Page 61 of Lockout

She nodded and laid her head on my chest, staring at the table.

I wasn’t going to lie to the little girl and tell her that the guys would be fine. Whatever they were doing tonight was going to be dangerous. Which was why they were keeping us in the dark.

“It’s killing me that they’re not telling us what they’re doing,” Isla said, scowling at Butcher as he walked past.

The man was wise enough to keep going and avoid direct eye contact with his irritated old lady.

“Right?” Seek sighed. “At least let us know what’s going on.”

Kit snorted, turning all our attention to her. “They know better than that.”

“What?” Jordan asked. “We wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize,” she flapped her hands around, “whatever it is they’re doing.”

“Exactly,” Eva said. “We’d never.”

“No,” Sloane said. “You’d all just try to go help them. Not jeopardize at all.”

“We wouldn’t,” Gwen replied. Then she gave everyone a weak smile because we were all thinking about that.

“I would,” Isla muttered.

“Which is why they’re keeping it under wraps until they get back,” I told the group. “In a roundabout way they’re doing it because they love us.”

“Maybe they could love us less and let us help,” Billie grumbled.

I laughed and shook my head at my best friend. “That’s not the way these guys work.”

“Look up overprotective in the dictionary,” Dani suggested. “You’ll see all their names listed there as examples.”

“They’d rather take a bullet than let anything happen to us women. Or the kids,” I added, squeezing Cait tight.

“They could’ve at least let me go,” Isla grumbled. “I can help.”

“You are helping,” I pointed out. “And I’m actually really grateful you’ll be here.”

She blinked at that. “Really?”

“Yeah. If anything happens here, it’s just going to be Lock and us. None of us are actually trained—other than what the guys have taught us—in fighting or shooting techniques. With you here, he’ll have actual backup if shit hits the fan,” I told her.

“Yeah,” Jenny said, rubbing her belly. “We all appreciate it.”

The irritation melted off Isla’s face. “How the hell am I supposed to stay pissed off when you say shit like that?”

“Thank you, Isla,” I added, twisting the knife a little. Lock had asked me this morning, while we were lying in bed, if I could try to help the other women understand why they had to do things this way.

Everyone seemed to relax after my little speech, so I considered my job done.

Before Isla could say anything to our show of gratitude, the rest of the kids came running up. “We got ‘em!” Taylor said with a grin.

They were all holding armfuls of oranges and mandarins. Caitlyn wiggled in my arms until I let her go and she slipped down and ran over to Gabby, taking a fruit in each hand.

“We’re ready,” Sean said with a wide grin.

“I brought extra. Just in case,” Dex whispered to Isla, hefting the fruit in his arms so she could see.

She surveyed the kids, then nodded. “You did good. Go stash your ammo in the corner there and then set up the table like I showed you.

“What’s…going…on?” Billie asked, looking shocked.