Chapter Twenty-Three
Larissa pulled into the street toward the house she had shared with her father for a lifetime.
She was so tired. She hadn’t heard from Big Dick, and most of the guys at the club had left to respond to a call from Brick.
She didn’t quite get the details, but she knew it was important, and knowing Brick was with her husband, she didn’t want to keep them.
Getting a text from her dad was odd, especially as he asked to see her, but she didn’t question it.
Her father randomly texted her. Their relationship was good.
She had thought he was out of town on some conference, so his text had been a little confusing.
He had told her he’d gone to the house, and no one had been home.
Pulling up outside of her father’s house, he pulled out her cell phone and checked to see if there had been a missed call, but there was none. She couldn’t stop thinking about Big Dick and his brother. She hoped and prayed Erick was okay.
Climbing out of the car, she put a hand on top of the hood to steady herself.
It was then she realized she hadn’t eaten anything since last night.
All the chaos and trying to help Big Dick’s family and be there for everyone, food had been the last thing on her mind, and it should have been the first thing.
She would go and grab something to eat. Making her way to her father’s house, she frowned as she noticed her father’s car wasn’t in the driveway. She pulled out her father’s keys from her pocket, let herself inside, and was again hesitant as there were no lights on inside.
“What is going on?” she asked and closed the door, flicking the lock in place. “Dad?”
She walked into the kitchen and went straight to the fridge, opening it and grabbing some ham and cheese. She was starving, and she took a bite.
There was no sign of her dad.
“Dad? Where are you?”
Just as she was about to step out of the kitchen, she felt her cell phone buzzing in her pocket, and she quickly pulled it out to see Raven was calling her. She frowned and answered the call.
“Rav—”
“Get the fuck out of your dad’s place and do it now!”
“What?”
“Your dad didn’t text you. I got the call, your dad was attacked. Ran off the fucking road on the way back, and his phone was stolen. It was not your dad that texted you.”
And that was when Larissa heard the back door rattle as someone started to get inside. She gasped. “Someone’s here.”
“Shit. Fuck. I am too far out. Fuck me. Larissa, hide. I’ve got to call reinforcements.”
Larissa grabbed a knife and she quickly ran out of the room, or as fast as she could as she was pregnant. She made her way upstairs, and she went straight to her father’s room, going toward his closet.
She had no idea what she was going to do as she held onto that knife. Fear raced down her spine, and she crouched down, pulling her legs as tight to her chest as possible.
Tears filled her eyes. She should have known her father wouldn’t just randomly text her. What the fuck was happening?
She wanted Big Dick.
Her dad had been run off the road. Was he okay? What should she do?
Raven had hung up the phone, and she quickly dialed Big Dick’s number but that went straight to voicemail.
Next, she tried to call Smokey, and he was not picking up either.
Neither were Harlow or Hunter, and whoever was trying to get into the house had succeeded, as she heard the sound of breaking glass.
Whoever it was, they were inside the house.
She didn’t get a good look at him, and with the silence, she heard as he started to trash the kitchen. Larissa started to feel sick as she thought about what might happen. This was a mistake. She was terrified.
The tears that filled her eyes spilled over, as she heard the sound of her intended attacker making his way upstairs.
“I know you’re in here, but I don’t mind playing this game. I like to hunt. It makes the reward even more delicious.”
He kept teasing and taunting her. She didn’t know what to do. All she had was a knife to protect her. Panic was starting to spread.
The only person she wanted was Big Dick, but he was saving his brother.
He wasn’t even going to know she was at risk.
Why the fuck did she leave the clubhouse?
What the hell was wrong with her? She was just responding to her father, and it turned out this wasn’t her father.
She had put herself and her babies at risk.
She froze because she heard her father’s door slam open. She took several deep breaths and tried to ignore the fear.
It wasn’t helping.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are. If you think being pregnant is going to save you, I’ll just cut that baby right out of you.” He groaned. “I love the blood.”
Larissa gritted her teeth and tried not to whimper. Her heart was pounding, and she was sure if he got close enough, he would be able to hear it too.
There was no time to breathe, no time to panic. She had to stay alive, but how was she going to do that? He was so close.
