DECK

I was toey as fuck. I needed to get eyes on my woman and see her injuries for myself. Creed had left over a half hour ago to find out shit, and I’d expected him back by now.

Booth and Darth had taken Stella and Shiloh down to the cafeteria for some food. Shiloh didn’t want to leave me, but Darth convinced her there would be some hot chips and gravy down there for her. I couldn’t help but laugh about my girl’s devotion to hot chips and gravy.

“Brother,” I heard Creed from the other end of the hallway. I spun around to see him pushing my fiancée in a wheelchair. She looked fucking amazing.

“Sweetness.” I ran the short distance to them and dropped to my knees in front of her as I let my eyes sweep over her body. No cast, so nothing was broken. I could see some bruising on her shoulder, and from how she was holding herself rigid, there had to be a lot of soreness.

“Jesus, fuck, Charlie, baby, are you okay?” My hands roamed over her, making sure there were no more injuries and calming myself in the process.

“She has a deep gash on the back of her neck—which they stitched up—her back is completely covered in bruises, and a few other things here and there,” Creed added cryptically, but my focus zeroed in on the cut on the back of her neck.

“Sweetness?” I prompted, noticing she hadn’t said a word yet.

“Are Shiloh and Stella okay?” she whispered. I could see tears forming in her eyes.

“Oh, Sweetness, Shiloh is fine, a fractured arm and some scratches and bruises. Stella has a nasty bump on her head from hitting the driver’s window, but nothing that won’t heal.” I got as close to her as the wheelchair would allow and reached out to lift her chin with my fingers. I needed to see her eyes. Something was up, and Charlie could sometimes hide behind words, but she couldn’t hide her eyes. “Talk to me, Charlie,” I demanded softly.

Her eyes showed torment, holding in pain and… something else I couldn’t figure out. The tears were falling then, her cheeks wet as they fell. Fucking hell! Was there something else wrong with her? Something I couldn’t see? Reaching out, I wiped away her tears with my thumb, then rested my hands against her cheeks and waited for the answers I desperately needed.

“Take me home, honey, please. I just want to go home,” Charlie begged me. Her hands covered mine, but I noticed she winced at the movement.

“Be careful, Sweetness.” I took her hands and laid them gently down in her lap.

“I love you so much, honey,” Charlie whispered as she laced her fingers through mine on both hands. Her grip was tight. I knew there really was something else going on with her.

Being careful not to move her shoulder too much, I brought her hands up to my mouth and kissed her knuckles hungrily. I needed the contact. I didn’t think I could ever let either of my girls out of my sight again. We were going to find that fucking rogue soldier, and when we did, I would be first in line to mess him the fuck up. Twice now, he had been after my girls, and this time, he’d succeeded in hurting them. He would not get another opportunity.

“I love you, too, Charlie. I love you so fucking much. You saved our girl, and for that, I will be forever grateful,” I said to her without taking my eyes from hers. “I just hate that you three got hurt because of that fucking prick.”

“You will find out who is and stop him.” Christ, she had so much faith in me still.

“You can bet on that, Sweetness,” I promised as I pressed my lips to hers. I didn’t deepen the kiss, not yet. She needed to heal, and I needed to get my girls home and safe in our room.

The rest of this clusterfuck of a day could wait until morning.

 

————

 

What in the actual fuck was going on?

I’d woken up to find only myself in my bed. Shiloh was still out of it, and Darth was still asleep on the floor in her room. He’d refused to leave her last night, so I didn’t bother to fight him. I never did when it came to him and Shiloh.

But Charlie wasn’t in any of the rooms in our suite. Where in the fuck was she? Jesus, she should have been sleeping. I saw what her back looked like when I helped her change into her nightie last night, and it fucking rocked me to my fucking knees. It could easily have gone so much worse for the girls in the truck. It did my head in every time I thought about it. She’d held onto me in bed last night so fucking tight that it had broken my heart. Her sobs wet my bare chest for half the night until she’d finally nodded off around two. She would not take any more painkillers no matter how hard I’d tried to convince her otherwise.

Actually, now that I thought about it, the way she’d refused made me wonder why.

Searching around the room, I looked for the little yellow bottle she put in her nightstand drawer. She was pretty cagey about it, too.

What are you hiding, Sweetness?

