Chapter 3

I’m still learning to love. Be gentle with my heart. Otherwise you’re going to feel the wrath that is my brother.

-Ember’s secret thoughts

Ember

“Okay, when you go in, don’t freak out.  Hoochie is all meow, and no bite,” I explained to Gabe. Hoochie was my cat that I rescued a few months ago. He has become very protective of me.

 

Gabe gave me a funny look, but nodded in agreement as he turned the key in the lock of my apartment door.  I laughed inwardly.  He was going to be in for a surprise when he walked in.  Gabe insisted on being the first inside so he could check to make sure there weren’t any gangs hiding out under my bed, or in my panty drawer.  I told him I needed to come get my cat and some clothes if I was going to stay with him.  He agreed, on two conditions; that he went in first to check things out, and that Jack came for backup. 

 

Hoochie let out a menacing growl, and started attacking Gabe’s feet as soon as he stepped over the threshold.  Gabe came to a halt.  He just looked down at his feet, while Hoochie latched onto his boots, clawing and scratching like his life depended on it.  It only lasted about thirty seconds or so before Hoochie got tired, and fell to his side panting.

 

Hoochie was my thirty-five pound monster of a house cat.  I loved every delectable roll on his cute little chubby body.

 

Jack was chuckling behind me, as we both watched Hoochie lay on his side.  He decided that this was as good as place as any and closed his eyes for some much-needed rest.

 

“This is not a house cat, this is an obese bobcat.”  Gabe stated.

 

“Don’t call my baby fat, he’s a very sensitive boy.”  I complained to Gabe as I scooped Hoochie up in my arms. 

 

My back decided to make itself known and I bit back a moan.  I wasn’t going to let them see me cry.  Crying was for babies and wieners.  However, Gabe saw everything; he took the cat out of my arms, and continued inside in search of my underwear drawer.

 

“So, how are you doing these days Jacky boy?”  I asked.

 

“I’m doing better.  One day at a time I guess.”  He answered.

 

Jack’s father passed away a little over a year ago, and he was still taking it hard.  They were as close as a father and son could be.  They acted more like best friends rather than father and son, from what I’d heard.  Jack seemed to go into a depression, and only existed.  Nevertheless, slowly, with the help of friends, he was returning to some semblance of his old self.  I didn’t know his old self, but I could definitely see him getting better as each day passed.  I knew how it felt to lose a parent, and I even listened a time or two as he spoke so highly of his father.  I gave him some Ember wisdom as well.  I told him that the pain never fades; it just becomes more bearable over time. 

 

“How is the new bike coming?”  I asked him.

 

“It’s coming along really well.  I just installed the gas tank; it’s almost ready for the paint to be applied,” He expounded. 

 

Jack was working on a custom bike, honoring Dougie, a friend killed in Afghanistan last year.  All of the members of Free have put a little something into this bike.  Sam designed it, James installed the mechanical and electrical components, Jack was doing the body, Max the chrome and wheels, and, finally, Gabe will finish with the paint job.  It was a wonderful team project for them to work on, trying to capture Dougie’s essence in bike form.  The proceeds would be donated to Dougie’s daughter, for her college fund.  The rally is in Tulsa in a few months, and the boys are scrambling to get everything finished in time.

 

This was a community effort as well.  Local businesses donated parts, and money, to fund the project.  The community outreach was simply amazing.  When the locals realized they had a Soldier’s daughter in need, they threw themselves lock, stock, and barrel into the project, helping any way they could.  The auto-parts store Cheyenne and I used to work at donated all the parts.  A lawyer set up all the legal work; the community bank set up a trust for the money to be donated into once the auction happened.  It was an amazing thing to see so many helping a fallen soldier’s family.

 

“Clear.”  Gabe barked gruffly. 

 

Gabe still had Hoochie asleep in his arms, and I smiled inwardly.  No one could resist my kitty.  Max, the king of cat haters, even liked him.  That was saying something since he used to go out of his way to torture the cats we had growing up.

