HIS SWEETNESS

by Leah Sharelle

  My adrenaline was rushing at such a fast rate that I felt a little nauseous, but I kept my eyes on the side mirror. Dundee had moved his bike over more towards my side of the car so I could see him. He was doing his best to keep himself between the car and us.

  “Oh, God, Charlotte, I’m scared.”

  “Me too, sweetie, but we have to stay calm. Okay?”

  Stella didn’t answer me, but I knew she was trying to gather herself.

  “Oh, my God, Charlotte, look!” Stella suddenly screamed, and my eyes immediately looked back to the mirror just in time to see the blue SUV speed up and hit Dundee’s back tyre. The impact sent him into a tank slap—I knew that one after Deck explained it when we saw it on television, and Deck was very impressed the rider had righted himself and stayed on the bike.

  “Oh, my God.”

  I watched in horror as Dundee was thrown from his bike. He slid along the road, and his leather vest didn’t do much to protect his bare arms. The blood drained from my face when I saw the SUV hit Dundee square in the back. A scream left my throat as I watched his lifeless body tumble off to the side of the rode as his bike still skidded to a stop.

  Oh, my God. I’d just watched a man die.

  Turning around, I saw Shiloh was awake. Her eyes were wide with shock from my screams.

  “Mummy, what’s wrong?”

  “Oh, baby girl, Mummy is fine, but I need you to be a good girl and stay in your seat, okay? Things might get a bit scary, but Aunt Stella is doing everything she can to be safe, okay, honey?”

  I didn’t know how I was keeping my voice so calm right then.

  “Um, Charlotte, we have a big problem.”

  Oh, you think? But I didn’t say it. Instead, I looked at Stella and gave her a questioning look.

  She pointed towards the windscreen, and ahead were the mountain pass and the switchbacks Creed told us to take no faster than eighty kilometres an hour.

  “What speed are you doing?”

  “Oh, fuck. We are doing one hundred.”

  That was way too fast for those bends, but the SUV behind us kept gaining speed, sitting on our back bumper then slowing back a bit. He was toying with us.

  Without any warning, the SUV sped up and hit us from behind. It bumped us so hard Stella’s hand lost purchase on the wheel and caused the car to lurch violently to the left, taking out a mile marker on the side of the road. Had it been to the right, it might have been into another car.

  “Oh, dear God, Stella. Call Booth,” I said loudly over Shiloh’s frightened screams.

  46

  DECK

  I slammed my truck’s door and stalked towards the front door of the compound.

  Today at the construction site, so many things had gone wrong. The entire job had become worse than a nightmare. It took Darth and me promising to see to the rest of the job personally before I could get the homeowner to leave the property and let my guys get back to it.

  I couldn’t wait for that job to be over with. Luckily, the husband, having a building history himself, was sympathetic to the issues we were having and helped to keep his wife at bay.

  Pushing the door open, I made my way into the main room. I had a few things I needed to speak to Booth about, but I really needed a drink first. I was not a huge drinker anymore, well, not since Shiloh was born. I’d never known how much you needed your wits about you when you were in charge of a child.

  Instantly, my mind strayed to my girls, who were never really far from my thoughts every minute of every day.

  I hadn’t been happy watching them drive off earlier. Something seemed off for some reason. The shit with the rogue soldier had the entire club on edge, especially me. Mainly because we didn’t know who he was, why he was doing it, and who or what the fuck he was going to mess with next.

  We didn’t have enough resources to keep all the girls under watch. And now, with Lucky down and injured for God knew how long, and all the problems that were suddenly arising in all of the club’s businesses that required us to be present at them, we were stretched pretty thin.

  I was having a really hard time letting go of control and allowing Dundee, the newest prospect we’d brought into the club, to protect my fiancée and daughter. Insisting Charlie leave it for another day would have been a waste of time, so I really should have driven them myself. We could have made an overnight trip out of it. Minus Stella, of course.

  Going behind the bar, I got myself a draught and was just about to take a pull when Ford burst through from his small office and into the main room.

