Page 98 of Lockout

“I don’t like it,” Hush said.

Neither did I. But we didn’t have much choice. The only way to get around them was to go through them. That would be fine by me, except it was too likely my guys would take rounds trying to get to them. And they made it clear they were willing to blow up anything between us and them if we tried to advance our line of defense.

I fucking hated waiting. But something was about to go down, I could feel it. So, until that point, we’d have to be patient. Once Hangman thought he had the upper hand, he’d show himself. Then I’d kill him.

CHAPTER 38

Keely

Looking around at the mopey faces surrounding me, I made an executive decision. “Okay. Someone grab the playing cards. I can’t stand to watch all of you sit here and worry all night.”

Taylor let out a whoop of delight and dashed up the stairs. Everyone except for two of the Wyoming guys had come over from the ranch. Lock had wanted us all in one place, as much as possible, with most of his allies watching over us.

Ruck grinned and helped Billie’s grandpa and Daryl move tables into place. We all started taking our seats.

“No way,” Jenny said, taking the cards from Taylor as she dashed back down the stairs and flopped into a chair. “You’re not dealing tonight, Missy.”

“Why not?” she asked, but there was a mischievous smile on her face.

“Because you’re too damn proficient at cheating,” Isla said, taking the cards and beginning to shuffle them.

“Of all the things those guys could have taught her,” Jenny said with a sigh.

“Oh, they taught us lots more,” Cassie said, then zipped her lips when both Gabby and Taylor glared in her direction.

“I know,” Jenny said, the words a soft wail.

Smiling, I leaned into Sloane when she wrapped an arm around me. “I’ve missed this.” It was times like this where I regretted joining the FBI task force. Well, and the times where the LoS were coming after me. That was inconvenient as hell.

“We’ve missedyou,” she replied in that quiet way of hers. “Don’t leave again.”

Tears filled my eyes because when Sloane said something you knew it was the truth.

“Even if Lock hadn’t finally gotten his head out of his-” Seek paused, looking over to where Jenny’s girls were watching her with blinking eyes, then cleared her throat. “Even if he hadn’t done the smart thing and made you his old lady, we would have convinced him to let us keep you.”

“Yup,” Kit said, pouring out a bag of pretzels onto the table. Everyone started parting the pretzels into piles that would mimic money. We’d learned long ago not to play poker for money with these girls. “You belong to us.”

I laughed even while my heart clenched in my chest. Lockout was the love of my life. I’ve known that for a while now. But part of why he worked so well for me was this group of people that belonged to him. Because if we were being honest, he was the glue that held this whole unit together. Without Lock, there’d be no club. Without the club there’d be no unofficial old lady’s club. We wouldn’t gather together as often, if at all, and our lives would continue on, but separately. Just the thought made my heart hurt.

“I will happily belong to you,” I told them all.

Daryl was watching us all with a soft smile on his face.

“What?” Billie asked him when we all noticed.

“I’m just so damn glad that Boone has found his place here with all of you.”

“You know,” I said, “it doesn’t only have to be Boone’s place.”

Billie squeezed my knee under the table, and I know it was a silent thank you. She and Toxic were trying to convince Daryl to move to Arizona permanently.

Daryl hummed as he picked up his cards and studied his hand, but I knew we were wearing him down. Gramps was working on him, too, because the two men had become fast friends.

We played round after round, with some of the guys sitting in on a hand before they got up to go continue doing passes on the compound. I’d eaten nearly my whole pile of pretzels when Gabby scooted her chair back.

“Where are you going?” Jenny asked.

“I’ll be right back,” Gabby replied. “I need to grab my charger from upstairs. My phone is almost dead.”