Old Ladies Club Book 3: Rebel Guardians MC (The Old Ladies Club)

by Darlene Tallman

  “The cord?” Stormie questions, referring to the umbilical cord still attached to the placenta and her daughter.

  Sidney looks up at Stormie. “It’s completely up to you. Some studies have shown different benefits to leaving the cord attached for a longer period. Your call, but Stormie, I’ve got to stitch you up some. It’s going to be painful,” she warns.

  “Jen!” Justice roars as I can hear him tossing debris outside of the closet. I can hear all the men calling out and in unison, we all answer them back.

  Cries from in here erupt before the door is ripped completely from its hinges. Justice, Joker and Ace all stop once they see the blood and carnage on this side of the door.

  Justice grabs Cami from my arms and pulls Leo and I into his arms tightly. I can hear Sidney asking how they got here and telling Joker that Stormie and the baby both need medical attention. Justice looks over his shoulder toward them. “Burke’s brought us in the police boat. Yeah, I said boat.” He looks back and down at me.

  “These two need to go first,” Sidney demands. “Stormie, we should probably go ahead and cut the cord now.”

  “Can he?” Stormie asks, and I peek underneath Justice’s arm and see her looking at Joker who’s kneeled down beside her, looking like all the color has drained from his face. “Well, don’t just stare at me. Meet your daughter, you fool! Oh, and after you’re done, cut the cord. I did all the other hard work. Don’t worry, it was as awful as you can probably imagine. She’s definitely got your personality.”

  I giggle as I wipe my tear-stained cheeks and bury my face back into Justice’s chest.

  Savanna

  I stand against a wall and in almost complete shock as the men barrel through. I’m so relieved that it looks like Stormie and the baby are going to be okay. Watching her give birth only serves to remind me just how much I never want to fucking do that.

  “Where’s Ty? Is everyone okay?” I ask in general to any of the men who will answer as I watch Joker cut the umbilical cord and squirm. I’m not sure why, but this whole thing was like a trainwreck that I couldn’t peel my eyes from.

  “I’m right here, blondie,” Ty’s warm and soothing voice catches my attention and I leap into his arms. “And yes, everyone is now officially accounted for, plus one.” He smiles as he presses his lips to mine.

  “Okay, men! Move it! Clara, you carry the baby. Joker, you carry Stormie,” Sidney begins to bark out demands.

  “I’ve got careflight on its way. Now, I’ll have to drive us about a quarter mile to a safe landing zone for them, but I called in a favor on Don’s behalf...just in case,” Burkes says, stopping Sidney. “We’ve only got one, but since we were hit the worst, they’re sending in help from other areas. Estimated arrival time is, well fuck me. Let’s go!” He begins to bark out orders of his own.

  “Y’all need any extra help?” Ty asks Joker and Burkes. Both men shake their head, answering no. Ty nods back to them. “Congrats, man!” He pats Joker on the back as he walks by carrying Stormie.

  Joker turns his head over his shoulder and whispers, “I’m not sure, man. I think this one here wants to chop my balls off.”

  I laugh into the side of Ty’s face as I take in his scent. He smells like sweat, leather, and a wet dog, but what a beautiful scent it is.

  My father and Vault come walking in. “We were waiting out here,” my father says before Sidney runs up to Vault and their reunion begins.

  “You’re shaking,” Vault says to Sidney and she looks up at him as she thins her lips.

  “Well, I’m so happy to see you too.” She pulls away from him and I can tell we’re about to see a new and different side to her that we’ve not been privy to before.

  “Well, if you’d just delivered a baby that was a whole month early and had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck and not fucking breathing at first...you might be a little shaky too!” She smacks his chest before she turns her back to him.

  He places his hands upon her shoulders and pulls her back into him from behind. “I’m so sorry. Damn, that’s a lot, and you’re a fucking hero. Under all that pressure, you saved two lives with your bare hands.”