 

I walked to my bedroom and grabbed the duffel bag that was in the back of my closet.  I started stuffing it with underwear, bras, shirts, shorts, and flip-flops.  I wasn’t a big fan of dressing up.

 

I made sure to grab my old rabbit that I slept with every night.  It definitely had seen better days, but it didn’t stop me from cuddling him as I fell asleep.  Poodle, my rabbit, was the very reason that Cheyenne and I had become best friends.  We were young when we discovered that we slept with our stuffed animals every night, and we have been best friends ever since.

 

I left the bag on the bed and walked back out to the living room.  Gabe and Jack were busy studying my picture collection.  I was a picture hoarder.  Photos covered three quarters of my living room walls.  I had pictures of absolutely everything: birthdays, Christmases, weddings, and even one at a funeral.  Gabe was stuck in front of one, in particular, and I blushed scarlet red.

 

The picture was of Gabe on his death machine.  He looked badass with his black leather vest, black helmet, black jeans, black Oakley sunglasses, and the big black Harley Davidson.  The motorcycle is a “Fat Bob;” I giggled to myself every time I thought about it’s name.  I’d snapped the photo when he was riding out of Free, and immediately took it to Walgreen’s and had it blown up.  Then I bought a beautiful black frame, and plonked it down right in the middle of my mantel so I could see it every time I walked in the door.  I did too.  I admired it, drooled over it, and even kissed it once.  Okay, maybe it was twice, but who’s counting?

 

Gabe turned to me with a grin, when he noticed I was in the room.  He took in my blush with a quick look; his smile got wider.  Damn.  There were those dimples.

 

“When did you take this?” he asked me.

 

“About eight or nine months ago, why?”  I asked.

 

“I like it, that’s all.  I also like that you have it in such a prime location.”  He answered quietly. 

 

I rolled my eyes, and made my way into the kitchen.  Grabbing the binder that was on the table, as well as the lap top that was sitting beside it, I turned on my heels to go back into the living room, but was stopped by a brick wall named Gabe.

 

I sent him a glare, but that didn’t deter him.  He lifted his hands up to frame my face gently, then leaned forward slowly and placed a soft kiss on my lips.  He backed away then, taking the things that I had in my hands with him.  I stood frozen there for a good two minutes before my feet came unglued from the tile beneath my feet.

 

I walked back into the living room; Gabe had all my shit in his hands, while Jack had Hoochie and his litter box.  I flipped all of the lights off, and we headed back down to the vehicles.  I tried my hardest not to stare at the prime, grade-A ass that was walking down the stairs in front of me, but no matter what I did, my eyes wouldn’t look away.

 

Soon Ember dear, soon.

***

After arriving at Gabe’s home and getting Hoochie settled, I went to see Cheyenne while Gabe went to the main office to speak with the guys.  I walked two doors down, and entered without knocking.  Screams and shrill whines assaulted my eardrums upon opening the door.  I took quick inventory on what was going on, then burst out laughing.  Poor Chey looked miserable.  She was face down on the couch, head buried into the couch cushions.  Pru was sitting on her back, naked, pulling on her hair, bouncing up and down riding her like a pony.  Piper, I couldn’t see, but definitely could hear.

 

I walked to the couch and snagged Pru around the middle, tossing her up into the air and then catching her.  Her shiny white blonde ringlet hair tickled my face as I gave her a smacking kiss on her cheek.  She squealed and giggled wildly. 

 

“What are you doing to your poor mama?  And why are you naked?”  I asked her, not that she answered me. 

 

She was only a year and probably didn’t understand half of what I said.  Cheyenne moaned from the couch and I laughed. Carefully slinging Pru onto my hip, I went in search of Piper, and found her in the kitchen.  It wasn’t a pretty sight.

 

“Oh.  My.  God.”  I exclaimed aloud. 

