Chapter 25
Bolo
Tucking a piece of loose hair behind Devyn’s ear, I watched her sleep. Not in a creepy way. At least I hoped not—it wasn’t like I was sitting over her with a bag of Cheetos while licking the air. It was more that I couldn’t believe she was here with me.
It’d been about two weeks since her last doctor appointment and she was fifteen weeks along in the pregnancy.
Everything had settled down a bit. The medication the doctor prescribed had helped lower her blood pressure into more normal ranges and she’d agreed to stay here at the clubhouse apartments with me.
She also wasn’t throwing up as much anymore, though she still wasn’t able to eat a lot at any given time and had a lot of what they apparently called aversions.
Now I was watching the rising sun cast a glow over her, and wondering how the fuck I’d thought I hadn’t wanted something like this in my life when I was younger.
I thought I wanted to be free. I was just free of responsibility, an overgrown Peter Pan.
I hadn’t realized that this, a good woman, a baby, having them under my care and protection, this was true freedom.
Coming home and seeing her sitting there, waiting for me and smiling as I walked through the door. It was like something just clicked into place. Something I hadn’t realized I’d been waiting for. I’d brought her flowers the other day and the way her whole vibe just…softened…was nearly my undoing.
I wasn’t a very romantic man, but I found myself wanting to do things that put that look in her eyes, a smile on her face, and prompted her to give me a hug.
It wasn’t just the sex, though that was admittedly great, it was just being around her.
I’d bring her flowers every day if it meant getting that smile.
Well, maybe not every day. The apartment would be packed.
Fuck. I sounded like I was going soft. Maybe I was, but only for her. Part of me would always be hard for her. I chuckled out loud, then froze as she huffed out a small breath and shifted in her sleep.
She was the only person I would be soft for. So far. I knew once our baby was here that number was going to grow by another person. Let someone threaten either of them, and they’d find out real quick what a murderous bastard I could be. But she and my baby would only ever get the best of me.
Everything was going well, but there was this undercurrent of foreboding.
Something I’d come to realize was that club business was always going to be harder now.
Before I had some things to lose. My MC brothers.
My parents and brothers. That had concerned me before, but I always knew it would work out.
They all knew how to take care of themselves and each other.
But now? With Devyn under my protection?
Just the idea of taking on The Collective made me want to find them and rip them apart piece by piece, as quickly as possible so that they didn’t have the chance to do anything.
Actual fucking dread was building in my gut because we hadn’t found them yet, and we knew they weren’t done with us.
We’d made them take a step back, my father, brother, and I.
What should have been an easy hit for them turned into losing a dozen men.
They’d have to reconsider what an ‘easy hit’ was now.
That didn’t mean they were done. Not by a long shot.
And every day that passed where we hadn’t found them was amping me up more and more.
I was a live wire, raw and ready to do some damage.
I slid out of bed slowly, doing my best not to shift the mattress.
Devyn was exhausted most of the time right now.
It was killing me to watch her drag herself off to work, but she wanted to go.
We weren’t at the point yet where I was going to risk getting my head bitten off by suggesting again that she quit.
And she wanted to save her leave for closer to the birth so she had more time for the baby afterward. Understandable.
Thankfully, she’d talked to her chief after that last appointment with Dr. Natalie—as Dev liked to refer to her—and she was riding the pine with full support of her chief and crew at the firehouse.
No more field work for her until she came back after having the baby.
There were a couple other fire inspectors from other stations that would be taking over any cases that would’ve come her way. That put me at ease.
It meant she would be spending her days at the firehouse, doing paperwork.
Her co-workers would keep an eye on her and wouldn’t let anything happen to her.
I knew they were all close. She spoke of them like they were all a bunch of brothers to her.
They sounded a lot like us. Got into shit every opportunity they could and were always thrill seeking.
I shut the bedroom door softly and went over to one of the spare rooms. I’d moved some gym equipment into the apartment because I didn’t like leaving her, unless I had to. This meant I could get a quick workout in while she slept before having to wake up for work.
Tugging on the sweats I’d grabbed on my way out of the room, I tied them enough to stay on my hips, then put some earbuds in and turned on music.
I faced away from the living room, grasped the pull up bar and started loosening up my muscles by doing pull ups.
I was a creature of habit. I started every workout with thirty pull ups.
Then I’d do a few dead hangs to stretch out my back before I got started with my dumb bells.
We were closing in on The Collective, I knew that, but fuck if it was fast enough for me.
I wasn’t the only one who was starting to get keyed up about the fact that we hadn’t located them.
Camila was going to be having her baby soon and Kilo looked like a strung out junkie, starting at every sound.
He was going to end up killing someone just because they inadvertently moved wrong.
It’d be like coming up on a grizzly and scaring the fucking thing.
It’d rip you in half before it even realized what the fuck you were.
OD wasn’t much better. With Rue being pregnant and having her and the boys here, he had more to protect than most. And keeping those two teen boys here, occupied, and out of trouble during summer? It was only the middle of July, so he had awhile left to keep them entertained.
I didn’t envy the man. Small miracle that none of the motorcycles disappeared during the night. OD was smart and kept the bikes he’d gotten for them locked up unless he, or another brother, was there to supervise them using the machines. Just until they learned to ride well.
In fact, I should note the mileage on my odometer, just in case the little shits get brave and suicidal.
Puffing out a breath as my arms began to burn, I gave a happy groan. I fucking loved working my muscles to fatigue. Most guys hated working out. There was just something about keeping my body in shape and ready that wasn’t only necessary, but it just helped keep me balanced.
Maybe Relay should start joining me for training sessions again.
We used to train together all the time when we were younger.
That fucker could definitely use some balance.
And a way to work off all his excess energy.
He was the worst of us right now. Didn’t matter that he didn’t have an old lady to protect.
He could only go so long before he needed to…
purge…the demons that ate at him. Killing was the easiest way to do that.
But he wasn’t a complete fucking psycho.
He didn’t kill good people. So he often had to shove down everything he felt.
I couldn’t say whether he enjoyed the killing or not.
He wasn’t born this way. This darker part of him had been created.
I knew everything he’d gone through during his time in the military, though he’d be pissed, and horrified, if he found out that I knew.
He’d shared some of it with Dad, Isaac, and me.
A bit more with the MC, but none of them knew the true extent of the shit he’d gotten into while deployed.
We’d all seen war in one form or another. We understood. But Relay still didn’t share everything. And I didn’t force it. I wasn’t supposed to know, but I was a crafty bastard and some useless filing cabinets hadn’t been able to keep me away from my brother’s files.
Sweat ran down my chest as I neared the end of my pull ups. I tensed on the downward portion of my last set. Someone was watching me. Letting go of the bar, I turned, wishing I had my fucking gun closer at hand. If The Collective had made it in here somehow, I needed to be prepared.
But it was just Devyn. She was standing in the doorway of our bedroom—it wasn’t just mine now we’d been sharing it for weeks—staring. Her eyes were wide, her mouth was hanging open, and her cheeks were flushed.
Pulling the earbuds out, I grinned. “Good morning. I hope I didn’t-” The smile slipped off my face as she continued to just stand there. She was so damn still I was starting to think something was wrong. “What is it? The baby?”
My eyes dropped down to her stomach, but she wasn’t clutching it. Her arms were hanging at her sides. I frowned at her, crossing the room and taking her gently by the shoulders. She lifted her head to look up at me, shaking it a little as though to take herself out of whatever daze she was in.
“No, fine. I mean. The baby’s fine,” she said, her voice breathy. “It’s just…you…”