Monster Slayers MC Book 3

Last night had been my turn to have my mind blown by the way Annalisa made love to me with her hands, her mouth and then with her body. She was losing her shy inhibitions with me and gave as good as she got. She was becoming more confident and wasn’t afraid to ask if I wanted something more or different and gave it to me if I said yes or made a suggestion. We made love for hours and while we tried to be quiet, we weren’t always successful but amazingly enough, Carmella slept through it all.

The next morning, she woke us up chanting “Mum, mum, mum!” As she jumped up and down in her crib.

“Oh, lord, what were we thinking to stay up half the night? And ooooohhhhh, I have muscles that I forgot about now.” Annalisa said as she began to roll off the bed.

“Stay here baby. I’ll get her.” I told her as I threw the sheet off of myself and walked over to the dresser for a pair of boxers. I pulled them on and walked behind the screen. Carmella saw me, smiled and held up her little arms and said “Da da!” and made “give me” fingers at me. I froze on the spot and smiled at the darling little girl as my heart pounded in my chest.

“Good morning, my princess.” I said as I bent and picked her up. She was wet so I rubbed my nose to hers and said “let’s get you dry first and then we’ll go find Mommy, okay?” I stripped off her onesie and changed her diaper then found her a dry t-shirt and pulled it over her head. I picked her up and turned to find Annalisa watching us with a big smile on her face.

As soon as Carmella saw her she held out her arms and said “Mommy!” as I walked towards Annalisa.

“Did you hear her?” I asked in a soft voice.

“Yes. How do you feel about that?” Annalisa asked hesitantly.

“She just won my heart for sure. I’ll be proud to accept her as my daughter. How do you feel about it?” I asked, unsure if she was going to agree.

“I was hoping you would. I mean, if we work out, I was kind of hoping you would want to adopt her as your own but I wasn’t going to say anything about it until we are sure where we are going between us first.” Annalisa said.

“Baby, I already know where I want us to go together. I want you forever, not just for the time we spent together last night, although that was great. You two have come to mean a great deal to me this past week.........” I was saying but was interrupted by a knock on the door.

I handed Carmella to Annalisa and answered the door. It was Hulk and he said “Breakfast is ready and the rest of us are ready to go so shake a leg and let’s get going. Oh and tell Annalisa the ladies are waiting for her downstairs. Dixie is anxious to get going and says they have lots to do today.”

“Okay, we’ll be down in a few. We just have to get dressed.” I told him and he winked and grinned at me before he walked away.

I turned and told Annalisa “Can we continue this conversation later this evening? Everyone is waiting on us.”

“Sure.” Annalisa said and turned to go finish getting Carmella ready to go downstairs.

“Mommy, juice?” Carmella asked.

“Okay, baby but we’re going to go eat breakfast in a few minutes so just a little bit.” Annalisa said and filled a sippy cup with half a cup of juice and gave it to the baby before she put her in the playpen. She quickly stripped the wet sheet off her crib, wiped the vinyl mattress with a disinfectant wipe and put a new one on before going to get dressed. She pulled on one of her shift dresses and slid her feet into sandals then went to brush her teeth and her hair. She tied her long black locks up into a ponytail, applied some lip gloss then came back into the bedroom just as I finished tying up my boots.

She quickly made up Carmella’s diaper bag with everything the ladies would need for the day to watch her daughter while she was out. I could tell she was nervous about leaving her with people she barely knew but I reassured her that Kaylee was a nurse and Marley and Charlie were both mothers and would be able to handle her daughter.

“I’ll be here or just 20 minutes away in town. They have our numbers if they need us. Don’t worry, she’ll be fine.” I told her and she nodded but I noticed that she held Carmella extra close to her as we walked down the hall to the stairs. We went down and had breakfast. As soon as we were done eating, the ladies loaded up into the car and left on their shopping trip and Hulk and I left for town on our bikes. Carmella seemed happy to stay and play with the other children.