 

I left the room and got Pru into a diaper.  Their room was a mess, just like Cheyenne’s normally was.  Shoving the shit on the changing table to the floor, I quickly changed her and stuffed her into the first onesie I found.  Grabbing one for Piper as well, I headed out of the room.  Walking slowly, placing each foot onto a tile with the upmost precision, I bent and scooped up Piper, then made my way back out to the living room, and exited out the front door.  I walked quickly, ignoring the pain in my back. 

 

Walking into the side door of the garage, I heard voices coming from the office.  I made my way towards them, ignoring the fact that Gabe was giving them a rundown of what happened at the police station. 

 

Entering the office, all eyes swung to me, and then widened.

 

Yes, it was that bad.  Piper was covered head to toe in oil, flour, and blue food coloring.  She looked like a fucking Smurf.  I marched directly to Sam, and deposited each kid onto his lap.  His hands were held out at his sides at shoulder level, unsure what to do with what I placed in his arms.  Turning, I tossed the onesie onto the desktop, and exited the office without a word.

 

Once back at Cheyenne’s, I started tackling the mess that was the kitchen.  It only took two rolls of paper towels, an industrial sized trash bag, and a bottle of Pine Sol.  The kitchen smelled refreshing when I was finished with it, but my back was screaming like a bitch.  I took a hit of Ibuprofen and made my way back to the couch where Cheyenne still had her head buried.

 

“What the fuck?”  I asked her.

 

A garbled mess of words followed my question.

 

“Turn over and face me like a real man.”  I snipped to her, snickering silently.

 

She turned over in a flourish of arms and legs, tears covered her cheeks; they were still leaking out of her eyes.

 

“This is about me, isn’t it?”  I asked.  “I didn’t mean to not call you, but I was high on the good stuff last night, and I didn’t even think about it.  Apparently, I shunned Max too, but that’s not really my fault.  You know I would never leave you out intentionally.  The good thing that’s come out of this is that Gabe touched my girly parts, and told me he wanted me.  I also got a kiss.  I think I had an orgasm.  I’m not sure, because I haven’t felt anything like that before.  Benny never gave me one, so I’m not real sure what it feels like to have one from someone besides myself.”

 

My ramblings slowly faded as I watched Cheyenne start to cry harder on the couch.

 

“Get on with it already.”  I demanded.

 

“I’m pregnant!” She wailed.

 

Oh, lord Jesus.  No wonder she was so upset.  She was meticulous about birth control ever since she had the twins.  Apparently, they were a lot of work.  Who knew? 

 

“Oh honey, this is a good thing.  Babies are miracles.  If you’re pregnant, then it was meant to be.”  I whispered to her quietly.

 

Her tears dried, and she took a deep calming breath.

 

“I know, but I was so close to having a real job.  So close.  Now I’ll have to wait another year to start working.  If I’ll be able to at all.  Do you know how much childcare is?” she asked.

 

Well, no, I didn’t.  I didn’t have any kids, so why would I need to know that juicy bit of information?

 

We gabbed for another hour.  However, after the third time she said something bitchy to me, I told her to take her cranky ass to bed.  She agreed with one condition.

 

“Tell Sam for me.”

 

Once I agreed, I left her to sleep and made my way back to the office.  Everything was quiet except the low hum of deep male voices. 

 

Max had Pru in his arms, fast asleep on his shoulder.  Gabe had Piper, who was asleep and drooling as well.  The Smurf still had a blue tint to her, but she was otherwise clean.

 

“Awww, aren’t y’all just too cute!”  I announced to the group at large.

 

Pulling out my cell phone, I snapped a few pictures.  A few protests went up when my phone appeared, but they stayed where they were and let me get a shot.

 

Smiling down at the photos, Sam interrupted me to ask, “So what happened?” 

