Page 39 of The Devil's Conflict

“Yeah, and she slept with him, but she made it seem like it was out of obligation more than anything.”

“I was far too focused on my job to care about any kind of entanglements. Not to mention, I was far more obsessed with a smartass blonde that purposely avoided me as much as she could,” I tease lightly, tickling her ribs.

She pushes my hand away, but not hard or angrily. Seems that someone is ticklish. I file that away for later, instead focusing on her response. “Sure didn’t show it when you were having us run all those drills over and over again,” she replies wryly. “Or when you were constantly on my ass to move faster and harder.”

I smirk. “Had to make sure no one thought I was picking favorites. And I knew you could take it. The others dragged their asses and left their teams to pick up the slack. Half of them dropped out within a few months. But not you, you showed them what it meant to work hard and that you were better than all of them put together. And if I remember correctly, wasn’t it you that decided to be insubordinate and tell me to go and suck on my own dick after one of those sessions?” I nip at her ear, making her gasp. “I wanted to laugh, but instead I made you do the entire course again, three more times on your own for that comment.”

“I couldn’t move my legs after that,” she confirms with a soft groan. “And I’m pretty sure I actually hated you after that for a while.”

“I know you did.” I smile into her hair. “In fact, I’m pretty sure it was you I heard calling me a few inventive names when you got back to the barracks with the other women. I had come to deliver a message and none of you noticed me in the doorway. What was it you called me?” I give a slightly long, dramatic pause. “Oh yes, an overgrown swamp donkey with my head so far up my ass that it explained why I couldn’t see for all the shit covering my face.”

She’s silent for a moment, and then I hear a slight touch of humor in her tone when she replies, “Impressive memory skills for a man who is heading quickly for over the hill.”

I lightly pinch her side, making her gasp and shove at my hand. “Where you’re concerned, baby girl, my memory is pristine. And even then I wanted to laugh, and had to leave so you didn’t hear me. The other women in your barracks argued with you but you were too damn stubborn to listen. But you showed back up the next day, and I could tell you were hurting but you pushed through.”

“Only because I couldn’t let you win,” she says softly, and I can tell she’s starting to lose her battle to stay awake. Neither of us speak and I wait patiently until I hear her breathing even out, and feel her body go slack in my arms.

I still don’t move for a few more minutes, content to just hold her, until I know I need to make the call before I let myself fall asleep. It’s edging toward the sun rising, but I know Arson will answer. The fucker has always been a night owl anyway, and with the kind of relationship he has with his Old Lady, there’s definitely a chance he hasn’t even thought about going to bed yet.

As quietly as I can, I slide out of bed and head out of the room, softly shutting the door behind me. I make my way back down the hall and then downstairs to the Church room. I stop though when I see Bullet sitting there. “Figured you would be sleeping with your woman,” I say conversationally as I sit down in my seat at the table.

“I was, but we both know I want to be involved in the call to Arson. And I was nice enough to give you enough time with Thea before I came up and dragged your ass down here,” he adds with a smirk. “You two good?”

I don’t answer immediately. Are we? Knowing her, she’s probably going to come up swinging when she wakes up, but I’ll be there to handle it. “We will be,” I finally reply.

Bullet eyes me, but then nods. “Never thought I would see the day you would fall for a woman, but at least you picked one that might be able to wrangle the women when they do all their crazy shit.”

I give him a dry stare. “Bullet, she might be able to wrangle them, but only because she probably has thought of a whole other plan she wants to lead them toward instead that will be a thousand times worse. Especially if she’s pissed at me or any of the rest of us. The vindictive shit she used to do when she was under my squad was legendary. Hell, I think one time she even managed to sneak in a bunch of worms and spiders into the barracks and let them loose because one of the men told her to go back into the kitchen and knocked her ass down into a giant mud and dirt pile.”

Bullet says nothing for a moment and then scrubs a hand over his face. “I’m going to start vetting any potential Old Lady from now on. We need a couple sane ones like Quinn, or Syn when she’s not pissed at my son and wanting to let the dogs chomp on his ass.”

I chuckle. “Something tells me that even that wouldn’t work. I’m still considering finding the funds to just build a jail at the back of the property and keeping them all in there for a while.”

“They’d still get out and there would be hell to pay. Alright, enough of worrying about that shit. We need to get Arson on his way here.”

I nod and pull out my phone, going through the steps Cryos gave me to encrypt the call, putting it on speaker phone, and just like I expected, Arson answers on the third ring, slightly out of breath. “If you called me a minute earlier, I’d have to burn your house to the ground, Sniper,” he admonishes with a chuckle.

“I don’t have a house of my own, but nice try.” I chuckle. “And shouldn’t you be getting your beauty sleep? Your ugly ass needs as much of it as it can get.”

His Old Lady, Zoe, laughs, and Arson replies, “The day that I can’t fuck my Old Lady is the day I call you to take me out back and shoot me. Now, what the hell are you doing calling me and interrupting what was a pleasurable night?”

That sobers me and I relay the information of what has been going on. Bullet jumps in to add in a few details, and when we finish, I tell him, “We’re going to war and we need back-up. But we need you and your men to leave your women and children at home because these bastards go after ours and we don’t want them in the crossfire.”

“Agreed,” Arson replies seriously. “We can load up and head your way. If we travel through the night, we should be able to reach you by end of day tomorrow. I’ll keep the Prospects here to make sure shit is good and have a couple of allies close by stay here as well just in case. You going to have enough space for us?”

“Plenty,” I reply. “We have another wing that can house at least twenty more men.”

“You need to send your women and kids here?” Zoe asks. “We have enough space and we’ll make sure they’re safe.”

“Thank you, but we have it handled,” Bullet replies. “But if it changes, they’ll be heading your way and we’ll let you know. Two of our women are expecting, including one with twins, and their men don’t want them far from their doctors unless absolutely necessary.”

“Got it,” Zoe replies.

“You need us to bring supplies?” Arson asks, a wealth of suggestion in that question.

I glance at Bullet who gives me a nod to go ahead. “Vlad has men on the force and they’ve already tried to execute a searchwarrant on the grounds. Anything of the like is only opening ourselves up to more problems once they find out you’re here.”

Arson is quiet for a moment. “We have some ways of making sure they’re not found, even with dogs and cops. But we’ll have a back-up just in case. We’ll see you in twenty-four hours. Just don’t have too much fun without us before then. Now, since I’m going to be away from my Old Lady for a bit, I have some time to make up for. Both of you can fuck off.” We hear Zoe squeal before the line goes dead.

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