Chapter 4 Lock #2
Kellan woke up while I grabbed a drink from the minibar, just to do something with my hands. I went to the window and stared into the dark yard, pretending I cared about the view and not the omega knocked out in my bed.
A little while later Wraith knocked on the frame and tossed a, “He’s awake,” over his shoulder like it was nothing.
I went back in.
Kellan was blinking up at me, still floaty and pale, fingers twisted in my blanket like it belonged to him. He tried to sit up. Tried to tell me he was fine. His body said otherwise.
I put a hand on his arm. Told him he was safe here. Told him to sleep.
And he did.
Just let go. Trusted my word enough to drop right back under in my bed.
It shouldn’t have hit anything under my ribs. It shouldn’t have made what I was about to do feel worse.
But it did.
I didn’t go far.
Just down the hall, far enough that I wasn’t breathing Kellan’s scent anymore, but close enough that if he so much as shifted wrong, I could get back in three strides.
But I didn’t look too closely at that either.
Wraith sent Ember back to their rooms and fell in behind me without a word. Grim who’d been waiting outside his suite pushed off the wall and joined us, steady as usual. Fuse came last, his tablet in hand, clearly he was already tracking perimeter pings and keeping an eye on the security feed.
This was my circle.
And it was usually five of us.
And Saint should’ve been standing here too.
Five of us meant balance. Four felt wrong, like the floor had tilted and nobody wanted to say it out loud.
It was usually five, and that was why we were here. Five of us were the circle… we’d been through hell together. And the fact Saint wasn’t here and why he wasn’t… because a man in Reaper colors put him in a hospital bed… and we still didn’t have a name for the bastard.
I stopped at the corner where the hallway bent toward the private suites, my suite included. Doors lined both sides, every one of them belonging to a senior patched member. It was late enough that the whole floor was quiet.
Or maybe they’d all made themselves scarce…
I leaned against the wall and pulled out my phone, and let the silence settle. My hand was steady. My temper wasn’t. Fury sat there, tight under my ribs, waiting for Rowan to give it a place to go.
I tipped my head once toward my door and something hit low and sharp, dragging my attention toward what I was about to do before I forced it back to the call I had to make.
Kellan was only twenty feet behind me, down the hall in my room, and that made every instinct I had sit too close to the surface. Leaving an omega in my bed while I made war calls went against every rule I’d ever written for myself.
Wraith folded his arms beside me, expression carved from stone. “You sure you want to do this right now?”
“No,” I said. “But I’m doing it.”
Grim took the opposite wall, silent and massive, the way he always was when things were about to get violent. His presence made the air feel heavier.
Fuse looked up, deadpan. “Well… Rowan definitely knows something. Their whole network just tripped like someone kicked a hornet’s nest.”
“Good,” I muttered. “Let’s make it worse.”
I scrolled to Rowan Roe’s private number and hit call with the speaker on.
The line rang once.
“What.” Rowan snapped—like he’d already been tearing into the nearest idiot and was looking for another throat.
“Rowan.” I drawled.
“Where is he?”
I could hear the pure fury through the speaker. “Where the hell is my son, Lachlan?”
I could tell it hit him then… I could hear it. The moment everything clicked into place on his end.
“He’s here.”
“Here where?” Rowan bit out. “You better not be saying what I think you’re about to say.”
“At the Crimson Havoc compound.”
I let the words fall slow, deliberate. “He’s alive and asleep. That’s all you need to know right now.”
Silence came through the phone, it was so thick. The kind you get right before a man flipped a table and starts breaking bones.
I could hear his breathing and it was harsh and heavy.
“If you’ve laid one hand—”
“No one’s touched him but me.” The taunt slid out before I stopped it. “And that was to pick him up after he passed out in my van. For now.”
His inhale wasn’t subtle. I could feel his rage but tangled in there was fear, alive and wild.
“I swear to God, Lock,” he growled, his voice breaking into something feral, “if you hurt him—”
“You already did.”
The air in the hallway tightened. Even Grim’s eyes flicked my way, and I read the surprise there at my words.
“You want to say that again?” Rowan’s voice was low and lethal.
“You heard me,” I said. “You left him in a house with two half-dead guards and a fence a toddler could slip through. My men dropped them in under a minute. If we could do that… anyone could’ve.”
“You broke into my home!” Rowan roared. “You drugged my men. You stole my son. You think that isn’t war?”
“There it is,” Wraith murmured under his breath.
I didn’t flinch.
“Your men were obstacles,” I said, my voice flat. “They could have been casualties.”
“Fuck you, Lachlan,” Rowan barked.
“You should be grateful,” I added, ignoring him. “Your security was a joke. Anyone could’ve walked in tonight. We just happened to get there first.”
