Biker Born: The Lost Souls MC Series (The Lost Souls Series Book 4) (14 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY

Mark

Every morning I make sure I eat breakfast with Rayna. I’m not always around to make dinner but I won’t miss breakfast with my wife unless I’m on a run and I have no choice.

I shouldn’t laugh when she has to sit sideways at the table otherwise she can’t reach her plate over her ever growing stomach that prevents her from tucking her chair in.

The smile soon disappears when her skin visibly pales before me when she lifts a fork full of bacon to her mouth.

“I take it the baby doesn’t want bacon for breakfast?” I frown.

“Nope,” she mutters, pushing her plate away.

From the second she said I do I wanted to start our own family but Rayna wanted to enjoy our marriage just the two of us for a while before we had a baby. I have waited so long for this and now I can’t wait till she gives birth. She hardly sleeps anymore because the baby keeps her up by kicking and moving all night. Food she has been eating for years makes her sick and she is tired all of the time. She isn’t herself these days and I’m looking forward to the day I get my wife back to her happy self.

I expected the pregnancy to be easier than this, all you hear about is how beautiful and natural it is for a woman to bear a child but I can’t help worrying about her day and night. Something about this doesn’t sit right with me and it has made me question whether I want to put her through this again in the future.

“Spend the day in bed today and get some rest, I know you don’t want to hear it but you look worn out.”

She smiles weakly and looks at me like I am her knight in shining armour. I love that look on her, it tells me I’m doing this right. I know this because I can tell the difference when I fuck up and piss her off. I prefer this look.

“I wish I could but I said I would help with Michael and Kitty’s engagement party. I’ll be okay, besides I can’t stay in bed until this little one wants to come out,” she says softly, rubbing her hand softly over her stomach.

“I want to do this for Michael and Kitty is starting to warm to me now, not that I know what I ever did to upset her, I want to help.”

Oh, I know her problem. Kitty is over jealous about my brother at the best of times but I have caught some of the looks Kitty has thrown Ray when she is talking with Michael over the years. Pure jealously.

“Like you care what Kitty thinks of you.”

“She’s going to be family soon so I should make the effort and make life easier,” she explains.

“Not at the expense of your health and our baby though, Michael will understand. Hell, Michael won’t want you over doing it just for a party.”

From the very beginning Rayna saw in Michael what most people don’t see, a kind passion. Maybe she knew how he felt about her and maybe she didn’t but the way he changed around her wasn’t forced by him, it was real and the real Michael was who she bonded with. 

“I’ll get someone else to help. You moan about walking up the stairs these days I’m surprised you want to stand around all day setting up a party,” I tease, hoping to pull the old Rayna back a little.

Her eyebrows shoot up and she throws a rasher of bacon off her plate at me.

She ignores me and says, “Fine, I won’t help. Happy now?”

“Extremely,” I grin, triumphantly.

“What are you plans today while I bore myself to death laying uncomfortably in bed?” she asks, sarcastically.

“Denzel sent over the destination of the next run so the guys and I will be going over a new, more secluded route so we’re ready for when we get the go ahead.”

“You’re not going to go, are you?” she asks quickly.

I knew this was coming.

“It depends on when we get the go ahead. I’ll make arrangements for Michael to take charge if it’s in your last week but if it’s before then I’ll have to go.”

“What if she comes early?”

“You mean him? My son will know not to come until I’m here. Stop worrying Ray, everything is going to be fine,” I urge her.

Rayna never holds back with me, so her silence now scares me.

I finish the last of my coffee which is now cold and push back out of my chair. I crouch down on my knees in front of her and add my hands over hers on our baby.

“I haven’t let you down yet and I’m not about to now. I said I’ll be here when the time comes and I will. You and the baby are too important to me, I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

She leans forward as much as she can and I move in knowing what she wants.

Wrapping her soft blonde curls in my fists I guide my lips to her mouth and relish the taste of her. There is nothing about this woman I can’t get enough of.

“I have to go, come on, back to bed. I’ll stop by soon and check on you,” I say, pulling away to help her to her feet.

It took over four hours to establish a new route for the next run. Using the back roads and staying away from the main highways put extra miles on the route but for the benefit of safety and seclusion it has to be done.

It then took another three hours hashing over the same argument about how to deal with the Raging Riders. We went round in circles and by the end of it I had had enough.