I pulled open the drawer and found the pills, then read the label. Nothing too unusual about them. Just your run-of-the-mill painkillers that were safe for pregnancy.

Fucking what?

Pregnant?

Charlie was fucking pregnant.

Throwing on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt from the floor, I raced out of the room to the kitchen.

Pregnant. Holy fucking shit. That was fucking fantastic. Why in the world hadn’t she told me? How far along was she?

Jesus, was the baby okay after the accident?

When I burst into the kitchen, I didn’t see Charlie anywhere.

Just Creed.

“Worked it out, did you?” he asked, bringing his coffee cup to his mouth and taking a sip.

“You knew?” If he did, he had better have a good reason for not telling me.

“Yep, the nurse thought I was her husband when I went to find her and see about her condition for you.” That stung just a little bit. I’d wanted to be the one at her side at the hospital.

“Why isn’t she telling me? I don’t understand, brother. Isn’t she happy about the baby? Is the baby okay? Give me some answers here, Creed, because I don’t understand this shit at all.”

He put his mug of coffee down on the bench. “She thinks you don’t want any more kids. That having Squirt is enough,” he said matter-of-factly.

I scowled at him. “What the fuck are you talking about? Of course, I want— Oh, shit.”

The fucking penny dropped.

Our little moment before they’d left on the road trip. Fuck me. As I pushed my fingers through my hair, I wanted to kick my own arse. Again.

Creed picked his coffee back up and lifted it to his mouth again. “Well done, brother. You figured it out. She has gone to the clinic on Murphy Street for an internal ultrasound. Go fix your mess,” he told me as he took another sip of his morning brew. The fucker didn’t smile, but he fucking should have. Cocky prick.

It took me all of ten minutes to get to the clinic. I noticed one of the club’s cars that Charlie sometimes drove if she didn’t have Shiloh with her was parked in the lot.

We were one prospect down now since losing Dundee. The poor bastard never stood a chance. His neck was broken when the truck hit him after he had come off his bike. The EMT at the scene said he would have died instantly. Cold comfort. We’d lost a good person, friend, soldier, and brother. And my kid and fiancée saw it happen. That fuckin rogue soldier cunt was going to pay for all the shit he was doing to my club and family.

I parked my bike and ran into the building to find out the information I needed, then I continued my hunt for my woman.

Finally finding the room I needed, I knocked loudly on the door.

“Come in, Deck,” I heard Charlie call from the other side of the door.

Fucking Creed.

I opened the door and saw Charlie lying on a bed with a white sheet over her, her legs bent up and apart. I quickly made my way over to her, giving the lady between my woman’s legs a brief nod. My focus was on Charlie.

“Sweetness, why didn’t you tell me?” I asked her quietly.

“I thought you would be mad. You said no more kids. I don’t know how to deal with this, Deck. I only found out myself yesterday when they had to do the CT scan. I want this baby, and I want Shiloh. I can do both, honey, and I promise, I won’t love this baby more than Shiloh.”

Oh, fuck I was such an arsehole.

“Sweetness, listen to me. I know what I said at first, but if you remember, I also said I was sorry, and I would explain myself. Sweetness, I am just worried, shitting myself if I am honest.” I would much rather have this conversation in private—in our room and in our bed. Naked. But Charlie looked like she was going to puke all over the place from anxiety. I had to ease her mind.

“I lost Zoe in childbirth. It was the worst day ever, seeing it happen, then having that tiny baby given to me and being told to go home and be a parent. On my own. No help from the mum.” Hunkering down a little closer to her, I lifted the sheet and her top, and then pressed a kiss to her flat stomach. “I didn’t love Zoe, but losing her was fucking hard. I do love you, though. I love you more than I have ever loved anyone in my life, and if something were to happen, and I did—” I had to stop. Speaking the words felt wrong like I would jinx the whole thing or something. “If I lost you, Charlie, my life would be over. There is nothing without you.”

“Oh, Deck.” Charlie forgot about her soreness and reached for me. I did my best to hold her without too much force, but really, I just wanted to wrap her in my arms and hold her forever.

“You would do the best for our children like you always do, honey,” she whispered in my ear, keeping her voice low so just I could hear. “Nothing is going to happen, honey. Now let’s take a look at our baby. After yesterday’s accident and not being that far along, I am a little nervous.”

