Chapter Nineteen
Finally, the place had mostly emptied of people, except those who lived on site, and a few who’d brought camping gear to sleep under the stars, even though in October that’s sometimes a risk, even with the somewhat milder English weather.
Soph and I had planned to sleep over, on a blow up mattress in my office, but since that went up in smoke, our only option would be to go home for the night, and honestly, the idea of sleeping in a proper bed, after all this shit, sounded like fucking heaven.
“Let’s get out of here,” Sophie said, grabbing my hand and practically dragging me to her van, and how the fuck she had any energy at this point, I had no idea, because I was hanging on by a fucking thread.
I think I even dozed off as she was driving us home, because the next thing I knew, she was dragging me back out of the van, and up to the house.
I swear, this woman was fucking heaven-sent, because she helped me freshen up, doing her best not to get my many bandages and dressings too wet, and then into bed.
Jesus fuck, the second my body hit the mattress, it felt like everything in me finally let go of all the tension I’d been trapped in, for the hours of hell we’d gone through tonight.
“How the hell are you still functioning, babe? I feel dead, and you’re running around taking care of me?
” I wanted her off her feet, and resting too.
She was the one carrying our child inside her, after all.
Thank fuck nothing had happened to them tonight.
I’d have been destroyed if it had, because they were my world, and my future, all wrapped into one.
Fuck. It hit me then that something could have happened, and we may not even know it yet.
I shot up from the mattress with a groan, and reached for her, sitting her on the bed, despite her attempts to keep fussing over me.
“Baby. You’re okay, right? You and the little one? Nothing happened tonight that… that could have…” I trailed off, dropping my eyes to her stomach, because I didn’t even want to put words to my fears, because wasn’t that just how you jinxed the best things in life?
“We’re fine, Micro. I promise we’re okay. I stayed out of the trouble. I never got injured, unlike some people,” she raised her eyebrows feistily at me, “and I didn’t even breathe in much smoke, because you saved us. You got us out.”
Jesus. My body slumped again, and I took her down with me, draping her over me the way I liked, because then all of me could touch all of her, and keep her safe.
“Micro! I wasn’t finished. You need more painkillers for-”
“I need you to rest with me, baby. You’re so sweet to look after me, but you don’t have to. I’m fine.”
“You were shot,” she grumbled, “again.”
I had a feeling she wasn’t about to let me forget that anytime soon, so I used it to my advantage.
“Yeah, and that means I need to rest, and I need to keep you close. You know, for my wellbeing or whatever. You’re the glue that holds me together, babe.”
She relented, and let us get some sleep, which I think happened pretty much the instant I stopped speaking.
Tesio / Grease
The beauty of concussion is that it doesn’t fucking let up, making sure you feel like shit for way more hours than a little knock on the head should.
I woke up late the next morning, after the Halloween Crapshoot from Hell, and it was the throbbing of that head that woke me, rather than the head I’d rather was throbbing, preferably while I was feeding it to a certain cop.
I think I even fucking saw her in my messed up dreams last night.
“Jesus fuck,” I groaned, sitting up and gripping my head, as I waited for the room to decide to stay in one fucking place.
The buzz of my phone made me grimace, and I hit the speaker button without looking at who was calling, because that would have needed my eyes to focus on actual words.
“Tesio,” the Don’s imperious voice rang out in my room and I cursed, grabbing it, and taking him off speaker, because someone could fucking overhear the prick.
“Morning, boss.”
He made a kinda sniffy noise, and I rolled my eyes, which, by the way, also really fucking kills when you’ve had a head injury.
“How’s things?” I asked him, maybe a bit snarkily because I was feeling like shit, and I knew he was about to chew me out.
“Why don’t you tell me.” It wasn’t posed as a question, because it wasn’t. It was an order, and any idiot knew that, even me right now.
I shifted to sit with my feet on the floor, and dragged a hand over my scruffed up hair.
“Right now?”
Oh yeah, that non answer was his response. In other words, yes, right fucking now, little minion of mine.
I cursed, tucking the phone into the crook of my neck, as I rummaged around for painkillers, because I needed something to take the edge off the pain.
“I’m waiting, Tesio.”
“Yeah, and I’m trying to get fucking painkillers for this concussion. You wanna gimme a fucking second?”
Deadly silence was his response, and yeah, I deserved that. I just mouthed off at the boss, and that was a big no no in the mafia. Why the fuck was I born to that life instead of this one? Any idiot could see that this life is the one I was meant for, not the stuffy entrapment of his world.
“Sorry, boss. I’m in a fair amount of pain. Can I call you back in five?”
The call ended, which was his way of saying, sure thing, I’m a nice guy and I’ll respect your needs. Yeah, right.
