“Wedge is on the door, so I can eat. You have everything straight in your head?” Shield doesn’t wait for me to say anything and he is straight to the point. I nod my head yes. “Damn good thing. Every child needs its parents and that is both parents. I knew you would be back with your head where it needs to be.” Shield has more faith in me than I do. “Micah has been sleeping since you left. They tried to get her to eat but there was no keeping her awake. Deb told them that pain medication always does that to Micah. Deb and Rye left to go downstairs to get something to eat the same time Wedge arrived with my food. They are bringing something back for Micah when she wakes up. I had Wedge bring you some clothes and I will go and get you something to eat when you’re ready for it as long as it’d by eight o’clock. Kitchen closes up at eight sharp, and after that it is vending machine food only.”

  “You need to let Stealth take over tonight in the hall and waiting area. There also need to be two more brothers here for backup just in case. You need to get some sleep.” Shield looks at me and stops eating.

  “Stealth had an appointment with Tammy and Retta along with their attorney. Retta still swears that baby is Stealth’s and she wants child support to start now,” Shield explains about his brother.

  “They can’t do that. It’s not legal. The only thing Stealth would need to pay for now, even if the baby is his, would be medical care. Retta has her own apartment and a job, so what is the problem?” Sarge looks at the floor and then back at me.

  “If it was possible for that to be your child could you leave it alone or would you do everything possible to make sure the woman that was carrying your child didn’t need to work so hard, so the child is getting the best care before it’s born?” I see his point. “I know you would, even if you had no interest at all in the woman. Drew is still calling Stealth and she wants more, and Stealth is in love with her. He’s being torn between two very important things, the woman he sees his future with and a child that may have his blood running through its body, either way he loses. If he chooses Drew and walks away from a potential child, then he will never forgive himself and never find true happiness. If he chooses the child, then he may never have who he thinks is his soulmate. How does a man make that choice? I wouldn’t want to. I have been thinking of stepping up and taking on the responsibility of Retta and the child. I have nothing going on in the relationship department and it wouldn’t be a hardship for me. We could make it work and Stealth could find his happiness.” Shield has thought about this and it isn’t something off the top of his head. I see the determination in his eyes.

  “What about your happiness, Shield? That’s damn important too,” I remind my brother and friend. Shield smiles.

  “Don’t get me wrong Sarge, it has its benefits too. If I take Stealth’s place, if Retta will even go for it, then I will raise my own niece or nephew. Stealth is my twin and I will do what I see is best in the situation. The bond twins have is one that is unbreakable. I was going to give you the same scenario with Micah. Micah and I would never be anything more than friends and I know that little hellcat wouldn’t agree to it, but I would still offer.” Shield is a selfless man, a good man and the best brother. “I don’t look forward to the fight you and Micah are going to have. It will touch all of us because that is the explosive relationship that you two have, but it’ll be damn sure worth it for you, if you win.”

  “Shield, you are a good man but don’t worry, I am ready for Micah and she is now going to learn the possessive and over-paranoid side of me. I will do whatever it takes to protect Micah and my child. All I need to do now is convince Micah of that.” I need to do that now.

  “I am going to take a nap on these couches out here until Wedge needs to be back and then I will take another shift tonight. We are spread thin with trying to find information, staying alert all the time to make sure all of our legit businesses are covered, and keeping track of Missile and Petrov. It takes a lot of men and we all have jobs. It may be time to have that sit-down with Priest and get a few more bodies for the jobs that aren’t too close to the more sensitive areas of our operations. Let them earn their spots.” Shield is right. I haven’t even had the time to let Priest know the outcome of our vote. I know it hasn’t been that long, but it seems like forever. It’s only been hours.

  “I haven’t had time to think on it for very long, but you’re right. When Micah is out of here, then we will do it first thing. Get a prospect to stay here and go home and get some sleep. I’m not leaving and I if I know Deb, she won’t be leaving town while Micah is in here. Leave one brother on the grounds for an emergency and everyone else can get some rest but keep your phone close.” Shield nods in agreement.

  “I’ll do that if you’re sure it is what you want. I don’t want to leave you under-manned here. Micah is my friend and I made a promise to Diamondback just like you did, but above all that, Micah is carrying your child. That child will be the bloodline that bridges the old Rebellions 4 Blood MC to the new. That child will be the new bloodline of destruction or reconstruction of our club. That is where our legacy begins.” Shield surprises me time after time on the way his mind works. The thought would never have occurred to me but now it makes perfect sense. Shield is right.

  “I’m going to go and check on Micah. We have a lot of talking to do. If Rye and Deb come back up will you have them stay out here until I come out and ask Rye about their plans.” Deb isn’t going to like when I tell Micah how things are going to go.

