"Whoa there, little man." Flick untangled Max"s chubby little fists from her shirt and held on to each one as she put her face in his. "Those are mine, not yours. The only b.o.o.b-action you"re going to get is from your momma when she feeds you." She rubbed her nose against his, making him giggle. "Be good or I"m gonna put you back in your little prison and let your uncles deal with the h.e.l.lacious noise that comes out of your mouth."
Watching Flick with Max made something tighten in my chest. Was this what it would have been like if our baby had lived? Max looked so much like Bash that I knew that I couldn"t possibly have imagined him as a stand-in, but the way Flick acted with my nephew had me wondering if this was what she would have been like as a mom. Would we be sitting there with our son or daughter cuddling against her, giggling happily up at Flick? Would we have fixed what I"d broken between us by now? Would her stomach be rounded with another kid?
"He"s not that bad," Raven said with a pout, pulling me out of my painful musings.
"Yes, he is," I a.s.sured her.
"Yup. It makes my ears bleed," Matt agreed.
Raven picked up a biscuit and threw it at Matt"s head. He caught it at the last second and took a hungry bite of it. "Thanks, Rave."
"Holy s.h.i.t. It"s quiet in here for a change." Colt laughed as he came in using the back door.
When had he left? More to the point, I couldn"t help wondering where he had gone. I knew he hadn"t been spending time at the clubhouse. Raider had commented on that a few days ago, making me wonder where my baby brother was spending all his free time.
"Don"t you start too," Raven grumbled as she turned back to the food she was still cooking. "You and anyone else who opens their mouths about Max will get no food from me this morning."
"Ah, Rave." Colt gave her a one-armed hug even as he was stealing a piece of bacon. "You know I love the little guy. I was just commenting on how sane it seems in here this morning."
She let out a tired sigh. "That"s all thanks to Flick. She"s keeping him entertained."
My little brother"s eyes went straight to Flick who was talking softly to Max. The baby"s blue gaze was entranced as he looked up at her. "I knew she would fix this place. It hasn"t felt the same without her around, you know?"
I saw the way Flick reacted to his words, but she pretended not to hear Colt. I chanced a glance at the stove, saw the sad look in Raven"s eyes and glanced back at Flick. My sister was in complete agreement with our brother and I had to admit, so was I.
Before long the kitchen was full of my other siblings. Bash was the last to come downstairs, with Gracie just a few steps in front of him. She had her briefcase in one hand and her hair was a wild mess that she was trying to fix with her free hand. "I"m late," she cried as she dropped the briefcase Hawk had given her from Christmas.
She"d loved the present, but she had no clue that it had been more of a safety net for my possessive brother than anything else. It had a tiny tracking device in the bottom of the case. Hawk had asked me for my opinion on the thing and I"d told him that it was a good idea.
As long as Gracie didn"t find out about it, that is. She was all about having her own independence. She hadn"t wanted him to pay for her law school, so he-along with Bash and Uncle Jack-had gotten the Club"s lawyer to sponsor her. In other words, they were paying him to pay her and had started an account specifically for her tuition. If she ever found out about it, I pitied my brother. Hawk was going to have a lot to be sorry for if she did find out. Not that I wouldn"t have done the same.
"Here, at least take this to go." Raven handed her a biscuit that had some bacon on it. "I"ll bring you some lunch later if you want."
"I"ll do it," Hawk told them and wrapped his arms around Gracie"s little waist before dropping his head to brush his lips over hers. "Drive safe. Jenkins can suck it if he get"s upset you"re a few minutes late."
"I"m already an hour late, Hawk." She pulled away and ran her fingers through her hair yet again. "Stop keeping me up all night," she mumbled with a blush.
Hawk laughed. "I"m not going to promise anything, babe." Another smack of his lips on hers and Gracie was practically running out the door.
Flick had been watching the two. When the back door shut behind Gracie, and Hawk"s old car purred to life in the driveway, Flick glanced over at Colt. "She works for Jenkins?"
"Yup."
"But..." She broke off, shaking her head. "Never mind. It"s none of my business."