“You crossed a line, Lachlan,” Rowan spat.
“The point is one of your patched idiots split my brother’s skull,” I bit out. “Saint’s in a coma. And I want the man who did it.”
“You got proof?” Rowan snarled. “You got a name?”
“That’s why we’re talking,” I said. “You’re going to give me one.”
He laughed and it was a vicious sound with no humor. “You are out of your damn mind.”
Maybe.
“You want Kellan back?” I said, calm settling over me. “Find the bastard who nearly put Saint in the ground. Bring him to my gates. Then we talk.”
“You are not holding my son hostage,” Rowan spat. “You hear me? My son isn’t currency.”
“He is now.”
Fuse looked up sharply. Grim whistled low.
“You steal my kid,” Rowan said, voice climbing again, “you don’t get to dictate a damn—”
“I didn’t steal him.” I kept my tone flat. “I removed him from a compromised situation. Your situation.”
“COMPROMISED?” he barked. “Is that what we’re calling kidnapping now?”
“You want to compare whose house failed first?” I asked. “Because right now Kellan is breathing easier in my bed and I can guarantee you it would be a whole hell of a lot harder to get to him now than when he was in your custody.”
Wraith shot me a look that said: careful.
I ignored it.
“You crossed a line,” Rowan growled. “Taking a man’s kid, there’s no coming back from that.”
“So did putting Saint in a fucking coma,” I said. “You want peace? Give me a name.”
“And I told you I’d look into it,” Rowan snapped back. “You think I’m hiding someone? You think I’m protecting the man who did it?”
“Yes,” I said simply.
Silence again. Sharper this time.
“Fuck you, Lock,” Rowan growled. “I don’t answer to you. I don’t owe you explanations.”
“Then I guess I don’t owe you your son.”
Fuse’s head jerked up. Grim’s brows pulled together. Wraith didn’t move, but his eyes sharpened. They weren’t shocked I was angry, they were shocked I was blatantly threatening an omega, some MC crossed that line but we we didn’t, kids and omegas were off the table.
Rowan’s voice finally dropped to something deadly calm. “What’s your deal. Spell it out.”
“One week,” I said. “Seven days. You find him. You bring him to me. Kneeling in front of my clubhouse. You walk away. Then Kellan goes home.”
“And if I don’t?”
I let the pause hang.
“Then your son is mine.”
“You’re bluffing,” Rowan snarled. “I know you. I know about your tidy little rules. You’re soft. You won’t hurt Kellan. You’re bluffing.”
Grim’s jaw flexed. Fuse muttered, “Oh, he wants to die.”
“Believe what you want,” I said. “But look at your house, Rowan. Your security failed. Your guards failed. You failed. And now your kid is sleeping in my bed.”
Rowan’s breath came through the speaker, raw and dangerous.
“You give me my son back,” he hissed, “or I put it out to every club on the East Coast that Crimson Havoc steals omegas.”
“Do it,” I said. “And I’ll tell them your men attack their own brothers for protecting one. Clubs don’t forget that kind of stain, Rowan. They’ll decide which sin they hate more.”
Another silence.
“You touch him,” Rowan didn’t shout this time, “and I will tear your club apart piece by piece.”
“You know what to do if you want to see your son again,” I said simply.
Then I hung up.
The quiet that followed was a physical thing.
Fuse blew out a long breath. “Jesus. That’s… done, then.”
Grim spoke for the first time, voice low. “You know he won’t take this lying down.”
I shrugged. “Make sure everyone’s on alert. No one should ride solo.”
My pulse was still hammering, adrenaline coursing through my veins, but beneath it was something I couldn’t put my fingers on.
The line was drawn. The clock had started.
“He’s not taking the deal,” Fuse said.
“He will.”
Wraith tipped his head. “And you’re sure of that why?”
I stared down the hallway toward my room. “Because he doesn’t have a choice.”
Wraith exhaled, slowly. “I’ll double the perimeter and rotate shifts. If Rowan moves, we’ll know before he hits the county line.”
“Good,” I said. “No one outside alone. Grim, lock down the interior routes. Fuse, monitor every channel.”
They nodded and peeled off to work.
Leaving me alone.
I went back to my room and opened the door quietly.
The world went small again.
Kellan was fast asleep curled on my bed, his breathing steady, his hair across his forehead.
With my blanket tucked around him. It did something to me knowing he was wrapped in my scent and his was already starting to mix with mine, turning the whole room into something that felt too much like a claim.
And all I could think was:
I just put him in the center of a goddamn war.
“Hell,” I muttered.
I dragged a hand down my face.
What are you doing, Lachlan?
I fuckin’ didn’t have an answer.