Dark Redemption_A Dark Saints MC Novel

by Jayne Blue

  “Thanks, Mama,” Gina whispered. I gave her a conspiratorial wink. I knew the real reason for the dark circles. Not even Bear did yet. Gina was pregnant again. This time, with twins.

  “I think maybe you should plan on leaving Zach and Zoe with Bear and me next weekend. You and Zig need some time alone.”

  “Bless you!” she sighed.

  I don’t know how she did it all. Between taking care of her boisterous toddlers and working on her MBA, Gina was also running the DiSalvo family business. The woman was a warrior queen. She was one of us.

  “Did Zach eat yet?” I asked.

  Gina shrugged. “Zig was supposed to make him a plate but…”

  I raised a hand. “I’ll take care of it.” I kissed Gina on the cheek and made my way toward the food table.

  I nearly ran into Axle on the way. The man was solid as a brick wall. Laughing, he caught me by the arms, and then leaned in to kiss my cheek.

  “You’re in your element today. All these damn kids everywhere.”

  I gave him a playful swat on the shoulder. One of these damn kids was Axle’s. Little Andrew had just started to walk. Axle’s wife Maya was crouched behind him, holding her arms out in case he fell.

  “Maya, quit hovering!” Axle shouted. I caught Bear’s eyes across the way. He smiled back at me.

  Maya shot Axle a grin and a middle finger as she hovered after their son anyway. She was pregnant again too and due in just six weeks. I wondered just how gruff, tough, Axle Hart would handle having a daughter. I’d enjoy every second of finding out.

  Axle looped an arm around me and hugged me to him. He was big and proud, a colossus of a man. As V.P., he was my son’s right-hand man, and I loved him all the more for it. I knew Axle would protect Shep with his life if it came to it. I just prayed it never would. But, maybe we’d finally earned our patch of peace after all.

  I felt a little misty and wiped a finger under my eyes. If I wasn’t careful, I’d cry right through the mascara Quinn had put on me. She was standing off to the side, holding Dom’s hand. They were good together. At first, I hadn’t been sure. As a movie star, Quinn had such a different life. But somehow, they made it work.

  Dom had found a new passion, working behind the scenes with Quinn’s production company. They’d just finished an independent film that was apparently a big hit at some festival last month. It had opened up an entirely new, lucrative revenue stream for the club. They were putting off having kids for a couple of years yet while Quinn still took acting jobs. But I knew they were both getting antsy to fill the big house they’d built on the beach.

  “Everyone doing okay over here?” I asked, heading to Chase’s table. He stood to the side, watching his wife, Ariel. She was nursing their tiny daughter, Rochelle. Rochelle had come a few weeks early and put a scare into us all. But, she was strong and stubborn, just like her parents. She had a shock of red hair and a major set of lungs. She unlatched herself and used them, flailing her fists in the air.

  “Oh, hush,” Ariel said, settling Rochelle on her breast again.

  “Hey, Mama,” she said, looking at me. “You look stunning.”

  I touched a hand to my cheek. “Oh, that’s just Quinn’s movie magic.”

  “Right.” Ariel rolled her eyes.

  “The house is amazing, honey,” I said, changing the subject. Ariel had just finished remodeling the house on Lake Corpus Christi. Next week, we could move in. Ariel had taken my rambling ideas and turned the place into my dream home. It was big and beautiful, with views of the water from every bedroom. We had a lot of those. We could house the entire club and their families for weekend retreats if we wanted. It was my own version of heaven.

  “I’m so glad you like it,” Ariel said. “It turned out better than I even hoped.”

  “She’s being modest,” Chase said. “She planned that thing down to every nail.”

  Chase beamed with pride. His wife and new daughter settled him, bringing him the peace that had eluded him since the first time I met him as a scrawny teen.

  Beth and Deacon came back to the table, balancing heaped plates of food. Ariel mouthed a thank you to Beth as she balanced Rochelle on her shoulder.

  Beth had her own dark circles under her eyes. They had nothing to do with babies though. She was in the last stretch of Law School. In a few weeks, she’d start studying for her bar exam. After that, I knew Shep had plans to have her work for the club if she wanted it.

  For now, Deacon couldn’t keep his hands off her. Their marriage was still so new. They’d waited longer for each other than anyone here. He met my eyes and smiled. I knew they’d had some heartache since their wedding day too. Even with Law School, Beth had wanted to try for a baby. So far, it hadn’t worked out. But I knew it would someday. I had a feeling about these things.

  “Granny Bear!”

