19.

Duke

 

My woman stands in front of the TV with a hand on her hip, staring down at the cell in her other hand. Her hair flows long and curly down her back. Those same navy blue, cotton shorts that she wore the first time I tasted her, barely cover her ass again now. And she’s got on one of her ribbed tanks that hugs all her curves. Damn. Fuck. Shit, she’s hot. She’s so god damned hot my dick don’t just twitch, it throbs as it struggles to point north in my jeans.

But she also hung up on me. Drops that bomb over the phone, then hangs up. When you tell someone you love them for the first time, you don’t do it over the phone where they can’t hold you, hug you and kiss the ever-loving shit out of you.

I hesitate only a second before plowing in like the bull I am, the bull she waved the red flag in front of. She turns around, and I only have a moment to take in the fear on her face before I’m crushing my lips against hers as my arms wrap her in the same crushing embrace. Strawberry. Damn, her lips taste great. And the vanilla scent.

She whimpers against my mouth. I pull back only enough to bury my nose in her hair. Fucking great hair. Silky and soft.

“Don’t ever hang up on me again,” I order. Knowing she’s going to argue, I kiss her again. And when she opens up to me, I slide my tongue inside her mouth, meeting hers halfway. She grips my cut in each fist, pulling me closer so my erection rubs against her belly.

“We can’t,” she speaks against my lips. “Jade and Teeny.”

“Don’t give a fuck if the pope is in the next room. You asked for it.” I grit out. She wraps her arms around herself protectively. I know one sure-fire way to make her feel better. “You’re a doctor. Will I hurt you?” She knows what I’m asking and shakes her head. “Good.” Then I pick the woman up, one arm around her back and one under her knees, and head to our bedroom.

We’ve been laying in the bed for a while now. I don’t think I fucked all the scared from her, but at least she’s calm and seems contented for the time being.

It wasn’t easy taking her the way I wanted to, knowing our girl and her friend were just down the hall from us. Doc kept her face tucked against her pillow most of the time to stifle her moans and out-and-out shouts of pleasure when I done something she particularly liked. But the end result was worth every challenge we went up against. The way I came so hard I thought the tip of my dick might explode in the process.

Now, with her tucked up under my arm, her head resting at my shoulder, hand lightly resting at my ribs and her bent knee laying against my thigh, now I can fully revel in the knowledge that my woman loves me.

She said it. And she ain’t taking it back. Ever.

“Wow,” Caitlin says dreamily, casually moving her hand from my ribs to draw patterns in my chest hair with her finger.

I snicker. Hell yeah, wow. Every lay tops the last with this woman. Don’t think I’ll ever get enough of her. Hope I don’t.

“What was that?” she asks between dropping kisses against the skin of my collar.

“That was my response to you telling me you love me.”

“Oh… Well in that case, I love you Duke.”

“Give me a minute to regroup, then I’ll be happy to oblige you, woman.” I give my arm around her a little squeeze. She giggles. “But just so we’re clear, remember I said it first.”

“You did not,” she protests, lifting her head to glare at me.

“Sure did. After Jesse’s memorial. You said you hated me. I told you, you might hate me but I fell for you.”

Doc lays her head back against my shoulder. “You said it first,” she mumbles her amended statement.

No matter I want to spend the rest of the day naked in bed with my woman, that’s the fantasy. Reality strikes at the sound of a small knock against our bedroom door and a, “Duke, I’m hungwy.”

“Be out in a minute, Peaches.” I call out loud enough for her to hear me. She can’t get in, I was smart enough to lock the door, but still, there’s always that lingering fear that she could.

I roll out ’a bed, walking over to the closet to pull a pair of sweats. Caitlin watches me the whole time. Then after I’m clothed, I walk back over to kiss her. “Get dressed. I’ll make those cheese-stuffed burgers I promised. I’ll even make the steak fries you love so much.”

After twenty-five minutes of prep work, Doc, Peaches and even Teeny sit at the table devouring burgers. Plate in hand, I’m just about to join them when there’s another fucking knock. This one, from the outside door to the utility room.

The pounding on the door pisses me off more today than it probably would any other day, but fuck, can’t a man be left alone with his family for just one day?

Just got done making love to my woman after a couple months dry. We need the day to decompress.

Need it.

Some nut sack kidnapped a girl who looks like my Peaches. Don’t know how much more Caitlin has in her before she breaks. And not one man would blame her if she did. Becoming a part of my club put her and our girl in danger.

That don’t mean I’ll stand by and wait for it to happen. Part of her keeping sane comes with decompressing, spending the day doing normal shit.

And yeah, I was smart enough to lock the door when I got home. Though now, I got to walk over to answer it, setting my plate and beer down on the island and move annoyed, swinging the door open at the same time grumbling, “What?”

It’s Sneak and Boss. Boss speaks first. “Blood got a lead on that fuckwad who took the girl.”

“Seriously?” I ask, amazed at the man’s skills, and happy he’s on our side. It was just after I got Doc’s call I sent him on the trail. He’s been out hunting Houdini’s location since I saw the DFW photos, but a missing child takes precedence. Will always take precedence.

Between Blood, whose name’s short for Bloodhound because he can sniff out any trail, and Sneak, who can slip in and out ’a just about anywhere without being noticed, ain’t nothing and no one can’t be tracked down with enough time.

“He’s there now. Rundown trailer off Rabbit Hole road.” Sneak offers up.

“Right, be out in a sec,” I answer, leaving the door open but turning to make my way back to Doc.

“Everything okay?” she asks. Burger halfway down from her mouth, she’d just taken a bite. There’s a drip of cheese sauce I’d rather lick off her chin than have to tell her I got to run.

