“Why did they check your blood sugar?”
“It’s not uncommon for some women to have issues with it when they’re pregnant. Usually, they start checking later but Dr. Foreman likes to start sooner. He said to tell you hello, and that he kept his hands to himself.” I had to laugh at that, recalling our first meeting. “Though I almost had to kill Joker to keep him from coming in the room. I told him if the doctor needed to examine me, you’d kill him if he saw my kitty cat. He finally agreed to stay out in the hall beside the door.” I barked out a laugh at that. She was right, I would have killed him. In the heat of the moment at the clubhouse was one thing, but up close and personal wasn’t an option.
“I’m glad he stayed close but not in the room. I don’t trust anyone completely with you except my brothers, babe. That’s how it always will be. I’m glad everything is going well. I wanted to tell you what else I did in Nashville. While I waited for those morons to get the order together, I went to the baby store and looked at that crib set you showed me online.” She sat up eagerly when I told her this. “They had it and it’s even better looking in person. I think we should definitely get it for the baby. Do you want to order it now and we can store it until the house is done? Tank said we’re on track for it to be done in two months.”
“No, I want to wait until I’m past twelve weeks.”
“Is there a reason why you want to wait? What’s significant about twelve weeks?”
“Because that’s when it is most common for a woman to miscarry. I feel like if we do it sooner, it’ll jinx something,” she told me hesitantly.
“Baby, nothing is going to happen to our baby. But if you want to wait, we’ll wait. It’s only another week and a half. Now, before I have to go to church, do you need me to get you anything? How about a drink or something to eat?” She agreed to ice water and juice. I hurried to get it from the kitchen. I should put a small fridge in our room so she’d have drinks and snacks closer. As I went to grab her both drinks, Tate and Alex came up to me. Both looked like they had been banged all to hell and back.
“Is she okay?” Tate asked anxiously.
“She seems fine. A cut on her head and a headache. What about you guys?”
“We’re fine, Rebel. We’re so fucking sorry. We never saw him coming. He was waiting in a hidden drive. Came flying out of nowhere,” Alex said. I held up my hand.
“I get it. Don’t worry. We can talk more after church. I’m glad no one got seriously hurt. I need to get her these drinks. I’m hoping she’ll nap while we’re in church.” They both nodded and backed off.
Back in our room, I got her settled down to try and nap. There was a knock and Jocelyn came into the room. She shooed me away. I kissed Madisen again before leaving to go to church. When I got inside the room, most of the guys were already seated. The rest were right behind me. Bull quickly called it to order.
“We all know why we’re here. Thankfully, Tate, Alex, Joker, and Madisen weren’t seriously hurt, but they could have been. Joker, tell us what happened.”
“We were on our way back from Mad’s doctor appointment. Rebel got caught in that accident on the highway and couldn’t make it back in time. Everything was going fine until we got outside of town and then this SUV with blacked-out windows came out of nowhere. It looked like it came from a hidden drive. It caused Alex, who was riding behind us, to veer off the road into a ditch. Tate was ahead of us. He turned around immediately. The SUV tapped the back end of ours, and it threw us into a spin. As I was fighting to get the car back under control, I heard gunshots. They were firing at our SUV. Of course, they had no idea it was bulletproof. When they realized that, they started to shoot at Tate. They took the hell off when me, Tate, Alex, and Madisen all returned fire on them. They headed like a bat out of hell back toward town. Tate wanted to go after them, but I was afraid they might have someone else waiting to ambush us. I just wanted to get her and them back to the compound to safety.”
I stood up. “What do you mean, Madisen returned fire? How the hell did she do that?”
“She lowered her window enough to shoot out of it. You know she always packs a gun. She’s the one who laid down enough cover fire to keep them off of Tate until he could get behind cover and start shooting. I was covering Alex who was still lying in the ditch at first. It all happened so damn fast.”
“Jesus Christ! You let my pregnant fiancée shoot at her attackers? What if she’d been shot?” I yelled. Bull gestured for me to sit down. I fought to get myself under control and sat down reluctantly. Joker threw his hands up in exasperation.
“I didn’t allow her to do shit! The woman whipped out her fucking gun like Annie Oakley and started shooting. You’d think this was an everyday occurrence for her. I have to admit, she was putting those shots right where they needed to be. They couldn’t continue to protect themselves and still shoot at us. When they realized it was a lost cause, they took off.”
I couldn’t believe it. She did it on her own, without a thought for herself or our baby. I’d be having a talk with her once we were done.
Bull cut into my thoughts. “How many were there? Did you or she recognize any of them? How about the vehicle? Any details? A license plate maybe, though it’s probably stolen.” Outlaw had his laptop out, typing away.
