“You get those guys where you want them and then Stryker delivers them to hell, agreed?” Jack questions.
“Fine, but if he doesn’t finish them I will.”
“Trust me, he’ll finish them,” Jack assures him. “You get me a date and time and my boy will be there with a dirty knife and rusted pipe.”
“What about the rest?” I ask, turning to Jack. “That’s just getting the men he hired to attack Gina. What about him? What about the rest of the girls he’s using and abusing?”
“This is your show, boy. You and Rick know how this bastard operates better than us. If you don’t think we will get anything else digging then we gotta go another route,” Jack answers, glancing around the table. “And we’re going to have to send someone into Albany to be the eyes and ears of this operation.”
“Ideally, sending Stryker would be best considering he has a history with the club,” Riggs points out. “Even though that’s off the table, once this shit is squared away with his girl someone will need to talk to him about what’s going on over there.”
“I don’t know how much time you think you will have, but if you plan on sending someone in there you gotta do that before that farce of a shipment takes place. It won’t be too long after that he will strike for real. In fact, that’s being generous because if you ask me his plan is to move those girls when all eyes are on the harbor,” Rick offers.
“If that’s the case we’re fucked,” Blackie says. “Everyone sitting around this table can’t be in two places at once.”
“We can work the logistics of all that out,” Rocco offers. “I’ll work the harbor, make sure all our ducks are in a row. If you’re going to put one of your men inside Albany, Parrish, you need to decide who and get on that. We don’t have much time, a week maybe two if we’re lucky before we intercept.”
“I’ll go,” I volunteer automatically.
Force of habit I suppose. But the minute the words leave my mouth I instantly regret them and picture Celeste and Skylar.
“It makes sense if he goes,” Blackie says. “He decided to go nomad again, stops off in Albany, maybe even brings up Stryker to Rush. Tells him they were in the same chapter and that Stryker suggested Albany would be a good place to park his Harley until he hit the road again.”
“No,” Wolf says from across the table as he stares at me. “Boy’s got a little girl he barely knows, and this Yankovich has already robbed too much time from them. I’ll go.”
“You just got out of the hospital, old man, where you going?” Riggs spits.
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Deuce says. “I’ll go.”
Turning to my side, I watch him push back his chair and slide off his cut. Laying the leather on the table, he pulls out his utility knife and immediately begins to cut the threads from the Brooklyn patch.
“Deuce,” I start.
“Fuck, man, Wolf is right,” he says. “You need to be here with your family, Stryker needs to be with Gina and Linc, well I’m sure if he could fucking move he’d be offering too.”
He stares over at Jack.
“You still got my nomad patch?”
Silence falls over us as Deuce continues to cut the patch, removing it completely before he tosses it into the center of the table.
In war, all give some.
Others give their all.
Chapter Thirty-four
Slipping two pot holders on my hands, I grab the pot full of boiling pasta and drain the water as Skylar sits anxiously in her high chair. It’s been days since my cousin was raped and I last saw Cobra. I’ve spent each day staring at the door praying he’d walk through it.
After giving it some thought, I feel awful for the way I acted toward him. I shouldn’t have blamed him for anything. None of this is his fault. He didn’t ask to be a part of this nightmare the same way he didn’t ask to be a part of the one we lived when we were fourteen. It’s that damn cloud, it keeps finding us and dragging us back to hell.
I could call him and tell him to come home. I could call him and ask him to explain what’s going on. I could call him and tell him I’ve had a pregnancy test in my purse for days but I’m too scared to take it. Yeah, after the night of Gina’s rape, I did the math and I’m actually two weeks late.
I mix the pasta with the sauce and begin to fix Skylar’s plate when the door opens. I don’t have to turn around to know it’s him. I feel him everywhere. Still not prepared to look into his eyes and see the hurt my words have inflicted on him, I keep my back toward him and fix two more plates.
Habit.
Right?
No, more like hope.
“Dada,” Skylar cheers as she claps her hands.
“There’s my girl,” he whispers. “Daddy missed you so much.”
Drawing in a breath, I grab two dishes and turn around as he bends his head and showers her with kisses. I place one dish in front of Skylar’s high chair and another in front of him as his eyes lift to mine.
“Thank you,” he murmurs as he reaches into his pocket and pulls something out. He slides a bag of peanut M&M’s across the table. My lips twitch as I lift the bag from the table and look back at him. He winks at me and I swear my heart beats uncontrollably.
I’m such a girl.
“We’ll work it out, gorgeous,” he says, loading Skylar’s fork with pasta. He makes airplane sounds and waves his hand all around before feeding her the first bite.
They’re quite the picture. Listening to her giggle, watching him smile at her as he feeds her, it makes me dream of what it’ll be like having two kids. If I’m pregnant, it will be different this time. He’ll be a part of everything. It’s mainly why I didn’t take the pregnancy test. I didn’t want him to miss that, even if the results told us we weren’t having a baby.
I grab my own plate and the three of us sit at the table and eat like a real family. Like we did before the world reminded us how ugly it truly is before Gina’s attack. We don’t talk about what happened, we laugh and enjoy every smile our daughter flashes. Cobra wears half of Skylar’s dinner but doesn’t seem to give a damn. He wears spaghetti as perfect as he wears leather.
