I might have given him shit about the Hollister name. I’m still me, I have to give him shit on principle alone, but what he said, about giving them a reason to celebrate? After everything they’ve done for me…
“Okay,” I kind of mumble.
“Promise baby girl, it’ll be the pig roast of all pig roasts. Since the compound’ll be swarmin’ with brothers, won’t be a safer place for you on the planet. Maryanne’s comin’ by the club to help you plan seein’ it’s not safe for you to leave without an escort, and the boys are pretty busy right now. It’s the best way.”
A couple hours later Maryanne showed up bearing gourmet coffees from the little coffee shop downtown and a bottle of alcohol-free sparkling wine to celebrate my good news. News Beau had clearly shared, because I hadn’t had the chance to thus far. And she let her displeasure on that known in no uncertain terms.
“Can’t believe it’s finally happening.” Maryanne sits at the pool table we’d turned into wedding planning central with me. We’ve got Beau’s laptop open creating custom biker chic invitations. He wanted those silhouettes of naked chicks sitting, leaning on their arms behind them, one knee bent, one high-heeled leg stretched out long in front of her. The kind you see as decals on the back of pickup trucks.
We nixed that idea pretty quickly. None of the boys have a clue to the design we do come up with. We even found a coupon online for forty percent off the first order which is great seeing as they’re custom, and we have to order two hundred of them.
All our badass bikers should be pleasantly surprised because I know they’re thinking tuxedos, tulle, and yards of pink and cream. Bump that. I’m a Brimstone Lady. So much so that Mar and I keep going, page after page, until we find the bones of the dress I’ve been searching for on a site which does custom orders.
“Maryanne, I want you to be my matron of honor. You and Trish and Liv standing up with me. That is if Liv’ll do it.”
“She will. Give her time, it had to really freak her out.”
“Give who time?” We both turn our heads. Livvy. Always beautiful Livvy stands at the mouth of the hallway to the back rooms wearing one of Chaos’s Lord’s T-shirts knotted at the hip to show off her perfect figure and a pair of denim cutoffs, faded with a fine layer of fringe around the legs and at the pockets. It’s the first she’s ventured out since her rescue.
“How are you?” I ask in lieu of a response.
“Chaos says I’m not allowed to answer I’m fine. He says I have to answer truthfully, or he’s forcing me to a shrink. So I’m not fine, but I’m better than I was.”
This is not a moment for words. This is a moment for hugs. And she’s just going to have to suffer through it. I shove up from my chair tucked between the wall and pool table to make it to her in three quick steps, and pull her into my arms.
“Love you, Liv.”
“Liv, I’m Maryanne,” she says by way of introduction as she wraps her arms around both Liv and me. “I can’t be left out of hugs. It’s a sickness.”
I can always count on Maryanne to give the tension break we all need.
“What’s going down at the pool table?” Liv asks, pointing to our workstation once we’ve let her go.
“It’s where all the cool kids hang.” Maryanne answers for me.
I laugh, feeling that lightness Beau said we all need, and shake my head. “Planning a wedding. Beau got bent because the ultrasound picture said baby Manning.”
“Let me guess,” Liv says back. “Anyone livin’ under my roof has the last name Hollister.” She drops her voice and pulls out her best country twang to sound like Beau.
“How’d you know?”
“Chaos was bitching at me last night. The nerve of you having them put the name Manning instead. I tried to tell him it doesn’t work that way. No matter how many times I told him you don’t chose the baby’s last name until it’s born. While it’s inside the mama, it’s got the mama’s name. He thinks you could force the issue.”
“Men,” Maryanne grumbles.
“Men,” both Liv and I agree.
“Would you stand up with me?” I ask her.
Those big blue eyes of hers go even bigger.
“Think you’re up for it?”
“Oh Elise, I’d be honored. This is…this is…amazing.” And she burst out in tears.
“Honey, please don’t cry.” My arms circle her waist as I try my best to console her. “Well you and Maryanne together, pick out a few different ideas for bridesmaid dresses. We’re going for biker chic. Then you can show the choices to Trisha.”
“Aren’t you a bridesmaid short?” Maryanne asks.
