At Last (Brimstone Lords MC 2)

by Sarah Zolton Arthur

  “Jade?” he asks, which is sweet because I can hear the emotion in his voice for his fallen friend.

  My sniffle deteriorates to a cry, but I manage to pull it back. “He saved her, Boss. He saved my girl.”

  “Right. Sneak, Carver, Blood, get to Mercy. Duke’s down.”

  I hear loud gasps and “Fuck.” Then the rumble of engines.

  “Caity, me and Hero are comin’ for ya. Tommy there?”

  “Yes. He’s… well he’s dealing with Aiden.”

  “Aiden?” he asks.

  “Mmm… my ex. Jade’s biological father.”

  “So not Houdini?” He sounds disappointed. Not that I can blame him. If Houdini didn’t come after me and Jade, that means he’s still roaming free, which is a scary thought in and of itself.

  “No. It was never Houdini.”

  “Duke get him?”

  “Yes.” I repeat my answer, as my voice cracks.

  “Stay strong, Caity. I’m comin’.”

  Only after I hang up do I allow myself to cry. And then remember there is a very patient police officer waiting to take my statement. So I wipe at my eyes with the back of my hand and square my shoulders. “Okay,” I say. “I’m ready.”

  Once I’ve given every last detail from the moment I made the stupid decision to leave the compound, to when Duke took Aiden out in self-defense, making sure to clarify any details the young cop needs me to go over for him, my eyes naturally veer to where Aiden had fallen. Tommy Doyle has dropped a gray tarp with neon yellow stripes up each side over Aiden. Then he walks to his cruiser to grab out a warm blanket, which he brings over to drape around me and Jade as I’m holding my girl on my lap.

  “You okay, Caity?” He asks. “You’re shaking. Might be going into shock. Let me get someone over here to check you out.”

  “No. They already did. I’m fine. Jade’s fine. Just nerves. I’ll be fine after I have time to ruminate on all that’s happened. That’s once I know Duke will be okay.”

  “Duke.” My daughter whimpers. “He said he’s my daddy.”

  I kiss her forehead and snuggle her tighter against my body.

  “Alright.” Tommy places a hand on my shoulder while the other officer types on the tablet where he’d recorded my statement. “You told Officer Woodward everything?”

  I nod.

  “Good girl,” comes his patronizing response.

  Before I get sucked into a depression, because forcing a person to relive such a hideous situation especially so soon after it occurred can cause a person to get sucked into a depression, bike engines and an extended cab pickup rumble onto the scene. The pickup about thirty seconds behind the bikes.

  Hero and Crass hop off their bikes to head first to a very dead Aiden. Tommy leaves me to join them. Boss and Elise hop out of the truck to get to me. “Had to drop off the bike. Figured you’d like your friend.”

  Elise kneels down at my side to wrap her arms around me and Jade. The hug is so welcome and comforting, I almost break down again.

  “Can she go?” Boss asks Officer Woodward.

  “Sure, she’s finished her statement. She’s free to go.”

  Both he and Elise take an arm to help pull me—and thus my daughter, who has her legs wrapped around my waist, holding on for dear life—up onto my feet. They walk me over to Duke’s truck, but before I get in, I yell over to Tommy to remember the dead druggie inside the trailer.

  With Jade in her booster, Elise takes the keys from my hand. “I’m driving you to see Duke. Beau will meet us there.”

  And like a true friend, she doesn’t ask me to go over anything that happened, choosing to turn on the radio instead. I need that reprieve. Then once we’re down the mountain, back in town, she pulls into a drive-thru to get me a large hot coffee before continuing on to Mercy Medical Center. It takes us another twenty-five minutes to get there.

  Duke is already in surgery when we arrive. They’re trying to stabilize him enough to be moved. I won’t cry. Not here. Not now. Though my resolve starts to slip when a sleepy Jade’s eyes begin to water. “He’s my daddy,” She tells the receptionist.

  We’re dirty and look like we’ve been to hell and back, which we have. But I don’t have two cares to give at the moment. I want my Duke. I want to hold him, cuddle up next to him while we watch movies. I want to make him stuffed peppers and Limoncello cake again. To kiss him, to love him. To wake up every day for the rest of my life next to him. Is that so much to ask?

  No. No it’s not. We deserve our happily ever after.

  Mercy transfers him over to Lexington where they keep him for a week. A very long week since when my biker old man begins to feel better, he begins shouting down the walls that his woman is a doctor so he can be discharged. Thankfully Lexington doesn’t agree with him, although I assure them I can take care of him. I’d prefer not to.

  I drive the new truck to pick him up, smoother ride and all. He bitches at me to hand over the keys, but for once he has to take my orders. His doctors haven’t cleared him to drive. Funny thing is, I was gone for maybe three hours tops. But when we walk back inside the doublewide, literally all my furniture is there, and they’ve even situated everything exactly as I had it at the rental.

  None of Duke’s old furniture remains.

  “What’s all this?” I ask, practically stumbling over my words.

  “Moved you in. No sense you paying rent on a place you’re never gonna be at. This is our home Doc. You, me, and Peaches. Ain’t letting you go.”