I downed two of those strong painkillers I kept in reserve for injuries like this, and washed them down with a few mouthfuls of Lucozade, which I also kept on hand for rehydrating and electrolytes and shit.
I dialled the boss back, and waited for him to answer.
“Tesio.”
“Okay, let me start by apologising again, boss. I’d just woken up, and felt like sh…
felt like hell. As far as the sit-rep goes, yeah, things didn’t exactly go to plan.
” I didn’t bother pausing for a response from him, because he preferred to respond with bitter, pregnant silences that really fucked with my head.
You wanna say something, just fucking say it, right?
“Anyway, several former members of the club we took over decided to get their revenge. They spiked the kegs of beer with hallucinogens, with the intention of killing everyone while they were fucked up.”
Again, I just blundered on, because I wasn’t in the mood for his petulant silences.
“I was taken out early on, and woke up to shit already going all to hell. Along with a few sober members of the club, we did our best to secure what we could, and protect the old ladies, until help could arrive.”
A sniffy noise was my response at that point, so hell, at least he was still there and breathing, right?
“Thanks to your intervention, we were able to remove the threats, and get everything cleared up again, with zero losses.”
“With the additional threat of police, and a significant threat to my own business, Tesio.” I really hoped he didn’t have cameras in here, because I was flipping him off with both hands.
Stitch
Iglared at my phone, which had been ringing damn near constantly, and even though it was on silent, I didn’t want it waking Camille.
She’d had a rough night. I got up from the uncomfortable chair beside her bed, and leaned over to kiss her forehead gently, so proud of the woman who just fucking gave me everything.
“I’ll be back in a few, baby,” I whispered softly, making my way out of the room, with a lingering glance back at her as I closed the door.
Leaving her, even for a few minutes was so fucking hard, but sometimes nature called at inconvenient times, and sometimes that was after about eight hours of watching my woman sleep.
I used the bathroom, grabbed a coffee from the coffee shop on the ground floor, and stepped outside into the chilly air, which took my breath for a moment. Fuck, it got cold all of a sudden.
I dug out my phone, and it rang again almost that same instant, like the fucker knew I’d just reached for it.
“Jesus, you can’t be away from me for five minutes, can you?”
Reacher chuckled in my ear, sounding a little raspier than normal.
“You okay?”
“Fuck’s sake, Stitch. I’m calling for news on how Cammy and the baby are, you idiot.”
I grinned, feeling the fucking elation that a man feels when he had everything he could fucking want, everything he’d ever need.
“They’re both fine. Jesus fuck, Reacher, I’ve got a fucking kid now. And she’s the cutest little thing you could possibly imagine. I can’t believe this.”
I wished we were talking face to face, but I knew they were all still recovering from the hell of last night, probably even now in the early afternoon of aftermath day.
“How’s everyone there?”
He was silent for a moment, and again I wished we were face to face. “Reacher?”
“Yeah, everyone’s fine. Some drama here and there, what with unwanted tattoos, and broken noses and stuff, the usual. Those who took bullets are healing just fine. Everyone’s asking about you guys though.”
Warmth rippled through me at that fact. That I had a huge fucking family who actually gave a crap about me, and about my loved ones. I almost lost all of that before I even found her, and I was always going to be thankful for her appearance in my life, and the way she saved me.
“We could probably have a few visitors later this afternoon. Just not too many. Camille is exhausted, and the baby, well, she’s a baby, you know.
She’ll probably cry or whatever. I don’t know.
How the fuck am I supposed to be a father?
I don’t know the first thing about anything!
” Was that panic, all of a sudden? I didn’t know that was coming, but now all I could think about was all the stuff I had no idea how to do.
And were we going to raise a fucking baby in the clubhouse? How the hell would that even work?
“Stitch, breathe for a second, dipshit. Anything you’re worrying about, you don’t have to deal with it alone, okay? We’re all here backing you, and any decisions you make about your family and living situation.” That fucker always knew what was in my head.
“Yeah, I was just thinking that a noisy clubhouse probably wasn’t going to help a baby sleep.”
He chuckled again. “Don’t knock it. We know kids get raised in them all the time. I’d say talk to Micro about that, but his childhood isn’t his favourite subject, and he didn’t have the one thing your kiddo will have.”
“Sanity?”
“Prick. I meant that his dad was a real shit, but you’re not, and you and Cammy will be great parents. Look, I’m going to fill a van with old ladies and bring them over later to see her. I know they’re all itching to hold the baby, and make those gooey noises women make.”
Ha. The funny thing though? A few hours later, when Reacher and the old ladies turned up? It was Reacher making those ‘gooey noises’, as he held my daughter, and stroked her tiny, sweet face. My daughter. I never thought I’d fucking survive to see the day, but here it was. Here she was. Our future.