Halley #2
I flushed, liking this flirty side of him. He’d been such a gentleman with me, I welcomed him being more possessive. I decided to push him. Walking away and crossing my arms, I said, “I’m not sure I want one at all.”
Cowboy was on me in a flash. “What do you mean? Don’t you want me to claim you?”
“Why, yes, I suppose, but I obviously don’t know what that means in this club.”
“Getting a property patch is pretty serious.” A drunk old woman had overheard us.
She waddled over and lifted up her shirt, showing me, she had four men’s’ names tattooed down her navel.
“Don’t worry,” she said, reacting to the grimace on my face.
She pointed them out one by one. “Buckwheat died back in the 70’s.
Gunner, he ran off with younger tail. Killjoy, he made me a grandma when he knocked up my daughter.
But, ol’ Reaper, he’s a keeper.” She glanced over to the tattoo artist, and he blew her a kiss.
Cowboy said, “Old Jenn, get lost.”
Three sheets to the wind, she wasn’t going anywhere.
“Yep, pretty serious business if you ask me. With the Gods, that brand holds the same meaning as marriage. For the woman, it’s until death til you part.
” Her fingers crossed her neck like a knife.
“For the man, it’s until they find another hole for their dick. ”
“Marriage?” I asked Cowboy.
“Not like actual marriage.”
I huffed at that, not sure why I was so offended in the first place. But I was.
“Halley, it’s another first. Another step. If you’re going to be mine in the eyes of my brother’s, in your brother’s eyes, I brand you. It’s that simple.”
“And if I don’t want to.”
“You’re not mine.” He shrugged, acting like he didn’t care one way or the other. But I knew he did.
I asked what I wasn’t too sure on. “What about the baby?”
“What about him?”
At a loss for words, I didn’t know how to ask what I was feeling.
Cowboy wanted me to be his but hadn’t said a word about the baby.
If I were his, did that mean my baby was his, too.
Suddenly, I worried about the little guy.
I couldn’t think about taking this next step with Cowboy until I heard he was okay.
In a whirl of emotions, I told Cowboy as much.
“Call and check,” he calmly suggested.
Taking out the phone Scar had given me and programmed with names, I called Jessy Bell.
To my relief, she said the baby had eaten and was doing just fine.
Before I could tuck the phone away, it rang in my hands.
It was Scar. He was short and to the point.
Said that Emery would be calling us. There’d been some trouble.
Cowboy and I needed to pick her up and head back to the compound.
Next Emery called me, asking where to find us.
In a panic, I relayed all of this to Cowboy.
He called off street names, and I repeated them.
We ran out of the bar, to Cowboy’s bike.
Riding around a slew of folks all dressed up or painted up like skeletons the same as Emery, looking for Emery was maddening.
We called her back, but no one answered so we rode some more.
There were more skinny, long haired, blonde women in the crowd than I cared to count.
We thought we’d found her multiple times only to find out we were mistaken.
Cowboy stopped and tried to get a hold of Scar again, too. He couldn’t.
I figured they were in danger.
Cowboy called Jessy again, and she said Emery was with her.
Thank goodness. She didn’t know where Scar was though.
“Stay put. We’re coming.”
Cowboy turned to me. “We’ll hurry and figure this out and then head back out.”
My cheeks burned in anticipation, hearing we’d make it to the hotel after all.
We sped to the clubhouse to find out what happened. Jumping off Cowboy’s motorcycle before it even stopped, I ran to my house to check on the baby only to find it empty. Jessy, Teeth and the baby were gone. It only took a minute to realize all the baby’s stuff was gone too. Everything.
Our night out being cut short had sucked, but at the time, the baby being in danger was the last thing on my mind. I’d thought of everything but, because I’d talked to Jessy Bell, and Cowboy just talked to her, too.
I just never dreamed.
No, I had. I’d had a bad feeling all night. If I just hadn’t left the baby, I could’ve avoided this nightmare.
Tears gushed down my face. There was no way to stop them. I wilted into the chair and let the tears flow. Soon Cowboy and Scar ran in, talking about Emery being missing. And confirming the worst. What I already knew. There was no trace of my baby.
Scar talked about Teeth and Jessy Bell having showed up to the club around the same time a few years ago. About Teeth having a strange loyalty to the whore. Whore? I thought Cowboy said she’d be good to watch my baby?
“They must be with the SOS,” Cowboy concluded.
I cried harder.
The other members arrived and sprang into action. Scar sent half the crew with Cowboy to go look for my baby. Although I’d wanted to ride, I was in no state. Scar took the rest to find Emery.
They’d call me. Cowboy promised to let me know something soon.
“I’ll get him back.”
He left, and I was all alone.
I felt like I was back down in the rabbit hole, helpless.
The next morning Scar brought Emery back.
He’d found her. There was no word on my baby, yet.
My nightmare continued. Soon my brother and another crew headed out to join Cowboy in the search.
Emery spent the next few days consoling me, making me eat.
At some point she’d gone and cut her hair off, too.
