Jada didn’t mince any words, just started right in. “You know I wanted to hate you, to believe everything all these people were saying was a lie, that you weren’t a good man, and I could keep Maddie all to myself, but you are the man they said you were, Tucker Masterson, and in a way, it pisses me off a little.”
“Well,” Tuck laughed, “I don’t know if I should say thank you or run back to my office and lock the door. I heard you’re a crack shot, and I shouldn’t piss you off.”
“You’re safe, for now,” she assured, patting his hand, “but Brass promised me a gun for Christmas, so just keep that in mind for future reference.”
“Will do. Is that all you came here to say?” Tuck asked, a little leery there was more. His intuition was spot on.
“I need to know why you never answered me, why all my letters and calls went unanswered. I tried for over a year Tuck. It just doesn’t add up to the person I see now.” “I wish I could give you a good explanation, but I can’t. The letters should have gotten to me, you addressed them to the Clubhouse in Frankfort, and even though I was here, someone should have forwarded them. As for the phone calls, Tal looked into that, and the number you were given was a burner. Hell, honey, it wasn’t even one of mine. We have no idea why a greeting with my name on it was there. The only thing we can come up with is the guy you paid got a burner and set it up that way to get his money.”
“I figured it was something like that, I think I just needed to hear it from you.”
“I want you to know something, if you believe nothing else about me, believe if I had known about Maddie, I would have come for her, I would have never left her with your sister, or I would have at least been around to make sure the two of you were okay.”
“I believe that now, Tuck, I can see it in the way you are with her. You look at her like she hung the moon, just for you.”
“I’ve seen that look before, sweetheart. Every time I come over to your house and see the two of you together, you have the same expression on your face. But I want you to know, I’m not going to take her away from you, Jada. You have loved my daughter from the start and done everything you could for her, I just want to be in her life as much as either of you will let me.”
“I appreciate that, Tuck and feel the same way. Well, I better get back. No telling what Brass will have Maddie doing by the time I get home.”
“Yeah, either doing something or you will have another kitten. I think the odds of either of those things happening are pretty good,” Tuck laughed.
“Oh, don’t you laugh mister, you’ll be getting your own set of kittens as soon as you and Katie get a place of your own, that you can count on.”
Tuck knew she was right. He had watched his little girl give Brass those big doe eyes of hers and sweetly ask for just one more little baby kitten, and the big man caved like a ton of bricks. Hell, Tuck was ready to go out and buy her three, but Katie stopped him. Thinking about Katie, he realized it had been too long since he’d seen his girl, she usually stopped in his office several times a day if she wasn’t at work. Saying goodbye to Jada, Tuck went in search of his woman. He needed her to help him end this day.
He found her laying on the bed with her scrubs on and was instantly disappointed. He remembered her saying something about working the night shift but had hoped it wasn’t tonight. Katie smiled, and already he was starting to feel the rest of the world fall away. He threw himself down on the bed, his head landing on her stomach with an oomph from Katie, but she started running her fingers through his hair.
“I heard you had a pretty intense day today.”
“Yeah, how did you hear that?”
“Well, you know I have to keep some of my secrets, but a little birdie told me Tessa came to see you as he was packing his stuff out the door, I assume to follow my brother. Who, by the way, never stopped back into the kitchen to say goodbye.” Katie kept talking, the sound of her voice centering him in the moment where it was just the two of them, talking about the day. He didn’t really care what she was saying. He would have told her about all of it, anyway, but he was surprised at the details she had gotten.
“Then Brass called like four times to make sure Jada was still at the club.”
He smiled. Katie hated that his phone rang every five minutes, but she was learning how to deal with it. He had to give her props for that because some days, he just wanted to throw the damn thing against the wall and watch it explode into a million pieces.
“But the best information I got was when Creed called and said he was buying me a bottle of wine because you didn’t treat Tessa like a douche.”
“I am not a douche, and that fucker is going to pay for saying that shit!”
