Page 47 of Lockout (The Vikings MC: Tucson Chapter #11)

Keely

“ W hat the hell are you doing?”

I didn’t need to open my eyes to recognize Toxic’s voice. I smiled to myself as I heard Taylor’s answer.

“The heater says to place it on a rock, or something.”

“Mama always says your head is like a rock,” Caitlyn informed him.

“And you definitely qualify as a something,” Taylor added.

“You brought MRE’s and an MRE heater to the hospital?” Priest asked his girls. “Give me that. If you’re hungry I’ll go buy you something from the cafeteria.” There was a pause. “Gabby, Honey, are you hungry?”

“No,” the older girl whispered.

It sounded like she was crying. Why was she crying?

I tried to force my eyes open, but they refused. What was going on? I struggled to wake up for an unknown length of time as I heard my family talking around me.

Everything had gone quiet. Was I alone? Fear swept through me. I didn’t want to be alone.

“Come on, Baby Girl. Come on back to me.”

The fear was brushed away with those words. Of course Lock was here with me. Wherever here was. He was nothing if not dependable. I let go and let my body rest.

My eyes fluttered open and I hissed at the bright lights overhead.

“Get those lights,” Lock said, then his gorgeous face filled my vision. “Hey there.”

“Hi,” I croaked, then frowned. Why did I sound like a donkey who smoked a pack a day?

“How’re you feeling? Any pain?”

I blinked at him. Should there be pain? I frowned.

“You remember what happened? The parking garage?”

Gasping as it all flooded back, I clutched at him. “Gabby-”

“She’s fine, Cables. She’s down in the cafeteria with the others right now. She’s fine .”

I was breathing hard, trying to remember everything. The blood. I looked down, but all I could see was bandages and a blanket. “What happened?”

“Those fuckers shot you in the back,” he said, sounding tortured. “Three times.”

“Oh my God. I couldn’t even really feel it.”

“Good. That’s something I’m grateful for,” he said as he sat in the chair next to me. “They worked on you for hours. Bullets exited your chest, so there was some damage to your lungs.”

I searched his eyes. “Anything…permanent?”

“No,” he gave me a small smile. “You just need to rest and heal. You’ll have some scarring.”

My hand fluttered up toward my chest, but he caught it and pressed a kiss to my palm. “Scarring?”

“It’s just going to show what a badass you are to the rest of the world,” he told me with a rueful grin.

I huffed out a laugh, then winced. “Okay, I felt that.”

“Let me grab the doctor. And the others…” But he didn’t move. He just dropped his forehead down to the bed.

Brushing my hand over his hair, I struggled with what to do. I had a feeling no one ever saw Lock like this. “Hey-”

“It’s fine,” he said, voice gruff as he lifted his head. “You’re fine. That’s all that matters.” He shoved to his feet and was out the door before I could say anything.

“You’re awake. That’s good,” an older man said, smiling as he walked into my room. I glanced at Lock, who came to my side and held my hand again. “Your young man here has been worried.”

Lock frowned at the doctor, but didn’t say anything. Probably couldn’t believe someone was calling him a young man when he was in his forties.

I had to bite back the giggle because that was going to hurt. “How long will I be here?” It took me a minute to get all the words out because I was huffing every third word or so.

“Sweetie, you took some serious trauma,” the doctor explained, his kind brown eyes holding mine. “You’re going to be here for a month or so.”

“Okay,” I said. I was too tired to argue.

“We put you in a medically induced coma for a week,” he continued on.

My eyes darted over to Lockout and he nodded. No wonder he looked so exhausted. I’d been sleeping for a week straight and he probably hadn’t gotten any at all.

The doctor fiddled with things. Hummed and hawed over my chart, then mentioned upping my pain meds to a nurse. Not long after he left, the horde arrived. I smiled, exhausted, but so grateful to see my family.

The nurse was at the door trying to control the chaos, but that wasn’t happening. Toxic was all but blocking her entrance to the room as the women and kids surrounded me and Lockout.

Gabby carefully flung herself across my waist, too afraid to hug higher, and sobbed. “I’m so sorry, Aunt Keely.”

I stroked her hair. “Honey,” I huffed as everyone quieted down. Jenny was holding her fingers to her lips to try to hold back her own sobs, while Priest had an arm around her shoulders. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“You were shot because of me,” she insisted, watery eyes looking up at me. “Instead of me.”

“And I’d take five more bullets for you,” I told her with a soft smile. “A hundred more.”

“I’d rather we didn’t do that,” Seek told the room, making everyone chuckle.

They all settled down and sat around, talking with me until I got tired. Once that happened the women shooed everyone out, promising to come back tomorrow for visiting hours.