 

“Well….Cheyenne was having a breakdown on the couch while Piper played in the kitchen with the ingredients Cheyenne was using to make a cake.  Apparently, she couldn’t handle making it anymore when she found out you knocked her up again.”  I said nonchalantly.

 

Sam’s boots hit the floor with a thud.  You could hear a pin drop in that office.  Sam actually looked scared, and I burst out laughing.

 

“She’s going to kill me.”  He muttered, putting his head into his hands.

 

“Oh, yes; most certainly, my Dear Watson.”  I snickered, smiling wide.  “You can go; I’ll watch the girls for an hour until you can come get them.”

   

Sam got up, walked over to me and kissed me on the forehead before going to Cheyenne.  The silence remained for a few seconds, until chuckles filled the air from each of the men in the room.  Jack, James, Max, Elliott, and Gabe all had wide smiles on their faces.  This was a blessing, and everyone was happy, even if Cheyenne wasn’t. 

***

Gabe

The tiny duplex was filled to the brim with people.  Everyone that meant something to me was in the room.  Although I loved them, I hoped they would leave soon.  I wanted to spend some time with Ember, and I couldn’t do that with kids and people capturing her attention.  We’d had an impromptu barbeque celebrating Sam and Cheyenne’s exciting news.  Everyone was over the moon, and Cheyenne had come around once she spoke with Sam.  I envied them at times.  I’d always wanted kids, just hadn’t met the right woman to have them with; that is, until I met Ember.

 

Cheyenne and Sam were the first to leave, followed shortly by James and his daughter Janie, Blaine and Elliott, Jack, and, finally, Max.

 

Max wrapped Ember in a tender hug, and spoke quietly into her ear.  He rubbed his bearded face on her hair, gave her a kiss and walked out.  Ember stood there for a few seconds before raising her eyes to mine and smiling slightly.

 

“I worried him last night, and he told me to stay close to you.”  She explained to me.

 

“You worried all of us last night.  Max and me more than the rest.  We’ll figure this out though.  Don’t worry too much about it.”  I explained comfortingly.

 

I wasn’t so sure this would all be figured out and wrapped up into a nice bow.  I was being positive for Ember’s sake, but I honestly didn’t feel good about this.  I had a feeling this was going to get nasty and a whole lot more dangerous before it started to get better.  From what I’d learned of the Blue Skulls over the past year, this was about to turn ugly, and I’d have to be constantly on guard.

 

They were a nasty group, and had little regard for people outside of their gang.  They went into a fight and didn’t really care if they won or lost; they took out whoever was a danger to them.  Just from local chatter, as well as findings from Luke, I knew that this wasn’t just a minor gang.  This was a small branch of a much larger gang, which spread across Texas, and flooded into Louisiana, Arkansas, Arizona, and Nevada.  I just hoped to God that I could figure out how to fix this before anything bad happened.

 

I had faith that I could take care of Ember, but I knew they weren’t going to give up without a fight.  They would go after her family, kids she saw at work, even casual acquaintances if that’s what it took.  All I knew was that I’d die before anything happened to her; without her in my life, I’d be incomplete.

 

We headed to bed shortly after.  Ember had a full day, and the pain and lack of sleep were catching up with her.  I practically had to undress her and put her to bed, by the time it was all said and done.

 

She was sound asleep by the time I got out of the bathroom.  I went to the drawers and looked for a pair of clean sleep pants, but didn’t see any.  I glanced at the bed, saw how dead to the world she was, and decided that I could get by with just the briefs. 

 

Crawling in next to her, I covered us both with the blanket and fell into a deep sleep with the woman I may possibly love, by my side.  Oh, who was I kidding?  I was already gone.

*** 

This was a great dream.

 

Ember was grinding her pubic bone against my full length.  I had a hold of her hips in a tight grip, helping her with her movements.  She was moaning loudly in my ear, and then she suddenly grinded down and froze.  Moaning even more loudly, she came in a rush.

