by E. C. Land
Chapter Four
Ryder
Brielle DeRose, is going to be the fuckin’ death of me. Swear on my fuckin’ life she will. While waiting for her to wake up, I’d sat in the chair next to her in the hospital not taking my eyes off her. Then when that fuckin’ nurse kept trying to get me to leave the room my dick jerked to attention when even just waking up and disoriented she knew I was staying and demanded the nurse leave immediately.
What I said to her about the past six months and how her boys are mine and so is she, I wasn’t lying. Seeing her laying there on the floor at her house, I knew then that she was more than just the beauty next door and the mom to Marcus and Micah.
Those boys wormed their way in bringing their maman with them. I wasn’t expecting that shit not after growing up with two evil as fuck sisters, I hardly thought of myself claiming a woman for myself. Not that I didn’t think there were good women out in the world but I didn’t think after raisin’ all four of my nephews from my early twenties that I’d ever want a woman for more than warming my bed.
Now though, I’m thinking of the rush of having this woman in my bed every night next to me. I’ve seen she’s nothing like my sisters and some of the other crazy ass bitches I’ve meet in my forty-one years.
“Ryder, you good?” my nephew Chains asks as I step out of my room at the clubhouse. I’d just gotten Brielle and the boys set up in there for the night. The moment she was discharged from the hospital, the woman was hell on wheels wanting to get her boys. Never in my life did I ever see two boys lucky to have a mom who loved them as much as she does them.
I’d had to shut her up when she started talking about me letting her grab her car so she and them could take off. I saw it in her eyes at the hospital, she was planning her escape and that shit won’t be happenin’. Not this time. Marcus and Micah deserve a normal life and so does she.
“Yeah, I’m good,” I nod my head as I step toward him. “Let’s get a beer.”
“You going to tell me why we have Titus fuckin’ Pelletier’s kids here?” And right there is why I wanted him to take my seat when I went nomad five years ago. I was dealing with some shit with one of the Strays back then, kept claiming she was pregnant with my kid, lying through her teeth about it. Thought it was, until the kid was born and the paternity test was done and found out it was some John’s that she’d picked up at one of the bars in New Orleans.
After that shit, I’d needed away from it all to keep myself from going to prison. For one wanting to throttle the bitch who kept trying to say the test was bullshit and the kid was mine. Yeah don’t play that shit with me. It don’t work. I might have stayed long enough to find out about the kid being mine or not but I ’wasn’t going to let some bitch put my name on a birth certificate without knowing and sure as fuck ’wasn’t letting her trap me.
Going nomad was one of the best choices I could have made for myself. I was able to get my head back the way I needed it. Also enjoyed being on the road. No one around to fuck with me. I was able to think of nothing but the road ahead of me.
When shit went down with my niece Victoria and her ol’ man Tracker, VP of the Devil’s Riot MC, I’d finally decided I’d been away for long enough. I enjoy being a member of the Inferno’s Clutch, sitting at the table but I’m damn glad I put the club in the hands of my nephew Chains. I can see the way he’s taken the club. Sure, we do illegal shit but a lot of the club’s funds are legit.
Chains and I step into the main room of the clubhouse take a seat at one of the rounded tables just as Tiny brings us both a beer.
“Bitsy, what the fuck did I tell you?” Chains growls.
“I know what you told me and for your information, I was merely waiting on you guys to come in here so I could tell you goodnight, Mr. Jerk,” Tiny snaps.
“Doesn’t mean you have to do it waiting behind the bar,” Chains declares snagging an arm around her waist and pulling her into his lap.
“I’m not one for sitting still and I’d already finished all my schoolwork for the day, so bite me.” I can’t help but chuckle at Tiny’s remarks. Since she got here, the woman has grown out her shell completely. She has no problem getting along with any of the guys in the club, will laugh and joke with them, but if you’re an unknown she shy’s away and sticks very close to Chains.
“You’re gonna end up getting that ass spanked baby, you keep that attitude up.” Chains grins.
