Page 49 of Butcher

“Exactly,” I replied with a nod. “And they’re going to expect me to go there.”

“Why do you say that?” Riptide asked.

“Because it’s always been my backup plan. And I made sure everyone knew it.” I shot him a smile.

“That way you would have a place to lay a trap,” Butcher added.

“It’s only one of the places I have up there,” I admitted, ducking my head when I saw the pride in his eyes. It made me all giddy to know he liked my backup plan.Stupid girly feelings.“But it’s the only one they know about.”

“So we go there and kill them all.”

I looked over at the man who spoke. He hadn’t said a word yet, but I liked him immediately. “That’s the plan,” I replied. Lockout had introduced him as Rotor. I had a feeling he and I would get along just fine.

Movement caught my eye, and I locked gazes with Warrant, who shot a smirk my way. Even though we hadn’t started out on the right foot, I knew deep down I’d end up liking him, too. These Berserkers, as the others called them, were my kind of people. And I knew without a doubt Warrant would’ve easily kicked my ass downstairs if I hadn’t gotten the jump on him. It was why I always tried to make the first move, and to make it count. It was also why it all went downhill once Scythe showed up. None of the men Cypher had sent to help us looked like they’d hold us back in a fight.

Lockout looked around the table, then his eyes settled on me. “It’s a good idea. Go ahead and give us the details.”

I ran them through the area, what systems I already had in place, and where the high points were. I figured they’d like this plan because it took the threat, and the fight, far away from their families. It was the reason I’d brought it up. This way we could do what we needed to without worrying about any innocent bystanders being caught up in the mess.

As soon as I stopped talking, the men began, and I listened as they began to fill in the gaps. This was going to work. I glanced over and smiled at Butcher, happy to be helping and to soon have this over with. The last four days of doing nothing but being here at the clubhouse had made me antsy. I was ready to go kill some bad guys.

CHAPTER 17

Butcher

Ileaned against the door frame to the gym and watched as Isla showed the kids how to work with straight-edged weapons. The knives were actually made with rubber, but the kids didn’t seem to care. Lock had bought them after he’d found us having a tournament with real blades. I’d been victorious in that competition and enough of the others bitched about getting sliced up that Lock had found a solution. That was what he was good at. As well as leading. Somehow the guy even managed to get bastards like me to follow him. That was proof enough that he deserved his position.

“Forward.”

The kids moved forward in various stages of awkwardness, but it was easy to see that Isla had already worked on fighting stances. It made me wonder if the parents had okay’d all this.

Stupid question, of course they did. What parent wouldn’t want their kid to get a knife fighting merit badge? And to learn from a professional assassin?

I shoved off the frame and walked forward, watching Isla move,showing the children what they needed to do before she called out that movement for them to copy. Her head turned and a mischievous twinkle entered her eyes. It was enough to have me pausing.

“Get him,” she ordered.

Suddenly, seven kids, the hellions, Gwen’s two, and Dex all swarmed me. Someone bit me on the shin. “Fucking shit! No biting!” I yanked my leg away, hoping I didn’t nail a kid in the face as I did so. They’d circled around me and someone had my cut and t-shirt from behind. The neck was cutting into my throat.

“What the hell?” The laughter made everyone pause and we all looked over at the doorway. Toxic shook his head. “Do I even want to know?”

The kids all looked at each other, then glanced over at Isla. Her smile widened as she nodded and the kids, as one unit, let go of me and rushed Toxic.

“No! No! I’m not playing. Ow!”

I chuckled as I walked over to Isla and pulled her in close for a kiss. “Keeping busy, I see.”

“They’ve been hounding me to teach them things,” she admitted, but her smile told me she was just as happy to be doing this as they were. I knew for a fact it wasn’t easy for her to wait here, instead of taking matters into her own hands. Her run-in with Warrant and Scythe showed what happened if we kept her bottled up. It was sexy as hell to watch her fight, but it had taken everything in me not to kill the other men for putting their hands on her. Not that she’d appreciate me doing that.

She was used to doing things alone. Having to listen to a group and follow orders had to be grating on her, but she was here, doing what we asked. Lock never moved on a target until we were well prepared.

We had too much to lose these days, and suddenly I was starting to understand how the other men felt about leaving their old ladies and kids behind to do this shit. Even though Isla would be going with us, it still made me hesitate. Made me want to make sure we had all our shit in a row before we took on an unknown number of assassins.

“We’ll be leaving in a couple days.”

“Why not now?” she asked.

“Lock is still working stuff out with the Saints.”

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