Page 37 of Lockout

“Naw, staying in the bunk house over there is fine with us. Most of us grew up on ranches, Lock,” he said with a grin. “It feels like home.” He could tell I was feeling guilty about them staying there instead of here. Though, it was good to spread out our forces a little.

“It’s a pretty quick trip from there to here, so if you need us we’re available.” He put his hands behind his head, elbows extended out, and leaned back enough that the chair creaked in protest. “What’s the plan?”

“We’ll go over that tomorrow,” I told him. “Today is for Static and Idaho. No work shit, only drinking and celebrating.”

He nodded. “Drinking is the thing I’m third best at.”

I arched a brow at him. “Do I want to know what the first and second are?”

“Fighting and fucking,” he said with a shrug.

Shaking my head, I chuckled. “Every time you guys are around, I see more and more why Toxic is the way he is.”

Warrant chuckled. “Yeah, our parents all regret bringing us into the world because we’ve been tormenting them our whole lives. They were our first victims.”

My eyes narrowed. “You have parents? I figured you were hatched.”

His laugh echoed throughout the room. “It’s possible my mother might’ve picked up a changeling on a hill or some shit. She’s never confessed to it, no matter how much I piss her off.”

“Well, I appreciate you and the crew being here.”

“We’re always available for fucking some shit up.” There was a gleam in his eyes as he said it that I recognized. I saw that same look in all my brother’s eyes. Hell, I see it in the mirror every morning. We were all built the same.

“What do you need from us now?” he asked.

“Get with Priest and Toxic and see what they need,” I told him.

“Good seeing you, Lock,” he said with a grin as he shoved out of the chair and walked out the door.

That was one thing down. We’d have the numbers we needed to go against the LoS. Hangman had a fuck ton of men and they were loyal to him. I pulled a notebook out of my desk drawer and scanned the list. It was mostly things that needed to be taken care of for my business, the school, or the running of the club and bar. I never wrote down the shit I needed to do when it was illegal, but there was a mental checklist just as long as this one for that. Nothing on the physical checklist needed to be handledin the next couple of weeks, so I put the book back into my drawer.

A bellow from the main part of the clubhouse had me out of my chair and down the hall in a flash. I stumbled to a stop as I saw Warrant lifting Toxic up and crushing him in a bear hug.

“Everyone needs to quit bellowing and screaming,” I barked out, glaring at all the men and women standing around greeting each other in the main area of the clubhouse.

Keely was there, shaking her head at my surliness. “We’re just excited to see everyone,” she told me, her hands on her hips.

I wanted my damn hands on those hips…as I fucked her from behind. Grumbling in annoyance, both at the constant loud noises around this place and my now hard dick, I crossed my arms over my chest and scowled at her.

She just smiled and pursed her lips into a kissing motion before she turned back to the group. She was asking for trouble pulling shit like that with me. I doubted she realized how close I was to just saying ‘fuck it’ and locking us in my bedroom for the next couple of weeks.

“What’s his problem?” Pyre, Cypher’s main enforcer asked, but he had a huge grin on his face. Like the rest of us, he thrived in chaos.

I had no doubts that Toxic had been keeping all these fuckers up to date on everything happening here. Toxic confirmed when he wheezed out, “Don’t mind him, he’s just sexually deprived.”

“Toxic,” I growled, scowling at him.

“Put me down, asshole,” Toxic said, hitting Warrant in the side with a right hook. “We have kegs to haul in here. Pyre, give us a hand. Unless all that hair has made you as girlie as you look and you can’t handle a keg anymore?”

All the men laughed at that. Pyre had started growing out his hair a while ago and it was down to his shoulders now, even longer than Riptide’s.

Pyre flipped Toxic off on his way out the door. “I can lift more than you, Old Man.”

“Old?” Toxic asked, clutching his chest as though he’d been wounded. “Hush is the old man around here.”

“Fuck off, Toxic,” Hush barked. “Or I’m goin’ to let you carry in all that booze you bought by yourself.”

Leaning against the wall, I watched my brothers intermingle with our friends. We were lucky enough to have allies we could call on. Even luckier to call them friends. The Austin guys couldn’t make it down for this party, Cade’s old lady was about ready to pop with their third kid and he didn’t want her to travel. The others wanted to be around to welcome the newest kid to the crew, so they were out for tonight’s events, and I wasn’t letting them anywhere near the bullshit with the LoS. It was part of my job to keep everyone safe. By everyone, I meant anyone who we were close with, my bothers, their families, our allies. All of them. And sometimes that meant not involving them.

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