Three weeks later

Silky Ink

Cindy

“He still hasn’t worked out what you’re doing today?”

I glanced up from my thigh to Silk’s face. “No clue. I can keep a secret when I want to. Can’t wait to see his face.”

I’d been working with Silk for the past two weeks on drawing up this design and I fucking loved it. Silk was one exceptionally talented artist, that’s for sure. The piece was large, taking up the entirety of the outside of my left thigh. It would be fully visible between my shorts and knee pads when I was at derby games.

“I wish I could be there. He’s gonna flip.”

She sprayed my skin and wiped before reloading the gun with more ink. I’d already been lying on her table for most of the afternoon, but by the looks of things I didn’t have too much longer to go. Maybe another half an hour to an hour.

It was nice to just lay here and relax after the whirlwind my life had been since my kidnapping. I’d now moved out of Renee’s place and in with Nitro. The crazy man had leased me the shop he’d told me he would. It was right next door to Marie’s Cafe. We were still setting it up for a grand opening in a few weeks. Nitro had even managed to salvage a couple of the signs from Retro Funk that were already installed on the walls of my new place. Since my aunt didn’t care for the store name, I was able to take it for mine. I was so happy Retro Funk would live on. I knew I could make Grandma proud.

I still worked two nights a week at Titanium, and Nitro and I went up at least one night a week to play, along with going to the Sunday training sessions. I didn’t mind the commute, even when I had to take my car, which wasn’t often. Normally Nitro rode with me. Damn, but I loved to ride. I was hoping over the summer I could start learning to ride myself. I was pretty sure Silk would help me out with it. I was sure she wouldn’t pout the entire time, like Nitro would.

“Saw you and Nitro deep in discussion with Keys last night. He have news?”

The police had come to see me the morning after my rescue and I’d told them the altered story Nitro had told me to go with. They’d seemed accepting of it and hadn’t hung around for long. Although, I did notice Scout pulled one of them into his office for a little while. Not sure what that was about, but guessing it was about Winston’s police connections. Nitro had told me that even if the police were not going to look into Winston, the club would. I wasn’t sure it was worth the effort, but Nitro said they wouldn’t let it go until they worked out if there were others who had been involved over the years. That had gotten my attention and I’d been keeping up with Keys on what he’d discovered as he kept looking into things.

“Um, yeah, he’s been looking into Winston, trying to work out how he did what he did and if anyone else was involved. The fact the cops ignored my reports really got to him.”

“With good reason. You were an innocent teenager already going through enough without this bastard adding to it. The fact the cops did nothing but brush you off pisses us all off.”

I winced as she ran the needle over a nerve. “Yeah, well, Detective Keys has it all worked out. Scout and Keys are meeting with their contact at the station today to discuss it. Not sure why they’re bothering, I mean they’ve never lifted a finger before. I doubt they’re going to suddenly care now.”

“And unless he’s going to pull a zombie, the man ain’t coming back to cause more trouble, right?”

I baulked that she knew the truth and she laughed at my reaction.

“Girl, you can tell me the official story all you like, I’ve been hanging around the Charon MC since I was barely a teen. I know those boys wouldn’t have stopped until that fucker was no longer breathing. I don’t need to know the details, but I sleep better at night knowing that fucking bastard is sleeping with the fishes on a permanent basis. So, you gonna tell me what Keys figured out? I’m curious, and we have some time to kill while I finish off your artwork.”

I chuckled at that. Tattoos this big did take some serious time to get done.

“Well, you know my stalker was my and Nitro’s gym teacher in high school, right?”

“I had heard that. He must have been young back then.”

“Bridgewater High was his first job out of college. Anyhow, Keys searched his place and found some journals. It turns out he’d been a bit of a troublemaker as a teen. His folks had booted him out of their home and somehow, this cop found him and took pity on him. Took him in. From what Keys could find out, he behaved himself for a little while. Well, I think he might have just been hiding it well, but either way, he knuckled down and this cop helped him get through college and become a coach. He’d wanted to join the Navy and live what he thought would be a high life, but the recruiters that came around to his school dismissed him. When he first met Nitro, he got blindingly jealous by the looks of it. Guess Nitro was everything Winston had wanted to be. When a Navy recruiter came sniffing around Nitro, Winston really got mad. We were together by then and had only recently started sleeping together, so you can guess how we were.”

I felt heat spread over my cheeks and cleared my throat when Silk snickered.

“My folks were in a wreck. A feral hog raced out in front of their car one night and my dad swerved to avoid it and hit a tree instead. Winston wrote me a note claiming he’d caused the accident and if I didn’t break up with Johnny, er, Nitro, he’d do worse. I told my mom about it and she said that there was no way someone could have caused the accident. So I ignored it, like she told me to. But he did really kill my cat. Poor Whiskers. Fucker ran him over with his car then tossed him on our front lawn for me to find. I took that second note to the cops along with the first one. They blew me off.”

