Carl: Caveman Instinct series 2.5

by Hazel Gower

  “My boy,” Annabelle whispered. “My baby boy.”

  “Perfect honey. You did amazing. Thank you. I love you.”

  Tears ran down Annabelle’s cheek as she beamed down at our son. “Hi, mummy’s boy. Oh Carl, look what we made, they’re both so perfect.”

  I nodded, speechless. I had two wonderful, perfect children. The nurse took my boy from Annabelle and he cried loudly at how unhappy that made him. I walked over and watched as they cleaned, weighted and wrapped him before bring him back to Annabelle. He screamed the whole time until they placed him back against Annabelle’s chest again. Well, if that wasn’t a statement of things to come, I didn’t know what was.

  “Jake. He looks like a Jake.” Annabelle smiled at me.

  Leaning down, I rested Angelica’s head on Annabelle and gazed at my son. Jake. I liked it. Short, but strong. “Angelica and Jake. I like it honey. I love you. Thank you for these two.”

  “I love you too, Carl.”

  Fraternal twins, one a girl and one boy. What a lucky man I was.

  * * * *

  My family all sat in the waiting room. I came out excited to show them babies. “I have a boy…” I waited until they all stood and added. “And I have a girl.” Everyone, but Jade and Bailey froze.

  Andrew was the one who broke the silence. “Well fuck. Do you think the curse is broken?”

  “I bet the girl thing is because you’re old.” Oakley’s eyes widened. “Holy crap, does that mean if we don’t find our mates until we’re old like you we’ll have daughters too?” My nephews turned a sickly shade of white. They realized what a girl meant. What a daughter meant.

  The look of horror on not just Oakley’s face but most of my other nephews would have been funny if I didn’t wonder myself if what Oakley said was true. Did I have a girl child because I didn’t find my soulmate until I was in my mid-forties?

  “I hate to say it, but Oakley might be right. Maybe an effect of finding my mate so late in life is that I get a daughter.”

  “Oh fuck that,” Andrew growled. “I’m not having any daughters. I don’t want the problems you’re going to have in fifteen or so years.” Crap, how the hell did my youngest nephew become so right? “So much for the idea of finding my mate so late in life so I don’t have to work as hard because she’ll feel the curse, too.” Andrew glared at me. “Thanks, Uncle Carl. You just ruined that.” He stormed away and Oakley and a couple of the others followed.

  Duncan chuckled. “I bet they all realized now they have a girl cousin they’ll have to start to think about how they treat woman.”

  “I think this is awesome.” Jade added. Stephan groaned behind her, but pulled her against him.

  “Does this mean I could have a girl?” The excitement in Bailey’s voice had us all turning to her. Richard was behind her his hands resting over her belly and shaking his head.

  “Hell no,” he snarled. “One Silverman female is more than enough.”

  Ryder smirked. “Looks like we need you to have your baby to see if what we think is true. If it’s a girl maybe the curse is broken. If it’s a boy, we might have learnt a little about the curse and how it affect us as we get older.”

  Gillian clapped her hands. “Oh this is so fantastic.” Her eyes were so bright they practicality sparkled. “I get to buy baby girl clothes.” She turned to Carol and Evelin and said two words. “Shopping. Tomorrow.” She then turned back to me. “Now hand that little Angel over to Aunt Gillian.” I didn’t even get the chance to reply. Gillian went to the crib and picked Angelica up. Jade picked Jake up and I stood back and watched my family. I was so lucky. Not only did I have an amazing family, but I had a wonderful wife and two perfect children.

  Life was good.

  Excerpt from Ryder - coming later this year

  Chapter one

  Divinity

  Closing my eyes I took a deep breath in and slowly let it out as I told myself not to whack my idiot brother upside that empty damn head of his. “You couldn’t for once in your life just keep your frigging mouth shut?” I grumbled.

  Arron shrank down in the emergency room hospital chair, holding the icepack over his broken nose, as I held the other icepack over what I was sure would be a broken wrist.