We checked out the things that Rooster had asked us to check on which was just how Mac was doing on getting the pool hall back in order after the Cobra’s break in. He had been very upset that he had to close down for the time while repairs were being made since he wasn’t the most profitable business in town, he struggled to keep the payments up on the loan he had with the club and he was worried that this was going to set him back.

Hulk told him not to worry that Rooster had decided to let him skip this month’s payment because the trouble had been club related rather than anything to do with him. We had bought Mac’s club several years ago but he was trying to repay the purchase price so that he would be in total control again but since he struggled to make money on the business, there was little or no chance that was going to happen, since Mac was already over 60 years old. But at least it was a place for the town’s folk to go to for entertainment and since we had cleaned most of the riff raff out of town, it was a safe place for kids to come and play too.

We checked in at several businesses around town including our garage and with Ink at the tattoo shop. After lunch, Hulk and I rode over to a little shop that carried antiques and collectibles of all kinds in the hopes of finding something to hold the engagement rings. We wandered around, looking in the display cases but couldn’t find anything we thought would work and that the girls would like.

Finally the little old lady who ran the shop, Mrs. Gilbreath, finished up with a customer, a lady with a small boy that wanted to touch everything, came over and said “Goodness, he really kept me on my toes but thankfully they left with no damage today. She comes in here often so I hate to chase her away but I do wish she would find a sitter for him before she comes. She’s had to pay for broken items more than once, you would think she would learn a lesson but nope, she just keeps on bringing him.” She said without really directing her statements at us but more like muttering to herself.

“Now, what can I do to help you two?” She smiled her sweet smile at us.

“We’re looking for something to hold engagement rings with. We don’t want them to be exactly the same but very similar. Do you have any small jewelry boxes, that maybe play music or those eggs on a stand that open up? Or anything that you can think of that’s appropriate?” I told her.

“Oh, I love that idea! So you are going to propose to twin sisters?” She smiled widely.

“Best friends.” Hulk said with a sheepish grin.

“Oh that is so sweet. Now, let me think for a moment.” She said, tapping a finger to her chin. After a couple of minutes, she finally said “Follow me! I think I do have something you might like.”

Then she took off to the side of the store near the register where there was a curio cabinet with all kinds of figurines and small collectibles that were kept away from the chance that people could easily pocket them or small kids could touch and possibly break them. She opened the latch and reached inside and brought out the first one, a small round porcelain container.

She told us, “Now these may not look like anything extra special to you guys but these are hand painted Porcelain Limoges trinket boxes. Highly collectible keepsakes. The older they get the more valuable they become.”

The first one said “With Love” on the top surrounded by pretty colorful flowers. When she opened it, it had “XOXO” on the bottom of the inside.

Then she reached back in the curio cabinet and brought out another one. This one was about the same size that Hulk was looking at but instead of being colorful flowers, it was all done in shades of blue flowers and said “It does not matter where I am” and then she opened the top and it said “I am yours” and I knew this was the one for me.

“How much?” I asked, expecting the prices to be high but she completely blew my boots off when she said “$300.00 each”.

“Wow! I wasn’t prepared to pay that much. I mean, they are very pretty but that’s a lot of money for this tiny little box that will sit empty most of the time. Once I put the ring on her finger, I expect it to stay there.” I said, objecting to the price and Hulk agreed.

“Well, I took a chance. They really are worth the price to someone who collects them and I carry them only on consignment but that’s the price my clients are requesting.” Mrs. Gilbreath said.

“I understand but I’m sorry, as perfect as the saying on that thing is, I’m not willing to pay even half that price for something like that. I’ve got to save money to be able to buy and furnish a house too.” I explained to her.

“Oh, are you looking to buy a house too?” She asked.

“Yes, ma’am. My girlfriend has a little girl that’s only one and a half years old and she doesn’t want to raise her around the biker club and I agree. It’s no place to bring up little girls.” I told her.

“Well, how big a place are you looking for?” She asked.

“At least three bedrooms, two baths with a bit of land to it.” I replied.

