Chapter 15
Bolo
“You two finally acting like brothers?” Strike asked with a grin, as Relay and I walked into church.
Relay scowled at him. “What the hell is he talking about?”
Shrugging, I sat down in my usual spot.
“You came in together,” Flir said, not bothering to look up from the little notebook he was writing in. He carried that fucking thing around always and never stopped scribbling in it.
Sometimes I wondered if he was keeping track of his steps. I paused and cocked my head as a thought occurred to me.
I wasn’t sure what exactly I did to catch his attention, but he looked up at me.
“What?”
My eyes narrowed speculatively. “Just wondering if you count how many times you jack it before you bust.”
The other guys all cracked up laughing.
“Probably counts his thrusts, too,” OD added with a smirk.
“Tries to beat his top score,” Kilo said with a laugh.
“Would making a woman come with less thrusts be the top score?” Drifter asked.
“What else?” Relay asked, looking at him like he was crazy. “You’d get serious bragging rights if you get her off just by sliding inside her.”
“Right, I realize that,” Drifter said, tone dry. “But there’s also looking at it from a stamina point. You go for an hour… How many a minute would that be?” He stared up at the ceiling as though trying to count while we all watched him like he was a lunatic.
“You’re as bad as he is,” Relay told him, pointing at Flir.
“You’re all forgetting one thing,” Kilo pointed out. “A woman would have to be interested in him first.”
I snorted, gaining all of their attention.
“What?” OD asked.
Arching a brow, I shook my head. “Fucker gets more play than you did when you were single, OD.”
“Bullshit.”
Now I arched both brows. “You don’t believe me?” Flir was a bit of an enigma to…well everyone.
Flir sighed. “Why are we talking about this?” he asked, then looked over at me. “Why the fuck did you start this?”
“Inquiring minds,” I said with a shrug and no remorse.
“Do I even want to know?” Ruck asked as he walked in because everyone was staring at Flir, trying to figure out if I was telling the truth or not about him.
They didn’t realize it, but I wasn’t kidding.
The women flocked to Flir. He never touched the club girls.
They probably wouldn’t let him because I had no doubt he’d try to scrub them down with Lysol wipes before laying a finger on them, but that didn’t mean he didn’t pull the ladies.
I couldn’t explain why, but for whatever reason his obsessive quirks kept them coming. Pun intended.
He was usually the one keeping track of everything everyone did, so I wasn’t surprised the others hadn’t noticed his habits. He’d left the property often enough for dates. Both Ruck and I had noticed—Ruck didn’t miss a damn thing—but the others usually weren’t paying attention.
“No,” Flir grumbled.
Relay leaned back in his chair, folding his arms behind his head. “Just waiting on you, Prez.”
We hadn’t driven here together. We’d just happened to get here at the same time.
She didn’t know it, but I’d sat outside Devyn’s apartment all night.
She wasn’t ready for me to stay inside with her, and that was fine, but I wasn’t about to leave her alone just yet.
I needed to make sure those Collective fucks didn’t try something.
I hadn’t lied to her when I said she wasn’t in danger.
I was pretty sure they weren’t going to go full bore at our families.
Not this early. Yesterday’s attack had been them testing the waters.
They probably saw that I’d split up from the rest of the MC and took their shot.
They weren’t there for my brother or father, just me.
That didn’t mean that my family wasn’t in the crossfire, though.
Just that they hadn’t deliberately gone after them.
Yet. Trying for me while I was with my dad and Isaac had been the last thing those fuckers had done, so it wasn’t like they could learn from that mistake, but that wasn’t my fucking problem.
Maybe it would be a warning to the others.
Ruck sat down, his eyes landing on me. “What happened?”
I ran them through the attack, our response, and the clean-up.
Ruck nodded. “Any of you notice anything while you watched over his mom or old lady?”
I didn’t correct Ruck. Technically, I hadn’t claimed Devyn as my old lady, but that was mostly only because I was trying to keep her from running away from me.
I wasn’t letting myself think of her like that until I was sure she was going to stick around.
But we all knew that was where this was leading.
She was having my kid. Hell, even if she wasn’t pregnant she’d still be mine.
“It was quiet at Devyn’s,” Relay said with a shrug.
Strike and Drifter nodded in agreement.
“Merc said they didn’t see anything at home either,” I replied. “All quiet.”
“Figured,” Ruck said, “but it’s better we sent people there. I’ve got those three back there today. Just in case.”
“Appreciate that,” Relay told him. “Dad’s home for the day, and Isaac’s going to stick close as well, but the more eyes the better.”
“I don’t expect another round this soon,” Ruck told us. “I’m sure they were just testing out our abilities.”
