Page 21 of Ink

I reach out and stroke her cheek and hair. I cup her jaw in my hand. “Baby, we didn’t use a condom.”

I don’t know if I had any preconceived idea of what her reaction would be but when she lets out a small sigh and shrugs her shoulder at me—it’s not wasn't what I expected. My reaction must be clear on my face because she continues. “Ink, I trust you. I haven’t been with anyone but you in a long time and I trust that you’re clean because I know that you wouldn’t do anything to hurt me.”

“Damn right, I wouldn’t. But honey, are you on birth control?”

“I stopped taking it a few months ago. It had been so long since I was with someone and it was starting to make me feel sick.”

My mind explodes with the fact that we could have just created a baby. For a second I’m completely still and in shock but after a beat, I warm up to the idea that she could get pregnant with my baby. Seeing her belly swollen with my child. I reach out and rub her bare belly. “Yeah, I want my baby inside you.”

She gasps in surprise. “What?”

“Yeah. The idea of you carrying our baby,” I groan for her to hear. “I want that when you do.”

She doesn’t say anything but she curls up against me and wraps her arm around my bare chest. Her hand lazily draws lines against my tattoos. I don’t know when it happens but we both fall asleep under the sheet together naked and blissfully sated. It’s one of the best damn nights of my life.

I’m woken up by the sound of my phone ringing. I check the bedside clock and see that it’s a little after four in the morning. It’s dark outside and the sound is coming from the foot of the bed. I extract myself from Carmen’s hold around my waist and get to my phone so I can stop the noise from waking her or Lucia. When I extract my phone out of my pants pocket I see that it’s Griz calling. Fuck! Does that man ever sleep?

I answer the call and whisper into the phone. “What the fuck man. Do you know what time it is?”

“Yeah, asshole. I’ve been texting you for hours. Why are you whispering?”

“Hold on!” I grab my boxer briefs off the ground and thread my legs through them, pulling them up I quietly unlock the door and step out into the hall. I pass Lucia’s room and look inside to see her sleeping soundly in her bed. I head down the steps and I’m on the bottom landing before I resume speaking. “Ok. I went downstairs. Carmen and Lucia are asleep. It’s four a.m.”

“I know what time it is. Get dressed and meet me at the garage.”

I stop pacing the foyer. I’ve been in the MC long enough to know when not to ask questions and I have the feeling that this is one of those times. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

“Hurry up.” Griz cuts the call without another word.

I sit down on the bottom step of the stairs and rub my hand through my hair. This is not good. I have a gut feeling about this. I quietly trudge up the steps and sneak back into my bedroom. I gather my clothes at the end of the bed and silently put them back on. Torn between waking Carmen or letting her sleep, I decide it’s best if I let her know that I’m leaving the house. The last thing I want is for her to wake up, find me gone, and panic.

I walk over to her side of the bed and kneel down. Gently I stroke her arm, increasing the pressure as she stirs awake. When her eyelids flutter open and she lifts her head up off the pillow I can tell she’s startled. “It’s okay, sweetheart. I need to go out on club business. I just didn’t want you to worry. Go back to sleep. I’ll set the alarm.”

I go to stand up when her hand shoots out from the bed and grips my forearm. “Jeremiah don’t you dare do something that’s going to take you away from us.”

Her voice is low but so full of emotion and worry. I know she’s really worked up when she’s calling me by my first name. I reach out and tenderly stroke her cheek. “Baby, the last thing I want to do is leave you and I promise you, I’ll do everything in my power to make sure that doesn’t happen but I am a patched-in brother of the Mystic Venom MC and I will not skirt my club responsibilities.”

She closes her mouth and purses her lips. She’s fully awake now. “Baby. Lay down and go back to bed. I’ll be back soon.” I can tell she wants to say more but she holds back. She lays back down and pulls the cover over her. I don’t look back as I leave the room. She stays on my mind the entire way to the garage. When I get about half a block away I can see several motorcycles parked out front and the lights are on in the parts section of the shop.

I park my cycle in front of one of the closed bay doors and tug on the front door. Finding it locked, I start to fish out my keys from the pocket I tucked them into. Much to my surprise, Hammer comes to stand on the inside of the front door and unlocks it, and pushes it open to allow me in. “What’s going on?”

“It’s your lucky night kid.” Hammer turns away and starts walking back into the garage. Instead of turning into the bay area where we work on cars, he delves deeper into the building on the side where we keep all the auto parts and it opens into the shop. As we walk we get closer to the source of light and when we step into the back room, my eyes go wide at what I see. I’m not overly shocked to see Rider, GRiz, Hammer, and Leon —but I am surprised to see Artemis. He’s supposed to be out on the road doing gigs, trying to be a rock star or something. They all look grim, and they step aside so I can see what they’re hiding. When I finally get a glimpse I raise an eyebrow in suspicion. The shocked and surprised emotions don’t sit well with me.

Griz is the first to speak. “Here’s a late birthday present brother.”

My eyes take in the man who’s sitting bound with duct tape to the chair in front of me. I take in his appearance. He’s got a dirty mechanic’s rag stuck in his mouth with a piece of duct tape strapped over it. His blonde hair is matted, his cheek below his eye looks red and swollen from a punch and it looks like he’s been doused with a water hose because his clothing is wet. My guess is he sweat through his clothing. I take in the leather cut that he’s wearing. I hone in on the blue and red stitching and the Nordic Fire MC logo. I look below his name and see his Enforcer patch below it.

My teeth grind together in anger. This is the man who held Carmen while their VP hit her. A defenseless woman, with her sleeping child mere feet from her. When my hardened stare leaves the man sitting before me and seeks out Griz, he nods once. It’s unspoken between us but I know that this man was brought to me to seek justice for Carmen. An eerie calm takes over, one that I haven’t felt in a very long time. One that I haven’t felt since the days when I was living on the wrong side of the law. Before I had people to care about; before I had things to call mine.

I turn around, ignoring the stares of my brothers around me. I slowly remove my cut, folding it and laying it over a wooden stool that we sometimes use while we take stock. When I turn around my stare is back on the man sitting in the chair. His eyes go wide when he looks at me. I don’t know what I look like right now but I must look like a man who’s out for revenge, a man possessed because he starts fighting against his restraints and shaking his head. He mumbles out muffled pleas that fall on deaf ears. I step directly in front of him and bend down enough to stare straight into his eyes. “Me and you are gonna have some fun getting to know each other.”

A door closing behind me has me turning my back to look over my shoulder. Hammer has left the room and Artemis is standing in front of the door. He nods to me and stands stoically in place. I turn back to the filth. I reach forward and in one swift motion rip the tape from his mouth. He instantly spits out the rag and starts coughing. When he stops coughing he finally speaks. “I’m going to give you and your idiot friends one chance.”

I raise one eyebrow in response. “Let me go right now and I’ll forget this ever happened.”

I snort in response to his idle threat. “Oh, don’t worry. I’m sure you won’t remember this either once I’m through with you.”

He clamps his mouth shut and for a second I can respect that he’s going to take this beating like a man. I take a step closer to him. I’m slowly losing control. Just as I’m about to hit him, I want him to know that he caused this. “You had the nerve to hold the woman that’s going to one day be my ol’ lady while your club VP slapped her repeatedly. Now it’s time to pay your penance.”

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