Eye for an eye (The Nighthawks MC Book 5)

by Bella Knight

  After the bikers lined up to watch Georges go into the ATF office, they took off. They went to a Mexican restaurant, and took over half of it. They ate platters of burritos and tacos, rice and beans, and pitchers of beer and sodas, and talked about rides —the Redwood Forest, Pacific Coast Highway, Tijuana, and Death Valley. Ivy filled them in on the New Orleans trip —the ride; San Antonio, the French Quarter, the heat, the beautiful buildings, the food, the river.

  They knew about the kidnapping, so she went into that, then the trip back, adopting way too many dogs, and Ace and Lily’s dog-training business, along with his son.

  “We’ve told Keiran about his dad. They’ve Skyped. He’ll see him soon.”

  “Whatever you need,” said Skuld.

  “Ditto,” said Rota.

  “Sisters,” Ivy said, and raised her Coke to them. They raised theirs back.

  Afterward, they rode through the California high desert back to Vegas. They went up to Pahrump, where Callie waited at a truck stop. Ivy pulled up, leaned over, and kissed her.

  “What happened to Elena?” asked Ivy.

  “With Henry at the ranch. The rabbits were a huge draw.”

  “Poor guy,” said Ivy. “Had a day off, then bam! Another kid.”

  “Just like us,” said Callie. “Come on. Let’s go to Lake Mead and pitch a tent.”

  “We’ll go to Lake Havasu,” said Skuld. They clasped forearms, then Callie took Ivy to the lake. They went to the overlook, and held hands.

  “I confess,” said Ivy. “I drank a Coke.”

  Callie mock-glared at her. “Wild woman,” she said.

  “Wild woman I am,” said Ivy.

  “How did it feel?” asked Callie. “Seeing that lawyer arrested?”

  “Fantastic,” said Ivy, putting her arms around Callie, her chin on her shoulder.

  They looked out over the cliff to the sparkling water below. “So, what are we going to name these babies?” asked Callie.

  “Kiya and Mateo,” said Ivy.

  “Kiya and Aiden,” said Callie.

  “Aiden Sawyer and Kiya Aaliya,” said Ivy.

  “Perfect,” said Callie. They kissed, and watched the sun go down.

  Callie and Ivy left the girls with Bao, and went down on the bikes to pick up Keiran and Pavel from their school in Arizona. The boys were in front, ready with their backpacks.

  “Who’s taking care of the dogs?” asked Ivy, as she helped them put their packs in the saddlebags.

  “We have investors,” said Pavel. “They will stay.”

  “Good,” said Callie. “Hop on.” Pavel got behind Callie, and Keiran behind Ivy.

  They took it at a steady pace, stopping for fries, Cokes, and burgers along the way. They went straight to the hospital. The boys claimed Numa’s room, with the addition of another bed. She took the nanny cam with her, relying on the boys to check on them often.

  Lily was able to walk around and shower and feed herself. Ace was much better, the bones of his ribs and scapula healing nicely. His arm was still immobilized, but he was far stronger and able to move around some. The boys brought video games, and Lily let Numa take her to her own home. Callie gave her the dogs back, and Numa went home to the farm.

  Lily stood in the doorway of the baby’s room. She looked at the crib and touched the blankets hanging over the side. She sat in the rocking chair and wept.

  Katya came by, letting herself in. She found Lily in the baby’s room, still crying. “Hush,” she said, hugging her. “You will have another baby. Ace must recover first, no?”

  “The doctors don’t want me getting pregnant for a long time,” she said, wiping her eyes.

  “So, I am surrogate. We wait until broken bones heal, no? Ace must be able to carry baby.”

  Lily smiled. “I heard you had two babies, right there where I was passed out on the drugs after surgery. And I didn’t hear a thing!”

  Katya waved her hand. “My boobs, they are big, but my body much smaller,” she said. “We Russian peasant women have two babies, no problem.”

  “Good,” said Lily. “Are you sure? What about dealing with your babies?”

  “I am already nursing, and eat much food. Do not worry. You must rest, heal. Then, you must take shots to harvest eggs. Come. You must sleep in your own bed with dog. You will feel better in morning.”

