Riker looked down in amazement at the tiny perfect being and the baby looked right back at Riker with wide trusting eyes. He couldn’t believe that Gia was missing this. Or that he had taken so long to introduce himself to his own kid. Riker looked up at Dr. Kay who was standing quietly next to him and said with sorrow. “I waited because I wanted me and his mom to see the baby for the first time together. Maybe I fucked this up too?”
She laid a compassionate hand on Riker’s shoulder. “Mr. Devlin, you haven’t done anything wrong by being by your wife’s bedside. We have been taking very good care of your little guy. Don’t beat yourself up, you’re in an impossible situation.”
Then Dr. Kay took her hand away from Riker’s shoulder and pulled her laptop over. Her voice sparked with excitement when she said, “I hope you don’t mind but I’ve been looking over your wife’s case and I have an idea.”
Gia knew that she was still trapped in that lovely place of neither here nor there. But now she had begun to drift slowly and surely towards one place and leave the other behind.
That feeling of emptiness—of needing to be somewhere else, with someone else, was gently being replaced by a desire to stay suspended in this lovely state of breezy nothingness. It would be so much easier, and vastly more pleasant to just drift away.
Gia felt herself rising higher and higher into a world filled with glorious mountains, riots of wildflowers, music and laughter. She flew with eagerness toward a place where all her earthly sorrows, worry and pain would become distant memories and she would be transformed into something new, something better, something else.
Floating…floating…floating in one moment towards heavenly reward.
And in the next, hell bent for earth.
With all her might, Gia pushed and struggled and fought her way back to her broken body and away from ethereal pleasures that awaited her. All because something sweet smelling and lovely had been placed in her arms. The enchanting little being twisted and turned and wrapped its tiny fingers around Gia’s heart until her every breath pulsed with its life force. This child this gift had been entrusted to her care, and that’s all Gia had to do was to stay.
The first thing Gia saw when she lifted her heavy lids were the round, open, eyes of a tiny baby boy. He took one long, satisfied look at his mommy, then closed his eyes and went to sleep.
The second thing she saw was the man slumped in a chair near the corner of the room. He looked like a lot like Riker, but this man was clean shaven. His shoulders were slumped over, and he held his head in his hands. This man looked sad and defeated in a way she couldn’t imagine her husband ever looking.
“Riker? Is that you?” Gia whispered still holding the sleeping infant tight to her.
The man’s head jerked up, he jumped up off his chair as if shot out by a cannon, and he ran to her side.
“Yeah, baby. It’s me. It’s me!” His words were filled with emotion and his hand shook as he reached for her. The man standing beside Gia’s bed looked like her husband …only different. His eyes were all bloodshot and swollen. He was much thinner than she knew him to be, and Riker had had a nice dark beard. While this new clean shaven face made Riker look like a younger and more vulnerable version of himself, his eyes told a different story. Riker’s eyes told the story of someone who had been through hell and back.
“Jesus. Riker are you okay?” She whispered.
“Am I okay?” He looked at her incredulously, then grinned from ear to ear.
“Ah, baby. Where the hell have you been?”
Gia sighed as she felt the warm water cascade down her hair, her back, and over her plump bottom. When a slight breeze from an opened door tickled her nipples, she smiled to herself. After a long day apart, Riker was finally home. Her eyes remain closed as she rinsed off the shampoo, along with all the stress and dirt from a busy day.
“Riker is that you?” She called out. “Are you home?”
“Who else would be watching you take a shower?”
Gia smiled and opened her eyes just in time to see Riker slip off his black, boxer briefs and step into the shower with her.
Damn the man was a sight to behold…especially when his inked up, muscle bound, 6’3” frame was standing in front of her naked. Gia stepped back to allow the steamy water to beat down on his strong shoulders, glisten off his arms and trickle down his chest.
“Did you miss me?” He leaned in to give her a long hard kiss. Gia could feel the evidence of just how much Riker had missed her poke her in the stomach.
