Page 26

CHAPTER 26

Camila

D ustin scowled as he held the phone to his ear. “Yes, Sir. Well...no, I-” He broke off as whoever was on the other end of the line went off on a rant. Dustin’s expression was getting more and more grim by the moment. “Sir, I don’t think this is nothing.” He paused, listening again, then sighed. “Yes, Sir.”

He hung up the phone and frowned over at me. “According to my higher ups, the server incident was a routine check.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“Mostly that it was sanctioned by both the FBI and Marshals,” he told me with an apologetic look on his face.

Tilting my head, I studied his expression. He looked troubled. “You don’t believe them?”

“Fuck, I don’t know at this point. I’m probably just being overly cautious since Kruzman has found us so many damn times.”

I smiled at him. This was why I considered Dustin a friend. Not enough to tell him what Kilo and the others had planned, of course. I didn’t want them to get into trouble even though I sort of felt bad about not telling him. It was easy to see that he cared. He didn’t want us to get hurt. I didn’t think it was a job to him anymore. Who knew with Jeremy. The man hardly spoke. But Dustin? He made us his priority.

“I think I’ll still hang out,” Dustin said, tone decisive.

“Thank you,” I told him, “but honestly, I’m going to spend the night with Kilo. And Mama has work. Carmen has a sleepover planned, and I don’t know how we’d explain to four young girls who you are and why you’re there.” Kilo had texted, saying they were on the way. It wasn’t going to take much time before they got here.

It wasn’t hard to see that Dustin was torn. He didn’t want to leave us. Again, my heart warmed at that. He was a caring man. If only he was twenty years older, I’d shove Mama his way. Though it was likely to take a lot of convincing to make Mama date again. She’d mentioned it, but I knew Dad had been her person. She’d loved him with everything she had. Not knowing what had happened to Dad had hit her hard. She wasn’t sure what to think about the man she’d married and loved. That broke my heart.

“If you’re sure,” he said, hesitating.

“We are. It’s nothing...right?” I asked. He knew there was something off. And I knew that somehow the mole the club thought was planted inside the FBI had played this off as some routine maintenance. No wonder Kruzman kept finding us. This just proved there were people who would happily take money in exchange for just about anything, even someone’s life, and that everyone else was busy and had so many things on their plate they’d believe the first lie told to them.

Dustin wasn’t like that. It was easy to see he didn’t want to leave, but he was trying to figure out how the two of them would follow all three of us when we split up in three different directions. Of course, if we didn’t have the club protecting us, I’d be begging for him to stay here with us for the night. My lack of concern was lulling him into a false sense of security. He shrugged. “Yeah, okay. You want us to hang out until Kilo gets back from work?”

“No, we’ve taken up your whole day already,” I told him, patting his shoulder. “Kilo will be home soon.” At least that wasn’t a lie. I shot Jeremy a smile. “Thank you for staying with us.”

Jeremy's eyes narrowed on me. I had a feeling he was seeing through my overly bright attitude, but he finally nodded. “No problem.”

“Call if anything is out of place,” Dustin told me as I walked them to the front door.

“I will. Promise.” Another lie. I had to bite back the sigh. I didn’t like lying to these men. They’d helped us so many times over the last four years. I considered them friends. But their obligations were at odds with the Saint’s Outlaws intentions. And my loyalty had to be with the men who were doing whatever it took to keep us safe. Dustin and Jeremy could only do what the law allowed. Besides, I wasn’t doing anything that would place them into harm’s way, so I shoved the guilt down.

I waved as they got into their SUV and drove away. Shutting the door, I locked it and Mama, Carmen, and I sat on the couch to wait for Kilo and the others. It didn’t take long before the sound of a motorcycle revving outside and doors closing echoed through our quiet house. I got up and hurried to the window, peeking through the curtains. “They’re here.”

Mama and Carmen let out twin sighs of relief. I opened the door and stepped straight into Kilo’s arms.

“Mercy,” he growled. “You’re not supposed to be opening doors.”

“I saw it was you,” I told him, my words muffled as I buried my face against him.

“You’re not supposed to be looking out windows,” he countered.

“I heard you coming.”

His chuckle vibrated inside my head. “Come on in everyone. Lucia, Carmen, these are the guys.”

I held on and moved with him, clinging like a spider monkey as he introduced the guys to my family.

“Where are the Marshals?” he asked, wrapping his arms around me and holding me close like I needed.

I’d shot him a quick text that they were gone, but that was all. “He got a call from some supervisor. Said the alert was a routine thing that the FBI sanctioned.”

“Bullshit.”

“I know, but I played it off like I believed it so they’d leave.”

“Good girl,” he told me with a grin.

It did things to my insides when he said stuff like that. Made me melt. Made me ache. He brought out too many emotions to examine.

Reluctantly, I let him go, but he yanked me back against him again. Like he wasn’t ready to break contact either. I could hear the others speaking in low voices with Mama and Carmen, but I just basked in his embrace. I could only pray that everything would go well tonight. If this was the last time I was able to lose myself in Kilo’s arms, I wasn’t sure what I’d do. It didn’t matter that we’d only known each other for a short time, he was mine. And I was his. I considered myself so lucky that we’d found one another.

“Are you ready to go?” he asked, pulling back and looking down at me.

Huffing out a breath, I nodded. “We’re ready.”

“You have your gun?”

I took his hand and slid it down until his fingers brushed over the butt of my weapon.

He grinned. “Now I know where that shirt went. You hoarding my clothes, Mercy?”

I bit my lip and shrugged, giving him a guilty smile. “I needed something a bit bigger to hide the gun.”

