I Don't Dance (Freebirds Book 6) (8 page)

In the last year, things had changed quickly. So quickly that I hadn’t even had time to catch a breath.

But Blaine had been there with me every step of the way.

She’d nearly died in the process, too.

My eyes squeezed tight as I thought about that day, less than three months ago, when my sweet Blaine had nearly been taken from me.

“What do you mean, she’s in labor?” I bellowed loudly.

I’d just dropped my mother off at her new house that her and my father had bought. They’d wanted to move closer so they could be in their first grandchild’s life. Which suited me. I wanted them to be there.

Although, I’d thought that they had nearly a month to go before we got to see the baby. Not less than an hour.

“She’s in labor. And she’s in the elevator stuck between floors,” Sam said calmly.

In an elevator; at a baby store.

Too calmly.

“Is she okay?” I asked worriedly, my foot pressing down further on the accelerator without conscious thought.

My question was answered, not by Sam, but by my wife.

Her scream tore through me, ripping straight through my flesh and settling deep into my heart where it sat heavily, weighing me down with its intensity.

“Ahh, she’s not liking anyone much right now. She’s pretty adamant about pain meds, but since no one can get in there, they won’t give her any. Gabe’s in there with her though, so she’s not alone,” Sam answered quickly, sensing the unease in my voice.

My heart didn’t settle, and my foot didn’t lift from the gas.

“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” I managed to grit out, weaving in and out of traffic like I was a madman.

I called Gabe once I hung up with Sam, listening to the yelling coming from Blaine the entire way there.

Why they had to go out of town to a fuckin’ Babies R’ Fuckin’ Us, I didn’t know. Although I was fairly confident that that wasn’t the name she’d used, but right now that’s all my mind kept repeating back to me.

The one goddamn time she goes out of the city, I’m half an hour away from her.

Scratch that. I made it within twenty minutes, but still.

I’d even managed to miss any and all cops on the way there, which was a miracle.

I wouldn’t have stopped, and I’d have had half a dozen cops following me to my wife.

I parked in the fire lane, unsurprised by the fire truck, ambulance, and two police cars.

“Sir, we’re gonna need you to move your car,” a police officer said from behind me.

I lifted my hand with the phone in it. “My wife’s in there having our baby. I don’t have time.”

He let me go with a nod, and I ran through the store, the phone pressed to my ear, following the commotion to the elevator at the very fucking back of the store. The lights that were surrounding the area were the only ones on in the entire building, so it wasn’t exactly hard to find.

“Sam!” I yelled loudly, causing my captain to turn and regard me.

He took in my frantic appearance quickly, before steering me towards the elevator where two medics were standing to the side while three firefighters worked on getting the elevator open.

“Is she okay?” I asked frantically.

I was answered with a yell from my wife, cussing me up and down about how she was going to kill me with the tailpipe of my motorcycle when she next saw me. Why the tailpipe and not a wrench, I didn’t know, but I wasn’t arguing with the woman.

“Goddamn you, Elliott.  You’re never getting near my lady lumps again.  No more hiding the salami.  You had better cherish this baby, because
never
will you get another one.  I really want to chop your dick off right now for doing this to me!  Why’d you have to go and see your mother anyway?  You should have been here with me.  How could you do this to me?”  Blaine wailed through the phone.

Then, all of a sudden, it all just stopped.

The sounds. The screams. The conversation surrounding us.

Then the most joyous sound of my baby’s outraged scream filled the air, and I could breathe again.

It was a loud, lusty cry that made my heart sore.

“Is he okay?” I asked Gabe, the man who’d saved all our lives countless times before, and had just done it again with my son.

He grunted in affirmation. “It’s a boy!”

I whooped in excitement. So fucking happy I couldn’t describe it.

“He’s perfect man. Just perfect,” he assured me.

Seconds later, the firefighters finally got the door to budge. It was a small gap, but enough to start shoving things through.

First the medics shoved a red bag, followed shortly by a bottle of oxygen and towels.

