Twisted Steel: An MC Anthology: Second Edition

by Elizabeth Knox

  My throat is so tight, I just nod with a sniffle. The doctor has a warm smile on her face. “If you look at these two faint lines here.” She points with her finger to the stilled image on the screen. “Shows us you are having a baby girl. Get ready, dad, you have a big job coming.”

  “Holy shit, you were right,” Jazzy guffaws.

  Cowboy squeezes my hand and I turn my head. “A really big job.” His thumb runs across my jaw.

  The doctor gives us instructions for our next appointment, and we set it up at the front desk. Jazzy hums as we stop in the parking lot. “You two have to catch up. I’m going to head back to work. Cowboy, I’m so happy you were here.” She’s going to leave, and I can tell she’s being strong, but she needs me. It wasn’t too long ago that she lost her baby. Today had to sting.

  “Hey!” I blurt out and drag her into my embrace. “I love you. Thank you for being here. What the hell was that lesbian-hand-holding-support about?”

  She chuckles, “Well, I’m selfish and I was going to get in that room. Two, it got your stress down because you were worrying yourself over nothing. Yep, two things done and I’m that good.” She winks.

  “You’re also a dork. I can bring two people in with me.”

  “I was not informed, so improv was my go-to. I’ll never leave your side, even when you fight when you shouldn’t. Call me later.” Oh, I get it. She wants the deets on Cowboy and me. She isn’t the only one, because I’m just as confused as she is.

  Cowboy

  I sit across from Angie on the tailgate of my truck. “Why are we up here?” she wonders while glancing around the hills through her large black sunglasses. I spent my life running and today I’m done. Instead, I’m chasing down what scares me the most, facing my fears, and I’m starting with her. Angie is my complete opposite, a girl who grew up in the city, has tattoos, Catholic. Yet, she is my perfect fit. Her background doesn’t matter, it’s how she makes me feel. “Is this the same spot where we hooked up?” Wonder laces her tone and now she really looks around. We were both so drunk and reckless . . . still, I wouldn’t change a thing.

  “Yes, ma’am. I couldn’t take my eyes off you that night at the reception. I did one thing right in a long time. You let me love you that night. I know it was wild and drunk. Ange, you gotta understand, I’ve done things with you I haven’t in a long time. You bring out things in me so easily. I didn’t see it at the time, but for me to bring you up here to drink and have fun was a big step. When I was a kid, Bull and I used to do that all the time, party and hang out in the mountains. You revived a part of me I was working hard at hidin’.”

  “By driving, drinking, and fucking in the mountains?” she asks incredulously. “I’ll never fully understand you country bumpkins.”

  “Yeah, I’ll never understand you city chicks, not knowing what drinking in the mountains is all about. So, I had to show you what you were missin’,” I taunt to rile her up a bit.

  “And I’m so glad you did.” She reaches for my hand this time.

  “I hid away any memories of my past. I wouldn’t relive any of them. Any land full of dirt and wild brings me back to my roots, and in a way, it was a step toward me facing that. It brings me to why I didn’t give you an answer about the baby.” I take my time getting to the next part because she could leave and walk out on me. And now that I know what I want, it’s a real reality. I need to cowboy up and get the hard part over.

  “Angie, I want you to know that when I was in the accident before, bull riding, they told me I couldn’t have kids. The baby you’re carrying can’t be mine. I’m sterile.” Her hand starts to pull away as she gears up to run. Even though we are from the same background, she and I both cover our pain by walking away, but I hold on tighter. “You’re not going anywhere until you hear me out. It’s not that I don’t want kids. Since I was a boy, I’ve wanted a family with kids. After all that shit with my past, I grew bitter and became an asshole I didn’t recognize, until you came walking in with ‘I’m knocked up and it might be yours’.” I raise my voice and mimic her ‘I don’t care’ attitude.

  Angie’s eyebrows skyrocket above her glasses. “Is that how I sounded to you? I’m pretty sure I don’t use that high of a squeaky ass voice. Cowboy . . .”