I called it a day before my headache got worse and told everyone to go and get wasted celebrating my brother’s engagement.

There is still something I need to find out before I can go and check on Rayna. I find Michael at the bar with Micky and Big Ron already getting the drinks in and pull him to the side.

“Have you heard from Pope?” I ask him.

“He checked in this morning, he should be back by tomorrow night. Why?”

“Just wanted to make sure he’s okay,” I say.

“Is that all? Or do you want to ask about the woman?” he retorts.

I take the bait and ask into the girl.

“As you can imagine Pope hasn’t said a whole lot, but he believes she isn’t going to say anything. If anything, I think she’s been chewing his ear off going on about how her life is going to be much better now.”

“Good, okay, I’m going to check on Ray and I’ll be back soon.”

Michael heads back to the bar yelling he’ll see me later and I head for the house.

MICHAEL

The engagement party couldn’t have started any better. The liquor appears in front of me, as soon as I finish one drink there’s another ready in its place.

The guys are in high spirits and when the chicks come through the door dressed in next to nothing. They are like a pack of hyenas ready to pounce on their pray.

Turning back to the bar, long luscious legs catch my attention. Running up the legs, my gut falls to the floor.

Oh fucking no.

Stumbling off the bar stool in a rush, I reach Kitty before every pair of eyes glance her way.

What the fuck does she think she’s wearing?

I don’t know where to begin. The dress ends where it begins and the material barely hides anything.

Tugging at the bottom of the dress to cover more of her ass, only unveils more of her cleavage. Pulling the dress back up only shows her ass. I can’t fucking win.

“What are you doing?” she giggles, trying to push me away.

“Covering you up. This ass is mine and I don’t want every fucker here seeing what I have in my bed every night.”

“I’ve worn shorter dresses than this, Michael.”

“You didn’t have my fuckin’ ring on your finger then,” I snap, unable to hold in my frustration any longer.

“You’re not going to turn into a caveman just because we’re getting married, are you?”

“I’m not turning into anything, I just don’t want your ass hanging out.”

“It wasn’t and my ass doesn’t hang, you should know that.”

Leaning up on her tip toes in those ridiculous heels she has she on, she shuts me up by slamming her soft lips on mine and doesn’t stop until I stop fighting.

I’ll give her this little win and let her think she can run me.

Pulling away from her I see Mark coming through the door and he is helping Rayna in and to one of the couches.

She looks awful. Tired and pale.

“I’m going to say hi to the girls, okay?”

“Yeah sure.”

With Kitty on her way to the other side of the bar, I push through the crowd to get to my brother.

The closer I get, the worse Rayna looks.

“Hey, darlin’, you should be in bed restin’,” I tell her, sitting beside her before my asshat brother gets there first.

“Don’t you start on me, Michael Blake. Your brother has already had me laid up all day, I want to be here to celebrate your future,” she argues.

“Hey, I didn’t say you had to, I said you should be. I’m not gonna tell you to leave, no way,” I surrender.

“Good, because I came to a party so stop this moping and start partying,” she orders.

“Go and get a drink, babe. Michael can sit with me till you get back,” she adds.

We both watch him skulk off to the bar and I use this time for myself.

“So how you really feelin’?” I laugh, remaining light and up beat as Mark looks our way.

“Oh, I’m feeling mighty shit right now. This mini human invading my body is draining me.” she smiles.

“My brother’s worried about you and I am too. I don’t like seeing you like this,” I grate through my smile.

“I’ve only got another few weeks and I’ll be back to normal. You’re being very sweet Michael but I’ve got this. I’ll bring this little girl into the world if it’s the last thing I do.”

“Okay, stay off your feet and if you need anything, let me know.”

Her hand comes up and settles on my cheek. Soft, warm silky skin blistering where she touches.

What is it with her? One look is all it takes to make me forget everything around us.

“Look after my nephew,” I murmur and stand up.

I’m not going back into old territory. I know I can’t be too close to her, I keep my distance and everything is fucking peachy.

“What is it with you Blake’s? He might be a she,” she chuckles.

“No way, darlin’. Blake’s produce boys, there hasn’t been a girl born into this family in seven generations.”

“Then it’s about time we did then.”

Leaving her to her wild notions of giving birth to a girl, I’m ready to get my drink on when I’m pushed by smaller than usual hands into the back room.