"d.a.m.n right it isn"t," Hawk growled from across the table.
I kicked at his chair. "Cool it."
Hawk shot me a glare before turning his eyes on Flick. "Yes, Gracie works for Jenkins. She"s his protegee, he"s her mentor. When she pa.s.ses the bar she"s going to take over his practice."
"So who"s paying for that? You forget that I know Jenkins, Hawk. He doesn"t have a generous bone in his body. So who"s paying for it? You or the Club?"
"Me." He answered with a frosty bite to his tone that I wanted to punch him in the face for using with my female. Whatever his past feelings for Flick, he needed to bury that s.h.i.t, and fast. I wasn"t going to have Flick feeling unwanted by anyone, especially Hawk.
A gasp from the back door had all our heads snapping up. Gracie stood in the doorway, her eyes already filling up with tears. Watching my brother and Flick had distracted me and I"d forgotten about the rumbling car out in the driveway, so I hadn"t questioned when it hadn"t pulled away. I grimaced as she swallowed hard and looked down at the small package in her hands. "I found this out by the bikes. It"s addressed to you, Hawk... I thought it was something important and didn"t want you to miss it."
She set the package down by the door and quietly backed away. Hawk muttered something vicious under his breath but it was so low I didn"t catch what it was. His chair sc.r.a.pped noisily across the floor as he jumped to his feet and rushed after her. "Gracie!"
Colt stood just as the tires of the car outside squealed, and went over to where the small brown package sat on the floor by the door. "There wasn"t a package out there when I came in earlier," he muttered to himself. "Matt, did you see it?"
"No, man."
Colt didn"t touch the package, but crouched down to take a better look at it. The look on his face made my blood run cold as I watched him pale. He stood and practically ran over to the table where he scooped a sleepy-eyed Lexa up in his arms. "Everybody out of the f.u.c.king house," he barked, his green eyes wild. "It"s from the Italians."
Everyone in the kitchen went still, including myself. It took a few seconds before we realized just what Colt had said. The package was from the Italians. We knew a lot of Italians. We had an alliance with a certain family whose major location was New York, but they were rivals with another family who were mainly based out of Southern California. A family that was just as bad as the Irish when it came to blowing s.h.i.t up.
"f.u.c.k," I heard Bash growl at the same time that one word left my own mouth. I reached across the table and grabbed Flick"s arm instinctively. I pulled her around and against my side. With Max still held in her arms I tucked them both close against me to shield them, and we ran out of the house through the living room so we didn"t have to pa.s.s the package.
Fear mixed with rage like I"d never experienced before in my life choked me and I held Flick against me as tight as I could while still allowing her to walk. My instinct was to just pick her up and carry her out, but she had the baby and I didn"t want to risk her dropping Max.
Bash had Raven, and Matt was right behind them. Outside, Colt had Lexa still in his arms as he stood on the sidewalk, a phone to his ear as he barked out orders. "Come get the kids and the women. Take them to the clubhouse... What?" Colt snapped as I reached him and his eyes narrowed as he listened to whoever he was listening to on the other end. "f.u.c.king motherf.u.c.kers. Okay. Okay. Just let me think, man. We need to check the place out so we can get everyone on lockdown."
I felt Flick tremble but when I chanced a look down at her, she was smiling rea.s.suringly for the baby to keep him calm. She"d always been strong, the kind of woman a man like me needed to have his back. Why the f.u.c.k had I let her go in the first d.a.m.n place?
Bash was beside my youngest brother in a flash, Raven tucked against him. "More packages?" His voice was nearly animalistic. His face was pale and there was a savage rage in his eyes that made me glad I wasn"t on the receiving end of it.
Colt lowered the phone. "At the clubhouse. Raider just found it by the front door. We can"t take them to the Bar, and who the h.e.l.l knows where else they would send this s.h.i.t."
"Stop cussing in front of the kids," Raven scolded, taking Lexa from Colt"s arms. "You know she repeats everything you say."
"Sorry. I"m a little upset here, honey." Colt pressed a kiss to Lexa"s forehead. "Walk down to Spider and Willa"s, okay?" His eyes found mine. "Go with them?"
