They weren’t from the ladies.
They weren’t from Judge or Deacon.
No.
They came from Cage.
They started almost two weeks ago. About a month after she left.
The first one was a picture of what looked like a nursery. Her own room was the simple caption.
Two days later came a closeup photo of Dyna about to bawl. She had the red face, the trembly bottom lip and the big fat tear ready to spill over. That text read: She needs you.
That one tore out her heart.
A few minutes later: I need you, too, with a selfie of an unsmiling Cage attached.
The next day she got a picture of Dyna smiling.
The next day brought: She had a whole conversation with me this morning. He included a few seconds worth of video showing Dyna chitchatting away using nonsensical noises. The video was just long enough so Jemma wanted more.
A few minutes later came the following message: Can’t stop thinking about you. A selfie of him holding his daughter, his expression serious.
The day after, she only received a photo of a fresh tattoo that included the words “Born to Ride” in a ribbon woven around the letters in Dyna’s name. It was a closeup so she had no idea where he’d had it added to his body. She didn’t know why that particular photo touched her so much. It simply did.
She wasn’t sure if she looked forward to each text, or dreaded it. Each one tugged at her heart in a different way. When a text notification came in, her heartbeat would skip and her emotions would be like a roulette wheel. She wasn’t sure where they would land.
Every damn day she warred with herself. Whether she was right for leaving. Or wrong.
She misses you had come in with a photo of Dyna crying again.
Those killed her. It made her want to reach into the phone, grab her baby and hold her close. To soothe her. To make things better.
The text a few minutes later simply said: I miss you.
Then, this morning as she was getting ready for work, steeling herself for what was to come, knowing today would most likely be Susan’s last day...
Two texts lit up her phone, one right after the other.
You’re her world.
You’re my world.
No photos had been attached to his messages since the last one with Dyna crying.
She missed those photos. She needed to see them.
She was tempted to text him back and ask for a photo of Dyna happy. With a smile on her face.
She had needed it this morning to start her highly emotional day.
But she was afraid to respond. To ask anything of him.
So, she didn’t.
But today, the tragic loss of a loving, beautiful and kind woman reminded her of something important...
Life could be cut short unexpectedly. The time spent with the ones you love was never enough.
Any time you had with them shouldn’t be wasted.
She learned that when Walt died, but ignored it all of these years. When she shouldn’t have. When she shouldn’t have taken time with her family for granted.
Time with Lottie, with Judge, with Deacon. By avoiding coming home, by letting her past rule her life, shape her decisions, she’d been missing out on what some others only hoped to have.
Family. Love. Support. Devotion.
She was done with the texts.
She had a call to make.
She downed the rest of her wine for courage and did just that.
Epilogue
Coming Home
With a frown, Cage jogged up the steps to his house and stopped at the landing, taking one last look at the empty stone driveway. Empty except for his sled.
Where the fuck did Tessa go?
Her Mazda was gone and she hadn’t told him she’d be taking Dyna anywhere. Not that he cared if she did, he didn’t, if he knew about it.
He had made sure her vehicle was safe before she began hauling his kid around. Her Protégé might be old but he’d worked on it until it was in tip-top running condition. The twenty-year-old couldn’t afford anything nicer, especially with what Cage was paying her to be his house mouse and help with Dyna. Which was not a damn thing.
Not a week after Jemma left, Tessa had shown up. With dark brown hair in soft waves skimming along her jawline, big brown eyes and naturally pouty lips, everyone with a dick—except those with an ol’ lady who wanted to keep theirs—had paid attention the day she walked into The Barn.
Until they found out who she was.
Suddenly that interest didn’t remain so obvious. It turned more into his single brothers sneaking appreciative peeks when their prez wasn’t looking.
Turned out most of his brothers, including Cage, had no fucking clue that Tammy—Buck’s former ol’ lady and Trip’s mother—had remarried after fleeing Manning Grove all those years ago and popped out two more kids.
Trip’s half-siblings—a brother and a sister—were unrelated to Sig since Sig and Trip shared the same father while Trip, Tessa and the prez’s younger brother shared a mom.
Even so, while Tessa was hot, she was so damn young. And Cage needed her for Dyna, not for himself. Even if he was interested, he wasn’t sticking his dick where it might risk getting severed off.
But truth was, he wasn’t interested. Only one woman held his interest.
Even after her being gone for six weeks.
Even after she deserted him.
“Tessa!” he yelled as he flung open the front door after finding it unlocked.
The damn doors were always supposed to remain locked. For her safety and Dyna’s. They weren’t done dealing with the Shirleys and wouldn’t be for a while. They were doing it slow and methodical, trying not to catch any heat from the PD.
He’d texted Tessa earlier to let her know he’d be home late, like normal, since he’d been working on a side project of restoring an old muscle car for a customer.
He needed all the extra scratch he could get. Dyna was outgrowing her clothes and going through diapers faster than he could keep up.
