Cross My Heart (The Devil's Riders 8.50)

Nick was buried between my thighs, making a feast of me, his fingers roaming from my hips and thighs to my nipples and back again.

I arched as a wave of pleasure overwhelmed me. I would have lifted off the bed but he held me down, working my body until I cried out for mercy.

And I told him I loved him, too. So fucking much.

I was still gasping for air when the barrage of texts came through. I mumbled for Nick to get my phone but he shook his head, mumbling ‘it’s mine’..

“Nope. It’s both of our phones,” he said, sitting up in bed and reaching for his phone. “It’s Sally. She’s in labor.”

“What? But it’s too soon!” I was up like a shot. I knew how long Sally had waited to get pregnant. She had been holding onto this baby for dear life. My heart was literally in my throat. “We have to go!”

“Okay, babe. I can let them know we will take first shift.”

“Is that alright?” I asked, belatedly realizing he hadn’t been taken care of. “I didn’t mean to leave you in the lurch.”

“I’m fine. And you are going to be too worried to enjoy yourself anyway. Right?”

I closed my eyes and nodded. When I opened them he was staring at me tenderly. He wasn’t mad or even disappointed. He was simply present.

“Thank you. For loving me the way that you do,” I said, pulling him in for a quick kiss. He brushed my hair away from my face when it was over and kissed my forehead.

“I couldn’t not love you if I tried. Not that I would ever want to try,” he said sweetly. “Better get dressed,” he said, his tone cheeky as he slapped my ass. “I’ll pack some snacks.”

“I forgot about dinner!” I gasped as I hurried to the closet. “I don’t think I put the leftovers away.”

“That’s okay babe, I got them.”

Somehow Nick took care of everything and got us on the road in less than five minutes. I told him he was magic and he beamed at me like a little boy who had been given a gold star. He loved praise, I realized. I determined to give him compliments more often. Then he drove us there, carefully but with his usual, just shy of hell for leather speed.

Lord only knew how fast he drove when I wasn’t in the car, or on the back of his ride.

When we got to the hospital, Kaylie and Devlin were already there. Everyone looked tense, but forced smiles and joviality. No one wanted to risk saying our worst fears aloud. Just like with Janet, it felt like bad luck. And that was something we simply could not afford.

We settled into the waiting room and held hands.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Jack

“Did you hear?”

I nodded, quietly closing the door to the kid’s rooms one by one. I had just put everyone to bed, including my wife. I scowled at her. She was standing in the hallway in her nubby old bathrobe, one arm against the wall to hold her up. She had started doing that recently. She didn’t think I noticed, but I did.

“You’re supposed to be resting.”

“Jack...” She rolled her beautiful turquoise eyes at me. “Sally needs me.”

“No, she doesn’t. And with the chemo you can’t go to the hospital.”

“I’ll wear a mask,” she said. But I knew I had scored a point. Her immune system was compromised. She was not going to that hospital.

I just shook my head and lifted her up, carrying her back to bed like a little doll. I hated that she felt somehow smaller than she had just a few months ago. She was losing weight. But it was more than that.

Her bones were smaller.

It felt like she was disappearing.

“I’ll make you some tea. Or would you drink some broth?” I asked hopefully. Feeding my wife was my only real job these days. Everything else I could do in my sleep. But fattening her up? That was everything. Nothing else mattered other than keeping the kids alive and relatively intact. She needed every pound. Every calorie. The chemo was really kicking her cute little butt.

And we’d gotten some bad news that afternoon. We hadn’t talked about it. Couldn’t really think about it.

No one knew yet. Not the kids. Not our crew.

My wife’s cancer had not retreated as much as they hoped. They couldn’t say that it had grown. They couldn’t say anything at all.

The word the doctor had used was ‘inconclusive’.

I’d wanted to hurt someone in that moment. I wouldn’t. I was reformed man from my wild, ass kicking days.

But part of me wanted to reach through the phone and strangle the otherwise very nice doctor. The doctor I had learned to hate. The doctor I had learned to fear.

It wasn’t her fault. I was sure she was a nice lady. She didn’t make Janet sick. That was just a twist of fate. A cellular malfunction. It was nobodies fault.