Page 174 of Steel

My body is shaking with the laughter I’m fighting hard to repress. I lose the fight when Crow calls him a little shit and Hendrick’s response is to stick his tongue out at him and say, “Aunt Sage says you’re a tough guy. You can handle Mama tanning your tail.” Then his little legs carry him away as fast as they can as he races toward Crow and Nova’s dogs, Rocco and Lola.

I lean my head back to peer up at Steel. “How much of that trouble do you think our girl instigated?”

Steel snorts, his breath chuffing along my hair. “Fuckin’ all of it, knowin’ her.”

I’m about to agree with him when his phone goes off along with the phones of a lot of the other members. Whatever he reads has his body tightening before he spits out a curse and pulls away from me with a kiss to the top of my head.

“Shit’s happenin’ outside,” he says.

Wraith whistles to gain our attention, and fear chokes me at his words.

“I want all the women and children to head to the security room. Dirty Mavericks, ready yourselves. Seems we have a serpent on our doorstep, and he’s brought a few friends. All of you but Rad, Lincoln, and Dax are coming out with us. You three will be guarding our women and children in case someone tries to get inside.”

I know from what Steel has told me that Rad and Dax are part of Lincoln and Pierce’s security company. Watching Lincoln and Keegan together, and the way Tweek has been struggling with it, I’d say he’s got his guys here for far more than just whatever he’s helping the Dirty Mavericks out with. I’ve watched the pull between Lincoln, Keegan, and Tweek and how hard they’re fighting it. More like Tweek and Lincoln are fighting their attraction, and Tweek and Keegan are fighting to stay away from each other. It’s not going to matter. Those three are going to come together, and they’re going to burn hotter than a supernova when they do. It’s been interesting watching the war they’re battling.

Keegan is great. She’s got this quirky side that’s hard not to be drawn to. She and Tweek have the same bratty personality too. Lincoln watches them act out toward one another, and I swear sometimes he wants to bend them both over his knee.

The sound of everyone scrambling to gather the kids pulls me from my thoughts, but seeing all the calm faces relieves me. They’ve been around a lot longer than I have, so if they’re not panicking, then I probably shouldn’t either.

Taking a deep breath, I center myself and straighten my shoulders. If there’s ever a time for me to prove to Steel that I’m Old Lady material, it’s now.

When I turn to him, he’s checking his gun. “I can protect people if you have a spare weapon,” I tell him.

“Covered, babe. Get our girl. You protect her,” he replies, grabbing me by my throat and pulling me to him so he can snatch a kiss.

He walks away from me without saying anything else, and I shake my head, turning to get Lyric.

She hurries to me when I call her name. I wrap my arm around her and urge her to follow behind the others on their way to the safe room. After Lyric is settled next to Hendrick, I help Mama Bear, Sage, and Nova get the rest of the kids situated.

It’s not exactly fun spending over an hour waiting for someone to give us the all-clear.

The problematic club girls being shoved in a room with people they’ve caused trouble to has filled the space with tension that I pray none of the children feel. The Old Ladies are amazing, though. They refuse to give the troublesome girls their attention while the rest of them are welcomed into the circle. Kiwi told me they’ve done their best to make friends with the girls who like to cause drama, but the effort was never reciprocated. I figured it had a lot to do with them either being unable to garner the attention of the brothers the Old Ladies belong to, or they get the attention from them but not the patch they covet so badly. I’m sure it can make life around the club hard to navigate for the Old Ladies, but I also know they love their life here, so they endure. Some of the club girls have been getting away with a lot of shit, and it’s caused a lot of hurt to the people in this club. These men are going to have to put their feet down and stop giving them so much leeway. All it does is set a precedent and allow them to think they’re ahead of anyone else in the club, including the Old Ladies.

That’s not fair to their partners.

When the all-clear eventually comes, palpable sighs of relief go around the room.

Sage heads back to the kitchen to finish the meal she had to stop working on when they locked us down while the rest of us disperse to the common rooms.

A few minutes later, three strangers stroll into the room we’re all in. The air of menace surrounding them sends a shiver down my spine, but if they’re walking around here, they’ve been cleared by the club.

When the leader turns enough for me to get a better look at him, I do a double take. The resemblance between him and Crow is so uncanny, there’s no way there’s not a familial connection.

Sage must catch sight of them from the kitchen because she marches into the room with a huge-ass butcher knife in her hand and heads straight for them. I observe her with them in case they try to make a move against her but relax my stance when Crow strides into the room like an angry vortex and moves their way. That man won’t ever let a single strand of hair on her head be harmed.

After we all eat dinner, Steel drags me and Lyric into his room and snuggles us into his bed so we can watch a movie. Lyric is dozing off between us when Lena calls.

I try not to disturb Lyric too much as I reach out to grab my phone. “Lena. Hey, it’s been a while, babe.”

“Yet, I still love you the same.”

“Love you too,” I reply with a smile.

“Tell me what’s been going on in your life.”

Steel watches me with gentle amusement after I fill Lena in and she tears me a new asshole for not telling her everything before. I stick my tongue out at him, watching his shoulders shake, until Lena demands I put him on the phone.

His eyes widen in panic, and I snicker. “He’s listening.”

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