Bad Apple (The Uncertain Saints MC #4) (25 page)

I sighed and started forward, knowing exactly where this was going.

“No, he can’t. But I can,” I said, pushing my brother back.

He looked fucking crazy rough, and I was actually a little intimidated by the fact that he’d bulked up so much while in prison.

He didn’t look like the old Ridley, but a new, harder Ridley.

One that was hell bent on vengeance, and I wasn’t sure I liked it.

But he was my brother, and I knew all his ire wasn’t due to the fact that he was mad at anyone, but rather it was concern for me.

“Ridley!” I cried out loudly. “Would you listen to me for a freakin’ minute?”

He turned his glare on me, and I smiled at him before running toward him.

He’d walked into the house today without even telling me he was coming and then proceeded to start yelling.

How he’d known before we’d told him about it, I didn’t know. But there was no use figuring it out now. What was done was done, and my brother was now home.

He caught me and wrapped both of his large arms around my shoulders, and I buried my face into his neck.

“I missed you, big brother,” I whispered.

“Missed you, too,” he said gruffly. “Proud of you. And sorry. Really fucking sorry.”

I squeezed him tighter, and then tilted my head back to study his face.

“What’s going on with you?” I asked
. “You look rough.”

“Lots of shit that I do not want to talk about right now,” he said. “I want to drink a beer and watch you get married.”

I smiled at him.

“How are you going to pull that off?” I asked him. “We’re already married.”

His eyes narrowed.

“Don’t think we’re not going to talk about that, either,” he growled. “Vegas? Really?”

I smiled at him and pulled away, walking to the kitchen where Emily was busy making a mess of her applesauce.

“Watch this,” I called to Ridley. “You’re going to be so surprised!”

Emily automatically reached for me the instant I got to her, and I pulled the tray back on the highchair then hooked my hands under her armpits.

Immediately, I set her down on the floor, and she sat there staring at her uncle who came in looking a lot scruffier than when he’d left.

“Call her,” I said to him.

I moved to the kitchen counter and leaned my behind against it directly next to Apple, who immediately hooked an arm around my neck and pulled me in close.

“Emily,” Ridley called, dropping down onto his haunches.

Emily’s head whipped around from watching Apple and me to her uncle, and her mouth opened wide into a single tooth baby grin.

“Oh, man,” he said. “You got your first tooth while I was gone.”

Drool started to leak out of her mouth, and she leaned forward until she was on her belly.

Then she immediately started to army crawl to Ridley, who thought it was the cutest thing in the world. Mostly because he’d said so.

“Oh Jesus,” he groaned when she started making her way to him. “Fucking cutest thing in the world.”

I snorted and laughed when he dropped to his ass and then crossed his legs.

Leaning forward, he scooped her up the instant she was within reach and then covered her with kisses.

His shirt became soaked with applesauce, but he didn’t seem to care.

Emily had changed a lot in the last two months. She’d gotten her first tooth a couple of weeks prior.

She’d also gotten her first major boo-boo that had required a trip to the ER.

An ER visit where she was treated for a laceration over her right eye.

And that had been my fault.

I’d left her on the couch like I’d done so many times before, but instead of staying there, she’d fallen off in her search for me, and had cut her head open on the coffee table.

I’d been promised by not just the ER docs, but also by the other ladies in the club that had children that accidents happened. Frequently.

She’d also finally started to sleep through the night and eat solid foods.

I’d stopped breast-feeding, and we’d switched over to only formula in hopes that she would stop throwing up so much.

Which she did.

And she, as did my life in general, became a whole lot sweeter with less vomit.

Apple had also done a lot of changing.

He’d continued his trips to his psychologist to help him with the guilt and pain he suffered, even now.

And he got a lot better. I could definitely see a change in him, that was for sure.

He hadn’t told them his real reasons for being there, only touched on the fact that his friend had died, but he’d told them all that he could, and they’d been able to help him come to terms with a few things.