She heard his footsteps getting louder, and then the closet door opened, and at first, she thought she might have stayed hidden, and he turned as if to walk away.
Larissa didn’t even breathe, and it would have been pointless, as he grabbed her ankle and she screamed. She had never screamed so loud in her life, but she let it out and couldn’t stop, even for a moment, as he pulled her out of the closet.
She held onto the knife, and struck out.
Larissa was a crazy woman as she slashed out, trying to make contact. She had her eyes closed as the fear was just too much, and all she could think about was saving her babies. She had to keep them safe and if that meant killing a man, that was exactly what she was going to do.
She felt the knife hit flesh, and she pushed hard, hearing the mighty roar of a man, and as she opened her eyes, she was flat on her back. She watched as if in slow-motion, as her attacker drew his hands up, and she knew what he was going to do.
There was no time to protect her babies. This man was going to punch her in the stomach. He was going to hurt her babies, and she put her hands up and tried to move, but speed was not on her side.
However, she heard a mighty roar, and the strike never came. In fact, the weight of the man who had been crouched over her was gone. Larissa scrambled to her ass to see that Big Dick had taken the man off her, by throwing his whole body at the attacker.
Larissa cried out, so happy to see him, and then was a little frightened as Big Dick was a lot smaller than the man sent to kill her. She didn’t want anything to happen to him.
Her attacker laughed. “You think you can save her?”
“You stay the fuck away from my wife,” Big Dick said.
All her attacker did was laugh, as if it was a foregone conclusion that he was going to win. Larissa had heard rumors of Big Dick’s fighting skills. Men were terrified of him. The club respected him, and she watched as he unleashed hell.
Her attacker was not expecting it, and Larissa watched as Big Dick lost complete control.
There was no room for a counterattack. Big Dick rained down blow upon blow, and then she watched as he got the man down to his knees.
He pulled the knife out of the man’s arm and she watched as he pierced it straight through the man’s throat, killing him.
She had just watched Big Dick kill a man.
Larissa crawled across the floor, gripped the edge of the bed, and got to her feet as Big Dick turned to look at her.
The man might not have gotten a chance to attack, but from the look of him, someone else had attacked Big Dick.
He was bleeding from a cut above his eye, and he had blood at the corner of his mouth.
He looked toward her, and he took a step but then stopped.
Larissa didn’t know what he was waiting for, and she decided to close the distance between them and collapse against him.
“I’m sorry,” Big Dick said. “You shouldn’t have seen that.”
“I don’t care. I don’t ... care. You saved me. You saved us.”
He cupped her face and forced her to look at him, and she stared into his eyes. “Always. I will always save you.” He took possession of her lips, and she knew some people might be horrified. There was a dead man in the room, but she didn’t care.
Big Dick had saved her.
She loved him.
“I love you,” she said.
“And I love you.”
“I don’t know what happened. What about your brother?” she asked. “Is he okay?”
“The club has taken him to the hospital and I had to get to you. I had to let Cadeon go,” Big Dick said.
“What?”
“It was either kill him, or get to you. I had to get to you.”
She was shocked. If he killed Cadeon, it would be the biggest step to wiping out the Twisted Bastards MC. Now, he was going to be just as big of a threat to the club, if not even more so.
“We’ll find him,” Larissa said. “We’ll find him together.”
Big Dick stroked her cheek. “I don’t suppose you’re the one that supplied the kitchen knife?”
“Yeah, I did. I panicked, and he was dragging me out of the closet, and I had my eyes closed and I was just stabbing and stabbing, hoping it would hit.”
“I love you, Larissa. So fucking much.”
She couldn’t help but smile. “And I love you.”
She was never going to get tired of this man.
Big Dick crouched down. “And how are our babies?” he asked.
“Fine, I think, I hope they’re fine.”
Big Dick pressed a kiss to her stomach. “We’ll get you checked out. Right now, we need to get to the hospital,” he said.
****
Twisted Bastards MC lost eleven men.
Most of them Big Dick didn’t even recognize, so that showed Cadeon had been recruiting, and not locally either.
Andrew’s body was discovered outside of town, in a car, in a ditch.
