Page 39 of Stripping Keys
Because of a man who broke through my barriers, I knew without a doubt how I felt about Keys. He’s gotten not just under my skin, but he’s taken my heart. Something I swore I’d never allow to happen.
What I don’t know is if the feeling is mutual. Not after he left the way he did. We’d been talking. I asked him a stupidbut simple question. Why did I have to ask him about it? I didn’t even know the answer for myself if I wanted something so important in my life as children.
So, why ask him?
Who the hell am I kidding? Deep down, if given the chance, I’d totally have a child with him. Still, it scares the hell out of me. Life isn’t fair, and I wouldn’t want a child to go through what I did.
“You okay?”
I lift my head at the sound of my sister’s voice. She didn’t have the typical snarkiness that she usually would have when talking to me.
I nod rather than use words.
“You’re not okay,” Marley states. She takes a seat across from me at the table I’d fallen into moments after Blow and the others went after Keys.
The look that both Nines and Blow shared after Blow got off the phone with Keys bothered me. They knew something but hadn’t shared. I wanted so badly to know what it was, or to have followed them, but I didn’t. I stayed behind, leaving it to them to handle.
It didn’t help that things have spiraled around here. Olive, Shiner’s ol’ lady got a call from an unknown number, and it had been them. She freaked out.
I didn’t blame her for it. I knew what those men did to her. She’d been through hell at their hands. She needed to be free of them.
All of them needed to be free of them.
I wanted that for them.
A thought crosses my mind—a plan. Something I knew no one here would let me do if they knew it popped into my head. I could tell West, but even he would be against it.
Looking at my sister, sitting across from me, I hold her gaze. She wouldn’t be against it, though. Not completely. All I needed was a head start. That’s all.
With a head start, I could get to where I needed to go. They could track me. I didn’t care. To take them all out, I needed to go to them. They all congregate together once every quarter. That being this weekend.
How had I not thought about that before?
Stupid.
No wonder they called Olive this weekend.
I knew they regained numbers. I knew they were planning something. That they were going to go after the club sooner rather than later.
Damnit.
This is on me.
I need to fix it.
And fixing it, I will.
“What are you planning?” Marley asks, cocking a brow and watching me closely.
“I need your help,” I tell her, darting a glance around the room, seeing who is where.
“What kind of help?” She leans forward.
“I normally have West at my back, but this isn’t something he can help with and not get punched in the face for. You thought, you could help and not get in trouble.” I pause and shrug. “Well, not like he will.”
Marley grins and scoots across the chairs until she’s even closer. “I’m all ears.”
“I need to get my car, and then I need to go find the den of snakes. This needs to end, and I know exactly how to do it. I have everything I need in the trunk of my Camaro.”