  There it is, his declaration.

  The man is a horrible patient. I’ll bet Lexington was glad to be rid of him. Never a man to stay idle for long, the continued bed rest and recovery time begins to weigh on the both of us.

  Though even if we haven’t said the words yet, this is us. For better or worse. I’ve had to remind myself of that a couple of times.

  Two weeks after that night, after I made him stuffed peppers and Limoncello cake. After he helped me tuck Jade into bed despite the pain it caused him to bend over, and against my advice, I might add. After I’d undressed him and we’re lying in bed, he begins to tease me, rubbing his finger over my most sensitive areas. It’s torture. He grows hard right in front of my eyes.

  “What are you doing?” I, well, pant would be the word for it.

  “What’s it look like. We’re gonna fuck, but you’re gonna have to do the work tonight, honey.”

  “We can’t have sex. You were shot.”

  “Yeah, I was shot. Didn’t break my dick. Now climb on.”

  “I’m not climbing on.” I protest.

  “That fine ass won’t hit my thigh wound, so we ain’t got nothing to worry about.”

  “You’re still healing.”

  “Listen woman, you either climb on my dick right now, or I’m gonna pick you up and drop you on it.”

  And I can tell how serious he is, so gingerly, I climb on and ride, if only to set the pace. When he climaxes, his shouts are as much from pain as ecstasy.

  “Maybe I shoulda thought that one out better,” he admits.

  “Really? You think?”

  “Don’t wanna hear it.” That would be a grouse, if I ever heard one.

  “Man you’re a pain in my ass. You’re lucky I love you, Duke Ellis.”

  “Now that’s the damn truth. Lips,” he then orders. And as I always do, I lean in to give him my lips.

  23.

  Duke

  Eight months later…

  “They came. They came.” She runs into the bedroom waving a large yellow envelope around.

  “Watch yourself honey, don’t want you slipping.” I got a tarp over the carpet and a tray filled with silver-gray paint she says the color matches my eyes.

  Her eyes light up for a different reason. “Wow,” she says. “It’s really coming together.”

  I put the roller back down in the tray and walk over to her. “Lips,” I whisper.

  She leans in to give me her lips. While I wrap one arm around h
er shoulder, I rub her growing belly. It’s the sexiest, most beautiful thing I’ve seen in my life. My wife carrying our child.

  Once I got out of the hospital, to put an end to the Aiden ordeal, as she refers to it, I didn’t waste any time in turning Dr. Caitlin Brennan to Dr. Caitlin Brennan-Ellis. She chose to keep her name for professional reasons. Which I completely understand. Hell, I was just honored she wanted to take my name however she decided to take it.

  Neither of us wanted a big ceremony. Her folks came in from Arizona. It was the first I’d met the in-laws. They didn’t even know she was seeing anyone, let alone the relationship being serious enough to get married.

  And they weren’t too thrilled to learn their only daughter and granddaughter were living in a biker compound. But they were even less thrilled to learn that bastard who’d abandoned my girls tried to kill them. When Doc told them how I’d claimed her and Peaches as my own and how I’d taken three bullets to protect them, they warmed up. Not saying we’ll ever be best of friends, but they’re already planning on a return trip once the baby’s born.

  The day I found out she was pregnant, I’d just gotten back from a long run. A distributor was dicking us around. Had to put a stop to that. And I had to check on Chaos. It’s been rough on him since Liv left. Hopefully he can get that girl’s head straight. But I know he’s gotta do for his family. And Liv is his family.

  I walk in and there’s one ’a them baby onesies, the kind that snap at the crotch, laying on the island. It’s black with a flaming devil’s head patch sewn on. Above the devil’s head, it says Brimstone Lords. Below it, ‘in training’.

  At first I think Trisha had the baby. And that my wife picked out a fucking awesome gift. Until Peaches comes racing out ’a her room. “Daddy. Yew’re home. I missed yew.” I hold my arms open, and she leaps into them. That’s when I notice the T-shirt she has on. It’s black like the onesie and has a devil’s head sewn on too. But above the flames, hers says Big Sister. And below it, ‘in training’.

  “In training?” I ask Peaches, who beams up at me. Then I bellow, “Woman, you better get your ass out here.”

  Doc strides out from the hallway positively glowing. “Hey daddy,” she greets me.

  “Are you serious? This is serious?” I know I sound like a lunatic, but shit. My heart feels so huge it might explode.

  “Yes,” she tells me. “I’m only about eight weeks along. But Dr. Mason over in Milford says everything looks fine.”

  Trisha had the baby not two days later. A baby girl she and Sneak name Briar Rose. Because even girls, if they’re legacy, need kickass biker names.

  This morning I woke up to my woman going down on me. Pregnancy hormones are a thing ’a beauty. Thought she liked sex before. Now she’s insatiable. But before I came, I had her calves up against my shoulders. Then we got up, showered together, which led to another orgasm for her, this time using my fingers, and we got dressed. Because today she’s twenty weeks exactly, and we had an ultrasound appointment.

