Page 7 of Lockout (The Vikings MC: Tucson Chapter #11)

Lockout

W hat the fuck was I doing? Growling, more pissed with myself than with her having the common sense to put the brakes on, I shoved off the bed. I raked a hand through my hair as she sat up and straightened her clothes.

Right. That was what I was doing. Her tits were fucking perfect, just like I knew they’d be.

Didn’t seem to matter that I’d had a long talk with myself on the way over about keeping things straight between me and Keely.

She needed help and I had a softness for the woman, so I was helping. Nothing more.

Until she’d jammed her finger into my chest one too many times. Then my temper had snapped. I wasn’t sure if the guys would still consider me losing my temper and fucking the damn woman going full lockout, as they liked to call it. But she seemed to get under my skin faster than damn near anyone.

Blowing out a breath, I stalked over to her closet and grabbed a suitcase out of the back. Opening it up, I started tossing shit from her dresser inside. I paused when I grabbed a handful of lacy thongs. This woman was going to be the death of me.

“What are you doing? Lock! Stop it,” she said, coming to my side and grabbing the panties.

We were playing tug-o-war with her girly shit. Sexy girly shit. My dick was still rock hard and this wasn’t going to help it go down. “Packing.”

“I’m not going with you,” she snapped, giving up her hold on the thongs before they snapped in two.

Tossing them into the suitcase, I turned and stared down at her. “You’re not staying here alone, Keely. Which means I’m going to have to post guys here day and night to guard you. That means there is less security at the clubhouse.”

She’d already said she didn’t want to put any of the families in danger. So spreading our protection between here and there was sure to get her to come with me. It pissed me off that she wouldn’t just trust me to protect her.

She sighed and shook her head. “I won’t stay here.”

Crossing my arms over my chest, I scowled at her. It was that, or shake her for being stupid. And if I started shaking her, I’d end up groping her. And I’d just proven where that would lead. “Where would you go?”

“Cabo? Fiji? Somewhere warm,” she said in an indecisive tone.

“Not happening. Look,” I said when she opened her mouth to argue more.

“We’ve already had a run in with these fuckers.

It doesn’t matter where you go. They’ll follow.

It’s only a matter of time before they show up on our doorstep for what we’ve done.

This just gets the fight over faster. And you’ll be here where I can keep an eye on you. ”

Her eyes softened at that. “It’s not your job to keep an eye on me, Lock. I don’t want you to think that I’m ungrateful, but I can’t put you in that position.”

“You’re not,” I told her. “I am. Finish packing, or I’ll do it for you.”

She hesitated, then finally nodded in agreement. “Okay.”

I walked out of the bedroom, needing a few minutes away from her before I started kissing her again. Trying to keep my self-control around Keely Bradford was an exercise in futility. Still, I needed to try.

It didn’t matter that I wanted her. I had since day one.

But I’d had too many damn families to take care of to focus on myself at the time.

Too many enemies coming at us. I hadn’t been about to let them down.

By the time both the mafia and Fremont were wrapped up, Keely had accepted this position in D.C.

Didn’t matter that it was temporary. She was leaving.

And I wasn’t going to be the one to stop her.

To make her put her dreams on hold. It hadn’t been my place to ask her to stay.

Not for me. Maybe I should have. Then she wouldn’t be in trouble now.

Shaking my head, as though to erase those thoughts, I huffed out a breath.

She didn’t deserve a man who was going to hold her back from her dreams.

My brothers had been hounding me for months now about going to get my old lady.

They didn’t seem to understand that I couldn’t figure out how that was going to work between her and I.

Even now that she was home, it was temporary.

She had to go back. The feds weren’t just going to let her stay here.

And what if she decided to go back and stay permanently?

I was only too aware that temporary positions, like the one she was in, had a way of becoming full-time all too easily.

She had a bright future ahead of her. A career she’d built brick by brick. I refused to be the reason she didn’t take an opportunity. So, I’d watched her walk away. Fucking killed me to do it, but I’d stayed here in Tucson while she’d flown off to D.C.

Was there something between us? Fuck yeah there was.

Was she smart to tell me to stop back there?

Smartest thing she ever did. She was inside of me now.

Had been since she’d first showed up at the clubhouse.

Catching sight of her that first time had been like a blow to my chest. She’d shot me a megawatt smile and that had been it. I’d wanted her then. Did even more now.

But I wasn’t willing to detonate her career, and I didn’t foresee any of that changing any time soon.

She deserved the chance to spread her wings.

I was trying to give her that. Not that I was willing to explain any of this to my brothers.

Opening up and letting others take on my burdens wasn’t exactly a strong suit of mine.

Never had been. I did much better carrying the worries and woes of others than admitting I had them myself.

Glancing over as she walked out into the living room, rolling her suitcase behind her, I grabbed her keys off the hook in the kitchen. “Let’s get going.”

“What about your motorcycle?” she asked, eyeing her keys. As if on cue, a rumbling engine pulled up outside. She went to the window as the doors slammed and looked out. “What are Butcher and Toxic doing here?” They were in one of the club’s cage rides.

