Athena's Raid: Book Two Perdition MC (16 page)

On it
.

Which to her meant that he was in the process of ordering the chair. So preemptively, she sent him her design specifications, in such detail that like she’d known he would, he gave over Stone’s information and told her it was already paid for. Stone, must have been told not to take her money, because she tried to pay for it, tried to go halfsies. No dice. “Sweetness, just tell me what you want, and I’ll make it. Your man has you covered.” He told her, his voice competing for Number One Sexiest Voice In the History of Sexy Voices. But seeing as how Raid was currently the score holder there, she’d made a new category, just for Stone. Number One Sexiest Phone Voice In the History of Sexy Phone Voices. He could have been a phone sex operator, and made millions by the end of his first week, he was that good, just speaking normal, every day words.

Ever whacked her with a stalk of dried Rosemary to get her attention, shaking her head because she’d wandered off in thought again. “No, no extra special sex this morning. I’m just…I’m happy.” Never Ever Land now was host to
Athena’s Apothecary
, and as fast as she could make her candles, and tinctures, and oils, they were being bought up. In bulk by Ripley, who couldn’t keep her stuff on the shelves at her little spot at
Vintage Glamour
. It was not a bad problem to have. “Well that’s fine, but this is not run of the mill happy. You’re not pregnant, right? Top cursed me and told me that babies come in threes, and I’m on number two. So for the love of god, you better be, or find me someone else to pass the curse onto.”

Ever was seven months along now, sassy and beautiful as ever, and it made her a little sad. She’d never know what that felt like, baking another human being inside her body. And for the most part, she was good with that. She’d never lose her girly figure, though Ever didn’t seem to be losing anything but her temper these days. Never get stretchmarks or have wacky post baby issues. “Sorry, no. I can’t,”

“Can’t what?”

“Have kids.”

Unlike most people, Ever didn’t tell her she was sorry. She was curious, not in a mean or malicious sort of way, and there was no pity. Not a single shred. Made it almost too easy to share, not having to worry that Ever would be uncomfortable hearing about it, or making her uncomfortable to tell it. “How’d that happen?” She hummed, using the nifty little tool Raid had ordered for her on a whim that stripped the leaves off of anything, by pulling the herb stalk through the appropriate sized hole. It was awesome. He’d been so thoughtful lately. “Freak accident when I was a kid, driver in front of us hadn’t properly fastened down a bunch of rebar in the back of his pick up. A piece of it came through the windshield, nailed me right in the gut, the car flipped when my dad tried to avoid the rest. Lost my parents and my uterus in one fell swoop, the doctors did a partial hysterectomy.” Still no pity. “That really fucking sucks. But, wait. You mean to tell me, you’ve never had your period. Ever?”

That got her to laugh, the outrage in her tone, the look of stark jealousy on her face. Perspective. It was all about the perspective. “Nope.” Ever winced and put a hand to her belly, grumbling under her breath about breakdancing in utero. “I’m going to get fixed after this one, partial hysterectomy sounds nice. No more periods, or babies.” She scoffed and listed all the complications and side effects, “It’d be easier for Roar to get his tubes tied. They’re all pretty much on the outside of his body.”

“Yeah right. You even mention cutting his body open in the general area of his balls, and he starts yelling.”

“Make it his idea. I know you know how, I’ve seen you do it.”

“Kind of a different deal, getting my house and this workroom built versus surgical procedures on his balls.”

“Tell him you made the appointment for after the baby’s born. Leave some research lying around, the papers that talk about side effects. The higher risk of cervical cancer, loss of sexual desire, pain during intercourse, hair loss, weight gain. Things like that. He’ll go running for the doctor’s office, just on the off chance he’d never get to have sex with you again.”

