BETH
I hadn’t heard from Rafe in several days. Maybe he finally lost interest, realized I wasn’t the exciting girl who would go chasing a biker down for some attention. I was no MC whore, and he probably figured I wasn’t worth the effort.
I didn’t mind. It was better that way. I had Madison to think about and care for; I couldn’t be starting a relationship with anyone, least of all a biker. A biker who had been shot. But the more I told myself these things, the more I realized I missed him.
For several days after I texted him, he would send random messages. Some were cute and just curious about my day, while others were dirty and made me blush. Those usually came at night. I didn’t know what was going on with his club, but I had heard that the guy who had been killed was their president. Rafe didn’t mention it, but I had seen the club drive past me on Main Street during the funeral. The sound of the engines nearly deafened me. Madison had put her little hands over her ears and jumped up and down screaming with glee. Seeing all the bikes lined up, she had thought it was a parade. Rafe had been at the front of the line, but I didn’t think he saw me; his eyes shielded by his sunglasses, he never turned his head, just kept starting ahead of him at the hearse.
No text in three days, but that was fine. Friday was my day off, so I decided to take Madison to the mall. She needed some new shoes, and I could use a pair myself. The soles on my work shoes had more super glue holding them together than the original manufacturing material.
The cool air of the mall was a perfect sanctuary from the summer heat outside. I would have lingered inside a bit longer after our purchases, but Madison needed a nap and I was getting hungry.
“Mama, can’t we get some ice cream?” she asked me as we passed the ice cream shop conveniently located right by the exit doors. I longed to give in and grab a quick cone, but I only had enough cash on me to put some gas in the car on the way home.
“Sorry, baby girl. But I think we have some popsicles at home, you can have one of those right after your nap.” I gave her little hand a squeeze. She looked at me with her large green eyes and her lips pulled together in a pout.
“I don’t wanna nap.”
“Well, you’re taking one anyway,” I announced, pushing through the glass doors into the bright sun and hot air. She probably could get away without naps now, but after spending the entire morning walking around the mall, she needed the rest. So did I.
A car passed by us and we began to cross into the parking lot when I heard a loud rumbling coming from my left side. I looked over and saw a group of bikers ride into the lot. There was screaming and one of them had his hand up in the air waving a gun. I grabbed Madison, picking her up and holding her to my chest as I ran to my car. I couldn’t dig out my keys, and shots were being fired. People in the lot were screaming, glass shattered somewhere nearby. I crouched down, pinning Maddie between me and the car, praying we’d be okay. Maddie screamed and cried against my chest, but I didn’t let go for her, I held her to me and tucked her head beneath my chin.
“It’s okay, baby, it’s okay…it’ll be over soon.” I made a promise I had no way of knowing I could keep it or not.
The gunfire stopped, but the roar of the engines remained. Keeping Maddie pressed against me, I slid my phone out of my back pocket and hit Rafe’s number.
“Hey, babe,” he answered.
“Rafe—” Another round of gun fire went off behind me. Maddie screamed into phone.
“Where are you!” he demanded.
“Mall parking lot,” I managed to get out between shots. I didn’t understand what he said before the call dropped.
When the next silent moment came, I clung to Maddie, willing her to stop crying. The engines faded away, they were leaving. I gulped in a large breath and rolled to my side, keeping Maddie in my arms. My biceps hurt from holding her so tight, and my body ached from the tension. In the distance I could hear groans and crying. Then I heard another bike roll up. I turned us back around and shielded Madison.
The bike parked behind my car, and I started to shake. “Hey, hey.” Rafe’s voice finally broke through my terror. Large hands landed on my shoulders pulling me toward him and turning me. Once I saw his face, I felt safe, the trembling in my chest slowed. “It’s me. It’s okay, they’re gone.”
Maddie peaked around me to see him, still sniffling. “You look mean,” she announced, and buried her face back into my chest.
He let out a soft laugh, then took my hands and helped me stand. Madison slid to the ground on her feet, and she clutched to my thigh with her arms. “I’m not mean, sweet pea.” He kept his stare on me when he said the words.
“My daughter,” I whispered, resting my hand on her shoulder. I hadn’t told him about Madison yet. I didn’t think I would ever have to; he was just a passing fancy anyway.
“Mmmhmm. Let’s get you two home.” He gently opened my purse and dug inside for my keys. “Keep these in your pocket from now on—you’ll be able to get to them faster than when they are buried in that suitcase you call a purse.” He dangled the keys in front of my nose.
“I can drive.” I tried to swipe the keys from him, but he shook his head and tapped my nose with his finger.
“I don’t think now is a good time to argue with me, babe.” He gave a pointed look at Maddie, who was staring up at us with large eyes and a half smile. Her tears had dried on her face, and her eyes were fixated on the large man standing in front of us.
