Riding Him (Ghost Riders MC Book 5) (8 page)

“
W
hat are you doing
?” My sister Vanessa leans over in the passenger seat, trying to look at my phone. I’ve been staring down at it for the past five minutes instead of leaving the grocery store parking lot. We were supposed to be back at Mom and Dad’s twenty minutes ago to cook for Mother’s Day, but I haven’t been able to get a hold of Knox for the past three hours, and it’s starting to really piss me off.

Something is up with him, and I’m wondering if he knows and he’s freaking out. There’s something I’ve been keeping from him. I wanted to wait for Mother’s Day. I felt it was fitting, and I could tell everyone at once.

Since I brought Knox home, he’s become a Cassano. One of us. He’d even taken my name when we got married. It wasn’t normal and it shocked me at first when the subject came up. But when we got hitched years ago, he made the decision.

He said my family has been better to him than his own had ever been, and that he’d be honored to carry my name if I let him. He said he’d want our children, when we had them, to have that name. Everyone got a little choked up, even Cas. My sisters all turned to a pile of goo, and even I fought like hell to stop the tears from flowing.

I thought this was something that he wanted. Hell, when I’d gone to the doctor months ago to get my new birth control shot, I was told I didn’t have an appointment. After the third time it happened, I knew it was Knox canceling them. He’d actually hacked into the system and canceled my appointments.

That seemed like he was on baby board, if you ask me, but over the past week he’s been randomly falling off the grid. What the fuck is he up to, and who with?

“You know this place?” I show my sister my phone. It’s a map of Knox’s location on my iPhone tracker. I have it on satellite so I can actually see the building he’s in. Looks like just a bunch of new office spaces.

“I know the new center that was built, but I’m not sure of all the businesses that have been set up there.”

I pull the phone back, debating what to do.

Knox has never given me a reason to question him, but this is driving me nuts. I’m blaming it on the pregnancy hormones.

“Violet,” Vanessa says in warning.

“Well, why the fuck isn’t he answering his phone?” I snap back.

She grins evilly. “Let’s go spy,” she says. “We’ll just, like, drive by. Park right across the street or something.”

“Okay,” I agree, like I’m down with her idea and I wasn’t already going to go there.

“We don’t even have spy stuff.” She starts digging around in the truck like she might find some as I pull out of the parking lot.

“Bingo.” She produces a pair of sunglasses and slides them on.

“Oh yeah, no one will ever know it’s you now,” I tell her, but she doesn’t seem to care. She’s just happy to have the giant sunglasses.

“Whose are these?” she asks, taking my rearview mirror for her own usage. They clearly aren’t mine. They are giant and have freaking pink diamonds on the side.

“Probably Valerie or Victoria.”

“They’re mine now.” She says it with a smirk on her face. You’d think at this age the three of them wouldn’t be fighting over clothes, but here they are still doing it.

“Wait, what are you doing! We have to hide, not pull right in!” Vanessa explodes.

“Right.” I throw the truck into park. “Stay here,” I tell her as I exit, slamming my door behind me. I see Knox’s chopper sitting outside, and I have to resist kicking it. Even with my sister carrying on in the car, my mind has been whirring with possibilities. What is he doing here? Why?

Feelings of jealousy that I’d never felt bear down on me. I keep telling myself it’s irrational, but here they are. I know this can’t be club shit or I’d know about it. So then what the hell is it? Never has Knox cleared my phone call.

I push open the door, and the bell sounds.

The office is pink. All the walls are covered in a soft pink, and different kinds of chandeliers hang from the ceiling. Three desks with computers sit there, and written on the back wall is, “Perfect Match”.

Is this like a fucking dating match-up place? I see red just as Knox comes out from the back. He stops when he sees me.

I’d always thought if something like this ever happened, I’d be on him. That I’d be cutting his dick off like I always joked, but for the first time in my life all I want to do is run. Maybe vomit.

“Baby?” He starts coming towards me, but I don’t want him to touch me.

I turn and bolt for the door.

I almost make it to the truck before I’m spun around by Knox. I swing, and he dodges it, grabbing both my arms and pinning me to my truck, his big body caging me in.

“Don’t play rough here, baby. I can’t fuck you in this parking lot. Save that shit for the bedroom.” His tone is teasing, and he leans down, kissing between my ear and neck. I jerk against him.

“I’m going to show you rough, you cheating bastard.”

Knox pulls back, looking down at me. The horn of my truck goes off, and Knox’s face goes hard.

“Who’s in the truck, Violet?”

“None of your business,” I snap at him.

“Baby, I can’t be going to prison for murdering someone in the broad light of day, so there better not be a man in that truck.”

“I’m more than okay with you going to prison, you cheating asshole. That way I don’t have to kill you, and I know you can’t be giving out your dick in prison,” I throw back at him. “You are pretty though, so you might take a couple.”

Knox ignores my words, picks me up by my hips, and turns, placing me behind him before flinging open the driver side door.

“You’re terrible at this spy stuff, Violet,” I hear my sister say. All the tension in Knox’s body drains away.

I poke my head around Knox to see my sister. “You honked the horn. That’s real spy-like.”

“It was a distraction! Like a…a…a diversion!” she defends.

“Is everything all right?” I turn around to see an older woman standing in the doorway of the mystery office. She’s smiling at us.

