Carley
I feel awful, which sucks because it’s also Christmas morning. The guys will all be here soon to celebrate, and I’m hugging the toilet. There is a knock on the bathroom door.
“Hey, Cactus, the guys just pulled up. Are you okay?” Storm asks through the door of his room. Another bout of nausea takes over and dry heave into the porcelain bowl. “Are you sick? Do you need anything?”
“I’m fine.” I think. “I’m not running a fever, s
Weston A baby in the house again. A baby that’s mine, well, ours. One that won’t be a sibling to parent. I’m not sure if I remember how to take care of a baby. I mean, I was around 8 years old when I started taking care of my now 12-year-old and sixteen-year-old teenage brothers. I’m with Arson. I don’t know if I can do this. What if I screw this kid up? What if I screwed up my baby brothers? Are they going to grow up into decent adults? I’m not so sure. I know they will not follow in my footsteps. Both of them are straight-A students. Stetson is so intelligent; he is a high school freshman. Preston just got his license and is a sophomore. Preston’s football coach is already talking about him earning scholarships to play football wherever he wants. He will be the team captain when the new year starts. I’m very proud of both of them. When the boys get home, I must look stressed out, because I soon have them both sitting beside me, hugging me against them. I must have done something
Chapter 63: No ChangeArsonCarley seems more tired than usual. She has been that way for a while now. Not that I’m complaining too much about her using me as a pillow.We had plans to go out to ring in the new year. Instead, we all decided to just stay home and watch a movie. Carley fell asleep about a quarter of the way through.This is better than last year. I mean, sure, it's never dull getting drunk with the entire Death Kings Family. We usually end up with strip teases or fashion shows amongst a private band concert by the retired Kings of Death themselves. Only without the makeup to hide their identities.“I wonder what’s in the bag Ali brought by?” Weston asks, staring at the drug store sack on our coffee table.“Let’s look,” Lachlan says, moving to reach for the bag, but Carley shifts.Carley’s head grinds against my thigh. I grunt when it
Ransom“Lock. If you don’t sit down, I’m going to tie you up so you can’t move,” I threaten watching him pace around in front of the couch where was are all waiting for Carley. She took the boxes of pregnancy tests into the bathroom with her after leaving breakfast barely touched. The smell of the bacon cooking had her running for the bathroom. I don’t like this. She is sic
Jase“What do you mean, the baby won’t biologically be yours? There is a possibility….”“There isn’t, J. I can’t have kids. I’m sterile,” Ransom interrupts, not rising to my frustrated anger at him telling me won’t have a mini Ransom running around.“Sterile naturally or sterile as in…”“I had vasectomy alright,” he deadpans, interrupting me once again. Sometimes I wish Ransom could feel emotions as strongly as I do.I would ask him if he had any remorse over that decision now, but I know the truth. He doesn’t. He can’t. He lacks the capability.“What is wrong with you? Why are you mad at me over this?” Ransom asks me, baffled at me being livid at him over this.“Maybe because I want to raise a little mini-Ransom/Carley mix in the future. Maybe I was excited over the possibility of a child with you
Carley “Help me pack, boys. I’m going to move in with y’all,” I say, still keeping them on pins and needles for the answer to their question posed by Ransom. My dark knight’s face shows confusion. Ransom’s emotions are dulled down, but he is possessive of who and what he considers is his. He is obsessively protective of his possessions or people. Ransom is a weapon that can make him dangerous. He has no remorse over anything, but Jase acts as his conscious. Despite that, he is grounding. He is loyal and constant. He is mysterious to most people thanks to his borderline epicene looks, paired with his caustic aura. My Death Bear. I look at Jase, who has a knowing smirk on his handsome face. Never could hide anything from that man. He is intelligent and cunning. Jase is a brilliant fighter who takes his time to watch his opponent for weaknesses he c
Lachlan This is torture waiting on Jase to give his commands. Only he may talk, having gone all Daddy Dom on us tonight. It’s difficult to not move or touch Carley unless he says so. The punishment for moving or talking without his commands is Ransom’s current predicament. Ransom is tied up, and for once there isn’t panic on his face. He has never dealt with being tied. It usually triggers this feral reaction in him where he fights tooth and nail to be free. I glance at the scar around my thumb from where he bit me the last time. I seriously have the worst luck that I share with Jase. Jase gets hurt in the field. I get hurt at home, usually because Arson talked me into doing something dangerous alongside him. It was mea
