Chapter 33
Devyn
The next morning, I quickly packed my bag and tried not to look worried. I didn’t want to stress Bolo out any more than he was. The Collective had attacked the clubhouse last night.
Bolo hadn’t seemed very surprised that it’d happened, but it was easy to see that he was frustrated. He’d explained that they’d tossed grenades over the fences onto the property. No one had been hurt and no Collective members—he’d used a much different name for them—had gotten onto the compound.
But, according to Bolo, Ruck didn’t like how ‘ballsy’ The Collective was getting.
So, they were going to get everyone a new place to stay until all this was over.
Some place not connected to the club so they wouldn’t come after us.
As he had put it, the club welcomed the idea of fighting on their home turf, just not with women and kids present.
That was going to take a few days, and Ruck didn’t want any of the families staying at the clubhouse until they were ready to move us. They’d be here, in case The Collective tried anything, but we’d be elsewhere.
I was staying with Sophie. Which was why Bolo was stressed.
He didn’t want us to be apart, but he also agreed with Ruck, that staying here was too dangerous.
I’d tried to tell him that Sophie and I were excited to get to spend a couple days hanging out together.
She’d taken time off work, and I’d already talked to Lou about an extended leave of absence.
He’d approved it immediately, no questions asked.
I still wasn’t sure what I was going to do about my quickly dwindling time off, but that was a problem for another day.
“You have everything?” Bolo asked, taking the two bags off the bed as soon as I finished zipping them.
“It’s more than I need,” I admitted. “I’m a notorious over packer.”
He smiled, but the amusement didn’t reach his eyes. “I’ll remember that for when we travel places.”
I didn’t comment, but my heart gave a little flutter. He’d been saying things like that more and more. Things that included me in a future with him. And there wasn’t an ounce of hesitation in me anymore. He’d thoroughly won me over.
“I’ll be stopping by a couple times a day,” he told me as he carried my bags down to the SUV. “I won’t always come in and say hi, but I’ll be out there.”
I placed a hand on his bicep after he set my bags in the back seat. “Thank you. We’re going to have a great time. You don’t need to worry.”
He pulled me into a hug. “They’re looking for their money,” he told me, his deep voice rumbling through me as he squeezed me close. “They’d be thrilled to get a real shot at us.”
“It’ll probably be the last thing they do,” I said, looking up at him and grinning.
He smirked back at me. “Hell, yeah, it would be. Well, technically the last thing they’ll do is go splat on the pavement, but yeah.
Ruck doesn’t want them getting the opportunity to go after any of you.
You, the other old ladies, the kids, none of you are their targets.
And in a couple days you’ll be in the wind.
In the meantime, we’re going to be going at them hard and fast. They won’t have time to even think about going after our families.
They’ll be too busy fighting for their lives. ”
“I’m not worried,” I told him. “Other than for you guys. I don’t want anything to happen to you.
” I shook my head in wonder at what my life had become.
Never had I ever thought I’d be hiding out, keeping off the radar of bad guys, or dating an extremely sexy biker.
Despite the craziness, I had zero regrets.
The drive over to Sophie’s only took about twenty minutes. Sophie waved at us as we pulled up. “I’m so excited!” she squealed and gave me a hug.
“Me too, Soph. Thanks for letting me stay.”
She scoffed at that. “You’re always welcome.”
I’d told her this morning, when I’d called, why I needed a place to stay for a couple days. She knew about The Collective—and that Bolo had started that factory fire—and that they’d attacked the clubhouse. She’d insisted I stay after she heard that.
Bolo brought my bags into Sophie’s guest bedroom. He set them on the bed, then took me in his arms. My heart melted as he held me close. He sure knew how to make me feel cherished and protected.
Then he kissed me senseless and I had to remind my heart that we were trying to keep my blood pressure low. The way he could go from calming and soothing me, to riling me up needed to be studied. The man was a master at it.
“Just so you know, I fucking hate to leave the two of you.” He placed his big hand on my belly.
And there I went, melting again. He was as obsessed with his baby as I was.
He’d started talking to our son each night.