I nodded and tucked Flick closer against me. It was only natural that I be the one to take the kids, Raven, and Flick down the street to the enforcer"s house. The rest were Club, something I wasn"t anymore. Right then I wanted to be a part of the MC again more than I had any other day during the last year. I had no control over what was going to happen next, and I needed that f.u.c.king control.
Still holding onto Flick"s arm, I took Raven"s in my free hand. She clung to Bash for another second before she let him go, and shifting Lexa more comfortably in her arms, went willingly with me.
Hawk"s bike was gone from the driveway as I walked past it. I figured he"d followed her to work so he could sort out the s.h.i.t storm that he"d caused by admitting to Flick what he"d done. Stupid idiot. He"d let his temper cloud the bigger picture and he"d run his mouth without thinking.
Spider was already standing in the doorway of his house when we reached it. He was shirtless, but he had his phone to his ear and I had to a.s.sume he was talking to either Colt or Bash. Lexa threw herself into his arms as Raven entered the house. Willa was just coming down the stairs, frowning as we piled into her home.
"What"s going on?" she demanded as I guided Flick to the couch in the living room.
"MC stuff, babe," Spider informed his wife. "I gotta go." He handed Lexa over to her aunt. "Jet will keep you safe. Right?" Spider"s eyes were just as wild as Bash"s had been-as mine no doubt were.
I nodded. "I got "em," I a.s.sured him. "Go do what you gotta do, man."
Flick didn"t stay on the couch very long. She gave Max to his mother and then turned to face me. "I need to talk to you." She didn"t wait for me to answer as she moved to the other side of the huge living room.
I grimaced, knowing exactly what she wanted to talk about. I stopped just inches away from her so no one on the other side of the room would overhear us. Her blue gaze went back to the kids and then to Willa and Raven as they sat on the couch, whispering to each other in soft tones so as not to scare the kids.
"Which Italians?" she whispered fiercely, crossing her arms over her chest as if to protect herself from my answer.
"Not your Italians," I a.s.sured her in a tone low enough so only she could hear. "Ciro wouldn"t do this s.h.i.t. He has more...cla.s.s than that." More like you wouldn"t see that deadly f.u.c.ker coming. If he wanted anyone dead he would take them out before they could blink, not with a bomb. Bombs were a coward"s weapon of choice.
Her shoulders seemed to droop. Ciro was her cousin, her mother"s nephew. His mother was Marcie"s younger sister, but she was so much better than Flick"s mother. She had more cla.s.s, was more motherly, and didn"t spread her legs to anyone who looked twice at her. Ciro worked for the New York Italians, where the two sisters had grown up, and it was Flick"s connection to them that had set our alliance in stone. The Club did all the protection runs for Ciro"s boss from one coast to the other. Usually drugs or guns, and sometimes other...materials.
"He"s not going to be happy, Jet. It"s one more reason to start an all-out war with the Santino family." Her eyes turned pleading, the s.h.i.t going on between the two of us not mattering right then. "You have to call him. You. He won"t appreciate it from anyone else but you. You remember how he feels about Bash."
"He would if it came from Uncle Jack," I reminder her, choosing to ignore the comment about my brother-in-law. The s.h.i.t that those two held against each other should have been put aside years ago.
"Uncle Jack wasn"t the one who received a bomb for a present, Jet. You have to take care of this before it gets out of hand. If it"s Santino"s guys trying to make a statement by taking out the Vitucci"s west-coast shipment protection-"
I lifted a hand, cutting her off and glanced quickly at the females sitting on the couch. I didn"t want either one of them hearing anything we were saying. The less either of them knew about our connection to the Vitucci family, the safer they were. It was bad enough that Flick knew. "We don"t know if that"s why Santino sent the bomb, or even if it really is a bomb. Colt was just taking precautions because that is their MO. For all we know this could be that f.u.c.king senator hiring a d.a.m.n hit man to take us all out over the death of Samson."
Her eyes widened. "Who? What the h.e.l.l are you talking about?"