Ransom “Jase is still angry with me. I don’t know how to make it better,” I tell Ryder. I’m sitting across from him in front of his giant mahogany desk at his ranch home just outside of the major port city of Palomino Bay. “You have yet to tell me why exactly that is? You keep skirting the subject,” Ryder unhelpfully points out. He will not be happy with me either, not after what happened to Jaxson and Ali when they were teenagers. The difference is they didn’t have a choice to become sterile. I did. “I’m going to start by saying it was my choice.” Ryder arcs his scared platinum brow at me. I blow out a breath. It’s not as though I’m regretting my decision. I can’t feel regret. I just don’t like everyone b
Jase “Yo, Ace. Where’s your loyal hellhound?” Camden asks, sliding into the booth beside me. I’m at Rave's, the dive bar owned by the Ravagers, having a few drinks with Romeo. I’ve discovered I enjoy hanging around Tempest’s second. We have a few of the same classes. The difference is Jensen’s major is criminal law while mine is forensic science. “Dead. Drug bust went wrong. Hence the drinking,” I say, acting far more drunk than I am. I’m pretending to mourn a friend. I text the burner phone, letting him know Ransom is fine just on another job undercover, and is, in fact, not dead. The text will delete itself five minutes after he reads it. It’s handy tech Bear has been working on. The burly Irish biker/ex-fed is one of Ali’s “brother
Carley I am sitting with my feet propped up doing coursework on my laptop while watching my uncle Jaxson, along with my husband Arson, teaching dance lessons. Jax and Air are teaching hip-hop to children who range from 5 to 18 today. Other days, they teach ballet, tap, jazz, and lyrical. Jaxson is doing most of the teaching until Arson can dance all day again. His legs tire quickly. I don't need to eat saltines and ginger ale constantly to avoid vomiting, but I still can't tolerate the taste or smell of cooked ground beef. All thanks to the hamburger, I vomited back up. Gross. I smile at the memory. I thought Jase was going to keel over from embarrassment since he was the one who cooked. He understood. Lachlan had just announced I was pregnant hours before. The grief-stricken look on Jase’s face is anything but joyful as he looks at me now. His hair is still wet from a shower. I look around for my other husbands, but they aren’t present. I watch as his Adam’s Apple bo
Carley It's been months since Lachlan conquered his fear of cigarette smoke by doing to his mother what she used to do to him. He and the others put their cigarettes out on her before Ransom came up with the idea to light her on fire. She burned to death on the concrete of that mansion's patio. Aftermath Crew was called in by Uncle Ryder to handle the disposal of the bodies of Francis Hartley and Julia Snipe. Lachlan is in a much better place now not having to deal with the stress of That Woman breathing down his neck. Hanging on the wall is a painting of our family. I'm holding our son and all five guys are gathered around the hospital bed staring with adoration at our tiny newest member. I wasn't very nice while in labor for fourteen hours. I cursed them all and called Jase a 'bad Daddy' for doing to this me as I pushed our son out. The doctor and nurse gave him some disgusted looks which was made worse by Ransom agreeing with me. Speaking of Ransom... “Rainy, if you wake up t
LachlanI put this off as long as possible. I don’t want to be here in this house, even my father’s ghost is unwelcome. I don’t want to deal with this woman, but I must. She gave birth to me, but that doesn’t mean I can tolerate being in her presence for long. It’s been over a month since she requested I be at her diner. She got her wish, just not as she expected.I'm in a charcoal suit with a silk yellow tie, and Carley is wearing a gorgeous yellow lace dress with an off-the-shoulder style. On the other side of Carley is Weston, who is wearing the same suit I am. Before we arrived, there was a wedding ceremony.“Breathe, Hotel. I can tell you aren’t by the lack of sound coming from you,” Jase says through the earpiece.“We got you covered,” Doc Fox says through the earpiece, holding a glass up toward us to signal the supposed man of honor has arrived at the party. Ryder is weari
Ransom"Look, boss, we didn't find Grothman's body. I've told you that daily for weeks now. The cops said he was dead, but he wasn't in that cave where Carley said he would be." Colton's words send a sense of foreboding into me as he talks with Ryder. He'll be back.
