Page 3 of Lockout (The Vikings MC: Tucson Chapter #11)

Lockout

S moke had found me the minute he and Dani had gotten back from their weekly check of Keely’s home. I’d offered to have Riptide put cameras up over there, but she’d refused and said that no one would be messing with her place. I’d let the subject drop and she’d left.

She’d been gone for well over the six months she was originally supposed to be away.

Closer to a year now. And fuck if that wasn’t getting to me.

Two days after she left, I had Rip install a program onto my computer that allowed me to hack into her laptop.

I’d watched her sleeping far more than I was comfortable admitting to anyone.

I was just watching over her. She was Dani’s sister and therefore connected to my MC. I watched over my own. Didn’t matter if they walked out and left us in the dust for months on end. It was our job to help people out. At least the people we chose to help.

And now Keely was back. And Smoke said she thought some people were after her. He’d told me everything she’d told him, but there were gaps. Some shit was missing from her story.

Turning, I faced her. There was worry in her gorgeous dark blue eyes. I frowned when I noticed that there were smudges underneath them, like she wasn’t sleeping well.

“What the fuck is going on?”

“Hello to you, too,” she snapped.

It set me at ease to see she hadn’t lost that fire. I crossed my arms over my chest, waiting for her to answer my question.

She sighed and waved toward the couch. “We may as well sit down.”

Shaking my head, I started pacing. “Tell me what’s going on, Keely.”

She sank down onto the couch and dropped her head into her hands. By the time she looked back up at me, my worry for her had me ready to kill something. “I’m in trouble, Lock.”

“Yeah, I got that from what Smoke said. What kind of trouble?”

“You know who the Legion of Shadow is?”

I swore and scowled at her. “Why do you know about them?”

The LoS was dangerous. Their leader, Hangman, was dangerous.

They were mixed up in all sorts of shit scum operations.

The only reason we hadn’t set our sights on them, was because they had some serious backers.

They were the big leagues and we didn’t have the numbers to take them down before.

And we’d been too busy recently to do anything about their chapter over in Phoenix.

In fact, they were who we stole the drugs from that we used to take out the businesses that were helping to launder Fremont’s money.

I hadn’t known who the drugs belonged to when we found them hidden in that shipping container in the pond.

But it hadn’t taken long for me and Rip to track that information down.

Hangman didn’t know it was us who’d taken the drugs. Though we’d kept an eye on the situation, I didn’t know what had happened with those drugs. Everything had died down on that front not long after they were confiscated by the cops. I’d had to let it go because of other threats.

“That’s who the task force I’m with is investigating.”

I swore and tipped my head back, studying the ceiling as thoughts raced through my mind. When I focused on her once more, I pinned her with my gaze. “They’re dangerous, Keely.”

“I know,” she said, voice far softer than I was used to hearing.

“Really fucking dangerous,” I explained.

“I know,” she snapped, then sighed. “Sorry. I’m a little on edge.”

As if she wasn’t always snapping at me. I liked it. She liked to push my buttons. That I didn’t enjoy as much, because I didn’t like to be pushed into doing things I didn’t want to do. I was too used to being in charge.

Which was why over the last couple of months my brothers and I ended up bleeding every time they tried to convince me to go see Keely.

I’d never said anything out loud, but they all knew I wanted her.

Kissing her in front of my loudmouthed twin hadn’t helped.

Idaho had been more than happy to tell the rest of our MC brothers about that.

And them pushing and fucking nagging me always started fights.

I had my reasons for not wanting an old lady.

And I didn’t need to fucking explain them to anyone.

It was early December now, and Keely’s damn temp position with the FBI was supposed to have ended months ago.

But it kept getting extended. Now I knew why.

Someone there had no issue putting her in danger.

I’d correct that misjudgment on their part later.

Right now, she was here, standing in front of me.

“Does the FBI know you’re here?” I didn’t need the fucking feds running her down. Not when she was somehow already mixed up with the LoS.

“I’m on leave,” she said with a sigh.