I throw her a ‘what?’ glance.
She throws a frustrated ‘come on’ back my way. “Beau’ll have Tommy. He’ll have Chaos. Sneak. But he’s not getting married without Liv’s brother standing up with him. You said Carver’s officiating.”
“He is.”
“Well then, who you gonna ask?”
“Who won’t Blood mind standing up with?”
“There’s a hot mama he talked about all the time. Although I’m not sure she actually sleeps with the men. More helps take care of them for a place to stay. You’ve probably seen her around,” Liv says. “Her name is Hannah. I don’t know that he’s sweet on her, but they’re definitely friends.”
“Hannah? Oh, right. With the long brown hair and great big boobs.” I shake my head as I think about it. “I do know her a little. She’s friends with Trisha. One of the dancers at the club. I wonder if she’d do it, since we don’t really know each other well.”
“You could always be a bitch.” Maryanne cuts in. “And ask Candy to stand with you.”
“Girl, she’s not even invited. Terms of me saying yes. No Candy. No George and Margo.”
“Like George and Margo would show if they were. You Hollister whore.”
Maryanne would be the only person on this planet allowed to call me that without threat of ass kicking. So to that, I rub at my eyes with my middle fingers, flipping her the double bird.
“I guess we’ll never know because they’re not invited.” Although completely irrational, I can’t help the sudden wave of hormonal emotion crashing down on me, and drop into a chair as I burst into a fresh round of ugly tears. “My baby’s never going to know grandparents. Never.”
“What about your mom?” Maryanne asks.
“Haven’t heard from her since I moved here in high school.”
“That’s harsh,” Liv says, like I don’t know disowning your only kid isn’t the epitome of wrong.
“Sure she’s happy at UC Medical, living a great life as a Denverite.”
“She’s a doctor, too?”
“That’s where she met my dad, in medical school.”
Then Liv slides into the seat next to mine to rub my back. “Well…maybe this baby won’t have grandparents.”
Maryanne pulls another chair up to the pool table. She rubs my back too, so I’m surrounded by the love of my girls, my sisters.
Liv rests her forehead against my cheek. “But it’ll have aunts and uncles, even if not by blood, who’ll love him or her unconditionally. Okay?”
“Okay.” I sniff.
“Baby girl, why you cryin’?” Beau walked into the clubhouse from whatever business he’d been up to, spying me and my tears straight away. He moves close. Maryanne moves for Beau to drop to his knees in front of me. He brushes my hair away from my eyes, searching them as he holds my face. “Plannin’ this is s’pposed to be fun.”
“No grandparents,” Maryanne offers.
To which he replies, “Huh?”
“Her dad’s gone, your parents suck, and she hasn’t talked to her mama in seven years. Pregnancy hormones.” She ends on a whisper.
“I know they suck. It all sucks. Wish Doc was here to meet our little miracle.” He absentmindedly rubs his hand over my belly. “But promise, Elise. Promise our kid will have all the family he or she’ll ever need and will never go a day feelin’ u
nloved.”
“We’re having a baby.” I tell him.
“We are.”
“We’re getting married.”
“We are.”
27.
Elise
It’s not easy organizing a wedding while in lockdown. But Liv and I haven’t been allowed to leave the compound since we got back from Chicago. I’m not complaining. Getting kidnapped and having your friends almost die tends to put the world in perspective.
Trisha’s had a harder time adjusting, only being allowed away from the club when she’s at work. She and Sneak have even been staying in his room down the hall from ours. Even though she never had relations with Logan, Sneak was so freaked out by what happened to Liv, he promised her they’d start work on a family that night if she’d agree to move into the club until the Houdini threat was neutralized.
That was seven weeks ago. I’ve been cleaning all day getting the spare rooms ready for outside guests who will start arriving tonight. Brothers from all over showing up to celebrate mine and Beau’s impending nuptials tomorrow.
