later.”
Deke waited after Peaches left the room for Cassie to fall asleep. He sat down on the bed and brushed the hair from her face. Before he left the room, he walked over to the window and looked outside. He’d stood here before without a clue as to what really mattered to him. Then he turned and looked at the woman in his bed.
She was what mattered, now and forever. He vowed to keep her safe for the rest of his life.
~* * * *~
There was man standing in the shadows behind the tree line just beyond the chain link fence surrounding the compound. The large man standing at the window couldn’t see him but Robbie could see him. He’d also seen him carry a young woman inside and he wondered if it was Cassie he carried.
He had followed the FBI agents all the way to the city of Troy, New York. He had found her after all these years. His eyes began to burn as he stared at the window. The large biker had moved away from the glass and Robbie smiled. He might not get close to her today or even tomorrow, but one day soon, he would stand right in front of her and he would end the torment she had put on him. He would end it by ending her life. He’d vowed that as a child and he always kept his promises to himself, even if no one else kept theirs.
He and began walking away. His car was on the other side of the woods. Each step he took was painful for him and that was another thing he had to thank Cassie for. His life had become hell the day she left…now hers would become hell too.
~* * * *~
When Cassie opened her eyes later, she felt rested. She turned her head slightly and found Deke sitting in a chair, head back and snoring slightly. She had to smile, that is until she looked toward the door and found a pair of curious eyes staring back at her.
They were pale blue and set in a face with high cheekbones and lips that smiled easily. Her long dark brown hair was pulled back. The woman just stared back at her. “Good morning.”
“Good morning,” Cassie whispered back. “Do I know you?”
“Not yet.” She smiled. The woman stepped closer and stuck her hand out toward Cassie. “I’m Maggie. I’m Morris’s sister and a nurse. The big guy…” She jerked a thumb in Deke’s vicinity, “…Asked me to come over and check on your condition.”
“Why would he do that?” Cassie frowned slightly.
“You’re kidding, right?” Maggie stared at her. “You were shot yesterday, remember?”
“Vaguely, I do seem to remember that part.” Cassie raised an eyebrow.
“Then you also remember Deke carried you out of the hospital against medical orders.” Maggie sat down on the edge of the bed. “From what I read of your medical chart before I left this morning, everything should be okay. Your abdomen should heal just fine but you did have a blood loss and they did have to do surgery to stop the bleeding. Deke just wanted me to check your progress, that’s all.”
“You’re not going to make him take me back to the hospital are you?”
Maggie giggled softly. “Honey, nobody can make that man do a damn thing he doesn’t want to do.” She lifted the covers. “Come on sweetie, I need to see it.”
Cassie moved her hospital gown out of the way and watched as Maggie lifted the edge of the tape holding the gauze over her wound.
A few pokes here and there and Maggie lifted the covering completely off. Her wound looked clean, there were a couple of stitches, but the edges seemed all right. She applied a fresh bandage and shook out a couple of pills in her hand for Cassie. Handing her a glass of water she watched as Cassie swallowed them.
“What did you just give me?”
“Antibiotic. I picked up your prescription before I left work. Don’t worry they won’t hurt the baby.” Maggie nodded. “Everything looks good. I would suggest you give yourself time to heal, stay in bed for the next few days at least. Get up to go to the bathroom but otherwise…rest. You need time for your body to replace the blood you lost. Give it at least a couple days before you shower. I can give you something for the pain, if you like.”
“No, I don’t want anything for pain.” Cassie’s hands cradled her belly protectively.
Maggie smiled and her eyes twinkled. “So the big guy is gonna be a daddy, huh?”
Cassie nodded.
“Well, it’s about damn time.” Maggie grinned. Then she sat back and stared at Cassie. “I’ve been hearing some rumors around town.”
Cassie fidgeted with the edge of the blanket. “Oh, what kind of rumors?”
“Something about some kind of housing project for people down on their luck, needing a second chance sort of thing.”
“Oh, yeah?” Cassie plucked at the blanket. “What about it?”
“Well, if it were true, it would be a wonderful idea,” Maggie assured her. “A friend of mine, Joey, came back from the war on terror, a few months back. The things he saw and did for his country really messed the poor guy up. The VA couldn’t or wouldn’t help him adjust back to civilian life. He isn’t doing so well.”
“That’s tough isn’t it?” Cassie frowned. “You know something? I’ve met some other guys like that. Sometimes, being able to talk to someone in the same boat helps. Does Joey need a job? I can always use the help. Redemption House is nearly done but we have a ton of work to do before it opens. I also have several guys there, Joey could talk to. They wouldn’t judge him, they might even help him.”
Maggie had tears in her eyes. “All anyone wants to do with Joey is push pills on him and he doesn’t need that. He just needs somebody who understands where he’s been. He just needs to know that what he was made to do in the line of duty was out of his control.”
“Please tell Joey to stop by Redemption House and talk to Amos or Gus. If he needs a place to stay, some of the rooms are ready.”
“Can I take him there? Maybe have a look around?”
