Lucy

 

Alone in the room, I glanced at my wrist and waited to make sure they weren’t coming right back in there with me. The doctor had unbuckled the strap around my wrist and just left it there, ready for me to pull my arm out. I was surprised no one had noticed.

 

While I waited to make sure it was safe for me to leave, I heard the motorcycles coming. Blade was on his way for me. At least I knew there was one man in my life I could count on to be on my side when shit went wrong. I pulled my arm out of the strap and unstrapped my other wrist and ankles from the operating table.

 

Then, I heard Bryan’s men running down the hallway toward the door. It sounded like they had their guns drawn. I got off the table and walked over to the door. I listened for any sign of what was really going on.

 

“No, you’re going to wait right here,” I heard Bryan say, presumably to his doctor.

 

I stuck my head out into the hallway to see where he was. I couldn’t see him, but I imagined he had the doctor with a gun to the man’s head. Thankfully, no one had thought to check on me yet. That gave me some freedom to leave, but I was still nervous. It would only take a moment for any of them to think about me.

 

I heard the motorcycles get louder all of a sudden as Bryan’s two associates opened the back door and stepped outside. I could still hear him talking to the doctor down at the other end of the hall, his voice little more than a distant, threatening growl.

 

I looked down both ends of the hallway. I didn’t know which way to go. There was only one way out that I knew about, and even it didn’t seem safe, but I knew I stood a better chance against those two guys with guns than against the man who wanted my child out of his life.

 

Did he really think I was going to be able to look him in the face when all of this was said and done and call him Dad? Bryan had given that up by threatening my child. I hoped he didn’t think I hadn’t noticed that my mother was missing in all of this. She wouldn’t have stood for the shit he was trying to pull. I didn’t know where she was, but I was pretty sure she didn’t know what was going on. Hell, for all I knew, he had her tied up somewhere back at the house. He might have had a third person at the house watching her.

 

I stepped into the hallway and walked down to the backdoor. It was still open, and I could see the two men standing there, talking, with their guns out. I took a deep breath. I was going to need to do something to get past them, but I didn’t know what to do. I knew they wouldn’t have heard me if I had decided to approach them with the noise from the motorcycle engines outside.

 

Then, the motors stopped. One of the guys pushed the door closed. I stopped dead still. Behind me, Bryan was still growling at the doctor, probably accusing him of calling the bikers out to stop him. Who the hell knew?

 

I took a deep breath and started walking toward the door again. Outside, it was dead silent. I imagined a quiet face-off between the guys and the bikers. I wondered who was going to shoot first. It would have been stupid for those two gunmen to think they could do anything against Blade and his men.

 

For one, they were outnumbered. And knowing what little I knew about motorcycle clubs, I figured Blade and his men also outgunned them. Still, I should have heard something, right?

 

I stood and listened, knowing that at any moment, Bryan was going to get curious about what was going on and come to the back or at least go to check on me in the operating room.

 

I heard a shot. Outside.

 

I stepped back from the door. There wasn’t another shot, so I quickly pushed the door open and found Blade standing there with a few other guys from the MC. He grabbed me and pulled me to his bike.

 

Before his engine roared to life, we all heard a gunshot from inside. I closed my eyes, hoping it wasn’t my father. In spite of everything he’d done, he was still my father. And because of everything he’d done, I didn’t want him to be able to take an easy way out. I also didn’t want the doctor who had helped me escape to have to go out like that.

 

“Why are we leaving?” I asked Blade.

 

“Your father has company coming, and we don’t want to be around for it.” He gunned the engine and I threw my arms around his waist.

 

I didn’t know if being on the back of his bike was a bad idea or not in my condition. I hadn’t been a good mom-to-be, but I made a silent promise to myself and to my son that once I got back to safety, I was going to be a much better mom. I was going to start taking care of my body so I could take better care of that baby.

 

I had someone else counting on me, and I had to be there for them.

 

I glanced back over my shoulder as everyone pulled out of the parking lot. We were pulling out the rear entrance as several black cars with blacked out windows pulled into the front. They looked federal, like FBI agents. They got out of their cars and stormed the building, guns drawn.

 

I hugged Blade tighter and rested my head on his back as we sped away from the scene. I saw why he hadn’t wanted to stay around. I didn’t imagine anyone in an MC wanted to talk much to the feds. I was also sure the feds must have known who had tipped them off.

 

We pulled up to the clubhouse a little while later. My whole body felt shaken. I was shaking when I got off the bike. I couldn’t tell if it was from the ride or from the adrenaline rush. I had been just a few minutes away from starting an abortion, a few minutes away from losing my baby. It really hit me how close I had been and how lucky I was that Blade and the other guys had arrived when they did.

