Thom sat at the kitchen table nursing a cup of coffee. He was hurting, badly, and we were both exhausted. It had taken the cops hours last night to sort everything out. Rock being in our house was open and shut, but the gun, Rock and Thom’s fight, the backstory of what had brought us to this point, and all that entailed, had taken time to explain.

After the cops hauled Rock away, I took Thom to the emergency room. He was a mess, cut in dozens of places, and his feet were worse as he and Rock battled in the broken glass from the window. Rock was wearing riding boots, but Thom had no such protection, and his feet had paid the price.

We’d had to wait over two hours before they could see him, and during that time, I called work and told them I wouldn’t be in today. They could fire me if they wanted, but I wasn’t leaving Thom.

Because his injuries weren’t life-threatening, the staff allowed me to sit with him while he sat in his underwear as the doctor and nurse picked bits of glass from him, cleaned him up, stitched him closed in a couple of places, and dressed all his wounds. As they worked I told them the whole story, embellishing it slightly to make him even more heroic, and I had to hide my smile as the female doctor and nurse almost swooned over him.

He had to sit for x-rays to make sure he didn’t have any internal injuries, and the sun was well up as I helped him limp back to my car.

“You okay?” I asked as I settled at the table beside him.

Bailey was at school, Thom wanting things to get back to normal for him as soon as possible, and Bláithín was giving us some privacy. That or she was sleeping, which is what I wanted to do.

“I hurt,” he mumbled, his swollen mouth making his words mushy and slurred.

“I bet.”

“First time I’d ever been in a fight.”

I nodded slowly. “You kicked his ass, though.”

“He wasn’t taking you.”

I bit my lip. There was so much more to Thom than first met the eye. There was a courage and strength to him that I hadn’t guessed he possessed. Nobody had ever fought for me before. He was perfect, and his willingness to protect me made me love him that much more.

“You want to go to bed? You need rest.”

“Yeah. You could use some rest too.”

I helped him to his feet. He made his way slowly to the bedroom, a light breeze blowing through the broken window making the room pleasantly cool. We needed to clean up the broken glass and get the window repaired, but that could wait for a couple of hours. I needed him to hold me. I needed it badly.

I wanted him, but he was in no shape to make love to me. We’d have plenty of time for that after he healed. He lay back with a groan and I tucked into his side. I smiled when he pulled me in close, and I lay propped on his chest. I yawned hugely, my eyes suddenly feeling incredibly heavy.

We slept until just before Bailey came home. Last night I’d found him and Bláithín huddled in Bláithín’s bathroom. The breaking of the window, along with Thom’s and Rock’s angry voices, had woken her. She’d snuck into Bailey’s room, collected him, and brought him to her bathroom where she’d locked them in and called the police. After it was over, Bailey had been frantic to see his father, but Bláithín had kept him away until I had a chance to clean him up some.

Thom was in no shape to help, so I picked up all the glass and vacuumed, and Bláithín and I together stretched a piece of plastic over the broken portion of the window. While Bláithín and I worked, Thom arranged to have the window replaced and the bullet hole repaired.

House sealed, I prepared dinner. I felt much better after my four-hour nap, though the events from last night weighed heavily on my mind. Thom wasn’t his normal, jovial self, for obvious reasons, and Bailey craved his father’s touch. Dinner was a subdued affair with little talking as we each kept council with our own thoughts.

“Bláithín, can you get Bailey into bed tonight?” I asked as she and I cleaned up the kitchen. “As soon as I’m done here, I’m taking Thom to bed.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Dad?”

“Yeah, buddy?” Thom asked as he continued to sit at the table. Bláithín and I refused his offer of help, and because his feet were sore, he didn’t argue.

“Bad guys aren’t coming back again, are they?”

Thom smiled. “No. The bad guy is in jail.”

“You’re sure?”

“I’m sure. I saw the police put the cuffs on him and take him to jail myself.”

“And there are no more bad guys?”

“None that will bother us.”

“How do you know?”

“I don’t know, Bailey, but it’s very unlikely. Don’t worry about it, okay?”

“What if you’re wrong?”

“Then your dad will kick their ass too,” I said. It was an unspoken rule not to use ‘adult’ language around Bailey, but I made an exception this time to drive the point home.

