Lights to My Siren (27 page)

I was lucky to fall into bed and sleep for four hours.

Sure, I could’ve made some time to call her, but, to be honest, I was still pretty upset.

However when I’d gotten the message of her asking me in a pleading voice to go to her doctor’s appointment, I’d dropped everything, much to my father’s consternation.

Then there was the escalating arson fires. I barely had time to take a breath. But I’d do anything for my old lady. Even face my father’s wrath.

The old man was still getting used to the fact that he wasn’t number one in my life anymore.

My phone vibrated in his pocket, and I answered it quickly without even looking at the readout. “Baylee?” I asked quickly.

“Nope. This is Stone. So, you got yourself a little woman?”

Stone was the president of the Alabama chapter. He was supposed to be at the boats letting off steam, so why exactly was he asking about my woman when he’d never even seen her?

“Yeah,” I answered cautiously.

“She looks kind of upset. What’d you do to get yourself in the doghouse already?”

I sat up from my sprawl, gripping the seat so hard that I heard the leather creak with the force.

“What do you mean? Where are you? How do you know it’s my woman?” I asked quickly.

“Gas station at the Louisiana/Texas border. She’s leaning against a plate glass window with your property patch plastered between her back and the window curled into a ball.” he replied just as quickly.

“Don’t let her leave. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

I didn’t waste any time getting my bike started and flooring it out of the parking lot. The ride there felt a lot like déjà vu. Only this time I knew she’d be safe; but she didn’t.

She was probably scared shitless. Stone’s men were somewhat rough around the edges.

Sure enough, when I pulled into the parking lot and parked my bike next to Stone’s, I could see Baylee curled tightly into a ball on the bench in the front of the store.

Her eyes were looking anywhere but at Stone’s men.

Sighing, I swung my leg over my bike, nodded thankfully at Stone, and headed in my wayward woman’s direction.

The closer I got to her, the more she shrunk into herself. She had no idea it was me, but it still hurt. My heart wasn’t as intelligent as my mind.

Another weird thing happened once I was within ten feet or so of her. My anger evaporated.

I could make out the telltale signs of exhaustion. Her eyes were red-rimmed. Deep bags hung under each eye, and her skin was pale, as if she hadn’t been feeling well.

Which she very well might have. I didn’t know shit since I’d avoided her calls, whether it was intentional or unintentional on my part.

For the most part, though, she looked...defeated.

Then she finally turned her face towards me, and every single sign of defeat vanished, and she launched herself at me.

My ribs smarted from the impact of our bodies colliding with each other, but I relished the bite of pain. It was a good feeling to have her in my arms again.

My nose found its way to the crook of her neck and I smelled the distinct sweetness that was her. The rightness. The primal part of me basked in the feeling of home.

Then her nose buried into the crook of my neck making me shiver.

“You’re freezing.” I said, wrapping my arms a little tighter around her.

“I was feeling pretty good with just the long sleeved shirt and the pants when I got out of the car. Then I started sitting here, and all of those bikers showed up. I was too worried to move after that.” She explained

“Why didn’t you make the appointment?” I asked her.

Baylee started laughing humorlessly. “It died about five miles that way.” She said pointing West with her finger.

I stilled when I realized she’d walked the entire way.

Pushing her back slightly so I could see her face, I scowled at her. “Why didn’t you call me?”

She produced her own scowl. “Would you have answered?”

Touché.

“It’s been a busy three days. I haven’t purposely avoided you. I’ve been getting tons of shit taken care of that comes with 500 bikers from our club entering into town at one time. I’m sorry, baby.” I explained.

“You couldn’t spare one single phone call?” She asked skeptically.

I grimaced, holding on to her a tad tighter. “I should have. There’s no excuse. I was just so fucking mad. You could have died, Baylee.”

“I know. I was monumentally stupid.” She whispered forlornly.

Turning with her in my arms, I led her over to where Stone was still leaning casually against his bike.

I had to laugh at the expression on Baylee’s face the closer we got to Stone and the other members of the club. They were all a little rougher than the Louisiana chapter. A little more into the hardcore side of the biker life. They lived a little bit rougher, and played a little bit harder.