  Waking up in her own bed, with a dog curled up on her toes. Alone at last, without doctors and nurses, and well-meaning friends stopping by. Lily felt much better. She was alone, and she intended to stay that way. The next morning, she ate a breakfast pastry and drank orange juice. She cleaned, dusted, did laundry, pitched a pile of junk mail, and straightened up the house. She walked one dog at a time, slowly, not allowing them to pull on the lead. She ordered delivery food from two different places, because she didn’t want to choose. She ate both potato pesto gnocchi, and orange chicken for lunch, and had a pain pill. She took a nap, then read a book. All in blessed, blessed silence.

  She took on the club’s books remotely, going over what Cougar had done. She paid the taxes and bills, and paid her own bills; stunned at the influx of money in her account, specifically the medical bills not covered by insurance. She then paid Ace’s hospital bills, with the large amount of money in his account. She called a house cleaner, and within an hour, two women were scrubbing the house to within an inch of its life. She took the dogs on their slow walks again, then laid down to rest on the couch, book in hand. Still, everything was quiet. She slept on the couch, dogs at her feet. Life wasn’t good, but it was getting better.

  She decided it was time to bite the bullet. First, she called the fertility clinic and made an appointment. She went in for a consultation. The doctor was very kind.

  “I am Doctor Ingan. I am so sorry this happened to you. The earliest we would want to harvest eggs would be in two months. We want to be sure you’re completely healed, and it will give more time for your husband to heal.”

  “Okay,” said Lily.

  “You have a surrogate?” asked Doctor Ingan.

  “Yes, our friend. She just had twins, apparently in the room where I was sleeping off my surgery. I didn’t hear a thing. The midwife apparently arrived just in time to play catch. She calls herself a ‘strong, Russian, peasant woman.’”

  “An excellent candidate, and enough time for her to heal from the births, too,” said the doctor.

  “We’ve got other friends, too, that work as motorcycle mechanics,” said Lily. “Apparently, their wombs are already being rented.”

  “I think I know who they are,” said the doctor. “See me in four weeks and we’ll start you on the injections.”

  “Excellent,” said Lily. “This isn’t how I wanted to go about it, but I’ll take what I can get.”

  She decided to bite the other bullet. She texted Katya, then went to see the babies. She had a few tears holding Luka, and a few more with Ivan. Both babies stared into her eyes with blue-eyed certainty. Ivan moved more, and Luka was stronger and more serious.

  “My God,” said Lily. “Their personalities are already there.”

  “But of course,” said Katya, burping Ivan. He let out a long, low burp. She put him back on the breast, and he ate hungrily once more. “Ivan will be soccer champion. Luka will be scientist, make cure for cancer.”

  Lily laughed. “Sure,” she said. “Or maybe the other way around. There are weightlifting scientists out there, you know.”

  Katya laughed. “Yes, of course.”

  “The doctor says we can work on harvesting the eggs in four weeks.”

  “This is good,” said Katya. “Now, rest, heal. I pop out healthy babies.”

  Luka yawned, nestled against Lily’s breast, and fell asleep. “I already love them so much,” said Lily.

  “You be godparents, with Ace,” said Katya. “Christening supposed to happen earlier, but babies get sick.”

  Lily teared up even more. “I would be so honored.”

  “Pah,” said Katya. “I Russian
peasant woman, I live until my children have children, and theirs have children as well.”

  “Life is precious,” said Lily.

  “Yes,” said Katya, burping Luka again. “But there will be no more shootings. I not have babies in hospital where my friends have been shot. I have babies at home, with midwife. Less problems.”

  “Okay,” said Lily. “Okay.”

  Lily went home. Nantan was there when she drove up. “I bring gifts,” he said.

  “Good,” said Lily. “I didn’t want to shop.”

  He put away the produce and fruit, already sliced and diced in little containers; hand-baked oat fruit bars, and three kinds of cookies.

  “Thank you,” she said. “In fact, let me pay you to come back once a week. I hate zucchini, broccoli, and cauliflower.”

