Chapter 12
Coal
I thought getting that text from Adeline was the only thing that could make my heart drop out of my chest.
But not a fucking thing compared to watching the woman that held my entire soul in the palm of her hand, dive in front of me, and her face going pale.
Without conscious thought, I moved my body to catch her.
Then I growled down in her face as I pressed my hand into the gunshot wound in the middle of her back, “You fucking little fool. Why?”
And what did she do? She fucking smiled, “Because… because I love you.”
Leaning in close to her face, I whispered, “This is going to hurt you, and I’m so damned sorry.”
Carefully, I lifted her into my arms and then ran from the house.
As we sped away from the house, I didn’t think about the fuckers.
Nor did I think about the Pagan’s Soldiers MC that was speeding past us.
And I also missed a chin lift from Tomb to Asher.
No, what I cared about…
The only thing I cared about was losing too much blood.
Hell, one drop of her blood being shed was too much fucking blood.
Within twenty minutes we were at the hospital.
I was carrying Adeline into the emergency room with the last shirt any of us had left, slowly filling with blood pressed into her back.
Asher placed his hand on my shoulder, “Coal, brother, they can’t reach her to work on her.”
I didn’t care.
Rome cautioned, “Coal, brother, she’s going to bleed out.”
But it was her voice that had me responding, “Coal?”
I didn’t notice the tear that slid from the corner of my eye, “Yeah, Soulshine?”
“I love you. Let them work. I’m not done living yet. I want… I… your… babies.” And that was when I felt arms wrap around my body and pulled me back.
“She’s coding. Move!”
And I watched. Helpless. As she was wheeled away from me.
Whoever was above, they better protect that fucking light of hers.
Because if they didn’t, there would be rivers of blood.
In. A-Fucking-Bundance.
Seeing my reflection in the glass, seeing the blood on my shirt, my hands, my face, that was when I did the only thing that made any sense to me, I asked my brothers to guard the door to the operating room, and then I headed to the chapel.
Walked down to the altar, dropped to my knees… and I… fucking… prayed.
***
Seven hours later, after surgery, a blood transfusion, and a transvaginal ultrasound, everything should have been right in my world.
Our baby was still there, its heart beating strongly.
My woman was still breathing on her own. Her heart was still beating a rhythm that only I understood.
But it wasn’t right in my world because my woman’s eyes were not shining brightly.
She wasn’t smiling while calling me Coal Baby.
No, all she was doing was lying in that hospital bed, resting, and breathing.
I had her right hand in mine, holding on as tight as I could without hurting her.
Closing my eyes, I rested my head on her thigh, took in a deep breath, and let it out.
That was when I heard the most amazing sound in the entire world, my head snapped up, and my eyes went right to her face, seeing those shockingly, mesmerizing, sea-green eyes of hers, her words, washed through me, “We’ve gotta stop meeting like this.”
I chuckled, then stood, leaned in so my face was a breath from hers, with my hand braced beside her face, my other hand cupped her cheek, I titled my head and pressed the softest kiss upon her lips.
When we broke apart, I whispered, “Fucking missed you, Soulshine.”
“Missed you too, Coal Baby.” Not once did I berate her for the name, she started calling me.
I wouldn’t ever do it.
Because never hearing it again from her lips had been a real possibility hours earlier.
Fuck. That.
My eyes were trained on hers, and at her words, I couldn’t help but smile, that was my woman, “Umm, Coal?”
Still smiling, I asked, “Yeah, Soulshine?”
She lifted her left hand and asked, “Wanna tell me what this is on a very important finger on my left hand?”
I smirked, “What’s it look like?”
That was when she smirked, “The fifth greatest thing I’ve ever seen?”
I lifted a brow, “Yeah, and what’s before that?”
She smiled, “Well, the first greatest thing I’ve ever seen is your eyes. Second, it’s your smile. By the way, your full-blown one is in the same running as when your eyes crinkle at the corners. Third, it’s the look on your face when you come inside of me. And the fourth thing is the look in your eyes every time I tell you I love you.”
