Page 16 of Pain (Kiss of Death MC #6)

Nadine

It’s funny how quickly a place built like a fortress could start to feel like home.

I’d been at Kiss of Death for three weeks with Pain.

Sometimes I could see flashes of Dr. Raven, but most of the time, he was Pain.

I thought I might be more comfortable with Pain than I was Dr. Raven.

It didn’t take long to establish a routine that felt almost normal.

I mean, if you ignored the camo netting.

The whole place had seemed on edge from the beginning, but given what Pain had told me, I guessed I could understand.

I’d seen the traffic around the compound, and even I could tell it wasn’t usual.

It was disconcerting. It also made me hyperaware the men housed in this place weren’t safe.

Not in any way. Having said that, I’d never felt more like I was part of a family than I had since coming to this place in Nashville.

“Hey, Nurse Hottie!” Tillie called as she sauntered into the clinic, her heavily pregnant belly leading the way. “Got time to check my blood pressure? Baby’s kicking like he’s auditioning for the damn UFC.”

I smiled warmly at the other woman. Tillie was with Xavier. Apparently, she’d gotten pregnant soon after becoming Xavier’s old lady, and now she was about eight weeks from delivery. And the kid was going to be a hellion if the way it kicked its mother was any indication.

“Come in. And I’ve told you to stop calling me Nurse Hottie.”

“Not gonna happen.” She laughed. Tillie was a stunning woman with the most beautiful silvery green eyes. Mid laugh, she winced before settling herself in the chair next to my desk with a grunt. “The guys have already caught on. I heard Diesel call you that yesterday.”

“Where Pain could hear?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Yes! That was the whole problem. Diesel had no idea you were Pain’s woman. He was the one telling Pain what a hottie you were.” She laughed merrily before wincing once more. “This kid’s a little shit already.”

“Great,” I muttered, wrapping the cuff around her arm. “Just what I need.”

But the truth was, I didn’t mind it much. The nicknames, the teasing, that’s how they showed acceptance and affection. No one was malicious about it. It was more like siblings. I found I’d come to crave the interaction.

These people were nothing like I’d been afraid of when I’d first come here with Pain. These were good people. Did they do some shady shit? Yep. Pain had explained some of it to me because he said he didn’t want secrets between us.

“How are you and Pain getting along? Everything good?” Tillie’s question was genuine. She rubbed her belly absently, but I could see she was genuinely interested. All the old ladies were.

“Great, actually.” I smiled nervously. I still wasn’t used to being able to have an open relationship with the doctor of the clinic but nothing about any of this was formal and no one fucking cared. “I mean, we’re getting to know each other.”

“So you’ve not had sex yet.”

In my old life, I’d probably have been embarrassed at the direct question, but now I laughed. “No. It just hasn’t seemed like the right time.”

“If it helps, I can tell you that every single one of us had sex with our men within the first few days of meeting them. A couple within the first few hours. They all seem to have some seriously powerful mojo.”

“OK, I believe that.” I finished taking her blood pressure. “You’re a little higher than usual, but still in the normal range. Are you having any contractions?”

“No. I don’t have any pain at all except when the little fucker kicks my ribs.”

Laughter bubbled up inside me and I realized I’d laughed more in the last three weeks than I had in the last few years. Maybe since I’d finished nursing school.

“You have the prettiest laugh,” Tillie said with a soft smile. “I’m glad you came here, Nadine. You’re good for all of us. Especially Pain. We were worried about him when he first came back. But since he brought you back with him, he’s much better. Calmer.”

That startled me. “What do you mean? You were worried about him?”

“Hannah said Pain usually kept to himself. Was a little withdrawn, but then, that was when she first got to Kiss of Death, and I don’t think Pain had been here too long before she got here.

” She rubbed her belly again. “When he first came back, he was almost manic. More than once I heard Xavier threaten to knock his ass out if he didn’t settle the fuck down and let them work the problem. ”

“Wow. That doesn’t sound like Pain at all.”

“Exactly. Now he’s better. You are the common denominator.”

Heat flooded my cheeks at her words. “I don’t know about that. He seems pretty steady to me.”

“Nadine.” Tillie’s voice was gentle but firm. “Trust me on this one. That man was wound tighter than a spring when he got back. We all saw it. And now? Well, he looks at you like you hung the moon.”

That statement sent a warm flutter through my chest. I’d seen glimpses of a protective streak in Pain, especially with the continued police presence at the wall around the compound. He always insisted on going with me if I went outside, even from one building to the next.

“I really like him,” I confessed. “I’m not sure why he hasn’t made a move again. To be fair, I’m not sure I was ready.”

“Are you now?”

I didn’t even have to think about it before a big smile split my face.

“Oh yeah. I think I was ready the first time we fooled around, but he knew better.” I propped my elbow on the table then rested my chin in my hand.