Lockout stayed. He was quiet while everyone spoke, just watching over us like a guardian made of stone. But I knew he was relieved. I could see it in his eyes.

“Sorry,” I told him.

“For what, Keels?” He reached out and brushed my hair away from my face.

“For scaring you.”

He sighed. “Scared the fuck out of me,” he said in agreement. “But we’re all so grateful that you saved Gabby, too. It’s a fucked up situation because none of us wanted you hurt.”

“But I would’ve never forgiven myself if she’d gotten hurt. Is she doing okay?”

“Better now,” he said. “She was really worried about you.”

“Just her?” I teased.

His lips twitched. “I was, too. You’re not allowed to fucking leave me, Keely. Not through death or any other way. You’re stuck with me now. Forever.”

Sighing with happiness, I let my eyes close. “I won’t go anywhere.”

A week had passed and, unlike every other day, Lock wasn’t here with me in the hospital. I was starting to feel better. Stronger. Which meant I was getting impatient with being stuck in bed. It didn’t matter that if I tried to get up right now I’d land on my face. I was bored.

The women were here, keeping me company. They were all chattering and laughing together, and it made me so happy to have them all here. And suspicious.

“Where are the guys?”

The talking stopped and between the guilty smiles and the darting eyes as they exchanged looks, I knew something was up.

“What’s going on?”

Dani sighed. “We weren’t sure if we should tell you,” she admitted.

“Tell me what?” I asked. “I’d rather know.”

“The FBI task force is about to move on the rest of the LoS. They stopped in New Mexico, waiting to hear back from Hangman,” Kit told me.

“According to Switch,” Isla said, “with so many chapters congregating in one spot, the FBI managed to pull together warrants and everything else they needed to arrest them.”

“That’s great,” I said. “Right?”

“Yeah,” Seek said, “but Lock wants to make sure they get arrested.”

“Of course he does,” I said with a wry twist of my lips.

“He doesn’t want anyone to get missed. Even though Hangman is gone, he needs to know you’re safe from the LoS,” Billie added, her eyes twinkling with humor. “Remember what you told me about these guys?”

“Overprotective,” we said at the same time. I bit back the laugh so it wouldn’t send sparks of agony through my chest.

“Hopefully they don’t do anything to catch the FBI’s attention,” I said with a shake of my head. “Last thing we need is for them to get caught up in all this.”

“So little faith.”

We all glanced over at the door and all my worry faded. Lockout was leaning against the door jamb.

“You got from Arizona to New Mexico in,” I looked over at the clock. “A couple hours?”

“Left last night after you fell asleep,” he said. “Idaho stayed here with you.”

I’d been too out of it to realize. I was still sleeping a lot. “What happened?”

“Found the rest of the LoS chapters getting handcuffed,” Lock said with a smirk. “For once the FBI did their jobs.”

I relaxed against the pillows as Lock came over. “It’s over then?”

“They’re the FBI’s problem now,” he said. “They’ll make sure they stay locked up for their crimes.”

“Had a little fun with your former douchebag boss,” Toxic said as he and Butcher came into the room.

“Toxic,” Lock warned.

“What boss?” I asked, looking between them.

“Agent Hill,” Butcher said, sitting next to Isla on the couch and tossing his arm over her shoulders. “He’s not going to be pulling shit like he did with you again.”

“Lockout,” I said, glaring at him. “He could come after you.”

Lock snorted. “He’s going to be eating through a straw for a few weeks and not much else.”

I gaped at him. “Did you tell him who you were?”

“No. I just told him to make sure he doesn’t pull that kind of shit again.”

“Then he beat the shit out of him and we left,” Toxic added, looking pleased with himself even as Lock scowled at him.

Sighing, I squeezed my hand around Lock’s. “Thank you. For…everything.”

He muttered something I couldn’t hear, then he said, “No need to thank me for doing what I should do for my old lady.”

My eyes were starting to droop closed. But I had one more question. “How did the LoS even get into the clubhouse?”

“Snuck onto the property, used a ladder to crawl into an upstairs window,” Lock told me.

His voice was so nice and soothing, lulling me closer to sleep.

“Our guys were only seconds behind them. But they already had Gabby by the time they made it up the ladder and into the clubhouse. There wasn’t much they could do.

They had a gun on her, so they couldn’t follow her down the stairs.

” He cocked his head. “You know the rest.”

“Wasn’t their fault,” I mumbled.

“Naw, Cables, it wasn’t. It was dark and even with our guys crawling around the property all it took was a second for those fuckers to get through. Rip’s putting up more cameras. More security, and Priest is using it as a learning lesson for the future. It won’t happen again.”

Lips pressed to my forehead. “Go to sleep. I’ll be here to watch over you.”