  “Fucking hell, Deck, we got a major fucking problem,” he shouted, getting the attention of everyone in the room. I could see he had a full-size piece of paper in his hand that looked like photo paper. Christ almighty. What the fuck now? Taking a quick minute, I drank half of my beer because something told me I was going to need it.

  “War room,” he said in a harsh tone and took off in the direction of our meeting room, not even bothering to see if anyone was following him. He knew we would. Ford wasn’t the kind of guy to fly off the handle for no reason, so when he was like that, I knew there was something big going down.

  I heard the stomping of boots behind me and knew Steel and Mannix were coming. They had been in the middle of a game of pool when Ford demanded our attention.

  When I walked into the war room, I saw that Booth and Creed were already there with deep scowls on their faces as they watched our normally funny but odd tech guy as he paced the room in agitation.

  “What the fuck, Ford?” Creed bellowed. “You’re making me dizzy. Stay the fuck still and let us in on what the fuck is wrong.”

  Ford stopped his pacing and walked to the whiteboard. We wrote schedules and routes for bike runs on it, and it had clips for notes and such. Taking one of the dog clips, Ford put up the paper that was in his hand. We all moved in closer, and I swore to fucking Christ I nearly vomited all over the floor.

  The photo showed a picture of Booth’s truck driving down the road from the compound with Dundee on his bike behind it. The whole picture had a red scope target circled around it.

  The fucking prick was watching us.

  He knew the women and Shiloh were in that truck. The fucking cunt had eyes on us all the time.

  The fucking world just fell out from underneath me.

  “I have to get to them.” It was my only thought, and as I turned to leave, A ring of a phone and Booth’s shout stopped me in my tracks.

  “Deck, it’s Stella,” Booth said in a rush. I quickly went back and watched him as he put it on speakerphone before answering.

  The screams that came over the speaker chilled my blood. It was Shiloh. I focused in on Shiloh as she cried for me.

  “Charlie! What the fuck is going on?” I yelled over the noise of Shiloh’s screams. Fuck! My baby girl.

  “Booth, Booth, I don’t know what to do. He is slamming into us,” Stella shouted into the phone.

  Fuck, I hoped she was using the Bluetooth and hands-free.

  I still couldn’t hear Charlie. Where was she? Was she okay? Goddamn, why didn’t I go with them? Why did I let my girls drive away from me?

  ‘Stella, where is Dundee,” Creed asked. The prospect was supposed to be travelling with them.

  “Oh, God, he is dead. Dundee’s bike was hit from behind, and when he came off, the car hit him as he hit the road. Oh, God, Booth, he is hitting us again.” Stella’s voice was a shriek.

  Dundee was dead. Fuck me. The girls were unprotected. Completely alone. And some fucking whack job was ramming into them.

  “Fuck, they are on the switchbacks.” Creed growled. He was on his phone obviously bringing them up on his tracker.

  “Mummy, I is scared,” I heard my daughter cry out.

  I looked over at Darth, who was ploughing his fingers through his hair. The look on his face must have mirrored my own, one of complete fucking helplessness. Ever since the day she was born, she had never been without one of us with her. Even when sh
e was with Jason or my parents, one of us was either there or not far away. I could see Darth was on edge. We all were.

  Finally, I heard my woman’s voice, and it was like a mini balm to my savaged soul.

  “Mummy is here, baby girl, and I’m not going to let anything happen to you. I promise, sweetie, I promise. Deck, Deck, honey, I will protect our daughter, I promise,” Charlie cried out from somewhere in the car. Her vow to protect Shiloh broke my heart.

  “Sweetness, I know you will. Baby, tell me what is going on. I need you to tell me everything you are seeing.” I was trying to become the soldier again, but this time, it was harder to compartmentalise. This time, it was my family in danger. Real fucking danger.

  My heart felt like it was being ripped out of my chest.

  “It’s the blue SUV. The same one from the park. He ran down Dundee. Dundee tried everything he could to keep us safe, Deck, but the truck rammed into his back tyre, and he had no chance to save the bike from going down.” Charlie’s words were rushed and high pitched. Then suddenly, she screamed, “Stella, watch out for the other car.”