“Fine. Whatever.” I stepped aside and let him unlock the car doors. Once I had Maddie strapped into her booster in the back seat I climbed into the front. I watched him struggle with getting behind the wheel and even Maddie laughed as he maneuvered the seat backward to make room for his long legs.
“You need a new car,” he grumbled as he stuffed the key into the ignition.
I looked out the window. “I need a lot of things,” I muttered, rolling down the window. The air conditioning didn’t work very well and it was too hot to leave the windows up.
Sirens blared as police cars and ambulances pulled into the lot. Rafe pulled out of the parking spot and headed toward the second exit, away from the police. “The police!” Maddie clapped her hands and pointed at the lights swirling on top of the cars.
“Shouldn’t I talk with them?” I asked, but from the way he watched the mess happening behind us through the rearview mirror, I had my answer. “I didn’t really see anything anyway,” I rushed to say. I didn’t need him thinking I was some sort of danger to his club. I knew well enough what happened to people who crossed the Anarchy’s Reign or the Hell’s Spawn.
He pulled onto the main road, heading away from the mall, and gave me an annoyed look. “I’m not going to hurt you. Besides. None of those assholes were Anarchy men.”
“Mommy, he said a bad word!” Maddie pointed at him with a scowl. He raised an eyebrow and glanced over his shoulder at her. “He looks mean again,” she whispered loudly to me, like he couldn’t hear her.
I smiled and shook my head. “You’ve never been around a five-year-old before, have you?”
He shot me another glare then turned back to the road. “Where do you live?” he asked, coming up to the highway. I gave him my address and twisted in my seat to see Maddie.
“He’s not a mean man. He’s going to take us home, and then you’ll take your nap. When you wake up we’ll have those popsicles I promised. Okay?”
She looked back at Rafe’s profile and nodded, though she didn’t look completely convinced. I wasn’t either.
We made it to my house in silence. I checked on Madison every couple of minutes, only to find her still mesmerized by the man driving us home. I wasn’t sure what shew as thinking, but the look on her face told me she found him less scary as the drive went on. By the time we pulled into the driveway into our little shack of a house, she looked down right smitten with him.
“Mommy says you aren’t mean. And mommy never lies. So I guess you can come inside with us,” she announced to him once the car was parked.
He looked over his shoulder at her with a surprised look on his face, and I couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m sure Rafe has better things to do, Maddie. Come on, let’s go inside so he can call a friend to pick him up.” I opened her door for her to scoot out, then looked at him. “You’ll need someone to take you back for your bike. Maddie’s going down for a nap, but Mrs. Olsen isn’t home today, so I can’t leave her.” I shut the door, hoping he would follow us inside and not make a big deal about the situation.
I should have known better. Once we were inside and he was standing in my living room, nearly taking up half of it with his size, I took Maddie to her room to get her settled down for a nap. With all the excitement I didn’t think she’d be able to fall asleep, but by the time I found her special blanket she was sound asleep on the bed.
When I got back to the living room I felt ready for a nap myself. “Thanks for coming. I…I panicked.” I wrapped my arms around my stomach as he continued to stare at me from the middle of the room. “It’s hot in here.” I went to the window unit when he kept silent and turned it up a notch. It creaked and sounded like it was going putter out, but then it picked up energy and started blowing out more air.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked with concern laced in his tone.
“Yeah. I’m fine.” I waved a hand through the air. “We were tucked down pretty good.” My heart had hammered so had against my chest, I wondered if there would be internal bruising, but I was good.
“That’s not what I mean. I mean are you okay?” He closed the gap between us and held my face so I couldn’t look away from him. “You seem shaken.”
“I was just in the middle of a shootout with my five-year-old. Yeah, I’m a little shaken, but I’ll be fine.” His dark eyes narrowed at me. “I promise.” I placed my hands over his arms, but didn’t pull him away from me.
“You didn’t tell me about your daughter,” he said softly, still not looking away.
“I know.” What else was there to say? I couldn’t very well tell him there was no future with him, so why involve my kid. Could I?
“Where’s her father?” His brows knitted together and his lips thinned out, like he was angry on her behalf already without even knowing the full truth of it.
I took a deep breath. “He walked out two years ago. I’m not sure where he is, really.” I shrugged, trying to look like Jeremy hadn’t destroyed my heart when he packed up and took off. We were better off without him, I knew that now, but back when he bailed my world had crashed around me. Being a single mom sucked when it came time to pay rent, or trying and have some resemblance of an adult life, but I wouldn’t have traded Maddie for anything in the world.
“The other night you said you had to get home…because of her?” He nodded toward her bedroom door.
“Yeah. It was my first night out in a long time.” I rolled my eyes. “Totally a good idea obviously.”
“What does that mean?” He sounded offended. Great. I offended the big ass biker guy standing in my Livingroom with his hands already keeping me from moving.