  “Good to know,” said Nantan.

  “I can be your accountant,” said Lily. “I know you do it for Bianca and Aquene, but I think you need to automate what you do and move online. And, I think you lost your accountants.”

  Nantan rolled up the sacks. “I did,” said Nantan. “Excellent idea,” he said. “Let’s talk money.”

  “Let’s talk groceries,” said Lily, opening her laptop on the kitchen table.

  They hammered out a logo, the prices for everything including the animal feed and alpaca manure after a consultation with the sisters, and an hourly for Lily’s work that included groceries. Nantan agreed to stop off and get seafood and meat for her specifically, and to add a ten percent delivery fee and to subtract it from her fees. He gave her access to his spreadsheets, hugged her, and left.

  Lily took her laptop over to the recliner with a cola. She sat down, swung over the little computer table and put the computer on it. Next, she put the soda in the hole for sodas in the arm of the chair, plugged in the computer, and got to work.

  She hired an online logo company to make the logo for correspondence, billing, and labels. She downloaded all the forms she would need —correspondence, billing, labels, and Nantan’s spreadsheet. She cleaned it up and imported it into the billing program, and input the pricing sheet. Nantan swung back to drop off the meat, already marinated, and put it away. He loved the work she’d done, and went home.

  She took a break, and ate green salad and fruit salad. Then, she read a book, and went to sleep in her recliner. It was so nice not to be in a bed.

  She borrowed Callie’s car to pick up Ace and the boys. Ace was put on the other recliner, and the boys got into vicious video game wars with Ace. He often dropped out to sleep, as he was still weak, but he had fun with the boys. Lily put earplugs in and went about her accounting work. She talked to Cougar and Ivy, and they split up chores. Cougar or Ivy would enter the income information, scan in the bills of lading from the orders, and make the money drops, and Lily would do everything else.

  Lily wondered, at first, why she didn’t want to work at the bar anymore, and she realized she now valued silence. She also wanted to work at home.

  The logo came back and Nantan loved it. Lily set up a website, and a way for Nantan to merge his data on what was available for sale on his own spreadsheets. She put it online. Since he had lots of kids to chop veggies and fruit for, she decided veggies and fruit should be sold in containers that the customers would wash and send back. The customers would buy two sets of containers, so one would be in use and Nantan would have the other set. Lily ordered fifteen sets of forty containers, and worried that would be too much. She also ordered knives, an electric chopper and shredder, and tote bags with the logo on them. She ordered labels for the containers as well. The teens would have to wash the containers and apply the labels to the lids. She had it all shipped to Nantan.

  The next day, she was stunned to find the orders pouring in. She called the farm, and Nantan said the containers had already arrived and were being washed. Lily pushed on the label printer to have them delivered that day, by paying a little more. The kids chopped up the ordered fruits and vegetables, filled up the containers, and put blank labels on the sides they wrote on with special pens with what was inside. They filled up the bags. They delivered on-res by horse, and filled up Nantan’s truck for the off-res deliveries. Nantan realized he needed a delivery van. He was delighted to find he could order one online. He then set about getting all the teens without a driver’s license to get a temporary one, and get them to pass the test. He then required all of them to take business and accounting courses so they could understand the business —or any business they chose for themselves.

  The teens got into the delivery service. The horse training ones loved deliveries; they got special cooling saddlebags to carry the food to people on the res. They became called the “Farm Pony Express.” Wolfpack members Yoki, Lena, and Elu decided to bake five-grain bread and make veggie sandwiches to add to the online menu, and they sold very well.

  The Wolfpack teens also worked with Tito; Callie hired them for her yellow living room. She got in a moon suit, and they went for it in the kitchen. Then, they went for a soft blue in the living room, and tore out and replaced the old bathroom sink with a double basin so all the bathrooms had two sinks. Hu and a repentant Grace helped make decisions about the last of the home improvements.

  Callie and Ivy gave them a limited say in the babies’ room. They didn’t understand that babies needed bassinets and cribs, not their own pods. They decided upon a soft yellow, and pictures of cute animals on the wall. The babushkas came up with gorgeous furniture. The girls got to rub stain into it; it was unfinished. They loved the task. Callie decided on a cherry stain that really brought out the color of the wood.