“Caught that did ya? Don’t go getting all riled up, I was just checking to see if you were listening,” Katie laughed. “Creed never called you a douche.” She already knew what he was going to do and tried to get away from him, but Tuck was faster. He turned over and got up on all fours, straddling Katie’s body, pulling her down further on the bed.
“Oh, you are going to pay for that, Mrs. Masterson!”
“I don’t know, Mr. Masterson, I don’t see a ring on this finger,” Katie said, holding up her left hand, “so it looks like I’m still a free agent.”
“Is that so?”
“Yep.”
“Well, I think I should do something about that, don’t you think?”
“Might be a good idea. Cathy was telling me Jinx has a virtual jewelry store down below, and you know how much I like that piercing. I was thinking…” Katie teased. Tuck tickled her until she was crying.
“First, we don’t talk about other guys; junk, jewelry or not. Second,” Tuck said after digging in his pocket and pulling out a ring, placing on Katie’s finger, “now you’re not a free agent.”
Katie looked shocked and kept looking at her hand, then him. Her mouth opened in a perfect little “O,” tears welling in her eyes. He flipped them both around until Katie was sitting on top of him.
“Baby, I love you, and I want you to be my wife. Will you marry me?” Katie nodded, then slapped his chest, hard.
“Jerk, you would have to do this now!”
Tuck was confused at first. That was not the reaction he had been expecting, and he didn’t quite know what to say.
“I have to go to work in like ten minutes,” Katie pouted. Now he got it, she wanted a little something.
“Call off,” he said as he curled his body up to her and started kissing her neck, pulling her scrub shirt over to the side, so he could kiss her shoulder, dragging her bra strap down.
“But it is only my fourth day there I can’t call off,” she moaned. “What kind of impression would that make?”
Tuck wasn’t going to push it, he liked teasing her, but he also knew she was dedicated to her job. He still took his own shirt off, tempting her just a little more while he played with the string on her scrub pants. Katie moaned as she ran her fingers over his chest.
“Are you sure you can’t do a quickie?”
“Nope, I need time with this body,” Tuck said as he tweaked her nipple, “and with the five minutes you have left, that wouldn’t even be considered a quickie, it would be considered a pump and dump.”
Katie’s head whipped up. “That is so gross, don’t ever, and I mean ever say that again.”
“Yes ma’am,” Tuck laughed. “You know,” he said as he flipped them around again, “there is something I can do in five minutes, Mrs. Masterson.” He undid the string holding her pants on and pushed them down her hips.
Katie moaned as he rubbed small circles against her clit. Lowering himself down further on the bed, Tuck pulled Katie’s thighs closer to where he wanted her, opening her wider. As he plunged a finger into her, he groaned.
“Damn, babe, you’re so fucking wet for me.” Katie was already on the edge, and Tuck knew this needed to be fast, but he couldn’t help just staring at her for a little while. Every inch of this woman was perfect, inclu
ding her cunt. He twisted his finger up inside her body until he hit that perfect spot, causing her to quiver and shake. Tuck timed it perfectly, sucking her little clit into this mouth with hard rhythmic pulls, countering with the hard pumping of first one finger, followed by two. It only took a second for her back to arch off the bed and for Katie to scream out his name. Needless to say, Katie left for work a very happy woman.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Tuck and Katie had just signed the papers for their new house and were about to go celebrate. Tuck had a few surprises for his woman. He knew living at the clubhouse had been rough for her, but she had done it for him with a smile on her face, mostly. He had everything planned; tonight, he was going to sweep her off her feet—hearts, flowers, candles, all that romantic shit. He had even hired a designer to come to the house before they closed—without telling Katie—to fill it with furniture. With the way they both worked, he knew she was stressed about having the time to do it herself. He made sure she didn’t have to worry.