He stepped into the tiny foyer of the small three-bedroom ranch and yelled, “Tessa! You home?”
He froze with what he saw.
Furniture in the open-concept living room and dining area.
“What the fuck?” he muttered.
Did Dutch spring for furniture?
No fucking way. His old man was still grouching about what he’d shelled out for the temp trailer rent. When the single-wide was picked up, anything Cage didn’t own went with it, including the rented furniture.
Maybe one of the ol’ ladies came across an estate sale or something.
He had put off buying any furniture, even used, because he just didn’t have the scratch. Another reason he was working his ass off for twelve fucking hours a day.
To provide for his family, which now included Tess. The same way Saylor had become a part of Judge’s family.
He didn’t need much—other than the basic furniture he already had—since he had Dyna.
He had his sled.
His Impala.
His club.
His family.
He was only missing one thing to make his life complete.
Eventually that gaping hole would fill, even though he wasn’t in a rush to fill it.
Dyna was his priority. The most important person in his life.
Everything else could wait.
Then he heard it...
His daughter having a “conversation.” Not that he ever knew what the fuck his little monkey was babbling about. Nope. Somehow, he needed to interpret cries and smiles. Facial expressions, too, like when she was taking a big shit. Or had to fart.
Or when she was pissed he wasn’t picking her up as fast as she wanted him to.
Because she was stubborn as fuck.
Like her dad.
Like her...
He sighed.
He was going to kill Tessa, Trip’s sister or not, if she left Dyna alone
and not told him she was leaving. She was young, not stupid.
Well... She did stupid shit, too, as most twenty-year-olds did. One reason why she hunted down Trip and asked for his help.
So, here she was, helping out Cage and Dyna in exchange.
Sometimes fate timed shit just right. Tessa reaching out was one of those times.
Thank fuck.
But he was still going to kill her.
It was strange that furniture showed up unexpectedly at the same time Tessa disappeared.
He pulled his phone from inside his cut to text his house mouse to find out where the fuck she was, why she left his daughter and where the furniture came from. His head was down as he typed out the message while walking through the open door of the nursery.
His fingers and his feet froze at the same time, just like when he spotted the goddamn furniture.
Dyna wasn’t alone.
His daughter had a perfectly good reason to be babbling.
Cage felt like if he tried to say anything, he’d be fucking babbling, too.
Jemma sat in the corner of the room in the used padded wood glider he’d bought at the consignment shop in town. Her eyes were closed, she wore a soft smile and held his daughter in a hug.
“Is that right?” she whispered in response to more of Dyna’s gibberish. “That much, huh?”
Cage’s eyes slowly closed, then, just as slowly, opened again to make sure he was seeing what he was.
Yeah, he wasn’t imagining it.
He was afraid to walk across the small room. Afraid to say shit.
He was worried if he did, she might just evaporate into thin air. Then he and Dyna would be alone again. His daughter would be without her mother and Cage without his woman.
He almost missed what she asked him since his heart was thumping so loudly in his ears.
“Why didn’t you tell me about Tessa? Why did everyone keep her a secret?”
Her green eyes met his and held.
Goddamn, he’d missed her. A million times more than his daughter had.
More than anyone had.
The air in the room crackled and popped with energy. That pull sucked him farther into the room.
The foot she’d been using to glide the wood chair back and forth stilled, and she adjusted his daughter in her arms and stood.
Six weeks. He hadn’t seen or touched her in six weeks.
It had felt like fucking forever.
He moved closer and leaned in to brush a kiss over Dyna’s dark hair. “Hey, monkey. Daddy missed you.”
He didn’t pull away immediately. Instead, he took that opportunity to inhale Jemma’s scent and feel her warm breath stir his hair.
Her daddy missed you, too.
“Didn’t want you to think we didn’t need you,” he admitted.
She lifted one dark brow. “We?”
He straightened and took a step back. He had no idea why she was here. Why she was back. And to remain that close he might not be able to resist taking her mouth and showing her just how much he had missed her. “Dyna. Me,” he said instead.
“Took you a month to start texting me.”
Did that upset her? Piss her off? If so, she shouldn’t have left in the first place.
She shouldn’t have just walked away.
Again, he kept that shit to himself and said, “Wanted to get my shit together first. Have somethin’ to offer you. A reason for you to come home.”
In truth, Dyna and Cage should’ve been reason enough for her to come home.
Maybe they were. Maybe they were why she was here now.
”Also had to convince your big-ass brother and your smart-ass cousin I was worthy of you. That was the hardest part.” When she didn’t say anything, he asked, “Where’s Tessa?”
“Her and Saylor took the night off. They’re going out and having some fun.”
“So, they’re goin’ to Crazy Pete’s,” he guessed. Where they could be watched and protected.
Jemma laughed ever so softly. “Yes.”
It was one of the rules both Trip and Judge made for the girls. Even though they were too young to drink legally, they could play pool, darts and sing karaoke without anyone worrying. More often than not, Reilly joined them.