“Well, my son has his place up for sale and it’s not far from your club house.” She told me. She gave me the address and while it was a street that I was not familiar with, I told her I’d drive by and look at it. We thanked her and she suggested we try the craft store down the street for ideas on ring boxes. We wished her a good afternoon and left the shop.

We got outside and I looked at Hulk. “Man searching for these ring boxes is harder than buying the rings themselves.” I said.

“Yeah. Those boxes were nice but that’s a lot of money to pay for something like that. Let’s try the craft store and see what they have.” Hulk said.

We drove down to the craft store and parked out front. People turned and looked surprised when we entered the shop, mainly because this was not a store they ever expected to see us in. It was a shop I had never expected to come into so we felt seriously out of place here.

The lady that ran the shop was a middle aged woman that looked like she had stepped right out of a story about the 60’s. She had bell bottom pants in wild colors, a tie-dyed shirt and beads woven into her long hair which was held in place by a leather strip around her head as a headband. There was a large peace symbol dangling from a heavy chain around her neck and woven bracelets on her left wrist.

She came up and asked us if we needed help and I told her what we were looking for. “Are you wanting to decorate them yourselves or looking for something already done?” She asked.

“Oh definitely already done. I can’t draw a straight line without a ruler.” I told her.

She smiled and said “I think I might have something you will like. She led us back to where she had a collection of trinket boxes on display. The little glass boxes were the perfect size but they were rather plain looking.

As we stood looking them over, I told her about visiting Mrs. Gilbreath down the street and about some of the little boxes she had had that while they were perfect for our needs, they were too expensive for our wallets.

“Ah, she showed you her Limoges collection! She does have some beautiful ones and while her prices are right on as to what they are worth, I’m sorry to say that in this town she’s going to get stuck with those things because no one here is going to be able to afford them. Now if she would create a website and take pictures, they would probably sell very quickly. Limoges is a fine way of making old fashioned porcelain pieces that was very popular a long time ago but not so much now.” She explained.

“Well, it was more the sentiment on the outside of one that was most appealing but I would have rather had a different picture on it.” I told her.

“I knew the minute I saw you, you have a creative mind. Perhaps you would like to take a blank box and create your own design? Personalizing something always makes it mean more.” She said and I couldn’t argue the point.

“If I could draw or paint and had the time, I might just take you up on that but we are planning on proposing Friday night.” I said.

“Well, what did the one you saw say?” she asked.

“It does not matter where I am” and then you open the lid and it said “I am yours”. It had pretty blue flowers painted on it which was nice but I think something with a motorbike on it would be more appropriate.” I told her and Hulk nodded in agreement with me.

“See you are creative and you have original ideas. How about I show you a way to get exactly what you want with very little, but some effort on your part?” She asked with a sly smile.

Hulk and I looked at each other and I could tell what he was thinking and I had to agree that we both wanted something that no one else would have, that came from us and us alone. So I turned back to her and said “We’re willing to look at what you have.” I told her.

She immediately turned away from the counter of small boxes and led us down a different aisle to where there were rows and rows of small packages hanging off of pegs with different sayings and across the aisle were more small packages of pictures of all kinds. Everything from Easter Eggs to a wide variety of flowers but what caught mine and Hulk’s attention were the pictures of motorbikes and biker symbols. The look on our faces when she saw us looking at them caused her to laugh.

“What do you expect when you live in the same town where there is such a large group of good looking bikers. I’ve been hoping for a long time that one of you would come into my shop and I would be able to show off what I have to maybe interest you in getting involved in crafting. We have supplies for almost every craft you can think of.” She said as she looked through the “sayings” that were hanging on the opposite wall until she came upon the one that Hulk decided to get.

We both ended up liking a picture of a Harley but wanted our sayings to be different. He chose a saying for the outside that said “Together as one, now and forever” and on the inside it would say “Will you marry me?”

