Page 16

CHAPTER 16

Toxic

L ock folded his arms over his chest, studying all of us as we took our seats for church. “Are you actually sober?”

Chuckling, I shrugged. “Can’t work with heavy machinery and be wasted. Not if you want to keep all your body parts intact. I’m partial to mine.”

“Fucker’s a cheerful son of a bitch when he’s not drunk,” Butcher muttered.

“I don’t know,” Riptide replied. “He’s pretty cheerful as a drunk, too. Overly friendly.”

“That’s because he mistakes you for a woman with the long hair,” Hush joked.

Rip flipped him off, but laughed right along with the rest of us.

Lock waited until we settled then pinned me with a look. “How’s it going out there?”

“No problems,” I replied. “Lots of shit needs fixing up, but no one has come sniffing around. Yet.”

“It’s like a never ending honey-do list,” Butcher complained. “I married an assassin so that I wouldn’t have to do normal people shit.”

“You haven’t married her yet,” Ricochet reminded him.

“Asked her to marry me,” Butcher muttered with a shrug. “Means we’re married. Whatever party she wants to throw to celebrate that isn’t any of my business.”

“Shit. You really don’t get women,” Priest said with a chuckle.

“He doesn’t understand anybody,” Smoke corrected.

“I understand how to snap that bone in your arm real easy,” Butcher countered.

Smoke grimaced, then nodded. “That’s a good point.” He sat back and shut up.

Hellfire laughed and shook his head. “I want to know more about the pretty woman Toxic is doing honey-do chores for. She seems interesting, but he’s keeping us so fucking busy when we’re out there we don’t get to ask her anything.”

“They’re not honey-do…” I sighed. “That’s a stupid fucking term. These are ranch chores. I’m working with tractors and balers and pigs and shit. Manly shit.”

“Uh huh,” Hellfire said. “And driving her around.”

“And cooking for her,” Ricochet added, getting into the spirit.

“Speaking of,” Priest added, “I have more groceries for you to take home. You owe me five hundred bucks at this point.”

“Five hundred…” I reached out and grabbed the receipt he held out. “How the fuck?”

“Shit’s expensive,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.

“You could buy the low cost shit,” I told him, eyeing the receipt.

“I am. You’ll never find a better budget shopper than me.”

Glaring at him, I sighed, then took my wallet out of my pocket and counted out the bills before handing them over. “It’s these fuckers,” I said, jerking a thumb at the rest of the guys. “They eat everything in sight.”

“Hey,” Smoke said, sounding indignant. “You have us painting. I hate fucking painting. Least you could do is feed us.” There was no heat behind his words. “In fact, would it kill you to have some beer on hand?”

“No,” I replied, “but it’ll kill you when you fall off the ladder and break your fucking neck. Then Dani will kill me. So no beer.”

“How about a pizza?” Smoke countered. “I’m getting sick of sandwiches.”

“Meat lovers,” Hellfire added. “And you better not make us fight over one pizza. Or no one else is getting any.”

“Fuck,” I muttered. That was going to be a big bill. Not that I didn’t have the money. I did. I just wasn’t used to spending it on shit like food. I usually drank my meals. Being on solids was spendy.

Lock just shook his head then looked over at Riptide. “What have you found out, Rip?”

Everyone focused on our VP and waited. The reason Lock had called church was because he said Rip had found something important.

“Fission Solutions is owned by Jonathan Brently.” Riptide looked around the room. When no one said anything, he nodded as though that confirmed something to himself. “Jonathan Brently is on the board of directors for Heliaz Relay Telecom Corporation.” The grim look on his face only deepened when the rest of us exploded.

“Those motherfuckers,” Butcher said, slamming a fist onto the table.

Evan Danners had been on the board for Heliaz Relay and had tried to have Butcher killed. Danners was toast now, thanks to Butcher, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t weird that Heliaz Relay was cropping back up in our lives.

“Is this a coincidence?” Static asked, looking skeptical.

“Believe it or not, I actually think it is,” Rip said, looking over at me.

“Why would a telecommunications company be after a local rancher?” I asked.

“That’s exactly what I was asking myself. And that’s why I don’t think Heliaz Relay is involved. Jonathan Brently founded Fission Solutions, and it’s a nuclear energy company.”

“Same question applies,” Lock said. “What do they want with that ranch?”

Rip reached forward and grabbed the remote for the TV hanging on the wall. He flipped it on then tapped on his laptop in front of him. “This is Cholla Summit Ranch,” he told the room, showing a mapping image of Billie’s place.

“Decent sized place, but nothing so big a large company would want to buy it out,” Idaho said, speaking for the first time. He was studying the map. “Does it have a fucking diamond mine hidden on it or something?”

“Or something,” Rip said, giving him an approving look. He tapped the laptop again and now we were looking at a map overlaid on another map.

“What the fuck is all that?” Lock asked, looking at the color-coded formations dotting Cholla Summit Ranch.

I frowned, staring at them. “Is that underneath the soil?”

“Yeah,” Riptide said with a nod. “That’s Uranium deposits.”

“What?” I muttered leaning forward and studying the map more intently. “Holy shit, they’re everywhere.”

“It’s scattered pretty thin. Up until a few years ago it wouldn’t be worth the effort to mine, but new mining tech makes it highly profitable now,” Rip explained.

“Well, that explains why a nuclear energy company is so invested in this place then,” Hush said, leaning back in his chair.

“Exactly,” Riptide said with a nod. “I knew it had to be something in connection with what they’d be interested in. This geological survey was done in the early nineteen twenties.”

