by Harper Riley
“He’s with me!” Sunday cries. “He’s the father!”
The nurse pushes her thick, black, round glasses up the bridge of her nose and tightens the bun she’s put her hair in. She glares at me critically, looking me over from top to bottom, sizing me up and apparently sensing that something isn’t quite right. I try to twist away from her so she can’t see the blood that’s stained the entire side of me, but she knows. In her job, the old pro has probably seen lots of patients, with partners like me.
“You can’t be here,” she says with an air of half scorn, half bemusement in her voice. “You need to go down to the emergency room immediately. We have a room for you, dear. The doctor will be in shortly, and we can get this show on the road.”
“No! I’m not letting her go anywhere without me!” I shout through my gritted teeth. I use the bed to help me stand upright.
“Not like that, you’re not,” the nurse screeches.
“Please, nurse. Please!” Sunday begs through her tears. Another contraction rolls through her as we all turn our attention back to her. She squeals, “I can’t do it without him. Please!”
“Nurse Mabel?” A man in green scrubs suddenly appears behind me. He stands next to Killer, a weary smile on his weathered face. “He can stay. Get him a wheelchair and bring them to delivery room 3. I will take over from here.”
“But, Doctor, we have ...”
“Nurse,” he repeats his order, “fetch the wheelchair before this man passes out. Stat.”
The nurse scowls but scurries away, muttering to herself under her breath as she goes.
A few moments later, she comes back with a large wheelchair that I immediately fall into. It isn’t until I hit the leather chair that I realize just how close I was to passing out back there. The nurse and an orderly push Sunday and me to the doorway of a darkened room decorated in pale pinks and blues. Soft music plays in the background, and the orderly takes Sunday inside while the nurse leaves me outside. A group of nurses hooks Sunday up to the blinking, buzzing machines.
The orderly comes for me next, but Killer stops him.
“I’ll take it from here,” he says before turning my chair towards him. I hold my breath as he kneels before me. “What you did in the ring is forgiven on one condition—you take care of her and that kid.”
“What?” I ask in disbelief. An eye for an eye is club creed around here. If I really did put Cobra ten feet under, there would be consequences to pay even if it happened during a fair fight. He forgiving that is no small deal.
He whispers as the nurses pass us. Out the corner of my eye, I see Sunday withering in her bed as the doctor lifts a white sheet over her hips.
Killer explains, “I know what Cobra did to her, and it’s my fault. I’ve got rules about that shit. If I’d known earlier, not been blind to it, I would’ve killed him myself.”
Killer sighs heavily. “I should have protected her better,” he says, his voice full of regret. “Maybe I should have claimed her for myself. But it’s too late for that now. She’s yours. You take her, and you keep that kid safe, you hear me? If I hear you do a thing to harm her or put her in danger again, I swear to God I’ll end you.”
“Are you ready?” The doctor stands in the doorway to the room. A nurse behind him hands him a pair of sterile gloves. I nod my head and Killer pushes me in towards Sunday’s bedside. He disappears before I can thank him.
“Bear,” Sunday whimpers, “I’m scared.”
“You don’t have to be anymore,” I reassure her. “I’m here. I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you. I swear it.”
She lifts her hand out to me and asks, “Please, don’t let me go.”
“Never.”
Chapter 17 - Sunday
“Aww baby Bear wants his mommy!” Star coos as she hands me Charlie. He squirms in her arms, reaching his chubby fingers out towards me. They press against my eyes and face as I nestle him against my skin. It’s amazing how wonderful his tiny hugs are.
“Thanks for watching him, Star. I really appreciate the time off.” Being a mom is basically twenty-four-seven non-stop, even as Charlie is getting more and more independent. If I’m not watching him attempt to eat solid food, I’m monitoring how he rolls over or where he is crawling to. The little guy is just like his father—stronger than he thinks and constantly getting into trouble.