“Taking my bike home so we can bring your car. Come on.” We weren’t going to talk about the fact that I was letting the goon squad ride my bike home.

If they mentioned that later I might kill them on the spot.

Sharing wasn’t my thing. I was territorial over my shit.

And my bike was number one on the ‘don’t touch it’ list.

Taking her by the elbow, I directed her out the door then locked it behind me. I nodded at my brothers. “Thanks for getting here so fast.”

Toxic and Butcher exchanged glances when they saw Keely. Toxic was doing his best to bite back a grin. It wasn’t good enough. Fucker’s smile was spreading over his face.

Running out of the clubhouse the way I did, barking at these two assholes to meet me over at Keely’s in twenty minutes, was something I wasn’t going to live down. I’d have asked anyone else, except they’d been the only two around.

That was another good reason that she stopped me. They would have interrupted us and I would’ve never heard the end of it. As it was, Toxic was making himself a giant pain in my ass about Keely.

“Hey, Keels,” Toxic said, giving her a hug. He shot me another huge grin over her head.

I flipped him off.

“Any sign?” I asked Butcher as he walked up.

“No. No one is surveilling the house,” he said with a shake of his head. “Not physically anyway. Electronically? You’ll have to ask Rip.”

“He’s already looking into it for me,” I said in a low voice, as Toxic kept Keely distracted by putting her suitcase in the trunk of her car.

“Want me to ask around?” Butcher asked, arching a brow.

“No. If they haven’t caught on that she’s here yet, I don’t want to have them catch wind of us looking for them.”

“Got it, Prez.” His gaze drifted over to where Toxic and Keely were talking. “Question.”

I gave him an unamused look. “If it’s anything about her, other than this shit with the LoS, then don’t bother to ask.”

He rubbed his chin. “Yeah, okay, Lock.” He waited until I’d almost relaxed then continued, “But you know they’re all going to notice that hickey on her neck, right?”

My head jerked as I looked over at her. Fuck me. I’d been too distracted with trying not to jump the poor woman to notice that there was a hickey. Toxic’s eyes were glued to it as he nodded at something she said. Goddamn it.

His eyes flicked over as he felt my gaze and the smile spreading over his face made me want to punch him. There was no fucking way they were going to leave me alone now. And if that dick didn’t stop grinning, I was going to wipe it off his face. “Must have gotten it before she got here,” I said.

“Uh huh,” he said, turning his head to spit into the grass.

“Let’s get out of here before the fucking LoS decides to show up,” I muttered.

But at this point I’d take a shoot-out with those fucks over the badgering I knew I was going to get from my brothers.

Well, some of them. A couple had the good sense to leave me the fuck alone.

Toxic, Hush, Rip, and my brother weren’t those few.

And now apparently Butcher. Toxic really needed to stop turning him into a real boy.

I liked it better when he had no clue about the emotions running through people.

“Sure thing. Dibs on the bike,” he called out and Toxic cursed.

“Take it easy,” I warned him. If he put one scratch on my motorcycle I was going to kill him. Didn’t matter if everyone else considered him a scary bastard. I knew his weaknesses. I knew all of their weaknesses. And I could be a merciless fucker when I needed to be.

I didn’t even look as he went to get on my machine. It wasn’t fucking right that anyone else was riding her. I didn’t like it. Motioning to the car, I told Keely, “Get in.”

When she didn’t argue, the knots in my shoulders loosened a little.

My massage therapist was always bitching that I kept all my tension in my shoulders.

It was so fucking bad I’d been forced to hire her to begin with.

Asking for help wasn’t exactly in my wheelhouse.

Not for myself anyway. I had no problem asking for help for the club, and the others.

I stared straight ahead as I pulled out and went a different way back to the clubhouse just so I wouldn’t have to see that asshole on my bike.

Keely’s eyes were boring into the side of my head.

“You have any make-up in that purse of yours?” I asked.

I made the mistake of looking over at her and meeting those deep blue eyes of hers.

Fuck, it was almost like I was drowning. I glanced away.

She blinked and stared down at the purse at her feet. “Yeah. Why?”

“You have a hickey.” No point in beating around the bush.

She gasped and yanked the sun visor down to look into the little mirror. Then she groaned. “And Toxic saw it.”

“Butcher, too.”

“Well, now everyone is going to know. Why bother hiding it?” she asked with a shrug.

“Up to you.”

She dug around in her purse and pulled out a little jar of something and dabbed it on her neck. When I arched a brow her way, she shrugged again. “Why give them physical proof?”

I chuckled. I didn’t point out that the make-up hardly covered it and there was going to be proof anyway.

A sense of rightness settled in my chest. Having her close finally eased that edginess I’d been living with for nearly a year.

I’d tapped her fucking computer but still hadn’t realized she was in trouble.

It hadn’t been enough. But it wasn’t like I could go to D.C.

and keep an eye on her in person. Not with my family here and everything that had been going on.

She was here now. That was all that mattered.

Now I just needed to keep her safe. From the fuckers following her and from myself. One was going to be damn difficult. The other, hopeless.