Ever slanted her a sideways look and pensively narrowed her eyes, quiet for a full minute before waving the stalk of rosemary like a wand and proclaiming to the room, “You, are evil. I knew we’d be besties.” She laughed on and off for a while after that, and Ever reminded her she still hadn’t told her what was with all the dreamy sighing. “Raid came home last week with an owl tattooed across his chest. After I got the one he designed for me.” She explained, Ever having blinked at her with lack of understanding plain on her face, tattoos were a way of life with bikers, so of course she wouldn’t get the significance. “Wait, you said you were just getting a tattoo. He
branded
you? Bitch! Why didn’t you say that in the first place? We’d have celebrated. Lemme see!”

There wasn’t anyone around, so she lifted her shirt, and her bra up a little to show Ever the gorgeous tattoo that circled her ribs. The locket between her breasts. Ever shared her awe at the beauty of it, “What are these?” She asked, her fingertips brushing over the flower petals, “Geraniums, Raid remembered that this gradient color blend was my favorite. The candles and paper I sent him in the hospital were all scented with Geranium and Rosewood.” Ever looked up from touching the edge of one of the flowers, her expression totally melting into a content, understanding smile. “Happy.” And she said it like she got it. “Yeah. It’s so cliché,” She said, letting her shirt drop back down, “I mean what are the odds of this happening, send a stranger a letter, stranger gets inspired to risk life threatening surgery, overcomes paralysis, hunts down the woman who wrote him the letters, falls for her, begins to live happily ever after?”

Ever hummed helping her to tie up bundles of herbs from the nursery to hang from the drying racks. The workroom had turned out perfectly. Greenhouse meets Practical Magic solarium. It was a large octagonal building, with massive skylights that could be shaded to block the light, or opened to vent the steam and smoke from her formulating process. Long tables with every tool she needed, a stainless steel countertop, a dishwasher to sterilize her tools, gorgeous antique shelves and armoires to hold all her herbs and bits of wax, spaced to sit in between the big floor to ceiling windows that let her look out on the nursery around her. Or would let patrons stop and watch her making candles. She loved it. Ever hadn’t asked her what she’d want or need, it was like she’d pulled it straight from her thoughts. “It is abnormal, but so was me actually falling in love with Roar. Or him being a great father. He’s a pussy magnet, and a partier. He’s still fairly wild and crazy, but it worked out. So tell me about Raid’s owl, why’d it hit you so hard?”

She told Ever about how he’d saved the seals off her letters and boxes to him, how he’d memorized each one and the corresponding letter it came from. And when she showed Ever the surprise she’d made for him, her eyes welled up and she clicked her tongue in annoyance to play it down. “Now I’m pissed that Raid is more awesome than my husband.”

“The fuck he is!” They both jumped at Roar’s boom coming through an open window, she nearly dropped Raid’s present in an effort to hide it, just in case he was with his brother, but a quick peek revealed that the ungodly hot man was accompanied only by his son, whom he had strapped to his muscle packed chest with a black carrier. Like he’d spontaneously grown a clone from his chest. Lyon was kicking his little legs eagerly, his curly blonde hair recently cut in a cute little baby Mohawk. “Uh, did you get a brand with my name on it, plastered across your chest for all to see?” Ever drawled, throwing a hunk of dirt at his head, which he dodged with ease while using his big hands to shield the baby. “Watch it! You’ll hit the kid and get him all dirty.”

She had to bite down on her lips to keep from cackling at him, but Ever had no such problem, “He poop yet?” Roar blinked, then glanced down at his son suspiciously, “No…”

“I’d think you would prefer dirt, to poop.” Roar huffed, patting Lyon on the chest with enough love to make a
whomp
, sound. “Hold it in, son. Hold it in. You made Raid get your brand?” He said, topic changing back to why Raid was the better brother, “Made him? No. He decided to do it all on his own.”

“Wait till the rest of the brothers hear about this,” He got his phone out, no doubt intending to text the whole crew, but Ever interrupted him. “Was there a reason you came up here? I thought you were working in the house.”

“Oh, right. One of the hippie fuckers came up to the house, wanting to know where to set up the drum circle. He didn’t take me seriously when I told him he could set it up in the seventh circle of hell,”

“Roar!”