Shit, now I was nervous. “Okay, Doc, let’s do this.”

We spent the next twenty minutes looking at a tiny blob on the screen with a tiny, tiny fluttering in the middle. The doctor told us that was our baby’s heartbeat. Fuck, yeah. I wasn’t there for Shiloh’s ultrasounds. Jason had taken that honour. At the time, I had decided they needed to do that together. But now, seeing my child on the screen, hearing the heartbeat, and seeing it, there was no fucking way I was missing out on any of these appointments. I was going to be with Charlie every single step of the way.

We left the clinic with a black and white image of our little miracle, a recording of the heartbeat on my phone, and an appointment for Charlie to see the doctor again in two weeks.

I laced my fingers with Charlie’s and held her close against my side. Her back would be sore for a few more weeks at least, so we took it slow as we made our way out to the car park. Although I was on a high from finding out I was going to be a father again, I was also pissed off that Charlie had taken off from the compound with no one on her.

“Don’t think I won’t spank your arse for taking off this morning on your own, woman.” I growled gently as I pulled her close to me. Our foreheads touched, and we took a moment to be us.

“Hmmm, that sounds like fun.” She winked at me. There was my sweetness.

Right there and then, I vowed to make Charlie nothing but happy. We’d had ups and downs, and I could fucking guarantee that with my fucking stupid mouth, we would have more, but she would always be happy that she chose me.

“Kiss me, Deck,” she asked as her arms snaked behind my back and pulled me in closer.

Dropping my mouth to hers, I lost myself in the taste of my sweet woman. Our lips moved slowly against each other’s, and pushing my tongue forward, I demanded entrance to her mouth. She didn’t disappoint me and opened her mouth on a moan, allowing me access, and I tangled my tongue with hers.

I pulled her impossibly closer to my front. I wanted no distance between us so no one could see where she ended and I began.

She bit my bottom lip and then soothed it with her wet tongue—little minx.

“Oh, God, baby, we have to stop this before I take you here in the parking lot.” I moaned against her lips. Nipping and licking her, not quite ready to stop just yet, but I knew I had to. I had to get her out of danger. We were totally exposed here with no prospect or full patch brother for added protection.

“Ohhhh, that sounds like fun, too.” She smacked me on the arse, then grabbed my arse cheek through my jeans and gave it a squeeze.

My dick twitched in agreement—he too thought it was a good idea to fuck her right there and then. Not happening, but it certainly did sound like fun.

Okay, then, so a pregnant Charlie was a very horny Charlie. Good to know.

“Come on, sexy mama, let’s go home to our daughter and tell her the good news.” I laughed at her antics. After kissing her chastely one last time, I laced my fingers with hers again, and we started towards the car.

“Oh, Deck, Shiloh is going to be so excited,” Charlie said, and I could feel her excitement.

I scowled at the piece of shit car, but we didn’t get more than a few steps when a massive explosion rocked the car park.

Years of experience and training kicked in straight away. Turning my body quickly, I covered Charlie with my body and took her down to the ground. I knew there was no way out of hurting her back, but I had zero choices. Having Charlie sore for a bit longer was better than her dying. And that was never fucking going to happen.

Charlie screamed as her back made contact with the asphalt. I gritted my teeth as my hands holding her to me hit the hard ground, too. I felt my knuckles rip, and I knew there was some damage done to them. I had my whole body on top of Charlie, and there was debris raining down around us everywhere. Fuck. What if something big hit us? I knew I was strong enough to take a fair bit of punishment, but I couldn’t do anything about large pieces of a vehicle hitting me square in the back.

There was suddenly an intense heat—obviously, the car was on fire then—and just as I thought it was safe to take a look over my shoulder, there was another smaller explosion. And I knew without looking that my bike had just gone up with the compound’s car.

I whipped my head back and buried it into Charlie’s neck. Her whole body was shaking. Jesus, the baby. Had I injured her with my body weight and the fall to the ground? Then I remembered how hard Darth had taken her down that day in the park. I knew how easy it was to hurt her.

Her arms were locked around me so tight that I literally had to force my body from her.

“Sweetness, let me up. The baby?” I said frantically. I slipped one hand to her belly and pressed it gently. “Any pain?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. Oh, God, Deck, your bike,” she cried, looking over my shoulder at the burning metal that used to be my custom Breakout.

