Page 37 of Lockout (The Vikings MC: Tucson Chapter #11)

Keely

F isting my hands on my hips, I glared at Lockout. “It’s been two days, Liam,” I told him. “You’re not getting out of bed.”

“It’s been two days,” he spat as though he was disgusted with that fact. “We’re giving Hangman too much time to rally. We need to fucking go on the offensive.”

“How?” I asked, shaking my head. “Rip said Hangman locked him out of whatever backdoor he’d found into their system. Besides, collectively you guys took out like thirty of their guys. They’ll need more than two days.”

He just scoffed at me though. He didn’t want to be stuck in bed anymore. I couldn’t really blame him. In the time I’d known him this was the longest I’d seen him be inactive. This man wasn’t made to laze around.

A knock on the door broke up our argument about whether Lock should stay in bed like Pyre told him to, or get up. All the men walked into Lockout’s room.

“Figured we’d bring church to you,” Priest said.

“Great,” Lock muttered, then sighed.

He wasn’t the most pleasant patient while recovering.

But I was just so damn happy that he was alive.

When I’d woken up the next morning, Dani and Billie had held me as I’d sobbed again.

I’d done my best to hold myself together while we’d searched for Lock.

Sure I’d broken down when I found him, but it wasn’t until that next morning that I’d shed another tear.

Now, nursing him back to health was making me want to strangle him. Good thing I loved him. I paused in the act of cleaning up the room a little while the guys talked. It was still so weird to even have that thought. I loved Lockout. A smile spread across my face.

“I asked Warrant and Ruck to come, too,” Lock told Priest.

“We made sure they knew about the location change,” Hush replied.

As if on cue, the men walked in. Warrant looked around and frowned. “Thought it would be…more.”

My brows lifted at that. “More what?”

“Don’t know. Just more,” Warrant said with a shrug. “Cypher’s never let me in his bedroom, but I always pictured a fucking throne in there.”

That had everyone chuckling.

“Keely.”

I turned and looked at Lock. “I’m going,” I told him. “Let me know when church is over and I’ll come back.”

“No,” he said. “Stay.”

Now my mouth was hanging open. He wanted me to stay for church? Should I be flattered or…

“I’m hoping your time with the taskforce can help us,” he explained.

Right. That made sense actually. Going over to his side, I sat on the edge of the bed, while the other men circled around.

Is this what it feels like to be a queen?

Lockout scowled. “Stop towering over me,” he grumbled. They all took a step back. He rubbed a hand over his face. “Thanks. Ideas? Rip?”

“Sorry,” Riptide said with a shake of his head. “I can’t get back in. Maybe with enough time I can, but I’m not sure I’ll have it. Hangman’s not going to sit around waiting. Not now. And there’s no way for me to tell what he’s up to.”

“Licking his wounds. Him and his crew,” Butcher muttered.

“Planning a counter attack,” Lock argued. “And I don’t want to lose the momentum we gained. All he fucking has to do is call in reinforcements and we’re fucked.”

“I could try calling one of the agents I know on the task force,” I offered. Every eye landed on me and I gave Lock a tentative smile. “He was always nice to me. But not that kind of nice. Just a ‘lets arrest the bad guys nice’.”

His eyes narrowed, but he nodded. “It’s a long shot that he’ll give you anything useful, but worth a try.”

Everyone was quiet and I looked around. “Oh. Now?”

“Yeah,” Lock said, crossing his arms over his chest.

Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I hit a number in my contacts and listened.

“Speaker,” Lock said.

Glaring at him, I put the call on speaker.

“Hey, Keels! Long time, no see.”

“Hey, Cory,” I said, ignoring the unhappy look Lock was giving me when Cory used my nickname. “How’s it going?”

“Oh you know. Same old, same old. Bunch of us were sorry you had to drop off the task force.”

“Thanks,” I said. “It was really last minute.”

“Probably better that way since Hill was being such a dick to you, anyway.”

“Yeah, hey, listen. I was just wondering…” I gave a little laugh. “It’s none of my business but since I worked on that case for so many months… Are you guys close to a bust?”

There was a heavy sigh on the line. “We’re farther along, but no. We can’t seem to get our shit together enough to make any arrests. Hangman just keeps slipping through our fingers.”

My heart sank in my chest hearing that. “Oh, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s alright, the task force was extended so we can keep working it. But…”

“But what?” I asked.

There was a sound, as though he was shifting. “Something’s going down.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, trying to sound innocent.

“Bunch of the chapters are on the move according to our sources,” Cory said.

“That’s going to make it tough to pin them down when you’re ready to make arrests,” I told him.

“Right? Having a bunch of the chapters mobilize and head west wasn’t what we were expecting.”

“Do you at least know where they’re heading?” I asked. “So maybe you could be there waiting for them?”

“One of the undercovers said they’re heading for Arizona. Guess there was some kind of gang on gang retaliation. Hangman himself is going.”

I bit back that automatic rebuttal that motorcycle clubs weren’t gangs. Priest automatically threw his hand over Butcher’s mouth to keep him quiet and nodded at me to continue. “Well, I really hope you guys are able to catch them.”

“We’ll likely be moving locations, too,” Cory confided, “if they don’t come back in a week or two.”

“Good luck with that. Thanks for appeasing my curiosity,” I told him.