He had gone out on a ride early that morning while his woman was still snuggled nice and warm in their bed and checked it out for himself. The lady had done good, knowing his plans, the designer went the extra mile—pink rose petals led up to the bedroom and were scattered over the bed, and a plethora of candles had been placed everywhere, just waiting to be lit. Tuck had even hired a chef to come in to cook them a romantic meal. He was pulling out all the stops. He couldn’t wait to see the look on her face as he carried her over the threshold for the first time.
He remembered he once thought he wasn’t the hearts and flowers type of guy and had to laugh to himself because apparently when it came to Katie, he was that and more. He just wanted to give her something good before it all blew up in their faces again. They had started their lives together, but this—moving into the house, his ring on her finger—was the start of their own family. He had one other surprise for her and was smiling like a loon just thinking about it as they walked out of the office building.
Katie had worked a double shift last night and was tired. He planned on letting her sleep sometime in the near future, but he knew it would be awhile from now. Especially after he gave her this particular present. They rounded the corner and walked up to his bike.
“Babe, didn’t you bring a coat? It’s kind of chilly out here.”
Katie looked at him like he was nuts because it was like ninety degrees in the shade, but he kept up the ruse when she shook her head, confused.
“Damn, we better take care of that, don’t you think?”
Tuck reached into his saddlebags and pulled out the jacket he had specially made for her—RBMC patch on the back with Property of Tuck embroidered on the top and bottom rocker—holding it out to her. Her hand was shaking as she reached for the jacket, her eyes sparkling with tears. Tuck got down on his knee, looking up at the only woman he would ever love.
“Will you, Katie Dodge, stand by my side from this day forward, accepting the Ruthless Bastards and me as your family, riding at my back until we take our last ride before the good Lord decides to take our last breath?” Katie was already nodding her head, tears streaking down her face, but he needed to finish it, give her what he hadn’t with this proposal of marriage.
“Love me with every breath you take as I love you? Promise to cherish any child we are blessed with and live this life with me free and wild, unwilling to settle for anything thing else? Will you, Katherine Rose Dodge agree to be my Old Lady?”
Katie threw herself at him, wrapping her body around him, kissing him deep and hard. For a second, he considered stripping her bare and fucking her right on the city streets of Defiance for everyone to see… until his phone rang. Maneuvering Katie around, still kissing her, he only stopped when he saw the name flashing on the screen.
“Shit, baby I’m so sorry, but I have to take this.”
“It is okay,” Katie said, cupping his cheek, “I understand, and my answer is yes, by the way, if you haven’t figured that out yet.” Katie’s smile and the love shining in her eyes were almost enough to make him ignore the call, but he had never told Crank about what Talon said, and he and Kit had been racking their brains trying to figure it out. It looked like he was finally going to get some answers, and he couldn’t ignore that.
Still kneeling, he connected the call, holding Katie tight as he listened as Crank’s clipped voice demanded, “I need you at my house now!” and promptly hung up on him. Fuck, this was it alright. Tuck helped Katie up and said, “We got to go, babe.”
“What’ going on?”
“Not sure. Crank called and said he needed me at his house, so that’s where we’re going. I guess we will find out when we get there.”
“Alrighty then,” Katie said, getting on the back of his bike, snuggling up close to his back, just the way he liked it, her jacket firmly in place for the whole world to see. Tuck had taken a lot of rides in his life, but this one felt like the most important one—his woman at his back, wearing his name, snuggled up tight to him, a beaming smile on her face as the wind rushed through her hair. He wanted the moment to last; if only he could bottle that shit up and keep it, he would have, but life didn’t always go his way.
It didn’t take them long to get to Crank’s house and the moment was gone. He helped Katie get off the bike, and when he went help her take off the jacket because it was fucking hot, she stopped him shaking her head.
“It stays until after you have sorted whatever shit is going on in that house, and you can give me that lesson you’ve been promising. Even then, I might not ever take it off.” Going up on her tiptoes, she kissed his jaw.
“I love you, Tucker Masterson, with my whole heart, and I will proudly wear your name on my back for the rest of my life, showing you and everyone else how much you mean to me. How much our life together means to me.”