“Let me guess, the officer you spoke with just happened to be this cop who had taken Winston in as a kid?”

“That’s our guess, but Winston never mentions him by name in the journal. I’m not sure how he would have known it was Winston who’d done it, anyway. I had no idea who my stalker was until after he took me.”

“That’s fucking bullshit that he knew it was, but did nothing about it.”

“That’s the thing, I think he did. From what Keys said he read, something happened between the two of them and Winston was royally pissed at him. The man was a fucking nut-job and Keys said the journal reads like that of a madman for half the time, so it’s hard to filter out the facts. I think that’s the real reason Keys and Scout are going to the station. They want to work out what happened to the cop who took Winston in. Keys thinks Winston may have found some way to take the man out.”

“And being Keys, he has to know.”

“Yep.”

When both our phones lit up with messages, Silk turned the gun off and set it aside.

“Apparently someone wants our attention.”

I tapped on the screen to bring up the message.

“It’s from Taz. I didn’t realize he even had my number.”

“Your number’s been added to the club group text. OMG! Flick’s had their baby!”

Opening the text I read it out loud “I’ve got myself a daughter. Lola Grace. All’s well.”

This was baby number three for the Charons in the past year, with Marie’s bub due later in the year being number four. I resisted the urge to place my hand over my flat belly. There was no baby in there yet. But I wondered how it would feel to have a little tiny human growing inside me. I glanced up to Silk when she I realized she was being way too quiet and was shocked to see she was crying. “Why is that a sad thing?”

“The name.” She paused to pull off her gloves and reached for a tissue to wipe her eyes. “Taz’s mom and baby sister were murdered when he was a teenager. Their names were Lola and Grace. He has them tattooed on his chest. That they’ve named their daughter that? Oh, fuck.” She paused to mop up more tears.

I was blown away. That was some very powerful meaning behind that little girl’s name.

“Told you she’d be here.”

At the sound of her husband’s voice, Silk flew up from the chair and blocked anyone from seeing my lower half, while spinning to face the front of the shop.

“Dammit, Eagle! He’s not supposed to know about this!”

“Darlin’, why were you crying?”

She brushed away his question with a wave of her hand. “Taz and Flick’s baby. It’s nothing.”

I was pretty sure who Eagle had brought with him, but wanted to be positive so I twisted around to see if I was right. Yep, I was. And Eagle had brought Raven with him too. I grinned up at Nitro.

“Hey, babe. Hear the news? Taz is a daddy to a little girl.”

He grinned over at me as he slowly made his way around the other stations in the shop.

“I did hear that. Also heard you were down here getting inked up without me. What gives?”

Silk was still blocking his view of the work in progress, and it looked like she was going to get her wish and be here for the unveiling after all. Eagle had their son on his hip and he was moving a lot faster than Nitro, so they got to us first. The moment they were in range, Raven all but lunged out of Eagle’s arms toward his mom.

“Mama!”

“Hey there, baby boy. You having fun with Daddy?”

Eagle took advantage of Silk being preoccupied to take a look at my leg.

“Nice.” He then gave his wife a kiss on the cheek.

Nitro came up to us and leaned against the bench with his arms crossed, looking very relaxed and sexy as hell.

“It was supposed to be a surprise for you, but it’s not finished yet. Don’t suppose you could turn around and come back in, say, an hour?”

With a smirk he shook his head. “Not a chance, baby. C’mon, shift over, Silk, let me see what masterpiece the two of you have come up with.”

“I’m only about twenty minutes off finishing it, so it’s nearly done.”

Chewing my lip I gave Silk a nod to move to the side to let Nitro see.

I hoped he liked it.

Nitro

The raw ink on Cin’s leg wasn’t finished, but it was close enough to being done that I could clearly see what it was. My woman was something else. She was getting a large tattoo of a World War II style sailor dancing with a retro woman on skates. I leaned in closer to see the eyes and hair colors matched ours. Silk was an amazing artist and she’d outdone herself with this piece.

“Say something.”

I kept my face neutral as I glanced up at her. She was adorably flustered, thinking I wouldn’t like it. Crazy girl. Leaning over, I put a hand next to her head to hold my weight as I lowered my face down to hers. Cupping her jaw with my other palm, I took her mouth with mine, kissing her slow and deep until she melted against the table beneath me.

“Babe, I fucking love it. It’s perfect.”

She gave me a little growl. “That was mean. You scared me.”

I gave her another quick kiss on the tip of her nose before standing back up. “That’s what you get for not telling me about it before getting it done. Now, Silk, you said twenty minutes? Because we have a baby to go see.”

Silk gave her son a kiss on the cheek before she handed him back to Eagle.

“Okay, baby boy, you sit tight with Daddy while Mommy finishes coloring in Aunty Cindy, then we’ll go see your newest playmate.”

