Stood Up (Billionaire Up #1)
Page 11
“Mason!” I cry out as Ashlynn starts crying. Doing the best I can, I calm myself. “Baby, Mommy’s okay. Little Matthew just wants out of Mommy’s belly.” Another contraction hits, and I bite my lip, trying to hold in the cries that want to escape. Shit, with Ashlynn at least I had a damn epidural. This natural shit’s for the birds.
“I scared,” she says as Mason scoops her up and places her over to the side. He hands her a toy and kisses the top of her head.
“I’ve gotta help Mommy. I need you to stay over here. Okay?”
“Okay, Daddy.” She beams up at him like he’s her world, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Because the man is mine as well.
Mason still has the phone against his ear while talking. “Spread,” he orders. Right before I roll my eyes another contraction hits, and I spread.
“The head’s coming out.”
I groan as Mason tosses the phone to the floor. He must’ve put it on speaker because I can hear a woman’s voice.
“You’re going to need to support the baby’s head and neck. When mom feels like she has to push, tell her to. Make sure you’re there to catch the baby and support it’s head and neck,” the woman orders. “The ambulance is three minutes out.”
I cry out again as my body begins to contract. I follow its lead as little Matthew Dean comes out of my body and into my husband’s arms.
“Eww!” Ashlynn says and she’s not wrong, but he’s perfect. He lets out a wail, and all I can do is smile. Mason places our little boy on my chest then rushes out of the room, coming back with towels. He places one on the baby wiping some of his stuff off, but then securing him in warmth.
“He’s so handsome,” I say, looking up into my husband’s eyes with tears starting in mine.
“Beautiful like his momma.”
I chuckle. “They both are.” I look over to Ashlynn who has an unreadable expression on her face. “Come here, baby girl.”
She gets up from where Mason left her and slowly comes over. “Meet Matthew.”
“He’s gross,” she says, and Mason and I laugh.
“I’m sure you’ll say that a lot in his life,” Mason replies, kneeling down.
My family is around me. Loving me. Loving each other. Who would have thought being stood up on a pointless date would end in so much happiness. I couldn’t ask for anything more than what I have in front of me right now.
Our three is now four. And I love each of them more than words can ever say.
“Thank you,” I say softly to my husband. A slight sheen comes to his eye like he’s reading my mind.
He reaches out and touches Matthew’s back and pulls Ashlynn into him. “No, thank you. No man could ask for anything more. You’ve given me everything I never knew I needed. Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
Mason
I look to my baby boy, my girl and my wife. Each one of them the most beautiful and precious things a man could ever want.
They are my life. They are my future. They are my everything.
THE END
Meet Brantley James in Set Up Coming Soon…
About the Author
Ryan Michele found her passion in bringing fictional characters to life. She loves being in an imaginative world where anything is possible, and she has a knack for special twists readers don’t see coming.
She writes MC, Contemporary, Erotic, Paranormal, New Adult, Inspirational, and other romance-based genres. Whether it’s bikers, wolf-shifters, mafia, etc., Ryan spends her time making sure her heroes are strong and her heroines match them at every turn.
When she isn’t writing, Ryan is a mom and wife living in rural Illinois and reading by her pond in the warm sun.
Find Ryan
@Ryan_Michele
authorryanmichele
www.authorryanmichele.net
ryanmicheleauthor@gmail.com
Also by Ryan Michele
Ravage MC Series:
Ravage Me
Seduce Me
Consume Me
Inflame Me
Captivate Me
Ravage MC Novella Collection
Ride with Me (co-written with Chelsea Camaron)
Ravage MC Bound Series
Bound by Family
Bound by Desire (Coming June 20, 2017) Preorder available
Vipers Creed MC Series:
Crossover (co-written with Chelsea Camaron)
Challenged
Conquering
Conflicted (Coming soon)
Ruthless Rebels MC Series (co-written with Chelsea Camaron):
Shamed
Scorned
Scarred (Coming in May 19, 2017)
Schooled (Coming in July)
Loyalties Series:
Blood & Loyalties: A Mafia Romance
Raber Wolf Pack Series (Available in KU):
Raber Wolf Pack Book 1
Raber Wolf Pack Book 2
Raber Wolf Pack Book 3
Standalone Romances
Full Length Novels (Available in KU):
Needing to Fall
Safe
Wanting You
Short Stories (Available in KU):
Hate to Love
Branded
Novellas:
Billionaire Up Romance Series
Stood Up
Set Up (Coming Soon)
Picked Up (Coming Soon)
Hung Up (Coming Soon)
Excerpt of Bound by Family
Prologue
Cooper
This life.
