Authors: Sabrina Riley
Chapter 8: Grady
I knew once I heard the soft moan against my lips, that she was mine. There was something in the surrender, as before, it was complete. She had brought up good points, ones that we would have to talk about later, but for now, I was happy to just feel her against me again. It was almost surreal. The amount of time that I had been yearning for her was too long to seem real.
Her lips were soft and her body molded against mine. It was different, not the way I remembered it, but she was so much more to me now. She was going to have my son and the thought of them anywhere else but with me, did not sit well. I had to have her.
The thought made me pull her tighter and then release her as she whimpered against me. My grip was too tight and I released her, afraid that I would hurt her and the baby. “I’m sorry Laney. It’s just that I finally have you in my arms, I don’t want to let you go.”
She looked down and then smiled back up at me. “I have been thinking about you and our night together for a long time. I don’t think I could ever stop thinking about you, Grady. You have done something to me, but I figured I would never see you again.”
“I’ve been looking for you and now you are here. I didn’t know about the baby, but I couldn’t be happier that it is with you. It’s meant to be.”
“But your record and my job. How can it work?”
I didn’t know. I couldn’t give up the gang. They were like family to me. I certainly couldn’t be with a cop. It wouldn’t be safe for her. One of us was going to have to give up what we did for a living. “I can’ leave the Black Angels. No one ever leaves. You are in it for life.”
She pulled away and sighed. “I know Grady. That is why it is impossible. My uncle was killed by a motorcycle gang. He got caught in the crossfire. That’s why if I would have known, I never would have looked at you again. I can’t be around that, my son is not going to be raised to think killing and drugs are normal.”
I could see she was working herself up. There was a knock at the front door and then the man from before was back. “Casper if you don’t get the fuck out right now…”
Casper shut the door and left Laney looking at me. “See.”
I didn’t see her point. The little punk was on my nerves and the last thing I needed to think about was if the two of them had been together. I didn’t even want to think about someone else’s hands on her. It drove me crazy to even consider such a thing.
“He is nobody and you know it. I am the one who’s child you are carrying. What does he matter?”
I could tell he mattered as much to her as he did to me. “So what do we do Laney? What do I have to do to make you come back with me?”
“I am not going back anywhere with you Grady. Our son is safer without you around.”
***
It hadn’t been easy to convince Laney to leave with me and I didn’t get her back to the city like I had hoped. We both couldn’t change who we were, but I told her I would try. I had some money stashed away for a rainy day and this was the downpour that I had saved for. But leaving the Black Angels wasn’t an option without consequences.
We had moved away from the city and further away from her home town. Renald knew about Laney and I didn’t want them to find us, so we had to completely disappear. It was not what she wanted, but after a little touching and tasting over a couple of days, she couldn’t think beyond the last orgasm and she finally agreed.
Now it was almost time for our son to be born and I was putting the finishing touches on the baby room. The furniture was put together and everything was set. I heard a noise in the other room and I stopped for a second. It didn’t sound like Laney. She was large and loud at this point in her pregnancy and would usually call out to me when she was home.
I hadn’t wanted her to go out alone, but she insisted. Laney was a hard woman to get along with, so used to doing things her own way. A touch could usually tame her. But it wasn’t her that was making soft noises as someone who didn’t want to be heard did.
The hairs went up on the back of my neck and I moved to the side of the wall. I saw the gun before I saw the man and grabbed it out of response. He pulled a shot off and I hear the loud ringing in my ears from it being discharged so close. The bullet went into the wall behind to me because I ducked in time.
I didn’t need to see the shooter to know who they were or at least, who had sent them. It didn’t matter how loyal I was, I knew once I left the gang, the boss would send people out looking for me. It was just too soon and I was racking my brain trying to figure out how they found me there. I moved back behind the wall and waited.
“Come out Grady. Loch has decided to give you a slide this one time if you come back now.”
Loch didn’t let anything slide, so I knew it wasn’t true. The fact that he had already squeezed off a shot was a good indication that what he said was a lie. Loch wanted me dead. I knew that.
I would have waited him out if it wasn’t for the familiar sound of Laney in the hallway, coming up the stairs. I moved out in front of him, knocking the gun out of his hands and putting my hand over his mouth. The last thing I wanted was for Laney to walk in on it. I didn’t want her to always be looking over her shoulder. Ignorance was bliss in this scenario.
Dragging the other man to the kitchen, his struggles were lessening and by the time she made it to the front door, he was out of sight. I didn’t know if he was dead, but he was out of the equation for the moment.
“Grady? Why is the door open?”
I put a smile on my face and shut the door on the incapacitated would-be attacker. “Sorry love. I was just about to check the mail when I had to use the restroom. How was your day? Did you get any shopping done?”
She smiled back at me and waddled towards me. She looked ready to pop and there had never been anything more beautiful that I had seen in all of my life. Laney practically glowed. The kiss got heated quickly and I had to push her away before I forgot what was going on.
“Is smells strange in here. Like something is burning.”
“Oh, I just put a candle out. I know how you like the smell of the cookie one.”
“Yes, it’s making me hungry and I have to pee.”
“I steered her away from the bathroom. “Why don’t we go out? I know you don’t feel like cooking and it’s been a while since we went out just because.”
Laney was happy with the surprise. “Sure that sounds good.”