“What? I told you I wasn’t going to be nice. It’s a stupid idea, and it’s gonna keep the kid up all fuckin night, and I lost the damn bet so I’m the one who’ll have to stay up with him, listening to some spindly little fucker whacking off on his drums.”

“It isn’t a stupid idea! They like the energy around here, and positive vibes make the plants grow.”

“Woman, I swear to god, if you start trying to make me eat kale, or granola-“

“You’ll what?”

She laughed while the two of them walked off, hand in hand, still bickering. It was cute. The wind blew gently, bringing in the scent of fertilizer, flowers and herbs, honey from the infusions she was making, the tinkling of the wind chimes and the soft ringing of the bells hung around the nursery, creating the most awesome working environment she’d ever experienced. It was getting hotter in the afternoon, and since no one was really around, she took her shirt off and pinned her hair up, moving along with the tribal music playing on her Deva Premal Pandora station. Things were just falling into place. Denny’s bullshit aside, she felt like she belonged here, like this was home. A lot of that had to do with Raid, but the rest was how well she fit into things, like Never Ever Land, and
Vintage Glamour
, it just was right. Easy almost. “Home,” She sighed, happier than she’d been in a long time.

TWENTY SIX

He came blasting down the driveway at Ever’s place, so fucking mad he could barely contain himself. He threw his hand up when Roar called out to him, having come out at the sound of his pipes coming up the lane, and stomped out to the studio. Any other time, the space would have chilled him out. But not today. Not right fucking now. He’d thought that anyway, until he stomped around the corner and got a good whiff of something he knew Athena was responsible for creating. Shit smelled like tranquility, but he wasn’t in the mood to be tranquil, he was in the mood to skull fuck a certain dickhead. He did slow his roll and stand there watching his woman move around in her workspace, a happy smile on her face. Bitch blew him away with how downright gorgeous she was.

She’d piled all her hair up on top of her head with a flower child headband, was glistening with sweat, wearing nothing but a dark green sports bra and a long gauzy gypsy skirt. He could see almost all of her brand, draped around her ribcage so beautifully; Frankie really had outdone himself on the detail of it. Her hips were rolling this way and that, fuckin belly dancing while she mixed her herbs and stuff up, bouncing and rolling as she moved over, dumping them into the big pot she used to make candles. He just stared, every cell in his body loving her, half thinking he could keep shit to himself and let her have the rest of today with that smile on her face.

Cruncher ruined the quiet retreat he’d intended to make, by appearing out of nowhere and racing up to him to bark gleefully in greeting. Practically doing backflips of joy, “Jesus! Cruncher! Behave or else you don’t get to play with Squatch anymore. He’s teaching you such bad habits, freaking dingbat.” She was smiling at him when he looked up, coming towards him all gorgeous and sweaty, eyes bright with how happy she was. But one good look at his face, and he watched that fuckin light dim. But she didn’t stop coming. She reached out, her hands smelling strongly of that tranquil, calming aroma and she cupped his jaw, brushing her thumb over his cheek. Even that threatened to calm him down, just her touch on his face, but god damnit, he didn’t want to be calm! “What happened?”

“House got broken into.”

He’d expected some fear, a little hint of it at least after how she’d reacted when her ex had shown up at their place with no warning. But she didn’t give him anything but anger, and upset, “How bad?” Bad enough. He was an idiot for not getting on top of the alarm system, and camera set up. Nasa had been busy working on a job with Pen, hunting down the fuckers that had killed Pike and Susan, and he’d thought Dickhead Denny was smart enough to stay away from them, what with being on record and under investigation. Clearly, he’d miscalculated the fucker’s intelligence. “Bad enough. Broke some shit, tossed everything like he was looking for something. Piled our clothes on the bed and poured bleach all over it, probably would have lit it on fire if he hadn’t heard my pipes and took off. Swear to god, I just missed that piece of shit by minutes.  Took my mother fuckin pouch that had my seals in it, just for that, he’s gonna bleed.”