Chapter 15
Hellfire
The next week passed quickly. Smoke, Ricochet, Rip, and I had been busy as fuck speaking with our contacts and getting them on board to help keep Fremont and his minions off our ass.
Lock, Hush, and Priest were busy making plans for The Italians.
We’d found a chain of laundromats that Amato was using to launder his money.
Seemed a bit on the nose to me, but what the fuck did I know?
Tonight, we were going to hit the first place.
It was the biggest and likely to have the most of Amato's men there.
Every Tuesday night they went to each of the places and made a drop.
We were going to be waiting. Instead of splitting our forces and hitting all of the businesses, we were hitting just the one.
That way we were all there to watch each other's asses. We expected it to be an easy ambush since they shouldn’t know we were coming.
I was glad this was going down now, because in another few days I'd be going back to work with my dad.
As much as I was looking forward to getting back to work for our family business, I found myself getting tense and irritated every time I thought about it.
It meant I wouldn't be here to watch over Kit during the days.
The others have assured me they'd keep an eye on her and I knew they'd keep her safe, but it wasn't going to be the same as me guarding her. The protective instincts I had were in overdrive these days. If it wasn’t for this looming fight with The Italians and Fremont, I wouldn’t have a worry about splitting my time between the club and the business again.
Kit and I settled into a routine after our fight.
We each did our respective work during the day, we had dinner together, spent time with the rest of the club, then we went back to my apartment and I fucked her brains out until we finally passed out from exhaustion.
It was fucking amazing. I wouldn't have thought there was more to learn about her since we'd been friends for so long, but I was wrong.
I learned that she liked to be teased until she was begging for release.
That she was sensitive on the insides of her thighs.
And that she loved it when I took control of her.
She didn't like being restrained, though, which was fine by me.
I didn't want to do anything that would make her uncomfortable or scared.
The things I was learning about her weren't only in the bedroom.
She loved to drink her first cup of coffee in front of her easel, while she painted the early morning hours away.
Even when she worked late, shutting down The Bunker most nights, she was still up by seven a.m., earlier if she didn't work the night before.
She'd been painting a lot lately and I got to see some of the new pieces. She was talented as fuck. Her paintings were so lifelike they seemed to come off the canvas. I'd never seen anyone with her kind of talent. She was amazing at everything she did.
I’d convinced her to let me take her out for lunch today, but we had an hour before that happened.
I needed to make sure my bike was ready for tonight's run.
It was acting up and I wanted to get it fixed before we went out.
Stripping off my cut, I laid it across the seat as I fiddled with my bike.
I was bent over, checking the drive belt when a shadow fell over me.
"Hey, Hell."
Looking up, I leveled a grim look at Pixie.
She was standing there in a pair of ridiculously short shorts and a tank top that barely covered her tits.
"What's up?" My tone was resigned. Any day where I had to deal with her left me feeling pissed off.
She usually only approached me when she needed something.
"What's all the excitement about?"
I straightened up, eyes narrowing on her face. She looked nervous. Most probably wouldn't have noticed, but I did. What did she have to be nervous about? "What do you mean?"
"It just seems busier than normal around here." She tried for a nonchalant shrug, but her whole demeanor was off.
"Nothing's going on," I told her, keeping my expression neutral. Normally, I'd tell her to fuck off, that it wasn't her business, but my radar was going off, telling me she was up to something. Fuck, I didn't have time for this shit. "Just doing a run tonight."
"Oh?" she asked.
"There's a kid over in South Tucson that needs some help," I lied. As her face relaxed, I tensed up even more. Now I knew she was up to something, though I wasn't sure what. As if my plate wasn't full enough, now I needed to keep an eye on my cousin.
"That's nice of you guys to help out," she said. "Well, I better get inside." She hurried off toward the clubhouse.
Lock paid the sweet butts to help bartend both our club bar and The Bunker. It kept them around for any of the guys to sleep with if they wanted to and it kept the women happy, too. They didn't have to split their time between a job and finding a biker to marry.