“Um, not really,” She said wickedly. “As a matter of fact, I can think of about ten other things I’d rather be doing right now instead of showering with you…like picking up the toys that Rourke likes to throw down a million times a day, or cleaning up his baby puke, or…
“Cleaning up his baby puke?” Riker frowned, and his hand stopped soaping up the smooth skin on Gia’s shoulders. “Is Rourke sick?”
“Relax, daddy-bear,” Gia stood on tip toes to kiss her husband on the lips. “He blew me a raspberry full of dinner tonight. Seems he doesn’t like rice cereal mixed with breast milk.”
“Well, who the fuck does?”
Gia laughed as the water streamed and steamed all around them. In the past few weeks, sharing Rourke had brought the pair closer than ever before. Gia had learned to read through Riker’s body language and teasing to realize that the things that Riker worried most about were the things he didn’t say. Riker was a nervous new father and he hated to be gone from them even for a day.
“Honey, the baby’s fine.”
She kissed him again and what started as an innocent peck turned to instant hot hunger. Riker gripped Gia tightly as he pressed her hard against the wall and her arms automatically wrapped around his neck. They kissed until their lips melted into one and his tongue had explored every inch of her mouth. When Gia felt her husband hard and ready between her open thighs, she turned around placed her hands against the tiled wall. She arched her back towards him, wanting him and silently begging to take her.
Riker thought he would never get enough of Gia. The soft smooth skin of her thighs or the way the musky feminine taste of her lingered on his tongue. Gia’s skin had this subtle, sweet scent that reminded Riker of cotton candy just being near Gia felt like a celebration every day.
After another rigorous round of love-making, this time in the bed, Riker kissed Gia on the head and slowly extricated himself from the tangle that had become their arms and legs. He slipped on his boxers, then padded down to the nursery.
Riker gazed down at the baby sleeping in the crib. If anyone had told him a couple of years ago that he’d be at this place in his life⸺ that he’d be a father, he’d piss himself laughing for sure. But now this little guy had turned his life upside down. When Riker looked at Rourke he couldn’t believe his good fortune. He had no idea what he had done to deserve this…this…he sought for a word that would do justice for the depth of feeling that he felt for his son...this blessing.
And Gia doing the mommy thing? A-fucking-mazing.
Gia never should have doubted her capacity for motherlove even for an instant. She protected and adored and cared for their baby in a way that made Riker’s heart fill to damn bursting. The first time they moved Rourke from the basinet next to their bed to a crib in his own room, Gia had fretted and paced and kept on peeking in on him until finally she had fallen asleep on the floor next to his crib. Riker had had to pick up the exhausted new mommy and put her in bed.
From that point on Riker had worked hard to convince Gia to alternate “Rourke duty” nights. The changing and the feeding and the rocking and the walking split evenly between the two of them. They fought like cats and dogs over who would get to have that odd fourth night with Rourke and decided that each week they would shoot for it in the rock, paper, scissors style. Gia won every time and Riker was absolutely sure she was cheating, but he had no idea how.
Riker had just begun to doze off when Gia twisted suddenly in his
arms.
“Another nightmare?” He murmured sleepily and held her closer.
“Rourke?” She asked him the same question she always did when she woke up from one of her frightening dreams.
“I just checked on him, honey, he’s fine.”
“Good.” Gia snuggled closer to him and murmured sleepily “How did things go today? Has there been any word?”
“Go back to sleep, babe it’s all under control.”
As Gia drifted off again, Riker found himself wide awake.
All under control? Not even close.
The bust that had sent Riker to prison had turned out to be only the tip of the iceberg.
Equally troubling was the fact that Prosper’s law enforcement connections had gone radio silent. One raid after another after another on Saints’ clubhouses was happening from southern tip of Florida to upstate New York. Most recently, the feds had brought in a back hoe to Saint’s owned property in the Everglades. Luckily, and with the help of some well-placed and very dangerous wildlife, they found nothing but swamp and a bunch of man-eaters.
