Page 63 of Lockout

By the time the men had circled up in the clubhouse, the floors were sticky, the aroma of citrus hung in the air, and the busted up oranges and had seen better days.

Lock lifted his brows. “Something I should know?” he asked as he pulled me into his arms.

“Apparently you don’t throw a grenade like a baseball,” I told him. “That was a hard one to learn because of my years throwing a softball.”

“I could have told you that,” he said, then paused. “Whodidtell you that?” He glanced over at Isla’s satisfied smirk. “Never mind.”

He pulled me against his chest, while I faced the men and women standing around. “We’ll see you all later tonight.”

There were Phoenix and Wyoming guys here with our men and there was this heavy sense of…anticipation in the air. The guys were all wearing the same look. If I had to give it a name, I’d say bloodthirsty. Eager even. Looking around at them, I met all of their gazes. “Be careful tonight,” I told them. I didn’t care if it wasn’t my place to say. These men had all become like brothers to me. They were going out to fight an enemy that I’d brought to them. “We love you all.”

Lock squeezed me in his embrace as the men all started to move out the door as one unit. “You have a kind heart, Keely,” he said into my ear.

I patted his forearm where it was crossed over my chest. “I just wish they didn’t have to do this,” I whispered.

“I know,” he said, “but if it’s any consolation, they’re looking forward to it. Theyneedthis.”

“Knowing that helps,” I told him.

We all stood together, watching the men get on their bikes and in the cage rides and leave the compound.

“Back inside,” Lock called out. “Why don’t we do a movie marathon?” he suggested.

The kids gasped with pleasure and rushed upstairs to figure out which movie to start with. We’d do our best to keep the kids’ minds off what was happening out there. I knew there was no point in trying to keep the women from thinking about it. It was all we’d be able to focus on until the guys came back home.

CHAPTER 25

Lockout

Ipaced around the compound, checking the perimeter while the women and kids watched movie after movie upstairs. My phone was in my hand so that I wouldn’t miss a text or call from my guys if one came in. It was radio silence.

I was about ready to rip my fucking face off because of all the pent up aggression and anticipation. Usually, I went with my club to these kinds of things. My brothers hadn’t been wrong about it being best that I not be there, which was why Ruck was also stuck over at Billie’s ranch tonight. Either of us falling into the LoS’s hands would just make things harder for our men. So we were left behind. Daryl and Robert had opted to go play a few rounds of poker with Ruck, rather than hang out with the women and kids.

We’d be lucky if they weren’t all drunk inside an hour. Those two together were like looking at Toxic and Butcher in anothertwenty-five years. Gave me an idea of what I was going to be dealing with. Looked suspiciously like it did now, only more fucking attitude.

Rolling my shoulders, I tried to loosen up my muscles. It wasn’t a surprise when it didn’t work. I turned and made my way back inside. Coffee was the last thing I needed right now in my amped up state, but I was still going to drink it. Or maybe I’d try that energy drink in my fridge.

I took the stairs two at a time up to my apartment and grabbed the can. It might make my heart explode inside my chest, might not. I was willing to risk it. I’d taken one large gulp on my way back toward the stairs when the front door of the clubhouse burst open and five men stormed through it. There wasn’t time to do much but call out to the women inside Seek’s apartment because I’d already dropped the drink and was running. “Lock the doors!” I shouted.

The fuckers infiltrating my clubhouse were coming straight up the stairs. I met the first man with a boot to the face, sending him flying back into the second man and tumbling down. I didn’t bother with my gun. Not yet. Ineededthis fight. The fact that these shitheads had the fucking nerve to break into my club, to come after my family, was what sent my already frayed nerves over the edge.

A third man side-stepped the two who were in a tangle of limbs at the bottom step and launched himself at me, wrapping his arms around my waist. He was trying to take me to the ground, but I drove my elbow down into his neck, then brought my knee up into his chest. It was enough to get him to let go. Not fast enough though.

The fourth man caught me in a flying tackle and did what the others couldn’t, he got me to the ground. We rolled across the floor of the upstairs hallway, his fists landing on my ribs, chest and arms. The pain was a faint echo that I hardly noticed. AllI could feel was the blood hammering in my veins as the fury clenched inside my chest.

I managed to get my arms up over my face to protect it, but the bastard was on top of me now, and his friends would be on their feet any second. I couldn’t see where the fifth guy was. Fuck.

Any second they’d be bashing on the doors, going after the women and kids. My men were all gone, I’d sent them away. I’d promised to watch over their wives, their children. That I would protect them.

Grunting as a fist slammed into my side, I returned the guy’s hits, blow for blow. There wasn’t much power behind my punches since I was stuck under this fucker’s weight. My gun was stuck in the middle of my back, I couldn’t get to it while this behemoth of a man was sitting on me. Five motherfuckers came into my home while my brothers were gone. While my family was vulnerable.

That was the point, wasn’t it? If they thought the guys were here, they would have sent an army, not five men. They would have come in guns blazing, literally, shooting and moving. The fact that I wasn’t greeted with a hail of gunfire…let me know that they wanted hostages. A way to twist our arms into doing whatever they wanted.

These assholes had been watching the place, waiting for their opportunity. I just hoped they hadn’t notified the rest of their club that our guys had left. It would put everyone else in danger too.

I’d been seeing red from the moment they crashed through my front door, but everything was narrowing into one pinpoint. Tunnel vision. And it was focused on the guy pinning me to the ground. A second guy showed up and started hitting me in the head.

Then I heard a scream. It wasn’t a woman’s scream. Despite how horrible this was, these women weren’t the screaming type. They were fighters, scrappy to say the least. No, that wasn’t the type of scream an adult would make. It was higher pitched, delicate. Despite the blows being rained down on me I recognized it. Soft, sweet, and scared. Caitlyn.

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