I breathed a sigh of relief as I ushered her out the door. She stopped and looked back for a minute at the wall in front of her and then walked towards the car. Laney waited for me to open the door and then got in. I closed it and went around to the driver’s side. “So are you really not going to tell me why there is a bullet in the wall or why there was a gun shot in the house?”
I looked over at her stunned. How did she always know? “Laney, I…”
“Was it Loch that sent him?”
I nodded and started the car. “So we have to move again?”
I shook my head again and she sighed. “Well I really liked that place. How many times is he going to make us move? The baby is going to be here soon, we need to take care of it.”
She was scary sometimes. There was no other way about it and I couldn’t help but think that she would have been someone I could have worked the business with. There was something sexy when she acted tough. I knew that I was part of the reason I had been drawn to her no-nonsense way and I loved what Laney had become. “I will take care of it. You don’t worry about anything.”
Resting her head on my shoulder, I heard her sigh. “With you next to me, how can I worry about anything? I know you take care of what is yours.”
Chapter 1
Nicole
“I just can’t believe you are going to go live in a co-ed house. It’s going to be so different than it is here.”
I shook my head. “I hope so. I don’t know about you, but I hope I never have to see this place again.”
Annie shrugged. “I don’t know. It wasn’t so bad. Guys are overrated and there is going to be more problems. It’s not too late to go to Johnson Academy with me.”
Putting down the last bit of clothes I was folding, I felt bad. Annie and I had been roommates for some time and now that we were going our own separate ways, it was going to be hard to not see her anymore. I was moving to the east coast and it would be several months before I planned to see her again. There was something in the way she looked at me, the way she’d always looked at me that told me that Annie had always wanted more than I was able to give.
“It won’t be that bad. You know that they don’t have any biology classes there. What am I going to do, go for woman’s studies?”
She was offended. I could see it on her face. It wasn’t quite her proposed major, but it might as well be. Social sciences were all the rage, but I just wanted a degree that would actually have a job at the end of it. The bonus of most of the jobs being close to the equator, made my path even clearer. But it was the rest of it, the unbridled feelings that I couldn’t get passed. I thought it would be good us to have a little space. Maybe she would find someone else to pine after and things could go back to the way they were before we got a little too drunk and kissed that one night.
“There is nothing wrong with social work.”
“No, no, you are right. It’s just not for me. I know that you are going to be great and change the world and I am not just saying that.”
Annie was not convinced and I felt a little upset about her being so against the move. She knew that I had been dying to go to Carolina Tech and I wished more than anything that she would be happy for me. I was happy for her when she got into the all-girls college she had her heart set on.
“Thanks Nicole. I am sorry I am being such a bitch. I should be happy for you. I know that. But I am just going to miss you. We have been here for four years together and it’s not going to be the same with you gone.”
I relented, I always did with her. She wore her heart on her sleeve and I found myself hugging her and trying to comfort her. It was only when she was slow to release me and had the look of wanting to kiss me again, that I realized I was confusing her. I didn’t want to give her any false hopes.
“It will be fine Annie. You are going to have a new roommate at Johnsons and I am sure that one won’t keep you up all night studying. Besides, you won’t have to live with all these aquariums anymore.”
She just shook her head, wiping a tear from her eye. “You know I don’t mind. You aren’t going to take them with you, are you?”
By the way she looked I was guessing it was not a good idea. I really wanted to take them all, but I was only going to have a room with shared facilities, so there would be no room for them all like there was there. I knew that I wasn’t going to have roommates like Annie that would let me haul in 5 of them and whatever scum and fungus I could find to study at all hours of the night. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I was really going to miss her as well, for more than just gossip sessions.
“I am going to take one, but I am giving the rest to Tonya. She is into that kind of thing, so at least I won’t have to throw it all away.”
“Well I will not miss the smell, but definitely you. I would take a couple of weeks to get to know them first, before you start bring home sea creatures.”
I agreed that I would. Now I was getting misty eyed and I tried to ignore the feelings that were welling up inside. I was going to miss boarding school. I did hate it, but there were so many memories there, that made it a place that I would always think about. Since Annie had been part of many of my antics in the past, I knew that she was going to be one of those things that I was going to think about a lot too. We had done everything together in the last four years of high school, but I had to remind myself that it was time for something new.
“I am going to miss you Annie.”
“Call me as soon as you get there, okay?”
We hugged again and I promised that I would call her when I got off the train. I had almost a day of a ride ahead of me and I wasn’t looking forward to it, but I knew that it was just part of my new journey that I was on.
***
The train was cramped and there were several times I day dreamed of getting off at one of the stops on the way. The constant swaying and talking was more than I could handle and by the end of it, I was practically running off of the train. I had to sell my car to get the money to go to my college, as the grants and loans didn’t pay for room and board. I was missing old Betsy as I stretched at the train depot.
I sat down with my backpack and duffel bag beside me. While I would have loved to have called a cab and just gave them the address to sort out, I knew that I needed every dollar I had until I found a job. So that meant that I had to find the map on my phone and figure out the walking directions. I was eager to just get there after almost a day of travel. I needed a hot shower and a bed. Nothing else sounded so good as I made my way up the sidewalk the half a mile to my new shared house.
Taking in everything around me, quaint kept coming to mind. The town was a rather small seaside town and everything was just so, in place where it should have been. Each little house was about the same size and they all had small yards in the front and a white picket fence to cordoned off their little bit of green space. I was waiting for a makeup seller in pink to come walking down the street. Charlton was quaint and I was already feeling more at ease being there. I could smell the salty sea air and it smelled like adventure.