Thom chuckled. “It’d be nice if they’d wait a few days, but Carolyn’s right. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you, Carolyn, or Bláithín.”

Bailey watched his dad’s eyes a moment before leaning in and giving him a hug. I saw Thom grimace in pain as Bailey squeezed, but he was smiling when Bailey released him and stepped back.

The kitchen tidied, I helped Thom hobble to the bedroom, and undressed him. He lay back with a long groan of pain. It was early, barely seven o’clock, but sleep would do him good. The doctor told him to take over the counter pain meds, and he was, but I knew of something else that would help. I stripped out of my clothes and joined him in bed. I kissed him on the lips, a barest brushing of my lips to his.

“I love you,” I whispered.

He smiled, his eyes closed. “I love you too.”

I began kissing down his body with gossamer lightness, kissing his hurts as I moved ever lower. As I neared his cock, he groaned.

“Carolyn…I can’t.”

“Shhhh…let me,” I breathed, moving lower still.

He was firming, his body knowing what it needed. Often, when the brothers came back chewed up from doing whatever they did, they were ready to fuck. Not only did it help burn off the tension and stress, but sex was a natural pain suppressant, and it would help him fall asleep.

I took him into my mouth, flicking the head of his cock with leisurely swipes of my tongue. I’d have to be careful, but I wanted to reward my brave knight and take away his pain.

“Carolyn…” he gasped as I teased him.

I covered him with butterfly kisses. “Don’t fight it,” I whispered as I gently scratched his balls with my nails. “I want you to come,” I breathed. “Let it happen. It’ll help.”

Normally when I blew him I was somewhat aggressive, his gasps and groans turning me on, but tonight I refrained. I didn’t want to hurt him more while trying to ease his pain. I kissed and licked, tickled and stroked.

“You’re going to make me come,” he gasped after many long moments.

“Don’t fight it,” I reminded him as I tickled the head of his cock with the tip of my tongue.

He began to tighten as his orgasm approached. Thom was a gentleman and had never come on my face or in my mouth, but not all my lovers were as kind. It was nothing new for me and I was going to allow him to come in my mouth so there would be no cleanup afterwards. I held him between my lips, teasing his shaft with lips and tongue until he erupted with a soft grunt. I smiled as I let him down easy, his sigh of relief my reward.

“Better?” I purred as I began kissing my way up his body.

He pulled me higher, kissed me gently but with gusto. Even after coming in my mouth, he kissed me, his slickness on my tongue not seeming to bother him.

“Yes,” he breathed as our lips gradually parted.

I snuggled into his side, enjoying his warmth and closeness. I was starting to get drowsy when my phone rang. I jumped, its ringtone breaking the quiet as I scrambled for it so it wouldn’t wake Thom.

“Mikki, it’s Hearts.”

“Hearts?” I whispered. Thom rolled over with a groan. If he’d been asleep, he wasn’t now.

“Can you talk?”

“Yeah.” I placed the phone on speaker so Thom could hear. I mentally crossed my fingers this was going to be good news.

“Is your man there?”

“Right here. He can hear you.” There was a brief pause.

“This is Scooby Buehler, President of the Ravens. I’m calling to tell you that the Ravens had nothing to do with your recent troubles. That was Rock working his own side deal.”

My ears perked up with Scooby’s statement that he was the President of the Ravens, but I said nothing. Scooby was talking man to man with Thom. My input wasn’t welcomed.

“Okay,” Thom muttered, his voice hard.

“You have every reason to be upset. If someone came after my kid, I’d kill the fucker with my bare hands, but you have my word, the Ravens had nothing to do with it and we have no complaint with you. Don’t give us a reason to.”

“Why should I believe you? You heard what went down here last night?”

There was a pause. “No, what?” Scooby asked.

“Rock broke into my house in the middle of the night, pulled a gun on me and Carolyn, and tried to kidnap her and my son. He’s your president, right?”

“Not anymore, not since thirty minutes ago. He’s been excommunicated. When was this?”

Thom looked at me, his brows furrowed as he tried to remember. He’d been in a fight for his life at the time and probably didn’t even know. “About two this morning,” I said.

“Is everyone okay?”

“Yes.” Thom said.

