The only thought going through my mind was concerning Tank. Where he was, if he was safe and that he had promised me that he would keep himself out of danger.
“Where’s Tank?” I asked as I walked towards Gunner. Adrenaline started to kick through my veins.
“Noelle, you need to help Gunner,” Tank’s voice cut through the noise and panic in the bar, and I whipped around to find him weaving through the crowd towards me. I felt a jolt in my body. A sudden relief washed over me when I saw him.
“Tank!” I yelled and lunged at him, just as he threw his arms open for me.
“I’m fine, princess. Gunner is the one who needs your help now,” he said, and I nodded my head.
“Okay, okay,” I cried, and I turned around and crouched down in front of Gunner. My hands trembled as I reached for his leg and he yelped. There was too much blood for me to see what had happened, or how deep the wound was or if the bullet was still in there or if it was just a graze.
“Is he going to be all right? Is he going to be all right?” Brooklyn couldn’t stop screaming. All the noise and the music and the loud voices were destabilizing me. I was unnerved and frozen to the spot. My years of training had vanished, and all I could think about was that I was bringing a child into this world. That the father of my child was going to put his life at risk like this every day.
“Noelle,” Tank placed his hands on my shoulders, and I looked up to find him staring down at me.
“I’m fine. You have to believe that I’m fine,” he said, in a low whispering voice. I stared into his eyes as he held my gaze. He wanted me to see just how strongly he meant every word he was saying. I parted my lips, and a sound like a cry rose up in my throat.
“We needed to save the lives of two women,” he said, and I could feel my shoulders heaving.
“I’ll make sure you meet them and talk to them later. Right now, you have to take care of my friend,” he continued, in a soft, calm voice. The sound of Brooklyn’s cries rose in the background, snapping me out of my thoughts.
I turned back to Gunner, placing my hands on his legs. He was losing consciousness, and his body twitched from my touch. I peered into his wound, wiping the clotting of blood that was forming around it. I trusted Tank. I loved Tank. If this was what he wanted me to do, this was what I was going to take care of. The panic was replaced by adrenaline, and my body finally responded to me.
“I need a list of things,” I said, to nobody in particular.
“Give them to me,” Tank’s friend, Glock, had appeared at my side and I started calling out the things I needed to stitch up Gunner. After I was done, Glock ran to go and collect them.
“And I need lights if we’re going to do this here, and everyone needs to stay silent. I need to pay attention,” I said, looking up at Tank.
“Turn on all the lights. Bring all the lamps and torches you can find, and everybody shut the fuck up!” Tank was barking orders, but he was looking at me at the same time and had a wide smile on his face.
The two girls were about my age, and their names were Joan and Candice. They were sitting on two bar stools now, their makeup running wild down their faces and every now and then, one of them cried.
After I had stitched up Gunner and given him a cocktail of the painkillers that he needed, Brooklyn had tucked him into a makeshift bed in the back office, because I told her that he needed rest. He needed to make sure that he moved as little as possible for the next few days till the wound healed. He was very lucky, just like Tank had been, and the bullet had only grazed his leg. I didn’t need to perform any actual surgery. Brooklyn had hugged me tightly, crying as she thanked me for helping Gunner. Even though it had not been a tricky thing to do at my end, I understood why Brooklyn was so emotional. I would have been the same way if it was Tank.
Once I was done with Gunner, Tank had brought me over to the girls he said that they had rescued. He allowed them to tell me their stories and I listened in horror.
I felt so small and insignificant and foolish for being wrapped up in my own privileged world that I had no idea that there were women living this way in the same city as me. They could have been regular girls, with regular lives and a job like mine…instead, poverty and desperation had pushed them into life on the street. People like the Four Skulls and the Dragon Knights had planned on taking further advantage of that.
I sat listening to their stories, which they ended with how Tank and his friends finally reduced them from being traded off to the Dragon Knights. After they were done talking, I looked at Tank, who had been standing by, leaning against a wall with his hands stuffed into the pockets of his jeans.
“I’m sure Rebecca and the other girls will make sure that you’re taken care of,” I said to them, and they nodded and stared down at their laps.
“Yes, Rebecca is arranging for a place for them to stay as we speak,” Tank said, and he came over and pulled me into his arms. Together, we walked towards a somewhat quiet corner of the bar.
Because the Bad Disciples had successfully taken down members of the Dragon Knights and the Four Skulls gang, everyone was in a celebratory mood. Also, other than the casualty with Gunner, nobody else was hurt so everyone was in a good mood.
While everyone else was celebrating, Tank and I talked.
“I know you were worried about me,” he said and placed a protective hand on my belly. I couldn’t meet his eyes because I was at war with myself.
I knew what they had done was a good thing, it was the right thing to do. If Tank, Gunner and the other two guys hadn’t stepped in when they did…those girls would have passed into the dark web of prostitution tonight and in all likelihood…would never have been recovered or found. That logic was at odds against my desperation to see Tank safe.
“I was worried because I didn’t know what was going on,” I said, as he stroked my belly. His voice had become softer, and his hazel eyes were dimmer now too.
“But I promised you that I was going to stay safe tonight,” he said, and I gulped and nodded my head.