“You son of a bitch,” is screamed in my face as soon as the door is shut.

“What is your fuckin’ problem, babe?”

“This is our night and where do I find you? Getting cosy with Rayna, of course you are! Where else would you fucking be?” she yells.

“I wasn’t getting cosy with her, I was making sure she’s okay. If you haven’t noticed she’s pregnant and she isn’t sitting too fuckin’ well with it.”

“Are you going to be this attentive when we have a baby? Cause you know, you don’t seem to be that interested in us tonight.”

I throw my head back and laugh. Really, really laugh.

“Don’t you laugh at me, Michael.” She warns.

“Or what, Kit?” I say, seriously moving towards her.

“You’re gonna have to get over this, cause it’s getting really old. Why is tonight our night?”

“It’s our engagement,” she sniffles, refusing to look at me.

“Which means you have my ring that I personally put there. Who else has my ring that I chose on their finger?” I say, forcing her to look at me.

“No one.”

“That makes you my only girl and when I fuckin’ say only girl, I mean it, babe. Now tell me who’s your guy?” I smirk.

She rolls her eyes but I get a smile out of her.

“You are.”

“Damn right I am,” I holler, “Kiss me.” I order.

Reluctantly she presses her mouth to mine and soon melts against me when I add pressure and squeeze her ass.

Her tongue works its magic, flicking and caressing mine. She pulls back and looks up at me with glazy eyes.

“I need all of you, Michael.”

“You have it,” I promise her. 

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

MARK

The sun is blazing and the last thing I want to be doing today is this run to the middle of nowhere with Michael beating up my sanity.

All I’ve heard since I first woke this morning are reasons of why I shouldn’t be here today. First Ray wanting me home in case the baby comes early. Then Michael letting me know how much he has a bad feeling about this, the only reason he didn’t push me further was because of the money he would be earning from this run.

The dust has barely settled on the ground after our ride onto the waste land before three trucks pull in behind us.

“Be cool, brother,” I growl to Michael beside me.

The tension is rolling off of him in waves and if I can feel it, then these fuckers climbing out of their trucks will definitely feel it.

Tension is always high and is never good when transferring our kind of business.

“I’m always cool,” he snorts in reply.

Yeah, sometimes that’s the problem.

Holding my breath as the newcomers walk over, I see, as do my brothers, these guys aren’t who we normally deal with.

That means, new faces to remember and watching our backs at all times. With either side not knowing what could set us off, this could end up in a fight at any second.

I keep my eyes trained on the guy walking up front while my brother’s watch his guy’s closely. Without moving my eyes from the pale faced, long haired runt, I count six of them in total. We out number them and I relax a little, not much, but a little.

“Mark Blake?” he asks, looking directly at me.

I tip my chin and step towards him.

“You can call me Blow,” he says, offering me his hand.

I don’t particularly want to touch him but to keep the peace, I shake his hand and then step back.

“Who’s he?” Blow asks, his eyes narrowing to my right.

I don’t need to see who he is asking about. Michael.

“He can answer for himself, if you ask him directly,” I say, calmly.

Blow turns his attention to Michael and is instantly on his toes, readying himself for whatever is about to come his way.

“You don’t need to know who I am,” Michael taunts him, “We’re here to pick up and you’re here to drop off, I don’t see why we need to know each other.”

“Fair point,” Blow smirks, the atmosphere lightening around us.

“Let’s get this over with,” I grunt, breaking the stare off between this prick Blow and my brother.

We watch our men transfer the arsenal from their trucks to ours and with baited breath, I run my hand through my short hair making no difference to the style while Michael purposely bumps shoulders with one of Blow’s guys.

Blow whistles sharply when his guy turns in Michael’s direction and he backs off reluctantly.

“Here,” Blow grunts, passing over an envelope, “You’ll get the rest when you make the drop off with Harry.”

I expected this, it is always the same. Half the pay at pick up and the remainder when we make the final drop off.

I pass it over to Micky and he quickly begins counting. I wait for him to give the okay.

“It’s all there,” Blow spits, unpleased.

“Forgive me if I don’t trust someone I don’t know in our line of work.”

He shrugs and walks back to his truck. Apparently the trade is done. Heading to our vans, the prospect we currently have looks sheepishly white looking over the load.

“Is there a problem, prospect?” I ask, harshly.