  Tears slip and fall endlessly from Sidney’s eyes as she turns back around and nuzzles her head into Vault’s chest. She turns her face sideways, resting her cheek on his chest. “And I’m not even an obstetrician,” she mumbles, as the tears still stream down her face.

  “We had no power. No cell service, and Stormie went into labor! So fucking much for a generator! Please tell me again why we have one if it doesn’t work?” Jenalyn asks Justice and I turn to see a puzzled look cross his face.

  “Wait, the generator never kicked on? I mean, we also had zero cell service. It kept cutting in and out, but I was certain at least y’all had the generator,” he tells her with a still perplexed look on his face.

  “No,” Tess interrupts. “How much battery do you have left on your phone, Jenalyn? We need to get a message to the other women that we’re all okay.”

  Jenalyn looks at her phone before handing it over. “Good idea.” She looks back at Justice. “We even tried getting a hold of them to see if they could get a message to y’all. It was, well, crazy, Jus. We were all trying to stay calm, but Stormie was in preterm labor, we had no electricity, the kids were hysterical, and…” She stops as the toll of the evening hits her hard and she begins to sob as she falls forward into Justice’s chest. The kids are no longer crying, and you can see the muscles clench on his arms as he holds her tight.

  My brother’s eyes begin to water, and I watch as he publicly lets several tears slip before he firmly presses his lips onto Jenalyn’s head. “I know, my everything, I fucking know, and I’m so damn sorry. I had moments that I let the worst creep into my thoughts and, well, poor Heavy caught the end of that when I lost my temper.”

  I crawl down Ty’s body and feel my feet hit the ground. “You said everyone was okay,” I remind him.

  Never turning to look at me, he just replies, “Oh, he’s okay. He’s got a broken nose. Not something we all haven’t had before. He was doing his best to make light of the situation, and you know how he can get. I hit him before I had a chance to second guess my actions.”

  Placing my hands upon my hips I shake my head. “A recurring theme for you, Brother.”

  “Listen up,” my father interrupts. “The good news is that we’re all safe and alive. Hell, we’ve even added a family member. The bad news is, our town is destroyed. Even the clubhouse needs a makeover, but it’s not nearly in as bad of shape as this place.”

  “What about y’alls bikes?” I question, almost afraid to hear the answer to that one.

  “You know, the garage didn’t look like it took too much damage. We parked all the bikes in there before the storms ever hit. I’m not one-hundred percent sure, though. Y’all were our top priority. We can check the bikes once we’re back there and everyone is settled.” My father walks up to me and pulls me into an embrace. “I’m so happy you’re okay, Vanna.”

  “Okay, the women have been going crazy posting and asking for updates. I just posted a general message letting them know we’re all safe and alive, but our town is basically demolished. I told them we’d update more once we got somewhere safer,” Tess announces.

  My father releases me and I look up at him. “I’m happy you’re okay too, Daddy.” Pulling away, I walk over to Ty and wrap my arms around his waist, leaning my body into his.

  Burkes comes back and tells us that Stormie, baby, Joker and family all made into the helicopter safely. “Women and children first,” he tells us, gesturing for us to follow him but Justice makes some sort of growling noise.

  “Oh, fuck no. Women, their children, and men is how this is gonna go. At least for me and mine. I’m not being separated from them. You’ve lost your fucking mind if you think otherwise,” he tells Burkes.

  “Same here, man.” Ace pulls his family closer into his body.

  Burkes looks at my father who shrugs h
is shoulders. “Don’t look at me. I don’t blame them one bit.”

  “Fine, Ace and company, follow me. Hell, we can add one more. Come on, Casper,” Burkes says.

  Ace looks at Justice who nods, silently giving him permission to take his family first. Slowly but surely, all of us are accounted for, and eventually back at the clubhouse.

  Five

  Cara

  “Cara?”

  I turn and seeing Braxton coming toward me, I stand and meet him halfway, going up on my tiptoes to give him a kiss. With all of us down in the bunker, I’ve had to keep my man at arm’s length. In fact, the other women who have kids are in the same boat and if we’re going to be down here much longer, we’re going to have to figure something out. Growly bikers who are horny isn’t a good environment for the kids. “What’s up, Braxton?”

