20.

D UB

I looked up when I heard the front door open and smiled when I heard my sister’s heavy breathing as she hauled herself across the house to my workroom. I set aside the drawing of the pattern I’d been commissioned to make and leaned back in my chair to wait for her.

“William Kingstone!” Charlotte said as she walked into my office and pointed her finger at me. “I’ve got a bone to pick with you, mister.”

“Wanna sit down while you do it?” I asked, nodding toward the recliner in the corner.

Charlotte flopped onto the recliner and let out a long sigh. Her eyes closed as she laid her head back, and I hoped she might fall asleep so I could avoid the ass chewing I could tell was coming my way. My luck didn’t hold, though. Charlotte got her second wind and lifted her head to glare at me.

“What did I do now?”

“Why didn’t you call me?” Charlotte yelled.

“You were on vacation. There was no reason to bother you with what was going on here because it was all taken care of.”

“You should have called me, Dub!”

“And said what?”

“It’s been a week since Aleta disappeared, and you didn’t think that was something I might need to know? I would have gotten in touch with the sisters and let them know she’s on her way back to the compound. I should probably call them anyway just to . . .”

“Don’t call them.”

“I’m not their biggest fan either, but I think they at least deserve a heads-up that Hurricane Aleta is forming.”

“She’s not going back to the compound, Lottie.”

“But the girls said those men took her away. Who was chasing them anyway? I’d like to know whose face I need to picture the next time I’m splitting wood.”

“You only do that when you’re pissed anyway, so why do you need to use them as a target?”

“It’s therapeutic, and if I’m out there holding an axe, Si and the kids avoid me at all costs. Sometimes, when I just need a little time to myself, I go out back and pretend I’m chopping wood just so they’ll leave me alone.” Charlotte studied my face for a few seconds and then tilted her head with a look of curiosity before she asked, “What aren’t you telling me, Dub?”

“Aleta’s not going back to the compound.”

“Then where is she going?”

“She’s probably already there. We should just pretend she doesn’t exist and go on with our lives.”

“Where is she?”

“Somewhere warm. Really warm.”

“Did she go to the compound in Mexico?”

I coughed and looked away before I said, “It’s warmer than that.”

“Tell me what you’re hiding, Dub.”

“You should have gone into law enforcement, little sister.”

“Tell.Me.”

“Hopefully, she’s completely mortified while sitting in a room full of fornicators and heathens watching them have the orgy of all orgies while she waits on Satan to decide on her next punishment.” Charlotte’s mouth dropped open and stayed that way. Her eyes were blinking rapidly and she put her hand on her stomach as if to protect the baby inside from the information I’d just given her. I gave her almost a full minute before I asked, “Did I break you? Should I call Si?”

Charlotte shook off her daze and whispered, “She’s dead?”

“Obviously, we didn’t tell the girls, and we’re not telling anyone else either. All we know is that she took off and didn’t tell us where she was going.”

“Are you sure she’s dead?”

“I’m positive, Lottie.”

“No. I can’t let myself believe it.”

“Are you upset about it? You’ve gotta be kidding.”

“Did you sever the head, Dub? I’m serious. Sometimes, if you don’t dismember the body, the demon can bring itself back to life.”

“You’ve gotta stop reading horror books, sister.”

“She’s really gone?”

“Without a doubt, severed head or not.”

“You didn’t bury her on our property, did you? You know that sometimes the spirit can . . .”

“Charlotte . . .”

“What? How do you know it can’t happen? Do you have proof?”

“Hercules stomped on her until her pelvis was so flat that it was thinner than my patience is with this conversation we’re having right now. She was covered in blood and had all sorts of cuts and scrapes. It even looked like Charlie got a bite or two out of her.”

“So, it was painful?”

“I would assume,” I said, wondering how I’d never realized that my sister was this bloodthirsty.

“Holy shit.” Charlotte put her hand on her chest. “I feel like I can breathe easier. It’s like there was a huge weight lifted from my chest.”

“That’s kind of how I feel.”

“What about the girls?”

“Well, technically, I have a piece of paper giving me full custody that she signed before all of this happened. I gave her another offer a few days ago, and she accepted it. I was just waiting for her to sign off before I gave her the money.”

“Then why did she bring the men to . . .”