But they were a great bunch of men who’d lay down their life for anybody worthy just like the rest of them. Man, woman or child.

“Baylee, this is Stone. He’s the president of the Alabama chapter of the Dixie Wardens. Stone, this is my old lady, Baylee.”

Stone held out his hand and Baylee reluctantly held out hers. When Stone had Baylee’s hand in his, he brought it to his mouth and gave it a kiss. Even though it was an innocent gesture to most, it was a test for me. Stone was doing it to see what I would do. Stone knew it’d piss me off, and he wanted to see if I’d actually say anything, or play daddy’s little diplomat like I’d always done.

Well, he was in for a rude awakening. Baylee came second only to my son, no matter what. My father was nowhere near first in line anymore. My duties were important to me but I wasn’t going to take anybody, even the president of another chapter, disrespecting me.

“Stone.” I warned through clenched teeth.

He chuckled. “Good to see you found one that means something to you boy.” he said as he dropped Baylee’s hand and stepped back.

Baylee was confused by the interaction, I could tell, but I wouldn’t explain it to her now. Not in front of all of them.

“Alright, well we’ve got a doctor’s appointment to get to. Check you guys later. You know where I’ve got y’all booked, right?” I asked as I got Baylee settled on the back of my bike.

While waiting for him to reply, I extricated myself from my cut and handed it to Baylee.

She clutched it tightly to her chest like I’d just given her a lifeline and watched as I stripped out of my sweatshirt, and then gave that to her as well.

“Put that on.” I demanded as I took my cut back.

“Thank you.” She whispered.

“Yeah, at the Horseshoe. Thanks. That’s one of our favorites.” Stone said dryly.

Stone didn’t gamble. He said it was a waste of money. But there were really no other places other than the flea bag hotels in downtown that didn’t have any gambling at them.

“I could’ve booked you at the Budget Inn.” I offered wryly.

Stone waved me off and mounted his bike.

With a signal of his hand, the other men with him started their bikes, and one by one, they left the parking lot and headed for the interstate.

“You ready?” I asked once the last one had left the parking lot.

She nodded, spread her legs a little wider, and patted the seat between them. “Always.”

***

Baylee

I felt better than I had in days.

Sebastian was asleep on his stomach in bed next to me, dead to the world. After escorting me to my doctor’s appointment, we went to the warehouse where his office was located, and he continued to make arrangements for some annual party they had every year.

He’d been on the phone from the time we’d entered his office to the time we’d left, four hours, later to go pick Johnny up from daycare.

He’d spoken to some barbeque joint to deliver over a thousand dollars’ worth of meat the day of the party. Then he’d made arrangements with some man to bring wood. Some woman to deliver kegs. Another man was to bring a bounce house to entertain the kids. Hell, he’d even had someone scheduled to come DJ.

I’d asked where they were planning to have it, and he’d told me at the warehouse

He’d explained that it was big enough to house a small circus once they rearranged and pulled in all the bleachers. I hadn’t been aware that the bleachers were retractable, but he’d told me they’d had them installed for that very purpose.

I hadn’t had the desire to ask Sebastian how a club that wasn’t doing anything illegal could afford something like that when most of their members were public servants in some capacity. I wanted to keep my illusions.

I knew they weren’t completely legal in everything they did. There was no way they could be. I was just glad he let me in where he could.

“Can’t sleep?” Sebastian rasped from the bed beside me.

My eyes, which had been staring at his chest blankly, snapped up to meet his. “No.”

He rolled over onto his back and held his hand in the air, waited, and laughed when I crawled into his embrace readily.

“I missed you.” He said, kissing the top of my head lightly.

“I missed you more. Like crazy bad. The past three days have been horrible.” I sighed, running my nose along the smooth skin of his chest.

“Is that why you can’t sleep?”

I hesitated before answering, and then let it all pour out of my in a rush. “I’m scared to death to be pregnant. I’ve learned a lot of bad shit about this disease I have. Childbirth is risky in the first place, then you add into the equation my disease, and I’m looking at a very high-risk pregnancy. Then, the doctor tells me I can’t even take my ADHD medicine, and I’m so nervous I can barely see straight.”