  “Will do.” I leave Shield to finish his food. I walk with determination to Micah’s door and nod at Wedge. I don’t stop to talk. I need to get this done. The lights are on low and the sight of Micah lying in the bed and rolled into a ball hits me in the gut just the way it did a few hours ago when she was placed in the room. I shut the door as quietly as possible. I walk to the bed and take in the beauty of this woman. The thought that she is carrying our child sends me into protective mode. I need to just touch her. My hand goes to her side so I don’t touch any area that would hurt her. I don’t know how she is rolled into a ball and hasn’t jerked the tubes and wires out. Just feeling her body through the sheet calms my nerves. I feel the minute Micah wakes up. Her body stiffens. I don’t know how she knows it’s me, but she opens her eyes and she looks surprised. Micah straightens in the bed and once I see she is trying to sit up in the bed, I try to help her without hurting her. She glares at me. This woman is going to make me work for it.

  “Micah, just hear me out.” She puts her hand up and I stop talking.

  “I need to go piss so you need to help me, and then I need water.” I panic. Micah is in a mood and I can understand that since she was shot twice.

  “Are you sure you don’t need a nurse? I can call the nurse.” She shakes her head no.

  “I never knew that tough bikers feared a few wires and tubes. If I can do it then you can too. Just get over here and help me so I don’t pull anything out.” I tell myself Micah is just in pain, but I know this is just Micah being Micah, and busting my balls. I walk to the other side of the bed and Micah is sitting upright. I scoot her close to the edge and I move her legs around, so they are hanging over the side of the bed. I look down and look Micah in the eyes as she is looking up at me. I want to kiss her bad and from the small smile she has on her face she knows it. I fight the urge because I know our talk needs to happen first.

  “You could help, you know. I’m not lifting you off that bed. It’s all up to you. I will balance you, but you know when it hurts. I won’t let you fall.” Micah isn’t a woman that would let you smother her with help. At first, she’ll think she wants it, but she’ll hate it within minutes. I don’t want to give us anything to argue about before we get started with the talk we need to have. I am trying to be understanding and save her any physical pain, but this is all unchartered territory for me.

  “You’re enjoying this aren’t you? Me having to ask you for help.”

  My back goes stiff. I look into her eyes again. “Darlin’ I would take your pain if I could. Last night when I was downstairs in the waiting room was the most horrible aching time of my life. If I find the person or persons that are responsible for this, they will not be walking this earth again and that is a damn promise. No one will hurt you or our child.” I don’t know if it’s my deep voice or the look in my eyes, but something convinces her.

  “I understand, and I won’t fight you on that Sarge,” Micah says softly. I want to say something more, but I bite my tongue. I help Micah into the small bathroom; she is still weak, and her steps are small. The machine they have hooked up to her for her blood pressure is easy enough to move with her, but the door frame is a little small and we have to maneuver through it. That’s when I see the most perfect ass just waiting for me to touch. I restrain myself but it’s damn hard and talking about hard, my cock just stiffened in my jeans. I guess he didn’t get the memo that Micah is hurt. I put my mind back on the job at hand. It was tight, but we make it through the door. I help her get seated and then I back out of the tiny area. I want to give Micah some privacy, so I turn my back to her but that only lasts a few seconds. I need to see her and make sure she is alright. These feelings are all knew to me and I don’t know if I like them, but I know I can’t change them. Now I sound like a fucking idiot in my own head. I see Micah is finished and start to move in to help her.

  “No. I can do it. We’re too wide for that door. If I fall just pick me up. I don’t want anyone seeing me with my butt sticking out in all its glory.” That makes me laugh. I wait for her to get back through the door and I help her get situated in the bed. I walk around the room to her bed table and I pour some water in her cup and turn the straw so she can get a sip of water. She sits back and looks at me. “Just say whatever it is that you came to say. We’ve known each other too long for you to hold back now. Just remember I am keeping the right to argue with you when I am stronger and can give you all the crap I have stored up today. I just want the highlights today, since they will be bringing me more medicine soon.” Micah is right, I do need to just get my point across.

  “The highlights, I can do that.” I smile at Micah. “My name is Mason or Mase to you. Only Sarge if we are at the clubhouse and that is if you want to.” That gets me an eyebrow raise. “You are my woman, no argument. That child,” I point at her stomach area, “is mine and we are going to be a family. I can’t promise you a house with a white picket fence. I can’t promise you anything, because I don’t know what tomorrow will bring us and I don’t make promises I can’t keep, but I love you, and I wouldn’t let myself feel it until I thought you might be gone, but it is there, and darlin’, I am feeling that shit deep. I can’t give you flowery words and a bunch of bullshit promises that I will break and make us both feel bad. All I can give you is me and that is what you will get. I won’t lie to you, but I may not be able to share everything. You know this, it’s no secret, club business is just that club business. If it can ever touch you or our child then we will talk, but you will only get enough to keep you both safe.” I stop and wait for a response.

  “That’s the highlights? You could have written a book with less words. “Sarge,” I give Micah that look. “Mason, I have never asked you for a white picket fence. I have part ownership of a big ass ranch and it has no white picket fence around it and I don’t need flowery words. My feet are planted firmly on the ground and my head isn’t in the clouds. I just want real. I’m not going to argue with you today, but I do have a couple of questions.” I was prepared to argue for a little while, but this is good. I’ll take it.

