Henry said, "I guess there was never any stopping this thing between the two of you."

Jase felt surprise, but his fear of this confrontation was gone. He gathered his words carefully before he spoke. "I'm not sure any of us knew that until today. And it certainly wasn't for lack of trying."

"Son..."

"You can kick me out of the club," said Jase, even though he couldn't look at Henry when he said it. "I've had it both ways, Henry. I know what life is like without her now, and it's not the same. Even at its best with the MC, even the days I was happy, it wasn't like this." He shook his head. "I'm not losing her again."

Jase turned. For the first time he could remember, he saw pain on Henry's face, and deep in his eyes.

"Jase, that hadn't even crossed my mind. Why would it? You saved my daughter. Without question you have done everything you can, every hour, to help me keep her safe since she arrived."

Jase flushed and looked at his feet.

"Maybe you two weren't certain until today, but I saw this coming years ago," said Henry. He swiped self-consciously at a tear and let out a chuckle. "I saw this coming from the first time you two traded comic books with each other at the clubhouse. I had never seen a boy make Maggie laugh so much. And it was the first time I saw you acting normal since your dad died."

Jase felt a deep, almost painful grat.i.tude for Henry's words, even as he laughed lightly at the memory.

"I should never have stood in the way," said Henry. "It was a fool's errand. I won't keep it up now. Even if I wanted to, I owe you that much for saving her life."

He turned and looked Henry in the eyes. "I love her, Henry; more than anything," Jase answered.

Henry nodded and gave Jase an emotional smile. "Good. Keep it that way."

The paramedic wanted Maggie to head to the hospital, worried she might have suffered some head trauma from the abuse or the rough van ride, but she refused to leave without Jase. Jase didn't hesitate to climb into the bus with her and sit next to her stretcher, his hand curled into hers.

"Love you," said Maggie to Henry as he stood at the edge of the open doors. "Thank you for saving me."

"This is your home, sweetheart. We will always protect you here," said Henry. "I'll be right behind you once I get things sorted here."

Jase nodded to Henry again before the paramedic closed the doors and signaled the driver to make his way down to the interstate.

~ Nineteen ~

The doctors made Maggie spend a full overnight in the hospital for observation. Since the Taser knocked her unconscious, they didn't want to take any chances. Despite the death or capture of nearly all the men involved, the sheriff put a deputy outside her door, to go along with the three Black Dogs already posted up there as her guards.

Well, four, counting the one in her hospital room. Jase refused to leave her side, and had no trouble barking commands to the others to make sure she still wanted for nothing. The pain meds kept her floating in and out of sleep, but every time she woke up, he was still there on the side of her bed, holding her hand. Sometimes, he was watching her sleep. Once, she couldn't open her eyes, but could hear his soft breathing on the edge of her consciousness. And twice she woke only to find him sleeping with his head perched on her leg gently.

Maggie smiled and found the energy to lift her hand and stroke his raven-colored hair while he slept. He made a soft little groaning noise in his sleep, and moved a little under her touch. She didn't want to wake him, but she played softly with his hair until she fell back asleep herself.

By afternoon the following day, she was feeling better, and the docs didn't see any signs of worry. Like a patient guardian, Jase listened to a doctor describe her recovery treatment. Henry stood in the back of the room, waiting to help transport her home. Jase was careful as he scooped her up from the bed and into a wheelchair. Henry walked alongside her as Jase pushed. The doctor had offered, but Jase refused to let him.

Henry stood by as Jase helped her carefully into the pa.s.senger seat of his truck. Once she was belted in, he came up and took her hand. He planted a gentle kiss on top of it. "Tell me this is the end of the family curse."

Maggie smirked at him, still not quite herself under the painkillers. "I hope so, dad."

Henry had a confused smile on his face. "You haven't called me dad in a long time."

"I'm on a lot of drugs. I probably won't remember it tomorrow, so don't get used to it," she said. For once, Henry just laughed at her backtalk. Jase climbed into the driver's seat and double-checked her seatbelt before he started the ignition.

"Sheriff's digging out the last of the Rebel Cross boys from their chapter in Howlett. Most of them had nothing to do with it, but he's not taking any chances," said Henry. "Things should be safe now with Evan eliminated, but keep your eyes out just in case for the next few days."

"I dare them to try again," said Jase with a grin as he started the truck. "The higher my body count, the s.e.xier she thinks I am."

"It's true," said Maggie. She laughed much harder at the joke than it deserved, which only made Jase and Henry laugh at her.

"Take care of my little girl, Jase," said Henry before he closed the door.

Jase saluted him with serious eyes. "Always, boss."

Maggie smiled at her father through the truck window and waved as they backed out of the hospital parking lot. For sure, she knew now, it was the painkillers giving her such ease of emotion. But as silly as she felt, it was a welcome relief from the horror of the past week. She let it envelop her as she turned to look at Jase in the driver's seat, watching the road. His hand had already wandered over to find one of hers in her lap. Every now and again, he would sneak a look over at her, and she would already be watching him and grinning. Jase would laugh and turn red a bit before he went back to watching the road.

"I'm glad to see you sitting there," he said at one stoplight. He squeezed her hand when she told him she was thinking the same thing.

Jase took them back to his house. He set her up in bed and demanded her orders. "Anything you want, I'll get it for you. Just say the word."