“Sure, we’ll be open in another month, thanks to him.” Cassie nodded her head at Deke. “He sent most of his crew to help with the remodeling.” She laid her hand over Maggie’s. “I really hope Joey will find his way in this. I know Amos and Gus and some of the others still have nightmares about what they did, but Amos told me once, talking about it does help somewhat to keep the demons away. He said just being around other guys that have gone through the same thing as he did, helps ease the situation. Maybe that would help Joey too.”
“Thanks, I’ll make sure he gets there.” Maggie patted the bed. “I am out of here. I need to go home. I can hear my pillow calling me.”
“Thanks for stopping by.” Cassie watched as Maggie left then turned her head to watch Deke. When she saw his eyes were open, she smiled.
Deke got up and came over to the bed. The mattress dipped when he sat down next to her. Leaning forward, his lips pressed on hers. When she gasped, he pushed his tongue into her mouth. When he lifted his body away from hers, both were breathless.
“Wow,” Cassie whispered.
“Yeah.” Deke groaned. “I want you so bad right now.”
“Me too,” she whispered back as she slowly licked her suddenly dry lips.
Deke kissed her again. He broke off the kiss suddenly and leaned back. “If we don’t stop right now, I’ll overlook the fact that you were shot yesterday.”
“Yeah, about that,” Cassie frowned at him. “Maggie just left. She said you asked her to stop in and check on me.”
“I did,” Deke admitted. “I didn’t want you to have to go back to the hospital. She’s a nurse.”
“Who the hell is Morris?”
Deke chuckled. �
��Morris is our tech guy, brilliant mind and he prefers to go by Zipper.”
Cassie nodded then plucked at the blanket. They had something to talk about and she didn’t know how to get the conversation started. “So…I need to know something.”
“What would that be?”
“How do you feel about the baby?” she swallowed hard.
Deke thought about her question for a moment before he answered her, “I love the idea of you having my baby. I never thought about it much before now. I’ve always been very careful about protection but with you, I didn’t really give it a thought.” He sat back and stared at her. “How do you feel about it?”
Cassie smiled sadly, then looked away. “I’m a little bit afraid, not of the baby or how I feel about you but I’ve never had anything in my life before that belonged to me. Janelle made sure of that. Even the clothes I wore belonged to somebody else first.” She paused then turned to him again. “I think I’d like us to be a family. I’ve missed that so much. I can’t hardly remember my mother anymore but I do remember she made me feel safe. When she held me in her arms, I knew nothing could touch me, or hurt me. I want that for our baby.”
Deke leaned close to her. “And I want that for you. I want you to feel safe around me and I want to build that for our kids.”
“Kids?” Cassie questioned.
“Yeah, I want more than one and less than a dozen.” He grinned at the astonished look on her face. “I want lots of sons and daughters and I want you as their mother.”
Cassie’s mouth popped open in shock.
Deke chuckled and kissed her open mouth.
~* * * *~
When Lance Sullivan reached his office in Boston, his partner Victor Shroder looked up from his desk. “Where the hell have you been?”
“I had to run over to Troy on a case, why?”
“We have another body,” Victor announced. “And this one was carved up really bad. Whoever this guy is he’s a sick fucker.”
Lance sat down in his chair hard. He almost didn’t want to know the details. Picking up the file on his desk, he opened it and groaned. The first thing he saw was a young woman’s body covered in blood. He glanced up at his partner and asked, “Is it the usual twenty three stab wounds?”
Victor sat back and nodded. “Yup, twenty three and he made a mess out of her back. This fucker really likes the pain. The coroner said all the wounds were before he ended her life.”
Lance began flipping through the photos when something caught his eye. The killer had carved the word whore on her back. He’d seen that before in the same disgusting way. He lifted his eyes to Victor. “Tell me something, did he carve the same word on all their backs?”
Victor threw his pen down on the desk and reached for the eight files sitting on the corner of his desk. Opening them, he saw where Lance’s question was going. “It seems so, why?”
“Because I’ve seen this before.”
“Yeah, every time we open one of these files.”
“No, I’ve seen this on a living victim.”
Victor looked stunned as he got up and walked closer. He looked down at the grisly photo in Lance’s hand. “You know someone out there with the word whore carved on her back?”
Lance nodded.
“Can we talk to her?” Victor was getting excited. “Maybe with her information we can stop this fuck head?”
“I have to check something first,” Lance told him as he keyed in his computer. He was looking for something specific. When he got the location of the file he needed, he got up and left the room. He returned a few minutes later, he sat down and opened Robbie Pierce’s murder file. He saw the photos and autopsy reports. Searching the photos, he could see the body of a child. The reports said Robbie was a fourteen year old boy. His body bore the signs of the recent attack but the bullet that took his life had all but destroyed his face. There was no way left to definitely identify who this body belonged too.
At least not without Cassie and Peaches’ help. If they were right, Robbie Pierce may not be the body in this file. He was going back to Troy in the morning and maybe finally…have some answers.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Cassie snuggled into Deke’s heat. She didn’t remember him coming to bed but she was glad he was there with her. The last few weeks of sleeping alone had sucked. She’d missed just being near him. She knew they couldn’t have sex yet, but just being close to him was almost worth being so hot and bothered.