I chose one that said “Hand in hand through life’s journey” and on the inside mine would say “I will always love you” on the lid and “Will you marry me?” on the bottom. We also chose some stickers that were meaningful or that seemed to call out to us and when we had them all, Maddie, the store owner, began to lead us back to where the trinket boxes were located when Hulk spotted some wooden boxes in various sizes.

“Hey, would these work on those?” He asked, pointing to the display of boxes.

“Sure. Wood just requires a different finish be applied.” she smiled at us and I got the distinct impression she had chosen this route on purpose.

I followed Hulk down the aisle as we looked over the different size boxes until we came upon some small toys carved out of wood and to our surprise there were some motorbikes and one even had a small trailer behind it.

“Oh perfect! I had totally forgotten about those.” Maddie said, trying to act innocent that she had “forgotten” about them.

“Cute but how would we hide the rings on them?” I asked.

“Well, the little trailer could hold your ring boxes?” Mattie said hopefully.

“Mattie, I figure by the time we leave your store we’re going to have to send for a truck to get it all home. We are trying to be discreet and keep it down to something we can carry in our pockets so I think for now, we may need to stick to our ring box idea but I will keep these in mind for another project.” I told her and she had to grin back at me but I saw the look of hopefulness about selling some of the little wooden toys leave her eyes.

Hulk had to agree with me but still looked longingly at the small motorbikes. “They might make good presents for the guys at Christmas. We could have them painted to match their bikes!” I told him quietly and saw his eyes light up. He nodded and we followed Mattie back to where the boxes were on display. We spent a few minutes looking them over and finally chose the ones we wanted and then Maddie led us over to a table to start getting them assembled.

To say that both Hulk and I felt out of place, sitting at the tables with a lot of mostly women getting ready to do crafts made us both feel silly and embarrassed but they all encouraged us warmly. With Mattie’s help, an hour later, I was finished and rather proud of myself at the way mine turned out.

One of the ladies offered to personalize the boxes by putting our names on the bottom of each box. I had watched her paint eyes, eyelashes, lips and fingernails of come delicate ceramic pieces that made the dolls look almost real. She had a delicate touch and I was sure she would do a nice job as I handed her my “masterpiece”. She put “Annalisa” and then under it she put “Property of Eagle”. I thanked her and then showed Hulk and he asked if she would do his as well and with a kind smile she held out her hand for his box. His had turned out nice as well and we were proud of ourselves.

Once the personalization was done, Mattie said “Okay, now the only thing left is to spray them with the finish. They will take a day to completely dry so you’ll have to come back tomorrow to pick them up. Okay?”

“What time do you open in the morning?” Hulk asked.

“We open at 9 am but we’re here until 6 pm.” Mattie said.

“Can you put them in a gift box so that in case we have to send someone for them, they won’t be able to see what they are?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’ll even put them in brown paper bags and staple them shut.” Mattie said.

“Hey, do you also have charcoal pencils and drawing paper? My girl is a fantastic artist and I’d like to get her some supplies.” I asked.

“Yes! I do. Come this way.” Mattie said and led me over to an aisle that had a variety of drawing paper books and sets of charcoal and colored pencils. She also had a whole section of paint supplies but that was something that I would have to bring Annalisa with me for since I had no clue even where to begin. I chose two different pads of paper and a nice set of colored pencils that included half a dozen charcoal pencils but I also got her a separate package of charcoal pencils.

We headed to the front of the store and were just paying for our purchases when our phones went off. “Church in 30.” The message was from Hunter and both of us looked at each other. “Something’s wrong.”

“Thanks for everything Mattie and we’ll see you again soon, I’m sure.” I said and grabbed my package and we hurried out of the store. I jammed my package in my saddle bag and we jumped on our bikes and high tailed it back to the compound. We parked and ran inside.

“What the hell is going on?” I asked.

“We got a message from the Cobra’s. They are not happy with us and have threatened to attack our compound. I’ve already contacted the girls to stay off the road until we can get men to go and escort them back. They are still in the city for now. They are at the mall in the food court so they should be safe until we get there.” Rooster told us. “Come on, we need to have Church to make everyone aware of what is going on and what we need to do to lock this place down.”

