Cheyenne Chapter 19
I got up and pulled on some clothes. Reaper did the same, though he was frowning at me as he did it. I couldn’t lie there while we waited for the prospects to get back. Once we were dressed, I took him down to the living room. I sat down on the couch, and he sat down next to me.
“Babe, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I just want to wait down here. I’m nervous, Holden. What if I’m not?”
“Then we’ll keep trying until you are. It’s not a big deal if you’re not. You’re right, it has only been a few weeks. Forget about that for a minute and talk to me about your wedding ideas. Do you know when you want to have it? Where?”
I pushed the thoughts of the tests to the back of my mind and told him what Alisse and I had briefly talked about.
The whole reason we’d gone to the clubhouse earlier was to see if he had a preference on anything. “We didn’t get far. I wanted to see what you wanted.”
“I’m a typical guy. As long as it’s what you want, then I’m happy. I just want you to have my last name and to have a kickass party with our family and friends.”
“So, if I want to have a big fancy wedding with all the fanfare, you’ll do it? Even if it takes me a year to plan it.”
He didn’t look thrilled at the idea. I wasn’t thinking that, but I wanted to tease him.
He groaned. “Not my first choice, but if you want that, we’ll do it.”
I got up on my knees and kissed him. He took over the kiss quickly and teased my lower lip with his teeth. I broke us apart before we got caught up in that kiss.
“Lucky for you, I’m much simpler than that. No big puffy dress or over-the-top wedding either. In all honesty, the idea of spending all that time, energy, and money on something that lasts ten minutes, gives me hives. I’d much rather have a simple ceremony and then the party like you want. I do want Alisse to be my maid of honor. You and the guys can wear whatever you want but I do have one request.”
“Anything.”
“I want you to wear a wedding ring too.”
I waited to see what he said. I knew a lot of guys didn’t, though I’d seen the Warriors wearing them. It shocked me at first.
“I’ve always planned to wear one, Bright Eyes. I want it known that I’m taken, just like I want everyone to know you are too. I like the idea of matching bands. You?”
“I love that idea. When would you like us to do it?”
“I’d be happy with tomorrow, but I know that’s too soon. We need to get food, send out invitations and for you to get a dress. Is a month long enough?”
I stared at him stunned. He wanted to get married in a month? I sat there speechless and thinking. I could see that he was dead serious. I did a quick calculation in my head and I nodded.
“I should be able to do it. But what if this thing with Serpent isn’t over yet? Don’t you want to wait until it is?”
He shook his head no. “I’m not giving them control over our lives, Cheyenne. We control that. If they’re still out there, then we’ll figure it out. What’s the Saturday before Christmas?”
I took out my phone and looked at the calendar. It was December twenty-second.
“That’ll work. And since you two aren’t working right now, you have time to work on it. If you need any help, let me know. I know Harper will be thrilled to help and the other old ladies down there too. Those women are experts when it comes to weddings. They have a few every year at least.”
“Lord, really? Then I’ll be asking them for sure. Do you—”
I was interrupted by a knock at the front door. Reaper shouted for whomever it was to come in. The door opened and in came Carter and Braxton. They gave me a sheepish smile as they handed the bag to Reaper and beat a hasty retreat. He held it up as he stood and helped me to my feet.
“Ready to find out if we’re pregnant?”
“If you are.”
He led me to the half bath downstairs and followed me inside. I felt a little weird reading the instructions, then peeing on the stick. When I sat it down to develop, he held me in his arms. We watched the time tick by until the prescribed time had elapsed. I swore it took three times as long. Finally, three minutes were up. I slowly picked up the test and looked at it. I swallowed then showed it to him. In big letters was the word, pregnant.
Reaper gave a shout and scared me as he picked me up and kissed me. He was grinning like a madman. I laughed and hugged him. The tears were filling my eyes. I couldn’t believe it. I was going to be a wife and a mother. We might have stayed like that all night if it wasn’t for the knock at the door. He frowned and then led me out to see who it was. Alisse wouldn’t knock, she’d just come inside.
When he opened the door, I got the shock of my life. Standing on the porch was his entire club. They were all giving us expectant looks. I glanced at Reaper to see if he knew what was up. Before he could ask anyone, I heard Maniac snarl, “Well, are you pregnant or not? We need to know so we can plan shit.”
I gasped at them in shock.
Reaper chuckled and then pulled me close. “We’re getting married in a month, so you fuckers be ready on the twenty-second of December. We’ll be having one helluva party. Oh, and yeah, we’re having a baby too.”
