Page 8 of Lockout (The Vikings MC: Tucson Chapter #11)

Keely

“ K eels!”

I laughed and caught Billie in my arms as she launched herself at me. Staggering backward at the force of her slamming into me as she wrapped her legs around my waist, I tried to keep us both upright.

Strong hands on my shoulders helped me stay on my feet. I swallowed hard, remembering that those hands had been on my body—in my body—not all that long ago.

Don’t think about that.

It was going to be super inappropriate for my nipples to be hard and my panties damp while I was hugging my best friend. “Hey, B,” I said as soon as Lock took his hands off me.

She squeezed me tighter, ignoring the tension in the air between me and Lock. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming home?”

“It was sort of…a last minute thing,” I told her.

Glancing over my shoulder, I caught Lock’s scowl.

The man was always scowling at me. What was new?

But this time there was actual guilt building inside of me.

Being a thorn in his side was sort of fun, but not when it came to real stakes.

And this was as real as it got. I didn’t want my family to get hurt because of me.

For him to potentially get hurt…because of me.

He didn’t appreciate that I was trying to keep him safe.

Probably had no notion that people trying to protect him was a possibility.

He was their leader. He was the one who would step in front of danger for any one of the people under his care.

But that meant he wasn’t used to people trying to do the same for him.

And therefore wouldn’t allow them to. Stubborn man.

Lock swore and stepped out of the way as we were swarmed by the rest of the women and children. A yowl split the air and he swore louder as he stepped on a cat’s foot.

I blinked and frowned. It wasn’t just a cat. “Is that a bobcat?”

“Did I forget to tell you about Miss Murder?” Dani asked with a frown.

“Mur-” I shook my head, breaking off the word. “What?”

“We have so much to catch up on,” Billie said, finally unlocking her legs from my waist and climbing down. She grabbed my right hand. Seek grabbed my left. And they started hauling me over to the tables nearby.

I hugged everyone, then paused when I got to a blonde woman I didn’t know. “You must be Isla,” I said with a smile.

She grinned at me. “Yup. And that’s my kitty, Miss Murder Mittens.”

“Ah,” I said in understanding. “Murder. Got it.” I glanced over and laughed when I saw that Lock had my suitcase in one hand and was carrying the bobcat under his other arm. He was looking down at the feline and saying something to her I couldn’t hear.

“How long are you home for?” Kit asked, looking eager.

“Not long,” I said with a wince.

“Can you tell us about the investigation?” Jordan asked next. She’d barely waited for me to answer Kit’s question.

“Yeah, a bit. I actually have a lot to tell you all,” I admitted.

“Would you like some tea? Or maybe wine?” Sloane touched my arm, smiling gently at me. “You look like you could use a pick me up.”

Leave it to Sloane to find the kindest way of saying I looked like hell.

“I’m okay,” I told her, patting her hand.

She didn’t like to be touched in a lot of places, though hugs were okay, but the hand was okay for her.

Otherwise I always tried to give her plenty of warning so she could move if she didn’t want to be touched.

She’d had a rough life, and though she wasn’t constantly hiding her scars anymore, they still bothered her.

She was starting to let go of all that around us, but nothing happened overnight.

“Before you get into all that,” Seek said with a grin. “Can I ask something?

“Sure,” I said, focusing on her. My eyes narrowed when her smile turned devious.

“Did Lockout give you that massive hickey?”

Gasping, I smacked my hand to my neck. I thought I’d put enough makeup on to hide it, but then again, we were all crowded close to one another, and there was only so much that concealer could hide. I’d snuck a peek in the mirror on the drive over and she was right. It was big.

Lock had sort of gone overboard there. But it’d felt too good to push him away.

“We’re not talking about that,” I said, pinning Seek with narrowed eyes for ratting me out.

Billie licked her thumb, leaned over and swiped it over the spot, removing some of the concealer I’d put on it. She laughed when I batted at her hand.

“Can we talk about the fact that you’re in love with the man?” Kit asked.

My jaw dropped as I looked around at their eager faces. “What?” I gasped.

“Oh please,” Dani said with a roll of her eyes. “I’m your sister. You think I didn’t notice you were drooling over him?”

“You think the rest of us didn’t either?” Gwen asked.

“You did a good job of trying to pretend, though,” Eva assured me.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Billie said, scowling at me. “You fell in love with a man and didn’t tell me?” She lifted her hands up as though to say, ‘what the hell?’

We are two seconds away from the dog sniffing my panties and making another accusation.

“I-” Looking around at all of their faces, I sighed. “Is it really that obvious?”