We hadn’t heard any news from anyone, even though Cowboy had promised not to go a day without at least talking to me.
Emery and I bonded over the fact we were both angry about being left in the dark.
And we’re both miserably missing someone. Her, Scar and me, the baby and Cowboy.
Adding insult to injury, after four days of nothing from him, the woman who used to have this house and Cowboy, walked in to give me some news.
Anarchy and Harlot had come back. They’d ridden with a team who’d run into a dead end.
I learned they’d been chasing down Jessy Bell and Teeth with Cowboy.
Scar and his crew had ridden on to California to confront the SOS who they felt were behind this.
After Cowboy’s crew lost the trail, he went to join Scar and the others. Anarchy was ordered home.
“I would have stayed out looking for your baby, but I can’t ride. I’m late.”
My face contorted, trying to catch her meaning.
“I just found out I’ll have a baby of my own soon.” She just came right out with it. “I’m pregnant, and I’m sure Cowboy is the father. We’d... had relations right before he left to find you.”
I felt like I’d been punched in the gut. “Why are you telling me this?”
“I’m not my sister. Freedom’s been a real bitch. I don’t plan on ruining whatever you two have. If Cowboy wants me and his baby, he can have us, but I don’t plan on telling him about the pregnancy until he’s back.”
I sat speechless—shocked. She’d delivered such a blow. No amount of concessions could save me.
Then she really stunned me. “Piss and grits, I don’t even know if I’m keeping it. So, don’t go telling anyone my business.”
After she stormed out, Emery had a lot more consoling to do. I wouldn’t tell her why.
In a few more long days and sleepless nights, Scar was back. Too bad Cowboy and my baby weren’t with him. My brother had been shot, twice, but he didn’t want to talk about him. He wanted to talk about how he still hadn’t found the baby.
“Jessy Bell and Teeth were working alone,” he told me.
“How can you be certain?”
“Snakebite was fit to be tied, hearing someone made off with what he views as his son. After we all about killed each other, we made an alliance.”
“You can’t trust him,” I said. I should know, but more than that, I could feel it.
“Snakebite swears he knows where to find the kidnappers.” Scar raked his hands through his hair, a clear sign he was worried.
“I’m sure he does. You can’t work with him.”
“Halley, we didn’t have much choice. We’d combed most of Julian and couldn’t find the child.”
“You can’t trust him.” I strained the words as if it’d get through to him.
“Do you think he’d harm the baby?”
I thought hard about it. “No, but I don’t trust him all the same.” Trusting him before had done me no good.
“Like I trust a devil? Snakebite seems convinced of his claim on the boy. He’s not going to harm his own.”
“Look what they did to me.”
“You weren’t one of them… It’d be stupid of me not to take him up on his offer to help. We have no other leads on these people. There’s a truce but only until the baby’s back in your arms. Him and Cowboy took a team, went on to track them down.”
Now, not only did I worry for my baby, I was scared for Cowboy.
“You need to come over and stay with us a spell,” Scar said, inviting me to stay with him and Emery in the white house, as they called it.
Nodding my head, I zoned out, going deeper down the rabbit hole. At some point Scar left. I didn’t move. Not until my phone rang.
“Darlin’…” Cowboy—finally.
“Why haven’t you called?”
“No good news to share.”
“So, why are you calling now?”
“I’m sure you’ve heard.”
“Yeah, I heard you all made a deal with the devil. Snakebite has the baby. He’s fooling you all.”
Cowboy disagreed, telling me about all their false leads.
“It’s all misdirection.” I thought about the games Serpentine liked to play. Was Snakebite toying with us? “Anyway, where are you?”
“We’ve set up camp in a crappy motel in Nevada. Snakebite says Teeth has family here in Reno.”
“And you trust him?”
“We’ve already found Jessy.”
“Did she have the baby?”
“No. We’re following her.”
“Did you see her, with your own eyes?”
“No, Hiss spotted her.”
“And you believe that? Snakebite has the baby. I know it.”
“Listen Halley, I don’t trust him, but we’ve got him and his most trusted crew here. He’s here under my watchful eye. Furthermore, Riot and Hawk have gone to infiltrate the Devil’s Den, spy on them. We’ll find the baby.”
So many mixed emotions ran through me. Maybe they would find my baby after all.
I felt if Cowboy found out Anarchy was pregnant with his baby, maybe he’d quit looking for mine.
Then I worried for Cowboy in general, for just being in the same vicinity of Snakebite and his crew.
They’d gut him the first chance they got.
My mind settled.
“I’m coming to Nevada,” I said, determined.
“Halley, don’t… stay…”
I hung up and ignored his constant calls. How many crappy motels in Reno could there be anyway? I’d find him. I’d find my baby.
Needing money, I ran to the clubhouse and took the cash from the bar drawer.
A few hundred bucks was chump change to these bikers.
But it’d get me where I was going. Next, I searched for any motorcycle with keys in it.
Finding one, I hoped the old saying was true.
Could I forget how to ride? I started her up from muscle memory, no problem.
Guess not. I took off to join Cowboy, hoping I wasn’t too late.