It was like pulling teeth. “Tell me everything, Keely,” I demanded.

She glared at me, but when she opened that sexy mouth she did as I asked. “The task force is investigating the LoS. They were supposed to put together enough to take down Hangman and the officers in each club across the country.”

I let out a low whistle. “They have a fuck ton of chapters. That’s a big op.”

“Yeah, and even worse, we were struggling to get enough evidence on them. Hangman is careful,” she explained when my eyes narrowed.

“That better be a general we,” I told her. When she winced, I knew I wasn’t going to like where this was going.

“At first, I helped with only the things I was supposed to. But they were having trouble getting close enough to LoS members. One of the task force members was recognized when he got spotted. Burned the location and he had to go into hiding to keep the LoS from coming after him, since they knew he was FBI.”

Gritting my teeth to keep quiet, I watched her as she spoke. She looked so damn tired. Defeated. Her blonde hair was loose and reflecting the light shining in from the window. I wanted to run my hands through it. Give her a scalp massage. Let her relax and melt under my hands.

Of course, there were better ways to do that, like fucking her until she screamed.

I sucked in a breath, trying to control the demand that was raging inside of me.

I wanted to grab her and hide her away from the world until I took out whoever was threatening her.

I knew what was coming, who it was, but I let her tell me.

“The agent in charge of the team told me they needed people who weren’t as connected with law enforcement.”

If I tensed anymore my fucking muscles were going to snap. My fingers flexed into a fist as I imagined finding this team leader and snapping his neck. He deserved it for putting Keely in danger. Because I knew, before she even said the words, that he put her in close proximity to LoS members.

“He asked me to help them out with one thing.” She gave me a weak smile. “I should’ve known better, but I said yes. I started following one of the members around until we found a new place where a couple of them hung out regularly.”

“But it didn’t stop there,” I said, the words coming out as more of a growl.

She shook her head. “Of course not. I’d done such a good job,” she said, with a roll of her eyes, so I knew those were the team leader’s words.

“They just needed me to keep up appearances for a little while longer. To record conversations. Then they’d be able to take them all down.

But the months were passing and nothing was happening. Not with the investigation, anyway.”

“What was happening?” I asked.

“They were starting to notice me,” she admitted.

“It was a small pub that they were hanging out in. Not a biker bar, not anything connected to the LoS, and they started realizing I was there a couple times a week.” She rubbed her temple.

“I always brought my laptop and tried to look busy, but one of them approached me one night. I thought he was hitting on me at the time, but now I’m wondering if he was scoping me out. ”

“He was doing both,” I told her. I started pacing again. “What else?”

“From that point on, I could feel them watching me whenever I came into the pub. I’d made friends with one of the bartenders, and always came in on her nights, but I’d gotten on their radar.”

“Young, beautiful woman spending that much time in a bar? Alone? I would’ve been suspicious, too.” She gave me a curious look. “I would’ve figured hooker or up to no good.”

She gave a surprised laugh. “What does up to no good mean?”

“No good for me. So, cop.”

She shook her head in disbelief. “Well, that must have been what they thought, too, because I’m pretty sure they started following me.”

I stopped pacing and stared at her until her eyes dropped away from mine. “Did you tell your superiors?”

“Of course. I told Mike-”

“Who’s Mike?” I already wanted to break his legs.

“The lead agent, Mike Hill,” she explained.

“And?”

“He said it was all in my head. That they needed me to do this and I couldn’t stop now. They didn’t have anyone to replace me.”

“Wasn’t anyone else following these fuckers?

” I barked. Now I wanted to break him slowly.

You didn’t put innocent young women in harm’s way for your fucking operation.

He should fucking know better. He did. But he didn’t give a shit what happened to Keely, clearly.

This is why I hated feds, they only cared about their awards and promotions.

I’d run into enough of them in my military career.

They didn’t care about collateral damage. This one would. I’d teach him to care.

She wasn’t law enforcement. She wasn’t fucking trained in any of this shit. She’d probably inadvertently given herself away the first goddamn night and they’d been watching her ever since.