His eyes. I will never forget his eyes when the invitations arrived in the mail. Black cardstock. A raised, embossed flaming devil head, proud and prominent, at the top of each. The words Brimstone Lords spelled out in old English lettering across the top. Live. Ride. Brotherhood. Etched below. A perfect replica of the patch the brothers wear, not only across their leather cuts, but also inked onto their backs as a sign of devotion. It was that moment as he read the words we’d picked, inviting his brothers to join us because there could not be a brotherhood without family, that he understood I got it. I’d told him before, of course. But sometimes words are just words. Those invites were my testimony to my devotion to him and his place, and by extension, my place in the club.
My concerned biker keeps trying to get me to take it easy because of the baby. But with so much left to do, how could he expect me to slow down? I’m the VP’s old lady. Period.
By the time I finished the last room, he’d taken to physically forcing me to “Sit your ass down,” which I did for his peace of mind. The prospects had made my white bean chicken chili per my precise directions. Only I wasn’t allowed to leave my stool as they prepared it.
Now after the “Fuck, this shit’s good.” And “Damn, Boss’s one lucky bastard get a girl can cook.” I’m having a great time listening to glory days stories of biker rally pasts. Someday, when all this Houdini nonsense is behind us, I hope he’ll want to take me to one, so we can make our own memories.
Beau was right, we’re giving them exactly what the club needed after Liv’s kidnapping. She’s over talking with a visiting old lady from the Illinois chapter, while Chaos engages her old man in conversation. He won’t go far from her. Constantly shooting eyes her way, refreshing her drink, using the excuse he needs another one whenever he sees her low.
All’s not totally right in our world, though. Blood shoots her and Chaos glances too, but his come from an entirely different place. He still won’t talk to either Chaos or Livvy. He only agreed to stand with Beau at our wedding tomorrow so long as he’s not standing directly next to Chaos.
I know Duke’s losing patience with him. Even he can’t deny how Chaos is with Liv.
But as fun as biker rally stories, and as intriguing as Liv and Chaos watching are, I’m wiped. I’m wiped and don’t want dark circles around my eyes in my wedding photos.
“Gentlemen.” I stand, pushing away from the bar where we’ve been sitting. “Growing a child is tiring, and I need my beauty sleep.”
“Brothers. I’ll be back.” Beau stands, too.
“No. Stay. Have fun.”
“Woman,” he whispers. “I wanna help my old lady to bed, I’ll do it.”
Well okay, then.
As soon as he gets me inside the room with the door shut, he presses me up against the wall and locks me there with his hips, his mouth taking mine hard and hungry. “Since this’ll be the last time I get to fuck Elise Manning,” he says after tearing his lips away. “Tomorrow I’ll be fucking Elise Hollister.”
I might have been tired before, but as he kisses me, I claw at the button on my jeans then rip apart the zipper.
His hands go from caressing my face to shoving those jeans down my legs along with my panties, taking care to not put too much pressure on the tiny baby bump just starting to show, at fourteen weeks. It’s a baby bump he’s inferred he finds sexy as hell, I might add.
“Still hard to believe this is all mine,” Beau murmurs, with his forehead pressed to my cheek.
While I turn clawing fingers to his fly, he decides against taking me against the wall and move us, as I walk backward toward the bed, with our lips still connected. Once my knees hit the edge of the mattress I go down gently onto my back, hair spread out over the pillow, thus ending the clawing to his fly. It doesn’t matter. His hands work just as well for the job.
Before the frantic starts up again, Beau catches my eyes and holds them. “Love you darlin’. Love you with everythin’ in me.”
At his beautiful words I take a beat to just stare back. I’ve seen, I’ve memorized so many of his looks but this one is new, even to me. It’s a look which says everything.
I blink, then he blinks. Then my soon-to-be husband descends slowly to recapture my lips. “The brothers can continue without me,” he says. “What I got in here is so much more pressin’. We’ll get back to the frantic after we make it through the slow, and I plan to make the slow real good for you, baby girl. My Elise.”
28.
Beau
The morning starts a little tense as Elise frets about all the setup which needs to get done. Always the Brimstone old lady, she takes the responsibility on even when she’s supposed to concentrate on gettin’ herself ready.
