Duke: Fallen MC #1 (21 page)

His attention quickly turned back to the woman in his arms, who was stroking the stubble on his jaw and cheeks watching the events unfold. It felt so good to have her hands back on him. He closed his eyes and absorbed the sensation, reminding himself that he hadn’t lost her. Opening his eyes, he let his gaze roam over the delicate features of her face. Her stunning green eyes still shone bright through all the dirt and grime that soiled her skin. He lowered his head to kiss her. Her soft lips yielding under his was one of the best feelings he ever experienced. It soon turned heated when Nicole thrust her tongue past his lips, into his mouth. He responded in kind and embraced their connection again. He could never get enough of her. His dick started to respond, now wasn’t the time, so he reluctantly broke their kiss and instantly mourned the loss.

“I love you, Duke. I knew you’d find me.” She whispered against his neck. He let himself sink into the contentment of hearing her say the best words he’d ever heard.

It had been four weeks since her kidnapping and Nicole was now on permanent bed rest, much to Duke’s amusement and delight. Before her doctor insisting on bed rest, Duke had shadowed her every move upon returning to the compound. He made sure to be in front of her when going down the stairs and behind whenever she went up. That was okay, but everything else soon became irritating, graduating to rage inducing the more he persisted. Even worse, if he wasn’t there, one of the brothers would be and despite her requests for space, they never veered from the task Duke set them. She loved having him nearby but she’d didn’t want him attached to her twenty four hours a day, especially when she was using the bathroom. Her complaints fell on deaf ears, so in the end she took to imagining he wasn’t there.

Her bump was so big that she was never comfortable and everyones consoling comments were grating on her nerves. Duke was being sweet, considering he was taking the brunt of her frustrations. She still had nightmares about being trapped in that cell, but as time went by they were getting better and far less frequent. She tried not to wake Duke when she had one, he got so angry when he knew she’d had a nightmare. He still blamed himself for not doing more, even though he did all he could.

The mess with Riot MC was still going on with small incidents here and there, yet nothing serious happened. It appeared that some of the Riot members had gone rogue and Fallen were trying to hunt them down. A rogue biker with vengeance in mind was not to be taken lightly. Duke wouldn’t tell her anything, he just told her not to worry and ignored the indignant look she threw at him. Any information she got was from Shel and Jewel, and she suspected they knew more than they were letting on too.

Lying in bed, she took her eyes away from the large flat screen TV that Duke had installed at the foot of their bed to keep her entertained and looked at the new, improved layout of their bedroom. The whole apartment had been cleaned top to bottom and repainted. Of course, she was holed up in Slam’s room while they worked as Duke was uber paranoid about toxic fumes, even though every paint he’d purchased was advertised to be safe. There was a large wooden sleigh crib, stained dark blue, pushed against the wall to the right of their bed. On the left, a new counter and cupboards had been fitted. This was for all the baby stuff and they had a lot of it.

A single baby took up a lot of space but Nicole and Duke were on a whole other level. They had three of everything. Swings, Moses baskets, bouncers, play mats, car seats and three times the diapers to store. Bottles lined the top with three separate bottle warmers and sterilisers waiting to be used. The crib was a gift from Razor and was gorgeous. She couldn’t wait to see the boys asleep in it. Its liners were a light blue cotton and the mobiles that hung above it had little motorcycles and footballs hanging from them. Luckily, Shel and Jewel had helped her add soft touches or her boys would be surrounded with leather and chrome studs, if the men around here had their way. They only needed one crib for now as the doctor told them that multiple babies are much more settled if they sleep together, they miss each other if they don’t. She thought that was adorable. Duke was more pleased that he wouldn’t have to knock down the wall separating the bedroom from the family room to make space for more cribs.

Nicole adjusted the pillows behind her back, it was really protesting today, twinging like hell. She put it down to being excited and restless. Duke should be back any minute from a run, it would be his last for a while. For that, she was very thankful. She couldn’t help but worry when he was gone. It had only been three days but she missed him like crazy, even with his thirty or so calls a day.

