Page 10 of Lockout (The Vikings MC: Tucson Chapter #11)

Lockout

I motioned for my brothers to follow me. Priest stayed behind and I knew it was to let Bear and Mel know that they needed to go patrol the compound while we had church.

“You two,” I said, pointing at Static and Idaho. “With us.”

They shared a look, but fell into step behind me as we all made our way back to the room we always had church in. I sat down at the head of the table and waited while my brothers all took seats. I waited for Priest to come in. He shut the door behind himself and sat down.

I launched into everything that Keely had told me.

No one interrupted, though they looked as pissed as I still felt, when they heard the task force leader had put Keely into such a precarious position.

There were grumbles under their breaths, but I continued on.

Once I’d told them everything I knew, I looked around.

“Keely isn’t an old lady-”

Toxic snorted out a laugh, but didn’t say anything more when I pinned him with a look.

“Pretty sure you’re sticking your head in the sand, Prez,” Hellfire said.

“You’d know all about that, wouldn’t you?” Ricochet countered.

Hell shrugged. “Yeah, I would.” His gaze met mine, steady and honest. “It’s better when you give in. Getting what you want is a hell of a thing.”

“And what you deserve,” Priest added.

Trying to hold back my irritation, I swept a grim look around the table. “Can we stay on fucking track?”

No one said anything else though they were all either smirking or looking like they were trying to keep from laughing.

Idaho was flat out grinning at me.

“What,” I snapped at him.

“Nothing, nothing,” he said, but he was still grinning.

Fucking asshole.

“I want to take a vote because of Keely’s lack of connection to the club,” I continued on, trying to ignore my dickhead brothers.

“A vote on whether we help her or not?” Rip asked with a frown.

“Yeah.”

“Prez,” Hush said, “there’s not one of us here who’s goin’ to allow that girl to handle Hangman and the LoS on her own.”

“Fuck no,” Butcher added while Toxic shook his head. “Plus, that means we get to have a go at them. You’ve been making us wait.”

I chuckled. Of course Butcher was in. He was always in when there was a promise of bloodshed. But I was also relieved that everyone in the room was nodding.

“She’s Dani’s sister,” Smoke said with a shrug. “So either way, I’m going to help her. Even if the club was to decide not to, I couldn’t turn her away.”

“None of us will,” Priest said, scowling at him.

“You’re sure?” I asked. I had to ask the question because I needed to do what was in the best interest of my club and when it came to Keely I couldn’t seem to sort out what was my best interest and what was the club’s.

Priest turned his scowl on me. “What if this was Gabby? Twelve years from now in some fucking city that isn’t here? What if she was in trouble and a group of men turned her away because it was going to get too fucking messy?”

“Then we’d kill those fucking pussies after we took care of whoever was threatening Gabby,” Ricochet growled.

“Fuck,” Hell muttered, then said louder, “Can we not put your daughters in hypothetical situations like this, Priest? Now I’m pissed off and want to hurt someone.”

Everyone glanced over and saw that Toxic had a restraining hand on Butcher’s shoulder. “That’s a great idea, Hell,” Toxic said. “Because I’m pretty sure this asshole’s about to go kill some fucker just to avenge Gabby because of that hypothetical scenario.”

“Knock it off, Butcher,” I said, glaring at him.

The tension slowly bled out of him and he sat back in his chair.

“No more talking like that about the girls,” I told Priest. Fuck me.

Every man on this compound would burn the world down for any one of our kids.

Because that was what they were, our kids. No one fucking touched them.

“All those in favor-” I said.

Every hand shot up before I could even finish the statement.

The knot wrapped around my gut loosened.

“Thanks,” I said with a shake of my head.

I hadn’t claimed Keely, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t have if she hadn’t left.

That I didn’t feel a sense of obligation toward her.

I wanted to keep her safe. If my club had voted to stay out of this, I would have protected her on my own.

“Is that finished?” Rip asked. I nodded. “Good, because it’s not like we don’t have our own unfinished business with the LoS anyway.”

“We going to take care of that, Lock?” Idaho asked. He and Static usually stayed pretty quiet in our meetings, when I had them join, because we still hadn’t patched them in.

Which reminded me that I needed to do that. Preferably before shit hit the fan again. “We’ll talk about the LoS after the next vote.”

Eyebrows shot up at that.

“What’re we voting on now?” Toxic asked. “You claiming Keely?”

“Those in favor,” Hush said. Every hand shot up again. He shot a grin in my direction. “Looks like it’s been voted on, Lock. Want to go do that now? Or…”

Shaking my head, I ignored them. It was only fair that they’d been giving me shit for months now.

I’d meddled when they hadn’t pulled their heads out of their asses.

“All those in favor of patching these two motherfuckers into the club,” I said, waving dismissively over at Static and Idaho, “raise your hand.”

My brother and friend looked shell shocked. As if they hadn’t just spent a fuck load of time prospecting for us. As if they hadn’t done every fucking thing I’d asked, even cleaning the goddamned toilets every day.

There were whoops and grins as all of my officers raised their hands.

“Good. Toxic and Priest. You plan the party,” I told them. I’d been planning to do this anyway, but now maybe these assholes would be too busy to continue busting my balls about Keely.

Toxic gave Priest a look of disdain. “He’s going to spend the whole damn time complaining about how much I’m spending on booze.”

“Exactly,” I said with a grin. “Have Butcher help,” I ordered. “Alright, now that that’s settled. The LoS. Rip, what do we know?”