After we finish dinner, he cleans Skylar up and brings her into the living room to play with her toys before he joins me in the kitchen. Taking the dish I just washed, he dries it before putting it away in the cabinet and reaches for the second. We continue to wash the dishes in silence before he reaches over and turns the water off.
“I told you I wouldn’t walk away,” he murmurs, leaning one hip against the counter.
Taking the dish towel from his hand, I dry mine and turn to him.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I shouldn’t have lashed out the way I did.”
“You were upset,” he counters, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “I’m sorry you had to see that and I’m even sorrier I asked you to help. At the time I thought it was a good idea, I thought it would be better she saw you than some stranger.”
“You weren’t wrong about that,” I say softly. “If it was me, I’d want my cousin to take care of me too.” I pause for a moment, gathering my thoughts before angling my head to the side. “I guess I thought we were done living through things like that. I guess the bubble we were safely tucked away in finally popped.”
“I don’t know what to say, Celeste. I don’t know why this shit keeps finding us but I promise you this is it. He’s not going to get away with it this time.”
“How can you be sure?”
“It’s not just me anymore. I’m not a lone man hunting the impossible. I’ve got a group of men, a band of brothers all eager to make Yankovich pay. If in this life I’m ever going to get him, it’s now. Otherwise it’s never going to happen.”
“You really believe you’re going to get him, don’t you?”
“Yeah, baby, I do,” he says, reaching for my hips. He pulls me between his legs and runs his hands up my side. Pushing my hair behind my shoulders, he takes my face in the palms of his hands and bends his k
nees so we’re eye level.
“And when it’s all over, you know what the first thing I’m going to do is?”
Before I can answer, his lips quirk and he places a quick kiss to my lips.
“I’m going to marry the only girl I’ve ever loved.”
My whole body goes still as I stare at him in shock. I’m sure I heard him incorrectly, or was he messing with me?
“Don’t look so shocked, baby,” he murmurs, running his thumb over my bottom lip. “I’ve lived two lives, one full of innocence and one full of sin. The next life is going to be the only one that matters. Can you see it? Can you see us living the way we were meant to all along?”
I can.
I’ve seen it since I was just a girl. I saw it again as a woman. I’ll always see it. Some things are just meant to be no matter how many times they are tried and tested. No matter how many times they’re taken from us. So maybe we’re a little a broken. Two people who have nothing but fractures and dents from the life they were given and the circumstance that always found them. Apart, we’re nothing but broken pieces. Together, the pieces fit, they mend one another and we’re whole.
“Are you asking me to marry you?” I shriek.
“No,” he laughs, pressing another kiss to my lips. “Not yet. I promised your old man when we were fifteen I’d ask him for your hand first. Haven’t gotten around to that yet but that’s the plan. You, me and that little girl. You good with that?”
“I’m more than good with that, Jagger,” I whisper as tears slide down my cheeks. Rolling my eyes, I laugh and lift my hands to wipe my cheeks. “I’m such a sap.”
“I love you,” he murmurs, pulling my hands away from my face. The playfulness fades from his face as he stares at me with so much emotion radiating from those blue eyes.
For a long time, I tried to remember when the last time I heard those words were. Time passed quickly and as much as I wanted to hold onto every moment we ever shared, my mind failed me at certain times and I couldn’t place the last time I heard him utter those three little words.
“Loving you has been the only constant in my life, it’s survived every tragedy, every heartbreak…all the mistakes and bad choices. Loving you has been the one good thing I’ve always held onto. I think I loved you from the minute I saw you. I know I loved you that night after the football game. I loved you every time you made me smile when all I wanted to do was crawl in a hole and die. I loved you every time I walked away. I loved you when that bomb went off and I saw you standing in the middle of chaos. I love you. Period. The End.”
Reaching up, I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him down to my waiting lips.
“I love you too,” I whisper against his mouth. It’s all I can manage to say before his mouth devours mine. Pushing his fingers through my hair, he angles my head back and his tongue slides across my lips. Parting my lips, I welcome the flick of his tongue over mine and slowly lose myself. What starts as a simple kiss sealing the declaration of love becomes a frenzy for control. Our tongues battle one another, thirsty to consume, to own and conquer.
I want him to feel all my love but I’m not sure it’s possible. I’m not sure that a kiss is enough to deliver all those feelings. Then I remember the test and how heartbroken he was when he learned of Skylar. I remember all he’s tried to accomplish in such a short time, how he’s tried to reclaim a year and half lost between him and his daughter.
“Wait,” I say against his mouth, pushing his chest back slightly.
Glancing over my head, he looks at Skylar and then back to me.
“Babe, we’re not even on her radar—”
“There’s something I need to tell you. I tried to tell you before Wolf called that night and then everything else spiraled out of control before I could.”
Concerned, he pulls back slightly and narrows his eyes.
“Remember when we were talking in bed?” I ask. “You made a comment about my chest.”
Dropping his gaze to my breasts for a moment, he looks at me perplexed.