“Whatever. I’m going to bed. I’m tired and I just wanted to make sure Ryder was good first.” And there’s that big heart of Tiny’s, the one that showed me she was a good woman. The same as when she refused to leave the hospital the entire time Chains was in there. The same as when she pulled the trigger. She’d do anything for my nephew and any of us.
“I’m good sweetheart go get some rest. Those babies you’re carrying need you to stay strong. In order to do that, you need to stay rested and do us all a favor, stay from behind the bar. Want something else to do, try picking a hobby like painting or some shit to keep us from hearing your ol’ man bitching about you working while pregnant,” I state.
“Don’t you start that, too. I’m fine and the babies are fine, excuse me if I like working behind the bar. It’s what I do. It’s what I’m good at, now, I’ll keep doing it until I don’t think I can anymore, okay?” Tiny huffs as she struggles against Chains’ hold on her, to stand up.
“Bitsy, calm down, lose the attitude,” Chains mutters, sliding an arm up her body to cup the side of her face. “None of us want to see you over doing it that’s all.”
“Fine, I’m going to bed,” she states as she calms down some.
“I’ll be there in a bit,” Chains says leaning in kissing his woman before helping her up off his lap.
“Mind if we join the party?” Brake asks as Tiny gets to her feet and walks toward the hall that leads to the bedrooms.
“Knock yourself out,” I mutter seeing not only Brake and Tyres standing there but Breaker and Fuse as well. I’d have to question why Fuse is there considering I’m sure he’s been digging up information we all need.
“Should we pull all the brothers in for church?” Fuse asks as he takes a chair at the table.
“Is it necessary at this moment?” Chains asks in return.
“Probably, but it’s not like we can’t do it in the morning,” Fuse states.
“Then tell us what you got and I’ll shoot a text that church is at ten. I’d say earlier but it’s already after fuckin’ one,” Chains grumbles.
“We already know who Marcus and Micah’s dad is. Tyres and Brake’s cousin, Titus Pelletier,” Fuse mutters.
“Got that part brother,” Tyres sneers.
“Know you do, but this whole scenario just got a hell of a lot more complicated. I took the phone the boys used to call earlier and found Brielle had made a phone call I’m guessing around the time everything happened, tracked it down. Man, she called Ice’s direct number.”
“Ice as in the Toxic Warriors MC’s VP Ice,” I snarl.
“The very one,” Fuse nods in agreement.
“Fuck,” Breaker snaps. “This isn’t something we need right now.”
“No that, but it ’gets even more complicated than just Ice, Brielle is the sister of a member of the Devil’s Riot MC.” I about lose my fuckin’ mind at this information.
“Come again,” I can feel my body vibrating with fury at everything Fuse tells us.
“Her brother is a member of the Devil’s Riot MC, goes by Whip. Sent Tracker a text earlier asking about the dude. Tracker called immediately wanting to know why I was askin’. Told him Whip’s sister was down here. Tracker hung up on me, called back about twenty minutes later, and said Whip was on his way down here with Venom and Cane,” Fuse states.
Shit this is not something I want to deal with. But at the same time, I want to know how her brother could let her get involved with a fucker like Titus.
“What do we do about Ice?” Brake asks.
“Gotta call him
,” Chains growls and pulls his phone out.
A moment later he puts it in the center of the table on speaker.
“You better have a damn good reason for calling me, fucker,” Ice sneers into the phone the instant he answers.
“Yeah, dickhead, I do. Woman named Brielle called you earlier,” Chains scoffs.
“Where is she?” Ice demands immediately.
“I’ll answer that if you tell me what she is to you,” I snap.
“Fuck you, if you did something to that woman, we’ll have the war you all wanted to prevent from happenin’,”.” Hatred nearly rolls through the speaker of the phone.
“You can quit with the fuckin’ threats. Didn’t do a damn thing to Brielle. But her ex sure as fuck did,” Chains states.
“Shit, Titus found her, fuck. She okay?” Ice seethes.
“Her boys called me when they got home from school to find her stabbed, you know she’d moved in next to me?” I ask.