  “Ask me anything as long as it has to do with us. I promise you I am not going to sugarcoat anything for you. You get it real, so ask,” I tell Micah truthfully.

  “If I agree to this relationship is there only the two of us included in it or will you be screwing the club whores?” Micah is always to the point.

  “I won’t hurt you if I can help it and by that, I mean I have no intention of fucking any club whores, but don’t use sex as a weapon. I understand if you’re sick or even tired, but don’t try that shit on me just to get back at me for pissing you off. Keep me satisfied then I won’t be going somewhere else and the same goes for me. I won’t withhold from you. We’ve never had a problem in the sex department, and I don’t see us having a problem with it now. It’s called communication darlin’, and as long as we don’t lie to each other and talk we can make this work.” I’m talking honestly with this woman. “Can you trust me?”

  “Mason, I will trust you. I’m not the type of woman that needs up her man’s ass twenty-four seven. I will trust you but don’t make me eat my words.” I nod my head at Micah. “Where do you see us living? I’m not living at the clubhouse with a baby.”

  “Micah, I haven’t thought this all out. I came to terms with this on my ride. I was gone a whole three hours at the most and it will take me a couple of days to get the plans ironed out. I can say my first thought on that is the ranch. You said you were converting that bunkhouse into a home for you and I think we could make it ours until you want to move. I guess right now, we could go between the clubhouse and the ranch. I just know you will not be at that ranch without me or one of my brothers there with you, unless Rye is going to be on the property.” Micah is nodding her head. “You were attacked by Hemric and now someone shot you not once, but twice. Where the hell were all the ranch hands? Shouldn’t one of them have seen something? You have a long-ass drive that can be seen clearly from the barn. Someone should have seen a vehicle and didn’t see squat. You need better ranch hands.”

  “Did you question the ranch hands?” Micah asks.

  “No. Except for my ride to clear my head I have been here since we got the call, but Keys talked to everyone and no one saw or heard anything,” I answer.

  “Wait, did you get the footage from the new security cameras I put up facing the front of the house. I know that’s where the shot had to come from. I was standing at the front window of my office and it’s facing the front of the house. I’m the only one who knows they are there. I watched a video for instruction to install them. After Hemric showed his ass, I thought it’s better to be safe than sorry. I had extra cameras in my room from when we put the ones in the office, so I had everything right there to use and I installed it myself. It may not be perfect, but you might be able to get a vehicle make and model. The feed gets sent to my laptop and it is under my bed in my bedroom.” I almost laugh at where she puts her laptop, but I understand why. You walk into Micah’s room and it is chaos. She loses everything in the mess and the only way she finds anything is to have a designated place for it. It’s usually under her bed. “Don’t laugh. You know it’s the safest place.”

  “I’m not laughing, darlin’.” That makes Micah laugh.

  “I’ll get a key from Deb and send someone over after it. I need to send Shield a message to let him know to drop by and pick it up and give it to Keys. Is the password the same as it was?” I ask Micah. If Shield is still here it will save another trip.

  “Yeah, I don’t have anything business sensitive on there. Just family pictures and correspondence. That’s the reason I had the feed sent to it. Can you imagine the feed I thought we would get from the front of the house? I thought I was being over cautious, and I would watch and erase all the feed. If I did it right, it could show something. I checked the night I did it and it showed the driveway.” Micah looks sleepy. I know I need to cut this conversation short.

  “You did great darlin’. The brothers will take care of it. Have you eaten anything? You need to keep you and the baby fed.” Micah’s eyes go soft.

  “All bullshit aside, are you alright with this Mason, really? I know it’s out of left field and not that long ago we were saying goodbye to each other. It’s happening so fast and we were both on different paths. Are you sure? Because to be honest, right now I’m not so sure. I don’t want to be together just because I’m pregnant. If you don’t want me for me, then I won’t accept this. We can co-parent as a family unit by living together but separate bedrooms. To accept this thing between us, I need to know it’s about us and you won’t change your mind.” I hear the doubt in Micah’s voice, and I see the doubt in her eyes. I deserve that, but I will earn her trust.

  “We both had our own lives before, but now we are going to have one together with our child. The only way we can do this is one day at a time. We will earn the trust from each other that we need for a good foundation. I can tell you what I want. Right now, I want you as my ol’ lady and if we get over the hurdles that life sends our way, then I will give you a ring and my last name, but I want that before this baby arrives. I want us all to have the same last name. I don’t give two fucks if this child is a boy or a girl, as long as it is brought into this world healthy without complications for you or our child. That is what I want, and I will get it. I won’t take any other outcome. Now we need to get you some food and your medicine and then you look like you need a nap while I get some work done. Aren’t the nurses paying attention to the time?” Micah laughs.