  Ace finally came home from the hospital. It seemed strange at first, for Lily to spend her days at home with Ace. She took them all to the lake for a break, then took them back in Callie’s car. She came back, and found Ace working on doing anything he could, one-handed. He got into house chores, cleaning and disposing of things, walking and grooming the dogs and training them, and learning from Killa how to do the harnesses for the dogs. He found out he could do a lot of the work one-handed. He also learned more Spanish and some Paiute. She learned with him, and they began to take on overflow of the harnesses during busy periods. Lily found two more clients, after setting up her own website with a logo of a stylized spreadsheet.

  Lily started her shots, tiny needles she could shoot into her stomach or thighs. Then there were three large shots, and then she went in to have her eggs harvested. They got ten; Ace made terrible jokes about being unable to hold a magazine in one hand while filling up the cup with the other. They got seven viable embryos; Ace was insufferable, making jokes about his powerful swimmers. They implanted two embryos in Katya, and froze the rest for later.

  A week later, Katya peed on a stick and then visited the clinic, and Ace and Lily were officially knocked up. Ace and Lily went on a ride with the Nighthawks to Lake Havasu to celebrate. Inola, Bella, and the thundering herd of teenagers had the babies, Ivan and Luka. They doted on them even more than the rabbits, who were shedding fur like mad, and collected the fur that Numa left to be washed and carded later, as she was on the trip, too. They invited Skuld, Rota, and the other Valkyries, as well as any Iron Knights who wanted to go.

  Ace seethed that he had to be in Henry’s sidecar, but once the juddering of the ride made him sore, he calmed down and realized it was better for him. They hung out at the falls, and those that wanted to, went paddle boarding on the gorgeous blue water. Lily went, and spent a lot of time sitting or kneeling rather than standing, but she made it, feeling at peace in the canyons. Katya and Gregory spent a lot of time kissing, and resting in the sun. It was a gorgeous day, and an even more gorgeous night. They took over the entire wraparound patio at a local restaurant, and ate seafood, watching the sun go down. Some left, but those that wanted to, pitched tents, lit a fire, made s’mores, sang songs, and talked until the pale light of dawn.

  Killa and Ghost met with Amalie and Jayla, a lesbian couple that wanted to rent Killa’s womb, in a
coffee shop in the middle of Vegas. Amalie was a professor at UNLV. She was tall, with snapping black eyes and a halo of curly brown hair. She wore a teal shirt and black, silk pants. Jayla worked at a clothing boutique. She was wiry and obviously worked out; with close-cropped, thin, blonde hair and wide-set of soft brown eyes.

  “We’re mixed,” said Amalie. “We’re kind of the United Nations —I’m Caribbean and Sioux, believe it or not, and Jayla’s mother is from Ghana and her father from Hawaii. We have great eggs, but I have fibroids and Jayla was born without a uterus. We have a great sperm donor, a family friend. We have embryos, and we’d like a surrogate that wants to have more than one of our kids, so both our eggs get used.”

  “I can do that,” said Killa. “Ghost be knocked up with twins. I was holdin’ off to be sure Ghost was okay.”

  “So, you’re Harley mechanics?” asked Jayla.

  “Yeah,” said Ghost. “We be wearin’ masks, and now we got gloves. We specializin’ in puttin’ together kits, mostly three-wheelers. An’ we got our GEDs. Bonnie, she run our garage, an’ Henry, he run da school, dey say we gotta get licensed, then get some business degree. So, we takin’ half days at the community college. Bonnie say she not gonna live forever, so we gotta be ready to run da shop on our own.”

  “Good,” said Amalie. “We both can coach you with the business classes, if you want.”

  “Dat be good,” said Killa. “When you wanna start? Da clinic say, I be ready next week.”

  Jayla grabbed Amalie’s hand. “We can’t afford as much as other people hiring surrogates. Why are you willing to take less money?”

  “We already gotta job. And, we gotta condo. We good,” said Ghost.