Watching her make her way inside, I tried to figure out why she was suddenly so interested in what we were doing. It wasn't good, whatever it was. Sighing, I went back to my bike.
"Hi."
I looked up at the sound of Kit's voice. A grin spread over my face as soon as I saw her. "Hey."
She hesitated for just a minute before she spoke. "I just came by to see if you were ready for lunch?"
I glanced down at my watch. "Shit." It was already after one. I'd been working on my bike for over an hour without even realizing it. My mind was occupied with all my responsibilities and now my shoulders were tense and aching. "Yeah, give me a minute to clean all this up," I told her.
Her eyes followed me as I moved around, putting my tools away and wiping down my bike. She didn't seem angry that I was running late. Her face was relaxed and a small smile was on her face.
"What?"
"What?" she parroted.
"You're smiling."
"Oh." Twin spots of pink appeared on her cheeks. "I just like watching you."
Straightening, I brushed the dust off my jeans as much as I could.
I studied her, marveling at the fact that she wasn't upset.
Most women expected you to wait on them while they preened and primped for a date.
Instead, I'd kept her waiting and all she could say was that she liked watching me.
This gorgeous creature was too damn good to be true.
Her eyes were more gray today than blue, something that happened often.
They turned to molten silver when she came.
The fact that I now knew that made me fucking hard every time I came across something that was the exact color of her eyes in the midst of an orgasm.
"You ready?"
Her voice broke into my thoughts. "Yeah. Where do you want to go?"
She shrugged. "I'm not picky."
"How about we go get some Mexican?" I handed her my spare helmet and watched as she put it on.
"Sounds great." She climbed on behind me, wrapping her arms around my waist to steady herself.
The ride was quick and soon we were pulling up outside a little hole in the wall restaurant. It was one of my favorite places to eat. The food was amazing and it was always busy. Kit seemed to agree with my choice as she grabbed my hand and pulled me inside.
We were seated quickly at a booth in the back and ordered our drinks before the waitress left us alone. I studied Kit as she looked over her menu. "I'll be starting back up at work Monday."
Kit set her menu down and smiled. "I bet your dad will be glad to have you back."
I snorted and picked up a chip to dunk in the salsa the waitress dropped off.
"He's been having a blast with Uncle Hal and Uncle Chris.
" The three men had started Portman's Plumbing and Septic years ago.
When my uncles decided to move out of state, Dad had bought them out of their shares of the company and brought me in full-time.
Kit laughed and shook her head. "I can only imagine. I bet it's the same when all your brothers come into town."
Chaos. That's what it was like when the Portman family was reunited. It was always a good time. "Pretty much," I replied. Rubbing a hand over the back of my neck, I met Kit's gaze. "I'm going to need you to stick close to the clubhouse."
Her pretty eyes narrowed, my first indication that she was going to be difficult. "I am. Have been since Lockout asked."
My shoulders were already bunched tight from earlier, yet they tightened further at the defiant look on her face. A headache began to form behind my eyes. "I'm going to have to leave early in the morning and I won't be back until the afternoon," I explained.
"Okay?"
Sighing, I pressed my fingers to my eyes trying to relieve the dull ache. "Kit."
"Hell."
"I don't like the idea of not being there. And I really need you to stick around the compound. I don't want you going anywhere."
She was gritting her teeth because the waitress stopped by to take our order. The woman jotted everything down then walked away, oblivious to the tension that had sprung up between us.
"You're not my keeper," Kit said, voice low as she leaned across the table.
"No," I agreed, "but I am your old man and I'm not going to let anything fucking happen to you.
" Her eyes flashed with anger and she opened her mouth, but before she could bite my head off, I held up my hand.
"Just for a few days. Maybe a week. Give me a chance to get back into the grind without having to worry about you on top of it all. "
She sat back against the booth with a sigh. "That's not fair." She folded her arms under her tits, shoving them up and distracting me.
"What isn't?" I asked, eyeing the way they were straining against the fabric of her death metal t-shirt.
"Making me feel bad for how busy you are in order to get me to do what you want."