  “I promised dad I could look after you this time. You’re seventeen years old. Dad shouldn’t have to hire a bloody nanny to keep you in check while he’s on deployment.”

  “I don’t fucking need a nanny or my sister, who is only four damn years older than me, to babysit me.” His fierce dark brown eyes almost looked black as Arron glared at me.

  “Ha, while right now you just shit all over that, because I, your sister, who is only four damn years older than you, had to leave my new job so I could pick my brother up from school, and take him to emergency room, because he got in a fight at school, with not one guy, but two.” Arron’s cheeks tinged with red. I sighed. Arron wasn’t one to fight people for no reason. He was a good kid and even though he used to hang out with the wrong crowd, he wasn’t one to start fights. “What did you get in a fight over anyway? We haven’t even been here for three months.”

  “I hate it here. Why did we have to move again? You could have stayed in Darwin. You’re old enough to be on your own. You finished Tafe and had your apprenticeship. I would have happily stayed there with you.”

  I could have stayed, but my dad needed me. Arron needed me, even though he thought he didn’t. We’d lived in Darwin the last five years. The army base was a big one and my dad went where the army told him. I’d finished high school in Darwin and had made some great friends. When dad told me he was being transferred he said I could stay and finish my apprenticeship, but I knew he needed me and there were a lot of job options for me in Brisbane. Arron hadn’t wanted to leave and had begged to stay. I knew one of the reasons why my dad jumped at the transfer was because he didn’t like my brother’s friends. So three months ago we moved to Brisbane, Queensland. I loved it here straight away. I even had friends who had moved down here to go to Uni or get jobs. There wasn’t much to do in Darwin and there were so many more options here. I had gotten a job at a hairdresser’s soon after we moved here just before Christmas.

  “Arron you know why.” Arron had been pissed when dad explained one of the reasons they were moving was because he didn’t like his friends or his behavior. “Dad wouldn’t have let you stay with me in Darwin anyway. He wants you with him.”

  “He’s not even around to care.”

  I winced at the pain and truth in his voice. “He’s only away for four more weeks. Then he’s back for at least six.” Leaning over I hugged my brother. I loved Arron. He was all I had besides my father. Our parents had been foster children and met at a group home event. When my mother died eight years ago from a brain tumor, my dad fell apart and sank all his energy into his work, rising in the army ranks and taking any deployment they offered. We had a nanny until I turned eighteen. Then I took over and it became just me and Arron most of the time. “He cares. I care.” I kissed his forehead. “Wanna tell me now why you got into a fight?”

  Arron’s face turned bright red and he groaned. “I can’t stand these rich kids. There’s these two Silverman guys, who think their shit doesn’t stink.” His shoulders dropped. “I ignore them most of the time, but um…er… fuck, they saw you this morning when you dropped me off to school and I forgot my bag and you came back and got out of the car. One of them took a frigging photo of you, and well, let’s just say he wasn’t being very respectful.”

  Reaching over I hugged my brother again. “I love you Arron. Thanks for being protective, but I’m a big girl. I can handle a little boy.” I winked at him. “I’m my father’s daughter after all.” Our dad had drilled into us from an early age that we needed to learn how to protect ourselves. I’d taken self-defense class every year from age eight and Arron was an awesome boxer, but he’d never used his ski
lls outside of the ring until today. I even did some boxing classes myself and loved it. Boxing was my relax time. It was also something that helped me to meet and make new friends wherever we moved.

  Arron laughed and relaxed back against the chair. “Do you think if dad hears about this he’ll stop Micky teaching me? He’s one of the things I actually like about moving down here. He reckons I should enter some comps. He says I have a killer right hook.”

  Even though my brother held an icepack over his nose, I could see the smile on his face as he talked of his new boxing coach Mitchel, Micky. Arron’s old coach had referred him to Micky and I couldn’t deny that Arron did love his new coach and had improved in leaps and bounds.

  “Nah, I won’t tell him. I’d be more worried about Micky finding out you got into a fight. You know his rule. No fighting unless it’s in the ring.”