“Thom kicked his ass all over the bedroom and put him in the hospital,” I said, not even trying to hide my pride and delight in the outcome.

There was a short pause. I smiled as I imagined Scooby and Hearts reevaluating Thom. He might drive a Volvo, but having him kick their former president’s ass in a straight-up fight proved he wasn’t the pussy they thought he was.

“Where’s Rock now? We’re looking for him. He and the Ravens have…business.”

“What business?” Thom asked.

“That’s none of your concern.”

I knew what business. “He is, or was, in Eastside Baptist Hospital,” I said. “After that, he’s going to pull time for a long list of crimes.”

“Thank you, Mikki. We’ll handle it from here.” There was silence, but I knew more was coming. When Thom opened his mouth to speak I touched my pointer finger to my lips, urging him to wait. “The Ravens would never agree to kidnapping or threatening your son. You have nothing to fear from us. Mikki told Hearts you’re a reasonable guy. Prove it by letting this go before it gets out of hand.”

Thom stared at the phone a moment and glanced at me. I nodded. “Agreed. Don’t give me a reason to regret this decision.”

“As I said, we had nothing to do with what happened, and we have no interest in you. If you don’t fuck with us, we won’t fuck with you.”

“Understood.”

“What about the men that were riding with Rock?” I asked.

“We know three of them,” Scooby said, his voice deadly cold. “You won’t have to worry about them again. We’re looking for the other four. You don’t know who they are, do you? I’d like to have a word with them.”

“No,” I said. “I didn’t recognize any of them.”

“If you see any of them again you’d be doing us a solid by letting us know where you saw them.”

“I will.”

“I think our business is done, but let me give you another piece of advice,” Scooby said.

Thom’s face hardened as a chill passed through me. We were so close to putting this behind us without more bloodshed, and Scooby was going to fuck it up with a threat.

“You hold onto Mikki and don’t let her go. She’ll make you a hell of an old lady. You’re damned lucky to have her. Rock, the stupid shit, didn’t know what he had.”

I relaxed with a slow exhale as Thom smiled. “I think I can handle that.”

“Yeah, it sounds like you probably can.”

“Mikki?” Hearts asked.

“What?”

“Are you happy?”

“More than I would have believed possible.”

“I’m sorry for what went down, but I’m glad for you.”

“Thank you, Hearts. You were a good sister.”

“So were you.”

“Take care.”

“You too.” The call ended. “It’s over,” I sighed.

“You’re sure?”

I nodded. “Yes. We won’t have to worry about Rock or the Ravens anymore.”

“You’re sure?” he asked again.

“Very. Scooby mentioned they had business with Rock? Rock isn’t going to like doing business with the Ravens. He went against the best interests of the club and almost dragged them into a war. They excommunicated him, and if they’re still looking for him, Rock better hope they can’t find him, if you know what mean.”

“They’ll kill him?”

“I don’t know, but excommunication means you’re less than some random guy on the street. If they’re looking for him, that means if they find him he’s going to have to answer for something. Unfortunately for Rock, they know right where to find him. I suspect he’ll be lucky if he makes it to trial.”

“And you think I can trust this Scooby guy?”

“Yes. He’s given you his word. So long as you follow the agreement, he will too. None of the Ravens will bother us.”

“So it’s over?” he asked, almost as if he couldn’t believe it.

I nodded and smiled. “It’s over.” He sighed and rolled to his back. I placed my phone on the nightstand and scooted in close. “Want another sleep aide?” I asked, my cadence and tone teasing.

He snorted. “Always, but let’s save it for later.” He was quiet for a long moment. “I don’t know if I trust the Ravens.”

“You can trust them. They may be thugs and drug dealers, but they do have a certain honor.”

“I think you should stay here, with me, until we can be sure.”

“How long?”

“Until we’re sure they’re not going to try anything.”

“Thom, they’re not going to try anything.”

“Better to be sure.”

I sighed. I couldn’t blame him. He didn’t understand the life like I did. “For how long?”

“I don’t know. Twenty or thirty years should be enough.”

“Twenty or thirty…?” I began, the absurdity of his suggestion clear in my voice, but I realized what he was saying. I smiled in the darkness. “I guess better safe than sorry, right?”

“My thinking exactly,” he murmured and gently tugged me into a kiss.