"Anything?"

"Yep."

"A puppy?"

"Done. What else?"

"A gla.s.s of whiskey."

"As long as you don't tell the doc. Next?"

"Some crack cocaine?"

"Sure. Wait, what?" said Jase with a laugh.

Maggie said, "For real on the whiskey. And why don't you tell me what the h.e.l.l happened, while you're at it." She patted the bedspread for him to sit down.

Jase made her wait until he got them both two fingers of a very smooth whiskey he'd been keeping stashed away in his kitchen. They clinked a small 'cheers'. The whiskey burned down her throat, and toasted up her insides nicely.

"What do you remember?" said Jase.

"Just what I told the sheriff. I couldn't see anything on the van ride, didn't know where we were. I didn't recognize any of the Rebel Cross men... only Evan," she said. "They left me in there for a while until suddenly I could hear gunfire from somewhere close. Gunfire came and went, and then Evan came in and started untying me. He kept saying we had to go, he had to get me out of there."

"That was Will and Ghost," said Jase. "If Will hadn't called me about Drake, I probably never would have found you."

"I can't believe that motherf.u.c.ker had something to do with all of this," said Maggie. Even as she said it, some part of her actually did believe it. He had never sat right with her.

"It's always about the deals for him. That's what made him so good for the club; he had connections to everyone. It was stupid of us to think he would keep us sacred," said Jase. "But that opportunistic little f.u.c.k has cut his last deal around these parts."

"Is that secret club business you're sharing with me?" said Maggie.

Jase smiled and moved a bit of hair out of her face. "From now on, my love, I will be sharing all secret club business with you."

Maggie raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

Jase nodded, serious. "You might not wear a cut, but your blood is in the MC as much as any of us that do. Henry was wrong to try and keep you out of it. And if we're going to be together, it makes no sense for me to try to keep you out of it, either. We have to trust each other." He bent and pressed his forehead against hers. "We share it all."

Maggie smiled to herself. "I like that."

Jase pulled back and kissed her. Then he cleared his throat and looked away. "So I suppose you'll just be staying here then, hmm?"

Maggie grinned widely, watching his face tint red. "You mean while I recover?" She teased.

"Well of course, yes-- plus the days after that."

"Oh? How many days?"

"I don't know, like....three or four? Or all of them?" said Jase with a grin he could no longer fight.

"I told you, Campbell, you gotta put a ring on it," said Maggie, tapping her left hand sarcastically.

"Oh, right," he said. He suddenly stood and started digging through his pockets, and Maggie felt her heart stop. She stared at him with wide eyes as he sat back down with something in his hand.

Jase turned and saw the look on her face and froze. Then he said, "Oh, this isn't.... this isn't that."

Maggie slumped and started laughing at herself.

"When would I have had time to get a ring?" said Jase with a shake of his head and a laugh.

"I don't know, I've been on a painkiller high for twenty-four hours!" she said.

"Don't worry, beautiful, you won't be waiting long for that," he said. He opened her hand and dropped into it her mother's rosewood-beaded rosary. "They found this in the van that s.n.a.t.c.hed you. Henry said it was yours."

Maggie gasped and closed her hand tightly. In the chaos of the kidnapping, she hadn't even noticed the rosary fall out of her pocket. She looked at Jase with a teary smile. She felt too overwhelmed to speak.

Jase returned the smile and put a gentle hand on her head, smoothing her hair. "I never did get you that coffee."

She cleared her throat. "That sounds nice," said Maggie. "I think I'll stay right here this time."

Jase laughed. He bent and gave her a kiss. "I wouldn't mind if you were in that bed every time I came looking."

He headed down the hall towards the kitchen and Maggie called after him, "Like you're that lucky!" She heard him chuckle to himself.

Maggie sunk into the warm softness of Jase's bed and clenched her mother's rosary tightly in her palm. It was probably all in her fuzzy mind, but she thought the beads felt hot under her touch. She listened to the sounds of Jase in the kitchen, the soft chirping of the summer birds outside the window, the faraway hum of tractors on the farmland.

Safe, loved, and warm, Maggie realized, in that moment, that her life had become better than any daydream she could conjure. Henry had said she only need find hands that can handle her. There was no question-if there ever had been-whose hands she needed.

It was only Jase who tamed the fire in her heart.

Buy the entire Black Dogs MC as a bundle on Amazon today!

Bonus Book 2 - Kellan

The next bonus book is Kellan. Despite being a follow-up to the novel Slade, Kellan is completely stand-alone and you don't need to have read Slade to enjoy or understand it. As with all my books, this story has an HEA and no cliffhanger.

~ One ~

Kellan

I'd just gotten the s.h.i.t kicked out of me in the ring, and all I had to show for it was a pair of nice t.i.ts.

But don't worry about me. You should've seen the other guy.

This was what winners got, what we were ent.i.tled to: a hot chick to wipe the blood off our lips and wrap her own around our c.o.c.ks. Sometimes they were groupies from the crowd, or sloppy drunks our managers could convince to hang out in the winner's room for the ride of their life with a big, bad, dangerous guy like myself. Killer Kellan. That was what they called me. But when I was in this room with some h.o.r.n.y babe with a tight, ripe p.u.s.s.y, they only called me one thing.