He didn’t want to talk about Saylor or Tessa. He wanted to find out what the fuck was going on. What finding Jemma in Dyna’s room meant. To him and to his baby girl. “Where’d the furniture come from?”
“Storage.”
“It’s yours.”
She tipped her head. “It’s mine.”
“You don’t need it?”
“I need it and plan on using it.”
Thank fuck he was smart enough to read between the lines. He did his best to keep his next question calm and under control. “Why now?”
“When I lost a patient the other day, I was reminded of something important I’d forgotten.”
“What’s that?”
“How precious the time is with the people you love. You shouldn’t waste the time you’re given.”
“So, you put your stuff in my place. Without askin’ if it was okay.”
“Did I need to ask?”
He smothered a grin. “Put Dyna down.”
“Chris...”
“Put Dyna down, Jem.”
Her gaze searched his face and with a single nod, she put Dyna in her crib and tucked the teddy bear that was propped in the corner next to her. The one he had clung to all those years ago.
Rook had found it hidden away in the garage a few weeks back.
“Got no idea how it got there,” his brother had grumbled as he shoved the dirty stuffed animal into Cage’s chest.
“You probably stole it and hid it to torture me, you fucker.”
Rook had laughed. “Yeah, seems about right. But look, coulda burned the damn thing. Lucky I didn’t, now you can give it to my niece.”
That was exactly what Cage did. He cleaned up his bear, the most treasured possession of his childhood, and gave it to his daughter.
She loved it.
He loved her.
He loved Jemma, too.
He only hoped she loved him back.
He also hoped the furniture meant one thing.
She was home.
For good.
But he needed to hear it from her.
He also needed to touch her.
Actually, he needed more than that. But her telling him she was home for good was a good start.
The rest could come later.
Not too much later, though. Because by that time Tessa might be home. And what Cage wanted to do with Jemma was going to take time and a lot of noise.
He wasn’t going to hold the fuck back. He didn’t want her to hold back, either.
He’d fucking missed her.
They had a lot of lost time to make up for.
“Gonna kiss you,” he murmured as he cupped her face and tipped it up to his. “Guessin’ that’s all right with you.”
She looked serious when she said, “I’d be pissed if you didn’t.”
“I need to hear it, Jem.”
“What?” she whispered, her eyelids getting heavy.
“Why you’re here.”
“I asked my director if she could move the area I cover closer to home.”
“Home?”
“Here.”
“You hate Manning Grove. You hate the club life.” He needed to be sure this was what she wanted.
“You’re right, I do. But I love you and Dyna more.”
All the oxygen rushed from his lungs. “Love me?”
“Yes.”
Oh, thank fuck. “Love my girl?”
“Yes. But she’s not your girl.”
“She ain’t?”
“She’s our girl.”
Yeah, she was. “Gotta promise me, Jemma.”
“Anything.”
“That you won’t leave. No matter what happens, no matter how hard life fuckin’ gets. No matter how much this t
own reminds you of your past. You gotta stick. I need you to stick. Dyna needs you to stick. Six weeks was like a goddamn lifetime. Can’t do it again.”
“I’m not sure if I’ll ever get over my past, but I hope building our future together will help with that.”
“Make enough good memories to drown out the bad.”
She nodded and the tip of her tongue swept over her bottom lip. “I need you to kiss me.”
“Need to kiss you, baby. So need to fuckin’ kiss you.”
“Then stop talking and do it.”
“Once I start, might not be able to stop.”
The corners of her lips curled. “I’m okay with that.”
“Got a daughter to worry about,” he reminded her.
“We can make it quick,” Jemma said, her eyes now crinkling at the corners, too.
“Fuck that. Ain’t gonna be quick. Okay, maybe the first time. But right after that we’re startin’ again and makin’ it last.”
She sighed softly. “I’ve missed you, Chris. You and Dyna. I’m sorry I left.”
He shook his head. “You never planned on stayin’. You only did what you said you were gonna do. You stuck with your plan.” As much as he didn’t like that she had, he also had to admire her for not wavering from it. But he still hated it.
“I know, but... Once I fell in love with you and Dyna... I shouldn’t have been so damn stuck on that path.”
One side of his mouth pulled up. “Stubborn.”
“Yes.”
“Our girl’s stubborn, too. See it already.”
“Like her Daddy.”
“Like her Momma,” he corrected.
“Now kiss me.”
“If you fuckin’ insist, woman.”
“I do—”
He crushed his lips to hers, sweeping his tongue through her mouth, exploring every corner. He’d missed this, missed her. Missed her taste, missed the feel of her against him. Missed the noises she made when she came.
He couldn’t wait to slide inside her, have her wet heat squeezing his dick. Feel her come. Fill her up.
Make her his all over again.
And that was what he did.
When you find true love, home is no longer a place.
It’s the people you love, wherever they are.
When you’re with them, you know you’re home.
Blood & Bones: Cage (Blood Fury MC Book 5) Page 32