  We heard the screech of brakes and the girls screaming. Oh, my God, how could this be happening? It was like a horrible nightmare, but we were all awake and having the same one.

  “Stella!” Booth boomed. His knuckles were turning white because of how tightly he clenched them. His jaw was ticking.

  “It’s okay, I got it.” Her voice was unsteady, but we could tell by her tone that she was trying to pull her shit together. Good girl.

  “Stell, it’s Creed, honey. You are nearing a really sharp forty-five-degree bend. Blondie, you can’t take that too quick. You will end up rolling. I want you to gear down, and go at it at about fifty. The truck behind you will have to do the same.” Creed’s voice was calm as he told Stella what to do, but he was anything but. I could see the sweat on his brow and the tick of his jaw. And I knew it was taking him back to the darkest day of his life. This wasn’t going to do anything for his PTSD—or any of ours, for that matter. Not even my worst night terror about that night years ago in Afghanistan came close to how helpless I was feeling right now.

  “I don’t know if I can do this,” Stella cried. Her panic and fear could be felt in the room.

  “Honey, you got this. Please, Stella, you have to drive y’all to safety. Please, honey.” Booth tried to calm her. He was on edge, but I was over it. My whole world was in that truck, and they were being terrorised by someone who used to be our friend and on our team.

  All I knew was when I found the cunt and finally got my hands on him, I would make him pray for mercy before I tore him apart limb by limb.

  “Booth, I—” She didn’t finish, but by the look on Booth’s face, she didn’t have to.

  “I know, honey. Now focus, the sharp bend is coming up.”

  “Daddy, Daddy, please come get me. Darf, Darf, can you come, too, please,” Shiloh cried. I heard a commotion over the noise of the truck’s engine roaring that I couldn’t quite understand, but it sort of sounded like a…

  Oh, God, like a harness being unbuckled.

  Jesus, fuck no.

  “Shiloh, no,” Charlie yelled.

  Darth let out a muffled growl and roared, “Squirt, don’t you fucking dare.”

  “Shiloh, baby, no.” My voice cracked. Oh, sweet Jesus, Shiloh was totally in danger of being thrown through the windscreen if Stella had to brake in a hurry. Fuck, how many times had I told her about that shit?

  “Charlotte, no, get back in the seat. Don’t take off your belt. Charlotte, what are you doing?” Stella was hysterical.

  And I knew why.

  Charlie had taken her belt off and was climbing into the back seat to get to Shiloh. I was a hundred or more kilometres away, but I knew in my gut that was what my beautiful woman was doing. She was protecting our daughter with her very life.

  “Shiloh, Mummy is coming, baby girl. Sit back, please, baby,” Charlie shouted. Her tone was pleading and agitated. Goddamn, that little girl was going to get a paddling after I kissed and hugged the fuck out of her.

  ‘Fuck, I gotta get to them,” I implored the whole group. We were just staring at the phone on the table. Creed, Steel, Mannix, Booth, Darth, and me. All formerly trained killers, specialists in many fields, and all of it was utterly useless to us right now.

  “Sweetness, fucking hell. Sweetness, Shiloh, put your belts on, please,” I screamed, my words garbled. I could feel wetness on my cheeks as tears ran down my face.

  The next noise literally brought me to my knees. It was the sound of a crashing car, and then female screams tortured me. The sound of crunching metal was the last sound before the connection was lost.

  Had I just lost my two reasons for breathing? Oh, my God. I was lost.

  We were all stunned into silence. All of us were still staring at the phone. Ford was the first one to speak. I hadn’t noticed until then that he was on his phone.

  “Deck, I have Lincoln Brand on the way to the scene. He is five minutes from them.” Lincoln was a former drill sergeant we went through commando training with and had retired a few hours from here.

  Arms moved around my waist and hauled me up from my knees. I was surprised to look into Darth’s wet eyes. “Our girl and your woman need us, brother.”

  “Let’s go. I’ll drive.” Booth was already out the door, heading for the main room. I could hear him yelling orders to Vegas and the prospects.

  My mind was all over the place. I just needed to get to where Charlie and Shiloh were. I needed to hold them in my arms.