She heard the rumble of tail pipes in the distance. She wanted to leap from the bed and welcome Duke home, but if she was getting out of bed for anything right now, it would be to pee. Slam had even offered to give her a catheter, she was up and down that much. A few days ago Duke had joked that he had to keep switching up his arms when pulling her out of bed, he was afraid that one would get significantly bigger than the other if he didn’t. He said he ‘hadn’t had to worry about that since he was teenager’ and wiggled his eyebrows. Nicole pretended to gag when he said that. Sure enough they both ended up laughing for several minutes, which just made her need to pee more urgent.

The door to the apartment opened. A huge smile spread on her face. It dropped when she saw Razor instead of Duke.

“Well, sister-in-law, it’s nice to see you too.” He smirked.

“Sorry, I thought you might be Duke. I just heard them pull in. You know I’m always glad to see you.”

“Yeah, he should be up any minute. There was some damage to the gate, they’re just checking it out first.” He sat beside her on the bed and started flipping through the TV channels.

“Hey, you shouldn’t be calling me sister-in-law. I’m an old lady not a wife.”

“Yet. Probably should get my nephews out before you start shopping for a dress though.” He patted her gigantic bump.

Nicole flushed with pleasure at the idea of marrying Duke. Maybe this was a good sign that it would happen. She wondered if Duke had spoken to him about it. She didn’t want a different last name than her sons. She knew that she had Duke for life without a wedding, but a big part of her still wanted her day. Everything would be perfect then. If it never happened, she would still be happy. Her life was already a thousand times better than she ever imagined it would be.

“You ever think you’ll get hitched, Razor?” He’d gotten pretty protective of one of the dancers, Chloe, from Riot’s strip joint. He’d met her when they were searching for her after being kidnapped. Apparently, Razor rescued Chloe from some awful situation but he refused to talk about it and always changed the subject if it was brought up.

“Nah. There’s that saying. What is it again? Oh yeah. A woman marries a man in the hopes that he will change, but he doesn’t. A man marries a woman in the hopes that she’ll never change, but she does. That shit ain’t for me.” Nicole rolled her eyes.

“You just wait. One of these days the right lady will come along and you’ll be eating those words.” Now Razor rolled his eyes.

“I wouldn’t hold your breath, Nic.”

Suddenly, the distinctive pop of gunfire rolled through the air. Razor sprung up from beside her and bolted for the apartment door. Every part of her was pressing to follow him. She wanted to scream. Duke was out there. She started taking deep breaths to calm herself down. It would take more than a few bullets to stop Duke from coming back to her. Now, only if she really believed that. A crippling pain charged through her abdomen and back like lightning. Nicole braced herself against the pain just as she felt something burst. Water flooded the bed from between her legs. Her waters had broke. She let out a mighty scream as the pain got worse.

Duke had just pulled into the lot at the side of the compound. He was desperate to see his Nicole. It had only been three days but it was three days too long. Hanging his helmet on his bike bars, he quickly walked over to Prez and Hollywood, who like him were heading towards the compound’s gate. It had taken an age to open and new scratches indicated that it had been tampered with. He dropped to the ground behind a low wall as a bullet pinged off the gate. It had been far too close for comfort. The brothers around him dove for cover. Fuck, they were being shot at. The gate must have been a set up to draw them out. He was pissed that it had worked.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his brother run out from the main building. Fucker should be with Nicole. He spotted one of the shooters, took aim and only managed to tag his arm before having to take cover again. The sound of guns firing around him was almost deafening. He couldn’t find a target. Every fibre of his being roared to take these fuckers out. The wall he was behind was at an odd angle and was obscuring his view. He had to move which was seriously risky surrounded by all this gun fire.

He spotted Slam, elbow crawling across the yard towards a partially hidden, frantic, Jewel. Someone must have been hit and made it into the building. He didn’t allow his mind to wander to who it could be. It was at times like this he wished he had taken that arms deal a while back with a disgruntled soldier. He didn’t as the club didn’t deal in weapons but a grenade would have come in pretty handy right about now.

After a few minutes, the gun fire became more sporadic before it stopped all together. He slowly rose from his position and saw his brothers doing the same. He did a visual check and only two brothers seemed to be wounded. Given the circumstance, that wasn’t too bad but still pissed him off. They looked to be only flesh wounds. Slam would be able to handle them. He helped Hollywood carry one of the heavily injured Riot rogues to an outhouse before jogging to the main building. He was going to need a shot from the bar before he saw Nicole. He was too on edge. That idea flew from his mind when he heard a blood curdling scream echo down the hallway as he entered. He sprinted to his apartment, knowing instinctively that it was Nicole.