Sebastian hesitated for a few long moments before addressing my concerns.

His hand, which had been curling around my shoulder went to my hair and started sifting through it. “Have you ever been off your ADHD medicine since you were in your teens?”

“No. The meds have changed, but I’ve been on some form or another ever since I was young. Why?”

“What makes you think that you’ll have a hard time handling stuff now? And if you do, why is it that big a deal? You’re with a man that loves you. Your boss at work will understand. What will it hurt if you’re are still affected but off of it? From what I can tell, the only real things I can see that you have trouble with are boredom, lateness, and you space out from time to time. Multitasking isn’t a problem that I’ve seen. You juggle everything very well that I have noticed. Why don’t you just take it one-step at a time? Plus, it won’t be forever. It’ll be another seven and a half months. That’s doable.”

He made it sound so simple. So easy.

I wasn’t sure it would be, but I’d give it the old college try.

I wouldn’t disappoint him.

I’d fight for him. For me. And for our family.

“Wait, did you just say you loved me?” I gasped as I continued to replay what he had said in my head.

He snorted. “Like fucking crazy.”

Chapter 21

Bikers don’t go gray, they turn chrome.

-Biker Patch

Baylee

Two days after the party dawned dark and stormy.

I was outside on the dock and watched as a fish jumped in the middle of the lake producing a large splash.

Boots on the dock had my looking over my shoulder to see Silas walking towards me with his hands in the pockets of his jeans.

He was wearing a black t-shirt that made me chuckle every time I saw it.

“I love that shirt.” I said to him as he got close enough that I could see it.

He looked down and studied it, then smiled.

“I like it.” He agreed.

The shirt had an old man riding a motorcycle with the top rocker saying, ‘Sons of Arthritis’ and the bottom rocker saying, ‘Ibuprofen Chapter.’

I’d asked him to get me one for my birthday since he wouldn’t tell me where he got it.

“What’s up?” I asked him.

He sat down, letting his feet dangle over the side of the dock, and leaned back putting his weight on his hands. “Nothing. Sebastian sent me to pick you up. Told me to take you kicking and screaming if you resisted.”

I eyed the slight mist that was scheduled to turn into a hurricane within the next twenty-four hours.

It was said to be, by the National Weather Service, one of the worse the country has ever seen.

Sebastian had been scheduled off for the next week for his vacation; yet, as soon as we’d heard how bad it was supposed to get, Sebastian had volunteered to go in.

“He did not say that!” I laughed.

“No, he didn’t. But it made him sound like a pussy when he asked me to say please. I just wanted to make an effort to make him not sound so much like a little girl.”

“I’ll go under one condition.” I cautioned.

He looked at me skeptically, as if he didn’t believe I’d go without a fight. “What’s that?”

***

Sebastian

Apartment fire at Town Oaks. Neighbors say it has fully engulfed the first apartment on the West Side.

As soon as I heard those words, I knew it was going to be bad.

We’d responded to call after call in the past six hours of my shift.

Kettle and I had both been on the first hose as we’d pointed the stream into a large hole that was cut into the side of apartment 1A’s wall.

Kettle had been at my back, his shoulder pressed against the middle of my back to ensure we both kept adequate control of the hose.

Apartment 1A was the one below 1B, which was fully engulfed.

All we were supposed to be doing was hosing down the apartment to ensure the area wouldn’t have a way to catch, but I’d been blindsided.

“I think we need to pull back. Something doesn’t feel right!” I yelled at Kettle.

As Kettle stepped back, giving me a little slack in the line, another firefighter walked up.

Feeling somewhat mollified, I yelled out to Kettle to hold, and turned my head back to the fire. If they had someone else there to keep an eye on the situation around them, I’d keep hitting the house with my line. It just felt like something was off, and my senses were telling me to get the fuck out.

Kettle must not have heard me because, suddenly, I had no more support at my back. The support I had holding the hose was suddenly gone, too.