“Yes, I know…but you still ordered an attack, you still walked into a fire of bullets. Your friend nearly died from it!” I argued, and instead of getting angry, Tank reached for me, pulling me by the back of my neck and forcing me to place my head on his chest. He rocked me gently in his arms, and even though I wanted to scream and cry, he had managed to calm me down.
“I’m sorry, Noelle. I agree, all that happened. I’m apologizing to you today, but princess, at this rate, I’ll have to apologize to you every day,” he said, and I forcibly drew away from his chest, to find that he was smirking as he stared down at me.
“I don’t…I don’t…” I stuttered with my words and Tank’s face darkened.
“You can tell me what you want to say. If you want out, I’ll let you go. I don’t expect you to change your whole life around for me. As long as you let me be a part of my child’s life in some way,” he said, releasing me from his grip.
The moment Tank stopped touching me, that panic returned. I could feel it in my soul that I would never feel safe when I wasn’t in his arms, that I would never be happy without him. I would just have to get used to worrying about him; the way that Rebecca, Kylie, and Brooklyn had become.
I reached for him, throwing myself back into his arms again and I voluntarily placed my head on his chest.
“No. I want to be with you. I want to live with you, and I want to raise our child together. Just give me some time, Tank, to accept my reality,” I said, and he placed a finger under my chin and raised my face up towards him.
When he kissed me, I felt warm and safe, happy that I was in his arms. Happy in the knowledge, that no matter what happened during the day, Tank would try his best to come back to me at night, and take me into his arms.
“You can take all the time you need, princess. I’m never going to push you to accept anything you don’t want to,” Tank said, gently prying his lips away from me. I could feel my cheeks flushing, the way they did
every time Tank kissed me.
“I’ve already accepted that I’m in love with you and that I wouldn’t want to be anywhere but with you,” I said, and we hugged tightly, in everyone’s view, as his friends started clapping and congratulating us with joy.
Epilogue
Tank
Axel was thumping me on the shoulder when Kylie walked into the Rusty Pelican. We’d been celebrating all day. The beers were being popped open, and the music was turned on loud. We had managed to safely bring in the twelfth shipment of weapons and Axel had asked me to oversee it.
The Dragon Knights were reduced to rubble by now. When word got out that we had stopped their deal with the Four Skulls no other gangs were interested in working with them, for fear that we would retaliate on them. And, even though we had other problems to deal with and more wars to wage; today was a good day for us. We cheered and clinked beer bottles together, as Kylie walked towards us. Hunter reached out and hugged her, and after they were done kissing; Kylie turned to me.
“What are you still doing here?” she asked, with her brows crossed.
“What are you talking about?” I said, and she looked at her wristwatch.
“Didn’t you get Brooklyn’s message? Jolie needs to be picked up from their house because Brooklyn has a doctor’s appointment at seven,” Kylie said, and I looked at my watch. It was already half past six, and I thanked her and rushed out of the bar.
Jolie was seven months old and a handful, despite the fact that she was the cutest little angel I had ever laid my eyes on. She had her mother’s large blue eyes and dark brown hair, which was in the form of a halo of tight ringlets around her face. She could scream till her lungs hurt if she didn’t get her way; and my daughter, at the small young age of seven months, always got her way. And she knew it. She knew exactly how pampered she was, at least around her daddy. Noelle was the one who had to lay down the rules because she believed that if she didn’t; Jolie would turn out to be a rude, spoilt brat.
Noelle still worked at the hospital because I didn’t want her to give up her career just because she was a mother now. For the first six months of Jolie’s life, Noelle had stayed home to look after the baby, and it had only been a month now since she started taking up a few eight-hour shifts at the hospital each week.
She had worried about how it might affect our lives, given that I never returned home before midnight these days because of the shipments that were on their way. But I insisted that we would manage. With the help of the other old ladies from the MC, and working around my schedule a little; Jolie was cared for while her mother worked and I was determined to make sure that Noelle didn’t feel like she had to give up everything just to be with me. She had already given up enough, by cutting off all contact with her parents when they didn’t turn up for our wedding.
All these years, I had never imagined myself as a family man. I had in fact run away from the idea. My parents had set the worst example for me, and I had no idea how to be any different. But Noelle had changed everything. I proposed to her within six months of being with her, and we got married a few weeks after Jolie was born.
Now, the same guy who never brought women back to his apartment because he was afraid of attachment and feared commitment lived in a two-story brick house with a beautiful wife and a wonderful daughter. Our neighbors stared when they saw my bike parked in the driveway, but Noelle had told me that she didn’t give a fuck. She was fiercely loyal to her man, and I loved her for it.
At Gunner and Brooklyn’s house, I picked up Jolie at the last minute before she was about to leave for her appointment. Jolie was delighted to see me, and I wrapped her in the sling around my chest so that I could ride with her.
I had trained myself to ride slowly when Jolie was attached to me, and I’d even bought her a baby helmet. Noelle had initially disapproved for safety reasons, but she soon saw that I would have done anything to keep our daughter safe from harm and that I would never put her in danger.
I rode us back to our house and carried Jolie in. Noelle was still not home, and there were still a few more hours to go before she returned.