He stormed through his apartment to the bedroom and stopped in his tracks at the sight that greeted him. Nicole was propped up in the middle of the bed, her legs apart and knees pulled up. She was bright red and panting while sweat poured from her forehead. Slam was between her legs, Shel was to Nicole’s right having the shit squeezed out of her hand and Jewel was frozen near the bathroom door, as pale as the towels she was holding. His brain seemed to kick in before anyone had noticed he was there. Nicole was in labour. He needed to get her to a hospital and fast. The c-section wasn’t scheduled for another two weeks. Nicole and the babies were in danger. Duke ran to her side.

“Baby, I’m here. Breathe. Everything’s going to be ok. I’m gonna get you to a hospital.” Nicole was frantically nodding at him, then started grunting and moaning. Her chin was tucked into her chest and the grip she had on his hand astounded him. He would never have thought she had that kind of strength.

“There’s gonna be no time for that, Duke. The first baby is crowning. On your next contraction, Nic, give me a big push.” Slam sounded calm and in control but the way he was sweating contradicted that.

Duke wanted to give in to his panic. Seeing Nicole in pain was horrendous and he couldn’t even help her. This situation, for a man, was the definition of helplessness. She smiled at him and it spread across her face as a grimace. She was trying to comfort him. For fucks sake, he needed to pull himself together.

“Duke, get the bands!” She yelled out as another contraction took hold.

Oh yeah. He ran for the drawer they were in and tore them from their boxes. Back beside Nicole, he grabbed the damp cloth from Shel’s hand and wiped her forehead. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. They were meant to be in an operating room with real doctors and nurses, no pain for Nicole and just excitedly watching as their sons were brought into the world. This felt manic. Everything was happening so fast.

Razor swaggered in. “All’s clear in the yard now….. What the fuck is going on?” Duke realised his brother was a moron.

“Nicole’s in labour, you stupid shit. If the yards clear, call a fucking ambulance!” He was relieved to know it was safe to move her now. Nicole grabbed his neck and pulled him in for a wet kiss. He threw himself wholeheartedly into it. This was his woman, they were about to become a family. She tore her mouth away and started to scream as another contraction ripped through her tiny body. Her fingernails cut into the nape of his neck, he could feel the sting on his skin. He would let her inflict as much damage on him as she wanted. She was doing all the hard work. He wished he could take the burden from her, but he couldn’t. The least he could do was get them all safely to the hospital.

“Ambulance is five minutes out.” Razor yelled above the ensuing madness.

“Make sure the fucking gate is open and no one’s bikes are blocking the door. We’re gonna be moving quickly. Go wait for them and lead them up here.” Duke shouted over Nicole’s screams. Razor ran from the apartment.

“The head is out!” Duke looked down and saw the cutest little smushed face with a head full of black hair. He tried not to focus on the other stuff. He felt a bit queasy seeing it. He’d never live it down if he passed out or threw up. “Okay, Nic, one more big push on you’re next contraction for his shoulders and you’re first son will be here.” He definitely owed Slam a drink after all this. Hell, he’d probably owe him a new bike.

“Duke!” He whipped his focus back to Nicole. She looked exhausted and frantic. “I can’t do this two more times. I just can’t!”

“You can and you will, baby. Me and our boys need you to be strong. I know you can do this.” A new determination set on her face.

“I love you.” They were still the sweetest words he’d ever heard.

“I love you too. You’re my life.” He’d never said anything more true.

Pain like she’d never felt before burned all through her centre as another contraction built. She stared into Duke’s eyes. Letting the warm brown calm her as best it could. A new wave of pain, akin to a machete slicing through her came. She squeezed her eyes closed and pushed with all her might. Suddenly, the pressure eased. Her eyes opened to see their tiny baby boy being quickly wiped down and rubbed by Slam. A small cry sprung from her baby’s mouth and her whole body sagged in relief. She glanced at Duke to see him transfixed on the baby. Silent tears were falling down his cheeks.