“Alright but let’s hurry this along. I want to go after my woman!” I told him and began walking to the meeting room.

Rooster yelled out “Church, NOW!” and followed us into the meeting room. “Somebody, bang on Circuit’s door and tell him to get his ass to church.”

Five minutes later, the room was overflowing because not only members were included in this meeting but also all of the prospects. Only the women would not be in here right now and that was only because of the children they were attending.

Rooster banged his gavel and called the meeting to order. “Listen up guys. We don’t have time to waste so settle down and pay attention. First of all, Dixie, Nessa and Annalisa are in Dallas and as soon as this meeting is over, Hulk and Eagle are going to go and escort them home and will need at least half a dozen men and a back-up SUV to follow them home.”

Hands started shooting up in the air all the way around. Rooster was the one to choose and he pointed out six members and a couple of prospects to follow them in an SUV. Gary was one of the best drivers we have and had proved himself time and time again of being able to handle not only a bike but just about any four wheel vehicle we had. He has been a pending patch member for a long time now but because he and his friend Jimmy had betrayed the club once before, he was having to wait to become a full fledged member. Jimmy had chosen not to return and was raising their younger sisters with Gary’s financial help.

Rooster informed everyone of what was happening and told everyone that we were going into a major security lock down. Just then, he got a text from Dixie saying that they still had grocery shopping to do and to send a van. If they were going to be in an extended lock down, they were going to need the supplies so he informed everyone of the change and told another prospect to join the trip and to take an empty van. “Go on now and make sure it’s clean inside so that we can bring back supplies. You three, go with him and make sure all the vehicles are full of gas.”

My legs were bouncing in anticipation of getting out of here and going to Annalisa but I made myself stay glued to my seat and try to focus on what Rooster was saying.

“Eagle, you know your duty is to be our eyes on the roof but since Annalisa is there, go visit with Carmella while we finish up!” Rooster said and I jumped out of my seat and quickly walked over to the living room where the women were gathered with the children.

“Eagle, what’s going on?” Marley asked.

“All I know for sure is that Cobra’s are planning to retaliate from us blowing up their house in Durant. They have threatened to attack us! Marley, have Dixie or Hunter shown you where all of the safe rooms are in this house?” I told her quietly. All of the children were currently napping, laying in playpens or on pallets of blankets on the floor.

“I know where the one in the basement is and that there’s one in our room. Are all the rooms like that?” Marley answered.

“Yes, but those are only good for hiding if someone were to get inside and you can’t get to the one downstairs. If anything goes down, I need you to make sure that all of you get downstairs to the basement. It’s built like a bomb bunker and will withstand a lot. Once you are inside you are to lock it and not come out until someone tells you the password. The door will only open from the inside and can take a massive hit on the outside so don’t let knocking scare you and don’t listen to threats they may make. Understand?” I asked her.

She nodded and I walked over to look down at Carmella. She was so precious and looked so much like Annalisa that my heart began to pound in my chest. I had to bring her mother back to her safe and sound.

I gave all of the women reassuring hugs and then left the room. I walked back to the meeting room just as it was breaking up and Hulk and the brothers that would be riding with me came out. Rooster came out and told me, “Bring my woman home safe, Eagle. I can’t leave with a threat like this on the club and I know Dixie will understand but that doesn’t make it any easier to stay back. Just bring them all home.” My heart was stuck in my throat so all I could do was nod. We walked out and got on our bikes, everyone making sure their tanks were full and within two minutes we were headed out of the compound.

We drove like maniacs through town and got on the highway. We made the hour-long trip to the mall where the women had been shopping in under an hour and pulled into the mall parking lot. I stopped and texted Dixie to find out where she was parked and she immediately answered that they were parked in the red parking garage not far from the entrance to Macy’s.

