Page 42 of Out for Blood

She nodded and I left the room, feeling as if I’d let those girls down, and it made me angrier than I ever was before. Hawk sat at the bar, tossing back a whiskey. His own face was starting to swell from a few punches that obviously connected.

“I’m taking them up the hill,” I told him.

“Good. I called some reinforcements in for us earlier. They should arrive soon.”

“Who?”

As if on cue, the doors opened and two familiar faces stood there, smiling over at me.

“Killian, Conor,” I greeted them. They moved into the clubhouse, looking around. “Thanks for coming.”

“Hawk filled us in a little and we came straight away,” Conor said. “Ready for a fight.”

“I appreciate it,” I said. “I gotta take my woman to safety, but Hawk will give you a place to stay, and tomorrow we can catch you up fully.”

“Sounds good,” Killian said. “Go take care of business.”

Sheridan led her girls out from the hallway and toward us. Conor and Killian looked at them and then back at me.

“You sure you want to wait until tomorrow?” Conor asked. He was serious and I knew it. He’d have no problem joining me right now and taking Neal out once and for all, but we had to be careful about this. Kilkenny needed to accept us here, and Neal had way too many connections for that to go awry.

“Believe me, if I didn’t fear for their lives, I would be taking you up on that, Con, but it’s not about me right now.”

He nodded. “I understand. We’ll be ready and waiting.”

I helped Sheridan outside to one of our trucks and got the girls strapped in before I jumped behind the wheel.

“Who are those guys?” Shauna asked. “They don’t look like they belong to the club.”

“They don’t,” I replied. “They’re friends who can help us.”

“Where are we going?” Ryleigh asked.

“You’ll see in a minute,” I told her. “It’s safe. No one knows about this place, not even half the people in the club.”

I drove up the hill where the house sat behind gates that only two people knew the code to. I keyed it in and drove up to the front door.

I helped Sheridan out of the car and then the girls.

“What about our stuff?” Ryleigh asked.

“Hawk will bring it up for us later,” I told them. “Don’t worry. You’ll be comfortable here.”

“What is this place?” Sheridan asked, looking up at the second floor.

“Uh,” I said, moving to the door and unlocking it. “It’s my place…well I guess, our place now. If you want to move in, that is.”

Her eyes widened and she took the place in from the bottom of the steps. Ryleigh and Shauna both joined her in looking at the place.

“I love it,” Ryleigh announced, moving up the steps and in through the door. Shauna followed, leaving Sheridan on the front step with me.

“And you?”

“This looks exactly how I described my dream home when I was sixteen, Cooper.”

“That’s because it is,” I told her. “I started construction on this place about eighteen months ago. I knew I would be back here eventually, so I hired people to start it so that when I finally did settle here, I would have somewhere to go.”

“Did you know you’d bump back into me?” she asked.

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