Had Crank not been standing at his door, waiting on them, he would have bundled his woman right back up and rode out of there like a bat out of hell. She gave him a cheeky smile, winked at him, and cupped his hardening dick and saying.
“I have a few lesson plans of my own, each and every one involving this bad boy. So, do your thing, Prez and let’s finish this day off right.”
The temptation was almost too great. Unfortunately for the both of them, Crank’s bellowed “TUCK!” made those thoughts evaporate into dust. Tuck kissed Katie one last time and made a promise he intended to keep very soon.
“Later, babe.” Taking her hand, they walked into the house together. What he saw stunned the shit out of him, and he knew he wouldn’t be keeping that promise anytime soon.
Cathy was sitting on the couch, holding a little baby wrapped up in a pink blanket. Crank was thrusting papers into his face, demanding Tuck find out if it was real.
“What the fuck happened?” Tuck asked, still looking at Cathy holding that little baby.
“Cathy got a call this morning from Cinny, saying to come to Defiance General and not to tell anyone. She didn’t keep that promise, she told me. We thought she was hurt or in trouble. I called Doc and confirmed she had been admitted and was in a room.”
“Why didn’t you call me”? Tuck asked, a little pissed he was just hearing about this now.
“Because she said if we did, she would leave, and we would never see her again,” Cathy said. “It was her only stipulation—we couldn’t call in the RBMC or you specifically.”
“Okay. Go on.”
“When we got there, Doc met us at the entrance to the hospital and led us up to the room. Cinny was lying there, holding this baby.” Lifting the little girl in her arms up a little to show him, Cathy started crying so, Crank finished for her.
“She told us all the papers had been filled out, and if we wanted her, she was ours. But we couldn’t ask any questions, and we only had fifteen minutes to make our decision and leave with the baby, or the deal was off. Fuck, man, she was beat up, her face was bruised, and she looked like shit. She is so damn skinny now; if she hadn’t be
en holding that baby, I would have doubted she’d just given birth.”
“We agreed,” Cathy said. “We didn’t know what else to do. She looked scared, but beyond this baby, she wouldn’t talk to us. As soon as we signed the papers, Cinny kissed the baby and handed her to me, saying she knew I would make the best mother for this little girl. I’m not going to lie, I want this baby, but it wasn’t right, something was so very wrong in that room.”
“Doc had everything we needed waiting for us at the nurse’s station—the papers, a car seat, even a fucking diaper bag filled with shit, but he wouldn’t talk, claiming doctor-patient confidentiality. I had to call the Clubhouse for a cage. Once I got Cathy and the baby settled with Max, I went back in the hospital, but Cinny and Doc were gone. I had him paged and went to the nurse’s desk, asking about Cin. The charge nurse said they didn’t have a patient by that name registered in the hospital, at the time or ever.
Katie piped in and asked, “Did you try her given name?”
“Yeah, I did; same thing, no record. Tuck, it was fifteen minutes, tops.”
“Call Carri, get her over her to look at those papers.” Picking up his phone, he was about to make a call when it rang; the screen reading Unknown. Answering, he heard Tal’s voice.
“Leave it, it’s how it is meant to be.” The phone went dead.
Damn it! Tuck dialed the Clubhouse and barked into the phone, “I want everyone you can spare at Crank’s house now, complete security sweep. Bring new shit, I want this place locked down tighter than Fort Knox in the next fucking ten minutes.” Hanging up, Tuck took his keys out of his pocket he threw them at Crank.
“Take the girls to my place, it’s the only one Tal hasn’t had a hand in putting in the security. Katie knows the security code. Get them settled with a few prospects, then get your ass back here. We have shit to discuss.”
Katie helped Cathy gather things for the baby. He regretted his plans for them would be ruined once again, but this shit was more important right now. Stepping out onto the porch, Crank followed him like he knew the man would.
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