  “Just teasing you. I love your voice, crazy girl, and I love how you told me with canyon-wide confidence. Point is, I could have told you then. I was confused why I didn’t. If I could steal any time to make believe this crazy, knocked up girl was pregnant with my baby was a fantasy, I wanted to live in for just a bit. Angie, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. I needed some time to get my head on straight. Being around you made that near impossible. I also had to go see Angus and get my shit straight there too. The morning I left, I woke up determined to figure out the man I wanted to be. I went back and saw Angus and Bull. The whole time, I thought, ‘I wonder what Angie would think about this.’ I wanted you to meet Angus. That’s my biggest regret, not taking you with me. My friend passed away knowing he didn’t waste his life and you know what I thought about? You. I came running home, ready to be the man I should be. I want to be in your life and I’m here askn’, Angie, will you be my woman?”

  21

  Angie

  I heard him correctly. I listened to all of it. I understand all but the very end. I feel lightheaded, oh god, I may pass out. I’m devastated. Cowboy is not my baby’s daddy. For about an hour, I had hope and now, I’m fucking crushed.

  “Ange, are you okay?” Cowboy wraps an arm around my back.

  My shoulders shake as I let the tears fall. Pulling off the sunglasses, I try to wipe away the emotion running down my cheeks. Colt pulls me to him, and my face rests against his chest. He rubs his hand up and down my back waiting for me to calm down. “This isn’t fair. I know I put myself in a bad position with what I did. But I wanted it to be you. It’s why I refused to try and figure it out. I just wanted it to be you. Colt, I can’t just date you. I’m having a girl. I’m a mom . . .” The sobbing won’t stop. Is it the pent-up emotions from him being away? The stress of doing it on my own. It rips my chest open in a way I didn’t know it could hurt. All along, I was falling in love with the man and the future I wanted with him. I could picture it all and now it’s gone. My heart is devastated for not only me but her, my baby too.

  “I can’t just date you right now.” I start to pull away, ready to ask him to take me home so I can be alone in my own misery. “If you leave, it will be so much harder for me. Cowboy, I love you. And if you leave her too, it will be even worse.”

  He moves and pulls himself away. The weight of the truck shifts up with him getting off the tailgate. With my sleeve, I wipe my cheeks dry. Cowboy stands in front of me and angles himself between my legs. His hands land on my belly. Lightly, he strokes across the bump holding my baby safe. “You’re not hearing me, love. Angie, I can’t make babies and I was pissed off a long time over it. I want her and I want you. Woman, I’ll marry you today, if it’s what you really want. I was going to wait until I knew you were ready. Hell, Angela Saricco, will you marry me and let me be the baby’s daddy?” He nibbles on my ear. “I also want to take care of these pregnancy hormones I read about. It’s hot as fuck.”

  “Why are you whispering? You really want to marry me?”

  “I don’t want the little one to hear me say dirty things to her momma.” He growls, digging his nails in. “I’ve wanted you since you were a little brat kicking my truck and slamming doors. If I were a smarter man, I would have taken you home. I will never leave you, Angie, I love you.”

  “Colt, we can’t get married, not yet, but maybe someday. Let’s take it a day at a time right now.”

  He chuckles into my neck, “You sound a lot like me, you know that? It’s alright, I understand. I’ll be home to love you and her. I’ll teach you hope and give you dreams. I’m going to be the man to make it all happen.”

  My fingers dig into his jeans. His words tear down my fear and wipe away the pain around my
heart. “You promise? You want us?”

  “Mmhmm. Try and run, I’ll hunt you down every time.” He groans into my neck, and my hands fly up and I hold onto his cut. “What I asked, love, be my real girlfriend, mine.” His teeth scrape across my skin and my head falls back, facing the sky and the sun. The warmth is spreading through my body like an inferno. “I wanna see these tits.” His hands leave my sides and lift my shirt over my head. My boobs threaten to fall out. “Fuck, I hate that I’ve missed a second of this. You are sexy as a momma.” Colt holds my breasts with both hands and kisses the plump roundness before he unsnaps my bra in the back. “You need me, don’t you? All your blood is rushing to these parts of your body. Your hormones are at their peak and need only me to sate them. Love, is your pussy feeling it?”