The fact could no longer be denied that someone who knew where all the bodies were buried—literally and figuratively—was talking.
Riker had been showered and dressed for over an hour now. He was still getting used to his closely shaven jaw line, and he was not sure he liked it. He looked at himself in the mirror and felt more like a prepubescent teen than a member of a one percenter biker club. He scowled, growled and flexed.
Yeah, that was better.
“Does my ass look fat in these jeans? Gia twisted around to look at herself in the mirror. To Riker’s pure delight she was still carrying about ten pounds of baby weight. As far as Riker could tell it went right to her boobs and her ass.
Perfect.
“If I said yes. Would you take them off?” Riker nibbled her ear and cupped her ass with his hand.
Gia laughed and swatted his hand away. “Didn’t we just do that?”
“Did we?” Riker looked down pointedly to the growing bulge in his jeans.
Gia looked appreciatively at her husband’s enthusiastic response to her and hoped it would never end.
“So, this is like a life time achievement thing?” She scurried away from him and pulled some shirts out of the closet for consideration.
“Lifetime achievement? Did you just really say that?” He grinned at her.
Fucking adorable.
“We aren’t hosting the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, babe. It’s just an acknowledgement. Some guys will be given an atta-boy for their long-time commitment to the club. We also honor those club members who aren’t with us anymore either through death or incarceration. Then we’ll go behind doors for the patch ceremony. Which means the prospects who have been cleared will get their patches.”
Gia twisted her hair into a messy bun and gave him a saucy grin. “Members earn patches? Sounds just like the Scouts.”
Riker wrapped his arms tight around his wife and whispered into her ear.
“Honey, you should know better than anyone that I ain’t no Boy Scout.”
“Riker stop! Dolly’s gonna be here any minute.” Gia protested breathlessly as Riker began to tug at the button of her pants.
“Only gonna take a minute” He grinned back. “Scouts honor.”
A couple of hours later the Saints women had done their duty by making sure all the large containers of salads, meatballs and sauce, sausage and peppers, pasta, racks of ribs, and loaves of bread were replenished at a rate to satisfy a hungry crowd. Now they sat around a small fire pit with their feet up and a glass of wine in their hands, relaxing and just enjoying each other’s company.
“This was nice. I think everybody needed some sort of celebration after all the stuff that the club has been through recently.” Claire said. Then she turned to Gia. “I bet you’re glad to have Riker home. He seems happier than I have ever seen him. And he’s amazing with Rourke.”
“Yeah. Things are going well.” Gia smiled. “But we went through some scary times. Sometimes I still have nightmares about him being stuck in that awful place.”
“It’s good that things have calmed down a little lately. But Diego is still on edge.” Raine agreed.
“Yeah. Reno too.” Claire said.
“Jules is hyper-vigilant, anyway. But lately he’s been off the charts.” Glory added. Then she raised an eyebrow as Raine refused another round of wine coolers and chose bottled water instead.
“You aren’t drinking?”
Claire looked at her sister with amused affection. “You gonna tell them?”
All eyes turned to Raine.
“I’m pregnant again.” She blushed and grinned.
“That’s fantastic!” Glory clapped, and Gia gave her a wide smile
“Please keep it to yourselves for now. Diego hasn’t told everyone yet, and I’m not sure when he will. Prosper knows, of course. And I told Dolly and Pinky last night, but we haven’t made it public.” Raine chewed her bottom lip. “You know Diego totally, totally flipped out when I got pregnant that first time, and now he wants a half dozen kids. I told him we were stopping after number three.”
“That’s what you said after numbers one and two.” Claire teased her.
Raine just laughed and shrugged.
“So really?” Gia was rife with curiosity. “Diego totally flipped out with your first pregnancy? I never would have believed that. He’s so great with your girls. And he is obviously totally crazy about you.”