Riptide blew out a breath. “They have a fuck ton of manpower. Backers who provide them with all the money and weapons they need.” He tilted his head as he thought about it. “They’re going to be a bitch to fight.”

“At least they aren’t law enforcement,” Smoke pointed out.

“Yeah,” Ricochet said, “we won’t have to be as damn careful as we’ve had to be in the past.”

“True,” I said. “But the LoS is going to provide its own brand of trouble. Not to mention the FBI is keeping a close eye on them and their activities.”

Hell let out a groan. “Dammit, forgot about that.”

“Thankfully, they seem to be concentrating mostly on the D.C. chapter, so we should have some breathing room out here.”

“What are you going to do about Keely?” Toxic asked. “FBI is going to frown on her staying here it sounds like.”

“Just have her go AWOL,” Butcher said. “Better than ending up dead.”

“No,” I replied. I hadn’t watched her walk out of my life, to take up a once in a lifetime opportunity for her career, just for her to lose it because of those assholes on her task force. “We’ll think of something to keep her here.”

“You have her explain the situation to her bosses,” Static suggested, speaking up for the first time. “Have them tell the FBI they need her back here. She’s been on loan to them. The feds don’t own her.”

“That’s a good idea,” I said with a nod. “I’ll talk to her about it.”

“Does Hangman know we’re the ones who stole their drugs and got them confiscated by the cops?” Hush asked.

“Not that we’re aware,” I answered. “No one is left who could tell Hangman or his officers we were involved. But putting these fuckers out of business will help us in two ways. One, they’ll never find out.

Two, it puts them out of business for good.

Them being over in Phoenix, it’s only a matter of time before more of their bullshit finds its way over here to Tucson. ”

“And it helps Keely,” Priest pointed out.

“That too,” I said. “So let’s plan this party,” I told the room. “Do some fucking celebrating for once. Then we’ll handle our business.”

“What are we goin’ to do about the numbers?” Hush asked.

I grinned. “Good thing we have a lot of friends now,” I told him. “Beefs up our numbers.”

“You think Cypher’s going to want in on this?” Rip asked.

“Guarantee you that these fuckers are connected with some asshole that he’s chasing down overseas,” I replied. “But if he says no, then we’ll figure something else out.”

“I bet Ruck will help,” Toxic said.

I nodded. “That’s what I’m hoping, too. With The Saint’s Outlaws and the Berserker’s Rage we should have the numbers we need.”

“Still not planning on tapping Austin?” Butcher asked.

I shook my head. “They’re out. Those guys deserve the quiet life they’ve built for themselves.” I couldn’t ask Cade for help. In any way. Because that asshole would get involved even when I tried to physically keep him and his family out of it.

Everyone nodded in agreement. “Toxic,” I said, meeting his gaze.

“I want that party happening within a week. We’re not going to have a lot of time for this.

In the meantime, Rip and I will be getting with the rest of you and putting you where we need the most help.

I want to gather as much intel as possible on these sons of bitches before we strike.

We’ll celebrate, then come up with a plan. ”

It was time to go back to war. It was going to be a never-ending part of our life.

I didn’t plan to go legit the way Austin had.

But then again, we didn’t deal in guns or drugs the way they had.

Our city was always going to need a protector.

And that was us. I wasn’t going to let our kids grow up in a city that was being taken over by corruption and evil.

Besides, we’d end up becoming monsters if we didn’t let out these impulses that lived inside of us.

We needed the violence and death that being vigilantes brought us.

Taking old ladies and having kids wasn’t going to ease those urges.

Instead, it made them stronger because now we had specific people we were trying to keep safe.

I released my brothers, watching with a grin as they all went over and started smacking Idaho and Static on the backs in a form of congratulations. Static let out a yelp as Toxic squeezed his ass. Fucking Toxic. Always starting shit.

Scowling when I realized Hush was still sitting in his seat, I asked, “What?”

“Just wonderin’ if you’re plannin’ to go talk to Keely,” he asked with a shit eating grin. “Vote passed after all.”

I could have Priest show her where she was going to be staying.

It was a different apartment than the last time she was here, but I didn’t want to.

I wanted to show her. Wanted to be near her.

I should tell Hush to do it. There was enough tension between her and I to cut with a knife.

“Fuck the vote. But yeah,” I answered. “Need to show her where I put her shit. Why?”

“Just wonderin’,” he said. “You goin’ to give her a matchin’ hickey on the other side?”

“Fuck off, Hush,” I growled. “I’m not in the goddamned mood.” Just dealing with Keely made me tense. I didn’t want to go a round with Hush right now, too.

He held up his hands in surrender. “You’re goin’ to have to give in sooner or later,” he pointed out.

No. I wasn’t. I had myself under control…most of the time. I could live here with her nearby and not touch her again. There was no need to make shit messy for her when she tried to leave again.

As if he could read my mind he continued, “Otherwise, some of us might have to take it upon ourselves to help out.”

“Don’t even fucking think about it.”

“Why?” he asked with a smirk. “I seem to remember you doin’ the same when it was me buryin’ my head in the sand.”

Fuck. He had me there. I had given him and Seek both pushes to get them to get together. Not to mention some of the other guys. But that was because it was what they needed at the time. I didn’t need shit.

“Just think about that,” Hush suggested. “And don’t take too much time, Lock.” He shoved out of his chair and wandered out of the room as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

Fucker. He was lucky I wasn’t in the mood to pound on him right now. Sighing, I pushed out of my own chair. It was time to go see Keely. This time I was keeping my fucking hands to myself.