“Nothing. Well, just that since I’ve met you, things haven’t exactly gone smoothly for me, have they?” I tried to sound light. The trouble with Dr. Wilkins wasn’t really his fault, that man hated every nurse. Sure, Rafe showing up with a gunshot wound and taking over on his floor and demanding I be the only nurse attending him didn’t exactly earn me brownie points, but I wouldn’t fault him for that. “We’ve never been in a shootout before.” I almost laughed. The absurdity that was my current life hit me.
He let go of me and dragged his hand through his hair. “Tell me what happened. What you saw at the mall.” Leaning against the arm of my couch, he folded his arms over his chest.
“I didn’t see anything. Not really. When we stepped out into the lot, we heard the bikes coming. I couldn’t make out their patches, they were just wearing black leather vests like you, but I couldn’t see the patch on anyone’s chest, because they started shooting into the lot. I grabbed Maddie and ran for my car, but I couldn’t get my keys out so we just crouched down. Then I called you.”
“No one came over by you?”
“I heard one bike roll past, I think, but he didn’t say anything and he wasn’t shooting. I was so scared I probably just imagined it.” I took the hair band from my pants pocket and used it to tie back my hair. The damn air conditioning never really worked well enough and I needed a new fan for the living room.
He stared at me for a long minute. “No one said anything, no yelling at each other or anything like that?”
“Not that I heard. I was trying to keep my daughter safe; I didn’t pay attention to those assholes,” I shot at him. Between the shopping trip, the lack of sleep, and being shot at my nerves were fried. My entire body wanted to collapse into itself. His twenty questions weren’t helping anything. “Do you need a phone?” I asked, digging out mine from my pocket.
He took it from me and pocketed it. “Before you say anything else, you are going to listen to me. You are wrung out. I need to make a few calls, and you need to get some rest. So, while I’m out here making my calls, you are going to get that sexy ass of yours into your bed and take a nap.”
As good as that sounded, I couldn’t let him get so damn bossy. “I’m not a child, I don’t need to nap in the middle of the afternoon. Besides, Madison doesn’t nap for very long anymore. She’ll be up within the hour. I don’t want her scared.”
He sighed hard when I folded my arms over my chest and stood too his full height. Before I could guess at his actions, he gripped my arm and spun me around until I faced the couch. His large hand pushed on my back until I was bent over the arm.
I pushed up, kicked out, but nothing stopped him. He pushed down on me, keeping me over the arm as his hand landed hard against my ass. “I don’t know why you think I’m lying when I say your ass will take a spanking for your mouth.” Another hard slap. “Your stubbornness and your mouthiness are only going to get you into trouble with me.” His hand landed two more times, harder and lower this time, right over my bare thighs.
“Stop it!” I growled. It took more control than I thought I had not to scream. I didn’t want Madison walking in to find me draped over the couch like I was.
“Wrong answer.” He slid both hands between me and the couch and unbuttoned my shorts, yanking them and my panties down to my knees. I tried to strike out, to get away, but again his arm pressed down on me and I was stuck. He continued to spank me on my bare ass. The minimal burn that I felt though my jeans could not compare to the fire he lit into me with my jeans pulled down. After what felt like a dozen or more swats, he stilled his hand on me, lightly rubbing my ass. “Now. When I tell you to go lie down and rest, what do you think the right answer is?”
I felt the tears building in my eyes, but I refused to give in to him. I was an adult! A mother and a nurse. I didn’t need him to babysit me or punish me like some errant little child. “Get off of me.” I bucked again.
He chuckled. “Stubborn ass girl.” His hand laid into me again. This time he concentrated on the curve of my ass, and my thighs. I wiggled, I kicked my legs out, but nothing made him stop. The burn quickly turned into a raging inferno. My mind screamed at me to give over.
“Okay! Okay!” I let my body go limp and pressed my face to the seat of the couch. He didn’t stop though, he continued to spank me until the tears that were sitting in my eyes started to fall. Finally, his hand lay over my ass.
“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” he asked, running his fingertips over my ass.
“I hate you.” I mumbled into the couch. Even as I said the words I knew they were a lie. I didn’t hate him; hell, I didn’t even dislike him. The moment he arrived at that parking lot I knew we were safe. And that was a feeling I didn’t get very often anymore. Even when I was being snarky with him, he didn’t take my bullshit. Most guys just called me a bitch and stalked off. Hell, Jeremy used to just tell me I wasn’t worth the time and would go out for the night. Rafe didn’t do any of those things.
He laughed. “You do not. Lying will get you a round with my belt.” He squeezed my ass cheek, then drifted lower to my folds. Dammit, I could feel the moisture there, and the want. I tried to stand up again, so he wouldn’t see how much my body responded to his authority, but he just kept holding me down.