“No, didn’t fuckin’ know. Last time I talked to her she was in Waco, Texas. Look if Titus has found her then she’s fucked. He’s put word out when he found her this time, since he’s been searching for over a year and a half, he intended to make her suffer before killing her,” Ice says giving us this information.
“Oh shit,” Breaker mutters.
“If Brielle was found this time, it’s because she’d fucked up somehow. She’d been doing a damn good job of keeping her whereabouts downlow. Even her brother doesn’t know about the shit she’s been in.” He knows where Brielle’s brother is?
“Not anymore he’s on the way here,” Chains growls.
“Fuck,” Ice snarls.
“Wanna tell us why he didn’t know?” I demand.
“Brielle didn’t want him to know. Said he didn’t need to be in the know of her bullshit. She talks to him, but doesn’t tell him a thing about what’s going on. Wants him to think she’s happy. Stupid.” He’s got that shit right.
“What’s Brielle to you?” Tyres asks.
“She’s my cousins’ best friend and under the protection of the Toxic Warriors MC. We helped her get the fuck away from Titus and his fuckin’ uncle,” Ice states. “Now tell me she safe there?”
“She’s safe here,” I snarl. “And she’s mine.”
All five of the men sitting around me stare at me in bewilderment. They all knew I’d sworn to never claim a woman but here I am doing just that.
“Yours?” Ice mutters.
“Yeah, she’s mine so are those boys,” I confirm my claim on them.
“Good, need anything for her let me or Viking know. Fawn finds out this shit, she’ll have a fuckin’ conniption and she don’t need that shit. Neither does her ol’ man.” What’s he care so much about his cousin being pissed?
“Whose her ol’ man?” Brake asks.
“Viking,” Ice states.
“I didn’t think he had an ol’ lady,” Chains mutters.
“Yeah well not many people know. Considering she technically doesn’t know,” Ice chuckles. “Now we done?”
“Yeah we’re done,” Chains states and disconnects the call. “This shit is fucked beyond anything else we’ve dealt with recently.”
“Shit, what do we do now?” Brake grumbles.
“Sleep on it, Whip will be here by noon I’m sure and we need to brace. Church at ten. Get some rest,” Chains orders and stands pocketing his phone and heads for his room to join his ol’ lady.
Standing I do the same thing. Stepping into my room, I remove my cut and shirt, empty my pockets on the dresser as I regard the boys sleeping on pallets on the floor next to the bed and their mom, my mon bijou, in the bed.
Removing my boots, I quietly move to the opposite side of the room and slide into the bed without disturbing Brielle. Putting a hand behind my head I rest it on the pillow and close my eyes as I plan for what’s to come.
My own maman always said I enjoyed the challenge and that’s why I always sought the rush of it. Said one day I’d find the one and the best rush of all would come with making sure to keep them where I wanted them.
Should have ’done something the first day I saw her. Realize what I know now.
Brielle and her boys belong to me and I’ll do whatever I gotta do to keep them that way.
Chapter Five
Brielle
“Where the fuck is she?” My body jerks at the roar of my brother’s voice as I stand in the kitchen holding a cup of coffee to my chest.
Oh. No.
Bryan is here.
Not good.
He’s not supposed to be here.
“Maman?” Marcus asks.
“Shh, it’s okay,” I murmur lifting a hand from the coffee cup and putting it around my son’s head.
Since Ryder brought me to the clubhouse late last night after I was discharged both my boys have been sticking to me like glue.
“Whip, cool it,” another man snaps.
“Not fuckin’ happenin’ until I see my fuckin’ sister,” Bryan or rather as the man calls him Whip snarls.
“You might want to calm the fuck down before you scare her and her boys,” Ryder suggests but it’s more of an order. It’s scary the only thing blocking me from my brother is a thin wall between the main room and the kitchen.
“I’ll calm down when I see Mini,” Whip mutters.
I close my eyes at the nickname my brother gave me a long time ago.
“You going to cool it before I let you near her man. Her and those boys been through enough. I sure as hell ain’t about to let them go through anymore,” Ryder growls.
Oh.
My.
God.