Deke shifted and wrapped his arm around her pulling her even closer. “Morning beautiful,” he whispered in her ear.
Cassie tilted her head and smiled. “Good morning.”
“How are you feeling this morning?”
“Better now that I have you back.” She kissed his shoulder.
“Been thinking about something.”
Cassie closed her eyes and buried her face in his shoulder. She didn’t know if she wanted to hear this or not. “What is that?”
“We need us a house,” Deke informed her. “The cabins are too small for a growing family and I’d like to build out of the city. There’s a spot on the other side of the clubhouse that would be perfect, all you have to do is tell me what kind of house you want.”
Cassie popped her head up, her eyes wide and surprised. “You want to build us a house? A real house?”
Deke nodded. “I don’t plan on letting you go anytime soon. We’re gonna be a family soon, and this baby will be the first of many, I hope.”
Cassie leaned up and pressed her lips to his. “A house of our own? I’ve never had a home before, well I did as a kid, but that was so long ago.”
Deke smiled. It didn’t take much to please her and he hoped she would never change. “I want to give you the world. I just want you to be happy.”
Cassie tightened her arms around his waist. “I love you,” she whispered into his shoulder.
She didn’t say the words very loud but when Deke heard them he smiled. “As much as I’d like to stay here all day and cuddle with you, I have to get to work. I’ll be back soon but I have some paperwork that won’t wait.”
Cassie sighed. “If you must, you must.”
Deke chuckled. “I must.” He threw back the covers and sat on the edge of the bed. He looked over his shoulder and reminded her, “You stay in bed today. I don’t want to hear anybody tell me you were up and walking around. Maggie said it would be a couple of days yet.”
“Yes daddy,” she grumbled then thought of something. “You heard what she said yesterday? You were awake the whole time she was here, weren’t you?”
“Yup, I was.”
“Why didn’t you let us know?” Cassie asked.
He turned and leaned toward her. “I meant everything I said. I don’t want to risk losing you. I won’t risk anything happening to you. I’m leaving Gator here today. We have too many people here and if they pester you too much, he’ll kick them out. You’ll feel better in a couple of days.”
Cassie nodded. “Okay big guy as much as I hate to follow orders, I will behave myself.”
“You’d better.” Deke stared hard at her. “You and that baby mean too much to me to take any chances.” He finished getting dressed.
“Hey the quicker you get to work, the quicker you can come home again, so git.” Cassie swatted his behind.
Deke laughed and left the room.
Cassie snuggled back down in bed and closed her eyes.
~* * * *~
Deke went out to the main room and was surprised to find Gator there alone. He sat down and poured himself a cup of coffee from the pot sitting on the table. “So, where is your lovely wife this morning?”
“She’s at home still,” Gator told him sipping his own coffee.
“That’s unusual.”
“Yeah, we kept the three kids at our place last night.”
“Oh?” Deke questioned. “Why is that?”
“Marnie brought them here to try and find a place that would take all three. They’re a family an
d they want to stay that way.”
“And nobody in Boston wants three kids?”
Gator shrugged. “I guess nobody wants these three. They’re a little rough around the edges for most folks.”
“And Reva does? Is that it?” Deke knew Reva had a heart of gold and she loved kids. It hurt her that Gator and her never had any. It had just never happened for them.
“Yeah I guess so.” Gator ran his fingers through his hair. He smiled. “Last night was different, man. Reva and me together, we’re doing just fine, but last night with those kids in the house that was special.”
Deke grinned. “So, you think having kids around could be a good thing?”
Gator nodded. “Could be. I might even get used to the idea of having a family around.”
“Good, I told Cassie I want more than one and less than a dozen.”
“Holy shit man!” Gator burst out laughing.
“Yeah and I’m counting on Uncle Gator and Auntie Reva to help out.”
“Uncle Gator huh? I think I could get used to that.” Gator grinned.
Deke sat back in his chair and regarded Gator. “I have to run into the club and get some paperwork done this morning. I won’t be away long, but I want you to hang out here. I don’t think there will be any trouble but I don’t want to leave it to chance either.” He shifted a bit. “I thought she’d be safe at Redemption House and she ended up getting shot.”
“I’ll keep some of the boys here too. We’ll keep her safe.”
Deke nodded. “Maybe you should keep the gate locked down and a roving patrol too. Something doesn’t feel right. I don’t know what it is but I got a feeling I don’t much care for. It feels like there’s a target painted in the middle of my back.” He sighed. “I know they said Janelle and Flynn were dead but she might have arms reaching out of hell and I’m not losing Cassie again.”
Just then, the main door opened and Reva came in with the three kids. She smiled at Deke and Gator, then headed for the kitchen.
Ben and Jack came over to the table and Ben crawled up on Gator’s lap. Gator put his arm around the boy and Ben laid his head on Gator’s chest.