  “Then pull yourself together, Deck, and I will get you there, brother, I promise,” Darth vowed.

  Shit, I didn’t know I’d said that aloud.

  “Steel, stay here and lock this place down tight. No one in or out. I want two guys on the roof, rifles at the ready. Mannix, lock down the bar and grill and the strip club. Get the dancers and staff home safe. I want Mia and Rainn here. Prospects, stay here. Creed, you and Darth are with us. Steel, get back onto Linc and find out about Dundee.” Booth was in commander mode. He needed to do that to get through it because we really didn’t know what we were going to find when we got to the women.

  They’d better be alive because there wasn’t a place that cunt could hide where we wouldn’t find him.

  It didn’t take us long to grab my truck and get on the road. Creed and Darth were on their bikes. It was where I wanted to be, too, but my wits just weren’t with me. I couldn’t seem to take my heart out of the situation this time. This time, it was too close to home. This time, my daughter and my fiancée were, what? Hurt? Dead? Strewn all over the fucking road because neither of them had their seatbelts on at the moment of impact? The next hour or so was going to do my head in with all the fucked-up scenarios I was coming up with—so Booth decided to drive, which left me to climb inside my head, a place I really didn’t want to be.

  We were only halfway to the scene when Darth’s signal came on to tell us to pull over.

  Why the fuck were we stopping? I just wanted to get to the girls.

  I watched impatiently as Creed climbed off his bike and hurried to Booth’s window, which he was powering down.

  “Gonna take a left half a kilometre down the road. Just got a call from Steel, and the girls are on their way in an ambulance to the local hospital. Linc called and is following them in his car. He said he won’t leave them until we get there.”

  I listened to everything Creed was saying, but I didn’t hear the words I wanted to hear.

  They. Were. Okay.

  “Injuries?” Booth asked, a tiny quiver in his voice. Creed looked down for a second, and his mask slipped just a bit.

  “Stella had her belt on, so she isn’t too bad. A few bruises from being hit in the face by the airbag. Plus, she hit her head on the window. Squirt and Charlotte copped it the worst. Linc was a little vague on the details.”

  Liar.

  He knew but wasn’t telling me. It was too soon for me to kno
w what my girls were going through. I was too far away from them, and losing my shit on the drive was not ideal.

  “Are they conscious?” Just give me that at least.

  “Yes.” One word. Then he turned and took off towards his bike once again. I noticed Darth stayed on his bike the whole time. Knowing him, he probably didn’t want to know until he got where Squirt and the girls were. Like me, he needed his wits about him. Squirt meant more to him than anyone else in the world.

  “Don’t go thinking up shit that ain’t true, Deck. If Squirt was really bad, there was no way Creed would keep that shit to himself. Think on that,” Booth said before powering up his window and pulling back onto the road.

  I didn’t talk anymore. I couldn’t. We were both thinking about what was waiting for us at the hospital.

  When the hospital finally came into view, less than forty minutes later, I was about ready to spit nails. We pulled up next to Creed and Darth, and I threw myself out of the truck.

  By the time we left the compound, the weather had turned, so the poor bastards were probably fucking frozen to the bone. They removed their helmets and were right behind Booth and me as we sprinted our way to the emergency room entrance. As soon as we hit the automatic doors, we clocked Lincoln. He was standing by the security door, obviously waiting for us so he could tell us which direction to go and not have to waste our time at the front desk.

  “Creed, Deck, Booth, Darth. Good to see you boys arrived in one piece. Let’s go back this way. Shiloh and Stella are in triage.”

  I was on him in a millisecond.

  “Where is Charlie?” My heart was beating so fucking hard, it was a wonder no one could actually see my T-shirt moving.

  “They took her off for some tests a minute or so ago. Shiloh won’t calm down for Stella since they took Charlotte. Charlotte was feral when they wouldn’t let her take Shiloh with her. Fucking nearly punched a nurse in the face when she told Shiloh to grow up and do as she was told,” Lincoln said with pride. Proud how my woman, my ballet-dancing, non-swearing, softhearted, soft-spoken woman would protect our girl with such ferocity.