I assure her the brothers have our backs. We’ll have a fuckin’ fantastic wedding. Then I force her to lay back down, and head out to the kitchen to bring her breakfast in bed. Though I’m not a great cook, I make a decent French toast. Sprinkled with powdered sugar. Served with a side of sliced strawberries, sausage links and an alcohol-free mimosa. That bein’ alcohol-free sparkling wine and orange juice.
When I leave her to check setup, when her girls show up to start hair and shit, she’s calm. And I’m at peace knowin’ I gave her that calm.
Finally we arrive at the big moment. It’s about damn time, as I been waitin’ seven years for today. Blood has kept a little distance from our group, but Tommy, Chaos and Sneak have been standin’ at my side for the last ten minutes, givin’ me shit about my life as I know it bein’ over now that I’m about to be hitched to an old ball ‘n chain. Whatever. Tommy and Sneak would lay down their lives for their wives without thinking twice about it, and Chaos, Chaos’ll slip a ring on Liv’s finger soon as we’re clear of Houdini. Maybe sooner.
I have no doubt, and go to tell him that as the house band from Lady’s starts the first bluesy rock chords of the wedding march. My head whips to look down the aisle and that’s when I see her. Fuck. The most beautiful woman in the world, my woman, my bride stands at the end of that aisle on Duke’s arm, she’s wearin’ the sexiest most biker wedding dress ever designed—fitted head to toe white leather. The top of her dress, a vest like one of our cuts, but it’s corseted and plumps her tits to absolute perfection. The bottom skims over her curves, including that slight baby bump, only to flair out at her shoes. Her hair’s done up in this braided side bun thing, which fuckin’ takes my breath away.
My eyes never leave her. Her eyes never leave me. Though as she and Duke pass our brethren guests, laughter erupts from each row. Once they get to me, I see what they’d been laughing at. Elise has a flaming devil head on the back of her dress, but the devil head has a pink bow tied to the top flame as if it was hair, with the words: Brimstone Lady written in old English above it. Below it, Bossman. Elise. Forever.
Don’t know how she pulled it off, but damn if I can’t stop my laugh from breaking out too.
Carver lo
oks to Duke. “Prez, say your peace.”
In a black dress shirt, his cut, black jeans and his boots, like all my groomsmen, he turns to speak. With his normally unruly goatee and unkempt black hair, just beginnin’ to silver around the temples, trimmed for the occasion, he shows his respect for me and Elise and our day. It means a fuck of a lot.
“Take care of him, sweetheart. He’s a good man,” Duke says. “And Boss, Doc ain’t here, so it’s been a sad privilege to act in his stead. Take care of this girl and the family you’re creating. What you got is precious. Don’t ever take it for granted.”
The laughing had died down completely once Duke started to talk. As I look from Elise, who started with the tears the moment her dad was mentioned, out to all the brothers gathered to celebrate with us today, I know Duke’s right.
“Nothin’ in the world more important,” I tell our prez, specifically. And then I repeat myself louder for the rest. “Nothin’ in the world more important.”
He guides her hand into mine with another firm nod and backs away to sit in the front row.
Carver starts to officiate once more. “We’ve faced a lot ‘a shit recently. As a club, as a family. This little lady didn’t make it easy on Boss once he decided to woo her again. But, God’s honest truth, I can’t picture any other woman on the planet able to handle him the way she does. Made for each other these two. So Boss, you got something you wanna say to this beauty standing next to you?”
“Boy, do I ever,” I say, to the soft laughter of the room surrounding us.
Elise turns to me at the same time I turn to her, still holding her hand.
“Darlin’. Seven years ago when you showed up in town in front of the Whippy Dip, I knew I was fucked. Saw it. Saw it as sure as I’m standin’ here now that my world would never be the same. And damn if I wasn’t right on that.”
More laughter from my brothers.
“You sure pulled me through the wringer. Thing is, I don’t mind a damn bit ‘cuz all of it brought me to right here, right now. So now, don’t matter my world’s never gonna be the same. Far as I see it, that’s a good thing so long as I have you along for the ride. We walk this life path together, nothin’ else matters. Even through—”
Lady Sings the Blues (Brimstone Lord MC Book 1) Page 25