If I’m honest, I don’t think this boy will make the cut. He’s loyal, which is a big factor when we consider him joining our brotherhood but the anxious and hesitation he shows doesn’t make myself or the other brother’s comfortable.

“No Boss.”

“There obviously is, what is it?”

He gives the load in his van one more look before slamming the back doors shut and facing me again.

“Honest, Boss. There isn’t a problem,” he assures me.

“What’s the problem?” Micky asks, coming up beside us.

“No problem, apparently. Come on, the sooner we leave, the sooner we can get home.”

I’ve kept eyes on the prospect from the minute he walked through the door. Usually he has something to say to anyone who will listen, for the past three hours he has kept to himself and stared off into space for most of it. Having to be told twice to do something. He was acting strange at the pickup and he is still acting strange. My gut is telling me he is has to go, but my heart is fighting it. We’ve never had a prospect who hasn’t made the cut and I don’t cherish the idea of having to start now. I know for a fact he doesn’t have anyone to turn to if we let him go, it’s not why we formed this club. I was wrong to make him a prospect or I was right and time showed he isn’t who I thought he was.

“Michael,” I call out when he comes into my line of vision.

He heads over and follows me into my office when I turn and head in that direction.

“What’s up?” he asks, taking a seat on the couch by the wall.

“I’ve been watching the prospect. Today at the meet he looked sick when he saw the cargo and he’s been acting strange since he got back. I think he’s a concern we have to deal with before he gets any deeper in with us.”

Talking out loud about it doesn’t make it any easier on my conscious.

He exhales heavily and runs a hand through his hair.

“What are you thinking?”

Lifting my shoulders, I honestly don’t know.

He stares at the ceiling before dropping his head and clasps his hands together.

“He doesn’t know an awful lot but he knows enough to give someone a thread to work on if they’re interested in us.”

“I know,” I grate out through gritted teeth.

Michael will have an answer for this, this will be simple for him.

“He has to go, that isn’t up for debate. Question is, brother, how do you want to do this?” he asks.

“Rationally,” I say before he gets any wild ideas, “Call him in here.”

In the minute it takes for Michael to bring in the prospect, I produce a gun I keep here for emergencies and wipe it clean, placing it in the middle of my desk.

When they return he looks like he knows what’s coming and takes a seat when I point to the chair. Michael returns to the couch and I remain standing.

“How are you finding it here at the club?” I ask.

“Okay, I mean, good, I like it,” he mumbles.

“If you were to make the cut, you’d have to get comfortable with a gun. Is that something you can do? When it comes down to someone taking your life or you taking theirs, would you follow through and shoot or would you fold?”

His eyebrows knit together and I already know he would fold. I don’t hold it against him but it is now certain he will never make the cut and have a future as a Lost Soul.

“Why don’t you pick this one up and see how it feels in your hand,” I offer, nodding to the piece on my desk.

He gingerly picks it up and loosely palms it around.

“Hold it properly, it’s not loaded so you can aim it and squeeze the trigger,” I edge him on.

He does as I instruct but in no way does he look comfortable.

“You can put it down now,” I tell him and like lightning it’s on my desk and he is leaning back in his chair.

I walk around my desk and use an old rag to pick up the gun and wrap it up. The prospects face immediately falls and he goes to stand up. Michael swiftly jumps off the couch and pushes him back down on his chair.

“You are no longer welcome around here, after how I’ve seen you act this afternoon I have no trust to patch you in. You know more than I’d like but I now have insurance that you’ll keep your mouth shut, if not, that gun is going to be used and left for the cops to find with your prints all over it and the trigger. Don’t make me regret this,” I warn him.

He looks sick to the stomach.

“How do I know you won’t use it anyway?”

“I give you my word, as long as you keep your mouth shut you will remain a free man and believe me when I say that if I find out you’ve talking about our business, I will personally make sure the person who gets shot by this gun will be someone worthy of the death penalty.”

His adams apple bobs up and down and sweat begins to pour off him.

“I get it,” he chokes out.

“Michael, take his cut and make sure he doesn’t get lost on his way out.”

My brother is all too happy to roughly pull it down his arms and off his body, “Get up and get out,” he snaps at him.

The guy is barely on his feet before Michael is shoving him towards the door and to the exit. I hope for his sake that he keeps his mouth shut because the idea of having someone killed to protect the club doesn’t feel good, but it will be done if it comes to it.