Knox just shuts the door on Vanessa, grabs my hand, and pulls me back towards the door.

“Hey, stop.” I yank on my hand, but he doesn’t let go. He just keeps walking. I have to run to keep up with him.

“Oh, you brought her!” The older woman gets all excited when we get closer. It’s like she knows who I am. “I hope you like everything I’ve come up with.”

“Mrs. Ware, this is my wife, Violet.” The woman reaches out to grab my hand at Knox’s introduction. I shake her hand and just stand there dumbly.

“Can you give us a moment?” Knox asks her.

She nods. “I’ll be in the back. Just bring her in and show her when you’re ready,” she says before turning and going back into the office.

Knox doesn’t waste time dropping down to his knees in front of me. His hand goes to my hips.

“I was going to surprise you at the barbecue this afternoon, but I should have known you’d catch me.” He smiles when he says it. “I don’t like that you thought I might be fucking around, but hell, it turns me the fuck on to see you still get so worked up over me.”

“What’s going on? Why haven’t you answered your phone?”

He looks at me in confusion and reaches to his side clip where he keeps his phone.

“Fuck, baby, I’m sorry. I must have accidently put it on silent.”

“Oh,” I say as I feel the heat hit my cheeks. I’m a little embarrassed that I went crazy. This place is clearly not what I thought it was.

“Oh,” he repeats and laughs. “She’s a designer, and I’ve been having her do some stuff.” He leans in, kissing my stomach over my T-shirt. “For the baby.”

“You know?”

“Yeah, I know.” Now he’s full-on smiling.

“Do you know it's twins?”

His head drops forward, resting on my belly, before he looks back up at me. I swear I can see tears in his eyes.

“See, that’s what happens when you make me wait five years to knock you up. I got so excited I put two in there.”

I burst out laughing.

Knox stands and cups my face, bringing me in for a tender and sweet kiss.

“Come on, let’s go in here and let me show you your first Mother’s Day present. And we need to tell Mrs. Ware we’re going to need two of everything.”

“
T
his place looks
like a freaking daycare,” Pres says, taking a sip of his beer as he sits down across from me. His eyes are fixed on his wife, who is plating up food for some of the kids.

When his gaze comes back to me, he’s smiling.

I just shrug. I like it like this. No more crazy jobs or runs. Hasn’t been in a few years. We run a tight ship, making sure people stay out of our area. Leave us alone and we’ll leave you alone. It’s quiet, and we plan to keep it that way. Just running the range and mechanic shop. Nothing like a horde of kids to put your life into perspective. To show you what you really want in life.

Most of us had spent years having to watch our backs. It’s not something we want to do anymore.

“Look who’s up, Daddy.” Violet comes walking down the stairs, holding hands with both Emma and Evan. I stand up and make my way over to them. I meet them at the bottom of the stairs, and Emma launches herself at me. I catch her and bring her up for a kiss.

She looks just like her mother. She has a full head of hair, and though she’s only two it’s already halfway down her back. Emma cuddles up to me.

“I’m taking Evan to get something to eat.” Violet picks him up with a grunt. The kid isn’t small. He came out almost ten pounds, while Emma was only five.

I lean in and kiss my wife. She’d dozed off with them, too. I went up to check on them about an hour ago and there they were, all cuddled up on my bed. Violet and Evan both wrapped around Emma. Even at two, Evan is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to his sister. Poor girl is never going to be able to date between her mom, me, and her brother.

“You want anything?” Violet asks.

“No, baby. Get him a plate, then come sit down and I’ll make you one.”

I watch her stroll off, and I make my way back over to sit down. Cas is now sitting next to Pres, her daughter in her lap. Cas is pulling the little girl’s hair into a ponytail. I sit down next to them.

Emma lets go of my neck and sits up, trying to get her cousin’s attention.

“Who’d have thought we’d marry a brother and sister?” I ask her. She looks over at me, smiling.

“I could never shake you,” she teases. Both Cas and I never had much of a family. It’s why we latched on so hard to the Ghost Riders, and now we have a whole other family, one we both belong to and love.

“Like you’d want to shake me,” I tease her back. We are the closet out of everyone as we spent a lot of time together on missions.

“Now we’re really family.” She runs her hand down her daughter’s dark ponytail. We are.

“Always have been, MacKenzie.” I use her real name, and she looks over at me.

“I know.”

Soon Savage is joining us, sitting down with two kids in his lap. They quickly jump off to go play, and they’re quickly replaced by his pregnant wife.

“Julie, are you ever not pregnant?” I ask with a laugh.

“Not if he can help it.”

Savage just grunts and puts his hands on her belly. She leans back, resting her head on him. Savage’s deadly face softens.

I just shake my head and look around as Violet comes over and takes a seat on my lap and puts Emma in hers. I kiss her neck, wondering when she’s going to figure out she’s pregnant again.

I look around and take everything in, thinking about everything we’ve been through together.

Things we’ve lost and found along the way. The pain and happiness we’ve all had to endure. And I know I wouldn’t change one thing. Not one. Because I wouldn’t want to end anywhere but here. Sitting here with my family and the love of my life. What more could a man want?

Violet looks over and winks at me, and I give her one back. She’s still the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes on, and every day with her is better than the last. And every night when we lie down, I hold her close and remind her just how much I love her. Then she smiles and grabs my dick to remind me just the same, not with words, but by riding him.