  “Fuck yes, I need you to take care of all of it,” I plead with no shame. Just as he described, I feel swollen with need and pressure like I never have been in my life.

  Colt helps me lay back on the tailgate, then he rolls my yoga pants and underwear down my legs. My flip-flops fall off and hit the dirt. Out here, I’m completely exposed, not just to the world but for the first time in my life to a man as well.

  He licks and sucks my tits, his tongue swirling around my hard, pebbled nipples. Each flick of his tongue or nip of his teeth makes me squirm for more and plead with whimpers. “Damn, woman, your reactions are what dreams are made of.” He makes his way down to my belly. Momentarily, he stops and suddenly, I feel self-conscious being naked with a round baby bump. But that all disappears when he places one sweet, reverent kiss to her. “She will be mine. Doesn’t matter to me what genetics she got. She came to us how it was meant to be. No doubt in my mind.”

  My hand raises and my fingers glide through the scratchy facial hair at his jaw. “Mine either.” Colt kisses my fingers and releases them. He picks up my knees high and wide. My feet rest on the tailgate’s hot metal and the need coursing through my veins heightens. I shiver as he trails his fingers up the inside of my legs, then Colt trails kisses along the same path.

  “I want you . . .” The time apart was hard, but this is worse. He’s so close, offering me everything and more.

  “You want me to eat this sweet ripe peach? Licking clean all the juices?”

  “Fuck yes, then you.” I groan and my hips roll, inpatient and needy.

  “Yes, ma’am.” And he does, oh my god, he does eat me like he described. His flat, wide tongue covers my pussy at first, claiming my body with his gentle strokes. Colt leaves no part of me un-savored before he focuses on my clit, rolling and playing with it. Slow, then fast, he keeps me on edge. I want to grab his hair and demand he finish me off. My chest heaves deeply with my breaths as my core starts to tighten. Colt slides two fingers inside my pussy and strokes me softly.

  The buildup is so intense, I can’t take much more before it bursts. My body releases the pressure and every contraction is pure bliss. Every wave of my orgasm is like a rush leaving through my pores. It’s a tingly sensation that is all new to me. After the last contraction, Colt kisses the inside of my thigh. “That was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.”

  With a sweet determination, he drops his pants to his knees and strokes his long, thick dick. “There is no other place I want to be more than here, in this hot, sweet, wet cunt.” He lines his cock up to my entrance and slides in. His head falls forward as he mumbles, “Fuckin’ heaven.” Colt makes up for lost time and makes love to me. His strokes are long and blissful, savoring, enjoying the connection of us.

  Sweat beads across his forehead as he grows closer. His rhythm changes to a harder and quicker pace. The movement changes everything. I feel the tightening of my core and so does he as he growls. He takes and gives at the same time, and I love him for it. My body tightens as the second orgasms racks through me and milks him.

  Colt cusses and then stills while he spills himself deep inside of me, reuniting us and washing away the doubt. My man is back and with him he brought devotion. Hope blossoms in my heart and it’s because of this man. He has given me love.

  22

  Cowboy

  I strut into the Battle Born MC clubhouse like a new man. When I first got here years ago, the club was shaken up by the men who led the group prior. I didn’t know if I would stay or not. Then Blade and his crew took over. The problem was I never fully committed and stayed in a stagnant state of nowhere. It was comfortable here.

  Until it wasn’t.

  Angie changed the way I saw myself. Little by little, she resuscitated a dead man. I breathed air for the first time. She tossed me on my ass, along with my old friend, Angus. The two of them really pushed me to be better. Now, walking into the building, I know where I want to belong—with the men who stood behind me at all costs.

  I head straight for the garage and find Tank, Axl, Saint, Blade, Spider, and Pawn waiting for me. Each of them hold up a beer. “Welcome home,” Tank bellows. I take the extra seat and a beer. “Well, are you ready?”

  “For?”