“To us it is,” Susie said with a smile.

“Because we know you,” Tori added.

“And love you,” Seek tacked on.

“Are we bringing up the fact that Lock has been going a little insane without her here?” Jordan asked the group.

My eyes widened as I looked at her smug smile. “Going insane how?”

“The guys have been beating the shit out of each other for the last couple months,” Isla told me.

I arched a brow. “Yeah, but they do that when they’re bored.”

“But it’s all been centered around Lockout,” Daisha said with a shake of her head. “He’s in on every fight, like they’re trying to contain him.”

“Or force him to come to a realization,” Jenny added.

“I- He-” I couldn’t lie to them. “Look. We’re attracted to each other. There’s no doubt about that.” All their eyes dropped to my neck where the hickey was and I blushed. “But…”

“But what?” Dani asked. “Me and your best friend have both found bikers to love. There’s one left here. It seems kind of perfect. They make good babies.”

I rolled my eyes at her. “Sure, except I’m not willing to just sleep with the man. I…can’t.”

“Why not?” Isla asked. She looked over at Eva. “Idaho’s good in bed, right?”

Eva choked on a laugh. “Umm…yes?”

Isla gave her a confused look. “Why do you sound confused?”

“Why are you asking,” she fired back, cheeks a dull pink.

“They’re twins,” Isla said with a shrug. “I figure their abilities in bed are fairly similar.”

Seek barked out a laugh. “I don’t think that’s the way it works with twins, Isla.”

“I don’t know,” I said in a thoughtful tone. “Is Idaho demanding and a little controlling?”

“Yes,” Eva said with a nod.

“Then they might be,” I replied.

The others laughed. “I would expect that from Lock,” Sloane said, her voice soft. We all stared at her until she explained. “I mean he sort of has to be the take charge kind. All of these men are, and he’s the one who commands them all. I can’t imagine he changes that in his personal life.”

“No,” I said, “he definitely doesn’t. It drives me a bit crazy because he’s always telling me what to do.”

“But he lets you do what’s important, too,” Gwen pointed out.

“Yeah, like going to D.C.,” Dani added. “Which I still haven’t forgiven you for.”

“Speaking of,” I said, looking around. “Where is my niece?”

“She’s upstairs napping,” Dani said, waving a baby monitor around before setting it on the table.

“Syl’s watching the rest of the kids,” Jenny said. “Dani told us Lock would be bringing you here, so we made arrangements.”

Sighing, I smiled at them as the worry and fear lifted off my shoulders.

I was home. I was safe, for now. And I was so damn glad to see my friends.

This group of women had become my closest friends so quickly, it was almost like I’d known them all as long as I’d known Dani and Billie.

Even Isla seemed to just seamlessly fit in with us.

“So…” Seek said, her blue eyes glinting with mischievousness. “What are you going to do about the sexy biker?”

“Yeah,” Isla said. “I want to know more about why you can’t just sleep with him?”

“It’s her rule,” Billie told Isla.

“Rule?”

“She doesn’t sleep with men unless she’s going to be in a committed relationship with them,” Dani explained to the assassin.

“That’s no fun,” Isla said, making a face.

I laughed. “That’s probably true, but when you have a sister and a best friend who are as gorgeous as these two,” I pointed at Dani and Billie, “someone has to set the example. All the guys wanted to date them and I didn’t want them just sleeping with anyone.

So I made a rule for myself and hoped that they would follow it. ”

“Did they?” Gwen asked with a laugh.

“As far as I know,” I said, narrowing my eyes on my sister. I’d always felt so responsible for her. But it was of my own making. I loved her and wanted her to be safe.

“Eli was the first guy I ever slept with,” Dani said with a shrug. “Too bad he turned out to be scum.”

A glass of wine was shoved into my hand and I smiled up at Sloane. “Thank you, Sweetie.”

She smiled and passed out more glasses. I hadn’t even heard her get up and go to the nearby bar.

“You’re leaving out that most of the boys in school only asked the two of us out,” Billie said motioning to Dani and herself, “after they hit on you.” She rolled her eyes at the group. “We had to put up with being second choice.” But there was nothing but humor in her words.

“Honestly, none of us were very interested in those guys anyway,” Dani explained. “So there wasn’t a lot of dating.”

I turned to Isla. “I sort of kept that rule for myself and now I think it’s so ingrained in me I can’t shake it.”

Isla took a drink of the wine then nodded. “I guess if you want to have morals, I can’t fault you for that…”

We all laughed, and I shook my head at her.