Today was my day off. In addition to being Charlie’s mom, I’ve become house mom to the Wilderkind girls. We didn’t have one back in the Filth and Butcher. There really wasn’t a girl who had been around long enough or who had been claimed like me to take that position. But I loved this job. I got to know what was going on in the club world without having to be in harm’s way, and I get a small paycheck from keeping the girls in line, getting them to their shifts, and making sure the boys were being fed and taken care of. It is the perfect fit for me.
Bear, on the other hand, would rather me stay at home and be a barefoot mom in the kitchen. But after a month of me trying that role, we both realized how silly it was to try to tie me down. After years with the Filth and Butcher, I have developed a taste for adventure and a need for a little danger in my life. And while Charlie’s sleepless nights and his love of rolling off furniture kept me on my toes, it sometimes wasn’t enough. I wanted more.
That’s how I landed this job. Vance was all for it—since it keeps me away from the fights and club gatherings. I don’t have to be that constant reminder of the delicate truce between the Filth and Butcher and the Wilderkind. The FB boys aren’t looking for the reason why Cobra’s death is going unavenged and why Bear gets to walk away with me by his side.
Before I turn to go, Star takes me by the wrist and pulls me to the corner of the room. She pins me in as she lowers her voice and looks down at her feet, “Sunday... I’ve been meaning to ask you something.” She nervously twists her fingers in her hand as she avoids my glare. “I have this friend... her name is Toni. She’s a girl I knew in high school. She had a real rough start of it, and she lost her apartment a few weeks ago. Do you think that we could...?”
“Star,” I scold her, “we can’t take in any more strays, especially not some girl we don’t know anything about. Vance wouldn’t approve of her.”
“She’s good. I promise! She used to bartend at this dive in San Jose. She was dating a guy with the Green Devils before he knocked her around and got both of them kicked out. I brought her here. She’s in the living room. Can you at least talk to her and see if you could convince Vance to keep her on?”
I sigh heavily as I make the decision whether or not to take up Star’s friend’s case. After my time with Cobra, any girl that’s gone through that pulls on my heart strings and makes me think twice. I was that girl with no place to go, no one to love, no family to call my own. If it weren’t for Killer taking me in, I wouldn’t have found the Filth and Butcher. If it weren’t for Kitka needling me into that bet to nail Bear, I wouldn’t have had Charlie. There is good to come from life in a club, and there can be diamonds made out of rocks.
“Yeah,” I relent with a heavy sigh, “I’ll meet her.”
Star leads Charlie and me back towards the living room where a young woman lounges on the black leather sofa. She types mindlessly on her phone, not even bothering to look up as we make our way inside.
“Hey! Aimee?” Star coughs to get her attention. When Aimee looks up from her screen, I see myself six, seven, eight years ago. Her face is cold and passing, but her eyes light up like firecrackers. She adjusts her leather moto jacket and smiles with her glossy red lips.
“Sorry.” She blushes and tucks the phone under her crossed leg.
I let out the breath I’ve been holding in before reaching out my free hand. “I’m Sunday. I’m the house mom for the Wilderkind. Star was telling me about your situation.”
“She was, was she?” Her glossy eyes roll as she looks back at her friend. “What did she tell you?”
I’m unfazed by this. I can deal with attitude li
ke the best of them. I wrangle a ten-month-old and a group of bitchy girls all day. Nothing could get to me. “Yeah, well, she told me you were with the Green Devils before you got roughed up.”
“He hit me a few times. No biggie.” She passes it off, but I can tell there’s hurt there in the way she hugs her bronzed arms around herself, almost as if she is holding in a shudder.
“I’m really sorry to hear that. The Wilderkind don’t let our boys do that. But there are a few rules.”
She puts her hands up in the air to stop me. “I don’t do rules, lady.”
“I’m not ‘lady.’ My name is Sunday, and I’m in charge here. You wanna hear them or do you wanna go back to wherever you came from?”
Aimee purses her lips together as she spits back, “To me, it looks like you are just someone who managed to get herself knocked up.”