“I saw three guys. It was a black, newer model Denali. The plate number was NBA-111 and had a Tennessee license plate. Alex was the one to get that part. Madisen said she didn’t know any of them and neither did the rest of us. But if he’s hiring someone, it’s most likely someone from not around here. The way they acted, I think they’ve done this before, so not amateurs, but they weren’t prepared for us to be in a bulletproof vehicle or for all of us to be armed.”
Outlaw broke in, “I ran the plate earlier when Alex gave it to me. It was stolen from a pickup, so dead end there. As for the SUV, I caught it on a few cameras as it went back through town. It headed south on the 111. I’m checking other traffic cams to see if it went east or west on Interstate 40. That’ll take a little bit of time. I can’t do facial recognition with blacked-out windows. I called Smoke to see if he or Everly found out anything. He said they just got an alert. A contract was put out for Madisen yesterday. Not sure where he found this out at. The contract is for dead or alive, preferably alive. The identity of the one placing the contract isn’t known, yet. But whoever it is, he’s offering one hundred thousand dollars. That’s a lot of money. The good thing is, it’s not a fully open contract. They only opened it to two groups. Two MCs to be exact—the Devil’s Horsemen and the Demon’s Blood. Both have chapters here in Tennessee, North Carolina and Florida. Not sure if they did that because she’s with us or if the one paying has a connection to these MCs. Smoke said the funny thing about those two MCs is they all have connections to the Diaz Cartel out of Mexico. How in the hell, if it’s her stepdad, did he get involved with them? Do you think it’s only due to his time in prison or was he involved with them before he went in?”
Hearing that a hit was out on her and that two MCs and a cartel were involved made my heart sink and my stomach clench. Shit! We’d be lucky if we all made it out of this alive. I looked at Bull. He was staring at me.
“This is a game changer. I need to call and talk to Terror and the other presidents of our chapters and our affiliates. If it’s an all-out battle they want, then we’ll give it to them. I’ll see if the Souls, Punishers, and Marauders are willing to help. As of right now, we are on complete lockdown for all the women. No one leaves unless they have to and always in groups of no less than three. Rebel, that means Madisen can’t be at the bakery right now. She’s going to pitch a fit, but we can’t risk it. If she isn’t there, then the other ladies are not likely to be targets. Use that to persuade her. Outlaw, you keep searching and use Smoke and Everly and anyone else you need from the various chapters. I’ll make the calls. Rebel, go see your woman. Ace and I will tell Jocelyn and Devyn.” Everyone nodded and got up to leave. I sat there with my head in my hands.
I felt a hand land on my shoulder. I looked up into Bull’s sympathetic face. I shook my head. “How in the hell did it come to this? She’s one woman. I’m worried. We’re not likely to get out of this without some casualties. I don’t want to lose anyone, but I can’t let them take my woman and unborn baby.”
“Hell no, we won’t! Madisen and the baby are Warriors. We take care of our own. We’ve been up against badasses before. We’ll do everything we can to keep everyone safe. I’m going to reach out to the Dark Patriots and see what they know about the Diaz Cartel. Maybe they can help us with this. Sean and the guys have all kinds of dark special ops shit going on all the time.”
His willingness to talk to the Dark Patriots made me feel better. They were a group Terror and his club had befriended and had been a big help in the past. If anyone would know, it would be them. I thanked him and headed to our room. I eased open the door in case she was asleep. She was. Jocelyn tiptoed out and closed the door. I sat down beside her and watched her sleep. I couldn’t lose her or our baby. I wouldn’t be able to recover if something happened to them. I loved Madisen more than anything in the world. She was my world. I loved my brothers and the club, but they were second to her. She rolled over and blinked her sleepy eyes.
“Hey, honey. You’re back. Have you been here long?” I shook my head. She sat up. “What’s wrong? I can tell something is by your expression.”
“Why in the hell did you open the damn window and shoot back, Madisen? You and the baby could have been shot and killed. Did you even think about that?” I growled. I hadn’t intended to lead with this, but it just popped out of my mouth. She frowned and put a little distance between us on the bed. She was starting to look pissed. Her nostrils were flaring. Well, welcome to the party.
“I was thinking about saving Tate. It was a reflex, Ronan. You would have done the same thing. Hell, Joker lowered his window and returned fire. I didn’t roll it down all the way. I was careful. But I wasn’t going to let them fill the prospects full of holes! I’m sorry if that pisses you off, but too bad.” She rolled toward the other side of the bed like she was about to get up. I grabbed her, pulled her down, and straddled her body. She looked up at me in surprise.