Page 20 of Lockout (The Vikings MC: Tucson Chapter #11)
Lockout
“ T hanks, Cypher,” I said into the phone.
“Sorry I can’t make it tonight, Brother,” he replied. “With most of my guys heading down your way, it’s up to me to take care of the next couple of missions.”
I swore. “If it’s going to impact you, I can make do without them, Cy. I don’t want to leave you short-handed.”
“Naw, I’m just bitter I’m not going to get to go on a bender tonight. Besides, the guys should be there anytime. These missions are simple and I kept Scythe, Cynic, Glitch, and Torque. I have plenty of help.”
“Bet they’re pissed they don’t get to come party.”
“It’s like I stole their first-born babies, that’s how much they’re bitching,” Cypher said with a heavy sigh. “They’ll get over it.”
“The fuck we will!”
I chuckled at Cynic’s shouted words as they echoed over the line. “Guess this’ll go on the building piles of IOUs.”
He snorted. “Brother, we don’t owe each other shit. We help where we can and that’s about it.”
I needed more numbers to help protect Billie’s farm and the apartment full of women and children while we went after the LoS. Not to mention just beefing up our numbers because the LoS was like a cockroach infestation. They had men everywhere all the fucking time.
I’d already called and spoken to Ruck, the president of The Saint’s Outlaws MC over in Phoenix. They were more than happy to pitch in, since the LoS was a headache for them as well.
Everyone from the Saint’s Outlaws and those who Cypher could spare, were coming down for the patch in party tonight.
It was going to be a damn good time. The official and adopted grandmothers—they’d all given themselves the title even if the children weren’t their kids—were on babysitting duty.
Seek, Jenny, and Jordan’s mothers had shown up earlier and whisked the kids away in a loud, slightly psychotic, rush of grins and baby talk.
I had it on good authority that Dani and Keely’s mother was trying to get plane tickets so she could come join in the grandmother night in.
That left everyone free tonight and not having to worry about their kids.
The women would probably still worry, but nevertheless, I hoped they would be able to kick back and have some fun.
It might be the last for a while. So much had been happening, I hadn’t managed to get Keely alone again after our impromptu flight together.
I was hoping to corner her tonight and talk to her again.
I was still keeping an eye on her. Of course she didn’t know that.
But I wanted to hear her laugh again. See her smile my way.
It was just a relief to have her home instead of halfway across the fucking country.
Maybe Idaho was right. Maybe it was my turn.
Keely would make one hell of an old lady, and she was exactly the right type for a president’s woman.
She was friends with all the women, even Scarlett, and they all banded together in times of need. She fit in perfectly.
Saying goodbye to Cypher, I hung up the phone right when the door of my office burst open. My hand went immediately to the holster that I had under my desk, the Glock hidden there was a familiar weight in my palm. I didn’t draw it just in case it was one of the kids or women.
“The fun has arrived,” Warrant said, with a shit-eating grin as he stomped into my office.
“That’s a good way to take some lead to the chest, Brother,” I growled at him.
He paused, then shrugged. “Fuck, sorry. Didn’t realize you’d be so jumpy, Lock.” He flopped down in the chair across from my desk as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
He was Cypher’s Sergeant at Arms and with both Cypher and Scythe—the VP—staying back in Wyoming, he was officially in charge of the Wyoming crew while they were here.
I trusted him as much as I trusted Cypher.
Warrant was a good man, a good fighter, but he was a lot like Toxic.
Dangerous when he wanted to be, but a fucking goof-off the rest of the time.
No, that wasn’t right, he was worse about that than Toxic.
Cypher had told me about most of Warrant’s practical jokes and fuck did they end up getting him into trouble more often than not.
Like the time he pissed on the air conditioning compressor outside the Sheriff’s station in Sentinel—the town they lived in up in Wyoming.
He’d sat there, laughing his ass off as the deputies had come running out gagging.
It wasn’t a very large station and the smell of piss had permeated in it for weeks, according to Cypher.
Warrant had kept laughing as they arrested him and tossed his ass in a cell.
He’d spent the rest of the time hanging out with, and teasing, his best friend, one of the deputies.