  Arron went white, his eyes went wide and I saw fear. “You don’t think he’d stop training me?”

  I shook my head. “Nah. Don’t worry I’ll talk to him.” Arron visibly relaxed. I’d do anything for my brother and he knew he could always count on me. If boxing made Arron happy, I’d do anything to make sure Micky understood what had happened and didn’t kick him out of his program.

  Getting comfortable in the chair for what, by the looks of the packed emergency room, was going to be a long wait, I grabbed my iPad, opened my Kindle app, and started reading.

  * * * *

  Ryder

  This day couldn’t get any fucking worse. My cousin Richard rang me this morning to tell me that Bailey, his soul mate and wife was in labor. That meant Aunt Gillian would be in a mood making sure everything went perfectly for her daughter-in law. If any of us Silvermans had a choice, we would stay away from the maternity ward until the baby was born, but we didn’t. We all would go and show our support. My mother would be the one who had to help deal and listen to Gillian complain why even the tiniest thing didn’t go as planned or she wanted.

  The second thing to go wrong with my day was that I was called into work because three people had overdosed and died all in one night and in different places in the city, but all from what looked to be the same drug. My boss thought I’d be perfect for the case as I’d helped Richard, who had had the problem of people OD’ing in his clubs.

  Now instead of waiting in maternity with the rest of my family, I was standing out the front of the emergency doors at Brisbane hospital with my brother Oakley and cousin Andrew.

  Glaring at my brother and cousin, I slowly counted backwards from ten to calm myself before speaking to the two idiots before me. “Tell me again why the fuck I’m taking you two to the emergency room and not calling mum and Aunty Gillian?”

  Oakley, my brother winced at my demanding tone, and my cousin Andrew stepped back before we stepped into the emergency department. “He’s in there bro, and the kid is fucking crazy. I mean look what he did to us.”

  I was looking, and I was finding it hard not to have a little respect for this kid that they were talking about. My brother had a black eye, he was limping and I’d have bet my next pay check his arm was broken. Andrew didn’t look like he’d fared much better than Oakley. He may even look worse with two black eyes. My brother and cousin had training too, so I knew they were no lightweights. I’d spoken to Philip, their security, on the drive to the hospital and asked why he didn’t step in and help my brother and cousin. He’d told me the guy who’d fought them was just a seventeen year old kid, a boy the same age as them. Philip hadn’t said why this kid had beat the shit out of my brother and cousin and that alone had me suspicious.

  “I can see what he’s done. Why the hell do you need me with you and not dad?”

  Oakley gazed into the emergency room and mumbled, “Philip is pissed at me and I um…I don’t want mum or dad involved in this, epically now Bailey’s in labor.”

  “Yeah,” Andrew added. “Can you imagine if I called my mother or even dad right now? Dad needs to be with mum or Richard will strangle mum.”

  Groaning because I could just imagine how upset Aunty Gillian would be if for any reason she had to leave Bailey. And if something went wrong she would be unbearable. Aunt Gillian was a handful at the best of times, but I knew right now she would be beyond crazy.

  Soulmates, ha. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. I didn’t believe in the Silverman gypsies’ curse. Well, I hadn’t until it happened to Uncle Carl too. The tale went in the old country, we helped a group of gypsies flee, and for helping them, they gifted us with the ability to know our soulmate. There are supposed draw backs that they forgot to mention. Like the fact we Silvermans turned into controlling, possessive, domineering men. Basically cavemen. My parents and two uncles had fallen to the curse and this last year my young cousin Stephan and Richard too, but the shock was my uncle Carl. I didn’t believe in the curse either until my family started dropping like flies. My uncle Carl, who had avoided it to the ripe old age of forty-five, in the last ten months had found his soulmate, gotten married and had twins. One of which was a girl. Silvermans didn’t have female children.

  Thinking of the supposed curse always pissed me off. I tried not to believe, and I told myself I didn’t, but I couldn’t ever stay with a woman because the stupid ‘curse’ was always there like a frigging whispering temptation, telling me the grass is, and will be greener on the other side, once I’ve found my soulmate.