He’d also stopped working so much overtime as a game warden when he could. When hunting season rolled around two weeks ago, I’d lost him again. And I was sure that would happen every hunting season. But a plus was that his father had completely closed his wood cutting business.

Now Apple only cut wood for fun in his spare time.

And I was one happy person.

My seizures, although still present, were back to my normal. Which meant every once in a while I would space out for about thirty seconds, and then I would snap back.

I hadn’t had one more bad seizure since I’d been placed on the lowest dose of anti-seizure medication available.

And I was fucking ecstatic about that.

Life was good.

“So tell me what happened with the douche canoe that kidnapped you,” Ridley ordered.

I looked up at Apple, then to Emily.

“I’m going to go give Emily a bath while you boys talk,” I said softly, picking Emily from Ridley’s arms and hurrying away. “And get ready to go to lunch! I’m hungry!”

I didn’t wait for a reply.

It wasn’t that I was embarrassed by what I did to Jake.

In fact, I was okay with it. Happy, in fact.

That day two months ago had been terrible.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to live or die and that had a way about bringing out the worst in a person.

What I’d experienced with Jake was not nice. It was not pretty, and to be honest, it haunted my nightmares.

Every night my dream would be the same.

I’d wake up after passing out from him covering my mouth to being in a chair. A chair that I was not tied down to or anything.

I looked around at the room, taking in the knives on the kitchen counter, as well as the baseball bat that was leaning against the wall in the corner behind the door.

Once I was sure my legs would hold me, I stood up and walked carefully to the bat.

A knife was nice and all, but that would put me too close to the person that’d taken me, and I needed distance.

Once the solid weight was in my hand, I looked around at the room I was in.

The house I was in was only a single open room with large beams acting as support. It looked like it’d recently been remodeled to look like this, because the drywall was still exposed over most of the walls and there were tools all over the place.

My next step was to look outside and, once there, I saw the same man that I’d seen in the elevator earlier.

“What the hell is going on?” I whispered, running across the room to the closed door.

I waited there, watching him do something outside on the porch, for what felt like hours but was likely only minutes.

Then he turned. There was something that looked like plastic bags and tape in his hand, as he reached for the doorknob.

The moment he opened the door and stepped inside, I’d come up at his back and slammed the bat upside his head.

He dropped like a stone.

When he’d come to, he’d been the one taped to the chair.

I’d been the one asking questions, and what I’d heard hadn’t been nice.

In fact, it’d been down right sickening.

Hearing what he’d done to the woman before, one that looked so much like me that it could’ve been me, had flipped my switch and left me feeling cold.

The icing on the cake had been him coming at me with his dick in his hand, ready to do the same damn thing to me.

Which was the reason I did what I did next.

Everyone knows the story from there.

Apple had been so proud of me that it was hard to feel bad about it. I’d been appalled at my actions but something had come over me at hearing that man’s promise that he would do the same thing to me. And the next lady he felt like doing it to.

And I couldn’t let that happen. So I’d done what I had to do, and had nightmares about it as a consequence.

During each nightmare, though, Apple would be there to chase the bad away.

He’d wake me up with a soft kiss to my lips, and then hold me while the remnants of the dream drifted away into nothing.

He hadn’t been able to convince me to speak with anyone, either.

Why? Because why would I when I had my own personal dream catcher that chased away the bad dreams for me? Why would I need to speak to someone that couldn’t do for me what Apple could?

“Oh, baby,” I said when I saw the mess Emily had made of herself. “You’re a big ol’ mess.”

She chattered away at me while I got her changed into her clothes for the day.

Tonight would be a welcome home party for Ridley, and I was fairly sure we would be spending the night at the clubhouse in celebration. Likely a good bit of us would be drunk and too smashed to drive home, so I made sure to grab some extra clothes and diapers to take with us.

Once Emily was dressed, I took her to my room and let her play on the floor while I folded laundry and genuinely ignored the living room where I knew Ridley and Apple were talking.

I’d gone through three whole loads of laundry before I felt Apple’s presence at my back.