The cheers were deafening. I’d never seen men get excited at the news of a wedding or a baby. These guys were over the moon.
Alisse pushed to the front and hugged me. The guys were congratulating Reaper, then giving me hugs and kisses on the cheek. Reaper growled at them. “Don’t hug her so tight.”
“Honey, they can’t hurt the baby,”
I told him and rolled my eyes. He shrugged.
“I know, but they don’t need to be so rough. Since I see the prospects can’t keep their mouths shut, come on in and we’ll have a drink.”
They all crowded in the door. Alisse kept holding on to me. I couldn’t believe what my life had turned into in less than two months. We had to be out of our minds.
***
On Thursday morning, Reaper and the guys took me to see Dr. Simpson. He’d called her that evening after we found out and got her to work me in. The man was nothing if not efficient. She’d been happy to see me and excited with our news. A quick check and we had the blood test confirming I was in fact pregnant. Since I knew when we’d gotten together and the date of my last period, she was able to estimate the due date. We should have our little one around the twenty-first of July. That was almost dead middle between my birthday on July fourth and his on August second. She urged me to see an OB/GYN doctor as soon as possible.
I’d spent the rest of the day in a daze. Reaper refused to go to work. He and the posse with him had taken me and Alisse to lunch at Annie’s place. She’d been just as happy with both of our announcements as the guys were. Reaper made her promise not to tell Harper until we had a chance to call her later. I made him wait until after the doctor’s appointment before telling anyone else.
By Friday, I had not only my pregnancy confirmed by Dr. Simpson but also his sister and brother-in-law were told that we were getting married and having a baby. Harper had squealed when she heard the news. She promised to get the other Dublin Falls’ ladies working to help me and Alisse plan the wedding. My head was whirling.
I was looking forward to the weekend. Not only because Reaper would be off, but because he’d agreed to teach me how to shoot better. At first, he said to wait until I had the baby, but I challenged him. Shooting wouldn’t do anything to the baby. Now, my plans to learn to fight would have to wait, but not shooting. He’d given in when Alisse had ganged up on him with me. He’d grumbled we were nuts.
Speaking of Alisse, she and Ink seemed to have come to some kind of truce, or at least they weren’t battling each other at every turn. I wanted to ask if they’d moved their relationship along, but something held me back from asking. I didn’t want to rock that boat yet.
The guys were going to have church tonight rather than Monday. They had something else that night and didn’t want to wait another week. Alisse and I had talked about it and decided we’d cook them dinner tonight while they had their meeting. The guys were always appreciative of a home-cooked meal. We might not be the best cooks in the world, but we could more than hold our own and not poison anyone.
As soon as they streamed into church, we got started. We’d worked out the menu earlier and made sure we had all the things we needed. We were making pork chops, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls and two vegetables, corn on the cob and green beans. For dessert we’d already baked several apple pies. The prospects had run out and gotten us vanilla ice cream to go with it.
We laughed and chatted as we worked. It was fun to have someone to cook for and to do it with. Everything should be done by the time they got done. While we were cooking, I dialed Harper’s number. She’d told me to call her tonight. I hope I wasn’t interrupting anything.
She answered with a bright hello. “Hello, my future sister! How are you and my future niece or nephew?”
I laughed. “Well hello to you too, future sister. We’re doing great. Other than your brother thinking he can tell me what to do every second of the day.”
“Get used to it. They’re all like that. Viper drove me crazy when I was pregnant with Cayden.”
“Speaking of Cayden and pregnancy, any idea when you might be making us an aunt and uncle again?”
I teased her.
She got quiet, then whispered, “Are you alone?”
“No, but it’s just me and Alisse.”
“Oh good, then I’ll tell you. Viper and I just decided to have another baby. We’d been talking about it and then surprise, you two hit us with your news. But don’t tell my brother. I want it to be a surprise when it happens.”
“I promise, not a word. That’s great. Maybe we’ll have them close in age. He loves Cayden so much and has said he wishes you’d two would have another one.”
“He’s hinted at that for the past year. I just wanted to get Cayden close to out of diapers before doing it again. What are you ladies doing? Where are the guys?”
“They’re in church, and we’re cooking dinner for them. You?”
“Just finished dinner. Viper took Cayden to the clubhouse so I could have some ‘mommy’ time. I’m painting my toenails. Ready to talk about the wedding? I’ve got the other ladies on standby. You tell us colors and themes and we’ll see what we have and what you need to buy. I know you said you want to go simple, but make my brother spend his money. I can help you with that.”
She gave an evil laugh.