 

I could feel her slick heat through my briefs, and decided that grinding wasn’t good enough.  Moving my hand down to my underwear, I shoved them down so my cock was now up tight against her cotton panties.  It felt divine, but I wanted that juicy slickness like I was dying of starvation.

 

Shoving her panties to the side, for convenience, I probed her entrance with my finger and found her wet and very ready for me.  Lifting her up slightly, I positioned my cock at her entrance with one hand, and took her hip in the other.  Simultaneously, I thrust up and pushed down, burying myself to the balls in one swift movement. 

 

It was at that moment that I realized I wasn’t dreaming.  Nothing could feel this good in a dream.  This was heaven.  Nothing had ever felt better than this.  I opened my eyes; Ember’s dark eyes were staring back at me.  She was so goddamn beautiful.  Her hair fell over her shoulders and came to a rest on my bare chest.  My shirt was riding up high on her waist.

 

It was still dark out; I glanced at the clock to see that it was a little after three in the morning.  Turning back to her, I framed her face with my big hands.

 

“I’ve wanted to be inside of you for forever.  Nothing compares to the feeling of being inside you.”  I exclaimed desperately, flexing my hips up into her once more.

 

When she let out a small whimper, I took that as my cue to start moving harder.  When I couldn’t reach the desired depth, I pulled her off my cock and set her gently beside me on her knees.  She looked beautiful like this too.  Underwear askew, only giving me a tiny peak at what I wanted.  Pulling her underwear down to her knees, I left them there so she would have to keep her legs tight together. 

 

Taking my cock in my hand, I slapped it against her ass once, and then did it again when she moaned and pushed back against me, looking to bring me inside of her.

 

“You want my dick back, baby?”  I asked, smacking her clit with the head of my cock.
 

When she didn’t answer, and moaned in reply, I rubbed her clit with the head, back and forth, until finally she called out to me.

 

“Please, Gabe.”  She pleaded.

 

“Please what, amorzinho?”

 

“Please, Gabe.  Please, fuck me.”

 

“Such a dirty mouth on you.  But it will be my pleasure.”  I said, before slamming back inside of her.

 

I fucked her long and hard.  I gave each pump everything I had to give.  Over and over again, I went balls deep, hitting her cervix with each thrust.

 

“I’m close.  Oh, God.”  She exclaimed.

 

“Not God baby, just Gabe.”  I hissed, pumping my dick in and out.

 

Then a thought occurred to me, and I froze.

 

“Are you on birth control?”  I rasped.

 

“Yes!”  She keened.

 

Worries alleviated, I started to pound into her again.  In and out.  In and out.  Suddenly, she peaked.  The walls of her vagina clamped down on my dick with a force I’ve never experienced before.  It was as if she wanted to hold me inside of her and never let go. 

 

I wanted that too, but my climax didn’t care.  A zing shot down my spine and seemed to settle deep in my balls before I exploded.  My come shot into Ember so hard that it literally took my breath away.  I squeezed my eyes shut and pumped through it until it finally ended.  I gave her hip a firm squeeze before pulling out of her and flopping down onto my back, panting.

 

“My god.  That was a-fucking-mazing.  Can we do it again?”  Ember said from beside me.

 

She was flopped down onto her stomach, her panties still down around her knees, and her shirt rucked up to just under her breasts.  Her hair was flying all around her, and she was smiling from ear to ear.

 

“I knew it would be like that with us.  I knew it.  Why the hell I waited so long to go after you, I don’t know.”  I said to her, kissing my way down her spine.  My lips brushed lightly over the gauze so I wouldn’t hurt her.

 

“Oh, I think that the buildup was what made that so explosive.  Just give me a few minutes to get my bearings, and I’ll be ready for round two.”  She said, then her eyes closed, and she was back in la la land.

 

Figures.  At least I knew that I could have her again anytime I wanted her.  Yes, I would just rest my eyes here for a few minutes and catch my breath.  Then I would wake her up and start that whole beautiful process over again.