“I watched the video footage of the hours before all of that shit went down. Apparently, whoever she had been talking to was tired of getting the runaround, so their fearless leader sent some of his minions to retrieve his wives. ”

“You’re kidding.”

“Not at all.”

“What if he sends more men? What if he calls the authorities? What if . . .”

“How well do you really know Sin and her family?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“I’m serious. How well do you know them?”

“I’d say pretty well. I’ve known them since I came to Colorado Springs. They were instrumental in helping me get away and keeping me safe here. Freya and Sin helped me fill out all the paperwork to get social security numbers for me and the kids and . . .”

“But the rest of the family . . . like her brother Fain. How well do you know him?”

“Fairly well, I guess. We haven’t had a lot of interaction since he lives in Texas, but he’s pleasant when I see him.”

“Before Aleta died, Dice got some information about who she was taking the girls to. When Sarge suggested we pay the son of a bitch a visit and send him to the same level of hell as Aleta, Fain said that he knew someone who could do something even worse that would make his life a living hell and help him see the error of his ways.”

“That’s weird.”

“I know, right?”

“He made me promise to stay away from the fucker and trust that he’d take care of the situation.”

“Do you?”

“Oddly enough, yes. When he was telling me about this friend of his, Sway and Sobie started cracking up like he’d told a joke or something. When I asked them what was so funny, they were laughing too hard to respond.”

“What do you think he’s going to do?”

“I have no idea.”

“I, for one, am not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. If he thinks that whoever this person he’s talking about is scarier than the devil, then we’ll just have to trust that he’s right and roll with it.”

“You think so?”

“Absolutely. All that matters now is that she’s gone for good and the girls are safe from her toxic bullshit.”

“You’re right. I’m just going to let it go.”

“Good because we’ve got more important things to do now.”

“Yeah. I really need to get this . . .”

“No, I mean really important things.”

“Like what? This commission is worth a lot of money and . . .”

“I’m going to have a baby.”

“No shit?” I asked sarcastically.

“No, Dub. I’m going to have this baby.” Charlotte winced and closed her eyes as she took a deep breath in through her nose and then slowly blew it out through her mouth.

“You mean right now?” When Charlotte nodded, I felt lightheaded for a second, images of all the things that could happen and all the scenarios that I’d seen on television where the innocent bystander had to . . .

“Dub, you’re freaking out a little. I need you to focus and call Si, okay?”

“Okay, okay. I got it. I’ll do that. You just . . .”

“Make the call, Dub. Do it now.”

◆◆◆

“Oh my goodness! Look at her!” Elizabeth cooed as we watched Si holding up his new daughter behind the nursery window. “She’s perfect!”

“She is beautiful,” I agreed.

The last few hours had been a whirlwind of excitement and terror, at least on my part. Obviously, since my sister had already given birth five times, she handled it like a champ. Much better than Si and I did. We managed to get Charlotte in the truck while she barked orders at her older children as if she were a general on the battlefield. Once she was inside, strapped in for the ride to the hospital, she rolled the window down to call out more instructions about everything from whose turn it was to do the dishes to which casserole they should take out of the freezer.

Elizabeth was a hero, too, and insisted that she drive us to the hospital since Si and I were running around like chickens with our heads cut off. The ride was uneventful, if you considered that my sister who rarely ever cursed was saying words I didn’t even know the meaning of. Since my sister was easily carsick, she sat in the front with Elizabeth, which left me and Si to fret in the back seat.

That was especially true when I looked at the speedometer and clocked our speed at ninety-six miles per hour. When I said something about it, Elizabeth just laughed and yelled, “Raise hell and praise Dale!” She never slowed down for a second.

Once we arrived at the hospital and got Charlotte settled in a room while she waited on her doctor to arrive, I thought Elizabeth and I were free to leave. Little did I know that Charlotte had decided she wanted today’s excitement to be a family affair and expected me to stay by her bedside with Elizabeth to give her encouragement. Luckily, Charlotte let me leave the room seconds before they threw the sheet aside and she started pushing, so I was spared the trauma of seeing parts of my sister that I didn’t ever need to see.

But Elizabeth stayed right by her side. From the hallway, I could hear her encouraging words and almost feel the strength she was giving to Charlotte. I heard her exclamation of joy right before my new niece’s first bellow.