“Yeah, he’s a great dad and we’re good together,” Raine said. “Silver lining to a very big cloud. I went through most of my pregnancy alone. He wanted no part of it.”
“Did you just say alone?” Claire asked in mock outrage. Then pointed to herself and Glory. “What are we? Chopped liver?”
“Yeah, you had us.” Glory wrapped an arm around Claire. “We were with you all the way.”
“Yup. And she had Crow too.” Claire nudged Glory and gave a long exaggerated sigh. “That gorgeous hunk of man waiting to pick up right where Diego left off. God, just the thought of those emerald green eyes still makes me go weak.”
“And all that thick, shiny, smooth black hair.” Glory added with a faraway look in her eyes.
“That gorgeous body.” Raine couldn’t help but add. “All hard muscle and bronze skin. That guy could pump iron for days.”
The women all looked at each other and collapsed in a fit of adolescent giggles.
Gia smiled at them. Then knitted her brow in thought.
“Hey, I think I’ve heard Valentina mention him. He and his family went down to help her and Hal for a while in Haiti.”
“Yup, that’s him.” Raine nodded.
“You and Crow had a thing?” Gia asked.
“Oh yeah, they did!” Claire teased. “And we were all jealous as hell.”
“Don’t listen to my sister! It was a long, long time ago.” Raine swatted at Claire. “He’s patched in over with Jury’s crew now and is happily married to a sweet, beautiful woman named Melissa. They have two boys and she is pregnant with her third, just like I am. That’s all ancient history.”
“What’s ancient history?” Diego suddenly appeared and draped his hand over his wife’s shoulder.
“Me and Crow.” Raine dimpled sweetly at him.
Diego raised an eyebrow. “You and Crow what?”
“I’ll still never tell.” Raine said with dancing eyes. When Diego growled and made a lunge for her, she took off like a flash of lightning, laughing all the way. It wasn’t long before he caught up with her, hauled her over his shoulder, and gave her ass a playful swat. Then Diego put Raine back down on her feet and kissed her until she was breathless.
“Those two.” Claire shook her head with a smile.
The sound of Prosper’s voice boomed through the outdoor speakers.
“If you good for nothing sons- of- bitches and the lovely ladies who put up with your bullshit will come around to front of club house,
we can start the ceremonies.”
A hundred or so men yelled out a collective cheer of Hells Saints, Hell Yeah and fist pumped the air in raucous unity. Then everyone made their way to the makeshift stage where the formal part of the evening was about to begin.
Prosper stood at the podium and talked into the microphone.
“This has been a hell of a year for us. We’ve had a whole batch of new babies born into our crew this year, and about a dozen graduations. Some of you dumb fucks even had kids graduating from college. I still don’t know how the hell that happened when the bunch of you put together couldn’t come up with a high school diploma. Those kids all must have taken after their mamma’s!” Prosper grinned when a whole pack of feminine cheers sounded out from the yard.
Then his tone turned serious. “There were also too many damn losses. We pay tribute to the boys who laid it down this year. We honor them by carving their names in stone because they were tough mother-fuckers. Jericho Stevens, Wings Holleran, and The Captain.” Then Prosper raised his fist in the air and shouted. “Some men walk through the gates of hell…”
“…And some men ride!” Came the loud and heartfelt response from the crowd.
While Prosper continued on with other club awards for this or that, Riker hung his arm around Gia’s shoulder.
“You having a good time, honey?”
“Maybe too good a time.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know I’m crazy about Rourke and I love being a mom, but god, it feels so nice to get away from the house for a while and relax with a glass of wine and the company of friends.” Her tone was so guilt-ridden it made Riker smile.
“How many times have you called the house?” He asked her.
“Only six.” She grinned. “That’s the thing, I think about him every second, but still it’s nice to get away for a couple of hours.”
Riker leaned down and gave her a soft kiss on the mouth. “I called three times myself. Dolly said once more and she’s not going to answer.”
Raising Riker (Hells Saints MC) Page 17