“Does Billie know about this?” Lock asked me.

“Not as far as I know. Not even sure her grandfather knows about it,” I told them. “Pretty sure one of them would have brought it up if they did.”

“For those of us who’ve been working out at that fucking place are we going to start glowing neon and shit?” Smoke asked, arching a brow.

Riptide chuckled. “No. Uranium deposits put off super low amounts of alpha radiation, typically-”

“In English,” Hellfire told him.

Riptide shook his head. “It’s buried beneath soil and rock. Alpha radiation has a low…output…and wouldn’t even be likely to affect the local plant life, let alone animals grazing there, or people living there.”

“So Billie’s not in any danger?” I asked. I was a rancher, not a fucking geologist. This was just as new to me as the rest of the guys.

“Not likely. If the deposits were putting off higher levels of radiation they would have known about it before now, since that ranch has been in her family for so long,” he replied.

“So Fission Solutions wants to run her off her ranch so they can dig up those Uranium deposits,” Lock said, getting back to business. “At least now we know why they’re doing this.”

“As far as I can tell, this is Jonathan Brently and has nothing to do with Heliaz Relay,” Rip reiterated.

“But that fucking company obviously doesn’t give a shit that it’s run by a bunch of lowlife shitheads,” I growled. “Who the fuck is fine with beating an old man nearly to death and trying to run a woman off her property?”

Everyone muttered in agreement.

“So I kill Jonathan Brently and this shit stops,” I told the room.

Lock’s brows shot up. “You may be spending too much time with Butcher,” he told me with a grin.

Butcher shook his head. “Nope. He’s always been like this. You don’t fuck with his people or his land. Do either and he’ll rain hell down on you. That’s not my doing.”

A sly grin formed on Lock’s face. “His people, huh?”

I shot him an unamused look. “Don’t-”

“Oh yeah,” Hush said, interrupting me. “Did we forget to tell ya that Toxic’s in love?”

“He was here for the whole part before,” I muttered, glaring at Hush. “Remember the fucking groceries?”

Hush shrugged. “Gotta make sure he realizes what we’re sayin’.”

Lock chuckled. “Yeah. I get it. Just didn’t think I’d see Toxic fall so damn fast.” He cocked a brow at me. “You sure you’re willing to give up on all the potential women you’ll meet in the future?”

“One woman for the rest of your life,” Hush added.

“Kids,” Priest said with a grin.

This was it. With them asking outright, I wasn’t going to lie. It didn’t matter that I hadn’t discussed this with Billie yet. I was off the market the minute she aimed that shotgun at my balls and I knew it. “There’s not going to be other women anymore,” I told them.

They all hooted with laughter and Static handed Idaho a stack of bills.

“Wasn’t sure I’d see the day,” Lock said, but he wasn’t kidding around anymore. “Congratulations, Brother.”

“Thanks,” I told him, “but I still have to convince her to be my old lady.”

“Wait,” Hellfire said with barely contained laughter. “The man who can talk damn near any woman into bed is having trouble convincing one to let him stick around?”

Ricochet elbowed him. “Would you want him sticking around more than one night?”

Flipping them off, I scowled at them until they stopped laughing. “I haven’t even brought it up to her yet. We’ve known each other for a fucking week. Slow your roll.”

“That’s what I was going to say,” Lock told me. “It’s been a short amount of time. You sure?”

I met his eyes and it was my turn to raise my brows, this time in challenge. “Some of us know right away. Takes others longer to figure it out.”

Everyone went quiet, holding their breaths to see how Lock would respond to me calling him out about burying his head in the sand. It was time for our president to realize he’d already found his old lady and do something about it.

“Fuck off, Toxic,” he growled at me.

“Just saying.” And the only reason I was saying it was because we were friends. We wanted to see Lockout happy. “You deserve a little fucking happiness.”

“He’s not wrong,” Hush said, giving Lock a meaningful look.

“You’re all a bunch of meddling assholes,” Lock said, looking amused now. “Just because you’re all happily married off doesn’t mean we all need that.”

I exchanged a glance with Butcher. Lock needed that just as much as we did. More probably. But I wasn’t about to push my fucking luck. I was already lucky enough he didn’t toss me out on my ass for calling him out in front of the others. Desperate times and all that.

Screaming and cheering interrupted the conversation. We were out of our seats and heading out to the main part of the clubhouse so fast me and Hell got stuck in the doorframe while everyone else piled up behind us.

“Move you fucking sasquatch,” I barked at him, shoving him back so I could get out there and see what happened. My gun was in my hand when I bolted into the main area. My steps stuttered as I watched the women crying and hugging. “What the hell?”

“Fuck,” Lock muttered. “I’m going to make a fucking rule. No screaming unless someone’s trying to murder you.”

I glanced over at him. “Prez-”

“Don’t,” he said, slapping his hand on my shoulder. “I’m happy for you, but we’re not fucking talking about me right now.”

“Got it.” I left him alone. Didn’t want him going full lockout on my ass. That never ended well.

Priest walked over, grinning and plucking Jenny out of the throng of women, holding her against his side. Her feet weren’t even touching the ground as he held her with one arm. “We have an announcement,” he told the room.

“I’m pregnant!” Jenny called out happily.

I waded in, ignoring Priest’s curse as I grabbed Jenny out of his arms and hugged her. This was good news. Something that was desperately needed because I wasn’t looking forward to telling Billie what I’d learned. That could wait until later. For now, we’d celebrate.