His throat had been cut and his tongue removed.
His funeral had already taken place, and from what Big Dick heard, only his brother attended.
Andrew had not been well-liked, which was a surprise.
When they were younger, between Andrew and Alan, Andrew had been the nice one, whereas Alan had been the screwup.
Alan had come to him and asked if he could protect his family in case the people Andrew had been working with came back.
Big Dick and the Hell’s Bastards MC agreed.
He had no reason to believe Alan had anything to do with it.
Alan had been clean ever since he got his act together and became a father.
Jonah was going to make a full recovery as he’d just been shaken up by being run off the road. That seemed to be the Twisted Bastards MC’s MO, constantly running people off the road.
Big Dick stood in the hospital room. His parents had already left, and they had thanked him and the club for protecting them all, and getting Erick out of trouble.
“Hey,” Erick said.
“How are you doing?” Big Dick asked.
“I’ve been better, but the nurses are treating me right, you know?” Erick had a smile on his lips and Big Dick couldn’t help but laugh. “Thank you.”
He frowned. “What for?”
“Coming for me.”
“Dude, what makes you think I wouldn’t have come for you?”
Erick looked down at his hands and then up again. “I’m not exactly the most loved brother. They, uh, seemed to know that, and they kept saying it didn’t matter what they did to me, you wouldn’t give a fuck and would be happy to see me dead.”
“Hey,” Big Dick said, moving closer to his brother, and rather than take the chair, he sat beside him. “There was no way I would ever leave you behind.”
“But the shit I’ve done over the years. I’ve not exactly been a great brother, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized I’ve given you every reason to leave me behind.”
Big Dick grabbed his hand. “You’re right, you’re a prick, and you’ve been a prick for as long as I’ve known you, but you know what else?
You’re my fucking prick, and that is not ever going to change.
I was going to come for you, because the only one that can tell you, you’re a fucking prick is me, Callum, Michael, Bernard, Jude, Harlow, and our parents. That’s it.”
“Thank you.”
“Always, Erick. I was not going to let anything happen to you. I will protect you always.”
“How’s Larissa?” he asked.
“She’s good. She’s out in the hallway. She didn’t know if you’d be up for visitors.”
“I’d love for my sister-in-law to be here,” Erick said.
Big Dick went outside and grabbed the large care package Larissa had insisted on packing. Together they walked inside his brother’s room, and Larissa immediately started to fuss, showing him everything that had been placed inside.
For the next couple of hours, they hung out, laughed, and made Erick feel safe and happy.
When it was time for them to leave, Big Dick explained that a couple of guys from the club were going to hang out with him.
Brick and Kinky had volunteered to stay with him throughout the night, and in the morning, the guys would change until Erick was in the clear.
They hadn’t talked about the fact his little brother was having what appeared to be uncontrollable nightmares. He didn’t know what to do about them, but he hoped time would help heal those wounds. Each hurdle they came to, he would fight to get everyone over it.
Wrapping his arm around his wife, he walked out into the night with her, and they made their way toward the car. Big Dick had expected Larissa to be more hesitant with him, when in fact they were closer than ever.
“Did I ever tell you that you’re a good brother?” Larissa asked.
“I’m not a good brother. I make my mistakes,” he said. “Trust me, I could probably create a mile-long list of everything I have fucked up.”
Larissa laughed. “I know, and I get it, I do, but your heart is always in the right place. You’re a good man.”
“I’m your man, always.”
“I know, I wasn’t disputing that,” she said, and laughed. “Always.”
“I love you, Larissa, always will.”
“I love you too.”
He stepped as close as he could with his babies in the way, and kissed his woman.
He had let Cadeon get away. The club knew what had happened, and even though some were pissed off that he had chosen Larissa over the club, he knew most of them understood it.
Smokey wasn’t angry, because he would have done the same.
All the guys who had the love of a good woman, and knew love, would have done it.
Cadeon was out there. But right now, he was weaker, and the only person he had was Wilcox, and that was okay. They were working at cutting off Wilcox’s funds, because it would seem Wilcox had made a lot of enemies over the years, and some of them would like to see that bastard suffer.
Where there was a will, there was a way.