Chapter 27
Idaho
Lock was tapping his index finger on the desk as he waited for everyone to get inside and sit down.
It was a sure sign that my brother was stressed as fuck.
His temper flared and he tended to lash out, but stress, that shit he internalized.
It was no wonder with the bullshit that went down with Rip getting arrested.
The fact that it happened in front of Rip's wife and new child set Lock on the warpath. Thankfully, our talk with the mayor went exactly how I planned. Having spoken with Eva's father ended up helping with that situation, but I wasn't fucking thrilled about meeting him tonight.
"Everything good?" Lock asked, looking over at Riptide.
"Yeah. Thanks for getting me out of there so quickly," he said to Lock, then looked over at Static.
"Sloane doing alright?"
Rip nodded. "She's good, Lock. Thanks. Noelle is just fine, slept through most of it."
"That kid is either goin' to be a champion sleeper," Hush said, "or she's goin' to keep you up all damn night."
Everyone laughed at that and I watched as Lock's shoulders dropped about half an inch. It was a start. He was wound so damn tight.
"We should have a small break from Fremont's bullshit, thanks to Idaho."
Lock motioned for me to speak, so I ran them through everything that had happened with the mayor.
"You had her father's number?" Toxic asked, his brows raised.
"We called him last night," I said, looking over at my brother before continuing. "We're meeting him tonight."
"How the fuck does that work?" Butcher asked. "Isn't he over running his damn country?"
"Once he heard what was going on with Eva, he said he'd be getting on a flight and would be meeting us tonight," I told them with a shrug.
"That can't be good," Ricochet muttered.
"Eva's convinced he's going to drag her home," I replied.
"You're not?" Lock asked, watching me with a shrewd look on his face.
"I'm hoping to convince him that it'll be against his best interests."
"How are you going to do that?" Priest asked.
"Pretty sure telling him you fucked his daughter isn't going to help in that situation," Smoke added.
Gritting my teeth together to keep from reaching around Static to punch Smoke in the face, I continued, "I'll have to wait until I have a full conversation with the man before I know which course to take. Strike a deal, or blackmail."
"She wants to, right?" Hell asked me.
"Yeah."
"You think that'll work?" Lock asked, doubt written all over his face.
I wasn't sure. Her father certainly wasn't like the mayor. He wouldn't be so easily manipulated.
"Say she stays," Toxic spoke up, "what are your plans with her?"
"What are you?" I asked. "Her older brother? What the fuck do you care?"
"He's just lookin' out for her," Hush told me. "We all are."
I scoffed and glared around the table. "I'm the one who helped her. Brought her here. Offered to protect her."
"All so you could get in her pants," Toxic added.
"Fuck you, Toxic. You haven't stopped hitting on her since she walked in the door." It was really pissing me off that these guys—the people who were supposed to be my brothers—were questioning my damn integrity.
"She's a beautiful woman," he said with a smirk. "And she's single."
"She's not fucking single," I snarled at him, half rising from my seat. Slapping my palms down on the table, I leaned over it, then pointed a finger at him. "Stay away from her. As far as you're concerned, she's off limits."
"Why's that, Idaho?"
I looked over at my brother in shock. He was calling me out in front of most of our club. "What?"
"It sounds to me," Lock said, slowly, a wicked gleam in his eyes, "that you're claiming Eva for yourself. That what you're doing, Brother?"
"If it's not?" I asked, hesitant to admit to anything.
"Then you have no fucking right to tell me to back off," Toxic replied, grinning like a Cheshire Cat.
I wanted to wipe the damn grin off his face as painfully as possible. "Then I'm claiming her."
"Good. Toxic, you heard him, back off," Lock ordered.
Sitting down, I glanced over at Static, who was fighting back laughter. "They just played you, Bro."
"What do you mean?"
Static cocked a brow in my direction. "Toxic isn't interested in Eva. Neither is Butcher. They were just pushing your damn buttons to see how quickly they could get you to admit your feelings for her."
"Who said I have feelings?"
"From the moment you saw her, you were in over your head," Static muttered as Lock continued talking in the background.
Ignoring my friend, I focused back on my brother.
How had these men, who barely knew me, figured that out so quickly?
Even I hadn't realized what the fuck was going on.
At first, I'd been thinking with my dick.
Problem was, after sleeping with Eva, I was even more interested.