“Well, that’s all good, because all of it is a requirement,” I stared simply, waiting for her to correctly fall into the hole she had dug herself in.
And that was when she asked, “Wanna explain that?”
I shook my head, wanting to say something first, and muttered, “Fuck. But I’ve missed you.”
She smiled, but then lost that smile, and I knew what was coming, and I wasn’t wrong. “I missed you, too. Now, explain.”
Smirking, I said, “It would be my pleasure. It’s all a requirement of being my wife. So, you see, since you already met ‘em all by your words, what’s the point in me asking you?”
And my woman who could spit words like it was nobody’s business simply shook her head and whispered, “Fucking caveman.”
I grinned, “Yours. All yours.” I brought her hand to my mouth and kissed her knuckles.
“There’s something I want to talk to you about,” she said, and then still holding her hand I pressed it to the side of my face and gave her my undivided attention.
She smiled, “So when we first met in the hospital three years ago, it umm, it wasn’t the first time I ever saw you.”
What was she talking about? If I had seen her before that day, my entire world would have aligned much sooner.
“You were walking out of the grocery store, you had a bag of apples in one hand, and you were glaring at a woman who almost ran over you because she was too busy texting someone on her phone.”
That was when my mind went back to that day, and I recalled seeing a flash of the prettiest head of her hair I had ever seen.
Now that I really thought about it, I should have known something was right in my world when for the first time in my life, someone made me want to take a second look.
And that second look, as she was getting in her car, a head of hair was all I had seen.
“I remember you. You know, the only thing I saw of you was your hair, and you were the only person in my thirty-four years of life that has ever made me want to take a second look.”
***
Adeline stayed in the hospital for a week and a half.
It would also seem that something I never thought I would do… I would only do it for my Soulshine.
Because when the nurse tried to bathe my woman, I vehemently refused and did it myself. That included washing her hair and conditioning it.
I also had to think of every single gross thing I could muster when she moaned every time my fingers scratched her scalp.
And yes, I promised her I would wash her hair for her, anytime she asked.
Which she asked frequently in the following four weeks while she was healing.
But there was something behind her eyes that I couldn’t make out.
I knew there was something else she wasn’t telling me, but what it was, I didn’t know.
And honestly, I had a feeling she didn’t know what it was either.
But I put all of that to the back of my mind.
None of that was important.
Not a single bit of it was.
What was important was smiling down at my woman after she got out of the shower, her little baby bump looking adorable as I massaged lotion, hoping to prevent as many stretch marks as I could. But not for me.
Nope.
I didn’t give a flying fuck about the marks.
They were fucking warrior marks as far as I was concerned, and the more of them the better.
“So, do you want to find your father? Between the two of us, our kids won’t have any other family.”
She smiled at me, brought her hand up, and caressed the side of my face, my head automatically pushed into her touch, loving it. Needing it. Always.
“Our baby has tons of aunts and uncles, a couple of cousins, and our baby already has a grandfather. The right grandfather. He or she doesn’t need someone that knew where I was and didn’t care. No, what he or she needs is to be looked upon the moment they open their eyes and see what pure love really looks like. And they will when their grandfather smiles down at them.”
I was smarter than this. I really fucking was.
And my woman, seeing the weird battle I had going on in my head, smiled, winked, then unraveled the mystery.
I could have kicked my own ass for not realizing who she was talking about.
“Piney.”
***
We made that known one month later at the family dinner. And yes, a family dinner that included all of our family.
That included Wrath MC and Immoral Saints. And this tradition would be carried out once a month until the end of time.
It was after we had celebrated my birthday by going on a secret mission, Adeline’s words, and in the dead of night, we set my parent’s trailer on fire.
Where it all had happened.
And wiped it away.
We also got the okay from her doctor, and she was able to get a tattoo.
An important tattoo that could be covered while she was at school.
A tattoo that had me feeling so full it was unreal.
Seeing my name on her left shoulder blade curled around protectively with flowers and vines.
And it was where my left hand was currently resting after Adeline returned back to my side.
