25. Deacon #2
I gripped her chin and forced her stare to stay locked with mine. “There is nothing about you that is selfish, Char. Nothing you need, nothing you want, and nothing you’re after. Understood?”
Her lower lip quivered, and I slid my thumb along it. “Yes.”
“Good girl. Now, why don’t you go upstairs and get ready for that shower you said you needed. I’ll be up in a second.”
“For what?” she asked incredulously.
It was my turn for my eyes to fall to her lips. “For anything you’d like.”
The sharp bout of air she sucked in matched the way her cheeks turned pink right before my very eyes. I wanted to claim her, right there against the glass door. I wanted to showcase her to the world. I wanted my men to listen as she screamed my name while coming around my cock.
I had to address my men first, though.
I had to make sure they were good.
“Go on,” I said with a nod of my head, “I’ll be up as soon as I can.”
And the way she scampered off made my dick twitch.
Eager little girl.
“All right, listen up!” I bellowed across the house. “Foyer! Now!”
The stampede of boots against the floor of the clubhouse rattled the walls as my men did what was asked.
With the signal jammers in place, church didn’t have to be held in a specific place, so I didn’t coop us up in one.
I parted the gathering crowd, walking into the middle of my men as they stood there, watching me carefully.
I saw the fear in all of their eyes, and I had no one to blame but myself and my lazy fucking nature.
“Until further notice,” I said as I held my hand up into the air to declare silence, “lockdown is now around the clock. Twenty-four hours. No one comes and goes without a partner, no one comes or goes without someone else inside of the house knowing where that couple is, and absolutely no one comes or goes without an earpiece. Plug!”
“I got ’em right here,” he said as he passed them out.
“Now,” I said as I slipped my hand back down to my side, “Plug’s got signal jammers in place and turned on, so the clubhouse is safe from electronic infiltration for now.
However, that doesn’t mean we’re in the clear.
Nothing will work getting in to surveil us, but this woman is a professional, so for all we know she’ll find a way to get around it.
That means whatever you communicate—whatever you research—assume it’s being intercepted. ”
Mace raised his hand. “What about the patrol routes? What are we doing with those?”
Gauge stepped out of the fold and up to my side.
“We’re gonna double down on certain routes and pull away from others.
This woman expects us to make a move, so we’re gonna play into her hand.
We’re gonna make the moves she wants us to make while we’re working in the background to protect ourselves. ”
“Be alert,” I said as I raised my hand back into the air to calm the murmuring crowd.
“Once this woman realizes that she can’t track us at our homebase, she’ll make a mistake just to get closer to us.
We are her target, so starving her of information is the only way to pull her out of the shadows again. ”
“You think she’s watching this place?” Char asked.
All of us whipped around and found her standing at the top of the steps in nothing but a robe and her hair pulled back.
“Char,” I said with a warning in my voice, “why don’t you go back upstairs and?—”
But Rat interjected. “At this rate, Char? To assume she isn’t would be a death sentence for all of us.”
“Rat,” I glowered.
“What?” he asked as he turned to face me. “She deserves to know.”
“I was told I’d know everything you guys knew in exchange for staying here so that you guys could keep an eye on me,” Char said.
“And I was going to fill you in once I got upstairs,” I said curtly.
“So,” she said as she started down the stairs, “what is the plan, then? To draw her closer to this place?”
I looked around the room as the sea of men parted, making way for her as she stepped off the last step. She looked so vulnerable, and yet so strong.
But goddamn it, that robe of hers was short.
“Our hope,” I said as I cracked my neck, “is that when she realizes she has to get inside this place to get to us, she’ll fuck up and come out of the woodworks.”
Char nodded. “So that you can fight her on home turf.”
“Exactly,” Dallas said as he piped up for what felt like the first time that day.
“What about the bar, though?” she asked. “What about DeShawn and M.J.?”
Dallas walked over to her and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “As long as we keep the target on our backs and stay out of town, she’s got no reason to go around the bar in the first place.”
Char pointed to Rat, though. “When he and I were outside on the porch, Rat suggested that the reason why I’m the only one who’s seen the ATF agent in person is because she feels that I’m a way she can get to you guys.