“Hides that perfect ass in those jeans too,” he said in a low voice so my mama didn’t overhear. “I don’t like it. You should take it off.”

“Now?” I teased.

“No,” he growled. “Later. When it’s just us.”

“I can do that,” I told him. I was still trying to get over my shyness with him, but he made it easier to be free.

“Kilo.” We both looked over and found Ruck watching us with a smirk. “We don’t know how much time we have.”

“Sure thing, Prez. Come on,” he told me, taking my hand and leading me toward the door.

Our bags were there, waiting to be loaded up. We’d brought them downstairs once Dustin and Jeremy left, so that we’d be ready.

Overdrive had Mama’s arm through his and he was escorting her out the door like he was some kind of old fashioned gentleman. “Kid! Get the bags.”

Code’s jaw dropped and he grumbled as he picked up our bags from the floor. “Why does he get to escort the women and I have to get the bags?” he muttered.

“‘Cause he’s the VP,” Kilo responded, winking at me.

I paused at the door and turned, looking at all the men who were lounging on our couch and chairs, and the extra were standing, filling every inch of our small home. “Please...be safe.”

Bolo shot me a grin. “Don’t worry about us, Mercy. We’ll be fine.”

I pulled away from Kilo and went over, hesitating, but then wrapping my arms around him. I gave each of them a hug. It wasn’t hard to tell they didn’t know how to respond to that, but they allowed it. When I was finished, I swallowed back worried tears and went back to Kilo.

“You realize that’s the last time I’m letting you hug them, right?”

Rolling my eyes, I laughed. I doubted that very much. He loved his brothers and I saw the smile on his face he tried to hide when I gave them hugs. He liked that we got along.

He walked me out to the SUV, eyes scanning the whole time as though Kruzman was going to pop out from behind a mesquite tree in someone’s yard. His protective nature melted my heart. It made me feel so cherished and loved. He looked down at me and frowned. “Why do you look like you’re about to cry?” he asked, sounding slightly panicked.

I laughed and blinked back another wave of tears. “I’m not.” The look he shot me told me he didn’t believe that for a second. “I’m just worried about you. All of you.”

“Don’t worry about us, Baby,” he said with a chuckle. “We’re all looking forward to the fight.”

I stopped at the SUV and stared up at him. “I’ve never met anyone like you before.”

He shook his head and if I didn’t know better I’d swear he was blushing. “I’m nothing special, Mercy. Come on, I don’t want you standing out in the open.”

Going up onto my tiptoes, I pressed a kiss to his lips, then got into the SUV. He shut the door behind me and jogged around to get into the driver’s seat.

Overdrive turned around in the front passenger seat and smiled at us. “You ladies ready?”

We all nodded, giving him forced smiles. These men were risking their lives for us. We were all scared for them, but we put on a brave face so that they weren’t thinking about us while they needed to focus on what lay ahead.

The drive didn’t take very long and soon we were parked in front of a house. Before we could get out of the SUV, the door to the house burst open. Roger walked out, his arms open wide as he smiled at us. “Welcome to our home!”

These were the types of people Kilo surrounded himself with. Good people. I laughed as Roger wrapped me in a hug and started moving me toward the house. Looking over my shoulder, I searched for Kilo, but he was getting the bags out of the back of the vehicle. Relaxing, I followed Roger in.

A woman was standing there, beaming, as if this was a social call instead of what it really was. “Hi, Sweetie,” she said to me. “You can call me Prissy.”

“It’s so nice to meet you,” I told her and went willingly when she pulled me into her own embrace. It was Mama and Carmen’s turns next.

Kilo and Overdrive dropped our bags off inside the house and I went over and hugged Overdrive. I laughed as he wiggled his brows at Kilo. Then I was wrapped up in Kilo’s arms again, like he needed to erase Overdrive’s hug. “Come back to me,” I whispered.

“I will,” he said. “Don’t worry. Just have a good night and try to get some rest. Tomorrow will be a whole new day.”

“I love you, Kilo.”

“Love you, too, Mercy, but stop making it sound like you’re saying goodbye.” He tipped my chin up, forcing me to meet his eyes. “I’ll see you later.”

I nodded, forcing another wavering smile.

“Roger, Prissy, I owe you big time,” he told his friends.

“Psft,” Prissy responded. “You’ve introduced us to new friends. No need to repay that.”

“The Viking’s Rampage crew should be here within the hour, maybe sooner,” Kilo told all of us.

“I’ve already started a feast to feed them all,” Roger told him.

“Oh man, and we’re missing it?” Overdrive groaned.

Roger laughed. “We’ll send you some tomorrow.”

Kilo and Overdrive went over and hugged both Roger and Prissy, though there was a lot of back slapping when they hugged Roger. It looked painful to me, but it seemed to be their way.

“We’ll be back to pick them up as soon as we can.”

“Don’t hurry,” Prissy said with a wave. “We’re going to have a wonderful night.” She met his gaze. “You boys be careful.” She said it in the tone a mother used when her boys were going to ride dirt bikes.

“We will,” Kilo said. He tugged me close and kissed me. He gave me an intense look as he pulled back. “Be careful.”

“ You be careful,” I replied.

“I’ll see you soon.”

I pressed my fingers to my lips as I watched him walk out of the house. My heart was hammering and I was vaguely nauseous. I wished I could just fast forward through the whole night.

An arm dropped over my shoulders, and I looked up at Roger.

“It’s almost dinner time. I’m looking forward to getting to know you.”

“Me too,” I told him, and I meant it. Roger and Prissy were going to help keep my mind off what was happening tonight, and I couldn’t be more appreciative of that. It would be too easy to drive myself crazy with worry. I’d rather have good food and learn more about Kilo’s friends.