“Aimee...” Star scoffs. “Shut up and listen to her.”
I continue on, “The first rule is that you can’t be branded by another club. You get claimed like that? Are the Devils looking for you?”
She pauses before answering, “No. They’re not. They wouldn’t know where to look if they did.”
“Good.” I nod. My mind drifts back to the tattoo covering my own branding scar. Charlie’s blue colored footprint covers the mark where the Filth and Butcher put their mark on me years ago.
“The second rule is that you can’t have relationships with boys outside the club. You seeing anyone?”
“That’s none of your damn business.”
“It is my fucking business, Aimee. When you cross club lines, you don’t just put yourself in danger, you put everyone here in the line of fire. I’m not going to have you get my girls in trouble. If you’re gonna join up with the Wilderkind girls, you best keep those legs shut and stay true to our boys.”
“What else?” she asks.
“You obey my and the club head’s commands. You work the shifts we give you. You live in the community. No complaints. Star here can tell you that if you do that, we treat you right. You even keep your tips when you work the bar. I hear you already got that skill.”
“Yeah.” Aimee nods a bit more eagerly. “I can do that.”
“Then I think I can talk to our president, Vance, about you. Maybe put in a good word. In the meantime, you can sleep in the basement bedroom. Just stay out of the way and keep that smart-ass mouth of yours closed.”
Charlie rolls in my arm, clearly bored by the conversation. I excuse myself before walking back out the door. I don’t even see Bear coming as I smack into his chest.
“Whoa! Sunday! Shit! I was just coming in to check on you.” He walks me back to the room where the two girls are still sitting.
Bear clears his throat, and both girls instantly shut up. I remember the first time I saw Bear. It feels like years ago, not only two. He had that power to make the whole world stop in its place. No one can deny how powerful his presence is, especially now that he was Vance’s second.
“I’m going to need you to take Charlie for a little while longer,” Bear announces to Star. “You cool with that?
“What the hell, Bear?” I demand. I can’t think of any reason he’d have for not doing his duty right now. “For God’s sake, Star’s had him all day already. And I got my nails and hair done, like you told me,” I whisper to him. I was surprised when I got his note early this morning. He was out doing a shift, but he left an envelope on the pillow next to me, along with some spending cash.
Bear shakes his head, a big grin stretching across his face. “Nope, sorry,” he insists. “We’re going out tonight.” He reaches behind him to a black backpack he uses while he is riding. I help him unzip it, and he pulls out a long, white plastic garment bag that swishes against the floor. He hands me the hanger as he orders, “Put this on, Sunday.”
I hand him Charlie, and the baby giggles and coos excitedly in his daddy’s big, burly arms. I hurry away to see what he has brought me. In the ten months since Charlie was born, Bear and I have spent many nights staying in—getting to know one another again, finding our way back to loving each other, then making love like it’s our first night together on the floor of that motel room. But he knows that the one thing I’ve been longing for is a night out with him, only him.
Inside the bag is a long, hunter green dress with black lace lines. It’s the kind of dress that clings to every curve, and as I shimmy my way into it, I thank God I’ve managed to get my figure back rather quickly. My larger tits just barely fit in the small cups. He’s even included shoes at the bottom of the bag; a pair of gold, sparkly wedge heels. I hold them in my hand. No way in hell I’m riding in these.
The living room goes silent as I step out of the room. “Do I—”
“You look fucking fantastic.” Bear breathes. He cocks his head to the side as he adds, “But what about the shoes? They don’t fit?”
“No, they fit. It’s just that I can’t ride with them on.”
“We’re not riding.” He smiles, reaching his hand out to me. I’ve only got moments to thank Star and Aimee for watching Charlie and to blow a kiss to my baby before he whisks me back out of the small home and to the garage. A black luxury car sits in the parking lot.
“How did you get Vance’s Mercedes?” I ask, completely dumbstruck.