That wasn't the way it usually worked. Before, I'd just walk away, no issue. That was the last thing I wanted to do.
"I'll be going with you tonight," Lock told me.
Shrugging my shoulders, I replied, "Sure. Whatever."
"I should go, too," Hush said. "Make sure everything's good."
Lock sighed and rubbed his forehead. "You have a wife and young child at home. So do you assholes, so don't even try to volunteer," Lock snapped when Rip and Priest both started to speak.
"I'd be happy to tag along," Static offered. "Just in case you need someone who can talk his way out of most trouble."
"That's called a kiss ass," I told him.
"I'll go," Toxic offered, and Butcher nodded, indicating his interest.
"Thanks, but we'd rather not piss off the Grand Duke of Luxembourg," Lock said in a wry tone.
"Static. You're with us tonight. Toxic, Butcher, Ricochet, you're on guard duty. The rest of you, keep an eye out, but take the night off."
"What are we doing about Fremont?" Butcher asked.
"As long as he doesn't continue to fuck with us, we're putting him on the back burner again. Our conversation with Powell should have shut him down," Lock replied.
"We're going to have to deal with him sooner or later," I said.
"You want to deal with Krier, right?" Lock asked, his tone cold.
"Yeah."
"Then Fremont will have to wait until we have the fucking time for him."
"Sure thing, Prez," I told him, holding my hands up in surrender.
Lock shook his head, his temper right at the surface. He still hadn't cooled down enough from earlier. "You have your orders," he told everyone, expecting us all to leave. Smoke's voice made us all pause.
I think there's one more piece of business to discuss," Smoke said with a wink toward Lock.
"Do it and I'll have you scrubbing the bar bathrooms alongside the prospects for a month," Lock warned.
Smoke tilted his head, considering whether that punishment was worth spilling the news about Lock spanking and kissing Keely in a public place.
"For a year," Lock growled, watching Smoke as though he was going to kill the younger man.
That shut Smoke up. After cleaning those bathrooms for two weeks, I understood why. You were lucky if someone hadn't puked everywhere when you came in to clean the next morning, but even then, the men who frequented the establishment didn't leave it smelling like roses.
Smoke sat back with a pout on his face, crossing his arms over his chest, as if that was the only way to contain the secret.
I waited until everyone filed out of the meeting room. Static gave me a questioning look, but I motioned for him to go. As soon as we were left alone, I sat back down on my brother's right hand side.
"I'm not in the mood, Idaho."
Like I didn't know that. There wasn't much I didn't know about him, despite years of not seeing him. "Thanks for going tonight."
"You're representing my club tonight," he warned. "I'm not about to let you go and fuck it up." He met my stare. "Don't fuck it up, Levi."
"Wouldn't dream of it. You forget I'm a fucking businessman. I know how to be polite and politically-fucking-correct."
"So I've heard," he muttered.
"You want to talk about it?"
"About what?"
I ignored the threat in the words and continued talking. "About her."
"No."
"Fine," I said. "We can talk about something else."
"Why?"
"We'll talk about us," I said, ignoring his petulant question.
"Not interested."
"We haven't seen each other in-"
"Who's fucking fault is that?" Lock snapped, slamming a fist on the table in front of him to accentuate his point.
"I distinctly remember calling you and you saying, what was it? Oh yeah. I could go fuck myself and that you never wanted to see me again," I reminded him.
"And yet here you are." He leaned forward, his eyes blazing with fury. "I'm letting you stay because I offered to let you into the club once. That doesn't fucking mean I'm going to forget what a piece of shit you are."
I sighed. I thought we'd been making progress. It had only been a few weeks, and I knew it would take a lot longer than that to fix the break between us. That didn't mean I wanted to slide right back to where we were on day one. "I've wanted to explain what happened to you," I started.
"Told you before that I didn't want to fucking hear it." He pinned me with a hard look. "Still don't."
"Fine," I said, standing up. "But this shit can't go on forever, Liam."
"It's Lockout," he growled at me. "And it can go on as long as I fucking want it to."
Stalking out, I opted to leave before I lost my own damn temper and ended up brawling with the fucking president of the club—my new club—and started shit neither of us were prepared to deal with.
My brother would have to hear me out one of these days. I just hoped once he found out the truth, we'd be able to put all the animosity behind us.