I chuckled. “I bet you could, but he’s not going to have to pay for this all himself. I have money.”
“I can tell you haven’t told him that, have you? No way he’ll let you pay. Another thing they don’t do. Alpha male all the way. But I leave that to you to battle him about. Let’s get into the details.”
The three of us got down to talking as we cooked. I couldn’t wait until the big day.
***
Reaper:
I watched my brothers and our guests take their seats. I was anxious to see what Spawn and Smoke had found. Spawn had told me earlier he had a lot to update us with. If we hadn’t planned to talk already, I’d have gotten him to spill the details. He said he had one more thing to follow up before our meeting. I rapped on the table to start church. I got the only two other pieces of business out of the way first.
“Ratchet, any word on when Dante and Dillon will be moving here and can start?”
Spawn had finished with their background checks and they had come back clean.
“I did. Talked to them today, in fact. They’re going to drive down next week and should be here in the afternoon on Friday. They can start right away. Did you want to have a little get-together that weekend? When do we want to patch in Brax and Carter?”
I’d already had Spawn order their colors as soon as we decided to bring on the other two.
“No reason to delay. We’ll welcome the two new guys and patch in the other two next Saturday. It’ll just be us. Don’t want to take anyone away from home this close to the wedding. Maniac, will you handle getting the food for the party? I don’t want Cheyenne and Alisse doing it. Nothing fancy, you decide where and what.”
He nodded. “Second, make sure you’re ready to go and get whatever the ladies tell you for the wedding. It’s not going to be fancy, but they’ll need help. Harper and Alisse promised to keep it as calm as possible. Cheyenne doesn’t need more stress.”
They all murmured their agreement. With those out of the way, it was time to hear the real news.
“Spawn, the floor is yours. Tell us what you and the other geniuses found.”
He pointed to the image he had projected on the wall. Mayhem dimmed the lights so we could see it better.
“It took some digging, but I found out who the likely local dealer is for Serpent and his guys. Everyone I talked to said the guy to go to was one called Loco. His real name is David Bell. He’s been in and out of trouble since he was a kid. He’s done time for robbery and drug possession. However, he’s not been busted for the last few years. Not sure if he got better at hiding shit or what. But he’s the one I think is our best bet to put under surveillance. I know where he hangs out and where he lives.”
He flashed up the guy’s photo. He looked like your typical user. “His place is in that ratty apartment complex on the west side of town. It was full of druggies and prostitutes. He and his friends hang out at Sly’s Bar.”
“How do you propose we get up the cameras to watch there and at the bar?”
Maniac asked him.
“There are a few outside the surrounding businesses but not enough. I have a guy I know who works for the street department. He can take me along with him and I’ll place cameras. We’ll make it look like it’s part of their work. No colors and different clothes should do the trick,”
he said with a grin.
I gave him a thumbs-up. “Anything else you found? Not that that’s not good,”
I hurried to tell him.
He grinned wider. “Now, you know me better than that. Smoke and I have found what we’re sure is the first club the Soldiers had infiltrated. It was just over two years ago. They’re another single chapter club in Ohio. It’s in the Cleveland area. They’re called the Legion of Renegades. As far as we can tell, when they took over, they didn’t change the name. They left it as the Legion. I think it’s because they don’t want other clubs to get nervous that they’re expanding.”
“That makes sense. Do you know what they did to their businesses?”
“They’re keeping them because they’re legit, but I’m positive they’re using them as fronts for the illegal stuff. What that all consists of, we don’t know but I can guess.”
“Okay, that’s our first target. We need to find out who and what is involved. Are there any old members left and if so, why? Then we take them out. I think Sean and the guys can help with that. He said they had a few guys who could pass as MC material. In fact, he had one guy under for almost five years, trying to take them down for the feds I think. Not that we’ll take that long. I don’t care about convictions. This is purely black ops in my book,”
I told them.
They knew what that meant even if they had never served in the military. We were going to go in and kill whoever we found to be doing the evil stuff. Once we could shut down their pipelines, that is. People like that wouldn’t learn from prison and would only move on to do the same thing somewhere else. If any of them were being forced, we’d decide what the best course was for them.
We discussed the timeline for the installation of cameras on Loco and getting eyes and ears into the Legion’s clubhouse in Cleveland. I’d love to hit all the clubs they’d taken over at once, but it wasn’t realistic. With those two things decided, I promised to call Sean and the other Dark Patriots in the morning. There was no time to waste. We filed out of church over an hour later. I was feeling optimistic about what we were going to do. It wouldn’t be easy or quick, but it would be satisfying.