  A small hand tugged on my dress. Zag had escaped again. Laughing, I reached down and lifted him to my hip. Zig called after him and ran to catch up. I handed him off and found Benz and Jen at the cupcake table. She was slapping at his hand.

  “You’re kidding, right? You can’t still be hungry? You’ve had like six of those.”

  Jen was experiencing Benz’s voracious appetite. He’d been like that since he was a teenager. Always ready to eat!

  “Hi, Mama Bear, you look so pretty.” Benz gave me a hug.

  “I think you can have another cupcake, don’t worry, I planned for MC sized portions.” Jen gave me a hug too.

  “She’s taking a cooking class,” Benz said, putting on a look like he was in pain.

  “I’m finally off the night shift at the police station, so I’m home to make dinner, thought I’d learn how. But it’s not going well.”

  “The fire department was at the condo on Wednesday,” Benz said to me under his breath.

  “Honey, you’re a badass investigator, don’t worry about making dinner.”

  I left them to debate over cupcake quantity and marveled at how amazingly well those two at did balancing biker and cop in one house. Bear and I were on the same side of most issues, and I still wanted to strangle him most days. Shep and the club knew protecting Benz from some of the worst stuff might be the way to ensure he could sleep next to Jen with a clear conscious.

  Jen was so important to Benz, to all of us, so I worried. But I guess that was the payment you had to make on the reward of such a big and tightknit crew.

  Kade and Harlow were sitting at a table with Bo and Lyric. From what I could see, Hugo was underneath the table with his toddling sister, Naomi. Kade waved me over. I popped my head underneath the white tablecloth first, to greet the grandbaby bikers.

  “How’s it going under here?”

  “Naomi wants to eat grass,” Hugo said, of his little sister, who did, in fact, have two fat fists full of green grass.

  “That’s not such a good idea is it, Hugo?”

  “I keep trading her,” Hugo showed me that he had a cup filled with Cheerios to barter with.

  “You’re a very good big brother, Hugo.”

  “Thank you.”

  They were the most beautiful little humans, with dark hair, dark lashes and the same big eyes as Bo.

  “What the?” Lyric said.

  “Mama Bear, don’t get your dress dirty with those hooligans.”

  “Hooligans are my people.”

  I stood up and sat in the chair that Kade had pulled out. He gave me a kiss on the cheek. Bo came over too and hugged me. My sons… it was overwhelming to be with them all, on a day like this, for Shep.

  “That dress is gorgeous!” Harlow said, and she was right, it was blush colored, a simple sheath with a few sparkles and a little flair right above my ankles. I never dressed up, but Lyric had glammed me up for this occasion.

  “I owe it all to Lyric.”

  “Please, if my arms were that toned I’d be wearing sleeveless all day, every day,” Lyric said.

  “Mama Bear has guns,” Kade said. I flexed my bicep, and he squeezed it
.

  “Speaking of guns, it looks like there’s some illegal…”

  “Bo, we’re supposed to be relaxing here, no shop talk,” I said.

  “Yes, Mama Bear. Oh, ow!” Bo looked down under the tablecloth.

  “You’re not supposed to bite Daddy’s leg!” Hugo admonished his little sister from under the table.

  “She’s part puppy,” Lyric said and disappeared under the table to deal with her little ones.

  “Speaking of puppies, I heard you had a litter of cavapoos!”

  “I do. Puppy mill rescue and they sent me the pregnant mama. She had six!”

  “Oh my, are they all spoken for?” I asked

  “Wait, wait. There’s no way Bear is going to be seen with a dog that goes in a purse.”

  “Hush Kade, Bear’s not in charge.”

  I was this close to getting this puppy, and once I did, my gruff husband would fall in love. I knew it.

  “That’s true, how much weight has he lost now thanks to you?” Kade asked.

  “He’s lost forty pounds, and he’s walking, or thinking about it, sort of. The dog could be just the thing I need to get him out there racking up steps,” I said.

  My husband nearly dying from a gunshot wound underlined for me how easily he could die from heart disease. The stress of being Prez and living hard had taken its toll. I’d put him on a diet of protein, fresh veggies, and fruit since he’d been out of the hospital and it was going great guns, so to speak.

  “They’ll be ready to come home in about a month, but you can come visit any time before then to meet them. Do you prefer a boy or girl?”

  “Whatever you think, honey.”

  I trusted Lyric to match us with the right little fur baby.

  “Boy dog, Mama Bear knows how to handle boys,” Kade said, and he was right.

  “I do like a house full of boys—” I stopped. The flood of memories as the Mama to all these boys almost took my breath away. Tears threatened to mess up Quinn’s work again.