Seeing Piney’s face was enough to cause the corner of my lips to tip up when Adeline smiled at him and handed him the dark blue gift bag.
Even though she was mine. All mine. I still wrapped my other around her and pulled her to my front.
She had too many eyes on her.
Sure, they were my brothers, and they knew that she was mine, but still, you can’t take the protection out of overprotectiveness.
Not with me at least.
Placing a kiss atop Adeline’s head, our baby was moving around in her belly, all behind the safety and security my woman and I provided.
“What is it?” Piney asked my woman.
I knew she was smiling when she said, “You’re harder to give gifts to than a three-year-old. Will you quit your grumbling and just open the damned thing.”
“Feisty.” He chuckled.
Nevertheless, he opened the gift bag, pulled out the white tissue paper, and sat it atop the table.
Then he pulled out his tissue-wrapped gift.
He checked the bag once more, then sat it on the floor.
Carefully, he unwrapped the gift, tilted his head to the side, and then opened the shirt up.
He had the back of it facing us, blocking everyone from the view of his face.
It wasn’t until he lowered it that for the first time since I’ve known Piney, he had tears in his eyes.
What was on that black shirt in big white letters?
‘My grandpa can kick your ass.
What superpower does your grandpa have?’
We all watched as Piney stood up, handled the shirt carefully, and then walked over to where we stood, and then he looked at me, “Need you to let her go for a moment.”
For any other man, I wouldn’t fucking do it.
But for him… he was a lucky bastard.
I couldn’t hear what Piney whispered into her ear after he wrapped his arms around her, but judging by the smiles the two of them wore when he released her and she stepped back into my front, I knew that it was special.
Just then, Piney took his kutte off, and then his shirt, and he replaced it with that shirt, pulled his kutte back on, and when started to move away, my woman called out, “I’ve got one more gift for you, Piney. Well, it’s really… a favor of sorts.”
He smiled, and nodded, “Name it.”
Everyone was silent for what would follow, and then… “Will you walk me down the aisle?”
He jerked his head up to me and asked, “Would it hurt the baby if I picked her up and spun her around?”
I chuckled, “If it didn’t hurt the baby while she was on her hands and knees as I…” What I was going to finish saying was stopped when Adeline shoved her tiny hand over my mouth.
“Don’t. You. Dare.” She said through gritted teeth at me.
She was the only person on this planet who could get away with the shit she does with me.
Piney stood there, and then he got this look on his face, and I knew what was coming, and if it hadn’t followed, the man would have lost an amount of respect from me.
“One condition. I get to tell the whole fucking world, you’re my daughter.” Piney looked down at my woman with a smile.
Adeline
“Fucking deal,” I said with a smile on my face.
Then four words were whispered into my ear by Coal, four words I never could have imagined he would ask me, “Wanna go to Vegas?”
I lifted my brow at him, “Why?”
He winked at me, “Promised you, I was giving you all of me. Fucking meant that. Includes given you my last name.”
“I know a guy with a jet,” Fiona pipped up.
Knox wrapped his hand around Fiona’s shoulders, “He owns a few of them, baby.”
“Call him.” Fiona clapped happily.
And that was how all of us, and I mean all of us, were Vegas-bound.
Five hours later the ladies and I hit the stores in Vegas and found the perfect little white dress that was biker approved.
And when we all stepped out of the massive limousine, I had no clue where it came from, Piney stood there with a big grin on his face.
The moment he locked eyes with mine, he called out, “My daughter’s getting married today.”
And yes, he walked me down the aisle, prouder than anything in the world.
Seven hours later, I was officially, Mrs. Coal Matthew Adams.
Fifteen minutes after that, while everyone stood guard, my husband did me dirty in a back alley.
Once our clothes were righted, he leaned his forehead into mine and whispered, “Hate that I can’t help myself and defiled you in a back alley.”
I smiled and curved my body fully into his, and there, I whispered back, “I’ll do it anywhere with you, Coal Baby. It’s fucking hot.”
His eyes locked down with mine when he whispered, “I fucking love you, wife.”