“You okay?” he asked, coming up behind me and wrapping both arms around my belly.

I nodded and leaned my head against his chest.

“I’m fine,” I said. “Embarrassed.”

He rubbed his beard along my neck and said the words I expected to hear.

The same ones that I heard every single time that memory assaulted me.

“You know how hot it makes me thinking about how you handled yourself,” he rumbled softly. “Knowing you went all Lorena Bobbitt on the stupid fucker is so goddamned hot, all I want to do is fuck you.”

I laughed softly. The Lorena Bobbitt bit was new, but the ‘making him hot’ wasn’t.

He was proud of what I’d done, and I was proud to make him proud.

It was a win-win situation.

“Where’s my brother?” I whispered, letting my hands come up to tangle in his hair.

“Took Emily to him. He’s gonna watch her for a minute or fifteen,” he answered.

I snorted.

“Okay, my brother can stay in my house if there are conveniences like this,” I whispered to him, turning around in his arms.

I pressed a kiss to his lips and wrapped my arms around his neck.

He pulled my hips forward until the length of me was pressed to the length of him.

“You’re happy to see me,” I sighed, grinding my hips into his cock.

He growled.

“I’m alway
s happy to see you.” And I was.

Controlled Burn

10-5-16

Prologue

Nobody is born a warrior. Exactly the same way that nobody is born a bitch. Sometimes life just happens, and bitches have to adapt.

-Words of Wisdom

July

My belly was practically rolling inside of my abdomen.

“Why do they have you working at the fire station?” Des asked as I drove to the fire house I would be working at today.

“Apparently, the chief that works here needs some help with some paperwork that the city is now requiring them to have on file. I’m going to help make sure all the men and women employed by the fire department have the right paperwork,” I explained as I made the final turn onto the street that would lead me where I was going.

“That’s kind of cool. Able’s there for another half an hour,” Des explained.

Able was Des’ husband, and I loved him to death.

I was actually quite relieved to know that he was going to be there.

Able’s fellow firefighters could be intimidating.

It wasn’t that they weren’t nice; it was that they were all extremely good looking, and my mouth never seemed to be able to spit the words out correctly while in their presence.

I said a silent prayer that Dean wouldn’t be there, and actually thought I lucked out as I pulled into the parking lot and didn’t see his truck.

“I’m here,” I said. “Wish me luck.”

Des laughed and wished me luck, and then I hung up before her laughter could get too annoying.

My best friend knew all about my crush on a certain firefighter.

She also knew that I got tongue tied and always ended up making a fool of myself in front of him.

“Thank God,” I breathed as I parked my truck next to a motorcycle, thankful that I didn’t see Dean’s sparkly red truck.

“Yo,” Able said before I’d even gotten out of my car.

I looked up to see him tucking his phone back into his pocket, and I grinned at him.

“She called you, didn’t she?” I asked.

He nodded. “We’re not going to eat you.”

“I didn’t say that you would,” I informed him. “Nor did I say anything that even remotely sounded like that to her over the phone.”

He grinned. “You get your sink fixed?”

I nodded quickly. “I fixed it myself. I YouTubed it.”

He snorted. “You rigged it up, and it’ll likely break, won’t it?”

I shrugged, not agreeing or disagreeing.

“Mayyyybe,” I hedged. “Show me where to go.”

He bowed slightly and threw his arm around my shoulders.

“I’m about to get off, my relief showed early. I’ll show you where to go, but I’ll be gone if you need anything else,” he told me. “Dean’s here, though.”

I tripped over myself.

“What?” I asked. “I didn’t see his truck.”

“He drove his bike today,” he said. “The one you parked next to.”

I swallowed thickly and asked, “He rides?”

Able nodded his head, and I wanted to groan.

I loved motorcycles.

Loved them. They were like crack to me.

As if it wasn’t enough that Dean was tall, dark, and handsome, but now he had to add ‘I ride a motorcycle’ to the list? Was it even possible to get any sexier?