“Yeah, no problem. Keep in touch, Keels.”

“Okay, bye, Core.”

I hung up and flinched when I found them all staring at me. “He’s a friend,” I mumbled, but I avoided Lock’s jealous gaze.

“Call’s already gone out,” Ruck said, rubbing his chin. “That’s not fucking good. Hangman calling in all the chapters on a large scale means they’re going to outnumber us three to one.”

“Easily,” Warrant agreed. “They’re rocking some major firepower, too, thanks to their backers.”

“So let’s take out the backers,” Butcher said with a shrug.

Now everyone was staring at him.

He looked around and scowled. “We take out the fuckers helping Hangman. Make them realize that lending the LoS a hand, or a gun, will get them fucking killed.”

“Not a bad idea,” Lock mused. “Rip, do you have that information?”

“I know of two groups,” Rip replied, “that were working closely with Hangman.”

“Here in the states?” Idaho asked.

“No, both groups are in Canada.”

“Canada?” Hellfire snorted. “Why the fuck would they be there? Maple syrup and cheese? What the fuck else is up there?”

“Moose,” Smoke offered.

“And Cobra Chickens,” Ricochet said with a grin.

“The fuck is a Cobra Chicken?” Hell asked.

“Canadian geese,” Ricochet answered. “Mean bastards.”

“Their immigration laws are less strict than the U.S.,” Static commented, getting the conversation back on track. “Probably easier to move in there and start up an operation than here.”

“Plus, if shit goes down with the LoS, they’re less likely to be targeted,” Toxic pointed out. “Theoretically anyway,” he said with a wolfish grin.

“It’s the middle of December,” Ricochet pointed out.

“So?” Hush replied.

“It’s going to be fucking freezing there,” Ricochet shot back. “Please tell me we’re not heading to Canada.”

Smokehouse took one look at Lockout’s face and groaned. “I think we are, Brother.”

“Shit,” Ricochet muttered. “I’m a desert rat. I don’t belong in the snow.”

“Suck it the fuck up,” Butcher said, looking at him in disgust.

“Want me to get the jet ready?” Warrant asked Lock.

Lockout nodded. “We need to lure Hangman out now, before all his backup shows up. Start taking them out a little at a time so he doesn’t have so many damn men on his side. Taking out his resources is as good a plan as we have for now.”

“What about after that?” Smoke asked.

“We’re goin’ to have to smoke him out like the rat he is,” Hush said, glowering as he spoke.

“That sounded like something you would say,” Butcher told Toxic.

Toxic grinned. “I’m proud of you, Old Man. Look at you, figuring out farm terminology.” He cocked his head. “Though typically you’d want to use dogs to kill the rats. Smoking them all could set fire to your crops.”

Hush gave him a disgusted look. “It was a figure of speech, asshole.”

Toxic shrugged. “Fact remains that we’re the dog in this fight. We just need someone to till up the ground a bit and send all those rat bastards scurrying.”

“Are we seriously having this conversation?” Idaho asked with a laugh.

“Hey, it’s an analogy,” Toxic told him with a glare. “Don’t hear you helping.”

“Lord save me from pedantic bikers,” Static replied.

“Fuck you,” Toxic barked.

“You even know what pedantic means?” Static asked, looking skeptical.

“Means my fucking fist in your face if you keep it up,” Toxic warned.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Lock muttered, rubbing his temples like they were giving him a headache. “Enough. We start with Hangman’s known resources. We’ll cut off his supply line. Get the word going around that helping him will be detrimental to people’s health.”

“Isla could help with that,” Butcher offered. “That buddy of hers could spread the word on the darknet.”

No one knew who Isla’s hacker friend even was. She’d admitted to us women that she barely knew the woman, except that she was a woman, and that she went by the name Switch.

Lockout nodded. “Get her on that. See if she can have Switch find out anything else about Hangman and the LoS.”

“I’ll have Glitch look into it, too,” Warrant offered. He glanced over at Rip. “If they’re focusing on keeping you out, maybe someone else can worm in past their defenses.”

“Then I guess I’d better keep them busy,” Rip said with a grin.

“We’ll reconvene once we’re done up north,” Lock said.

He didn’t even need to say anything before everyone was nodding and leaving the room. Determination lit each of their faces now that they had a plan.

I went and sat down on the bed beside Lock. “How long will they be gone for?” I asked.

“We’ll leave tonight,” Lock said. “Probably will only be a day or so.”

Looking at him in shock, I shook my head. “You’re not going, Lock.”

He raised an eyebrow at me. Usually that look turned me on. That arrogant, I can do what I want kind of look, but now it just made me angry.

“You were nearly blown to pieces,” I reminded him. “Besides, you can barely walk.”

“That’s what pain meds are for,” he replied.

“You can’t go into a fight like this all doped up,” I said, appalled that he would even be considering this.

“Watch me,” he replied. The stubborn set of his jaw told me I wasn’t going to talk him out of it.

Sighing, I leaned against him, taking comfort in his strength while I had it.

I’d known going into this that it wasn’t going to be easy to take down the LoS.

That the club would have to take some risks in order to prevail.

It was why I didn’t want them to be involved in the first place.

We were long past that now. All I could do was anything I could to help.

I kissed Lock’s chest as I racked my brain on what that could be.