I stepped closer. "Remember that guy that tried to rape Gracie? You and Hawk saved her, Raven said." She nodded. "He started making things hard on the Club. And then one day-the day I came home-he torched the bar. He had Bubbles giving him details because she was p.i.s.sed that Willa was with Spider. She tried to beat the h.e.l.l out of Raven and Raven nearly lost Max. Bubbles played it smart and ran away before we could deal with her. Stupid c.u.n.t is still out there hiding somewhere."
Flick"s eyes were as big as saucers. "I"ve missed a lot, haven"t I?" she muttered as if to herself.
I nodded. "A h.e.l.l of a lot, baby."
"I remember Samson being the son of a senator, but what does the senator have to do with this?"
I shrugged. "Samson got trapped in the fire and he died from the burns. We had to rebuild the bar." Her gasp was full of surprised hurt. I saw the sympathy in her blue gaze and wanted to kiss her so f.u.c.king bad. Instead I thrust my hands into my jeans pockets to keep from reaching for her and continued trying to catch her up. "Yeah. It was hard on all of us, Flick. Losing the bar was bad. Especially with the senator breathing down our throats and causing trouble for us. He brought in ATF and made our lives miserable for a few months. Raven had to cook the books a little more quietly for a while, and we had to stop all protection runs to the East Coast for a while. They just recently started the protection runs back up a few weeks ago."
"I"m sorry about the bar," she whispered, her soft hand touching my chest for a moment before she dropped it by her side.
"I"m sorrier about Raven. She took a beating. Got a few broken bones and nearly lost Max in the process."
Flick closed her eyes. "G.o.d." Her voice trembled.
"Once the senator"s investigators ruled his son"s death as an accident caused by himself, the ATF packed up and told the senator to leave us alone. Things have been quiet since then, but I"ve had a bad feeling about it ever since. With that package being meant for Hawk, it makes me wonder if this is the senator working with Santino"s guys."
She nodded. "Yeah, I see your point. But you still have to call Ciro."
"Baby, I have no right to call him. I"m no longer Club."
That had her eyes narrowing on me. "Why the h.e.l.l not?" she snapped, causing all eyes to turn on us.
I dragged one hand over my face. "Because I promised you I would quit. I want you more than the Club. I did this for you, for us."
She rolled her eyes. "It wasn"t the Club that got between us, Jet. It was Westcliffe and even d.a.m.n Bubbles. Plus, your stubborn pride. All I wanted was you and all you seemed to want was your freedom." She blew out a long breath and took a small step closer, her eyes softening. "Don"t stay away from the Club because of me. I don"t want that. I would never ask it of you. I know that it"s a part of you and asking that of you would be like me asking you to turn off part of yourself. The biggest part. I loved all of you, Jet. Even the part that was the hotshot, alpha-biker president." She gave me a small, sad smile. "Maybe especially the hotshot, alpha-biker president."
My heart contracted at that, but stumbled over the word "loved". As in, she didn"t anymore? Had I really killed it all? I knew it wasn"t anything I didn"t deserve after the way I"d treated her in the past, but d.a.m.n it all to h.e.l.l if it didn"t sting like a motherf.u.c.ker.
"I want you to be a part of the Club again, Jet."
I shook my head. "And I want you to be mine. When I get what I want, maybe you"ll get what you want." My tone came out harsher than I wanted it to, but I was still hurting over the "loved" part.
She stomped her foot-actually stomped it-her lips pouting out in the way I remembered so well from when she was a little girl. Was it sick that it turned me on? I didn"t know and right then I didn"t give a d.a.m.n. My d.i.c.k was throbbing as I looked down at her. "You have to. I need you to call Ciro."
My brows lifted. "Like I said, babe, I"ll give you what you want when I get what I want." I was sure I"d already proved to her that I wasn"t above using emotional blackmail to get what I wanted. I would do anything to get Flick back. Anything.
She stomped her foot again and crossed her arms over her chest. My gaze instantly dropped to her t.i.ts. Ah, s.h.i.t. She wasn"t wearing a bra. f.u.c.k. Me.
