Chapter 11
Hellfire
Ikept an eye on the door after that. It was bullshit that Pixie had shown up here.
She knew better. She was just trying to get a rise out of me.
Or piss off the girls. Something. She wouldn't want to do anything bad enough to have Lockout banning her from the club, but it was obvious she was finished behaving.
It lasted longer than I thought it would, to be honest.
I'd read her the riot act that day after she'd been caught fighting with Seek.
Told her I was going to get her banned if she pulled something like that again.
Threatened to tell her father what she was really doing here.
He mistakenly thought she was somehow a part of the club.
He didn't know that his daughter chose to whore herself out in hopes someone would eventually make her his old lady.
Uncle Hal was a good guy. I couldn't break his heart like that.
He only recently established a relationship with Pixie again.
He and her mom had gotten divorced when she was three and Aunt Colleen had done everything in her power to kick him out of their lives.
Once she turned eighteen Pixie had searched my uncle out to berate him for leaving, never believing that her witch of a mother refused to let him near his daughter.
Like mother, like daughter. Neither woman was likable.
I wasn't sure how Uncle Hal had put up with his ex-wife as long as he had.
He was the complete opposite of his ex. He was a kind man, with a huge heart.
He'd been devastated when his wife kicked him out.
It had taken years for him to get over it and move on with his life.
He'd remarried, had two more children, and seemed happy.
I didn't want to ruin that for him. I needed to find another way to deal with my cousin.
"You okay?"
I looked over and found Lockout watching me. I'd been standing by myself, watching the party from the fringes for about half an hour now and I hadn't even heard him walk up. "Fine."
Lockout sighed. "Why don't I just kick her off property?"
Cringing, I shook my head. "Don't do that. I mean, unless she does something to deserve it."
"I never could figure it out, Hell." His hazel eyes studied me. "You hate having her here, but you didn’t ever say you wanted her gone."
Sighing, I rolled my shoulders. The left was still a little tight from when I'd been shot. It didn't seem to matter how much I stretched it, there was a lingering ache. "If she wasn't here, she'd be with another club."
"Yeah."
I ground my teeth together. We shouldn't be talking about Pixie tonight.
I shouldn't be pissed off and hanging out alone because my cousin pulled one of her usual stunts.
Lock had a hard and fast rule. The sweet butts didn't come to family parties.
They were kept as separate as we could manage.
Pixie broke that rule tonight. I was sure she did it on purpose.
She was the definition of difficult. I knew for a fact that Lock kept her here for me.
Because he knew that for whatever reason, it was easier for me to have her here, even though I hated it at the same time.
"I promised my parents I'd keep an eye on her," I admitted.
"To keep her safe?"
"Sort of. That, but more...to keep her in line.
She's embarrassed my family in a lot of ways over the last four years.
Once she showed up on my uncle's doorstep, it's been her mission to destroy what he has.
He can't see it, though, and refuses to kick her out of his life. So, we're all stuck with her."
"Hal doesn't even live here anymore," Lock pointed out. "Why didn't she move when he did a few years back?"
"She found out what I was doing and decided she wanted to be a part of the lifestyle." I shook my head. "But she's a bitch. No one is ever going to wife her up. No one decent anyway. She'll figure it out eventually."
Lock nodded. "Whatever is easiest for you, Hell. You say the word and she's gone." He clapped a hand on my shoulder, giving it a squeeze. We stood in silence for a bit after that, watching everyone enjoy themselves.
I understood why Pixie wanted this. It was hard not to be drawn to the way my brothers and their wives banded together.
She'd only ever had her mother growing up.
Colleen did her best to turn Pixie as toxic as she was.
It'd worked and now my cousin was nothing but a pain in the ass.
She was family, but only to a point. The way she'd treated Uncle Hal over the years, the rest of us were ready to cut all ties the moment he said the word.
Until then, we'd keep her under control as much as possible so she didn't break his heart even further.
"You're brooding."
Looking over, I offered Kit a smile that wasn't quite real. "I don't brood."
Her brows shot up. "Hell, you're the king of brooding. You're all dark eyes and fierce scowl right now. Rumor has it Batman takes brooding lessons from you."
That got a laugh out of me. She always knew how to make me laugh. "It's Pixie," I admitted.
"Did she come back?"
"No. I'm just sick of cleaning up her messes."
"You've been doing it for a long time," she said with a nod.
She didn't say anything else, knew better than to try to force me to talk when I wasn't feeling up to it.
That was the thing. This woman knew me better than most. There was no new, exciting, getting to know you stage.
We already knew each other. Which meant we were just slipping into a comfortable relationship like we'd been together forever.
I liked it. That was what I wanted. She was what I wanted, and I finally had her.
I'd been a dickhead for making us both wait this long.
"We could get out of here," I suggested with a low growl.
She laughed when I grabbed her and pulled her in close. My lips were already brushing over her neck. "Hell," she groaned. "We can't leave now."
"Why not?" I asked, nibbling on her earlobe. She shivered in my arms and it took everything in me not to throw her over my shoulder and drag her out of here.
"Because we're hosting the party," she reminded me. "We'd hurt the girls' feelings."
