Claimed By The Devil (Devil's Riders 8)

She knocked and then opened a door. It wasn’t an exam room. It was a room with a desk. The doctor’s private office.

Another bad sign.

The sexy redhead was tense. She was expecting the doctor. But when she turned her head, she had to look up. Way, way up.

“Jack,” she stammered. For once in her life, my badass wife looked scared. Not scared of me. Never me. But our being here together made it all sink in. It made it real.

For both of us.

I slipped into the seat beside her and took her hand without a word. Her hand felt clammy in mine. My wife never broke a sweat except when she was dancing. The woman could juggle all five of our kids, a thriving business, and my cranky ass, all at once.

It sent a bolt of fear right to the pit of my stomach. I hid my reaction, though. She needed my strength right now, not my utter fucking terror of losing her.

Don’t go there, Jack. Not yet. Not ever.

I felt her tense beside me when the door clicked open. The doctor smiled as he took the seat across from us. The smile was friendly but also sympathetic. Apologetic. I felt the floor drop out from under me.

“So, we don’t have excellent news. Something is going on. But we aren’t sure what it is yet. We’d like to schedule a needle biopsy for next week. Sooner than that, if we can manage it.”

“Is there a rush?”

“It’s always best to get ahead of these things as quickly as possible if we can.”

“By these things, you mean cancer,” Janet said. It wasn’t a question. The doctor nodded anyway.

“Yes. That is what we suspect. But it’s way too soon to tell.”

My wife’s hand turned icy in mine and relaxed. I took a quick look at her. She was calm. Perfectly calm. Like a sailor staring down a storm that was almost guaranteed to capsize their boat. Like a solider preparing for battle. Like a wife and mother, preparing herself for the fight of her life.

That’s when I realized that the shit had truly hit the fan. I wanted to fall apart. I couldn’t do that, though. Not even for a second. I couldn’t make her take care of me. I would handle my shit. I had to. I didn’t want her to have to prop me up emotionally on top of everything else.

I squeezed her hand and she looked at me. I nodded. She nodded.

That’s when I knew that we had this. We didn’t have a choice.

We would get through it together, come hell or high water.

Chapter Forty-Five

Nick

"Drake did a good job," Melissa said tentatively. She was nervous. I hid a smile. She was right to be nervous. Not that I'd ever hurt her, but I definitely had another spanking in mind.

“He might not seem like it all the time, but he's a good dude," I said. "He's loyal."

"Of course, he is," she said, running her hand over the velvety nose of her horse. "all your friends are good guys."

"Not all of them," I growled. "Stay away from Jersey Mike."

“What? Why?"

"I didn't like the way he was looking at you."

She gave me a funny look and went back to feeding the horses. I went back to repairing a few things around the tack room. We worked in companionable silence for a while. It was almost time for lunch. And then we would take a break during the hottest part of the day. I had a lot of plans of what to do with that early afternoon sun.

The first thing on the agenda was definitely a spanking. If I needed to use a firm hand with her, I would. Gladly. I would be more than fucking happy to make her ass jiggle.

My girl needed some discipline now and then to make her see the light. She was young. It was my responsibility.

Never mind how fucking hard my cock got at the thought of pulling her panties down to her knees.

“What is all this?” a soft voice said from behind me. I turned to see her staring in awe at the shelves I had built. I was only about halfway done, but the tack room was really starting to take shape.

“I thought it was time to fix up some stuff around here. The house, too.”

“You . . . did all this? When?”

“Off and on over the past few weeks. I just hung the shelves a few days ago.”

“How did I not notice?”

“Sweetheart, you’ve had a lot on your plate,” I said, coming to kiss her. “Speaking of plates, it’s time for lunch.”

And your spanking, I thought with a twist of my lips. Plus, whatever comes after.

We went back to the house to eat. Lunch was cold chicken and macaroni salad. We washed it all down with iced tea. We spent a little time talking about where I was with paying off the property's debt. And then we talked about some of the improvements I wanted to make to the house and the stables.