It was difficult to imagine what my life looked like all those months ago, before I met Noelle and before we had Jolie. I would definitely not have been at home, trying to make baby formula at this time of the day. It was just seven, my day would just be beginning.
And now, every time I turned to look at my daughter, sitting on her high stool and flailing her arms around, I felt like I was at peace. I didn’t feel like I missed being at the bar with my brothers. I wouldn’t have been anywhere but at home with Jolie and Noelle.
Jolie giggled as I flipped her feeding bottle in the air for sport. I walked back over to her and presented it to her, on bended knee like she was my Queen. Which she was. As I fed Jolie, stroking her soft curly hair as she drank her formula, I realized that now more than ever; I was determined to keep doing my job. No matter how dangerous it was for me, I was going to make sure that nothing ever touched my wife or kid. And Noelle was my perfect partner in crime.
Epilogue
Noelle
After I had parked my brand new silver Mercedes in our driveway, I pulled my phone out again and found a volley of text messages in my inbox. Eight of them were from my mom and a few of them from my dad. They had been texting me non-stop for the past week since my last explosive phone call with them.
That phone call had been an olive branch from me. Since they hadn’t attended the wedding and refused to meet Tank; I had made up my mind to keep my distance from them. However, the older our baby doll grew, the more I wondered if it was right on my part to keep her separated from her grandparents.
So, on a quiet Sunday morning, when Tank and Jolie had both been asleep, I’d called my parent’s home. That conversation, which I had tried starting off by being apologetic but firm, had quickly spiraled out of control. They blamed me for everything; for ruining my life and theirs, for getting pregnant out of wedlock, for marrying a man who they didn’t only disapprove of, but were also afraid. I had ended the call and threw my phone against the wall from rage.
I hadn’t told Tank anything because he would have been upset to see me upset and probably blamed himself. Instead, he had gone out and bought me a new phone when I told him I dropped my cellphone accidentally.
It was nearly ten at night, I was still in my scrubs from the hospital and exhausted from a tiring shift. I climbed up the short flight of steps that led into our porch, and I stared up at the house.
It was a beautiful red brick house, in a quiet suburban neighborhood and there was nothing that Tank didn’t provide for. He had insisted on me having a career, taking as much time away from the MC work as he could to care for Jolie. Brooklyn, Kylie, and Rebecca had all stepped in to help with raising Jolie, and I stopped for a few moments, to wonder how my life would have turned out if I hadn’t met Tank. If it could have been any better. Now, despite all of the hateful messages in my phone’s inbox in my purse; I couldn’t think of a single way in which my life might have been better. What more could I have asked for?
My parents disapproved of Tank’s lifestyle, but they didn’t know him. They didn’t know him for the man he was. He was the only man in the world who would have taken a bullet for Jolie and me, and I loved him. I couldn’t get enough of him.
Biting down on my lip, at the thought of seeing Tank and Jolie again, I opened the door of the house and stepped in.
The house was warm, and a curious smell of home cooked food wafted in from the kitchen as I walked towards it.
“Tank?” I called out for him. When I entered the kitchen, I was amazed by the sight that greeted me, and a hand rose up to my heart.
Tank had not only prepared a dinner of roasted vegetables and lasagna, but he was now laying the table out for us. Two candles were lit between the plates, and he was pouring a glass of wine for me as I walked towards him. A bottle of beer was lying unopened on his side.
He smiled at me in gr
eeting, and my gaze fell on Jolie sleeping soundly in her cot.
“She ate, played, tried to have a conversation with me and then fell asleep,” Tank whispered in my ear when I came to him.
My heart was flooding with joy and happiness. I couldn’t believe that I had allowed myself to think, even for a second, about the things that my parents had said to me. They had no idea how beautiful my life was, how much I would have missed if I had married stupid Damien Robinson instead. My parents would never understand the love I had with Tank and how powerful and real it truly was.
He drew me into his arms, and I kissed him. My lips slid over his, his tongue parted my mouth and thrust in. His hand traveled over my back and down to my ass, and he pressed himself against me, rubbing his growing cock against my pussy.
“Every time I see you in these scrubs, it reminds me of the time I kissed you in that supply closet,” Tank said when he pulled away from me for breath. I was already breathing hard, my eyelids with heavy with desire for the man I had married. The handsome man, with his chiseled features and muscular body. His dark hair tied in a short ponytail behind his neck. His large warm hands settled on my ass, and he squeezed and drew in a sharp breath.
“You are even sexier now, Noelle,” he whispered in my ear, and I smiled. It delighted me to know that Tank was always so conscious and aware of being around Jolie. Like he was afraid that she would understand and disapprove her daddy having his hands all over her mommy.
“And I want to thank you,” I said, looking into Tank’s eyes, as his eyebrows furrowed from surprise.
“You mean for getting Jolie to sleep? You know she doesn’t throw a fuss. It was easy,” he said, rocking me as we held each other.
“Not just for that, but for everything,” I said and laid my head on his chest so that I could hear his heart beating in his chest. He was stroking my hair now.
Tank (The Bad Disciples MC Book 3) Page 15