“Fuck my bike, Charlie. You could have been in that car.” I was yelling, but I couldn’t help it. That fucking cunt was trying to kill my woman. First, he’d tried to run her, my daughter, and Stella off the road, and killed my fucking friend, and now this.

The rage I felt right then was like an inferno. I would find who was behind this and kill him fucking slowly.

My mind was going in a hundred different directions. First, I needed to get a hold of Booth and get the compound on lockdown. I had to make sure Darth didn’t leave Shiloh’s side. Then I had to get my woman checked out, make sure our baby didn’t suffer from its second trauma in less than twenty-four hours.

The distant sound of sirens rang out over the roar of the two fires burning not more than fifty feet from us. I had to move us further away. I got my brain back into soldier mode.

“Come on, babe. Let’s get away from all this toxic smoke. I need to call Booth and get them down here. I want Mannix and Creed to take a look at the debris. They will be able to get what we need out of it to help point us in the right direction.” As I talked, I got up. My legs were a bit shaky, but it wasn’t something I hadn’t experienced before.

“Stay still, Charlie. Let me do all the work.” My hands were fucking killing me, but that didn’t stop me from reaching down and placing one arm around the back of Charlie’s legs and the other behind her back. I lifted her slight weight and made a mental note to get her to eat a little more at mealtimes other than her usual cut fruit.

Swinging her up bridal style, I was careful not to jolt her too much. Her back must have been hurting like a bitch right now, and I didn’t know if there was any other damage. But my main focus was to get her out of the open.

Just then, a commotion at the front of the clinic had me spinning around and holding Charlie away from them. My battle instincts were on high alert. I had no idea where the danger would come from now. But I saw it was only a few nurses and a doctor.

“We need a wheelchair here. She is pregnant, and the blast sent us crashing to the ground,” I called out, and one nurse automatically turned and disappeared back into the clinic, presumably to do my bidding.

“Honey.” The softly spoken endearment stopped me.

I looked down at Charlie and breathed. Her smile was comforting, but I was still on high alert.

“I’m okay, I promise. My back hurts a little bit more, but my tummy doesn’t, and I don’t feel any cramping. You protected me, Deck. You always will.” Her lips touched mine, and I nearly lost it. I kept my lips on hers. It wasn’t a kiss of passion, but a kiss of pure unadulterated fucking relief.

“Jesus, Sweetness, we need a fucking holiday,” I said, resting my forehead on her.

She let out a giggle, and the sound warmed me on the inside. She rested her head against my chest as we waited for the nurse to come back. “You make the arrangements, soldier boy, and I will go anywhere you want.”

 ————

 

“What the fucking fuck, Deck. Is Teach okay? Are you okay?” Booth said through clenched teeth the minute he jumped from his truck. When I called him to tell him what went down, I’d asked him to bring his truck.

Mannix, Creed, and Steel were close behind him. Creed was the only one on his bike. I was relieved Darth stayed back at the compound, as I couldn’t be worrying about Shiloh right now.

They all shared similar looks of concern and rage.

“Yeah, brother, Charlie is good but sore as fuck. When I took her down, I couldn’t take all of the impact, so she copped a bit more trauma to her back. They checked her over again, and everything looks okay. The baby is still safe and sound. They used one of those listening device things, and we heard the heartbeat. Nice and strong.” I realised what I had just revealed. The guys didn’t know about the baby, except for Creed, and I knew that man could keep a secret better than any central intelligence. I wasn’t sure if Charlie wanted to start telling people, either. We hadn’t really had enough time to talk much about the baby, but these people were my family. Charlie’s family, too, so telling them now was an absolute must.

The gasps from them were comical.

“You knocked up Teach?” Steel said. His smile was a mile wide.

They were all smiling now. Charlie was so loved by my brothers, and our baby would be equally loved and accepted just as Shiloh had been.

“Fuck, yeah, I did,” I replied with a cocky grin. Fuck, yeah, I did. “She isn’t all that far along, but she is carrying my baby,” I said with so much pride. The euphoric feeling almost eclipsed the fucked-up shit that was behind me still smouldering.

“Fuck, Deck, is that your bike?” Mannix pointed to the burning wreckage.