He shrugs his shoulders and walks over to the passenger side to grab the door for me. I try not to blush, but my cheeks are on fire as he helps me inside. I slip on the shoes and hold on tight as we rush off towards the highway. The city of Los Angeles opens from the twinkling lights to the winding roads. I’m only half aware of where we are. It’s not until I see the side road, the bridge, and the empty gravel street that I realize he’s taking me back to the spot where we met. My mouth goes dry as I try to calm my racing mind.
“What are we doing here?” I ask as I look towards the spot where the headlights shine. There’s a large wooden table there and two chairs, with a blanket and a wicker basket sitting on top. The setting is circled by about two dozen candles stuck deep into the ground. They make a halo of light that dances in the soft breeze.
“Come on,” Bear whispers, avoiding the question. He walks around to the side of the car and offers me his large, warm hand. We walk together towards the circle, me trying to take this all in. I glance over my shoulder towards the spot where I sat when I watched him fight that first night. I can still hear Kitka’s voice goading me on—telling me I could never sleep with a guy like him. What a mistake she made...
“Sunday?” he asks, and I go numb. Bear’s large frame sinks down to one knee, and his hand searches for his pocket. I wait for the box, but instead, he pulls out the charm, the bear’s paw. It’s the same one he gave me the night of the dare. He holds it up to me as he says, “I always thought this was lucky. Maybe I was right. This brought me you, and I want you to have it, so you will always know how much I love you.”
He pauses as he looks me in the eye. His hands take mine, turning them so that the palm faces up. In one hand, he places the charm and in the other, a small, silver ring.
“Sunday, will you—”
I don’t let him finish asking; I leap into his arms, the ring and the charm clasped in my hands.
He already knows my answer.
Hard Kisses
I’m a bad man, all muscle, gristle, steel, and leather.
I get what I want. And that’s why I got her. Torrie. She was just supposed to be a one night thing.
I never expected her to take hold of my heart... and squeeze. I never expected her to look into my soul... and steal it.
Women? They come and then I go... it’s a tidy arrangement that I like... and they don’t. I always knew I’d never get shackled down by a ring or a kid.
But Torrie? She’s got me thinking about family. About my future. About... love. Not just loving her body, and every damn inch of it. But loving her for who she is. Strong, sassy... smarter than I’ll ever be.
My queen... even if she doesn’t know it.
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br /> There’s just one problem. She’s got secrets... and so have I. Our pasts... they intertwine... in a bad way.
Maybe we’re not meant to be. Maybe we’re not fated. Maybe we were just meant to hook up and break up.
But the thing is... I put my baby inside of her.
So now I’m going to make sure she stays mine.
Forever.
Chapter 1 - Torrie
When I finally say I love you to any man and really mean it, it will be like a defeated general who's lost all his troops, surrendering and handing his sword to the enemy.
Why am I thinking of that quote here, now? In a club, where I’m looking for something to take my mind off things. Off my family, the Piccolos, and our business – which are pretty much the same thing these days.
I read “War and Peace” years ago, and right now, all I’m looking for is one night of forgetting.
I let the fishing hook of my gaze slide around the room, pause on a few possibilities. A minnow of a boy with a tangle of hair and a confident smirk. Maybe. Then there’s a goldfish slinking around the dance floor, all hip thrusts and gyrations. Or even the whale of a man at the end of the bar, a tall and broad beast.
They’re all eyeing me hungrily, and I can’t blame them. This dress, this front-zippered, red-velvet-tits-to-ass dress was made for sex, and that’s what I bought it for.
I stride to the bathroom, giving each of the men a moment of my glance in turn. I’ll think about who to choose while I check my hair. They all look like good prospects – but tonight, I don’t want good, I want great. Who knows the next time I’ll get away from my family again. Even escaping to this bar, which is a five-minute walk away, wasn’t easy. I had to wait hours until Carlos finally left the house.
As I brush my hair with long pleasing strokes, I glare at the smile working its way onto my face.
How did I let it get to this point? To the point where I’m so cooped up in our stupid old house that I relish even getting out to a public washroom?