“Stay in the food court. We’ll come for you.” I texted her back and waved for everyone to follow me. We rode around to where Macy’s was and found the club SUV. I told a couple of the members “Make sure her car is safe. Check the engine, the seats and the underneath. Make sure nothing is leaking or looks like it could have been tampered with. The rest of you come with us.”

We must have made a very impressive sight as we went through Macy’s two by two. People stopped and openly stared at us and some women actually ran away with their children while others winked and struck sexy poses as we passed, trying to attract our attention but we were on a mission and none of the brothers paid them any attention.

We left Macy’s and walked through the mall to the food court where we found the women sitting at a small table waiting for us. As soon as they spotted us, Nessa and Annalisa jumped up and ran to us, jumping into our arms. Annalisa was shaking but she finally managed to ask “Is Carmella alright? I’ve been so terrified.”

“Yes, she’s fine. Don’t worry. We weren’t attacked. It is just the threat of an attack that might not even come for days or weeks. We are going to get you home and the whole club is going into lock down until we have this issue resolved.” I told both her and Dixie who had followed close behind her.

Dixie was shaken I could tell but she didn’t let her fear overwhelm her and told us “Well, if we are going to be in lock down for god only knows how long we are going to need supplies. Let’s hit Costco and then head home. We’ve got everything else we’ll need for a while.” she said, giving me a wink as she patted her hand on her purse and I hoped that meant she had managed to get the rings.

Members grabbed their bags, of which there were a LOT of packages of shoes and clothes and who knows what else from many of the stores in the mall. Then we led them back the way we had come. Again, people all throughout the mall turned to look at us as we surrounded the women.

Once back in the parking garage, we loaded up their vehicle with their packages and insisted that they ride in the SUV with the tinted windows and that Gary drive.

As we drove through the streets, everyone was on alert and on the lookout for Cobra’s or any other biker club for that matter but Dallas is a big city and they could be watching us from anywhere.

On the way, Dixie broke down her list so that each woman could take a list and several men and go to a specific area of the store. “Get them to push those flat carts so that you can load as much as possible as well as some carts for stuff that will need the sides. Make sure we get enough toilet paper and diapers to last for at least a month. Buy cases, not individual packages. Laundry soap, dish soap, body wash and toothpaste are not sold by the case so empty the shelves! Oh, and don’t forget deodorants. Believe me, we do not want to be stuck in the house with a bunch of smelly men!” She said, handing Nessa that list.

“Excuse me, Dixie, but we only brought one van and this and your SUV are all we have to carry stuff back with.” The prospect who was driving us said.

“Damn! Well, make sure we get enough to last at least a week or more. I guess I’ll have to have anything else we need delivered. But definitely get at least two cases of toilet paper. I will not go again without TP!” Dixie said adamantly and the prospect nodded in agreement.

We arrived at Costco and parked all together in an area that hardly had any cars. We left two prospects with our vehicles and surrounded the women as they walked towards the store. Dixie told the men to grab as many of the flatbed carts as we could find and the rest grabbed shopping carts. Each woman had her list and we split up to help them grab what Dixie knew we would need.

Annalisa and I had the meat and frozen food section and we completely filled up our carts with meat and chicken and turkey alone. Then we moved on to the frozen food department. Dixie was with the group that was loading up cases of soda, juice and wine and they already had a full flat cart and two shopping carts full of other food items.

We followed Dixie as she headed for the front and we met up with Nessa and her group who had all the paper goods. Looking over all that we were about to purchase, I began to worry about being able to make all of this stuff fit in the back of the vehicles but after we checked out and following Dixie’s instructions, we managed to get it all in but there wasn’t an inch to spare in any of the vehicles.

We all made sure that we had enough gas and since it was cheaper to fill up at Costco than just about anywhere else, we all got in lines to fill up our tanks before heading back.

Soon, we were back on the highway headed home and as the sun began to set, I was getting more nervous. It was the most dangerous to be on the road after dark but thankfully we made it home safely.

Rooster was standing on the porch waiting for us and stepped down as Dixie shot out of the SUV and ran towards him. He scooped her up and carried her back inside.