My life … is Ravage.
Some say it’s my destiny. Others call this my curse.
Lucky for me, I don’t give a fuck what anyone thinks. The man I’ve become is because of a choice—none of that other bullshit. Everyone in life has a choice, a path. What direction you take is up to you.
For me, I had this moment in my life, a moment when I knew who and what I’d become.
It wasn’t forced or coerced as the talk has been around this small town. No, the moment that haunts my dreams is what created the man you see today.
Family.
From the beginning to the end, family is what you start with and what you end with. I’m bound to it, honored by it, and respected in it.
Chapter One
Cooper
The echo of the hammer hitting bone crackles through the air in the small, dank room. The man’s screams fill the space with pain, anger, and contempt. He doesn’t want us here anymore than we want to be in this dump. Unfortunately for us both, he fucked up and it isn’t an option. No, it’s a necessity.
Fucking Stu.
Ravage Motorcycle Club, my family, we run a tight ship, so to speak. There is a code, rules of sorts that must be followed. Fall out of line, there will be punishment. Stu fell out of line.
Ryker laughs off to the side, pulling me away from my thoughts as I let go of the man’s wrist, hammer still clenched in the other hand. The asshole, Stu, falls to his knees on the dirt floor, holding his broken finger.
That’s not the only one he’s going to get today for his stupidity.
He knows better. Everyone in Sumner, Georgia knows better. Hell, make that anyone who has ever heard of Ravage knows better.
“You’ve got a hell of a blow with that thing,” Ryker calls out. The man is twisted and warped. He does this shit for fun and entertainment. Part of me thinks he gets off on it, but to each their own. Me, I do this shit out of duty and responsibility. Regardless, he’s been by my side for years, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
When no response comes from me, Ryker walks up to the man and gives him a savage kick to the gut, making the man curl into a ball to protect himself. Green and Jacks stand off to the side of the small space.
We brought Stu to one of our outbuildings. It’s more like a rundown shack, but it has what we need to get the job done.
“I’m thinkin’ we need to take off some piggies,” Ryker eggs on, and a chuckle escapes me. He does have
a way with words, saying exactly what he thinks with not an ounce of filter.
“Give me a shot,” Jacks, another one of my brothers and a friend from high school, says as he holds his hand out to me, waiting for the hammer.
Handing it to him, I then take a step back and cross my arms. It’s not me being a pussy. It’s me wanting to get this shit done so we can get the fuck out of here.
“Money,” I bark out to Stu as Ryker gives him another hard kick, this one to his thigh.
Stu owes our club fifty thousand seven hundred dollars and some change for merchandise he purchased. We gave him a week after the initial payment of fifty grand went smooth. Ravage and Stu have a history, and in that time, this is the first instance when Stu hasn’t paid up in full. It’ll be the last time as well.
“I-I can have it b-by the weekend,” Stu stammers out as Jacks swings the hammer, hitting Stu in the ankle. Another crunching sound reverberates throughout the room.
Ryker smirks, coming to stand next to me and giving me a slight bump on the shoulder with his elbow. “Believe this fucker? Weekend?” He shakes his head and spits down at Stu. “Motherfucker, you have twenty-four hours to come up with the cash.”
“If we don’t have it by then, you’re done,” I add as Jacks takes another swing.
His cries of fear fill the air.
After an hour of making sure Stu gets the picture by using our fists and hammer, we ride.
Find out more in Bound by Family by Ryan Michele, Available now!