“Figured out real quick not to fuck around with us,” Kilo said with a grin.
“Yeah, or they will once they find what’s left of their guys,” OD added.
“Glitch called about ten minutes after you did,” Ruck told me. “Said he wasn’t sure what was happening but there was movement on the targets he’s been watching for us.”
“Would’ve been a good head’s up if they hadn’t already been shooting at us by that point,” I replied. Not that I blamed Glitch. That was the problem with depending on technology to watch over your enemies.
Flir crossed his arms over his chest as he studied me. “You’re in a good mood.”
I shrugged. “Got to kill some fuckers. Everyone’s safe. What’s to be in a shit mood over?”
“He’s always in a good mood,” Relay added, sounding grumpy about that fact, though I wasn’t sure why. Other than the fact that he was a surly bastard most days now.
I knew what Flir was implying, though. I hadn’t been in a good mood for months.
Probably because the woman I wanted had been dodging me and there hadn’t been shit all I could do about it.
Getting Dev pregnant hadn’t been my plan, but I certainly wasn’t fucking complaining.
I had the woman I wanted and a kid on the way. Life was fucking good.
Maybe I might’ve chosen to wait on the kids for a year or two, but what was done was done and I was actually looking forward to this.
The prospect of being a dad made me wake up with a damn smile each morning.
Not that I’d slept last night. Devyn was at work today, so after church I was going to catch some sleep while she was safe in the fire station.
The nice thing about me working for my family was that when I needed them to cover for me, like now, it was no issue.
Dad knew I wasn’t going to be around for a couple of weeks.
Relay wasn’t either. Not while we dealt with this new threat.
We had a couple guys who Dad could call to take over while we were gone.
As if he could read my mind, Kilo looked over at me. “Cops are out at the factory. Your old lady’s there, too. I was posted up there all night.” He looked down at the watch on his wrist. “Until about forty-five minutes ago or so, anyway.”
I frowned. That shouldn’t be in her jurisdiction.
What were the odds that she would be the inspector?
With my luck, a hundred percent, clearly.
I probably should have accounted for that.
But how the fuck was I supposed to know?
She should be at her desk, inside the fire station, surrounded by twenty, or more, firemen.
Safe. Not in some burned out factory. I tensed, eyes flicking over to Ruck.
“Give me ten minutes,” he said. His eyes narrowed. “Better yet. Strike, once we’re done here, you and Flir go out to the factory and sit on Devyn. Wherever she goes, you go.”
“Will do,” Strike said. “Don’t worry, we’ll keep an eye on her,” he reassured me.
“Thanks.” I didn’t bother to ask why Ruck was assigning them. He knew I’d been at her place all night. That I needed to sleep. I ran on very little sleep, typically only needed three to four hours to be useful. But if I didn’t get that? It was only a matter of time until I crashed.
OD leaned forward, his elbows on the table and focused on Ruck. “So, what’s our plan?”
“We’re not sitting back anymore,” Ruck announced. “Fuckers jumped the gun faster than I thought they would.” He looked over at me. “Never meant for your dad or brother to end up being targeted.”
“Shit, Ruck. I know that. Besides, I think they were targeting me, not them. They just happened to be there with me.”
He nodded in agreement. “But now they know of at least two more people to gun for. I’m not waiting around for these fuckers to come at us, one by one. We’re going to level the playing field. Go at them full force.”
“Full frontal attack,” OD said with a wide grin.
Everyone looked at him and groaned.
“Keep your fucking full frontal to yourself,” Flir told him. “No one needs to see that shit.”
“Rue likes it,” he argued. “Besides I have a great looking-” he stood up as he spoke, his hands going to his belt and zipper.
“Don’t you fucking whip your dick out,” Ruck barked, then heaved a sigh.
“I was just-”
“Prove it to him later,” Ruck ordered.
OD shrugged and sat back down. “Just wait,” he warned Flir.
Flir had a resigned look on his face. He knew it was only a matter of time before he got ambushed and forced to look at dick. It was a matter of pride now for OD.
“We have a plan then?” Relay asked, bringing everyone’s attention back to the prospect of death and mayhem. There was anticipation and eagerness written all over his face.
“We do,” Ruck said. “We’re going to show these fuckers how big of a mistake they just made. Get ready.”
Grins flashed around the table. We were all ready for this. I needed to figure out what to do about Devyn. Other than that, I was looking forward to fucking these assholes up. They’d fucked with the wrong damn club.
They clearly thought we weren’t a threat to them.
We were going to have fun proving to them why they were wrong.
Relay and I exchanged glances. His eyes were cold but held that dangerous look that I’d gotten so used to seeing over the years.
I knew mine looked similar. It was time to hunt these fuckers down.