“I want you to meet someone, Vada.” Piper smiles before looking at me. “This is Saint.”
The little girl looks up at me with hopeful eyes. Thick silence falling between all of us, Piper senses my unease and glances back to the girl.
“Why don’t you go get your things,” she tells Vada. She nods and runs off into one of the garages.
“Piper, that girl.” I hesitate, not knowing how to say what I’m going to say. I squat, getting in her eyesight. “The men have been raping the women, probably the girls, seeing there’s a pregnant pre-teen.”
“If they’re pregnant, then why did Candy want my baby?” she asks herself, and my eyes widen.
“Is that why she was keeping you, to keep the baby?” My tone callous. I’m not trying to be mean to her, it’s the thought of someone kidnapping a pregnant woman just to keep the baby. It’s shit you hear about on the news, not something that actually happens to you.
Piper solemnly nods.
“Probably because you’re a Devil. Candy has been obsessed with the club since I knew her,” Shadow informs, coming up from behind us.
Piper shakes her head, and I have to swallow a few times to keep from puking. I wondered why Rad hadn’t reached out for a ransom or anything, turns out they were going to take my child and only God knows what they would do with Piper after.
“Vada is coming with us. I can’t save them all, but I promised her.” Piper’s eyes begin to fill with tears. “If it weren’t for her… I’d still...” She chokes, and it kills me. I pull her to me, resting my chin on her head.
“Okay baby. We will take her with us. We’ll figure something it out.” I tell her, the smell of her matching the old house.
Big Chief walks up to us from one of the garages, his face pale “What about the rest of them?”
I look to the men.
“If we let the guys go, they’re just going to keep doing what they’ve been doing,” I tell the group. “Kill the men,” Piper whispers against my chest. “Every one of them.”
I kiss her redhead, not just hearing the Devil in her voice for the first time but feeling it.
“You got it, babe.”
“Then we need to get the fuck out of here,” Zane says with force. Because sure enough, the cops won’t be far behind us.
12
Piper
Holding onto Saint tightly, we pull into the clubhouse parking lot. He didn’t want me to ride on the bike with him, but I wasn’t waiting around for a truck to pick me up. I wanted to be with Saint, and I wasn’t having it any other way.
He parks his bike and I begin to tear up. I didn’t think I would ever see the club again.
He gets off first and then helps me off. I smile at how he’s treating me like a china doll. It’s a different feeling considering Candy and them treated me like a dog.
The doors to the club swing open and Delilah comes running out squealing. Her brown hair everywhere, she runs into me, hugging me so hard around the neck I grab at her back and cry harder on her shoulder.
“You bitch, don’t you ever do this to me again!” she sobs. Holding on to me, I never want to let her go. I missed the smell of her, her bitchy voice, just everything about her.
We take a step apart, trying to pull ourselves together.
“I never stopped looking for you,” she tells me, and tears just keep coming down my cheeks. She looks down at my stomach. “Oh my God, you’re beautiful. You’re fucking glowing!” she says loudly, making me laugh.
Red hair catches my eye by the club, it’s my mom. I gasp, quickly slapping my hand over my mouth. She’s alive.
“Mom!” Hands outstretched, I walk to her quickly, and she hugs me tightly.
“Oh God, Piper,” she mutters, pulling me into her tightly. “I missed you so much,” she whispers.
“I thought you were dead.” I cry into her neck.
“It takes more than a bullet to keep me away from my family, baby,” she replies arrogantly, but that is what I love about her. She holds me at arm’s length away. Her red hair, and gray eyes bringing me home. She’s so beautiful I hope I look like her at that age.
“Tell me you stayed strong, tell me you never doubted us saving you for a second, Piper.”
My bottom lip trembles, I was weak at times but in the end. I stepped out of my comfort zone and told myself “I got this.” In the end.
“Let’s just say they didn’t break me,” I simplify.
Her eyes fall to my belly.
“Well, you’re the most beautiful pregnant woman I’ve seen.” Her eyes fill with tears before looking back up to me.
“Lip hasn’t even had a chance to kick Saint’s ass, we’ve been so busy trying to find you.” We both laugh.
“He can try,” Saint smarts from behind me, and I roll my eyes. He wraps his arms around me, kissing the side of my head. I lean into him, never wanting him to let go.
Addie and Doc come out of the club next, and I smile in their direction. Bobby’s girls, a family of blondes, but they don’t live up to the stereotype. They’re very classy and smart.
“Addie,” I whisper. She takes both of my hands into hers and looks me over.
“It’s true, you’re a mom!” She laughs, looking at my baby bump. Doc steps up next to her, resting her chin on Addie’s shoulder. “We really need to get you to the hospital, check you and the baby over, get some fluids in you.”
Scratching my head, I give a light-hearted laugh. I agree, I probably could be seen, but I really just want to be home for a minute. I want to lay in bed with Saint and believe this isn’t a dream.
“Can we tomorrow?” I look to Saint. “I really just want to be home with you.”
Saint’s chest rises as he thinks about the question. I can tell he wants me to go to the hospital too, but a conflicting gleam in his eye has my brows furrow.
“What do you think, Shadow?” Saint asks, looking to his side where Shadow stands with Dani watching the reunion.
“She doesn’t seem to be hurt or in distress, I think it would be good to wait until tomorrow. Rad is missing, so it gives us time to set up a game plan,” he informs everyone, and I feel the breath woosh from my lungs. Rad is missing.
Now I don’t want to leave the club at all.
“He could be dead,” I tell everyone. “I hurt him pretty badly.”
“I don’t think we’re that lucky,” Zane says on an exhale. “But his degenerate ass will show up, I guarantee it.”
“Then I’ll snap his neck.” Saint growls, his hands around me tightening.
Swallowing all I can think is, “Not if I get to him first.”
Saint
Inside the club, I take Piper back to her room. It’s just the two of us. I sit on the bed, and she moves in between my legs. Resting my head on her belly, my hands on her hips, we relish in the silence. I have my woman and my baby back home, safe and alive.
“I missed you so fucking much, Piper,” I tell her. Her fingers run through my hair.
“I thought about you all the time. Every second, every minute, every hour, of every day,” she confesses, hooking her claws right into my fucking heart. I’ve never had anyone like Piper in my life. She came in fearless and set my soul on fire. It cannot burn without her; I cannot live without her.