Warrant’s best friend was a cop. Apparently, Warrant’s buddy had told him he couldn’t come out and fuck off because he had to work, so Warrant got arrested just to spend some time with his friend. That’s how his mind worked.
He was in a one percent, vigilante, motorcycle club.
And still, he was best friends with his childhood friend who’d joined law enforcement.
That just told a person everything they needed to know about Warrant.
Not to mention he worked in a security firm for his president, who took jobs all over the world that involved some of the most dangerous groups out there.
They didn’t work for the government though.
Not anymore. It was better said that they worked parallel to them.
They worked in the civilian world now, even though they still brushed elbows with all the different military and governmental agencies.
Cypher didn’t like to be beholden to anyone.
I didn’t blame him, it was why I got out of the military too.
“You settling in over at Cholla Summit Ranch?” I asked.
“Yeah. Stopped there first so we could drop all our shit. Rotor and Jury are out there now, keeping an eye on things.”
“There’s enough apartments for you all to stay here,” I told him, though in actuality there was only one left.
“Naw, staying in the bunk house over there is fine with us. Most of us grew up on ranches, Lock,” he said with a grin. “It feels like home.” He could tell I was feeling guilty about them staying there instead of here. Though, it was good to spread out our forces a little.
“It’s a pretty quick trip from there to here, so if you need us we’re available.” He put his hands behind his head, elbows extended out, and leaned back enough that the chair creaked in protest. “What’s the plan?”
“We’ll go over that tomorrow,” I told him. “Today is for Static and Idaho. No work shit, only drinking and celebrating.”
He nodded. “Drinking is the thing I’m third best at.”
I arched a brow at him. “Do I want to know what the first and second are?”
“Fighting and fucking,” he said with a shrug.
Shaking my head, I chuckled. “Every time you guys are around, I see more and more why Toxic is the way he is.”
Warrant chuckled. “Yeah, our parents all regret bringing us into the world because we’ve been tormenting them our whole lives. They were our first victims.”
My eyes narrowed. “You have parents? I figured you were hatched.”
His laugh echoed throughout the room. “It’s possible my mother might’ve picked up a changeling on a hill or some shit. She’s never confessed to it, no matter how much I piss her off.”
“Well, I appreciate you and the crew being here.”
“We’re always available for fucking some shit up.” There was a gleam in his eyes as he said it that I recognized. I saw that same look in all my brother’s eyes. Hell, I see it in the mirror every morning. We were all built the same.
“What do you need from us now?” he asked.
“Get with Priest and Toxic and see what they need,” I told him.
“Good seeing you, Lock,” he said with a grin as he shoved out of the chair and walked out the door.
That was one thing down. We’d have the numbers we needed to go against the LoS.
Hangman had a fuck ton of men and they were loyal to him.
I pulled a notebook out of my desk drawer and scanned the list. It was mostly things that needed to be taken care of for my business, the school, or the running of the club and bar.
I never wrote down the shit I needed to do when it was illegal, but there was a mental checklist just as long as this one for that.
Nothing on the physical checklist needed to be handled in the next couple of weeks, so I put the book back into my drawer.
A bellow from the main part of the clubhouse had me out of my chair and down the hall in a flash. I stumbled to a stop as I saw Warrant lifting Toxic up and crushing him in a bear hug.
“Everyone needs to quit bellowing and screaming,” I barked out, glaring at all the men and women standing around greeting each other in the main area of the clubhouse.
Keely was there, shaking her head at my surliness. “We’re just excited to see everyone,” she told me, her hands on her hips.
I wanted my damn hands on those hips…as I fucked her from behind. Grumbling in annoyance, both at the constant loud noises around this place and my now hard dick, I crossed my arms over my chest and scowled at her.
She just smiled and pursed her lips into a kissing motion before she turned back to the group. She was asking for trouble pulling shit like that with me. I doubted she realized how close I was to just saying ‘fuck it’ and locking us in my bedroom for the next couple of weeks.
“What’s his problem?” Pyre, Cypher’s main enforcer asked, but he had a huge grin on his face. Like the rest of us, he thrived in chaos.
I had no doubts that Toxic had been keeping all these fuckers up to date on everything happening here. Toxic confirmed when he wheezed out, “Don’t mind him, he’s just sexually deprived.”
“Toxic,” I growled, scowling at him.