Page 104 of Lone Star

“And the girls are being drugged,” Fox said, “so they’d keep quiet. Bundle them up in something, and the trucker would have no idea what he was carrying.”

Albie made a disgusted sound.

“So we know where to go to access the pipeline,” Candy said. “We need to cut it off at the knees. The next order of business is to get hold of this Holy Father motherfucker and put him in the ground. He’ll be harder to find.”

“Unless he comes to us,” Colin said, grimly.

“He won’t,” Fox said. “Now that we know who’s behind him, he’d be a waste of resources. They’ll come for us head-on, now, hard. The war’s on.”

“Which is why we’ve got to hunker down,” Candy said, passing a look across all of them. “No one goes out alone, not even to take the damn garbage out. Be armed at all times. Keep your eyes open, and your head on a swivel. As of right now, we’re officially on lockdown.”

“How are we gonna handle the doc’s place?” Talis asked. He looked like he was frowning, but Michelle had learned that was just his serious, ready-for-anything face.

“Well, normally I’d be all for going in guns blazing,” Candy said. “But while we’ve got the resources, I say we handle it in stealth mode.”

He glanced first to Tenny, and then to Reese, and both boys tensed immediately, like wires flooded with a sudden current.

Fox grinned. “See, boys? I told you you’d have work to do.”

Thirty-Two

Michelle leaned an elbow on the rail of the crib and looked down at TJ, sleeping like the dead, unbothered and sprawled out with his arms flung over his head and the covers kicked down. “Just like your daddy, huh?” she whispered. His fingers curled reflexively, but he didn’t wake. She knew the urge to reach in and touch his face, to feel the baby softness of his cheek on the back of her finger, but he wasn’t that heavy a sleeper. Candy was the same way. He could sleep through any amount of sound, but touch him, and he snapped awake.

She was a bit more sensitive. Those Devin Green instincts, she supposed. For instance, right now, she could sense Candy in the open doorway behind her. He hadn’t made a sound, but she could feel him there, all the same. Felt him step silently inside, and sidle up behind her. Wasn’t startled when his arm came around her waist and he palmed her stomach.

“You think he knows how badass his mama is?” he whispered in her ear.

She smiled. Whispered back, “I don’t think he’d care. You flatterer.”

“It’s not flattery if it’s true.”

She turned around, and stood up on tiptoe so she could slide her arms around his neck. She expected to find him sleepy-eyed, and etched with worry, tired after a long day, and fretting over what was to come.

She paused, though, when she found his gaze low-lidded with a very obvious hunger, instead. “What?” she asked, pulse kicking.

“The baby’s asleep.” Still whispering, but his voice had gone husky with promise. “Come to bed.” It wasn’t a request.

The best kind of chill rippled down her back. “Yes.”

He took her hand in his and towed her there; barely gave her a chance to latch TJ’s door. She saw a bar of light under Jenny’s old door as they passed, where she and Colin were staying for the lockdown, but the common room of the sanctuary was empty. They’d already gone to bed.

She thought he’d turn loose of her when they reached their bedroom, but he didn’t, crowded her back against the closed door and caged her in with his arms. “Do we even have time?” she asked. Her pulse was running, and her skin was prickling all over, and she wanted this, damn did she ever. But they were on lockdown, and Fox and the boys were running an op tonight, and–

Candy reached to hook a finger beneath her chin, gentle but insistent. Locked gazes with her, his eyes blue and starving for her. “Baby.” Only that: entreaty and command both.

Another hard shiver moved through her, and her belly clenched tight. She thought he might say something else, but he didn’t, only stared at her – and she understood. This wasn’t just things-are-bad-let’s-fuck energy. There was some of that, the kind of pent-up adrenaline that left you wanting to feel alive in the most fundamental ways. But there was something else there, too, in the touch of his finger, and the lift of his shoulders and the heat of his gaze.

He knew she was capable, and he respected that she wanted to reclaim a part of her past life. That was evident from the meeting, just minutes before. The way he’d kept the old ladies in the room, and listened to their contributions.

But like he’d told her before, he’d been worrying. Wondering if he was enough. If he was stillher manin her eyes.Oh, love, she thought,how could you have doubted?He was more man than most. But even Greek gods could doubt. Even Casanovas could be made to feel like they didn’t measure up. He needed to assert himself tonight – and she needed that, too, she realized in that moment, staring up at him.

She let her body go soft, and parted her lips, and tipped her head back against the door. “Derek,” she murmured.

He ducked his head and kissed her, and it was the sort of kiss that left her wondering if they’d ever really kissed before, the way he lavished her mouth with insistent, heated attention. Thank God she was standing up against the door, because she wouldn’t have been able to hold herself up otherwise. Her knees and her neck turned weak, and he caught her with a gentle hand at her throat, his massive palm covering the whole of it, his thumb resting on the hinge of her jaw, pressing there lightly, encouraging her to open wider for his tongue.

The outside world – the threat of the cartel, the simmering panic of what lay ahead, the club and their allies – faded. There was only this room, this moment, and the two of them.

She reached for him, wanting to slide her hands beneath his shirt and feel his skin – but he caught her wrists and pinned them both back against the door, on either side of her head. Pulled back from the kiss as a startled little gasp escaped her lips. Andgrinned, wide, and sharp, and glittering with dark intent.

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