  Stomach churning at my thoughts, I returned my focus to the problem before me, my brother and cousin. “Fuck.” I ran my fingers over my head. Not many people messed with a Silverman. We had way too much money and a lot of connections. So my brother and cousin must have done something bad for this kid to do what he’d done. “God damn it, Oakley, what the fuck did you do?”

  He avoided my gaze. “I may have taken a picture of his sister and photo shopped images of what I wanted to do to her and mouthed off,” he rushed out.

  Reaching over I whacked him upside the head. “You damn idiot.”

  “It was just a bit of fun and his sister is hot,” mumbled Andrew.

  I turned and whacked Andrew, too. “Get your arses in there now. And delete that shit off all your devices because what you fuckwits did is illegal.” Grabbing the scruff of both their shirts I dragged them through emergency and over to the nurses’ triage.

  Before we even got to wait in line for the nurse, I heard the sexiest voice I’d ever heard yell, “God damn it Arron, sit your arse down now. Leave the dickheads alone.”

  Spinning, I searched for that voice and saw a woman with jet black hair falling to her arse. And what a nice round shapely arse it was. She had her hands on the chest of a tall teenager, who was currently staring daggers over my way.

  “That the kid that did this to you two?” Both my brother and cousin nodded, but I noticed their gazes didn’t leave the woman’s arse. An urge to beat both of them washed over me at the sight of them staring at what only moments ago I had been staring at. Huh, that was weird. Mentally shaking off the feeling, I gave a glare to both Oakley and Andrew. “Stay in line. I’m going to go over and see if I can smooth things over.”

  Without waiting for their reply I made my way over to the couple. The woman was now quietly talking to the teenager who still hadn’t stopped staring my way. The closer I got the stronger my sense that something wasn’t right, that I wanted to beat the shit out of my brother and cousin for treating the woman the way they had. I was thirty two years old, too old to want to fight my brother and cousin. And I’d long since given up on finding my mate.

  “I promise if you ignore the dipshits, I’ll move you to a new school if you want. One without rich little pricks.”

  I stopped just out of reach from them. I was close enough now that a vanilla scent surrounded me instead of the hospital disinfectant. I took in a deep breath of the heavenly scent and almost moaned as my whole body hardened.

  “What the fuck do you want?
” The teenager snarled.

  The woman who the vanilla was wafting off of, spun around to face me and I took a step towards her. Damn, she was not just beautiful, she was stunning. Super long black lashes blinked revealing dark brown eyes that looked almost black enough to match her hair. Her nose was straight and perfect with a slight point. Her lips weren’t too full, but they weren’t thin. They were perfect, just like the rest of her. She was a tiny thing, I bet barely five feet tall, with light olive skin and a body to die for. Damn. My heart beat faster than I’d ever felt it beat before. I opened my mouth to reply to the kid, but nothing intelligent came out. “Mine. You’re mine.”

  “What! What the hell kind of answer is that?” the kid growled.

  My mate, my soulmate, who I’d given up hope of ever finding groaned and her gaze went from her brother to me and back before she mumbled, “Men.” She stepped in front of her brother and narrowed her gaze on me. “Look, I’m sorry my brother kicked your um…brothers?”

  I nodded. I knew if I spoke it wouldn’t be anything but caveman talk.

  “Arses, but they were being douches. Arron was just protecting me. Can we just forget about it and put it all behind us? No one will press charges.”

  Oh, she was using the threat of pressing charges to keep everything quiet. I couldn’t help the smirk that spread over my face. I crossed my arms over my chest and stared down at my one, my soul mate. “Really?”

  Her relaxed stance changed. She straightened herself up and eyed me up and down, a smirk of her own spreading across her beautiful face. “Yes. Really. Now,” she nodded her head in the direction of my brother and cousin. “It looks like they found a nurse and you’re going in instead of waiting with us ‘normal people.’” She raised her hands in air quotes.