“I said your tits were huge,” he recalls. “They still are.”
Drawing my lower lip between my teeth, I nod and reach for his hands.
“I’m two weeks late,” I whisper as I squeeze his hands and watch all the different emotions fight to break through his gaze.
Fear. Joy. Excitement. Love. So much fucking love.
“You’re pregnant?”
“I don’t know,” I admit, dropping his hand to grab my purse from the counter. Digging through all the shit I keep in there, I pull out the pregnancy test and hold it up to him. “I didn’t want to take the test without you.”
He stares blankly for a moment before taking the box from my hands. I watch as he nervously taps it against his palm and turns his gaze to me. The corners of his lips tick and he closes the distance between us, wrapping his free arm around my waist.
“Can you take it now? How long will it take before we know?”
Wrapping my arms around his waist, I laugh and breathe in the scent of leather.
“A few minutes,” I reply as Skylar waddles into the room. She heads straight for Cobra and hugs his leg.
“Hugs, Dada, Mama.”
Laughing, he bends down and lifts her up.
“You want some lovin’ too? Yeah, you do,” he says, nuzzling her neck. “Love you, Skylar.”
Hugging us both to his side, he presses a kiss on top of my head and hands me the test.
“Let’s do it.”
The last time I took a pregnancy test I was in the bathroom of a diner. Like this time, I had bought the test after I realized I was late. It sat in my purse for weeks before I finally got the nerve to do it. After I threw up my entire lunch, I sat in the tiny stall and found out I was having a baby. It was both the saddest and happiest moment of my life.
Missing him, wishing he was with me, I stared at those two pink lines and cried until Gina came into the bathroom and found me. She picked me up off that floor, pieced me back together and didn’t ask any questions. She didn’t judge me or tell me I was about to make a mistake. Instead, she made me promise that I’d choose her to be my baby’s godmother. Twelve months later she stood beside me and baptized my little girl.
Now, the man I love sits on my bed, bouncing our little girl on his knee as I sit on the edge of the tub and stare at my watch. The first time I did this I wasn’t sure how I would feel if those two lines appeared. Half of me wished they wouldn’t while the other half hoped they would. This time there is no doubt, there is no question. I want those lines. I want another baby. I want to do it all again with Cobra by my side. I want to give him a chance to experience all he’s missed with Skylar.
The second hand ticks and the time is up. Standing from the tub, I walk over to the counter and grab the pregnancy test.
“Well?” he asks from the doorway.
Not looking, I turn and hand it to him.
“You read it,” I say, drawing in a deep breath. “Two lines means I’m pregnant, one means I’m not.”
With Skylar in one arm, he reaches for the test and glances down. Curiously, Skylar grabs for the test in his hand but he moves it out of her reach and looks up at me.
“Tell me,” I whisper, trying to read his expression.
Nothing.
Then his lips twitch.
“Two lines,” he murmurs hoarsely before his lips spread into a grin.
“Really?” I cry, reaching for the stick. He laughs as he wraps his arm around my shoulders and brings me against him. Turning the test over, I stare at the two lines through blurred vision.
Once alone.
I’m now surrounded by love.
Tragedy took a lot from us but it can’t take this.
It’ll never take this.
Chapter Thirty-five
“That’s it, baby, ride me,” I growl as I grip her hips and arch mine. You all think heaven is where you go after you drop dead. But this right here, this is the only fucking heaven that ex
ists for me.
She moves her hands up her stomach and crosses her arms, squeezing her tits together as she rotates her hips and grinds herself down on my cock. Fucking bliss.
“Play with your tits,” I order as she opens her eyes. Her thumbs barely touch her sensitive nipples that have already changed a little since we found out she’s pregnant. Knowing how she likes it, I lift my head and take one into my mouth. I suck gently before flicking my tongue over it, soothing it. Her moan excites me and I move to the other one as she bounces up and down on my cock.
She might not have an appetite for anything other than my dick these days but you won’t hear me complaining. The mornings have been rough on her, and with everything going on with the club right now I make sure I’m there to hold her hair back as she kneels over the toilet. We both know that when the call comes down the pipe I will have to ride.
For now, every second counts.
Every fucking minute is another memory.
For now, I’m going to take, take, take.
Rising up, she slides off my cock, presses her palms against my chest and pushes me back. Leaning forward, her tits hang in my face as she slowly sinks down, taking every inch in until she’s fully seated and rubbing her clit against me.
“Suck on them some more,” she cries as she braces one hand against the headboard. I lift my head from the pillow and oblige her request, enjoying having her pretty tits in my face.
“Fuck, Cel, I can keep my face buried between your tits for days,” I mutter as my tongue laps the small valley of skin between them. Reaching between us, I press my thumb against her clit. “I can keep my cock buried in your pussy and play with your clit all day, every fucking day.”
“Oh God,” she cries as she frantically fucks me, chasing her orgasm.
Taking her hips, I lift mine and arch off the bed, pounding into her as she unravels before me. Her eyes squeeze shut as she throws her head back and grabs my shoulders. Holding on tight, she bounces on my cock until she’s crying out my name.
Wanderer (The Nomad Series Book 2) Page 24