  “Me and the guys are going upstairs to see what’s what. You ladies need to stay down here, but if everything’s good, we can hopefully all go home in the next day or so.”

  “That’s awesome news!” I tell him, relishing how I feel curled in his strong arms. “I’ve been uh...missing you.”

  “Feeling’s mutual, sweetheart. I think that’s the case with everyone which is why Smokey smacked Hatch this morning.”

  Yeah, that had been fun to witness...not! One second, we’re all at the table eating and the next, the two grown-ass men are wrestling and rolling around on the ground. It took Chief, Twisted, Law and Braxton to pull the two apart. While Bandit didn’t help, he glowered at Hatch for at least an hour. “If we can’t, we may need to think of something, because it’s not just the guys who are getting antsy. DJ snapped at Hannah last night.”

  “Well, that explains why Smokey was so pissed off, then. Regardless, I’ll deal with them when we have church. I think a hefty fine might do wonders.”

  “But, if it started with the old ladies then shouldn’t I handle it?”

  “Um, no. We’re responsible for your behaviors so if DJ was mouthing off to Hannah, her old men have a right to take it up with Hatch. But there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about it, and they chose poorly.”

  “I don’t want this to divide us, Braxton. We’re a damn family!”

  “Sweetheart, it won’t. All will get resolved and be just fine. And, this situation has shown me that we need to renovate a bit more, maybe put two kids’ rooms up, one for each sex, and that’ll allow the adults to have privacy.”

  I can’t help it, I start laughing. Regardless of the storms that may rage, these bikers are gonna wanna get them some! He mock growls at me before giving me a quick kiss and swatting me on the ass. “Gotta go. Love you.”

  “Love you more.”

  Hannah

  I’ve stayed in our ‘room’ since DJ yelled at me last night. I know everyone is going stir crazy but it’s not my fault that they’re sharing a room with four kids, for fuck’s sake! I guess she heard us the other night even though we tried to be quiet, and her snarky, ‘Well, at least some of us aren’t being too inconvenienced’ really hurt my feelings.

  Looking at my phone, I see that we’ve had some responses to our post letting everyone know what’s been happening with us. Opening up a new message, I quickly type out I think our men are going to be checking out our town and houses so hopefully, we’ll be able to go home in the next few days.

  “Hannah?” Smokey asks, walking into our room. “Doll, you need to eat.”

  “I’m not hungry, babe. I’ll eat later.” Looking closely at him, I see his eye is swollen shut.

  “What the hell happened to you?” I question, standing and going to him to lightly touch his face. “Who did this? Did you already go out and something fall on you?”

  “Hatch did it.”

  “Hatch? Why?” I can’t understand why one of his brothers would do that to him.

  “Because I told him this morning that if his old lady didn’t keep her opinion to herself, I’d make it happen somehow.”

  “What? Oh my God, I can’t believe how...how caveman-like you are! I’m sure she didn’t mean it, and even though my feelings are hurt, I’ll get over it.”

  “Nope. We told you that no one would ever hurt you again.”

  “Smokey...you can’t go around fighting with anyone and everyone who hurts me!”

  “Well, the next time it happens, if it happens, Bandit’ll handle it.”

  “Oh for crying out loud! That’s just ridiculous.”

  “Not as far as we’re concerned, it’s not. Although it’ll probably cost me.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “Oh, I’m sure Axe will impose a fine of some sort. And really, I expected that Hatch would talk to me when I asked what crawled up DJ’s ass last night to have her going at you like she did.”

  “Everyone’s just stressed. Hell, even the animals are a bit stir crazy,” I reply, pointing to where Jester and Duckie are chasing each other around our room.

  “They’re always like that, what’s the difference?”

  “The difference is they don’t usually hiss and growl at one another.” I see his eyebrow raise at my comment and I nod.