 

I threw my arms around his neck before we walked inside. I was overwhelmed with gratitude for everything he had done. Everything. He had spared me from having to get onstage with those other girls and offered me a place to stay. All I had to do was share his bed, and that had quickly become so much more. He’d offered me more than just sex. He’d offered me more than a roof over my head.

 

“What’s that for?” he asked, laughing as we pulled back from our embrace.

 

“Everything,” I told him. “You have given me a chance at a new life.”

 

He looked into my eyes, and I saw how much my words meant to him. I ran a hand gently over his cheek, and he smiled at my touch. He turned his face and kissed my fingers as they slid down past his lips.

 

“Get a room,” Robby said, nudging his MC brother as he walked past us.

 

“Hey, Robby,” I said, stopping him.

 

“What’s up, Lucy?” he asked.

 

“I wanted to thank you, both of you, for giving me the opportunity you have. Is there still a place for me in your office?”

 

Robby glanced at Blade, as if he had to ask his brother’s permission to give me my job back. Blade nodded slightly at him.

 

“There’s always a place for you, Lucy, and I’d be happy to have you back whenever you’re ready to return,” he said.

 

I turned from Blade and put my arms around Robby’s sides. Robby was massive. He was the size of a bear, but he was solid muscle. I couldn’t get my arms around him, but his arms reached around me, and he smothered me in a hug.

 

“Thanks, Robby.”

 

“No problem.” He smiled as he walked off, leaving me standing there with Blade.

 

We looked at each other for a moment. So much had happened so quickly that we really didn’t know what to say anymore. There was just too much for either of us to take it all in quickly enough to say something to the other.

 

“Hey, look, I don’t think I ever apologized for leaving the way I did,” I said.

 

“You didn’t need to,” he assured me. “You panicked. Coming home was apology enough.” He put an arm around my shoulder and pulled me close to him. He kissed the top of my head.

 

“I just…I’m sorry,” I said. I buried my face in his chest. There wasn’t a whole lot else to say yet. I was just glad to be back where I belonged, back in his arms, back with my Vicious Thrills family.

 

We walked into the clubhouse and were met by the cheers and applause of the members who were hanging out. There was food – more grilled steak and baked potatoes, the usual for those guys. The girlfriends and old ladies passed around plates to everyone..

 

“So, this is what family feels like,” I said under my breath as we sat down on one of the leather couches around the room.

 

“I suppose so,” he told me. “Welcome home, baby.” He kissed me on the cheek and turned to his food.

 

“It looks good,” I said.

 

“It’s always good. You know that,” he added.

 

It was always good. I knew everything wasn’t always going to be great. I knew there were going to be struggles ahead. I knew I could never go back the way I came, and I didn’t have any desire to anymore. I had seen what kind of man my father really was, and I wasn’t interested in having anything to do with him again at that point. I figured it was best to let the FBI handle him, until someone somewhere decided it was time to handle him for good. Maybe that wasn’t the right way to feel about my father, but he’d led me to my real family, and I didn’t need him anymore.

 

I looked around the room at the men and women eating, talking, laughing, and having a few drinks with their food. I looked at all the leather, the ink-covered arms, chests, hands, and necks. I was sure each person in their probably had their own stories to tell, but I was sure they all had something in common. They were all loyal to one another, and they all had trouble dealing with people who didn’t accept or understand that kind of loyalty.

 

They may have had alternative ways of handling things – they certainly didn’t call the cops to handle situations they could handle on their own, and I would have been willing to put money on the fact that they called the MC when they couldn’t handle their problems. They may have had different ways of making a living, or a killing in some cases. But no matter how they lived their lives, no matter how they made money, they treated each other like family. They stuck by each other in good times and bad.

 

And they really did stick together, unlike my family had done.

 

“What are you thinking about?” Blade’s voice interrupted me, lowly, almost as if he were in my head.

 

“Just how lucky I am to be here. I took a chance that night, a shot in the dark, when I walked into your club and asked about the dancing gig.” I didn’t look at him while I was talking. I didn’t want to lose myself in his eyes. I’ve lost myself enough, I thought. I wanted to stay grounded.

 

He laughed. “You looked so scared when you came in there. I thought to myself, this little kid needs to go home to her daddy.”

 

I chuckled. “How ironic. That was exactly what I was running from.” I leaned against him while I laughed.

 

“Well, I’m glad we took a chance on each other,” Blade added. “I think it paid off very well for both of us.”

 

“You think?” I asked, turning my head to look into his face.

 

He nodded. “I’m pretty sure. And I’m pretty sure things are only going to get better from here. The worst, my love, has ended. Now, eat, before it gets cold.” He winked as he carved off another piece of his steak.