Now that I knew Charlie and the baby were safe, and Charlie was in the clinic with a police guard, I could finally let me guard down and mourn the loss of my fucking cool as fuck Harley. My Breakout was my baby. She was black on black, shiny and matte. Low and sleek, and fast as they came. She had so many custom pieces on her, and I’d worked fucking hard to get her. I was pissed. That prick was doing everything in his power to do as much damage as he could.

“Let’s get this shit looked at and back to the compound as soon as we can. The police are going to want to keep it for a while, but hopefully, Jason can get it released a bit quicker. Creed can only see so much here,” Steel said as we watched Creed do his thing.

Steel and Mannix were the explosive experts of our team, but Creed had a gift with figuring shit out. He could look at something and put the pieces together. His skills came in handy more than once out in the desert of hell. Just like they were now.

“He tried to fucking kill my woman and our little girl, Booth. That shit rips at me deep, brother,” I said with venom.

Booth gave me a curt nod, his jaw clenched so tight it was turning white. The same way it had been last night at the hospital as he watched Stella tell us what happened. He couldn’t take his eyes from her face. I knew he was looking at her injuries and cataloguing the guilt and blame. Adding it up. Adding it to the other stuff he felt the need to take the blame for.

“I don’t think he was trying to kill her, brother,” Creed said, coming up on the conversation.

Seriously? Could he not see the fucking blown-up car? I was about to voice this, but Booth’s phone started to ring.

“Fuck, no caller ID. I had better answer this just in case it is someone at the compound or one of the club businesses.”

“Put it on speaker, Pres,” Mannix said straightaway. He is one edge—we all were.

With a nod, Booth hit the phone’s screen a few times before answering. “This is Booth.”

“Well, hello, Vincent, how are you?” The robotic voice came through the speaker, and I saw fucking red.

I lunged for the phone and took it out of Booth’s hand.

“You fucking cunt. You could have killed her. They were badly injured in the accident you caused yesterday. My three-year-old daughter was in that fucking car. Stop hiding like a fucking coward, and show yourself.” I growled. Just hearing his voice was pissing me off, making me lose my cool and my composure.

I felt a hand give my shoulder a hard squeeze, telling me to calm the fuck down.

“If I’d wanted her dead, Sarge, she would have had a bullet in the brain weeks ago. Now have some fucking respect. The widower was right.” We looked at Creed, whose whole body was taut with rage and anger, and I knew we were all thinking the same thing.

He was listening to us.

“I wasn’t trying to kill her. It was just another warning. Just like yesterday. I am in control. I can get to any of those bitches anytime I want, and there ain’t nothing you can do about it. I am smarter than you are. I have an advantage over all of you.”

Even with the digital voice changer, we could hear the cockiness of a sick bastard coming through.

“Yeah, and what might that be, prick?” Steel yelled. He was just as sick of this shit, too. His bar and grill was getting bogus complaints made about it constantly.

“I don’t have anything I care about anymore, but you all do. Those fucking gash bitches are your weakness. I think I might give the pretty little ballet dancer a rest for a while, let her belly get big with that spawn she is carrying. Be prepared, boys, you never know which bitch I will go after next. Because I am not giving up until I have destroyed each and every one of you.” I felt a chill right down to my bones. This guy was fucking crazy. Certifiably insane. Going after those we cared about, and for what?

“I’m done with you, you fucking psycho arsehole. Show yourself like a fucking man, you pathetic excuse for a soldier,” Booth roared into the phone.

“I don’t know. I kind of like the name Rogue. What do you think?”

Oh, Jesus, he was listening to us in our own compound, too. How? How could one person be smarter than all of us?

Booth was enraged. “You will be found. And we will deal with you in our own way. The law be damned, arsehole. We are going to kill you. You think you are in control? When I have your pathetic life in my hands, and I am squeezing the life out of you, then we will see who is in control. But let me tell you this one thing, you fucked-up piece of shit. You go after one more person we care about, and there won’t be a single place you can hide from the fucking hell I will bring down on you, motherfucker.” The menace in Booth’s voice was chilling. He meant that. And he was capable of that and so much more.

Rogue let out a nervous laugh. “See you in hell, boys.”

Then the line went dead.

What the fuck was going to happen next?