Gravel (MC Biker Romance) (5 page)

Mary Jane was engaging and charismatic.
During our hour long drive into town, she told stories of her youth, stories
about the house in which we were staying and stories about her grandmother.

 
In the 1950s, Mary Jane’s grandparents
purchased this house and a few acres of land. Her grandfather had wanted to
farm the land, but her grandmother had always dreamed of having an orchard and
a little English garden. Mary Jane’s grandfather designated a portion of the
land to give his wife a gorgeous garden and planted apple, pear, and peach
trees all along the driveway for shade and to give his wife the orchard she so
wanted.

“He was always big on function, which is
why many of the rooms inside the house served dual purposes and were designed
with utility in mind,” Mary Jane explained. “I’m sure you’ve noticed some of
the kooky characteristics of that old place.”

“Yeah, I have. I was a little
creeped
out our first night.”

“Oh, don’t be,” Mary
Jane
insisted. “That’s silly. It’s just a very different kind of house.”

Mary Jane’s father was an only child, and
after her grandfather had passed and her grandmother became ill, he moved into
the acreage to help take care of his mother.

“He was used to being a spoiled only
child and eventually drained his mother’s bank accounts dry. As her illness
grew worse and the medical bills were piling up, he took to gambling and
hanging out with the wrong crowds to pay their debts,” Mary Jane sighed. “It
was a downward spiral from there.”

“That’s terrible. I’m so sorry.”

“I assure you, I am of his blood, but I
do not approve of the things he did,” Mary Jane promised. “I was raised by my
mother and stepfather. I was close to my grandparents, but not really my
father. He had his inner demons to battle, so he couldn’t be the father I
needed. That’s what my mother always told me anyway. Sorry. I’m rambling aren’t
I?”

By now we were seated in the waiting room
of Geneva County Hospital. The front desk clerk handed me a clipboard and asked
me to complete a stack of paperwork. As I got to the address section, I
realized I had no clue where we lived, let alone what our address was.

“I feel so silly, but we just moved here
the other day and I can’t seem to remember our address,” I lied to Mary Jane.
The truth was, I never knew our address to begin with.

“1573 285
^th
Avenue,
Hartsfield, South Dakota,” Mary Jane replied instantaneously.

I completed the paperwork and gave the
clipboard back to the clerk. “Do you know how much longer it will be?” Tuck
fussed as he clung onto my hip. “He’s still burning up.”

“Soon,” the middle-aged clerk enunciated
behind thick-rimmed glasses. “Please have a seat and we will call your name when
we are ready for you, Ms. Decker.”

“Did you hear her?” I said to Mary Jane
as I sat back down.

“I did. She was a little condescending to
you. I don’t like that,” Mary Jane scooted towards the end of her seat, like
she was going to get up. “I want to say something to her.”

“No, please, don’t. I don’t like to cause
a scene.”

“Don’t let people talk to you that way.
You asked a simple question and she gave you attitude. Not cool in my book.” Mary
Jane sat back in her seat. “I won’t say anything.”

“Tuck Decker,” a nurse called from behind
swinging doors.

“I’ll be right here when you get out,” Mary
Jane promised, grabbing a magazine from the table next to her.

Mary Jane Sweet was, quite possibly, an
angel.

The knock on the door the next morning
startled me awake. I’d fallen asleep in the sofa that night with Tuck in my
arms, waiting for his fever to finally go down. I rolled him off me and tiptoed
to the back door to see who was there.

On the other side stood Mary Jane, all
prim and proper, holding a basket of something. She seemed harmless enough, and
she’d practically saved Tuck’s life the night before.

Ash would’ve killed me for it, but I
swung the door open anyway. “Hi, Mary Jane!”

“Marina!” she said, her red lips
spreading into a sweet smile. “I hope it’s okay that I just popped by like
this. I brought Tuck some cookies for when he’s feeling better.”

“Aw, you didn’t have to do that,” I said
as I took the basket from her arm. I took a step back and motioned for her to
come in. “He’s still asleep.”

“Oh, okay,” she whispered. “I’ll try to
keep my voice down.”

“Did you want to look around the place?”
I offered. I felt like I owed her something for helping me.

“If that’s okay?” she bit her lip and
shrugged her shoulders.

“Be my guest,” I replied. I stayed close
behind her, thinking in the back of my mind that at any moment something crazy
was going to happen. But nothing happened. All she did was rattle of story
after story about her grandparents’ house and all the things she did there as a
little girl. I inwardly sighed, relieved that she was seemingly harmless.

“Thanks again for helping me last night,”
I said as we wrapped up the tour.

“Oh, sweetie, anytime,” she said as she
rubbed my arm. “Let me give you my number in case you need anything else. I’m
about an hour away, but I’ll come running if you need anything.”

“Oh, wow, thank you,” I said.

“I just really appreciate how you and
your husband have taken such great care of this home,” she said, her eyes getting
misty. “It really means a lot to me.”

“Of course,” I smiled. I didn’t dare tell
her why I was really there and that it wasn’t our house.

“Where is your husband anyway?” she asked
as she playfully peeked around the room. “I haven’t met the guy yet.”