Sam and Max were barking orders left and right, but all my attention was focused on my wife.

I could see her laying on the floor of the elevator.

Her face was turned down, taking in our son that was laying on her chest.

Her face was a mess of tears and sweat, and she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

Nothing in my life was more beautiful.

I was thankful that the medics had gone up to the top floor, giving me an unencumbered view of my wife.

Feeling like I wasn’t doing anything, I took the towels that another firefighter was about to send to another man to deliver to the door, and held them up through the hole, desperate to feel like I was doing something.

Anything to dampen the need to be by my wife’s side.

I watched her face, and witnessed the instant something went wrong.

Her face started to drain quickly of color, and her eyes went from happy and animated to dead and lifeless within seconds.

Her mouth parted, and a piece of blonde hair fell over one eye, obstructing her gaze from my view.

“Blaine!” I called desperately. “Blaine, baby, wake up.”

My pleas went unanswered as Gabe and the medics started yelling to each other.

I didn’t hear what they were saying, though.

My eyes were on my wife, and I watched as the life slowly leeched from her body one minute at a time.

“Don’t do this to me, goddammit. Please don’t leave me, too. Please,” I cried.

“What are you doing in here?” Blaine asked, startling me back to the here and now.

I blinked up at her, realizing too late that I’d disappeared into that horrible dream again.

“Nothing,” I tried for innocence.

She looked at me sternly. “I told you that you need to leave him alone. If he’s sleeping, don’t pick him up.”

I snorted. “Do you think that by you telling me not to do it, I’ll listen?”

She sighed and shook her head, coming to sit on the couch’s arm beside me. “Unfortunately, no. That doesn’t mean that I won’t keep trying, though.”

She sighed and walked to the window where the snow came down softly. The flakes fell lazily to the earth, covering the entire area with a sheet of white.

“I can’t believe we’re having a white Christmas,” she breathed. “It’s perfect.”

“Believe it, baby. We started many new traditions today. Ones I hope to fulfill for a long time to come,” I told her, pushing the floor gently with my foot, rocking the chair back and forth softly.

“Did you eat the cookies?” She asked, staring from me to the plate accusingly.

“Hey,” I rumbled softly. “Somebody had to do it.”

She snorted. A most unladylike sound.

“I like his jammies, though. We’ll have to see if we can find some of the same next year,” she said softly, walking towards us again.

I nodded. “I can’t believe I agreed to take pictures with you like that. I’ll never hear the end of it from the guys.”

She waved in her hand in the air, dismissing my misgivings. “Yeah, but just think of all the pictures we’ll have we’ll have to put into his senior
yearbook when he’s older!”

I winked at her, pulling her down until she was resting in my lap. “I love you.”

“And I you.” She looked down at our son, lifting her hand and running it down Justin’s cheek. “He looks so much like you it’s not even funny.”

I grinned. “You’ll have to beat off all the girls with a stick.”

She glared at me. “He’s too young to be thinking about his future girlfriends.”

“Just keep telling yourself that, darlin’. It’ll be tomorrow and he’ll be bringing his first girlfriend home for us to meet.”

“Bite your tongue, boy,” she snarled.

I laughed, pulling her into my arms and dancing the familiar dance. The one we’d done for six years now.

It felt like yesterday when I’d done this the first time. Although now, six years later, I loved her impossibly more.

As I took in her happiness, I couldn’t help but think, this woman’s my everything.

Chapter 10

If you can’t be the sharpest tool in the shed, you can always be the hoe.

-E-card

Blaine

Christmas number 25

“This is not fucking funny,” I seethed, looking over at my husband.

Let me rephrase that, my about to be dead husband.

“Mom,” Justin said. “I’d like you to meet Cecily.”

I extended my hand to the whore
that was stealing my son away from me, glaring up at the woman. “Nice to meet you,” I lied.