“Brielle, you’ve missed it but the past six months, those boys of yours became my boys as well by putting their claim on me and by doing so I put mine on all three of you. I just hadn’t acted on it until, and I’ll say this, my boys called crying because you were stabbed. That shit ain’t happenin’ again. Got me?” Ryder’s words ring in my ear.
When I’d woken up this morning, I’d done it next to Ryder. My head resting on his arm. Due to the pain in my stomach I wasn’t able to lay like I normally do during the only times I sleep but Ryder had one arm under my head the other wrapped protectively around my chest. Keeping me secured near him.
Marcus and Micah slept straight through this. They didn’t wake up until right before we came into the kitchen a few minutes ago.
Meaning I’d lain staring at Ryder until he’d woken up, opened his beautiful eyes and grinned at me. “Morning mon bijou,” he murmured, sleepily.
God the way my body reacts to his voice.
Ryder had helped me up, given me one of his shirts and a pair of my leggings. I knew these were mine due to the fact he’d pulled them out of a bag someone had packed full of my clothes. Next to my bag were two other bags filled with Marcus and Micah’s clothes as well.
“Maman,” Micah whispers moving closer to me. Out of both of my boys, though they’re twins, Micah is the one who is the most sensitive. Marcus is protective over his brother, doesn’t matter the three-minute difference between the two of them. He doesn’t like seeing his brother upset and right now he’s hovering even closer to his brother as they huddle into me.
Aware we’re not alone in the kitchen two of Ryder’s brothers were in here sitting down and enjoying their breakfast when we’d come in. Before he left to check on something, Ryder introduced them to me as Brake and Tyres. They were now watching us with frowns on their faces.
Doing my best to ignore them, I put the coffee cup I’d been holding on the counter and slide down, bracing myself against the cabinet doors as I get to my boy’s eye level. “I’m right here boys. No one is ever going to hurt you. Never. You know I’ll never let that happen. Now the man yelling that’s your Uncle Bryan.”
“Why does he sound so mad?” Micah murmurs.
“Probably because I haven’t been completely honest with him about things,” I say, honestly.
“Look man, all due respec
t, that’s my fuckin’ sister, I haven’t seen her in years and finding this shit out, I need to set fuckin’ eyes on her and my nephews now,” my brother growls causing my body to jerk as I stand back to my full height and wrap my arms around Marcus and Micah.
“Ryder let him in,” I call out through the door.
Immediately, Ryder is through the door to the kitchen with my brother and two other men directly behind him. A few other’s follow suit as well.
“Mini,” Bryan mutters, eyes wide as he stares at me and my boys, taking in the protective hold I have on them. “Fuck.”
“Bryan,” I murmur, cautiously holding his gaze.
“Baby.” I hadn’t even felt Ryder get close and wrap an arm around not just me but the boys as well. What I did feel was the safety I’ve never had the moment he did.
Bryan takes this in as it happens and his brows furrow. “Someone want to start explaining the bullshit to me? Why I’m getting told by my VP my sister was here at his ol’ lady’s brother’s clubhouse and has been stabbed.”
“Whip, brother you need to cool it. Those boys are shakin’,” the guy standing behind Bryan states.
Bryan’s gaze lowers to my boys. Closing his eyes, he shakes his head and his shoulders slump fists clenched at his sides.
“Go to him, mon bijou,” Ryder whispers in my ear.
Nodding slightly, I step out from behind my boys and approach my brother cautiously, wrapping my arms around him the moment I’m close enough. Pressing my cheek to his chest, I feel his arms around me holding me to him.
“Careful of her stomach.” I hear Ryder mutter.
“Fuck Mini. Why didn’t you tell me you had problems?” Bryan asks.
“My problems aren’t yours. You ate enough shit growing up same as me. You got out as soon as you could, I wasn’t going to put more on you,” I mumble as my nose starts to burn from the tears welling in my eyes that I refuse to let fall.
“Don’t give a fuck about that shit, Brielle. Should have told me. Would have killed the fucker a hell of a lot sooner than now.” Tensing at this, I glance up at him.