“He’s at work right now,” I said, leaving
it at that. “He’ll be home later. Maybe we can have you by for supper some
night.”

“I would just love that!” she cried out
as she clasped her manicured hands together. She took a few steps to the door
before turning around. “I forgot to give you my number.”

She reached into her Chanel handbag and
pulled out a scrap of paper and a pen before scribbling down her number for me.

“See you soon!” she waved and smiled and
with that she was gone.

***

“I’m home,” Ash yelled Friday night as he
came bursting through the door. Six days felt like eternity, and I all week I’d
been dreaming of wrapping myself up in his giant arms the second I saw him
again.

“Daddy’s home!” I cheered as I walked
towards the door with Tuck on my hip.

Ash kissed us both and wrapped his strong
arms around us.

Ash tugged off his leather jacket and sat
it down on the back of a chair before reaching out for Tuck.

“We missed you,” I said as I rubbed his
muscled and tatted arm. Ink-
slinged
marks with the club’s
emblem and Tuck and I’s initials covered every inch of his upper arms and back.
Joining the club changed him, and in a lot of ways, he felt like he owed his
life to them. He was a latch key kid, abandoned by his father and his mother, a
hardworking single mom, didn’t know the first thing about properly raising
someone like him.

“I need to get Mr. Tucker to bed,” I said
as I reached out for him. “I let him stay up late tonight so he could see you.”

Tuck rubbed his eyes and climbed back
into my arms as I carried him to his bed. When I’d returned, Ash was resting
with his feet up on the scratchy plaid sofa. His tired eyes closed and his
hands folded on his stomach.

“Tired?” I asked as I climbed over him.
We always loved
laying
side by side on the couch
together.

His eyes fluttered a bit and his hands
slid over to my hip and then up the bottom of my shirt.

“Apparently you’re not that tired,” I
giggled.

His hands grasped the meat of my breasts
and his five o’clock shadow tickled my neck as his lips pressed hot kisses into
my skin.

“God, I’ve missed you,” he sighed. A sexy
growl rasped underneath his tone.

“Me too,” I whispered. “I hate being
apart.”

His hands worked to unfasten my jeans and
he tugged them down with a fierce, animalistic hunger. He climbed up and
unbuckled his belt, revealing his massive hardness, which was fully loaded and
ready to go. He positioned himself between my legs and inserted the tip slowly
before hungrily jamming his cock inside me.

I cried out and he covered my mouth in an
effort to stifle the loudness. “
Shh
.
Don’t
wake up Tuck.”

He plunged himself deep inside me,
slipping a finger into my mouth, which I sucked and toyed with. His blue eyes
never left mine while we made love. My fingers dug into the thick skin of his
muscled back when all of a sudden I screamed out in pain.

“What? What?” Ash asked. His eyes were
wide with concern as he pulled himself out of me.

Deep and merciless cramps filled my lower
abdomen, and it seemed to have come from nowhere. I still hadn’t told him I was
pregnant. “I don’t feel well.”

“You don’t feel well?” he asked,
confused. His eyes studied mine for the truth. “We were just…you seemed fine a
minute ago…”

“Can we do this another time?” I asked,
trying to hide the tears that were welling in my eyes. The idea of yet another
miscarriage filled my mind. This would be the third one, and it never got any
easier.

I stood up and began to put my clothes
back on, hiding my face from Ash all the while. I could feel his eyes on me,
studying me, trying to read between the lines. And maybe he knew, but he knew
not to talk to me about it until I was ready.

“Let me fix you a sandwich,” I said,
trying to put a shred of normalcy back into the moment. I trudged off to the
kitchen to try to clear my mind and make my man a bite to eat. As I whipped out
the bread and meat, I spun around to grab a knife from the drawer and saw Ash
standing in the doorway with his arms folded, watching me. “I’m fine, Ash.”

He walked in and took a seat at the
island while I plated his food. “You know you can talk to me.”

He knew. He had to know. He knew me too
well to not know.

“So what’s the latest?” I asked, trying
to change the subject. “Where are we at with all of this? When do we get to
leave and go back home.
”

Ash sat up and cleared his throat, a look
of seriousness spreading across his face. “Well, we’re working to counter the
hit that was put on you and Tuck. We have to send a message to the Cottonmouths.”

“So there was a hit,” I said. I knew it
was assumed, but I never knew it was a for sure thing.

Ash swallowed a lump in his throat and
looked down at his plate. “Yeah.”

“Great,” I said, not trying to hide the
sarcastic tone in my voice.

“I promise you, Marina, you and Tuck will
be fine,” he said. He still hadn’t even touched his sandwich. “This is why you
guys are here. You’re safer here than anywhere else.”

“
Who’s
house is
this anyway?” I asked. “I feel like I’m in the dark all the time.”

“It belongs to the uncle of another club
member. He’s been trying to sell it for years, but no one wants it because it’s
in the middle of nowhere,” Ash said. “People don’t even know it exists.”

“That’s both terrifying and comforting at
the same time,” I huffed. “What’s with all the safety and security equipment?”