  I felt a tap on my shoulder, and there was Bear with a tissue.

  “Thank you. I’m getting way too soft.”

  I dabbed carefully, so I didn’t turn myself into a raccoon for the next round of pictures.

  “You have dispensation on Wedding Days,” Bear said. “I’m feeling the same. It’s pretty fucking emotional, this family shit.” I couldn’t help but laugh at the way he put it.

  “I also call dispensation on birth days and birthdays.” Bear brought my hand up to his mouth and kissed it. Like Prince Frigging Charming all of a sudden.

  “May I present, Mr. and Mrs. Shephard Bullock!” The D.J. introduced the new couple.

  I turned to see my handsome son, now Prez, and my beautifully fierce daughter-in-law as they entered the tent. Shep held their clasped hands in the air, and sweet JJ blushed.

  I watched my son lead his bride onto the dance floor.

  In JJ, I really had a daughter. It amazed me to think how my family had grown and thrived. I was bonded to her.

  JJ had been there for me and me for her, during the darkest hour for The Dark Saints.

  She was the only soul who knew that the one who’d put a bullet in E.Z… was me.

  While the club scrambled to fight The Hawks, I’d focused on a single, evil threat.

  I’d paid big money to E.Z.’s old lady to tell me where he was. Charlene was mean as a snake. And lazy. With E.Z. on the run, she knew she needed to score some cash. It took ten grand, but that was a small price to pay.

  Charlene led me to E.Z. and vengeance led my bullet to his heart. E.Z. had tried to kill my husband, he’d held a gun to JJ, and he harbored a blood hatred of my son.

  He’d also betrayed my MC. Yes, my MC. I didn’t wear a patch, but it was my MC as much as it was E.Z.’s or Bear’s. I had built it alongside my husband. I had raised the boys into men. I’d nurtured them and protected them with all the intensity that the name Mama Bear conjured.

  Everything I did to put E.Z. away, I’d do again. If you come after my boys, any one of them, you’ll have Mama Bear’s teeth at your neck. I wasn’t sorry. I was relieved he was gone.

  JJ knew everything. She was the only one who did. When I needed cover, an alibi, she was there. She kept my secret. It was how I knew she had the stuff to be Shep’s Old Lady. They’d lead the club now. They’d build it their way. Just like Bear and I did thirty years ago.

  But that’s a story for another day.

  The D.J. had the microphone again.

  “Now it’s time for the traditional dance for the parents.”

  JJ’s mother had not responded to multiple invitations to the wedding. Bear had proudly walked JJ down the aisle. He was on his feet, as was I, ready to take the dance floor.

  Bear looked so handsome as he tried not to step on JJ’s feet. I think this was the first time I’d ever seen her wear a dress. Another way we were two peas in a pod.

  Shep put out his hand to me. It was time for a moment with my son.

  “Come on, Mama Bear.”

  I looked up at the new Prez.

  “Okay, but you know I have to lead,” I said.

  “I know, you can’t help it.”

  I looked around the dance floor as Shep attempted to give his old Mama a little twirl. I caught a glimpse of all the brothers, from young to old, Probie to Prez, celebrating this day with us. I was so proud of how they loved and protected each other, Port Azrael, and their old ladies.

  As the music swelled, I sent up a silent prayer of thanks to the angels for my saints.

  The End

  Hammer

  * * *

  Need more bikers? Ride with the Great Wolves MC and Hammer!

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  Also By Jayne Blue

  Dark Saints M.C. Series

  Dark Vow

  Dark Temptation

  Dark Honor

  Dark Fury

  Dark Desire

  Dark Instinct

  Dark Seduction

  Dark Destiny

  Dark Oath

  Dark Redemption

  Great Wolves M.C. Series

  (Biker Romance)

  Dex

  Sly

  Colt

  Kellan

  Sawyer

  Brax

  Stone

  Ryder

  Nash

  King

  * * *

  Tortured Heroes Series

  (Men in Uniform Romance)

  Vice

  Heat

  Marked

  Strike

  Ripper

  Edge

  Uncaged MMA Romance Series

  Ride

  Stripped

  Clinch

  Hooked

  Brawl

  Hold MMA Romance Trilogy

  WLUV - Contemporary Romance Series

  Torrid Series

  (Billionaire Romance)

  Book 1

  Book 2

  Book 3

  Torrid Series B
ox Set

  * * *

  The Owned Series

  (Billionaire Erotic Romance)

  Owned by the Playboy

  Owned by the Candidate

  Owned by the Spy

  Owned by the Prince

  Owned by the G-Man

  Complete Series Box Set