Chapter 32 #2
Making my way back to the bedroom, I watched as the swarm roved over her in excitement, and probably picked her pockets, before I chased them off. Despite still being tied up, she was glowing. “They’ll be devastated if you leave.”
“That’s playing dirty,” she told me.
I shrugged. “I don’t play fair, I play to win.” Left alone with Isla, I scowled back at her. “If I let you loose, are you going to run?”
“You really want me here?” she asked.
There was that hope again and it was killing me. “Yes, Woman. I want you to stay. I’m claiming you. I want to marry you. Even better, you’re going to be my old lady. I fucking love you, Terror.”
“Okay,” she said, though she looked a little afraid. She was battling demons that only she could fight. I’d help as much as I could, but she had to do the brunt of the work.
“Okay?”
“Just one more thing.”
“What’s that?” I asked, amused with her response to my declaration of love.
“I don’t share, Butcher.”
Frowning, I shook my head. “What?”
“I won’t allow you to claim me, to marry me, if it means you sleeping with other women.”
“Wh-” I gave her a confused look. “Okay,” I said instead of blowing up. “I haven’t slept with another woman since I met you. Since before I met you,” I admitted. “And once I claim you neither of us are sleeping with anyone else. Ever. Got it?”
She grinned and wiggled on the chair, fighting the restraints. “Let me go so I can kiss you,” she demanded.
I chuckled and cut her loose, careful to keep my knife out of reach so she didn’t get cut as she tossed herself into my arms. I caught her beneath the ass with one arm as she wrapped those strong legs around my waist and locked her lips to mine.
“I love you, too, Butcher,” she breathed against my lips. “I accept your claim.”
“Of course you do,” I growled, tossing the knife aside and wrapping both arms around her so I could squeeze her against me. I wasn’t fucking ever letting her go anywhere again. She was all mine.
* * *
We settled down as Lock came into the room. He’d called church so we could go over everything that had happened while we’d been in Belize.
Idaho looked over at me as he sat down across the table. “She staying?”
“Yes,” I replied, feeling smug and satisfied.
“Who?” Toxic asked, then looked at me in shock. “Wait, your girl tried to leave?”
“Again?” Hellfire added.
I glared at him. “She thought she had to leave.”
“Why?” Hush asked, looking confused.
“Because women.” I said, as if that explained everything. Most of the men looked like my words made sense to them.
“Let’s rehash this later,” Lock said. “We worked through it, she knows she’s welcome here and she’s staying.” He looked over at me. “Which is good. Keep her happy and keep her here with us.”
“Will do, Prez.”
“Okay,” Lock said. “Who wants to go through this?”
Toxic took the lead, and I was fine with that.
Warrant and Scythe had headed straight back home once they’d dropped us off.
He explained about Randal being dead, and I interrupted to give the gory details about how he was decorating the stones of a courtyard in Belize, earning unamused looks from the others.
“So, there’s still this company out there, right? Heliaz Relay?” Smoke asked, interrupting my description of how Randal’s blood had slowly crept over the floor as he bled out. I glared at him, but he just shrugged.
“Yeah,” Riptide replied. “Heliaz Relay Telecom Corporation is a huge company.”
“They need a shorter fucking name,” Toxic complained.
“But they took the contract out on Butcher?” Ricochet asked, ignoring Toxic.
“No, it wasn’t the company,” I told him.
“It was Evan Danners,” Lock answered. “He was one of the board members, but as far as we can tell the rest of those in charge of Heliaz Relay weren’t aware of what he was doing.”
Riptide explained further, “In all likelihood they all knew what Evan was doing. He was trying to clear that village back then to get access to lithium mines. Lithium being one of the components needed in their satellites. He recently got elevated to the board of directors and was the preferred pick to be their next CEO, thus why he needed you guys killed. Knowing that he tried to kill a whole village is the type of thing that the press would eat up. Now that he’s dead the board and next CEO can pretend it was all Evan, if it ever even surfaces. ”
“So, we’re lettin’ them go?” Hush asked.
“We have to,” Idaho replied. “Heliaz Relay has their hands in a lot of different pies. Everything you research about them will say they’re in the telecommunications sector, but they have deep pockets and even deeper interests. They have a lot of powerful people backing them.”
“Plus they work with Homeland Security,” I added. “That’s why my team was assigned to help them in the first place. And it’s why I called Gail. She’ll get with the talking heads and make this shit die down.”
Everyone nodded in understanding.
“They’re getting a pass for now,” Lock stated. “But we’ll be keeping a close eye on them.”
“Something tells me this isn’t going to be the last we hear from them,” Priest added.
Toxic groaned. “You just had to say it, didn’t you?” He pointed at Smokehouse. “It’s usually his dumbass that always has to say that kind of shit. When something bad happens part of it’s going to be your fault this time.”
Priest shrugged and grinned at Toxic. “At this point, what does it matter if I said it? We were all thinking it.”
“Doesn’t mean you say it out loud,” Toxic muttered. “Now we’re going to have something else coming our way.”
He was right. We all knew it, but it didn’t matter.
As long as I had my brothers and my woman with me, I’d face whatever it was head on.
We’d take it down together, the way we always did.
I was pretty sure this kind of shit was never going to end, and that was just fine by me, because even though I was in love and had found the perfect woman it didn’t mean I still didn’t need violence and death to keep me grounded.
I’d always need that. But now, I needed Isla, too.
I was looking forward to all the chaos and trouble we would cause together during the rest of our lifetime.
Whatever we faced would only bring us closer together and I was ready for it.
***
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