“I’ve never been around a man like Pain.

He’s literally always looking out for me.

In everything. Even down to knowing my favorite food and that I have to have someone remind me to stop and take a break when I’m working. ”

“I think most of the guys are like that. Some of them have been in prison most of their lives. Some for some pretty long stretches. When they got out, none of them had any intention of going without women like they had to do in prison.” Tillie laughed, obviously loving what she was about to tell me.

“They talked about it and decided the best way to keep women around was to treat them like princesses. They play as hard as the time they did, and that’s to say they play a fucking lot. ”

“Yeah. I’ve noticed by the injuries coming in on football nights.” We both laughed.

Before I could respond, the sharp wail of sirens pierced the afternoon quiet. My blood ran cold as the sound grew closer, and I heard Pain yelling for me before he opened the door to his clinic.

“What the hell?” Tillie glanced out the window, her brow furrowed in concern. “Oh, God…”

I was on my feet, rushing toward the window to look outside. The sirens grew louder, a discordant symphony that set my teeth on edge as I tried to make sense of the unfolding chaos.

Flashing red and blue lights illuminated the late afternoon overcast, casting eerie shadows across the front of the compound. Police vehicles screeched to a halt, doors slamming open as officers exited the vehicles, their weapons drawn and voices raised in urgent commands.

“Everybody stay where you are! Hands where we can see them!”

“What the shit?” Tillie moved beside me, her hands balled into fists as she took in the group of police officers with weapons ordering the men in the compound into passive positions.

“I said, on your knees!” One big, burly man in a bulletproof vest shouted over the megaphone in the cruiser he was hiding behind.

One of the men shoved a cooperating Xavier so he stumbled. Another officer moved his foot into Xavier’s path so Xavier had no hope of keeping his footing.

“Oh, hell no.” Tillie shoved away from the window and ran across the room to the door that led to the lift.

“Tillie, wait!” I hurried after the pregnant woman, acutely aware she didn’t need the stress or the physical activity. I barely got inside before she shut the gate and hit the button to go down.

“He wasn’t doing anything wrong!” she snapped.

“Tillie, you can’t run out there like this. What if you get hurt?”

“I’m not letting them take Xavier away, Nadine.”

“Stay in the doorway, then.” I needed to compromise my way out of her charging into the middle of a police raid. “If not for yourself, for your baby. If you got hurt, you’d never forgive yourself.”

“Nadine.” She clutched at my arm, tears now spilling down her cheeks.

“Please, don’t let them take Xavier. I need him here.

” My new friend looked at me like I was the only one who could fix this situation.

Why me, that was anyone’s guess. Probably because I was here .

I understood her fear because I felt the same fear for Pain.

Her hormones were likely running rampant inside her and she was terrified.

Hell, I was terrified! Tillie was a strong woman.

Seeing her clutch her belly, tears sliding down her cheeks, stirred my protective nursing instincts and made me determined to fix this for her.

I hurried out into the yard, still under the camo netting but not out of sight of the greater area.

A couple of the officers roughly shoved several of the guys to the ground, forcing them to their knees with their hands behind their head.

With each passing second, the police grew more aggressive.

I could see a couple of the guys in Kiss of Death losing their patience.

“Hey!” I called out with more aggression than I probably should have. But Goddamnit, they were making the pregnant woman cry! “They’re not resisting! What’s wrong with you?!”

An officer turned toward me, his eyes narrowing. “Step back, miss,” he warned, his tone leaving no room for argument.

But I couldn’t step back. Not when I saw Pain being forced to his knees by two officers, his jaw clenched tight as they zip-tied his hands behind his back. Not when I could see the barely controlled rage in his eyes the second he caught sight of me standing there.

“Get back inside, Nadine!” Pain’s voice cut through the chaos, sharp with command and fear. “Now!”

This was exactly what Pain had warned me about. The new police chief was targeting them, using any excuse to harass the club. My heart hammered against my ribs as I took in the aggressive posturing of the officers, the way they were treating these men like animals instead of human beings.

“If you’re trying to get a reaction from them, you won’t get it,” I said as I moved toward the group of men in the yard.

“You should also know we’ve put in a call to their lawyer.

” Not exactly a lie, because I knew Knight, or Hannah or Pippa would be all over that the second these guys breached the gate.

It had been part of the protocol handed down to us by Knuckles.

A tall, imposing man in a crisp uniform standing apart from the other officers watched the scene unfold with cold satisfaction.

His dark hair was slicked back, and there was something cruel in his smile as he surveyed the result of the controlled chaos he’d orchestrated.

I had no doubt this was the new police chief.

“I seriously doubt this lot has a lawyer on retainer.” He chuckled lightly as he reached for something from the officer beside him. The next thing I knew, he pointed the orange-handled Taser at me. Then pulled the trigger.