The first night, I’d started responding to him as he spoke and he just gave me a look, then told me he wasn’t talking to me.
I’d laughed and then watched as he laid his head near my stomach and went back to talking to our boy. He did that every night now.
He’d felt our son kick for the first time the other night and I never thought I’d see a man like him melt.
His eyes had softened and he’d kept his hand there for over an hour.
Now every time Bolo talked to our boy, he responded with kicks.
Other than just a few stray kicks here or there that was the main time our boy kicked, when Bolo was talking to him.
They were still just flutters but it was amazing to feel our baby respond to his father.
“I know,” I replied. “But it’s only a couple days.” I wasn’t sure if I was convincing him or myself of that fact, because I wasn’t looking forward to sleeping alone.
I walked him to the porch and hugged him again. “Be careful. Please.”
“Promise,” he told me with a grin. Then he turned and walked away.
I knew he was doing that because otherwise we’d just stand there together all day. I almost couldn’t believe how quickly he’d inserted himself into my life, and now it felt weird to watch him drive away.
Sophie wrapped her arm around my shoulders. “Why do I get the feeling something big is happening?”
“Because it is.” She raised her brows in question. “They’re going after the two factions. Probably tonight, though I don’t have all the details.”
“Really?” she breathed. “That’s crazy. Do we need to go somewhere else? Somewhere they can’t find us?”
I shook my head. “Bolo said The Collective is going to be too busy staying alive to come for us. And they have some clubs from Tucson and Wyoming keeping tabs on the rest of The Collective to make sure they don’t make a move while The Saint’s Outlaws take down these two sections of the organization.
Having us be nowhere near the clubhouse, or them, is their way of protecting us and keeping us out of it. ”
“Good. That makes me feel better.” She squeezed me close to her side. “I say we eat pizza and watch some of our favorite movies.”
“That sounds like a perfect night to me,” I said, laying my head on her shoulder.
We still stood there for a few more minutes, both just staring down the road.
I wasn’t sure why, but I had this sinking feeling in my gut.
Pushing it away, I went inside with my sister.
Bolo and his brothers could handle anything The Collective threw at them.
There wasn’t any reason to worry about them.
Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen.
* * *
I opened the door a couple hours later and hugged my parents.
We’d forgone the movies and decided to invite the family over for pizza and game night instead.
It’d been too long since we’d done that.
And who knew how long it would be until we could again.
It was hard to dominate in Monopoly when you had a crying infant to change and feed.
Handing over the money I owed in rent for landing on Audrey’s property, I ignored her incessant crowing. As the baby, she had the worst attitude when she was winning. Sadly, she was worse if she was losing. Right now she was beating the crap out of all of us. It was probably better this way.
“Honey,” Mom said, laying a hand on my arm. “We were hoping we could speak with you.”
“Nuh uh,” Audrey said, pointing at our mother. “You’re not pausing the game until after I finish slaughtering them.”
Mom gave her a perplexed look. “I honestly don’t know where you got this competitive streak from.”
Dad choked on the beer he was trying to swallow. He wisely kept his mouth shut as his wife glared at him. Mom was notorious in our family. You didn’t ask her to play a game unless you were willing to put up with her overly competitive nature.
“About what?” I asked, doing a quick tally in my head of my remaining money. One more stop on one of Audrey’s properties and I was screwed. Mom and Dad shared loaded looks. I sat back in my chair, watching them closely.
Ultimately, it was Dad who spoke. “I was talking with Lou the other day.”
“Dad…” I said, frowning at him. “I told you I’d figure out what I wanted to do about my job on my own.”
“I know, I know, but…I had an idea. And I wanted to run it by Lou before I mentioned it to you.”
“What kind of idea?” I asked, trying not to be irritated.
He was just trying to help and I really wasn’t sure what I was going to do about my job after I had the baby.
I didn’t want to give it up. But I also didn’t want to have next to no time with my baby, once I had him.
And between doctor appointments and now taking this time off, it was already eating into my leave.
“I wanted to ask Lou about what it would take for you to go freelance,” Dad told me, a smile starting to build on his face.