Razor"Who are we going after for this, boss?" One of my older members asks.I currently can't talk, since I had my throat stitched up. So here I sit in a hospital, a "victim" of gang violence. I wasn't about to fess to being the leader of one of the gangs. Both those killed each other according to the story I wrote and signed for the police and the federal agents.Amongst the feds, I swear I saw none other than the youngest Zen, Slater. What an exciting bit of juicy information that is. He didn't notice me, which is a small mercy.I wrote on my notepad that we would take care of all that later. I need a plan first.I'll have to be carefu
Lachlan"I'm exhausted. I'm taking Uncle Jax's fruit snacks and going to bed," Carley says with a yawn. "Take Air with you. I'll help you get him to bed," Weston suggests. Arson fell asleep in his chair due to the morphine drip Ryder had given him earlier. So I'm glad Weston is going with them. "Sounds great," Carley yawns and I gather up the giant box of fruit snacks Sidhe brought. He claimed that keeps a stash of juice boxes and fruit snacks in his car for his baby nephews. I don't doubt that, but I also know Sidhe, they are more for him than his nephews Kassius and Darius. He only sees Darius once a month when they go visit Gator's mother in Grele. "I'll walk you out. I'm going to stay and keep an eye on the other two," I inform them. "Somebody sober should," Weston says pointing his chin and Doc Fox and Gator who are drinking whiskey straight from the bottle. This going to be an interesting night with some mixing alcohol with pain meds and others getting crossfaded like the
Carley"Stop being such a big baby, J. Sit still," I hiss."That burns you brat," Jase snarls. "That's why you need this local anesthetic I'm attempting to put around the wound. You keep jerking your shoulder away from me," I growl at this infuriating man. He is being ridiculous. He is snapping, snarling, and flinching. He is awful when he is in pain. He didn't behave this badly when I bandaged his leg. I glance over to find Tee inserting a syringe of liquid into a juice box he hands over to Jax. Ryder nods to him. I briefly leave Jase to talk with my uncle. "What did Tee put in that juice box he handed to Jax?" I ask in a hushed tone as he stitches up Storm's calf. "Vicodin mixed with peanut butter whiskey in his apple juice so can't taste it. Why? Is Alpha being a big baby and getting on your ever-lovin nerves?""He is on my last nerve. Seriously! What is his problem?" I grumble. Ryder gives me a knowing gentle smile. "Baby bear, you scared him. The first thing he saw was you
Jase“What were you thinking, getting shot?” Ransom yells at me as I attempt to staunch my bleeding shoulder.I glare at him for daring to use such an indignant tone with me, acting as if I purposefully got shot to inconvenience him. “Watch it, Hound,” I snarl at him, already enraged about being shot in the first damn place. Then I look at him and see the large patch on his eye. I searched him for other wounds, but I couldn’t tell underneath the long-sleeved black shirt, bulletproof vest, and black cargo pants with combat boots on his feet if he was injured anywhere else. I touch his face with a bloody hand over the patch.“You can give a thorough inspection later, Daddy. Right now, we need to get out of here,” he says with a suggestive wink, causing my dick to tent my black jeans.
Carley When we arrive, it’s all-out war. Ravagers against Damned Forsaken with my entire family caught in the crossfire. Even Lydia and Grandad Leo, with his friends, are here. What gets my attention is the group on motorcycles pulling up beside us, with Ryder and Lachlan in Ryder’s custom vintage car. There are two teenage boys in the group as well. A gruff man with tattoos, long blonde hair, and a scruffy beard pulls Ali into a hug. “Hey, Sissy.” “Hey, Bubba,” Ali replies, pulling back so they can face Ryder. So this guy must be Grimm, her older brother. They look a lot alike, minus the hair color. “Is that our boys taking cover in the middle, Frosty?” He asks Uncle Ryder. “Unfortunately, Reaper, yes, that’s our team. Sierra and Sidhe are picking off as many as they can. But, of course, Jaxson gave away his position. Collector,” Ryder addresses another honey-blonde man with his hair in a messy top not, clean-shaven face, an