I sighed, resting my forehead against hers. "You're right."
"Of course, I am."
"Are we interrupting something?"
I looked up at Smokehouse's voice. He and Dani were standing there watching us. Dani was grinning like a fool while my best friend looked like he was ready to rip my head off.
Kit laughed, stepping back and slipping her arm around my waist. "No. We're just having fun."
Smoke's eyes narrowed as they landed on me. I smirked at him. “Not as much fun as we’ll be having later.” I said, winking at Smokehouse to get a rise out of him.
He knew exactly what I'd been doing. He also knew Kit would never let him get away with treating me badly for it.
Just because he'd given his blessing and wanted me to be with his sister didn't mean he wanted to watch me kiss up on her at one of our parties.
Whatever. He'd get used to it eventually.
"You two are adorable," Dani gushed. Before I could thank her, Keely, Jordan, and Gwen rounded her up to go sit with the others. They were about to start opening presents.
"Hell. Smoke."
My head snapped to my left. Rip's tone held a level of urgency we almost never heard from him, though he was keeping his voice low so as not to alert anyone else. "What's going on?" I asked. Toxic and Butcher made their way over, somehow sensing trouble. I couldn't figure out how they always knew.
"Cops." Riptide shot us a grim look.
I looked down at Kit. "Keep all the women and kids inside," I told her. She nodded, but I grabbed her chin, forcing her to meet my eyes and pay attention. "I'm serious, Kit. No one comes outside until we give the all clear." I bent and kissed her then walked outside to see what was going on.
Lock and the others were already over by the front gate, speaking with one of the police officers. There were four squad cars waiting outside the compound.
"What's this about?" Lock asked as we joined them.
"We got a noise complaint," the cop replied.
"From who?" Hush growled. There weren't any residential places near us. The closest thing was the apartment buildings down the road, which Rip happened to own. Not to mention that as loud as the girls could be when together, it was nothing compared to our normal parties.
"Anonymous call," the second officer answered with a smug smile.
"No problem," Lock said, crossing his arms over his chest. "We'll keep it down."
The cops exchanged looks. They hadn't been expecting that. "Uh. We need to search the area."
"Not happening without a warrant," Static answered. "Good luck getting one for a noise complaint. Especially when we've already agreed to cooperate and turn down the music."
The music was only a muffled noise from within The Bunker's walls. This wasn't about noise. This was Fremont. He was the last thing we needed to deal with right now.
“It’ll be faster for you if you just let us take a look around. Then we’ll be gone and out of your hair,” the officer said. It was a thinly veiled threat, but not one that was going to make us comply. We knew the laws well, and even if we didn’t, Static did.
"You're not coming on property until you get a warrant," Lock told them again.
The officers looked pissed, but they knew they couldn't do anything about it.
They'd have to get permission from a judge before they could search our compound.
There was nothing here for them to find anyway.
We didn't keep our guns in places they would discover them.
The clubhouse had plenty of false walls and hiding places. And all our businesses were legal.
"Don't make us have to come back," the original cop told us, giving in, knowing his hands were tied. We all knew it was an empty threat, an attempt to save face.
"Have a good night," the second officer said with a large, toothy smile, smacking his gum.
I burned their faces into memory before they walked off. They weren't just random beat cops. We’d be seeing them again before this was all over with Fremont.
We waited by the gate while they spoke with their fellow officers back by the cars, then they all got into their vehicles and left.
"Fucking dickheads," Priest muttered.
"What do we do now?" Toxic asked. "Fremont clearly isn't going to wait for us to finish with The Italians."
Lock frowned. "As long as we don't give him a chance to catch us doing anything, he won't have a choice."
"Hard to do when we're going to be taking out a huge crime syndicate in the city," Butcher pointed out.
"We'll discuss this tomorrow," Lockout declared.
"Church at nine. No one say anything to the women.
I don't want to ruin the baby showers, or have them worrying for no reason.
" He eyed Butcher and Toxic for an extra moment before addressing everyone.
“Best behavior, they will be looking for a reason, any reason to come at us.”
We all agreed and headed back inside. Kit was smiling and keeping everyone busy.
I didn't know what she told them to keep them from wondering why we'd disappeared, but the women were exclaiming over gifts being opened and the kids were in a sugar coma in the corner, most of them passed out on the floor.
We'd been partying for hours and it was all catching up to them.
They were sleeping through all the commotion.
We joined the women, and I could feel Kit's curious gaze on me. "Later, Vixen," I told her under my breath.
She nodded and we focused back on the women in front of us.
Priest grabbed a few extra guys to help with the perimeter sweeps for the rest of the night.
I'd take my turn out there in an hour or two so everyone could have a good time.
My heart sank in my chest. We were surrounded by fucking enemies.
The prospect of a fight usually revved me up, but this time, I had too fucking much to lose.
Stepping behind Kit, I wrapped my arms around her.
Holding onto her eased some of the tension. She was safe. So were the others.
Lock would come up with a plan for The Italians and if we were lucky enough we wouldn't end up facing both enemies at once. But if we did, we'd handle it. We always did. This was our town and nothing was going to keep us from protecting it. We sure could use a fucking break, though.