“I want one, Dub. No. Two,” Elizabeth whispered, bringing me out of my traumatized musings about the day. “Maybe three, but we’re not getting any younger, so we’ll just have to see what happens.”

“Are you going to marry me first?”

“I was waiting for you to propose, even though you did introduce me to your friends as your fiancée.”

“ Our friends who are all coming back to see you before they head to their respective homes?”

“I do like them a little,” Elizabeth admitted.

“Wait until you meet more of the guys. There are a few who might throw you for a loop, but they’ll all be around now and then, and they will most definitely come in for the wedding.”

“We’re not having a big thing, are we?”

“What do you want to do?”

“Right now, I want to go check on your sister, hold your niece, and remind myself that I need to wait a few more months before I get pregnant. Then, I want to take you home and practice making babies.”

“I don’t know about the few months part, but I’m definitely down for the rest.”

“The Conners have almost finished the new kennel, and I’m going to ask them about adding on to my house.”

“To add more bedrooms?”

“Yes.Two.”

“So that’s what we’re going with? Two children?”

“No, we’ve already got two, and I hope to have two more.”

“Any chance you can do some magic and pop out another set of twins?” I asked without thinking.

“Wouldn’t that be perfect?”

“I think it would.”

“You know, I owe everything that’s good in my life to Sway and Sobie.”

“How so?”

“I barely remember what life was like before I was kidnapped, but after, it became all about survival. When I got pregnant, it was about protecting the life inside of me, and then, after I had them, it focused on recovering and finding my new normal. When they were hurt, that forced me to jump out of my comfort zone and drive to Colorado to see them. After that, life got easier. I took the bull by the horns and learned how to be strong and survive anything life threw at me, but when it threw the biggest loop ever, it was Sway and Sobie who helped me out of my hiding spot, again , and they led me back to you.”

“Maybe they could share godfather duties to our children.”

Elizabeth’s eyes welled with fresh tears, and she gave me a watery smile before she said, “I think that would be wonderful.”

“We’re gonna have to talk about all this happy crying you’ve done lately, Karen. I don’t know how I can live with someone who is so prone to waterworks.”

“Well, Kevin, let’s just say that if you call me out every time I’m emotional, I’ll make sure not to cry over your shallow grave.”

“Holy shit!” I sputtered. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Elizabeth tiptoed up and gave me a kiss before she said, “Let’s go have a quick visit with Charlotte and the baby before we go home and make sure that none of the other children have burned the house down.”

“Margaret is a Charlotte-in-training, so you know that hasn’t happened.”

“But we’ll still check, and then we’ll take our girls home, and I’ll have them help me start getting everything ready for the guys to come back through.”

“You know that they don’t expect you to do anything special for them, right?”

“They’ve been sleeping God knows where for the last week, surrounded by a bunch of loud and crazy bikers. I’ve seen pictures and videos. I know about Sturgis.”

I laughed as I shook my head. “No, baby. Pictures and videos don’t do it justice at all.”

“They’re gonna be tired and hungry for some home-cooking. I can help them with both of those things before they take off for the great beyond.”

“The great beyond?”

“All of your closest friends are spread out everywhere. I have a feeling they’ll pop in and out occasionally, but I feel like these guys will always be my favorites.”

“Could be, but you haven’t met Ajax. All the ladies love him.”

“Well, not this one because I love you.”

“You’ll meet Sugar in a few months when we deliver the horses to his girls.”

“I’m excited about that trip. I’ve never been to Montana.”

“There are a lot of trees . . .”

“Pfft. I can handle anything.”

“I know you can, Karen, but I’m just warning you.”

“You know what we can do to pass the time on the drive to see your friend?”

“What’s that?”

“Plan our wedding. There are so many decisions to be made like which colors we’ll use and . . .”

“Is it going to be a fancy wedding or . . .?” I let my voice trail off as I tried to think of how to nicely beg her not to make me wear a tuxedo, but as usual, Elizabeth surprised me.

“Well, between all the bikers you know and the bikers I know, I think it’s going to have to be a blowout party rather than a stuffy affair, don’t you?”

“I like how you’re thinking. Besides, you did promise the girls that they’d never have to wear a dress again if they didn’t want to.”

“I guess it’s settled then. We’ll tell everyone we know to set up tents and RVs in the field so we can have one helluva shindig.”

“You couldn’t be more perfect for me if you tried.”