So what if she gets to me through them? Are they safe then, Deac? Can you promise me that?”
God, I hated a woman that argued. Especially intelligently. She had every right to be worried, and I had more of a reason to chastise myself.
How the fuck had I let this get so far out of control?
“You’re really not gonna do this, are you?” Plug asked. “At a time like this? We’ve barely got the space to bring two other people into the house.”
Char rushed up to me. “I’m not saying we bring them here. I completely understand why we can’t do that. But that doesn’t mean we can’t get them out of town. Send them on vacation, maybe?”
“Char, I?—”
“They’re in this mess because of me,” she said as tears lined her eyes again.
“What?” Dallas asked. “Do you really think that?”
She wiped at her eyes once more. “It’s my fault they’re in this mess. I wanted to know what was going on. I wanted to know what you guys were doing. I wanted to get the bar back for Miss Lilly, and I dragged them into this. We were planning?—”
The guilt that wafted over her face forced me to take her into my arms. I couldn’t have her looking like that and feeling so fucking alone.
Even if I was in front of my men.
“It’s not your fault,” I murmured.
Her shuddering sobs broke something in me.
“They’re in this be-because of me. I-I-I—was so fucking stubborn.
An-and—and they were supportive, and—I kept telling them what I kept figuring out, which makes them targets, right?
They know that agent was an ATF agent, so she’s going to be interested in them, right? ”
I looked at both Dallas and Gauge, who both simply shrugged.
“And look,” Char said as she pulled away from me, “DeShawn takes care of his mother, all right? She’s not well, and if something happens to him, she’s got no one. And M.J.? I’m not sure that girl’s ever been on a vacation. She’d?—”
I couldn’t stand to hear the tears laced with that beautiful voice of hers. And to be fair, if she wrapped them up in the beginning of it all with whatever cockamamie plan they crafted, she was probably right.
That woman probably had them somewhere in her sights.
“Mace,” I said as I pointed to him.
He shoved his way past the guys and came to stand beside Char. “What’s up?”
“Book vacations for both M.J. and DeShawn and his mother.”
He crooked an eyebrow. “Without throwing flags on accounts that woman probably already has eyes on?”
I nodded. “I know you’ll think of something. Let me know where they’re headed and when, but tell no one else. The fewer people that know, the better.”
Char placed her hand on my forearm. “Thank you, Deac. Really.”
I shook my head. “Don’t thank me just yet.”
“Anything else?” Mace asked.
I shook my head. “Everyone, you have your orders. Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!”
“And make sure they’re safe, please!” Char called out after Mace.
I clapped my hands and dismissed the guys. I needed space. I needed a moment to breathe. I felt like I lived four days within one, and I needed a moment to stop.
To think.
To rest.
To distract myself.
“Miss Char,” I said as I offered her my arm.
She looked down at it before a grin spread across her lips. “Mr. Deacon.”
“Mmmm,” I grumbled as she threaded her arm with mine, “be careful with a name like that.”
“Why’s that, Mr. Deacon?”
The sultry notes of her voice twitched my dick as we headed up the stairs. “Why don’t we get you in that shower while Mace is getting your friends squared away.”
“Are you gonna get in with me?”
I licked my lips as we turned a corner at the top of the steps. “Do you want me to?”
She giggled. “Wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t.”
Goddamn it, I loved how bold she was. “Then come here.”
“Ah!” she squealed as I scooped her up.
With her body curled against mine, I walked us all the way into her bedroom.
I kicked the door closed and headed straight for the bathroom where I perched her on the countertop just long enough to lock the door behind me.
I turned to face her, watching as she unraveled the bow around her robe.
The fabric slid off her shoulders, revealing her porcelain white skin that was dotted with freckles.
How did I never notice those before?
“Like what you see?” she asked cheekily.
I growled as I rushed her, my cock growing against my jeans. “Don’t tease the beast, little one. It doesn’t end well for you.”
And as she leaned forward, her daring words snapped something inside of me.
“Prove it.”