"Jet!" she snapped at me and I forced my gaze back to her eyes. "Please, just do this for me."
"Sure," I promised with a nod, "as soon as I get what I want."
"What exactly do you want, then?" she gritted out.
"You. Plain and simple. I want you back. In in my life, in my arms, in my bed." For half a second I saw her eyes blaze with a fiery need that matched my own before she lowered her lashes and locked me out. She clenched her jaw and I saw her swallow hard several times before she nodded. My heart stopped. "Is that a yes?"
She blew a long, hard sigh out of her nose, causing her nostrils to flare in a s.e.xy-as-h.e.l.l way that made my d.i.c.k ache that much more. "Yes," she muttered.
I couldn"t keep my hands to myself for another second. I grabbed her around the waist and hauled her up against my throbbing body. "Flick," I growled as I lowered my head and brushed my lips over her.
As desperate as I was, I kept the kiss soft and quick, knowing that now wasn"t the time. If I deepened the kiss right then, I knew I"d end up throwing Flick over my shoulder and finding the first bed to f.u.c.k her until she couldn"t stand. Lifting my head, I looked down at her through my lashes. Her lips were damp from our kiss and her eyes were closed, but there was a look of contentment on her face despite how unenthusiastic she"d been about agreeing to be mine again.
"I got things to do, then, I guess." I dropped one more quick kiss on her lips before releasing her and fishing my phone out of my front pocket.
Chapter Six.
Gracie I could barely see the road through my tears. Sob after sob shook my entire body. I was swerving all over the place, but I didn"t dare stop until I got to work or I knew I wouldn"t make it to the office that day.
Things had been so great with Hawk. I fell more and more in love with him every day. It wasn"t until the night before, when Jet had brought Flick home, that I"d seen a new change in him that had made looking at him a little harder. I had no idea why he was so hostile against the other woman, but from the time he"d set eyes on the beauty his brother had brought home I"d had a bad case of jealousy. Even when he"d been sharpening his tongue on Flick I"d gotten some kind of odd vibes off of him that had made me green with jealousy for the first time since Hawk had become mine.
All thoughts of my jealousy had been long gone once we"d gone to bed and he"d spent most of the night making me weep with the pleasure my body had become addicted to. Of course I"d overslept and was running on fumes as I"d rushed out the door that morning.
I"d gotten into the old Chevelle that Hawk had pretty much given me. When I"d mentioned buying one of my own he"d gotten all kinds of pouty so I hadn"t mentioned it again and continued to drive his old car. I"d barely started it up when I"d seen the package by his hog. Wanting one more kiss-and yeah, maybe to kiss him in front of Flick again because the jealousy was back with a vengeance-I"d gotten out and taken the package inside. It was fairly light and addressed to him and I"d smiled to myself as I"d opened the kitchen door.
Hawk had been glaring so hard at Flick that he hadn"t noticed me as I"d stood in the doorway with the package. "Yes, Gracie works for Jenkins. She"s his protegee. He"s her mentor. When she pa.s.ses the bar she"s going to take over his practice."
"So who"s paying for that?" Flick had asked in a voice that was calm despite the coldness of the look Hawk Hannigan was shooting at her. "You forget that I know Jenkins, Hawk. He doesn"t have a generous bone in his body. So who"s paying for it? You or the Club?"
I"d stiffened at her reasoning and my own anger had started to rise. How dare she come in here and make a.s.sumptions like that. Jenkins was a great lawyer and I was learning a heck of a lot more with him as my mentor than I would have with law school alone. I was already advanced well beyond all my other second-year cla.s.smates and even a few of my professors weren"t as up to date on criminal law as I was. Flick had been gone way too long if she didn"t think that Jenkins wouldn"t want to help me- "Me."
That one word had cut through my angry thoughts and kept slicing until it reached to my heart. No. No. No. It was a lie. It had to be.
The look on Hawk"s face as that word still rang in the air told me it wasn"t. Flick had been right to wonder. She obviously knew my man better than I did if she could come into this house and dissect him within a few minutes.