I met her eyes, grinning unapologetically. "Whatever it takes."
"Hell, I'm already sticking around the clubhouse."
"You left yesterday to go grocery shopping," I countered.
Her mouth dropped open. "You've got to be kidding me," she hissed, keeping her voice down so she didn't disrupt anyone else. "I can't grocery shop?"
"Not right now. I don't have time to go with you, Kit."
"Do you have any idea how much you eat?" she exclaimed. "We'll starve if I have to wait very long just to grocery shop."
Chuckling, I sat back in my chair. "Good point. I'll set it up so one of the guys goes with you. But we're going to be busy tonight."
She bit her lip. I already spoke to her this morning about the plan for tonight.
We were leaving minimal men behind to watch over the clubhouse and our families, so all the women were told to be on high alert.
The Italians had lost men the night they'd taken Dani, and they weren't going to just walk away from this fight.
For all we knew they were planning a counter attack right now.
It was going to come down to whoever made the first move. That needed to be us.
"I'm going to be fine," she told me, her voice softening. She reached across the table and grasped my hand. "You don't need to worry about me."
"It's my job to worry about you."
She squeezed my fingers before releasing them as our food arrived. "I know." She gave me a small smile. "But you have other things to focus on right now."
"Then do what I'm asking."
She nodded and picked up a taco. "Fine. I'll become even more of a pariah than before and not go anywhere."
Chuckling, I cut into the enchilada on my plate. "Thank you. One more thing.”
Her eyebrow rose, but she waited to see what I was going to ask of her.
That was the thing about Kit, she was always reasonable.
I’d watched her wait out one of her brother’s angry rants with a calm coolness that managed to make him blow up even more.
Her temper ran ice cold while he blew up in white hot anger.
“Do you already have the phone tracking app on?”
“The what?”
I held my hand out for her cell phone. She dropped it into my palm, then watched with curiosity while I went into her settings and turned on the option to track her phone. It didn’t take long to link our phones.
“Yours is on, too…right?”
Looking up at her, I gave her a sheepish grin, but turned mine on after I gave back her phone. “Of course,” I said as soon as it was done.
She had already taken a massive bite and her cheek poked out like a chipmunk’s when she smiled at me. "Of course,” she parroted with sarcasm heavy in her voice. “You're going to owe me big time," she warned, waving her taco at me.
“Look at it this way, you’re the only woman in the city who has a tracking app on not because your boyfriend is jealous, but because he wants you safe.”
“Yeah, that makes it better.”
"After this is over," I told her. "We can go wherever you want."
"I’d love that,” she replied. "Are you ready for tonight?" There was no missing the worry creeping into her eyes. It made them a soft, misty gray tinged with the faintest blue.
"Yeah." I nodded, giving her a reassuring smile. "I don't want you to worry. We were trained for this shit." Of course, the US Military wouldn't approve of how we were now using the training they gave us. That was too fucking bad. We were done taking orders from anyone but Lockout.
"I know," she said. "Do you think it will work?"
"I'm hoping it does." We needed to get the drop on The Italians so we could end this war before it got any worse than it already was.
If we could decimate Amato's numbers, he wouldn't have the manpower to come after us.
Unfortunately, his empire was old and well-established, thanks to his father and grandfather before him.
She nodded and took another bite of her food. She chewed thoughtfully, then told me, "If anyone can take these guys down, it's the club. I'm just worried about you."
It was amazing the difference having an old lady depending on me made.
Going in and taking out the cult, there'd been nothing but excitement and this overwhelming need to blow off some steam.
Those feelings were still there within me, but now my focus was split between what I needed to do tonight, and what I had to do in order to keep Kit safe.
The safety of all our families was paramount, but the thought of losing Kit made my throat go dry.
Picking up my drink, I downed half of it.
There was too much at stake for us to fuck this up.
We were going to land a blow tonight that hurt Amato down to his core.
If the fucker was smart, he'd take the lesson and leave us alone.
If he didn't, we'd wipe him off the map.