Was it too much to ask for a hug from my son, and a little time before he brought in the hussy? He’d been gone for nearly nine months now. I deserved to have him to myself for a little bit, didn’t I?

I mean I birthed the boy with no pain medicine for God’s sake! I deserved
something
!

Justin smiled reassuringly towards Cecily, and then turned his gaze on his sister.

“How ya’ doin, Tawny?” He asked her.

Tawny shrugged, still mad at him for not making it to her birthday party two days prior.

From the day Tawny was born, Justin had latched onto her, being the big brother that every sister wished for.

He’d always been there for her. Taken her to school. Beat up people twice his size because shit heads twice his size
talked badly about his baby sister. I can’t even begin to
count how many times I’d had to go to the school to pick Justin up because he’d been in a fight again regarding
his
Tawny.

Tawny had developed early, much to her father’s consternation.
With that development came the attention of men…not boys.

Yes, the girl was eighteen, but she loved her brother fiercely, as he did her.

They were always very close, and it had devastated Tawny when her brother had said he wasn’t going to make it.

“Tawn, you know I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to miss it, but Cecily was throwing up…
oh
,
goddammit
.”

Elliott

“What’s Blaine’s malfunction?” Sam rumbled from his seat opposite mine.

I looked over at Sam, smiling widely before I answered. “She just found out that Justin knocked his girlfriend up. Needless to say, she’s kind of pissed.”

Sam grinned, and Max, who’d been standing beside Sam, started laughing. “Damn, boy. He’s only been stateside for a couple weeks. Where’d he find the time to get her pregnant?”

I looked over at my son who had one arm around his little sister, the light of my life, and his new woman.

Cecily looked a little overwhelmed, which was to be expected with the large gathering of family.

Free was packed full.

It’d grown in the past twenty some odd years.

No longer little duplexes, we’d bought up the land surrounding the area and had built individual homes for each family.

Now, some of the kids were even old enough to be living in the old duplexes where we’d used to reside beforehand.

Today, we were all in the large gym. It was about the size of a basketball court, and it damn well needed to be to house this many people.

Although we no longer had young children running around of our own, we did have extra people. Girlfriends. Boyfriends. Fiancés.

Our kids were grown now, and it was awe-inspiring.

We were well on our way to the third generation of Free kids, starting with my son.

God help us.

“That’s why his momma’s so mad at him. Apparently, he’s been stateside for a lot longer. More like three months, and we didn’t know. He spent the time locked up with her. Where he then proceeded to…”

“Where he proceeded to get her pregnant, because he couldn’t take the time to sheathe his too-young-to-have-kids
dick
,” Blaine explained with a snarl.
“All the while I was worried sick that he was getting shot at each day, where in reality the only danger he had was catching a cramp in his ass from too much fucking!”

I squeezed my eyes shut and turned around to see Blaine standing behind us, her arms crossed tightly across her chest. “I’m sorry, baby. I was just telling them why you’re upset.”

She glared at me for a few moments longer before turning and leaving. Trying with all her might not to stomp. She didn’t succeed.

“Someone’s in the dog house,” James sang in a sing-song voice.

I turned my gaze to him and winked. “My wife can’t resist my dick. I give her two hours tops before she comes crawling back to me.”

God, the feel of her tight sheath gripping my cock was like a long drink of water on a hot day. It was something that one needed, not just wanted. And I did need her. I needed her bad. All the fucking time.

It didn’t matter that we’d had each other more times than I could count.

My cock exploded, come jetting out of it like an out of control geyser.

Blaine’s hot pussy contracted hard, and a scream welled up in her throat.

She tried in vain to staunch it, but with a twist of my hips, I hit her spot, causing the strangled scream to turn into a full out screech.

It took long moments to recover, both of us trying hard to catch our breath.

“You fight so dirty,” Blaine panted on the sheets beside me.

I turned to her, smiling smugly. “You bring out the best in me, honey bunches of oats. Was that not the dance you were talking about?”

She shook her head and flopped back onto her back, arms raised up high above her head.