  “Yep. So, while I’m not privy to their private lives, I can only imagine that a couple cooped up in a room with four kids has had zero time for any kind of physical intimacy. I’m embarrassed that she heard us the other night and that’s where it all came from is all.”

  “It’s my...no, our job to protect you. And what she did reflects on Hatch, so there’s that as well.”

  I can’t even with him right now so I merely nod. I’d rather the conversation be changed because I know DJ will come to her senses again and all will be right with us.

  “Go...do your thing with your brothers. I’ll wait until later to go out.”

  I hop in the shower and relax my muscles. The stress has me tied up in knots, and not wanting to ask my guys to massage me in case it is interpreted in another way, since I can’t help but moan when their hands are on me, however they are being used for.

  I’m sitting on the bed reading with both Duckie and Jester curled at my feet when Bandit storms into the room. “You okay?” I ask, putting my ereader aside.

  “Stupid fucking son-of-a-bitch!”

  My eyebrows raise at how vehement his words sound. “Babe? What the hell is going on?”

  “Well, I know you know that Smokey and Hatch got into it this morning over what DJ said to you last night.”

  “Yeah, so why are you so upset?”

  “Because the fucker got fined for fighting! He should’ve thought things through before he laid hands on Hatch, we all know the consequences for those actions. Although...if I’m being honest, I wanted to throw a few punches myself. No one disrespects you or hurts you. Anyhow, it’s kinda club business, but since you were involved, I’m going to fill you in. Axe fined Hatch twice...once for fighting and once for his old lady’s behavior. Smoke was fined for fighting. I get why we have these rules because we shouldn’t be fighting with our brothers for fuck’s sake, but dammit, he shoulda remembered that we’ve got that trip for the three of us planned!”

  “How much was the fine?” I ask, my mind conjuring up off-the-wall numbers.

  “Five thousand dollars for each infraction.”

  “Five...five thousand?” I can’t even grasp that because of this, two men are going to shell out fifteen thousand dollars.

  “Yeah, but it’ll actually go to do some good. Axe said that if one of your friends’ clubs got hit really hard, he would donate that money to them to help rebuild.”

  “Holy shit,” I gasp, still upset about Smokey fighting, but at least the money will go to a good cause.

  “And while we are out looking around, we all decided that if they need hands to help, we’ll go as a club. We’ve got the equipment to help rebuild and with the skills we all have, we can likely make a difference. Plus, maybe you ladies can meet one another. If we feel it’s safe enough for y’all to go, that is.”

  “Really?” Oh
my goodness, that would be epic! Well, not the destruction part, of course, but maybe getting the chance to meet some of the women I’ve been talking to online would be fanfreakingtastic.

  “Yes, really. Now, you and I are going to take a little ‘nap’, okay?” I wanna roll my eyes at his euphemism for us getting busy in the sheets.

  “Well, then, hurry up so we can ‘nap’ before anyone has anything bitchy to say!” I state.

  “After this morning, I don’t think anyone would say a word even if the three of us got busy in the middle of the common area.”

  “Uh, that’ll never happen. Just saying, babe.”

  “Enough talk. Time to nap.”

  Six

  Bailey

  We’ve been so busy today and I know that it’s got to go our way. The girls all met and we now have a list of different ways that we can raise money to help the other clubs, and their towns, with any damage they may have suffered at the hands of the storm that just tore through several areas. Grim and the rest of the guys need to let us do this to help them out.

  Walking into my house, I check my phone before doing anything else. I see that a few of the girls have checked in and I feel myself relax a little bit. I’ve been so uneasy and worried about them that the stress overload has caused me to feel like shit the last few days. I quickly type out a post before setting my phone down and going to relax for a little while.

  ‘I’m so glad that everyone is accounted for and doing well. We are working on ways that we can raise money to help you all out. We’re taking it to our men in a few hours so we’ll let you know what happens. From there, we’ll decide where to put the money and how much. I’m glad to know that it’s mainly debris. Please continue to check in when you can, and know that we’re all here for you.’