  I drove her and our girl the two towns over to her obstetrician’s office. We got looks from the moment we stepped through the front door ’til they called us back. What, because I wear a cut and a patch that says president, I’m not supposed to support my old lady during her pregnancy?

  My bike and tattoos just mean I’m cooler than other dads, not that I don’t give a damn.

  I help her up onto the table, this is after she’s been checked by Dr. Mason. We heard the heartbeat, a sound I’ll never grow tired of hearing. Then she used a tape measure to measure Doc’s belly growth. That’s when she told Doc and me to go across the hall where the ultrasound tech was waiting for us.

  The tech lifts Caitlin’s shirt again and pulls her pants down to just above the pubic bone. And after gooping Doc’s stomach, uses a wand to check all the vitals. It’s a 3D ultrasound, so we can see every detail. I see my baby’s face. My chin and cheeks. My lips and forehead. Don’t know about eyes, they’re closed. But Caitlin’s nose, for sure.

  After she records all the necessary information the tech asks, “You want to find out what you’re having?”

  I look to Caitlin and we both crack a smile. “Yes.” We say together.

  While we wait for the tech to hone in on the hotdog or the bun, my wife squeezes my hand. “You nervous?” she asks.

  “Nah. You?”

  “Maybe excited is more the word. You want a boy or girl?”

  “Don’t matter, honey. Don’t matter at all.”

  “Really? Not even a little girl of your own?”

  “Peaches is my own. Don’t ever forget that.” But it don’t matter because there’s a baby dick filling the screen.

  “Mom. Dad, meet your son,” the tech says.

  Right after the appointment we headed for the home store.

  And that’s how I end up in a room painting silver-gray walls. We’re decorating in what my woman calls badass biker baby chic. Specialty Lords shit. Harley shit. For one wall, she has these decals of translucent silver Harleys. The accent color is black leather. The room’ll be sweet when it’s finished. And I can’t wait to bring baby Diesel home to it. Fuck yeah, I’m naming my kid Diesel. As I said, badass biker babies get badass biker names.

  “Open it.” Doc hands me off the envelope, excitedly. You’d think it was fucking Christmas for the way she’s acting. Not like we didn’t know it was coming. Caitlin and I put in the paperwork a few months ago. And with the bio-loser dead and gone, nothing else to stop us. I carefully tear open the lip of the envelope and pull out the most important paper. The one I’ve been waiting to see since the day Brutus put the idea in my head over beers.

  Certificate of Adoption.

  Jade Ellis.

  Peaches is my girl. Caitlin is my wife. And baby Diesel’s got about twenty more weeks to marinate. “Peaches,” I call out to her. “Come’ere sweetheart. Got something to show you.”

  She comes racing into the room. “Careful,” both Doc and I yell at the same time. Our hands shoot out in front of us to stop her from stepping in paint.

  “Look sweetheart. You’re my girl forever now.”

  “Daddy!” Peaches screeches. “I’m a Ewis now. Just wike you and Mama.” Damn if hearing that don’t bring tears to my eyes as I gather my girls in my arms. Because they’re mine. Because I can.

  Dawna was a good woman. Loved her with every breath I had in me. But she often lamented we couldn’t have this. Hopefully she’s smiling down on me. Happy knowing my club is clean. Happy knowing I finally got my family now.

  At last.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I always end up thanking the same people. That just means I’ve got a great team to work with. So I’d again like to thank Gwen Daniel for giving out some pretty sound editing advice. A big ole thank you to Nancy Colbert Hardy for always giving me the best covers. As always, your talent blows me away. An acknowledgement wouldn’t be complete without thanking Heather Young-Nichols. Yes, she’s still the best formatter I know and proved with this book she’s willing to drop what she’s doing to get on my stuff, despite having deadlines of her own. Finally forever thank you boys (mine specifically), sisters (I claim them too), friends (they’re support is important), and baristas (Hello, coffee.).

  But who I’d really like to send a shout out to is all of you who read Lady and wanted more. I love that you love the characters, care about their lives enough to devote your precious time to catch up and that you’re ready to root for new loves.

  It takes a village to raise a novel, and you all are my villagers. The people who helped turn a project I was proud to have completed into a project I’m proud to present to the world.

  Love Adult Romance?

  Visit my website: https://www.sarahzoltonarthur.com/.

  Or connect with my Sarah Zolton Arthur author page on Facebook or Goodreads.

  Facebook.com/SarahZoltonArthurWrites

  Goodreads.com/author/show/13989100.Sarah_Zolton_Arthur

  Love New A
dult Romance?

  Check out my other titles:

  The Beautifully Disturbed Series:

  Other Side of Beautiful (book one)

  Underside of Courage (book two)

  Outside of Ordinary (book three, due out later this year)

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Sarah spends her days embracing the weirdly wonderful parts of life with her two kooky sons while pretending to be a responsible adult. And there is plenty of the weird and wonderful to go around with her older son being autistic. She resides in Michigan, where the winters bring cold, and the summers bring construction. The roads might have potholes, but the beaches are amazing.And above all else, she lives by these rules. Call them Sarah’s life edicts: In Sarah’s world all books have kissing and end in some form of HEA. Because really, what more do you need in life?