  “Your first Team Building, of course,” Tank mock scolds. “So, let us have it. What are your blues, bank, and bitch status looking like?”

  “Are you sure you’re ready to hear about the last thirty years or so of my life?” I raise a brow and look them all in the face. Not one flinches or goes to move. “Okay then, here it goes . . .” I tell them about all of it from start to finish. There are many beers passed around and the garbage can fills higher and higher as we drink and toss them away, each one comparable to throwing out old pasts and issues. I wanted to hide the fact that the baby Angie is carrying isn’t mine, but I hold nothing back. I tell them all the truth, every dirty detail of it up until an hour ago when I dropped Angie off at work after our afternoon picnic in the mountains.

  I stunned them into silence. No one moves as I chug the last of my beer. The buzz starts to come on stronger the longer I wait for them to say anything.

  “You almost left us?” Saint asks, confused. “I know this whole time I thought you were doing okay. I mean, you had your own way of doing shit, I didn’t mind.”

  “No,” Blade steps in. “He was always here with us. Cowboy needed to trace his path just to see he made it to where he always belonged in the first place. I think we all do it at times, go back and check ourselves. It was his journey.”

  “You knew he would come back?” Pawn questions.

  “The Cowboy sitting here never left. He needed to go back, drop off his old baggage, and get back here. He dropped off the man he was and came back stronger. One I’m happy for, because he’s not being two men anymore. Now, he’s the man he believes in.”

  Tank nods along. “I hear you, brother. I gotta say I’m fucking proud of you stepping up for Angie. I know what it’s like to have a kid not of your blood but who’s your kid because you choose them.”

  “Fuck,” Pawn adds, “Tami took in my son and made him her son. By the time she was done loving that boy, you would have never known. I’m happy for you, Cowboy.”

  I nod along, their words meaning a whole hell of a lot. “I believe all you mentioned helped me to see it. It was right in front of me, the things you all went through, but Angie cracked my chest open and made me feel the difference.”

  “Deep, brother. And that’s exactly why we have our Ol’ Ladies, to keep us in check with the shit that really makes a man get up and do what he needs to.” Tank holds up his beer. “To the women that put the B in a beautiful life.”

  “Every fuckin’ breath I take,” Axl adds, and we toast for the best parts of our lives—the women who hold strong and stand against the harsh weather with us.

  “Just to be sure, what happens in Team Building stays in Team Building, and mention of the Ol’ Ladies never, and I mean NEVER, leaves the group. Understood?” Several laughs and ayes are devoted to the commitment of never leaking out club secrets. “Now that we got that out of the way, we have a surprise for you.” Tank stands off to the side and pulls a rag from over a table. “It�
�s time you earned your patch.” On the tray is ink and a tattoo gun. “It’s been a long time coming and no one in our clubhouse but Blade gives them. You ready?”

  “Hell yes.” A few chairs are maneuvered, and I pull my cut and shirt away from my body, exposing my back. Blade sits behind me, placing the stencil of the Battle Born MC wolf logo on my back. He adds the words ‘You’re not born until you battle’ and then the date. It’s one I will never forget, the day I took on a life I’m more than proud of.

  My MC family stays with me until it’s done. They’ve been here all along, my ride or die brothers. “There is one more thing we need to do. Who’s ridin’ with me?” I have plans I need to prepare and I want to share them with my brothers.

  Angie

  “I have a surprise for you.” Colt’s hands come around and gently hold my stomach, resting his chin on my shoulder. I set down the scissors in my hand on my workspace at the shop.

  I don’t notice it right away, but then it hits me. “Your cast is gone. How exciting.” Gently, I run my hand up his previously injured arm. It’s in a lighter brace, but you can see how much his arm has changed while wearing it. It’s noticeably thinner than the other one and his skin is pale.

  “I’m going back to work next week. I’ll be gone on a long haul to try and catch up for lost time.” This time he rubs our little girl and talks to her, “I’m gonna miss you, my lil’ bit. You gotta be good for momma while I get work done.” He kisses my cheek, and I turn around in his arms.