Her eyes, round, concerned, wait for me to answer. Fuck it, I swipe the cheese from her chin with my thumb then suck it off. Her cheeks pink. I love how a woman her age can still get pinked cheeks from such an innocent act. Though between me and her, we both know it was far from innocent.

Knowing how much she wants me to lean on her, too, I decide on honesty without too much honesty. “The boys got a lead. Need to head out.” Even though I raise my eyebrow at her, waiting on the inevitable questions, she proves once again why she’s perfect president of an MC old lady material, and nods. She just nods. That’s trust. She trusts me to keep her safe and get the job done.

Cupping the back of her neck, I lean in as I pull her forward. “Lips,” I whisper. When our lips fuse, even for that briefest moment, all her emotions, all she feels for me shines bright through that kiss. Goddamn if it don’t mean the world.

And after I pull back, immediately move to kiss my Peaches. A pat on Teeny’s head later and I leave to meet my brothers at the bikes. But we don’t leave on the bikes, taking a windowless, white, nondescript van that we keep parked with a tarp covering it until there’s a use for it. Registered to a geezer a couple counties over who happens to have died a decade ago. Ain’t no one tracing it back to us. Our one remaining carryover from the old life.

She might be ancient, but runs quiet. And quiet is exactly what we need.

Before we get too far out, I call Hero to go look after my girls but he’s at the parts store a couple towns over. It’ll take a few for him to get to them. “Hurry,” I tell him.

They’re in the house at the compound. A prospect on the gate. My girls will be fine until he gets there, and I have to focus on what’s going down now.

Half hour later, we roll up to the wooded lot off Rabbit Hole road. The pocked dirt drive has more holes than dirt, so we choose to hide the van in a thick of trees and walk the rest of the way, about two hundred yards back, up to the trailer.

Blood steps briefly from behind a shallow gathering of bushes and Black Walnuts for us to locate him, then steps back right away. We silently make our way over to him.

“He’s in there,” Blood says.

“Any sign of the kid?”

He shakes his head. “No. None. That’s got me worried.”

“Okay, boys. Surround the bastard. Count of three, we go in hot. He ain’t getting away again,” I order.

Head nods from my brothers. Two of us on the front door, and two on the back. I shout, “Three.” and we plow through the doors, guns raised. The bastard has a band tied around his arm and a syringe dangling from the bend of his elbow. Reflexes not near fast enough, he scrambles for his gun, but we overtake him quick and easy.

Face pressed to the dirty, moldy carpet. Or what’s left of the dirty, moldy carpet, I shove the barrel of my gun against the back of his head. “Where’s the girl?”

The bastard is so fucked up on whatever shit he injected into his veins, he giggles, not even like a little girl. It’s too high-pitched and maniacal. A giggle of pure evil.

Boss punches the side of the blitzed bastard’s head. “Where’s the fuckin’ girl?” he shouts. But Houdini’s too out of it to answer. And I’m too frustrated to control my temper any longer. I flip him around to hold him by the neck of his dingy, ripped T-shirt so he can look me in the eyes before I put a bullet in his brain.

“Fuck.” I grumble to the same sentiment from my brothers. It ain’t Houdini. Never seen this guy before in my life.

“How’d you mess this up so bad?” I turn on Blood.

“Didn’t. This is the same guy who ran Caity off the road. He’s the one took that little girl. The trail was good.” He defends himself.

“Prez,” Boss starts. Placing his hand on my shoulder. “He obviously hired this one to take the girl. Probably paid him with whatever he shot up his arm. A druggie like him, even with pictures, wouldn’t have known he got the wrong girl.”

He sent somebody in for him. Knew we been keeping an eye out for Houdini. That rat-bastard sent someone else to run Doc and Peaches off the road. The only thing I can guess is that the guy had eyes on Caitlin, but not our girl. Reason for the break in. Since getting her that day didn’t work.

But where the hell is that other little girl, the one he thought was Jade?

The pit of my stomach drops, becomes nauseous as the rest ’a my gut clenches tight. I got a bad feeling.

Jesus, I got a bad feeling.

Then the situation goes from bad to worse when the junkie begins to seize in my arms, foaming at the mouth and everything. His eyes roll back in his head and he stops breathing. No telling what kind ’a Hepatitis or HIV this guy could have from sharing needles or whatever. Keeping him alive or trying to keep him alive ain’t worth risking any ’a our lives from trying to revive him. Not that you could catch that shit from mouth to mouth, but no. Not happening.

Right in front of our eyes, the guy dies clean away.

Dead.

I let the body drop. “Check the place, see if there’s any signs that kid’s been here.”

The brothers fan out, but in the end, come back with a load ’a nothing. Not one fucking trace.

He never brought her here. So then where the hell is she?

We leave him face down on the floor. It’s more consideration than he deserves. Anyone comes across him this far out, they’d see the syringes and needle. They’d assume the truth, that the guy overdosed.

On the way back down the mountain, me and my brothers save Sneak, who’s driving, are on the phone putting out feelers to all our contacts around the county, reminding them to keep their eyes wide open. Though, since we didn’t find her at the trailer, chances ain’t good we’ll find the kid still breathing.

We’re about twenty minutes outside the compound when my phone rings. Doc. She’s freaking out. So much I can hardly understand her.

“Calm down, honey,” I tell her. Her fear puts me on edge. “Talk so I can understand.”

“It was on the news. They found her, Duke.”

“That’s great.”

“No. You don’t get it. They found her dumped behind the garage of the daycare. He killed her.” Voice breaking on her, she sobs uncontrollably.

“Almost home.”

At the same time I disconnect, Boss gets an alert on his phone and turns to the group. “Fuckin’ A.”