“He’s not gonna be happy it’s another girl. Cleo bosses him around enough as it is.”

I laughed at Eagle. “Brother, Cleo is one of a kind. That girl’s gonna boss everyone around no matter who they are. Little Lola won’t give Raven any trouble at all. They’ll probably end up teaming up to get one over Cleo as they get older.”

Silk had snapped on a fresh pair of gloves and the buzz of the tattoo gun filled the air as we all stood there and watched her put the finishing touches onto Cin’s newest piece.

“Have you heard from Keys or Scout yet?”

I knew Cin would ask me that question, but I figured with the baby news she’d forgotten about that the meeting between Keys, Scout and Donald down at the station was happening today.

“Yeah, Keys caught up with me a little bit ago. Not sure we’ll ever know exactly what happened. But with the information we could add from Winston’s journals, Donald believes he’s identified the officer who took Winston in. It wasn’t done officially and he didn’t tell others at the station about what he was doing for the boy. So, when the officer was found dead in his home, no one went looking for Winston because no one knew about him. It was labeled a home invasion gone wrong. The house had been ransacked and valuables stolen. It’s still unsolved. And Donald believes it was that case that caused yours to be overlooked. The boys were too preoccupied with trying to find who killed one of their own, to take the time to look into what appeared to be a high school prank.”

“Holy fucking shit. He murdered the man who took him in? He was a bigger monster than we realized.”

She could say that again. I was extremely glad I’d made sure that fucker wasn’t breathing anymore.

“Seems like it. Donald knew the officer, who he wouldn’t name, and he said that he suspects the man knew it was Winston hassling you, and attempted to deal with it off the record. Donald is quite sure that if he hadn’t died, the officer would have done your case due diligence.”

“That’s just so tragic.”

I gave Silk a nod. “That it is.”

With that we all fell into silence as Silk finished off the tattoo, then got it doctored it up so we could get moving.

“Ready to go?”

“Just let me put my leggings on.”

“And I gotta just clean up this stuff. Give us ten.”

I followed Eagle and Raven toward the front of the shop where Eagle started pointing out various tattoos to his son while we waited on the women. Finally, they came out, ready to go. There were three other artists working in the shop so we didn’t need to lock up or anything.

“Gabs! I’m heading out for a bit. I should be back by my next appointment.”

“Easy done. Say congrats for us.”

Grabbing Cin’s hand in mine, we pushed our way out of the door and into the perfect Texan spring day. The hospital wasn’t far so we all headed up the street on foot.

“Did you notice the eye and hair color?”

I gave her hand a squeeze before I released it and wrapped my arm around her shoulder as she wrapped hers around my waist.

“Yeah, babe. I caught the color choices. It’s cute. I love it and I can’t wait to have a closer look after we get home.”

Yep, I intended to have a very close look at every inch of her when we got home later. I fucking loved that she got a tatt that represented us on her. Made me want to do something similar. Maybe I’d have a chat with Silk later and see what she could come up with for me.

“So you two planning to join the Charon baby boom any time soon?”

Silk’s question had my heart skipping a beat. I’d love nothing more than to join the baby boom, but it looked like things weren’t going to go as smoothly for us as they had for the other couples in the club.

“We’re working on it. No news yet, though.”

I rubbed my palm up and down Cin’s arm as she stayed quiet. Our lives had been a crazy whirlwind these past few weeks, but even despite the chaos, I knew the fact she hadn’t fallen pregnant as easily as the other women was weighing on her.

“Ah well, still early days for you two. It’s nice to have a little bit of time as a couple before you go throwing a kid into the mix, anyhow. Enjoy it while you can. And if you ever feel the burning desire to not sleep all night or get spit up on, just yell out and we’ll loan you scamp here until you get over it.”

Silk elbowed Eagle and gave him a glare that would have taken down a lesser man.

“What, babe? You know I love Raven, I’m just fooling around.”

I walked a little slower, letting the other couple get ahead of us as we reached the hospital.

“You okay, Cin?”

She smiled up at me. “Yeah, and Eagle’s right. We need to get ourselves sorted before adding a baby to the mix but I’d kind of talked myself into it. You know?”

I leaned down and kissed her temple. “I know exactly what you mean. Did the same thing myself, and you’ll see, we’ll have our own family before you know it. Once the shop is opened and there’s less stress in our lives, things will happen as they’re meant to. I can feel it in my bones.”

I gave her a wink and pulled a stupid face at her and she gave me the chuckle I was looking for.

“And in the meantime we have your brothers’ babies to cuddle and spoil.”

“Damn straight.”

We walked into the waiting room of the hospital and could barely hear ourselves think over the noise. Looked like the entire club had come straight in to meet our newest member. Keeping Cin locked to my side, I glanced around the room at all the happy, smiling faces and realized that this was my whole world right here. My family. Every single person in this room was part of the Charon MC and I was so fucking blessed to be able to claim each and every one of them.

The End.